Chapter 22

Angel

If Amanda had spoken to Jack, he didn't show it. The next time he visited her in the Control Core, he was all smiles and excitement — almost a perfect replica of her memories.

He bounced around various consoles set up in the room, all connected to Hyperion's extensive network across Pandora, ready to spy on all corners of the planet as needed. Jack was practically vibrating with anticipation.

"They've found it! They've found it, they've found it, they've freaking found it!" Jack exclaimed, watching Atlas' mercenaries approaching the Vault. "Can't believe they had their own damn Siren the whole time…told ya! Like a freaking beacon, Sirens just know when they're close to a Vault!"

Should have let me out to find it then, Angel thought sullenly, though she was not about to say it aloud. An overly-happy Jack was easier to deal with than a pissed-off one.

"Okay, I need you to speak to the Vault Hunters. They gotta get there before Atlas do, I am not losing my frigging destiny to these morons. Okay, so, uh, say something to get a fire under 'em. Make 'em think they're special and stuff, that always works. If not, a death threat's pretty good. Oh! Why not both!" Jack jumped, turning to face Angel with sparks flying in his eyes. "Say: There is no time life — you must reach the Vault by any means necessary! We will not get another opportunity in this lifetime!"

Angel nodded, doing as she was told. As her consciousness surged to the Vault Hunters' ECHO-devices, she could distantly hear Jack laughing in the background. With the message delivered, Angel was flung back into her prison, snapping back to her physical body. As she soared through the network around Pandora, however, she could see lights blacking out all around her.

Frowning, she reported to her father.

"S-sir, I think Atlas are shutting down their ECHO network."

Jack dismissed her with a wave of his hand. He was utterly engrossed, watching the Vault Hunters from his screen.

"It's fine, whatever, let 'em do what they want. They can't touch Hyperion's ECHOnet," Jack snapped. His teeth ground together then, and he began to fidget, muscles twitching with impatience. "C'mon, c'mon, my grandma's faster than this! And she can't even climb stairs anymore! Angel, c'mon, stick a rocket up these guys' collective asses, would ya? Spin some bullshit chosen one stuff, they love it."

Angel rolled her eyes but flew out to the Vault Hunters once again.

"The hourglass is on the last few grains of sand. You must reach the Vault by any means necessary. We will not get another opportunity like this in your lifetime!"

Once more, Angel returned to her physical body and to Jack's howling laughter.

"Oooo sands of tiiiiime, I love it. Good job, darling, you're doing awesome. God, these Vaulties are so dumb…" He hummed around a smirk, leaning in to the monitor to watch them race across Pandora. He idly pulled a small bag of pretzels from the rucksack sitting next to him, tore the bag open with his teeth, and began munching on one thoughtfully. He then pointed at the screen, twirling a finger in a circle. "Y'know, I wonder what these skinny floaty guys are all about? Are they attacking the Vault 'cause they wrong person is opening it?"

"I…don't know, sir."

Jack scoffed, then went back to watching the screen. He gave a little start, almost dropping his pretzels.

"Ooo ooo! Ssh! Look! They're there and — aw crap! The sassy Atlas Siren beat 'em to it! C'moooon, you have guns!" Jack yelled at the screen. "Wave 'em around a bit, she doesn't look that freaking invested in her job!"

Angel craned her neck to see over Jack's shoulder, watching as the white-haired Siren declared the contents of the Vault to be the property of the Atlas corporation. Her father blew a raspberry at this declaration.

"Seriously? She wants to open the Vault and give whatever world-saving power in there to…her boss? Wow, she's disappointing, like, if I wasn't so interested in the Vault, I'd be bored out of my mind," Jack complained.

He stopped as Atlas' resident Siren assembled the key to the Vault, a pulse of energy bringing it down to its rest place. The ruins began to reform around them, an invisible force reassembling the fallen stones to create an archway reminiscent of the Vault symbol. The doorway it formed burst to life in a swirling display of purple and magenta, clouds of light coiling and churning within.

Her father was silent, eyes trained on the screen. His lips were fluttering silent words under his breath, a mantra to calm himself or a stream of impatience perhaps.

The tension was shattered by the piercing scream of Atlas' Siren. Jack yelled and leapt back from the screen, landing with a crash on the floor. Angel gasped, hands flying to her mouth at the horror unfolding on the screen — the Siren had been impaled.

