So, it's certainly been a while. Multiple weeks since the last update. My life's gotten busier and I've been more concerned about my revision for school than writing. Not to worry though!

I have managed to find time to write in the midst of all of it. I have all the events of the story planned out, however getting from A to B is the harder bit. I sometimes get writer's block in those parts. The cliff-hanger of the last chapter is perhaps unforgivable, though.

This chapter is very long. One of the longest I've ever written because it jumps perspective a few times between the main characters: Gaige and Matt. While it's not a full change, it takes time to focus on their points of view. Deborah also gets a bit of focus, too. This chapter would have been even longer, but I had to split it up, lest it reach 10k words, which I deem too long from one chapter since my chapters are on average ~5k.

Here it is, though!

7: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Gaige closed her eyes when the Guard Commander pressed the red button. The big, red button. A big, red button that glowed.

Could you be more obnoxious?

The Mechromancer supposed these thoughts probably shouldn't be the last things on her mind at the end of her life. However, Gaige had faced certain death before, and had already died once, so perhaps being faced with it didn't affect her as much as it probably should.

Gaige kept waiting. She kept waiting to feel nothing; for all her senses to be cut off and find infinite darkness.

But it wouldn't come.

She could still hear the air whistling in her ears; the trudging of boots on the ground; the faint sirens in the background.

Slowly, she opened her eyes again. All the Vault Hunters had closed their eyes as well, and had begun opening them at the same rate as her. The Crimson Raiders were frozen in place, as were the Gemini soldiers in front of them.

To make matters worse, the bomb had indeed gone off. The explosion was frozen in state of expanding; a big ball of fire and sparks. It wasn't getting any bigger.

But how can it freeze? Has time stopped? Gaige wondered, slowly getting off her feet to observe the scene.

'What the fuck's going on?' Aurora demanded, trying to get a closer look at the explosion.

'It's like time's stopped…' Axton supposed. 'But not for us.'

'This is weird,' Rhys said, manipulating the surroundings. 'Time has only stopped for the soldiers. Look.'

It was true: the lights were still dulling and the wind was still blowing. Some of the red lights were flashing still, and they could see Rakk circling in the air high in the sky.

'Wait,' Gaige suddenly halted. 'There's only one person who can control time.'

She looked to her left, and saw the figures in the near distance, despite how dark it was getting. One of them had a source of light, coming from their arm.

'Amelia, reverse the timeline,' one of the figures ordered to another, to which she nodded. She held out a hand and it began to glow red, and then the explosion began to reverse. It got smaller and smaller until it disappeared from existence.

The original, bronze activation device fell to the floor, unused.

Now, the Vault Hunters could kill off the remaining five Gemini soldiers.

Eventually, they could finally distinguish the figures as they got closer.

It was Matt, standing right there with Fiona and his sister. He looked only slightly dishevelled, as if it had only been a few days since he had left into the Infinite, rather than a few years.

He seemed to be just as surprised as they were at his new ability to selectively slow or freeze time, however Matt was better at hiding it.

'Matt!' Gaige called in utter shock and delight. She practically squealed as she ran over to him, with tears in her eyes.

'Oh my god…' Aurora could only manage to say, throwing her hands to her mouth in astonishment. Tears began forming in her eyes just like Gaige.

'Matt as in, Matt Rye?' Rhys asked in disbelief, to which he received avid nods. 'Oh…'

Matt ran towards Gaige as she sprinted down the road. He smiled as he chased after her, although the Mechromancer still couldn't quite believe it. Gaige kept her pace because she didn't want him to be a mere hallucination, or because he may disappear right before her.

Once they made contact, Gaige immediately pulled down on Matt's neck and pressed her lips against his. The Anomaly, taken by surprise, stumbled to suck in air through his nose.

The other Vault Hunters grimaced slightly at the embrace, with Aurora in particular looking away in minor disgust.

Eventually, Gaige let go of his lips, but continued to hold on to him.

'I missed you,' Gaige told him, half between tears.

'I missed you too,' Matt replied. Brusquely, the Mechromancer pulled off and began hitting him hard on his arm with her metal one.

'Where were you?! I waited for you! For four years! Where the hell have you been?'

Matt sighed. He expected her to be angry.

'I've been negotiating my leave from the Infinite,' the Vault Hunter replied. 'The Enlightener didn't want me to leave yet; trust me, I wanted to. It took ages to convince him.'

'But he said you'd come back eventually!' Gaige recollected pointedly.

'Yeah, "eventually",' Matt pointed out. 'The deal didn't include trying to stop the war. The Enlightener is insistent that it's inevitable, so he wanted me to send me in late into the conflict.'

'How would that cut our losses?' Gaige critiqued annoyedly.

'That's what I told him,' Matt agreed.

'And since when did you learn to manipulate time for specific targets?!'

'Just now. I didn't really know I could.'

'[SYSTEM LOCKDOWN PROCESS: WITHDRAWING GEMINI FORCES].'

'Matt! Didn't you say we have only a few minutes?!' Fiona reminded him worriedly.

'Oh, yeah…right,' Matt remembered, running to the group of Vault Hunters and Crimson Raiders.

'Matt, how did you –' Aurora began.

