Songs: Breaking Benjamin - Ashes of Eden; The Church - Under The Milky Way
"You heard her, everyone, let's get that Eridium!" I shouted over all the noise. There was a door leading out back towards Sanctuary that was free now. We all quickly made our way out of this place, because we didn't have much of an idea of how long Lilith could contain him.
"When I'm done, Pandora will never be the same!" we heard Hector shouting over the ECHOnet.
"Lil, you sure about raiding Crazy Earl's Eridium stash?" I asked her as we approached the hostel. The door was left open, Earl probably hadn't had any time to lock up before he got teleported out of the city.
"Yeah, that's exactly the place I meant. I'll need a ton of Eridium." she answered. I shrugged and opened the door. There was a massive amount of the purple glowing rock behind this door and it was stashed all in one spot.
"My spores will rain down over this land. Deserts will become forests, and finally... this world WILL be the paradise I was promised! This is my planet now. I'll take this ship higher and my paradise gas will spread all over the land. You're not welcome in my new world!" Hector kept babbling while we picked up all the Eridium for Lilith.
"Lil, how much exactly do you need?" I asked.
"I need all the Eridium you can carry. Hurry!" she shouted.
"My, oh my, what a view. Let's go a little higher." Hector started teasing us again. Shit. We'd all die up here.
"We've got as much as we can carry, Lil." I said to her.
"Bring the Eridium to me!" she shouted, sounding desperate at this stage. She probably couldn't contain the infection much longer. We quickly made our way back to where she was. She was still upholding the purple sphere around Hector.
"You've lost! This ship is mine. The Key is mine. Pandora is mine!" Hector shouted triumphantly.
"Here you go, Lilith." I said, as we started piling up Eridium next to her. She nodded solemnly.
"Sorry about this, killers. It's the only way. Trust me." Lilith said. Oh no. What was she planning?
"Lil, what are you gonna do? Don't do anything stupid, Lil!" I replied, but stepped back. If she had something stuck in her head it wouldn't be easy to get it out of her head. Especially in a situation like this.
Lilith didn't even get a chance to answer me, before we were all blinded by a bright purple light. What the hell was this all about? Why was she teleporting us off Sanctuary? What the actual hell? When we could see something again, we were on the ground, on Pandora, looking up at Sanctuary in the sky. There was a purple glow over the city, like some sort of dome.
"Nova? What are you...? Where is Lilith?" I heard Mordecai asking. I turned around and there he was, completely healed and back to normal again.
"I don't know, I have no idea what's happening, I..." I replied, when we were interrupted by Hector's voice on the ECHO.
"You finally stood your ground, Firehawk. But it's too late."
"I'm not leaving here without that map!" Lilith replied to that. She sounded extremely exhausted.
"You Vault Hunters are so blind. I have seen the true purpose of the Map. It leads to power you can't possibly imagine." Hector said. All the while, the only thing we could do was stare at Sanctuary.
"What the hell?" Lilith gasped.
"Sanctuary is part of me now. The Vault Map is part of me. You can't destroy me without losing them both. Your dream DIES with me!" Hector said, his voice getting back into that mocking tone.
"What - what do you think you're doin'?!" Hector suddenly shouted. What the hell was going on up there?"
"Making the call." Lilith answered. The light around Sanctuary intensified, it got brighter and brighter.
"No!" was the last thing we heard from Hector, before the dome containing Hector started growing until all of Sanctuary was surrounded by a big ball of purple light. And then, all of a sudden, that big ball of light imploded into itself and a loud bang followed. And then there was nothing left of Sanctuary. There were some rocks raining down from the sky, but Sanctuary was gone. Just like that.
We all just kept staring up to where Sanctuary was, not entirely sure what had just happened and why it had happened and... where the hell was Lilith? I couldn't believe that Sanctuary wasn't there anymore. I mean, I had seen explode it and all just now, but... surely, Lilith would have just phased the city somewhere else, wouldn't she? And if she actually... destroyed Sanctuary, then she would have phased out of there, right? There was no way she was just... dead... right?
Mordecai was the first one who regained his ability to say anything and he said what we all were thinking at that moment.
"Lilith!"
There was another bright purple light just right in front of us. I took a step back, not sure what to expect from that. But when the light wasn't as bright anymore we could see Lilith. She was kneeling on the ground, breathing heavily.
"It's her!" I exclaimed, still shocked from... everything.
"She's alive!" Ellie shouted and we ran over to her.
"Lil, are you okay?!" Mordecai asked her.
"Yeah." was all she said, before she moaned in pain again. She looked up into the sky, to the spot where Sanctuary once was.
"It's gone." she whispered, as if she couldn't really believe it herself. Oh God, I was so glad that Lilith was alive. I genuinely thought she was gone for good this time.
