It was inevitable, Rhys thought as he sat, miserable, staring off at nothing in particular, that once they would reach this, the most painful part of the story, the hurt and anger would resurface. Both he and Fiona had been forced into... whatever the hell this actually was, held at gunpoint by a guy who wanted a story of all things. And, strangely, Rhys hadn't hated it.
He'd spent the better part of a year thinking Fiona and the others had deserted him and condemned him to die on Helios. Rhys had had bigger priorities in the immediate aftermath of the station crash, namely working on trying not to die while stranded on Pandora minus one arm and his eye. But, in the quieter times spent resting so he could heal, he'd thought about those last moments before they'd been separated, how Fiona had promised she wouldn't leave him behind, then had done just that.
It had hurt.
So, he'd been quite conflicted when he received a message from her on an old ECHO device he'd found and fixed up at the facility, asking to meet up. Relieved? Yes. He'd seen her leave on the caravan, or so he'd thought, so knew she'd survived, at least. There was anger, that she'd just taken the caravan and gone, not looking back, not trying to find him or even contact him. But mostly, he was still hurt, the wound re-opening when he'd seen her name on the screen. After everything they'd been through when they'd been travelling Pandora looking for Gortys pieces and she'd just... gone. Just like that.
However, once they'd had their screaming match after the stranger had dragged them back into each others' lives, got the pent up hurt and anger out into the open, they'd started to... re-connect? Rhys internally scoffed at the businesslike term that his mind had given him. Well, whatever it was. He'd found himself enjoying her company again. They'd worked together to tell their story, had plotted outlandish escape attempts in the middle of the night while their captor was out of earshot. They'd laughed, even. It had almost been like old times back in the caravan, if not slightly strained still due to their present circumstances.
It had felt so natural, Rhys had almost forgotten what it felt like to be so completely at ease in the company of someone else. He'd had hope, over the last couple of days, that maybe something could be salvaged from all of this.
But now... he wasn't so sure. Fiona had gone quiet. Very quiet. Rhys didn't dare even try to glance in her direction. He sensed it would be like trying to poke an angry rakk hive with a stick.
Their captor was out of earshot some metres away, talking to someone on an ECHO-comm - Rhys' ECHO-comm. He must have snatched it from Rhys after knocking him out and apparently kept it very well-hidden.
"He's had that the whole time?" Rhys muttered, pissed off. If he'd known, he could have tried to take it while the stranger slept. Though, now Rhys thought about it, he'd never actually seen the guy sleep.
Fiona remained silent. Rhys chewed his bottom lip slightly, anxious.
"Alright," he ventured cautiously, "I don't know who he's talking to, but this can't be good for us. We, uhh, or I-I, I mean, no pressure on you, but one or both of us should probably come up with a plan, or, something. 'Cause, uhh, we-we could actually die now."
He still couldn't look at her. Rhys liked to think he had an innate ability to sense how people were feeling, but he didn't even need that to know he was dealing with a ticking bomb.
"S-so, I'll get on with thinking something up. But, if you have any ideas, I'd be open to them. Really open. Like, we'd just do that, immediately."
She remained unresponsive.
"Or, we could keep doing the silence thing. Yeah. Cool. That works," Rhys said shortly, still staring out at where the stranger was pacing while talking on the ECHO-comm, "so, uhh, good luck with all the dying we're about to do."
Still nothing. The anxiety in the pit of Rhys' stomach clawed its way toward his throat as he cast his eyes around, looking for something, anything, that might help. And... he found nothing. It didn't help that they were both still neatly wrapped in duct tape. Rhys could barely even move.
Shit. This was bad.
"Look, can we please just-"
"Shut up, Rhys."
"Oh, she can speak!" Rhys said loudly and sarcastically as he twisted to face her, finally pissed off enough to overcome the anxiety about her response. "Fiona, whatever the hell this is, can't it wait? We have bigger things to worry about right now."
"He's not going to kill us. He's been looking for Gortys pieces while we've been here, which means he still needs them, and us." Fiona finally looked at him and Rhys now had a measure of exactly how quietly angry she was.
His own anger was beginning to grow, inexplicably. "Well, you seem to know something I don't. Been chumming up with your friend over there, yeah? Did he tell you that? How the hell could you possibly know the intentions of someone who's been holding us at gunpoint this whole time?"