The woman was hoisted up and out of shot of the monitor by a thick, purple and crimson tentacle oozing from the Vault's door.

"What…the hell…" Jack whimpered as he scrambled back to his feet, darting over to the monitor. He grabbed both sides of the screen, panicked eyes searching for answers. "What…no! What the hell?! Is that…the…no no, it can't be what…was in the Vault…"

His disappointment dragged his words down, decades of dreams shattering on the floor around them. Angel almost felt sorry for her father, one hand reaching out instinctively.

"M-maybe…it's guarding something?" She had no idea why she was trying to comfort him when every fibre of her being told her that letting her father give up on this obsession would be for the best. Or, she reasoned, if he lost this dream…he'd have nothing left to hold onto at all.

"Right…right! Yeah, I mean, that…makes sense!" Jack jumped at the proverbial rope Angel offered, and just like that, his motivation resurged. "Yeah! Right, we gotta get rid of this monster and get whatever is in the Vault! Fire up ya Vault Hunters, Angel, they got a…huge…squid-monster to kill for me! Make it sound like you totally knew this would happen."

Again, Angel obeyed and flew out to the Vault Hunters to delivery a rallying cry.

"Don't give up! This creature may be immortal in its own realm, but in this reality, it cannot survive without a host and that makes it vulnerable," Angel urged them, watching as bullets soared into the writhing creature's mass. "When it becomes flesh and blood, it can be hurt, even killed. You just need to know where to aim."

Distantly, she could hear her father back in the Control Core.

"…Did you just quote Nebula Ninjas Episode 503 at them?" Jack snorted a laugh. "Awesome."

Angel returned to him, not really wanting a front-row seat to a tentacle-monster fight. Watching it devour that Siren had made her skin grow cold, her heart hammering.

"Wow, they're really doing a number on this thing," Jack commented, reaching the end of his pretzels and crinkling the empty bag between his hands. "It must be guarding some super-cool power back there. Maybe an alien weapon? Or-or a power like the Sirens that anyone can claim?"

"Or…something to help a Siren?" Angel snapped. She had remained silent, watching as her father appeared to slowly forget his claim that opening the Vault would help them both. Her attitude brought Jack's attention from the monitor, a scowl tugging at his brows.

"Hey, don't talk to me like that! What, you think the Vault on Pandora, where three of the universe's only six Sirens happened to show up on, has nothing to do with you guys? Of course I'm hoping there's something in there for you, Angel. Don't get all sulky on me just 'cause your Vault Hunters are taking freaking ages to shoot the damn thing!" He turned back to the monitor, egging the Vault Hunters on from his seat.

Eventually, the monster howled, tentacles spasming and thrashing. Jack leapt up to his feet, giving a cry of victory as though he himself had defeated the beast. Hands clamped either side of the monitor again, and he watched like a hawk as the scene trembled.

"YES! Alright, get outta the way, what's in the freaking Vault already? Wha…no! No no no no, what the HELL?!" Jack screamed, shaking the monitor violently. The creature's tendrils slumped to the ground, sliding back into the Vault with a growling groan. The door glimmered once again…then disappeared. "What?! That's it?! Angel?! What the hell just happened?!"

He whirled on her, leaving the Siren to back away from him and shake her head.

"I-I-I don't…I don't know…m-maybe that's…I mean, the mural…had the…" Angel gestured to the wall behind Jack where he often pinned up all his papers and theories about the Vault during their research sessions. "It had a tentacled monster on it. Maybe it was…literal…the whole time?"

"Nah nah…that can't be it. This planet is a shithole and its mythical Vault can't be just to add more fuckery to the heaving pile of crap that is smeared all over this freaking place!" Jack ranted. He grabbed the monitor again, flinging it full-force against the wall of the Control Core. It smashed against the metal, glass screen shattered to pieces.

Angel dared not speak, even with the force-field surrounding her. She could only watch as Jack's whole body heaved with every breath. Eventually, she muttered:

"I'll…go talk to the Vault Hunters. Once they're gone, I'll take a look around the Vault site. Maybe…maybe something'll show up."

Jack didn't answer. He was staring at the fallen monitor, though he didn't appear to see it. Taking his silence as confirmation, Angel dashed out through the network around her, making a swift journey across Pandora to appear before the Vault Hunters.