'Sorry 'Ora, not now!' Matt dismissed hastily. 'We need to get out of here! The whole facility is entering lockdown!'

'And why is it entering lockdown?!' Axton demanded, aware that the time for greetings was not now.

'Because I messed around with the Menagerie system interface,' the Vault Hunter responded.

'Yeah, he decided to shut down the facility so the Raiders could commandeer it,' Amelia explained, appearing beside Rhys.

'Ah!' He jumped. 'Who are you?!'

'Oh, I'm Amelia. I'm Matt's sister.'

'Hold down, Matt Rye has a sister?!' Rhys yelled.

'What's his problem?' Matt asked Gaige bemusedly.

'Well, he's only ever heard about you from other people. Rhys has never met you in person, so no wonder he's freaking out.'

'Hey Matt?' Axton called. Matt turned to look at him. 'Is Amelia…you know…safe to be around?'

'Don't worry, she's not evil,' the Anomaly ensured, as they ran towards the exit.

'Hey, I was never evil to begin with!' Amelia argued. 'That was the Infinite talking!'

'Whatever,' Axton lazily retorted, groaning a little at her complaint.

'Curiosity / Only serves to kill the cat / Don't get distracted,' Zer0 advised them sternly.

'[SYSTEM LOCKDOWN PROCESS: THE EAST SECTOR OF THE FACILITY HAS BEEN LOCKED DOWN.]'

'And within a minute, so will the rest of the facility,' Matt warned them.

'Why doesn't the system lockdown process lock all areas of the facility first?' Rhys pointed out.

'Standard procedure to allow Gemini personnel to escape the facility before lockdown,' Aurora explained.

'But what about the prisoners that are running riot?!' Gaige exclaimed.

'The system lockdown procedures are only meant to be authenticated by the administrator,' the Fable replied, shooting a mildly annoyed look at Matt. 'It's under the impression that all prisoners have been escorted from the facility!'

'[SYSTEM LOCKDOWN: THE WEST SECTOR OF THE FACILITY HAS BEEN LOCKED DOWN.]'

'Get that door open!' Axton ordered his troops, who rushed forward for the door crowbar it open. The light above the door scanned them and went red, claiming access was denied. They kept trying, but the same result reoccurred several times over.

'How are we supposed to get past the door?!' Rhys worried nervously.

'Maybe we can overload it,' Aurora suggested.

'Matt, do you think you can produce enough lightning to overload it?' The Mechromancer asked the Anomaly.

'Probably,' Matt agreed, charging up his lightning, which crackled against the door mechanisms. Time began to slow around him the more he charged it up, manipulating the space-time continuum. The Anomaly could feel the jolts of electricity flowing through his body, causing slight spasms in his arm.

'How much longer is this going to take, Mattie?' Amelia grumbled, groaning at his efforts.

'Hey, from their point of view, this is taking less than a nanosecond,' Matt refuted, consistently zapping the door sensor with his Chronokinetic lightning. After what felt like eternity, the door light went green and it shuddered open. The Anomaly ceased using his Chronokinesis.

'[FACILITY ENTERING COMPLETE LOCKDOWN IN T-MINUS…15 SECONDS.]'

'C'mon, we gotta go!' Matt yelled over the computer system, and the Crimson Raiders and Vault Hunters all collectively ran out of the Menagerie before the door could close. Matt departed last with Amelia beside him.

'[ALERT: FACILITY IN COMPLETE LOCKDOWN.]'

'That was…uh…that was close,' Matt stuttered, tripping over his words awkwardly. Aurora looked at him with mild annoyance, before walking over to him and locking him in a bone-crushing hug.

'I knew you'd come back. I just knew,' the Fable mumbled in his arms.

'That's…great, 'Ora…but I…can't…breathe,' he warned her through with the last of his breath.

'Oh, sorry.' She promptly let go so Matt could breathe again.

'It's great to have you back,' Axton added, slapping him on the back amiably.

'An ally returns / This is most favourable / Times are set to change,' Zer0 agreed, displaying a thumbs-up on his black visor.

'Uh, yes, it's, uh, nice to meet you, Mr Rye,' Rhys addressed formally, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. He held out a hand to greet him. Instead, Matt put a welcoming hand on his shoulder.

'Just call me Matt,' he replied warmly, beaming at him. Rhys looked somewhat disconcerted.

'But…you're my commanding officer, and you're supposed to be a living legend…'

'"Living legend"? I'm a human being, just like you, Rhys,' the Anomaly laughed, ridiculing the name. 'And as for that "commanding officer" bullshit, there's no need to be so formal and impersonal.'

'Um, if you say so, Matt,' the Corporate concurred timidly, struggling to maintain eye contact.

'Anyway, I suppose it's time I return to Sanctuary,' the Vault Hunter backpedalled. Gaige nodded formally. Matt went to take her hand, but the Mechromancer intentionally moved it away and turned towards the vehicles in the distance.

'We have our vehicles parked over there,' she informed him, pointing to the Runners in the near distance. The group of Crimson Raider and Vault Hunters began their trek towards their vehicles.

'So, how did you know to come here?' Gaige inquired to her inquisitively.

'Long story, most of which I'll tell you when we get back,' Matt responded. 'But, to cut it short, the Watcher sent me.' Gaige froze.