Something suddenly occured to Rhys and his eyes widened as pieces began to click together in his mind. "Oh my god. Ohhhhh. You're in cahoots. Oh my god, it makes so much sense now. You're conning me. This is a con!"
Fiona's mouth had somewhat comically fallen half-open as she stared at him, her eyes burning. It would have been funny, if Rhys wasn't so pissed off at this moment in time.
"What the fuck are you talking about, Rhys?"
"This! This whole, thing!" Rhys would have been gesturing wildly around if he wasn't so wrapped up in duct tape, instead, he jerked in agitation where he was sitting. "You and that guy, you-you lured me here, pretending this was some hostage thing, so... so you could- oh my god, the vault." Rhys exhaled sharply in realisation as he narrowed his eyes in accusation at Fiona. "You're after the vault. Gortys is still imprinted to us - you know that and he knows that, you need me for this and that's why you got me here."
Fiona, apparently lost for words, closed her mouth and simply looked at him. She wasn't frowning, or glaring, she just... looked. But there was a burning intensity in her eyes and he'd never seen it before. Not when she'd been yelling at him days ago when they were reunited. Not when they'd stood in the Atlas facility, surrounded by drones that were preparing to kill them, their lives in imminent danger. Despite Rhys thinking he was onto something, he suddenly felt disarmed.
"I don't even know what to say to that," Fiona began quietly, and dangerously. "I'm struggling to pinpoint the most ridiculous part of the shit that just came out of your mouth. That I'd team up with some masked stranger to force you to open a vault, despite you willingly trying to open that very same vault last year? When I could have, oh, I don't know, just asked you? Or that I'd con you, of all people? Or that I'd want to be stuck with you for days, relieving everything that resulted in my life going to shit?" Her voice had risen considerably by the end and she spat out the final word with a venom he hadn't heard before.
Ouch.
"Like I wanted to be reminded about everything that happened, like I wanted to hear what you had to say about what went down on Helios like it would fix anything," Fiona continued, snarling, and Rhys swallowed the apology he'd been about to cough out. "I don't even know why I came to meet you, this whole thing was your fault-"
"Woah, woah, woah, how the hell is this my fault?" Rhys stared incredulously at her as she glared at him.
"You're seriously asking me that?! Like you just forgot that you're the one who delivered us all to Hyperion's doorstep, knowing you had its ruthless, megalomaniac leader in your head? Putting us all in danger and nearly getting us killed?!"
"Like I explained earlier," Rhys said icily, teeth gritted, "I didn't have a choice-"
"Don't give me that bullshit-"
"Oh my god, would you let me speak? You think I wanted that to happen? I already told you it was beyond my control, Jack uploaded himself, I literally couldn't do anything to stop it!"
"You could have just grabbed the Gortys beacon and left," Fiona retorted heatedly, "instead, you decided to tour his office and sit in his chair dreaming about all the destruction you'd go on to cause as its CEO, when you could have just got the hell out of there in two minutes flat and we wouldn't have had an entire space station trying to kill us!"
"And where would that have left us?" Rhys was shouting now. "Alright, so we would have come back to Pandora with the beacon, you really think Vallory would have let us just walk away into the sunset once the vault was opened? That's not even considering the problem of still having Handsome Jack in my head-"
"Oh, so you're glad he was let loose into the system?"
"Did I say that?!" Rhys rounded on her, clenching his fists to stop himself from shaking in anger. "Alright, fine! What would you have done in that situation, Fiona? Huh? Tell me what you would have done-"
"You know I can't answer that," Fiona snapped, equally as furiously, "I've never been in that situation-"
"Then why are you dragging me through the fire for it?!"
"Because you could have said something, Rhys!" Fiona's voice echoed throughout the Hyperion ship they were still sheltered in. "We were together for months after you plugged that thing into your head, you had weeks to tell us what was going on before we went to Helios and you said nothing!"
"Yeah?" Rhys had to concede she had a point and he deflated suddenly, weary. "And how would that have gone? 'Oh, hey guys, remember that guy that made your lives hell? Well, he's right here!' You're telling me you wouldn't have just-just thrown me out of the caravan at full speed?"
"We would have listened," Fiona said much more quietly, her voice full of fury.
"Experience tells me otherwise," Rhys said harshly.
"Well, then, you clearly don't know me as well as you think you do," Fiona bit back just as harshly.
