Songs: Lord Huron - The Yawning Grave; Crooked Still - Ain't No Grave

Of course we couldn't see any immediate effects of the antidote. It would take some time, if it was going to work at all. But it seemed like just believing in the antidote made Mordecai feel better already. I really wanted to get some sleep, but I didn't want to be away from Mordecai for now, so I just sat down in a corner and napped for a little while. It wasn't like I could really get much sleep anyway.

"Where's Lilith?" Salvador asked. He had started camping out here as well, since he seemed pretty bored with himself. He liked to have some company once in a while, or so it seemed. I shrugged.

"I have no idea. Plotting and Planning with Tannis, I assume." I replied. It was a little like Lilith and Patricia Tannis had become best friends while Mordecai and I were gone. The two of them were hanging out a whole lot all of a sudden.

"You wanna listen to some ECHO recordings I found?" Salvador asked with a big grin on his face.

"ECHO recordings? Where did you find them?"

"In the research center. They were just lying around. Haven't listened to them yet, wanted to save them for when I'm bored." he replied.

"Sure, let's hear 'em. Nothing else to do anyway." Mordecai chimed in. Ah, so he was awake. I was never sure if he was actually asleep or if he only pretended to be asleep, so he didn't have to talk to anyone.

"We're almost to Pandora. I'll miss the thrill of the fight... the tidal pool massacre on Junpai-7, pushing back them a-holes from Scala Mirte on Eden-6... but it's for the good of my men. Happy bastards can't stop clamoring about paradise. Green hills. Potable water. Not being clawed to death... Shoot, I'm starting to believe it myself. Pandora, here we come!" we heard Hector say on the recording. It was weird to hear that, because that... that wasn't Pandora. Not at all.

"Woah, sounds like our friend was in for a surprise when he made it here." Salvador commented.

"What kinda shit did Dahl tell them?" I wondered loudly. Mordecai shrugged.

"Why'd they tell them the truth? They wanted people to go there, they had to tell 'em something." he said.

"There's more, guys." Salvador chimed in.

"Well, play it then." I replied.

"If this is Paradise, then I'm a one-armed jabbermon scratching my ass at the moon. The moment we stepped foot on this shitheap planet Dahl formally transferred the 191 to a mining crew beneath Mount Scarab. Not paradise, but we'll make due. Boys were about ready to start a war with their own, but I told em that mining's better than dying. Wish I believed that." Hector's voice told us. Damn. This was horrible. I really, really, really hated Hector, but right now? Right now it was kind of difficult to hate him. Or rather, it was difficult to hate the Hector in the recordings.

"You got any more?" I asked Salvador, hoping there would be something that would mean I could hate him again.

"Yeah, I got one more." he said and started playing it.

"Tide's turning! Finally, some luck. One of my boys found a shiny alien trinket. Showed it to the Brass. They promised us all promotions and big plots of land! I went back and told the men. They couldn't contain themselves! Why, we cracked open some rations and had ourselves a good old time! We was like a bunch of jabbermon drunk on stalk wine hollerin' in the new day!"

Ah, shit. That didn't really help my case either. Thankfully, I didn't have much time to think about it, because Lilith was approaching the camp fast and she had the rest of the Vault Hunters in tow.

"Hey Lil, what's up?" I asked her, as I got up from my corner on the floor. I glanced over at Mordecai. He was really looking much better already. The antidote was really working. I didn't really think it wouldn't work, but I had some doubt left. It was quite a relief to see how much better Mordecai looked.

"Hey, Nova. We're taking back Sanctuary. You in?" she wanted to know with a smug smile on her face.

"Taking back Sanctuary? Sounds like you have a plan. Of course I'm in." I answered. She nodded at me with a smile.

"I knew you would." she said to me. Then she looked back at the whole group and showed them a small ECHOmap projection from an old ECHO recorder. It showed the research facility and Sanctuary being connected to it by the vines.

"You did it, killers. Mordecai's gonna live. Now, let's take back our home. Sanctuary's still tethered to the facility. So, the plan is... well, see you up top." Lilith said to all of us. It was a little anticlimactic, but I was glad we had a simple plan for once in our lives. That was a first with the Raiders.

