"How many Vaults are there?"
Rhys clambered through yet another Warrior-smashed entrance, ignoring the dizzying sense of vertigo the next Vault was giving him. This one was much smaller than the others they had crossed through, consisting of a single metallic plate suspended in a star-pierced black void. Thick, crystalline towers of purple rock soared upwards from the central plane, and it was upon one of these deceptively smooth death-traps that Rhys was now half-slipping, half-falling down. AI Jack floated beside him, doing little to hide his snickering at Rhys' cautious climb down.
"Beats me. Feels like yesterday when everyone on Pandora thought there was only one of the damn things. Guess other planets might've known ages ago," the hologram mused. "Figures Pandora would be the last to find out. And that I had to be the one to figure it out. Actually…right here!"
"Huh?" Rhys made the mistake of looking up at AI Jack, confused by what he had said. A fatal mistake — Rhys' foot slipped on the glass-smooth crystal. He gasped, hands flailing out to try and grab hold of something. A blur of blue shot out, but the AI's hand ghosted through Rhys' outstretched limb.
Rhys only had time to inhale with every intent to scream his lungs out when a hand clamped roughly around his wrist. He uttered a mewl of panic, swinging his other hand up to cling onto his saviour, then looked up.
Jack was scowling down at him, leaning awkwardly over the top of one of the crystal's outcrops. A thin film of sweat was glimmering on his brow, his usually perfectly-messy hair now straying into the just-messy zone. He blew the limp grey lock of hair dangling over his face, jerking his head back to try and shift it back into its usual swooped position. Then, he went back to frowning at Rhys again.
"Why is whenever I show up you two idiots are—"
"Hey! Shut up!" AI Jack protested, flicking a light on the Jackhammer so that he could project his furious expression for Jack to see as well. "That's my line!"
Jack gave the AI a disgruntled look, top lip curling into a snarl of irritation before looking back to Rhys again.
"Seriously though, how are you this hopeless?"
"Can you just pull me up already?!" Rhys yelped, his arms aching. "I'm dangling here?!"
Jack's eyes narrowed, then a wicked grin flashed over his face.
"…Gimme my Atlas shares back, and I'll pull ya right on up, pumpkin."
"What?!"
"Fair deal!"
"You're talking business deals when I'm about to fall to my death?!"
"Best time to do 'em!"
"Jack!"
"I mean, I can't keep saving your scrawny ass for free, Charming, that's bad business."
"Jack, please!"
The other man had the audacity to lift his pinkie finger away from his grip on Rhys' wrist, letting him slip ever-so-slightly. Rhys yelped.
"Don't you dare!"
"Fifty percent. C'mon. Totally more than reasonable, y'stole a hundred percent of them off me. Least gimme half back for saving your stupid life so often."
"…How about you stop being a hundred percent of an asshole and help me?!" Rhys countered, legs swinging in anger.
Jack rolled his eyes, a dramatic sigh falling from parted lips.
"Gonna miss ya, Rhysie."
Rhys' heart plummeted into a sickeningly cold pit in his stomach. His eyes grew wide, the colour palpably draining from his face, leaving a cold echo in its wake.
He wouldn't, Rhys thought. He —
Before he could finish his thought, Rhys felt Jack's hand abandon his wrist.
He fell.
He screamed.
Time seemed to slow as Rhys' life flashed through his mind. His heart hammered, and three words rushed through his head like a mantra: I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!
Rhys' arms flailed, grabbing out in vain towards Jack, every second stretching on endlessly in his panic.
Jack had gotten to his feet, that raw, unrestrained laughter barking from his smiling lips, mocking Rhys as he fell. Then, Jack jumped down after Rhys, arms up in the air, falling slowly down along with Rhys' writhing form. It took Rhys a moment to realise that his perception of time hadn't slowed…he was falling slowly too.
"Low-gravity, Dum-Dum," Jack teased, smirking at Rhys as the panic began to subside. "Welcome to the Vault of the Sentinel, cupcake."
The two landed on the ground — Jack gracefully and upon two feet, and Rhys in a crumple of limbs and twisted joints. He staggered to his feet, lips taut in a scowl as he narrowed his eyes at Jack.