'The Watcher?!' The Vault Hunter repeated. 'Was she the one who got you out of the Infinite?'

'Esog certainly helped,' Matt confirmed. 'She used Infinite energy to teleport me. Good thing I found the…'

'The what?'

'I'll show you when we get back,' the Anomaly waved off. 'I'll tell you what, though: it was difficult to get through the Menagerie without any weapons.'

'Right, that reminds me!' Gaige recalled, searching through her pockets. Eventually, she found his ECHOear and handed it to him. 'I had a feeling you'd come. Gemini reported an Anomalous Event, so I figured there was a chance it was you, so I brought it with me.'

'But I gave you this to help with your ECHO broadcasts!' He objected outright.

'I'll manage. Me and my one-hundred thousand subscribers,' the Mechromancer assured him kindly as Matt's eyes widened.

'One-hundred thousand?!'

'Yep. The ECHOear unit really helped.' Matt's eyes went downtrodden. 'B-But trust me, I'll be OK. Besides, I can borrow it if I really need it.'

Matt sighed, giving up, and picked up the ECHOear. He pressed the button the side to activate it and putting it on his ear.

/ / ECHO_Ear initialising…

/ / Loading … 100%

/ / Ammo display … 100%

/ / Running diagnostics program…

/ / Health scan complete.

/ / All bodily functions nominal.

/ / Shields display … 100%

/ / Capacity: 717,323

/ / Cyber Security Protocol initialising…

/ / Scan complete. No issues found.

/ / Loading inventory selection…100%

His HUD loaded successfully, providing him some relief that it didn't have a virus. His health was at about half, and his shields were at full capacity. He searched his inventory, and found all of his weapons and equipment completely intact.

'You…you kept all my gear,' he observed in complete surprise.

'Before we left for the Menagerie mission, I went into the storage vaults and took out your weapons.'

'Vaults? Sanctuary has vaults?'

'A lot of things have changed in the last four years,' The Mechromancer informed him somewhat nostalgically.

'Hey, it's been a long time for me too,' Matt refuted light-heartedly, before suddenly dropping his cheerful expression in favour of a darker one. 'A really long time.'

'You alright, Matty?' Aurora asked before Gaige could, noticing his behaviour.

'Hm? Yeah, I'm fine.'

'Well, in that case, we should go then.' Gaige climbed into the driver's seat of her personal Runner vehicle. Matt nodded and clambered into the turret. Amelia climbed into Aurora's awkwardly, as the Fable looked at her disconcertedly.

'What?' Amelia demanded exasperatedly.

'Nothing,' Aurora lied. 'Sorry, it's just…the last time we spoke, you tried to kill us.'

'I'm not the Dreamer,' Amelia insisted. 'We're not the same person. I'm the Amelia that Matt knew before I became its host.'

'Right, sorry.'

'You ready to come home?' Axton asked Matt, as he started his Runner.

'Absolutely.'

From the moment Matt materialised in Sanctuary, he knew everything had changed.

The walls of Pierce Station had been cleaned, refurbished and coated with a new layer of cream paint. Gone were the flimsy posters on the wall, now replaced with holographic boards and neat frames around laminated awards. While still the room was same size, more safes and chests had been placed inside, so it didn't feel as empty as before.

All of the windows were now suitably polished, rather than left to collect dust. They were no longer completely transparent, and were instead translucent and patterned like fragmented sections fitting together neatly.

Even the fast travel machine was modified, with all new red paint aps to match the Crimson Raider owners. The Hyperion logo had been completely scratched out, meticulously, just to erase the memory of the corporation.

And this was just one room.

'Wow, you guys really did up the place,' Matt gawped, looking around the place.

'Where'd the rest of the Raider soldiers go?' Amelia inquired with an eyebrow risen.

'They probably returned to Karabraxis,' Aurora presumed, receiving only blank faces from the two. 'It's the capital of the Crimson Raiders. It used to be owned by Hyperion before we took it over.'

'So what's Sanctuary for?' The Anomaly asked.

'Vault Hunter HQ, mainly,' Gaige elucidated. 'However, many citizens decided to stay when we offered them a place in Chrysanthia.'

Yet again, they received blank faces.

'It's the leisure hive of the Raiders on Pandora,' Axton explained for them. 'Citizens chose to live there to be catered for better than Sanctuary can.'

'My sister lives there,' Fiona added absentmindedly, playing with her thumbs.

'Well, you certainly took my advice when I said expand your horizons,' Matt replied, awestruck at the Raiders' achievements.

'C'mon, we'll introduce you to the crowd,' Gaige offered, taking his hand and leading him out the nearest door.

'Uh, Gaige, I'm not sure it's such a good idea to…' he tried to object, but his voice trailed off while the Mechromancer dragged him out. She recoiled her hand as soon as they exited the building.

As they moved out the door, Matt was met with a crowd, indeed. A crowd of people moving through Sanctuary on their own arbitrary jobs, seeking to finish their mundane tasks.

Looking out onto the horizon, Matt could see that Sanctuary had doubled in size, with twice the length and twice the width. There were more buildings, more districts; there was more of, well, everything. Everything had been notably refurbished, no longer looking amateur or cheap; they now seemed clean and the result of pure expertise, and also reached taller heights than before.

