"I need you to watch and care for Angel while I'm gone," Jack said as he gathered supplies, including his gun. He had dark bags under his eyes as he hadn't been getting nearly enough sleep lately, instead opting for less sleep so he could pour himself into some sort of historical books and notes—even those at Hyperion were getting upset with him over his less than stellar work performance as of late.

"Why? Where are you going?" Rhys asked, coming to sit on top of the counter of their small kitchen.

"I need to head to Elpis for…" Jack sighed, pushing his hair back and glaring at his son, "Why are you questioning me? Just do as I say."

Rhys looked away from his father's heterochromatic eyes, one trait he shared with him, "I… alright…"

"Good boy." Jack replied, "I'll be back in a bit, there's plenty of microwavable food and ramen in the cupboard for you and Angel." He turned towards the front door, giving a little wave to Rhys, "See ya in a while, kiddo."

"See you, Dad," Rhys said back, watching as his dad left for Elpis. He climbed down from the countertop, pausing in the now completely empty room. He could watch television, or play games, or read a few books, or write some code, or… check on his sister, which was something he hadn't done in years. He looked down at his right arm solemnly, remembering how the hospital staff tried everything to save his flesh-and-bone arm but, ultimately, ended up having it amputated; furthermore, shrapnel from a missed shot had damaged his right eye to the point where he would've been blind if it wasn't for the replacement ECHO eye that his dad had bought for him. He recalled the years it took to get used to the Hyperion prosthetic arm and eye and practicing every single day with the technology they had built into them. He let out a long sigh, placing his hand on the joint where the prosthetic was attached to his shoulder, gently massaging it. It was difficult to look at his sister, as he began to associate her with their mother's passing. Still, Rhys knew that it was not her fault, that she didn't mean to, and as his father told him constantly, that it was the bandits' fault and that one day they'd pay.

They had moved to accommodate Angel's new… living arrangement. She now had her own room where she was restrained and hooked up to the Hyperion satellites. Rhys entered the room, giving his sister a small smile when she glanced towards him from her chair. Their father had told him that this was for her own good, for their own good, for the world's own good, but Rhys still always felt guilty when he saw her. At times, he snuck into her room to bring her candy and sodas and sometimes brought in handheld video games to play that she could watch. Their father, however, installed cameras once he became savvy of Rhys's tricks and he began to accompany Rhys when he entered Angel's chambers for his own safety, that, along with associating her with their mother's death, led to him seeing her less and less until he stopped altogether.

"Rhys!" She said, forcing his attention back to her.

"Hey, Angel!" He cheerfully responded, "I brought you some candy." He held out a bag of colorful fruit gummies.

"Oh, thank you! Hey, can you undo the restraints on my wrists so I can eat them?" She asked.

"Sure thing," Rhys muttered, quickly undoing them so Angel could eat. She hadn't had candy in so many years and she began to pour a few pieces into her mouth at a time, savoring the taste before chewing them up. Rhys watched her, glancing at the dome-like helmet attached to her head. He began to reach up to take it off when she recoiled away from his hand.

"N-no!" She muttered, "Dad will know…"

"He isn't home right now, he left for Elpis for reasons undisclosed, you know how he is."

"He still will know, he has an alarm on his person, just, don't Rhys." She said sternly, and he pulled his hand away once again. The two stayed in silence for a while, the only sounding coming from Angel's chewing and the bag crinkling. Rhys looked at his sister, who looked quite different than the last time he had seen her.

"My, you've gotten tall." She muttered between bites, breaking the silence.

"I'm finally taller than you, I think." He smirked, causing her to roll her eyes.

"The height is all in your legs, without them you'd be shorter than me still!"

"Hey now, don't go imagining cutting my legs off just to be taller than me!" This caused Angel to burst out laughing. Rhys laughed as well, soften than her, that nostalgic feeling of when they were younger and best friends coming back to him. "You've changed too," he motioned to the right side of his head, "you shaved some of your hair."

Angel's laughter died down, a few tears were left in her eyes that she wiped away, "Yeah, I had to convince dad to do it, but uh, you know… I have him wrapped around my finger…" Her voice got softer as she finished her sentence.