"Lilith! That... was... AWESOME! Yeah!" Brick shouted and started doing a little dance, casually bumping into Mordecai and me. I gestured at him to stop, because... jeez, this was really not the time.
"I destroyed Sanctuary." Lilith mumbled, still sounding confused.
"Is the freaky tree man dead?" Ellie asked, a hand on her shoulder. Brick walked up to the two of them.
"Hey, Roland would've done the same thing." he said to her.
"Worth it!" even Claptrap chimed in.
"It's okay, Lil. It's gonna be fine." I told her, even though I wasn't sure I believed it. I mean, at least we wouldn't all become brainless plant-people hybrids, so that was a bonus point in this situation.
"Holy crap, I'm so jealous! I've wanted to blow up that ship forever! I'm cool, I'm cool." Tina squealed while Ellie helped Lilith back up on her feet.
"I calculated that there was a 86.4% percent chance Sanctuary would have exploded as soon as it reached escape velocity." Tannis said with a pensive expression on her face. We all turned to her, everyone sporting more or less of a what the fuck expression.
"Perhaps I should have shared that with you sooner?" she added, giving us all an apologetic smile. I shook my head. This woman. Seriously. This woman needed to get her priorities straight.
"Sanctuary. The map. Everything's gone." Lilith said again while gesturing wildly into the sky. She seemed to be getting more upset and angry now. It would probably take a long while to actually realize what this all meant for us now.
"Hey, you made the call. We're all still here. Nothing else matters." Mordecai reassured her. And he was right. This could have ended with the whole planet going extinct within a second. But it didn't. Everything we lost was material. We could rebuild that.
"I guess you're right." Lilith replied with a sigh and looked back up at Sanctuary.
"So, uh... what now?" Mordecai asked with a shrug.
"Up there, Hector showed me the Map. I saw the Vaults, connected somehow, part of something bigger." Lilith replied and started her nervous pacing again.
"I don't know what it means. Look, we may have lost the map, but we never needed it before. We have to find the Vaults before they fall into the wrong hands. We have got to keep searching. And that means leaving Pandora." Lilith said next and looked at me briefly. She just knew me too well. But she was right. We needed to go and get to those Vaults, before someone else did. Other people would hear about the map or already knew about it. We needed to do something.
"But I can't go with you. Not yet. Someone has to rebuild the Raiders. We need new blood, new badasses, if we're going to be ready for the next fight. Find the Vaults. No matter how far it takes you, no matter what happens, you will always be Crimson Raiders!" Lilith continued and raised her fist as she ended her speech. And even though my heart was sinking a little, thinking about leaving Pandora behind (and especially leaving Lilith behind), I knew she was right, and so I raised up my fist as well, just like the others. We might have lost Sanctuary, but we had really won Pandora. This was definitely a time to celebrate. For now, at least.
"Come on, let's head back to camp. Time to take care of all your injuries." Tannis said to all of us. I nodded and we went ahead, back towards the Backburner. Lilith stayed back where she was and I figured she needed some time to herself.
"Well, ol' Sanctuary went out in a way that would've made Scooter happy... killin' a big ass tree." I heard Ellie say loudly. I was glad she was there with Lilith, in case Lil needed any help. Ellie was reasonable, even if we ended up leaving without Lilith, Ellie would take good care of her.
"Are you okay?" Mordecai asked me. I nodded and quickly pulled a thorn out of my leg. It was a pretty bad injury, but nothing that would do lasting damage. It wasn't even bleeding that much anymore. I needed to clean that wound and wrap it up and then I'd be fine. I was more worried about Anouk's shoulder.
"That's the only thing that got me." I said and held up the thorn. It was still full of blood and I just now realized I'd have to wear the same bloody clothes until we'd get something new. Which could be weeks on Pandora.
"That looks painful. How is everyone else holding up?" Mordecai wanted to know. I looked over to the other guys.
"I think they're alright. Most of them are probably still in shock, because of Sanctuary being... gone." I said.
"Yeah, true. Is Anouk alright?"
"She got hit in the shoulder. She says she's okay, but it looks like a pretty bad injury. She'll survive it, but I don't know how long it'll all take to heal."
"Ah, shit. Well, Zed and Tannis can have a look at it. What about the rest?"
"They all seem fine. Zero got a few bad hits and Gaige seems to have some trouble with her arm, but apart from that everyone seems to be doing alright. I'm just worried about Lilith." I replied.
"Yeah. We'll have to talk the whole thing over again. We can't really make any hasty decisions right now." Mordecai said and stopped walking to hug me.
"It'll all be okay, right?" I asked. I think it had just really hit me that Sanctuary was gone for good now.
"It'll all be fine. Don't worry. It'll be okay."