"Dick…" Rhys muttered under his breath, ignoring AI Jack's supporting laughter. The hologram floated over the Jack, who regarded his copy with slight distaste.
"Hey, Father of the Year, you forgettin' something?" AI Jack sneered, chuckling as Jack grabbed at his throat in a violent and worrying display of raw instinct. His hand phased through the program's cobalt neck. Jack growled, then deliberately turned his back on his digital counterpart to face Rhys instead. The ignored hologram began swiping at Jack's throat from behind him.
"Angel told me to come after you. Said if something happened to you, she'd be stuck forever so…kind in my best interest for you not to die in some stupidly hilarious manner between here and finding out how to help my daughter," Jack explained, though Rhys noted the man wasn't looking him in the eye.
Rhys let a smirk tug on his mouth and folded his arms across his chest as he bucked his weight to one leg.
"You were worried about me," Rhys said, the smirk practically becoming a smile. At this, Jack's eyes went wide with anger, though Rhys was sure that was the give an excuse for the peppering of red on his cheeks.
"I mean, yeah, I was worried you'd die and mess up everything, that's what I just said!" Jack snapped, a muscle twitching his jaw. "You're one half of a whole idiot, and I am not letting Angel's entire life drop into your noodle-arms!"
"Huh," Rhys nodded, then started to walk across the Vault. As he passed Jack, he mused aloud: "I wonder who the other half of that whole idiot is then?"
He glanced over his shoulder, and Rhys couldn't help but roll his eyes at the sight of AI Jack and Handsome Jack standing next to each other, each pointing a finger at the other and fixing Rhys with the same, furious expression of utter insult.
Rhys turned his attention back to the task at hand. Luckily, this Vault was tiny and horrifically empty. The Sentinel was long-dead, it seemed, leaving a straight route across the Vault to the smashed door on the other side. He didn't doubt their luck wouldn't extend beyond this Vault though. Maybe the next one would be several days' worth of walking. Rhys's face fell into a premature grimace just thinking about it.
He was so wrapped up in worry about what was coming next that Rhys neglected to realise he was walking alone into this new Vault until AI Jack appeared in front of him. Rhys screeched to a halt, almost snapping at the digital ghost, but the AI cut him off by point back over Rhys' shoulder.
"We got a problem," he announced, though from the look on his face, AI Jack didn't think it was much of an issue. That alone sent alarm bells ringing in Rhys' mind, and he whipped around to look back at the Vault he had just left. There, standing on the other side of the Warrior-broken wall, was a deeply disgruntled looking Jack.
"It's done an Angel on me," he complained as Rhys drew closer. Jack put a hand out and pressed his palm flat against an invisible barrier between him and Rhys. Rhys's heart dropped, and for the first time in a while he could see the old burns on Jack's palm from when he had scaled the Warrior. The scars had stitched over in the same, strange blue tissue that the brand on his face had healed into. "Great. Fan-fricking-tastic! God, y'know, sometimes it feels like the whole damn universe is tryin' to make it way harder than it needs to be to freaking save it!"
The man kicked out at the barrier then, earning him nothing but a reminder that he was trapped. Meanwhile, Rhys was doing his best to keep his breathing under control and his brain moving at a semi-normal speed.
"You…you defeated the Sentinel…" Rhys muttered, glancing through to the Vault to see if the Watcher was going to show up.
"Sorta," Jack shrugged. "I hired the goons who put the bullets in it. I was super-busy at the time trying to stop the moon from being destroyed by a psychopath with a dumb name. Had to outsource a little."
"Jack, don't you get it?" Rhys asked, glancing back to him. "Angel is being made to replace the Destroyer because she led the Vault Hunters to it. So you…you're gonna replace…"
Oh god.
Rhys's knees almost buckled under him as a piece of the puzzle slotted into his mind.
Fiona. We defeated the Traveler, and I'm here…so what if she's trapped…what if she's…
"Hey! Rhysie! Don't you go spiralling on me now!" Jack snapped, rapping a knuckle against the invisible wall between them. "Listen. You're finding a way to bust Angel out, right? So, you can get me outta here too!"
