This is pretty much exposition and foreshadowing. I hope it makes a bit of sense.


Clyde walked across the white void. It was much like the one in his own mind, but it lacked the clutter of the Claptrap hive mind. Every now and again, the sky would flash red, as if there was a lightning storm.

He kept walking until he came across a man sitting on the ground. The man was staring off into the nothingness. He wasn't wearing his trademark mask. However, his face was not scared, as it was in real life. If you didn't know his history, you could assume he was a simple man.

"Hello, Jack." Clyde said.

Jack nodded his head slightly in acknowledgment of Clyde. Clyde stood there in silence for a few seconds, before sitting down next to Jack. He looked across the void with the former head of Hyperion.

"So," Clyde said, "how long has the INA been in control?"

Jack sat there in silence for a minute, staring off into the distance. The white sky flashed red a few times before Jack spoke.

"Hell if I know." He said bitterly. "I don't know when it happened. I realized it happened after you destroyed the moon base. I wanted to kill you, in a fit of rage, so the program took away any control I though I had."

"It's sneaky." Clyde commented. "It makes you think you agree with it, and it begins to form a demented copy of your personality. That's what it did to Claptrap and, to some extent, me."

"Is it bad if I never disagreed with it before that?" Jack asked. "All the murder, death, war? I was ok with it."

"Yeah." Clyde said, somewhat bitterly. "That makes you a pretty bad guy."

"But I'm the hero…" Jack replied.

"Maybe you were." Clyde responded. "But you stopped being the hero after you started killing children."

"Kid, you're pretty bad at sympathizing." Jack commented, as they sky flashed red again.

"I'm not trying to be your buddy." Clyde said. "I don't like you, Jack, but I can relate to being isolated in your own mind."

"But is it really our mind?" Jack asked. "Am I really Jack , or am I just some cheap copy?"

"...Jack's dead." Clyde responded, thinking to himself. "So's Clyde. He died when he was seven years old. The mind was extracted, but the fact is there was no longer life in that child's body."

"So, you don't think you're human." Jack concluded.

"I don't know if I'm human." Clyde commented. "But I certainly felt everything. I'm alive. I feel emotions. I have friends…" He paused. "...I fell in love."

"...You don't exactly seem to have a large dating pool, kid." Jack commented. "That doesn't really say much."

"That didn't make her any less amazing." Clyde reflected, smiling. "Maybe it was because she was the first person I met since my...operation. Maybe it was because she was beautiful. And funny. And smart. And caring. And hopeful." His smile vanished. "That made it hurt all the more when I lost her. I was forced back into my isolation. That made it all the worse. I had a sliver of freedom and I lost it. Now I had a taste for it. I wouldn't wish that kind of isolation on my worst enemy."

Suddenly, in a flash of red light, a giant figure made of red lightning appeared. It roared at Clyde and Jack. The two men barely even acknowledged it.

"Hold on a second." Clyde said, flicking his hand toward the beast. Suddenly, a large swarm of Claptraps appeared and launched themselves at the figure. It hollered in pain as it was torn apart. Eventually, there was nothing left of the beast. The red flashed in the white sky stopped.

"...So that's what you're going to do to me?" Jack asked.

"Well, it's either that, or eternal isolation." Clyde responded. "I have to delete you. It's the only way to stop all of this."

"You really think it's going to be over after me?" Jack asked. "Did you forget where we are?"

"...I've accepted that." Clyde responded.

"Well, kid, guess this is it." Jack said, standing up and extending a hand toward Clyde. "It was nothing personal, right?"

"...Actually, it kind of was." Clyde responded, narrowing his eyes at Jack.

Jack thought about it for a second, before his eyes widened.

"Wait...you don't mean…?"

"Yup."

"And so you…"

"Yes."

"And did you…"

"Multiple times."

"Oh, you son of a-!" Jack exclaimed, ready to deck Clyde. Clyde punched him in the gut and kicked him to the ground.

"I forgot to mention this is going to hurt a lot." Clyde mentioned, as the Claptraps crowded around Jack. "Jack...You're an asshole."

Clyde walked away, ignoring Jack's screams.


'Is it over?'

...No.


Yup. It's exactly what you think.