Rhys glanced up at the machine she was attached to, thinking to himself that if that were true, she wouldn't be stuck in here—he knew his sister didn't want this but she was giving up so much to keep the rest of her family safe.

"It isn't all bad." She spoke, almost as if she had read his thoughts.

"Uh…" Rhys muttered, startled, "What's… good about it?"

She pointed towards the screens surrounding her, "This."

He looked around, looking at the monitors all showing different areas of Pandora. "Watching those dusty bandit-filled lands?"

"Um…" She bit her lip, glancing around before motioning for Rhys to get closer.

He placed a hand on his hip, one eyebrow raised, "We're alone Angel…"

She glared at him and motioned again for him to get closer. He sighed, leaning down to her. She huffed, grabbing his shirt collar, and pulled him even closer so that she could whisper in his ear.

"H-hey!" He muttered by her sudden action.

"I want to show you something. It's a secret, so you can't tell anyone."

Rhys groaned, "What Angel? What did you do? You know dad will find out—"

"No, no he hasn't, or won't, find out, unless you tell him which means don't tell him, Rhys!" She let go of him, letting him stand back up.

"Fine, show me."

"Nope, not until you promise."

He placed a hand on his forehead, sighing, "I promise—"

"The promise we did when we were kids!" She held out her pinky for him.

"Wha—?" he muttered before groaning once again, "Come on, Angel, we aren't little kids anymore! I'm eighteen, I'm an adult, and you're two years off from being one!"

She turned her head away from him, "Guess you're not going to see my secret then!"

Rhys crossed his arms, tapping his foot, "You're really going to make me do this?"

She smiled, "Yep."

After a minute of thinking, he dropped his arms with a groan before crossing his pinky finger with hers. "I pinky promise." He said, defeated.

"Yay!" Angel cheered, happy her brother conceded. "Ok, ok," She said while leaning over in her chair, taking something from underneath it. "Ta-da!" She showed Rhys a large piece of paper which she had drawn on. In the center was herself with angelic wings and behind her were four people and a bird. Above them were the words 'New friends'.

"Who are they?" Rhys muttered, looking at the paper curiously.

"My friends!"

"Your friends?" Rhys tilted his head, glancing from the paper to look at Angel, "How are they your friends? Have you been stalking them on these screens?"

"No! Well, yes." She sighed, placing the paper in her lap, "But it's more than that, they know… I'm here, or there, or with them, watching them."

"They… know?"

"Yes! I-I can speak to them—in their heads, telepathically."

Rhys's brows furrowed in worry, "And… who are they? What have you been telling them?"

Angel shrugged, "I helped them throughout their journey, you know since I can see everything on Pandora. They thought I was an A.I., and they needed help finding a vault."

"A v-vault?"

"Mhm, they're vault hunters!"

"Angel you can't… you have to stop communicating with them, or anyone else like them in the future!"

Angel's eyes widened, "What? Why?"

"Vault hunters are bad news, Angel!" Rhys snapped as he turned towards the screens, his ECHO eye scanning the screens to get a better understanding of their tech before he began hacking into them with his prosthetic arm, "I'm going to make sure you can't follow people using these things."

"No! Don't!" She shouted back, trying to jump up to stop him, her drawing gliding to the floor as her restraints held her back.

"It's for your own good—vault hunters are literally the same as bandits!"

Angel had tears in her eyes, "Rhys, stop it! I…" She narrowed her eyes, staring at Rhys's prosthetic as her siren tattoos glowed. "Executing phaseshift…" She muttered, hacking into his Hyperion tech. Suddenly, his arm began to malfunction, zapping him in the process before going completely limp.

Rhys flinched and grabbed his arm as the shock caused his joint to ache. "Angel don't use your powers on me! Stop it!"

"You stop!"

"No, you!"

"You!"

Rhys sighed, turning back to his pouting sister, "I'm telling dad!"

Angel shrieked, "No! You promised y-you pinky promised!"

"And? That doesn't mean anything real! I'm going to tell him right when he gets home. You can't be watching vault hunters; they'll poison you with their bandit-ways." Rhys said matter-of-factly.

Angel bit her bottom lip hard before shouting, "Get out! Get out of my room right this instant you-you asshole!" She pointed towards the door.