The wind blew peacefully, although the idle chatter from busy Raiders disrupted it and entered Matt's ears intrusively. Everyone moved in patterned steps, routinely walking the same distance they did the previous day, and would likely do the next.

Then, brusquely, there was a sharp sound of something smashing.

Matt instantly looked to his left, the source of the sound. A woman had seen him, and dropped a ceramic vase that she'd no doubt been carrying to her flower shop fifteen meters away.

'It's…it's…' she stammered, pointing at Matt and catching the attention the people around her, but not the overall pack of Sanctuary citizens. 'THE ANOMALY!'

Her exclamation rung through the ears of east central Sanctuary. Everyone stopped, not quite believing her, until they followed her finger and saw Matt Rye himself.

'Um, hello,' Matt greeted awkwardly.

Immediately, the multitude of citizens erupted into conversation, gasping at the sudden return of a supposed legend. They began cheering, loudly, at the Anomaly's reappearance, throwing up their hands in the air in celebration. People rushed to Matt to shake his hand, or say something to their hero, which easily overwhelmed the Anomaly, meanwhile the Vault Hunters merely looked on in laughter.

No one could quite believe he was back, but set aside their suspicions on his "death" because the man had finally delivered on his promise to come home.

All, except one.

As the cheering started to go down, and people merely resorted to shaking his hand, the woman with the vase began to raise her voice.

'Why are we celebrating?!' She screamed, louder than all of them, silencing the whole crowd. The woman stepped towards Matt imposingly. Matt's expression dropped. 'Is no one going to ask where the hell he has been?! Why did you decide we needed you now, Matt? Where were you, during the collapse of the Associated Constellations? Where were you when our babies were burning?! Huh? Where were you, oh great Anomaly?'

'I've been trying to come back as soon as possible, but it wasn't my choice,' the Anomaly attempted to elaborate. 'I really wish I could've been there, during such awful times. It must've been like –'

'Hell,' the woman claimed. 'Four years of unendurable hell.'

'She's got a point,' another citizen agreed, stepping out from the others. 'My wife died when the Associated Constellations was annihilated, and this "messiah" didn't show up once.'

'Gaige, what's with this with the Associated Constellations?' The Anomaly muttered to her, careful not to raise his voice. When Gaige didn't respond, he turned to see her pained expression. 'Gaige? What's wrong?'

'He doesn't know what happened in the last four years!' The woman with the vase angrily criticised. 'And you all expect me to just…WELCOME him back like this?!'

No one in the audience dared to object her. It would probably be a bad idea to mess with someone who was indescribably infuriated.

'I am truly sorry you had to go through all of this,' Matt eventually said. 'But it was out of my control when I could come back or even if I could. I was in another dimension, controlled by aliens – they decided when I got to leave. I only convinced them a couple hours ago.'

'You don't actually think we'll believe that?' The man from the audience derided.

'It's the truth.'

With that, Matt walked off, wading through the crowd towards Sanctuary HQ. The Vault Hunters pursued after him, although Gaige stopped to address the two people from before.

'You're not going to achieve anything by arguing amongst yourselves,' she lectured angrily, before chasing after the Anomaly.

'Matt!' Aurora called, prompting him to stop to stare at her. 'I-I realise that wasn't the welcome you were expecting, but –'

'No, they were right,' the Anomaly interrupted. 'I really don't know what I was expecting, but they have every right to be upset.'

'Yeah, but it wasn't helping to shout at you like that!' Gaige added, as she caught up with him.

'And it's not even your fault,' Axton reinforced rigidly. Matt ignored them and entered Sanctuary HQ with haste. He walked up the stairs, noticing the new lift where Roland's Armoury used to be, as well the new paint job.

The other Vault Hunters reached the top of the stairs quickly, before Matt entered the scanner room. Gaige stroked his arm with a concerned look in her eye. Matt hugged her to ensure he was fine.

Matt entered the room behind the Vault Hunters, swiftly noticing Lilith leaning over the scanner in the centre of the room. She visibly heard them enter but didn't get up to address them.

'Good job locking down the Menagerie, the Raiders are now appropriating the facility for us,' the Siren commended. 'It was fortunate that the Menagerie was down on half of their military, when they thought we were coming from a different direction. But you risked the entire operation, and what was that celebrating outside?'

Matt stepped forward, just out of the Siren's line of sight. He put a hand on her shoulder, causing Lilith to jump.

'Don't you think it's worth it to take a break?' He suggested, smiling down at her. Instantly recognising his voice, Lilith looked up and stumbled back slightly when she saw his face.

'Matt?' She asked, in complete disbelief.

He beamed at her, and all the Siren could do was hold out a hand to touch his shoulder. When her hand made contact, Lilith breathed a sigh of relief and hugged him for a millisecond.

'I've never seen Lilith hug before,' Fiona murmured to the Vault Hunters.

'Neither have I,' Gaige mumbled back.

'It was only for second, though,' Axton reminded them.

'How did you…?' Lilith began unevenly.

'Took some convincing,' Matt mused. 'They're afraid, Lil.'

'Afraid of what…?' The Siren asked wearily.

'The Great Monsoon.'

Fiona shuddered. There was that name again. The name that sparked fear in even Gaige.

