Songs: The Last Internationale - The Autobiography of Paz; The Black Keys - Your Touch
"I can't do this!" I screamed. I was in tears and my hands were shaking as I held the gun out in front of me. I knew I had to do it, there was no other way or we'd all be dead, but I just couldn't do it.
"You have to, Nova! It's too late for him, we can't help him anymore. You have to kill him." Lilith said to me. I just cried more and shook my head. This couldn't be real. I couldn't do it, there was no way.
I looked up at Mordecai - or rather whatever he had become. It was too late for him. Oh God... this was too much. I had to do it. I just had to. I slowly aimed, as I started sobbing even more, and I moved my finger towards the trigger. This was absolute madness! How could this have happened?
"I'm... I'm so sorry... oh God, I'm sorry, Mordecai." I said with a shaky and teary voice, as I pulled the trigger. The sound of the shot was ringing in my ears as I watched Mordecai collapse on the floor.
I woke up screaming in a dark room. I was sweating and wrapped up in a sleeping bag and a blanket. How the hell did I get here? And what the fuck was that dream about? I heard some noise close to me and then I got blinded by the light flooding in through the door. I looked away until my eyes got used to the sudden light.
"Nova! Are you okay?" I heard Lilith ask me.
"I... Is Mordecai alright?" I asked, not sure how real that dream was. Lilith bit her lip and looked somewhere I couldn't see. I quickly got up from my makeshift bed and walked up to her.
"Please just tell me, if he's alive or not." I begged her.
"Yeah, he is alive, but I wouldn't say he's doing too well. What the hell happened?" she wanted to know. I sighed with relief.
"I had... a really, really bad dream and just wasn't sure how much of that was real and how much wasn't when I woke up. And I had no idea how I got into that room and where I was and what happened." I told her and stepped outside into the light. The sun was shining brightly.
"Ah right. You were almost collapsing from exhaustion when you guys got back. I brought you in here, so you could lie down and sleep for a while. What was your dream about?" she asked.
"I dreamt that everything was too late and I... I had to kill Mordecai, before he killed the rest of us." I answered and shuddered as I remembered just how real everything had felt. God, I really hoped it wouldn't come to that.
"Jesus, Nova, that's horrible. I wish I could promise you we won't let it come to that, but I can't. We'll do our best to save him, though. Come on, we are having a team meeting. I was just going to wake you up for that." Lilith said.
"Alright... yeah... we're going into the mine to get the antidote, right?" I asked. She nodded and walked up the stairs. I could hear Tina crying already. Dear God, this was bad. Tina could be melodramatic, but those were absolutely real tears. And I could see why she was crying when we made it upstairs.
Mordecai really wasn't doing too well. It was like he was overgrown with vines. He looked like he could barely move and he was still coughing really badly. But he was still alive and not fully plant monster yet.
"Oh my God... I thought you'd tell me when you got worse..." I said to him, as I grabbed his hand and got down on my knees, so I was on the same level as him. He did his best to smile at me and coughed heavily right after.
"I'm just fine..." he mumbled.
"I'll give you some time while I'm rounding up the rest of the group. It looks like those vines are anchoring Sanctuary to Mount Scarab. If Cassius can make good on the antidote, that's our way up." she said to us and went back down the stairs. Tina was still there bawling her eyes out.
"I hear... you did great... on that mission." Mordecai told me, his sentence interrupted by coughing.
"Mordy... God, please, please hang on. I can't lose you, I just... I just can't do it, okay?" I said with tears in my eyes, as that terrible nightmare came back into my mind. I started feeling really bad for going on this mission, instead of being there for Mordecai. All the panic I had been suppressing just came back with full force.
"I'll be... just fine. We can do this..." he replied. I heard the other Vault Hunters come up the stairs behind me together with Lilith. I turned around, still holding onto Mordecai's hand, carefully letting my fingers wander over all the little scars and calluses on it. This might well be the last time I could do this.
"Hey guys... I heard that from here! Called it!" Mordecai said to the Vault Hunters and did his best to smile.
"You were right. Moonshot worked, Mordecai. And you're looking... real bad." Lilith replied. I could hear in her voice that she was really concerned. Not just worried, but seriously concerned. Mordecai started coughing again.
"Ah, your friend's infected. Excellent! That is to say, his condition is quite advanced, but not incurable. I need you to bring me a blood sample, or, as we say in the scientific community, that good red stuff." I heard Cassius' voice coming through the ECHO. I took a deep breath and hoped he was right about Mordecai still being able to be cured. It seemed like we were really running out of time here.
"Uhn uh, you ain't getting none of Mordy's blood! Back off! I am a black-belt master of kar-ate! Hyyyah!" Tina suddenly screamed at Salvador who had stepped up to get the blood sample.