Rhys could only gawk at him.
"How are you so calm about this?" He asked, incredulous. "Five minutes ago you didn't even trust me to do the first one of those things."
"Because five minutes ago, you didn't have a way outta these Vaults any more than I did," Jack pointed out. He lifted a hand, beckoning Rhys to come back into the Vault of the Sentinel. Confused, the man did as he was told, fixing Jack with a cautionary look as he continued: "Five minutes ago, I didn't have an idea. But now? Now we got both of those things, pumpkin."
Jack was smiling, but for some reason, it only made Rhys feel more nervous.
"H-how?" He asked, twitching to look around the Vault.
"'Cause I'm gonna do the last thing anyone expected me to do," Jack announced, holding his arms out. "I'm gonna do exactly what the Watcher wants."
Rhys cocked his head to the side, fixing Jack with a quizzical look. Then it hit him, and he had to stop himself lunging forward towards Jack in a panic.
"Wait, no! You have no idea what that'll do!" Rhys yelped, watching as the crystals around the Vault hummed. The Vault around them began to slowly brighten, energy crackling back to life as the Vault began to reawaken. "Jack, stop! If you agree to replace the Sentinel—"
"—then the Vault comes back online," Jack interrupted him, pointing over to the Vault's door. Rhys turned to look at it, watching as the purple energy of the Vault snaked its way around, darting along the upside-down V-shaped arch. After a few moments, the dead space within the arch sparked to life, shimmering and swimming with violet light. "An active Vault complete with Guardian gets to connect to the outside world, right? So get out already!"
"Jack…" Rhys didn't run for the door. He lingered, casting a look back to Jack. The man did not appreciate it, and his face twisted in insult of Rhys' offered pity.
"The longer you spend in here, the longer you're leaving my little girl stuck in the Destroyer's Vault, asshole!" The man growled. Already, Rhys could see Jack changing — his eyes were brighter, skin flaking away to show that cobalt blue tissue beneath. Part of him didn't want to stick around to see what becoming a Vault Guardian really entailed. "And I really don't fancy having three faces, so if you could get a move on, buttercup, that'd be just ace."
He's trusting me? Rhys thought, starting to back away from Jack to head towards the Vault door. Despite their strange connection, Rhys found he didn't like the idea of leaving the man alone in this Vault. He still had no idea how to get Angel and Jack out — what if it took months? Years? What if he never figured it out and they were trapped here?
"Rhysie, we gotta go," AI Jack flickered in front of Rhys, cutting his view off of Jack. "Watcher'll be rubbing their hands with glee right now, but they're gonna realise in about three seconds flat that this is Handsome Jack who is being cooperative and that's a big red flag. Kinda don't wanna be here when they show up and lock the door or something."
"R-right…" Rhys stammered, turning and running to the door. As he reached its arching maw, he skidded to a halt. He offered one last look back to Jack, nodding once and calling over: "I'll get you both out of here. I promise."
Jack only folded his arms in response, a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips.
"If you don't, I'll tell every mouth-breathing Vaultie that lumbers in here that Atlas' CEO is porking their mom," Jack casually threatened with a shrug.
Rhys's face crumpled with distaste, that horrible image and threat both vying for the spotlight in his mind. With that, the man turned and headed out of the Vault, purple light swimming in front of his eyes and momentarily blinding him.
The ground fell out from under his feet, sending Rhys crashing through an awful sensation of free-falling. He tensed his muscles, trying to resist the urge to flail and scream. Then, it was over, and the man was spat out into the outside world.
An outside world with very little gravity or oxygen.
Rhys tried to gasp, his breathing raking through his throat noisily, arms scrambling out in desperation. AI Jack floated by, a finger drumming on his bottom lip.
"Aw yeah, Vault of the Sentinel is on the moon. Figures it would spitcha out there," he said, looking far too content to watch Rhys struggle to breathe. "Lucky for you, I got all his memories of this place! Y'need an Oz kit. Plenty of dead Vault Hunters around here for ya to loot though. That's convenient."
Rhys paid little attention to the AI's commentary and began scrambling among the corpses littering the way to the Vault's door. He didn't really know what he was looking for, but he didn't have breath enough to ask the AI to elaborate. He sent a wide-eyed, spluttering face his way instead.