'Wh-What's the "Great Monsoon"?' Fiona wondered fearfully.

'It's known by many names,' the Anomaly answered. 'Armageddon, the Apocalypse, the Day That Will Never End, the Storm of Abaddon, the Unstoppable Purge, Doomsday. All religions that prophesise the end times? They're all talking about the Great Monsoon. Some were slightly off, mainly in thinking there's supposed to be a new era of peace afterwards. Put simply: it is death incarnate. No Second Coming. No saviour. Just annihilation.'

'It's the war you were warned about,' Amelia elaborate. 'The largest and most tragic conflict in history.'

'How much did you learn?' Lilith prompted further.

'A lot,' Matt replied simply.

'Does that include who wins?' Axton asked them both gravelly.

'It's not about winning or losing,' the Anomaly told him firmly. 'It's about surviving.' He walked over the scanner, adjusted the settings, and nodded to Amelia. Understanding his request, she took out the Artefact.

'Wait, that's the relic thingy from the Vault!' Gaige recognised.

'But there was a forcefield around it…' Fiona recalled confusedly, her voice trailing off.

Matt took the Artefact from Amelia's hand and rested it on top of the scanner, manipulating the wires on an extension cord to plug it in. The Infinite energy began to flow through the wires, transferring into electrical energy into the scanner.

'You see, when I got out of the Infinite, I wasn't dawdling about,' the Anomaly explained, manipulating the dials on the side of the scanner. 'I found something.' He pulled up a map of mostly the northwest coast of Pandora, although slightly extended. A red dot appeared on the map, east of the Vault of the Dreamer.

'What is that?' Aurora asked, trying to get a closer look.

'The Artefact directed me towards it,' the Vault Hunter told them. 'It's an Eridian Tomb, triangulated by the Rule of Alignment.'

'Rule of Alignment?' Lilith questioned him.

'The Vault of the Dreamer, the Vault of the Destroyer and the Vault of the Warrior are all perfectly in line,' Amelia enlightened them, pointing to their positions on the map. 'The Eridian Tomb was placed there based on those said positions. Inside it, we found something. We decided to call it the Cube.'

'A Pandimensional Interspatial Conduit. Amelia and I were able to activate it, in a manner of speaking, providing the Eridians with an alternative connection to the Midgardian dimension, apart from me,' Matt disclosed. 'Esog – the Watcher – gave me this task so that it would be easier for their entire population to emerge from the Infinite. That way, if or when the Great Monsoon occurs, they can escape to a different dimension if the need arose.'

'And that's when they instructed us to infiltrate the Menagerie and aid in your operation,' Amelia concluded.

'OK, Lilith I got your message,' a voice called from behind them. Matt turned to see who it was. 'But I don't see why it was so urgent that I should drop everything and –'

The moment Maya made eye contact with Matt, she stopped. She stopped moving, she stopped talking – she froze.

'Hi, Maya,' Matt smiled at her, she began to walk over to him, not quite believing he was standing there. 'I know it's been a while, but –'

He was interrupted by a harsh slap around the face by the blue-haired Siren. The sound echoed throughout the room.

'OK, lesson learnt, you're angry,' the Anomaly carried off awkwardly.

'Where the hell have you been?!' The Siren demanded wrathfully, grabbing him irreverently by his shirt collar. 'Four years and not even a peep from you! You were part of my family, Matt – a fellow Siren, no less, yet you chose now to come back? What about when the Associated Constellations were decimated? When the Crimson Raiders were scrambling to the edges of the Medusa sector, trying their best to regain control over Gemini, you never showed your face once. You said you'd come back when you were most needed!'

'I understand you're mad –' the Anomaly began.

'Mad?!' Maya scoffed. 'Mad? I'm fucking furious! Trillions died when the Associated Constellations was destroyed. My home planet, Athenas, burnt. It was incinerated, along with everyone on it, and I had to watch! Sure, the monks merely used me, but they also raised me – they didn't deserve to die! And to think, I actually went to your memorial service! What was I thinking?'

'Maya, I know it must've been hell, but I had no choice when to come back,' Matt tried to outline to her, but the Siren didn't listen. 'Please, listen to me: arguing isn't going to bring your planet back.'

'It's easy for you to say,' the Siren shot back. 'You got everything you wanted. You even have your sister back! In fact, what did you go through in past four years, Matt? While all the constellations were under an inferno, you were just…lounging about in the Infinite, weren't you? Just relaxing, right?'

At that, Matt's sympathetic expression fell, and was replaced a grim disposition. Everyone in the room saw this, disconcertedly, and even Maya was left nonplussed. He glared down at her, towering over her in height, somewhat squashing the Siren's imposing presence.

'If you think being here was like hell, you should've seen what it was like for me,' he challenged her. 'Because it was much longer than four years.'

'Mattie, we agreed not to talk about it,' his sister scolded him lightly.

'What do you mean?' Aurora asked. Matt sighed, holding his head down for a second.

'Time differential,' he uttered reluctantly. 'Time in the Infinite passes differently to Midgard. One hour for you is about four days for me.'

'Jesus Christ,' Axton susurrated in pure horror.

'How long did you spend in the Infinite?' Gaige asked the Anomaly. He didn't respond. 'Matt, how long did you spend in the Infinite?'