"Tina, easy. And it's definitely pronounced karate." Mordecai said to her. She squinted at him and then huffed.
"You lucky this time, punk. Was about to kar-ate yo' ass. In half!" she replied. Whatever that was supposed to mean.
"Tina, we need this blood sample to help Mordy. Alright? Here, I'll do it." I said and held out my hand to Salvador. He gave me the empty vial, so I could get the blood sample. I looked at Mordecai's arm and tried to focus on what I was doing. I needed to find a vein, first of all... Thanks to Mordecai being so thin, that wasn't too difficult. I was about to jam the needle into his vein, when Gaige stopped me.
"Girl, no. Nuh uh. Here, let me help you." she said and came up to me with a piece of cloth in her hands. She quickly tied it around Mordecai's upper arm and made sure it was really, really tight. Of course. I had seen this being done, so many times, but now I had just forgotten about it.
"Alright, since we don't really have any sanitizer to disinfect the area, we just gotta hope for the best. Go ahead and get that blood, girl." Gaige told me. I nodded and slowly stabbed Mordecai's arm with the needle, hoping I'd hit the vein and wouldn't have to do it all over again.
Thankfully the vial quickly filled with blood, so I probably did it right. Once the vial was full I pulled the needle out of the vein. I was at a loss as to what to do next and looked over at Gaige. She just smiled at me, produced a band aid from one of her belt pouches and put it on the punctured skin. Then she removed the piece of cloth and took the blood sample from me.
"There. All done." she said.
"Thanks, Gaige. This is more nerve-wracking than I thought." I answered. She smiled and nodded.
"I know. All good. Let's get this done." she replied and packed the vial away safely. Mordecai moaned quietly.
"Aw, man. I don't feel so great in my stamen..." he mumbled.
"You have the sample? Excellent. Make your way to me, and we will complete the antidote. Together." Cassius echoed back.
"Alright, guys, let's swarm out. I'm ready to do this, we literally have no time." I said and started walking down the stairs and towards the Catch-A-Ride. We couldn't waste any more time than we already had wasted.
The rest of the group quickly caught up and we made our way towards the old Dahl mine. We didn't talk much (or at least people didn't talk much to me), so it seemed like the drive took half an eternity, but we finally made it through the desert and were approaching the Dahl mine up ahead.
"So I talked to a few bandits about that cursed haunted mine. Rumor is, some Dahl miner dudes got trapped in there back in the day. But, Stanton Dahl decided to seal the mine instead of rescuing them. No bandit has set foot near there since. Bring me back something nice!" Vaughn echoed us, just as we were about to walk into the mine. I sighed. Of course he'd ask for a souvenir.
"Sure thing, Vaughn. If we survive, that is." I told him and walked into the mine. Didn't look too haunted to me.
"Stepping foot in that mine is my red line, Raider. Warning you now. Don't cross it." Hector echoed us right after. I looked down at myself. I just had stepped foot in that mine. I shrugged.
"Well, oops. Too late." I said quietly. The rest of the Vault Hunters started laughing and followed me into the mine. I guess we either made it all the way to Cassius and got that antidote or we'd die trying. There was no other way now.
"Oh, that was a mistake. I'm gonna bury you, Raider." Hector echoed us after we made our way through the mine, almost casually shooting infected bandits here and there. After everything, this almost felt like a walk in the park to all of us.
"Whatever, dude. Do I look like I care?" I replied to him. I was really not in the mood for his threats at this point. It was like having this nightmare and seeing Mordecai in his current state had finally pushed me over the edge and I no longer cared about being cautious and not dying.
"The entrance to my laboratory is just through the mine. Simply follow the turn back now signs - oh, but don't worry, the miners who were trapped inside died horribly decades ago." Cassius told us.
"On our way." Axton confirmed.
"Boom! Cursed haunted! Called it!" Vaughn shouted over the ECHO connection. I rolled my eyes. Nothing in here was haunted. We went up some stairs and then there was nowhere to continue our way.
"Cassius, we're stuck." Maya echoed the scientist.
"Hold on, let me see where you are... Ah! No problem. One moment, I will activate the elevator to the lab." he answered quickly.
"Scarab 191 lost a lot of good men after Dahl left us down there to die. That's when I realized, if Pandora was going to become our paradise, we were gonna have to make it ourselves. You won't take that from me." Hector told us while we waited for the door to the elevator to open completely.
"Oh damn... so the stories are true..." Axton mumbled, probably referring to stories his colleagues in the Dahl military used to tell. The doors to the elevator were now open and we quickly stepped inside and made our way up towards the research center. It was time to end this.