Rhys didn't have a response to that. He tore his gaze away from her and moodily stared out toward where the stranger was still having an animated conversation with the unknown person on the other end of the line.
Was this it, then? The hope he'd had that they could somehow patch things up was rapidly fading. Rhys hadn't known Fiona for a very long time, only a few months, but he'd never seen such a heated, rooted anger from her before. Hell, he'd never seen it from anyone. Maybe the fracture was too big.
Rhys couldn't stand the thought of it ending like this. His stomach churned uncomfortably at the prospect.
"Look," he began quietly, keeping his gaze ahead, "I was scared, ok?" Fiona remained silent, so he took that as a sign to continue. "At first, it was 'cause I didn't know what Jack was capable of. And I know how much he was hated here on Pandora. Couldn't help but feel that telling people would mean a death sentence." He sighed heavily, the next words sticking in his throat. "But, after a while, it just got harder to say anything because... because I knew you'd be pissed. I thought it'd mean the end of everything."
The words hung in the air as Rhys lamented his inability to explain what he meant.
"I, just-" Another sigh as he tried to make his thoughts coherent. "That bizarre, terrifying journey we went on... that was the most fun I've ever had. And so much of it was 'cause of you guys. Sasha and-and you. After we got over that initial, uhh, dislike of each other. It was refreshing to be around people who weren't corporate back-stabbers, who were... real. Genuine. Despite the whole... con artist thing. It just felt like we had something good, you know? We had each others' backs, we had fun. ... I haven't laughed that much since before I left to work for Hyperion." Rhys slumped against the railing he was leaning against. "I knew everything would change and I didn't want to lose that."
There was a heavy silence. Rhys let the misery wash over him as he contemplated just admitting defeat. Too much had happened, all the old, painful wounds reopened.
"I get it, Rhys."
Rhys' breath caught in his throat - he hadn't expected a response. He twisted to look at her and found she looked as miserable as he felt. And... weary. Exhausted.
"I feel the same way about that journey," Fiona continued softly. "Everything had always been a struggle up until then. It was always about survival. It was nice, honestly, to have you - and Vaughn - people that I could trust. And have fun with. Friends, real friendships that weren't forged for the sake of a con. And, for the first time, I could just... relax, knowing I wasn't alone in trying to find a way to survive, or plan our next move. Hell, even me and Sasha finally got to just enjoy ourselves and just talk about silly stuff. We've always been so focused on where our next meal was coming from that we never had the chance."
It felt like a gut punch. Rhys had known that life hadn't been easy for Fiona and Sasha, but to hear it like this, so honest and raw... He felt strangely small all of a sudden.
"But... it doesn't change anything, Rhys. We trusted you. And you went and did what you did, and for what? You put our lives at risk. Knowing that we were gonna be more at risk than we could have known."
She didn't say it, but the word hung heavily in Rhys' mind without her having to at all. Selfish.
"Like you've never made a mistake," he said but it was empty.
"Not one that big. I'd rather get shot than knowingly put my sister in danger."
That stung. And Rhys knew why that in particular hurt so much. It had taken a crazy adventure throughout the Atlas facilities of Pandora, and another strange few days being marched through its wastelands, for Rhys to finally realise he felt exactly the same way.
About Fiona.
And he'd gone and done it anyway.
Well, fuck. No wonder she was pissed.
"So, that's it then," he said miserably, if only to break the suffocating silence. "We just... what, go our separate ways and carry on feeling like shit?"
Fiona just looked at him for a few moments. "I don't know," she finally said, honestly.
"People have worked through big stuff before," he said desperately as a lead weight settled in his gut.
"People haven't been through what we have. Maybe it's... too big." She leaned back against the railing, exhaling visibly, staring at the sky.
Faint footsteps reached Rhys' ears and he turned to see the stranger was heading back toward them, having apparently finished his call. One way or another, everything was about to come to some sort of conclusion.
"Fiona-"
"Look, just, go along with whatever happens now. Try not to die. That's our priority right now." Fiona fixed him with a firm stare. Straight back to business. Rhys felt the last of his hope depart him.
He couldn't shake the feeling that, if they did come out of this whole thing alive, she was going to bolt the second she was given the opportunity. That was it, then. As the stranger reached them, Rhys dully wondered what was coming next.
Well, there was one small consolation. Whatever it was, it couldn't possibly make him feel any worse than he already felt.