'Four-hundred years,' the Anomaly confessed.

'Four…hundred?!' The Mechromancer gawked. 'You spent all that time in the Infinite, and you didn't even change?'

'Of course I changed,' Matt replied. 'I didn't age much physically – my body had essentially slowed in time the moment I entered the Infinite. Mentally, though, I did. Strictly speaking, I'm not twenty-five years old, I'm four-hundred and twenty-one.'

Maya collapsed onto a nearby chair, unable to fathom what she was hearing.

'Do you know what it was like, Maya?' Matt prompted her, to which she merely shook her head. 'It was apocalyptic. The Eridians needed me prepared for the war, so they put me through "training". Imagine every single conflict in the galaxy raging all at once and then times it by thousand. That's what it was like for me in the Infinite.'

There was a silence about the Vault Hunters. No one really knew how to react to this. Maya thought her life over the past few years was hellish, but she couldn't have imagined what it would've been like for Matt. And she had the audacity to challenge him! She was so ashamed right now, but all Matt did was put a hand on her shoulder and smile down at her. She smiled back.

'I'm sorry, but what actually is the Infinite?' Rhys enquired inexplicably, breaking the established silence.

'Yeah, uh, you never explained,' Fiona reminded them.

'There's more than one dimension,' Amelia told them vaguely.

'The Infinite is another dimension, of pure, untainted power – a bottomless well of Infinite energy,' the Anomaly described. 'It's the energy that the Eridians used to create the Vaults, and trap monsters that they deemed too dangerous to remain in their respective domains. Eridium, for example, is solidified Infinite energy, sort of like power cells for Vaults, along with likewise Eridian structures. As such, they can charge Vault Keys, activate Raid Boss summoning posts, et cetera.'

'Why is Infinite energy so important to the Eridians?' Fiona wondered.

'A myriad of reasons,' Matt informed them simply. 'They could use Infinite energy for virtually anything. It could reanimate corpses, bring people back to life, manipulate the timestream, and warp reality, even. Depends on how you use it, and who is using it, and also where.

'The Eridians gained control of the Infinite, but they couldn't manipulate the Midgardian dimension from within it.

'The Eridians, they foresaw the Great Monsoon, and the damage it would cause. So, they fled into the Infinite, abandoning their physical bodies and becoming creatures of pure consciousness.

'As a result, they required some way to maintain their influence in any and all dimensions. Once they passed into the Infinite, they left behind a trail of Infinite energy – which caused the distribution between dimensions to become unbalanced. So, they created Sirens. Sirens are beings with a strong, and abnormal, connection to the Infinite, and they're able to draw from it, using it to bend the laws of physics as we know it.

'Unfortunately, millions of years after Sirens were created, and nine years ago, the Vault of the Destroyer was opened. They created the Vault Key for themselves, not for the humans, in case they ever needed to use the Destroyer as some last resort in future conflicts. However, you all – you got too curious! When Lilith and her buds opened the Vault, an incalculable amount of Infinite energy flowed into our dimension, too much for it to handle. Slowly, it began to react with Dark energy, which would create an incredibly volatile result.

'The universe almost ended because the equation between the Infinite – the energy that binds our dimensions together – became unbalanced. The Eridians couldn't just create more Sirens; they had set a rule of only six in the universe at a time. Unless, of course, they bent the rules a bit.

'Enter: Hyperion. They formed the Genisys Project – where they would use DNA from Angel, a Siren, and fuse it with human DNA, using Infinite energy. It was catastrophic. Most subjects died – in fact, all of them did. All except me.'

Rhys and Fiona's eyes went wide at this information.

'I heard about the Genisys Project,' the Corporate claimed, prompting a look of confusion from Matt. 'I'm ex-Hyperion.' Matt nodded and made a quiet 'ah' sound. 'But it was just a rumour; most of us didn't believe they actually created a Siren-Human hybrid.'

'They only succeeded because the Eridians let them,' Matt stated quite confidently. 'It took a while before they found a subject they'd be "happy" with, but it came to me. Half a Siren doesn't count as more than six whole ones; just like a computer rounds 2.5 down to 2. Therefore, I was…reborn, only half human. It granted me access to the Infinite, to a particular side of the spectrum that allowed me to manipulate time.

'And all of this was done to get to me to one specific moment – me, in the Vault, met by my dead sister.'

The Artist and the Corporate looked at Amelia in utter confusion and horror.

'Oh, uh, I used to be dead,' she explained unhelpfully.

'I was created for one sole purpose: the host for the Infinite. An anchor-man between this dimension and the latter; a liaison, if you like. That way, the Eridians could balance the rogue Infinite energy in this dimension, and use it to activate the Tomb I mentioned earlier. They did it to save both the Infinite and Midgard.'

'Then how come you can return at all?' Aurora probed him. 'Don't you have to remain in the Infinite to stay its host?'

'I managed to give Amelia a human body, but she's still half Infinite energy. I'm half Siren, so I'm half Infinite. Put those two together, and you get a complete connection.'

'Midgard would eventually reject the excess Infinite energy though,' Lilith speculated, to which Matt nodded sombrely.

'When I'm done helping you with this war, I have to go back,' he stated categorically.