"You opened the Vault!" She smiled, trying to feign joy. "I'm sorry I couldn't warn you about what was in it. But for you to be there to stop it, it couldn't have unfolded any other way. You did well, and your actions have not gone unrewarded. The key won't open the Vault for another 200 years, but I'm sure Tannis will pay you quite the fortune for it. Now go. I'll be watching."

Another paraphrased script from Nebula Ninja sent the victorious Vault Hunters on their way, though only after they had scoured the area for loot. Angel hovered above the scene, watching from satellites and machinery as best she could. The Vault was still formed, the inverted "V" shape standing proud in the snow. But the space within was utterly void. Angel got as close as she could, trying to ignore the copious amounts of blood staining the snowy scene.

Nothing. Then again, what was she hoping it would react to? She wasn't really there after all.

Angel sighed, though she couldn't shake the feeling this might be for the best. Maybe now her father would drop his obsession with the Vault. Maybe he'd start trying to help build a better Pandora on his own efforts, rather than betting everything on a myth.

Maybe he'd go back to smaller noble goals. Like saving his daughter.

Angel turned away from the Vault when something caught her eye. A short distance from the Vault, perhaps blown a little further from the bloodbath by a stray grenade, was a gruesomely ethereal sight. A huge orb of swirling purple and magenta energy, bright against the snow…

…turned to look at her.

Helios' corridors made for a dull walk at the best of times. Duller still when one's feet couldn't even touch the ground. Yet gliding through the monitors and networks of the space station was one of Angel's favourite (and only) pastimes. Here, she could here the goings on within Hyperion, the idle employee chatter. Sometimes, she would even reply, pretending to be a part of the conversation. Of course, she was careful to make sure they could not hear her.

Angel was "sitting" in the Hyperion employee canteen when she overheard a group discussing something other than corporate espionage or whose back to stab next.

"Seriously, half their fleet, gone!" One man in a grey suit excitedly relayed, moustache quivering. "Dahl's had the worst luck the last few years, but this? God, between this and the mess they made on Pandora, I don't think they're gonna recover!"

Angel had never heard such glee in a man's voice at the idea of a company falling apart. Dahl had been on the brink of collapse for years now — their retreat from Pandora had been a slow and costly one. Jack had struck them from his list of importance long ago, focussing instead on loosening the remaining corporate presence on Pandora: Atlas. Now, thanks to her father's interference, they had accidentally set four particularly good Vault Hunters against Atlas. This had increased Atlas' Vault project expenditure tenfold in damages alone, and the company's iron fist had rusted overnight, much to the joy of every other jealous company.

Of course, Jack had not celebrated. Angel wasn't sure he had even noticed. Ever since she had reported back to him about the Destroyer (her father really was awful at naming things) losing an eye in the fight against the Vault Hunters, Jack's obsession had ramped up to dizzying heights.

"Of course! The power was the Destroyer the whole time!" Jack had theorised. "It was guarding the Vault's power by being the Vault's power! It was using it for evil, but me? I could use it for so much good! That's what Pandora wants; that's why it chose to tell me about the Vault! Oh my god, Angel, the things I could do with this bad boy! Pandora ain't ready!"

Naturally, Jack had retrieved the Destroyer's eye in secret. Another part of his side project that Hyperion couldn't know about yet.

But, given the hot news of Atlas' sudden defeat, Angel found it curious that Hyperion employees would be talking about anything else. The end of a long era of Atlas power, but this guy was talking about Dahl? She moved closer, hopping between vending machines and handheld devices to listen in.

"I can't believe they went to the moon. I mean, wow, they must have been desperate after messing up on Pandora," a blonde woman commented, stirring her coffee idly. "They break literally everything they touch. Like, Dahl broke the moon."

"My mate still works for Dahl. Told her she was an idiot for staying," another man commented, his words dripping with smug satisfaction. "Apparently, Dahl found something on Elpis. Probably just saying that to save face. But she says what they found caused that massive crack on the moon a few years back? And they lost half their forces then. Guess Dahl really is out of the game now."

The Crackening, they had called it. Angel wondered if Jack had been enlisted to name the event. It had occurred while she and her father had been focussed on the Vault Hunters and getting to the Vault on Pandora, so neither of them had paid it much mind. Angel was quite content to continue to pay it no mind, until nine destructive words slammed into her ears.

"I heard…they found a Vault. On the moon," whispered one of the Hyperion employees.

It wasn't even a decision.

Her father could not hear those words.

"On the freaking MOON, Angel!"

