Zane damn near kicked in the door to the bridge with his speed. "I got here as fast as I fuckin' could, Lil'."

"…did you now?" The former Siren pointed to the plate of sliders in his hand.

"…Moxxi was havin' a sale. I'm still the first one here—"

"No, you aren't." Zane glanced over. Moze and the others were sitting around, with the Gunner sporting an irked expression. Even Ava was there, which was…weird, to say the least. "Fuckwad."

"These sliders are fuckin' amazin', Mozzy Moze."

"Augh…let's focus. The COV have Tannis. Considering her importance, this is the literal worst-case scenario. Now we don't have a damn means of finding the damn key fragments…grr…I should've sent reinforcements with her. Should've done something, like what Roland would've done…" Zane's jovial mood faded once more when he saw Lilith wasn't just angry, she was…hurt. Broken, even. It sounded like she was blaming herself for Tannis' capture.

"Lil," Zane spoke, firmly and, for once, without his usual tone. "This one ain' on ya. Blamin' yerself ain' gonna do shite either except give 'em what they want, and that ain' what we want, right?"

"Yeah!" Ava chimed in, much to Zane's slight chagrin. "And you're talking about her like she's dead already, but there's still time!"

"Ava raises a fair point," FL4K chimed in. "Despite my words, the twins show some intelligence; it's unlikely they'll outright kill Tannis, not when they went through such an effort to capture her."

"Um…not to break things up," Claptrap shouted from afar. "But we have an incoming transmission!"

"Of course…" Lilth grumbled.

"We kidnapped your scientist," Tyreen said, but in a really poor attempt at a spooky voice.

"If you ever want to see her alive…heh, it's not gonna happen." And there was Troy.

"Yeah, cause you eat BUTTS."

"…the fuck are we dealing with again? Seven year olds…?" Moze whispered to Amara.

"Anyhow, spoiler, we are CRAZY close to opening the Great Vault. We found the key, bee-tee-dubs, and it is HUGE! So, we need a crap-ton of Eredium to charge it and you know what that means! Pledge Drive! And, since our followers go apeshit whenever we maim or murder one of you, we put the next one up to a vote."

"I don' like the sound of this shite…" Zane murmured.

"Yeah, for clarification," Troy cut in. "Our followers were voting on which of you we should kill. Amusingly, weird scientist was our most requested murder, followed by your fucking robot."

"Somehow, that offends me." FL4K grunted.

"Speaking of murder, Carnivora's getting' hungry! The show's starting soon! And it's gonna be a KILLER." The transmission ended, and Lilith hung her head lower.

"They're gonna kill her if we don't do something," Ava said suddenly. "We gotta stop them! Somehow! I have no ideas, though."

"Haugh…Tannis risked everything to keep Tyreen from getting to that Vault Monster. She deserves MUCH better than dying for the entertainment of two psychopaths." Now, the former Siren had a determined, focused face, one that Zane was honestly glad to see. "Saddle up, Vault Hunters, we're heading back to Pandora to rescue her."

"Heh, we can do that easily, Lilith…well…almost," Amara mused. "I'm a stranger to Pandora, so what exactly is this Carnivora? Because they it sounds like they wanna let it kill her."

"It sounds like a beast."

"I'm not sure myself. Really, the only one who'd know about it is Vaughn."

"Vaughn? That strangely ripped weenie?" Moze questioned with a snort.

"…sounds like you like that, Mozzy Moze—"

"Bite me."

"Vaughn should know because he's been monitoring COV chatter and movements from an old Crimson Raider outpost in Devil's Razor. I sent him there, of course, for his own safety, and so he wasn't in the way." Lilith sighed. "At this point, he's our best bet in finding out what this Carnivora is, and how to safe Tannis before they kill her."

"You got this Vault Hunters, you freakin' animals," Balex said from his spot on the dashboard. "Go save that science lady!"

"Thanks for the encouragement, plush man. Let's get movin', people. We ain' got a lotta time for once, so let's be quick, be focused, and be organized."

"Hmph, that's unlike you, Zane." Amara teased. "But it's glad to know you're taking the situation this seriously."

"I am, hence why 'quick, focused, and organized' are code for 'blow everythin' the fuck up and surprise those bastards so they won' know what hit 'em'." Amara just sighed. He shrugged. "It's worked more times than I'd like to admit, so let's get movin." The team filed out, though Zane lingered for a moment, glancing back to Lilith. "We'll get her back, Lil, and then we gon' murder those fuckers."

"Heh, just what I needed to hear." The Operative plucked a flash from his pocket and turned to join the others. He wished he could head back to Pandora under better circumstances, but this was fine too.

Besides, Pandora wasn't normal if shite wasn't exploding, and they were about to cause loads of those!

[Short chapter, namely setting the stage for the takedown of everyone's favorite murder carnival. It'll give me more time to reflect on the place and how intense things are, too.

So, with all things, let's get to the reviews, now with flavors.

(To Le055Li0n): I'm glad you enjoy how Amara and Moze's bond is going. It's hard to right properly, but I'm managing as best I can. As for Ava, I've said enough about her in the older chapters.

(To B.E.A.T.N): We're indeed reaching the crescendo of this story, so I'm glad everyone's enjoying it and along for the ride.

(To a Guest): If the writers did better, I wouldn't be required to fix Ava, but, who knows? There rests a chance she'll be salvaged in the DLCs.

Thanks for the support again, and I hope you'll stick with me til the end of this ride.]