"Wouldn't celebrate just yet, Raiders. The gas is ready. Paradise is coming. There's nothing you can do to stop it." Hector echoed us. Ah, there it was. There was the reminder I needed. This is why I really didn't like Hector.

"Okay, let's go. No time to lose." Axton said.

"Can we fast travel to the lab? I just really want to get this over with." I replied. I got a few weirded out looks from Brick, Lilith and Mordecai.

"Sanctuary really got you used to fast travelling, huh?" Mordecai asked. I shrugged. I mean, I still didn't like it, but it was practical.

"I suppose I've made my peace with it." I said.

"There is a fast travel station inside the Mt. Scarab Research Center, so we can go there." Maya said. I nodded.

"Cool, let's do it."

We got all our stuff ready and made our way towards the Fast Travel Station in the Backburner. I had chugged one of Mordecai's soda cans, so I was somewhat less tired now. I still felt exhausted, but I figured I could just go back to my old friends - health vials. They'd keep me going until the worst was over.

"What exactly is our plan for when we get up to Sanctuary?" Anouk asked me quietly while Axton was putting the Fast Travel code into the station. It was a good question, but by now I had gotten used to just winging things.

"No clue. There is no plan. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." I answered, just before we dematerialised. Materialising inside the research center felt pretty bad. Maybe it was the spores, maybe it was me being tired or maybe it was the stuffy air, but I felt way more dizzy and nauseous than usual. I leaned against the wall for a few seconds until I felt somewhat normal again.

"Okay, guys, I found some more ECHO messages from Cassius, you wanna hear them in your way to the lab?" Lilith echoed us, as we started to make our way towards the lab. It was eerily quiet, now that we had killed everyone.

"Sure, play them." Gaige answered.

"Alright." Lilith said. It was quiet for a little while, before we heard Cassius' voice once again over the ECHO.

"I assure you I never intended to hurt anyone. Hector told me he dreamt of a better Pandora. A paradise, he said. I shared that dream! But not like this. The cost is too great! You must stop Hector. I never thought I'd say this, but... Pandora is fine the way it is."

There was a somewhat longish pause after that and I was almost about to ask Lilith if that was the whole message when we heard him continue talking.

"Oh - and if you're still here, Vault Hunter, you tell Hector that Cassius said... eat my farts! Oh, no, no, tell him... books are rad! Wait, oh, I've got it, I've got it! I award him a medal for... biggest douche-rocket on Pandora. Point, Cassius!"

"Poor Cassius. He really just wanted to do good. Who could have known it would go so wrong?" Maya said.

"That was all, guys. Are you at the lab yet?" Lilith wanted to know. I checked my ECHOmap. We weren't too far.

"We're almost there, Lil. Any ideas how to continue from there?" I asked her.

"There should be a door somewhere in the lab. If you can find that, that should lead you into the engine room of Sanctuary. Hopefully." Lilith answered.

"Well, sorry, we're here right now, but there is no door, I'm afraid..." I replied to her. I looked around the lab, until I noticed some vines that looked strange.

"Are you sure?" Lilith wanted to know.

"Hold on a sec, there are some vines..." I answered and got my gun to shoot at them. Maybe there was something behind them... Bingo!

"We've got a door everyone!" I shouted. The rest of the group walked up to the door which rolled up automatically as we approached it.

"Looks like that's where we're going." Axton said and walked ahead through the door. The rest of us followed him, unsure what to expect.

The room was full of vines and there were lots of spores in the air. The light was dim and I had no real idea what the room once looked like, since there were vines growing everywhere. It was difficult to even see where we were going. With that many of us we had to walk through the narrow corridors single file. It felt strange to be back in the underbelly of Sanctuary, now that it had become so different. I shuddered imagining how long it would take us to get rid of all those vines, once we had taken Sanctuary back. I really hoped Lilith wouldn't make us do that.

"Did you find something?" Lilith asked.

"Yeah, we found the door, it was overgrown with vines. We're making our way towards Sanctuary now." I replied. Hopefully we'd get there in one piece.