Angel felt herself age several years as her father all but hopped around the Control Control. Clearly, he hadn't slept for days, with dark circles dragging under his eyes and more than a shadow of stubble across his jaw that had basically consumed his soul patch. His hair, which always straddled the line between suavely-styled and bed-head had fallen over that line and landed on a mattress and several pillows.

"I thought it was the Vault?" Angel gently tried to coax her father away from another impending obsession. "As in the one and only? Isn't that what made it special?"

Jack nodded, eyes wide and wild as if he were fighting back the need to sleep with sheer willpower.

"Right, but Mox said some washed-up Dahl loser was in her bar the other day ranting about how Dahl had tried to force open a Vault there and that's how this Crackening thing happened. Angel, think about it! Another Vault means another chance to find stuff. I mean, the Destroyer's eye is super-super cool, like, hoooo-oh my God, I'm gonna be able to do some awesome stuff, but obviously, ya know, not…great for containing Siren-powers. We gotta check it out, right? Worse case, there's no Vault. Best case, there is a second Vault, and we learn more about Sirens and help out my favourite helper!"

Angel's eyes narrowed.

"W-who's…Mox?"

Please don't say Mad Moxxi, please don't say Mad Moxxi.

"Oh, Mad Moxxi. She's running a bar up on Concordia, met her when Tassiter sent me over to find out what the hell happened when the freaking moon cracked open and whether Hyperion can jump on that," Jack said.

Angel inwardly cringed. Mad Moxxi's reputation was all over Pandora's network. She could hardly move for adverts and sultry tones. More than once, she had spotted fan works about the woman on the Hyperion network. Her love for violence, alcohol, and corsets had set the men and women on Pandora alight.

"You um…see her…often?" Angel pried. Jack shrugged, though his smirk betrayed him.

"Could say we're dating."

Angel's mind immediately went to Amanda. She couldn't help it. The question had tumbled from her lips before she could stop and thing about the risk:

"What about Amanda?!"

Jack's face fell. Angel gulped. For a moment, it looked as though her father would dismiss her question with a snapping comment, storm from the Control Core and cut short her only human visitor hours.

But he didn't. Instead, he inhaled, letting out a shaking breath. A muscle in his jaw twitched with irritation, and a ground-out explanation followed:

"Amanda and I…broke up. My dear ex-wife did the one thing I couldn't forgive, sweetheart."

Jack fixed Angel with a serious look, and if she tried hard enough, she could almost believe he was being sincere when he added: "She put my daughter in danger."

She did something you told her not to do, you mean, Angel thought.

"Is she…okay?" Angel asked. Sure, her father's temper was legendary within Hyperion, but Jack wasn't crazy. Angel knew he wouldn't harm Amanda. Still, she had to wonder where she was. Surely a divorce wouldn't make her leave Angel in her prison.

"Why do you care?" Jack asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Um…'cause she…meant something to you?" Angel lied, shrugging and giving the world's falsest smile. Jack narrowed his eyes at her, suspicion clinging to his words.

"She isn't working for Hyperion anymore if that's what you're asking," he said. Silently, between the two of them, the unspoken understanding that Angel had met Amanda lingered. They both knew exactly why Angel was asking after her, and precisely what Amanda had promised Angel behind Jack's back. Angel had no doubt Jack would not have taken well to this betrayal. Trust was one of the few things other than himself that Jack valued.

"How come?" Angel's words were dulled with disappointment, though she was hardly crushed to hear her small hope of escape was no longer viable. She hadn't let herself believe too much in Amanda's ability to save her anyway.

"We had a row…so to get back at me, she went ranting like a maniac in the offices that the Control Core was unstable and should be shut down," Jack recounted with a growl. "Unfortunately for her, I already got three shareholders lapping up the documents for what the Control Core could bring to the table for Hyperion. Apologised for being a bit sly on building it, assured them it was all for Hyperion and none of the overtime was charged to them and they were all ears. Our network is the strongest its ever been, and that means our data is the best its ever been. They didn't like the slander and fearmongering, so out she went."

"…Didn't her grandmother try to help her?"

At this, Jack laughed.

"Yeah no, old Alma likes me more than her own granddaughter. She's of the three who loves me, sweetheart. She told Amanda to shut up and go quietly to save the family name."

Angel closed her eyes, willing a silent apology to wherever Amanda might be now.

Somehow, it felt like it was all her fault.

To Angel, it was always her fault.