AI Jack blinked.
"Oh!" The AI tapped his own shoulder. "The doo-dad on their shoulder. Take it off, pop it on, click the blue button on the right. Man, breathing. You literally can't breathe in and out without my help…that's a new low, Rhysie."
Rhys fell into a corpse and began tearing at its shoulder, fumbling to pull the Oz kit off. He clamped it onto his own shoulder with enough force to promise a bruise in the morning and ferreted for the button. A click, a hiss, and a flicker of blueish light later and Rhys was lying flat on his back, gulping down lungfuls of blessed recycled air.
It wasn't long before AI Jack sailed into view again, upside-down and far too close to Rhys' face.
"Don't get comfy, pumpkin," the AI smiled. "Y'got company. Did I ever tell you about the mini guardians who tear Vault Hunters into bloody pieces if they try to get close to a Vault door?"
There were many times in Rhys' life that he himself would admit he had no business escaping alive from. The mad, Jackhammer-wielding dash from the Vault door through Elpis has certainly been one such time, and it had been made so much more stressful by the accompany background music of AI Jack's laughter. Still, Rhys couldn't stay pissed off at the AI once they had Fast-Traveled their way back to Pandora. After all, the program had the mind of the galaxy's most ruthless CEO.
Rhys did not.
And they needed Atlas to grow. Fast.
"Okay, first things first, we can't set up on Pandora, the place is a tip," the AI said, floating on his front alongside Rhys and gesturing with open palms to the wasteland around them. Rhys arched an eyebrow.
"Set up?"
"Yeah," AI Jack said, as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. "What, you were just gonna hunker down in a cave and try and figure out this mystery on your own? Nah nah nah, you need power and brains, Rhysie, and sadly, to get more brainpower, you gotta hire people to work for ya. Sucks, I know, you end up having to do half the job yourself most times."
"I have employees already, Jack," Rhys corrected him, thinking of the five nerds in the small office space he'd hired on Promethea. He wondered if they had kept coming into the office in his absence. "Atlas is…a start-up. Sort of. We're getting there. But we should have enough to start looking into ways to help Angel and Jack."
The AI rolled onto his back, looking over at Rhys.
"Alright, but tell me it's not on Pandora. I am so sick of this pulsing haemorrhoid on the ass of the universe," AI Jack lamented, wrinkling his nose as he looked out across the wasteland. "Seriously, why Meat-Me wanted to save it is beyond me."
Rhys huffed a laugh, a small agreement with the AI. Pandora had certainly not been his first, second, or seventeenth choice for setting up his new business. Sure, a company like Hyperion could flourish here — they already had resources, so arriving on a planet like Pandora and waving around the big bucks made you king without question. But for the new Atlas? They needed to be a little more reserved.
"You're gonna love Promethea," Rhys said, smiling over to the AI. "All lights, all neon, loads of tech."
AI Jack perked up, a feline grin spreading over his face as his eyes glossed over a little.
"Any robots?"
Rhys' face hardened into a mask of scorn.
"No duplicating yourself across a robot army."
The AI scowled, jutting its bottom lip.
"You're no fun, Rhys, has anyone ever told you that?" Then, he froze. He screwed his eyes shut, giving a grunt of irritation, and shook his head. "Wait-wait-wait! No! No one can replace or replicate me! That's the whole damn point! I'm one of a kind! God, okay, first thing we're gonna do when we get to Promethea is delete these stupid command codes Naka-what's-his-name put into my programming!"
"Nakayama," Rhys corrected him, "and wow, you really wanna do that? Really committing to the whole…your-own-person thing?"
The AI looked away, and for a moment, Rhys thought the hologram looked wistful about it.
"Yeah well…I'm a walking, talking second-chance, right? Figures that I can't just pick up where he left off and do as he did. Obviously that ended really freaking badly for him. So, I'm gonna do my own thing."
"Well," Rhys hummed, bringing them to a stop outside a Fast-Travel station. He tapped on the machine bringing up the menu for off-world travel. "How about you come work for Atlas? We're going monster-hunting."