'But –' Gaige objected.

'No buts,' he interrupted. 'It's not a choice; it's fact. I'm sorry.'

'And I thought Deborah had nowhere to go,' Fiona commented absentmindedly.

'Who?' The Anomaly questioned.

'It's the prisoner Fiona and I recovered from the Menagerie,' Gaige answered.

'She's settling into her position as a strategist,' Lilith said. 'In fact, I called her over to help with the Menagerie clean-up operation. She'll be here any minute.'

'Right, OK then,' Matt replied awkwardly. 'You mean you only took out one person?'

'Well, the Raiders are escorting out more as we speak, and inducting them into our military corps, or into civilian centres like Chrysanthia,' Lilith clarified, changing the holographic display to show the entire Medusa sector. Red dots were placed across it, displaying Raider colonies, bases, and facilities on various planets throughout the galactic sector.

'Wow, you lot are everywhere! You've definitely been busy,' Matt gaped in awe, grinning at it.

'Lilith? I'm here! You said you wanted help in eliminating the lasting Gemini control over the Menagerie?' A voice claimed, coming up the stairs.

'Ah, that's her!' Lilith announced, but Matt looked on darkly.

'I know that voice,' the Anomaly recognised. 'I'd know it anywhere.'

'But that's impossible,' Amelia objected.

'Thank you for coming, Deborah,' the red-haired Siren thanked.

'Ah, well, I am supposed to follow orders, so –' Deborah stopped when she appeared at the top of the stairs and Matt. She didn't move, barely breathing, as tears began to well in her eyes.

'Deborah? You alright?' Lilith inquired to her, putting a hand on her shoulder to catch her attention, but the woman didn't appear at all to notice her attempts.

Deborah bolted towards Matt, to throw her arms around him, but the Anomaly stopped her instantly and lightly pushed her back from him.

'I don't understand; what's going on?' Fiona questioned bewilderedly.

'Everyone,' Matt addressed universally, maintaining a furious glare at the woman before him. 'This…is my mother, Deborah Rye.'

'Your mother?!' Fiona gawked vociferously.

'Of all the people we stumble upon it just had to be your mother,' Gaige complained.

'What are you doing here?' Matt asked calmly but with a hint of passive-aggressiveness.

'I thought you were dead,' Deborah admitted. 'Just like…' Her voice trailed off when her eyes darted to just behind Matt, and saw the face of her daughter. 'A-Amelia? Is…is that you?'

'Yeah, it's me,' she confirmed. Deborah moved to her, but Amelia stepped away from her.

'What…what is it?'

'I know what you did.' Amelia scowled at her angrily. Deborah looked lost and confused. 'You disowned my brother, then kicked him off his home planet – your own son!'

'I'm sorry,' she apologised sincerely. 'I have no idea how that must've felt…I…I know now that that was unfair and cruel, and purely out of grief.'

'The fact that it took time for you to realise that is what worries me the most,' Gaige interjected.

'Gaige, don't,' Matt warned her.

'No, I don't care,' the Mechromancer disregarded. 'I heard about you, and your husband Nicholas. Grief can do terrible things, and make people do terrible things, but you'd have to be pretty evil beforehand to throw your own son of an entire planet.'

'Ex-husband,' Deborah corrected, still keeping her guilty expression. 'We divorced not long after you left Darios. We argued when I wanted to go look for you, and he didn't. After that, I left and he moved to Teleptia Major in the Garn Belt.'

'And what about Darios itself?' Matt asked carefully, not certain of the answer he would receive.

'Matt…Darios is…Darios is gone,' Deborah confessed traumatically.

'"Gone"?! How can an entire planet be "gone"?' Matt demanded.

'During the turmoil of the Associated Constellations, the entire planet was…obliterated. The entire population was exterminated.'

'Wait, that means that…' Amelia began to realise. 'Me, Matt, you and…Nicholas are the last Darosians in existence.'

'Yes we are,' their mother confirmed. 'As far as I'm aware, the Rye family is the only one that survived the annihilation of the Associated Constellations of the Great Cascade. We're the last of our subspecies.'

'Which brings me back to the nagging question on my mind since I got back,' Matt addressed, suddenly raising his voice above all of them and gesturing manically about the room. He looked at each and every Vault Hunter as he spoke. 'I want to know what the hell happened that you're all so afraid of telling me. I can see it in your faces. Especially you, Gaige.'

The Mechromancer didn't respond, it was like her voice had been stolen.

'The Associated Constellations. What. Happened? Clearly, something went wrong, but it's more than that. A woman outside claimed it was when you really needed me, that people were literally burning. Darios was destroyed in it, and apparently so was Athenas – along with probably countless other worlds who were united as a part of the Associated Constellations. So, if you'd be so kind as to explain what happened, that'd be great.'

'It was Gemini,' Lilith told him. 'While the Crimson Raiders grew in power, so did they. We established an influence over most of the galaxy, and we even got the Associated Constellations to agree to help fund us and provide homes for us, so long as we pledged to protect them.'

'Gemini grew their army in the shadows,' Axton continued. 'They began piecing together new technology, and managed to harness power we've never seen before. About two years ago, Lilith sent a squadron of fifty soldiers to investigate reports of mass Gemini control over the Outer Region of the Skhedeli sector of the galaxy. They didn't come back. The entire squad of Delta-One got wiped.'

'That's when we went in,' Aurora added. 'All of us, we went to stop Gemini from whatever plans they aimed to further. We got there, and it turned out they'd begun a regime over a few small planets, but we stopped them.'

'And…?' The Anomaly prompted, gesturing for them to continue.

'And it turned out to just be a distraction,' Maya answered. 'You see, while we were occupied in the Skhedeli sector, they attacked the Medusa sector. Luckily, they didn't reach Pandora, the capital of the Raiders, but they got to most other planets.'

'Got to them to do what?' Amelia asked fearfully.

'Destroy them,' Gaige replied. 'The High Council of the Associated Constellations was based on multiple planets in the Medusa sector. Rather than waste time checking which one they were on, they instead destroyed all of them.'

'Destroy? There's no way Gemini gathered that much power,' Matt objected immediately.

'We thought that too,' Lilith agreed. 'We don't know yet how they did it. But I'm afraid the story gets worse. They moved from the Medusa sector to the heart of the Associated Constellations – the Metraxian sector. Their "constellations" generally resided there, since that's where they came from.'

'Right, and what happened?' The Anomaly questioned, frowning.

'Using some kind of technology,' Aurora elaborated, 'they managed to obliterate every single planet, moon or star in the Metraxian sector within a second. They caused a thousand million stars to go supernova within a single instant, burning every planet in the process, and then they reduced them to mere fragments. The Metraxian sector is just dead space now. All of it. And all we could do was watch it all burn.'

'With no leader and most of its power vaporised in an instant, the Associated Constellations merely collapsed,' Axton concluded.

'How did you regain control?' Matt asked. 'If Gemini were that powerful, you'd be dead by now.'

'We thought so too,' Lilith confirmed. 'They tried to obliterate the Medusa sector, but we there for them this time, on board their flagship, the Leviathan. Whatever technology they were using didn't work, and since then they've relegated themselves to simple conflicts every so often, they're –'

'Hiding in the shadows, once again,' Matt finished for her, gnawing his teeth in frustration. 'But not for long, apparently.'

'What do you mean?' Lilith asked.

'On my way to the Eridian Tomb, I came across a Gemini train.'

'Old Gemini train,' the Siren told him. 'They're automated old Hyperion trains. They're not transporting anything.'

'But there's also their recent appropriation of the Friendship Gulag,' Amelia pointed out.

'First attempt they've made in a while,' Axton said. 'I'm surprised they manage to establish any force on Pandora. They must've been very stealthy.'

'All the more reason to increase security,' Lilith resolved confidently.

'Gemini has an acute tendency to keep their operations secret,' the Anomaly reminded them. 'They have more statutes and secrecy regulations than anyone can ever be bothered to count. But when they come back, it'll be in force. You'll know it when it happens.'

'But we've got a secret advantage that they don't know about,' Gaige professed with a smile.

'And what's that?' The Anomaly inquired with a similar grin.

'You.'

'And me,' Amelia added confidently.

'And me,' Deborah supplemented, albeit quieter. Matt glowered at her once again. 'I have information about Gemini, I can help.'

'You're a lawyer, the best you can do is argue,' the Anomaly ruthlessly insulted.

'Matty, she broke into the CCG,' Aurora disclosed to him pertinently. 'She accessed information not even I got to see. It could really help.'

'Fine,' the Anomaly accepted reluctantly, after a while. 'But that doesn't mean I have to like you.'

'I understand,' Deborah told him.

'Do you?' Matt challenged, staring at her for a few seconds. After a few seconds, he finally dragged himself away from her.

Gaige put a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to smile at her reassuringly.

'Right, what's the first order of business for me, as a newly-reintroduced Crimson Raider and Vault Hunter?'

Lilith didn't reply, and rather only gave him a cheeky grin. Matt wasn't hopeful for what fate befall him.

Ok, we're moving along.

Matt has a new ability: selective control. He can consciously or unconsciously choose who is slowed down when he activates his Chronokinesis, or more accurately, who isn't. However, it should be noted that he just learnt this, and he can only select a few people at a time to be unaffected by the latter ability.

And the biggest twist of them all: Matt spent four-hundred years in the Infinite, not merely four. He's also mastered the ability of stopping time. He doesn't even need to think to do it. He's mentally centuries older now, even though his body only aged at the same rate as it did on Midgard (our universe).

Also, Deborah wasn't telling the whole truth! She is in fact Deborah Rye, the former lawyer of Acropolis Unity Courthouse, former resident of Darios, and the former mother of Matt. This isn't really out of nowhere, either, since in Someone Else, it is mentioned that Matt's mother's name is Deborah – you might have figured that out on your own, since the dots do connect.

Furthermore, R.I.P. Darios. As mentioned, it was obliterated during the turmoil of the galactic unity organisation known fully as the Associated Constellations of the Great Cascade. R.I.P. Athenas. No wonder Maya's pissed at Matt for not being there, even though it's not really his fault. Bet you weren't expecting that now, were ya? Well, you got Gemini to thank for the latter planets' destruction. They're just debris floating in space now.

All will be revealed soon enough! Thanks for reading/following/reviewing/favouriting!