"Fine, I'll leave! And you know Dad doesn't want you using that kind of language!" Rhys muttered, throwing his left arm up in the air, his right still hanging down limply.

"Leave and never come back!"

"I have to come back to bring you food and water, moron!"

"I—you—ugh, whatever, but don't talk to me ever again!" She shouted back, before throwing the bag of candy at him, hitting him in the back, the candy spilling all over the floor.

"Gah!" Rhys groaned, brushing his clothes off, making sure none of the gummy candies got stuck to him, "You're so immature!"

"And you're… you're just like dad!"

"Hah, that's a compliment!" Rhys muttered as Angel gave him the middle finger, something she had learned from watching the vault hunters on her screens.

He punched the button, the door sliding shut with an aggravating lack of sound. Rhys sighed, putting a hand on his right shoulder, "Damn… she really short-circuited my arm, now I'm going to have to spend the rest of the day fixing it by myself." He glanced back behind him, towards her room, "It's for your own good Angel that dad knows…" He felt anger wash over him again from how their conversation, their first meeting in a long time, had played out, and he kicked over the kitchen trashcan before heading to his room to begin work on fixing his prosthetic.

Rhys abided to what Angel requested—or, more like, shouted—to him. He made sure she had the essentials but beyond that, the two didn't interact. Every time Rhys stepped into her room, all the screens were off, like that would make him forget what she did. He still planned on telling father, when he got home, and that ended up being sooner than Rhys thought. One night, Rhys was in their living room, watching the television, when the door clicked open. The lights switched on, and Rhys turned his head, smiling.

"Dad!" Rhys said, enthusiastically, but he paused in fear when he saw his father. Something was… different, off about him. Rhys stood up as his dad tossed some items in his hands on their kitchen countertop. "D-dad?" Rhys stammered, "What's the uh… mask for?" Rhys motioned at his own face as he was at a loss for words. Jack was wearing a tight-fitting mask that looked exactly like his own face, there were latches near his temple and chin that held the mask in place, and he had eyeholes in the mask so he could see. "Why do you have a mask of your own face on your face?"

Jack gave his son a large smirk, as the mask was able to show his facial reactions, "Let's shut up about my mask, alright pumpkin?"

"I…" Rhys muttered as Jack placed his hands on his son's shoulders.

"Look at you, all grown up! Hell, I forgot how old you were getting! Well, I got a proposition for you, kiddo!" He brought his son under his arm, "Firstly, you're looking at the new C.E.O. of Hyperion!"

"Wha—n…no way!" Rhys sputtered, shocked that their father was acting so different, so animated, and shocked by the news he brought. "What happened to the old C.E.O.?"

Jack laughed, ruffling Rhys's hair, "Come on, keep up kid, I said to shut up about meaningless things."

"S-sorry…"

"Ah, don't worry! See, as C.E.O., I can hire—and fire—anyone of my choosing, and son, it's time, you're old enough… I want you to come work with me for Hyperion!"

Rhys nearly choked on his own excitement, coughing as he tried to breathe.

"Uh… you alright there?" Jack muttered, "I know, it's a lot to take in, although it really shouldn't be since I'm so amazing and whatnot, makes sense that I'd become head of Hyperion…" Jack pondered whether it should or shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that he was now C.E.O., but he soon remembered his son and turned his attention back to him, "What you say, kiddo?"

Rhys cleared his throat, "I, wow, that's… a lot to take in…" He rubbed his eyes, making sure this wasn't in a dream.

"Well, don't leave me without an answer! Don't you want to work with Hyperion and your dear father?"

"Yes! Yes, of course!" Rhys shouted back excitedly, and as soon as Jack let him go, he began to jump in place from the excitement.

Jack grinned a wide grin while he watched the happiness that Rhys was experiencing, "Come on now, let's pack your bags and get going, we have a new place to live!"

Rhys stopped his celebration for a second to ask, "What about Angel?"

Jack shook his head 'no' before turning Rhys around, pushing him towards his bedroom, "Oh, I have plans for her! I'll be moving her to a new place, well-protected. It'll be different than here, but she'll still have everything she needs. Trust me on that. I'll catch up with you later on the space station."

He stopped at the door of his room, a sudden feeling of guilt washing over him. He gripped the doorknob tightly, trying to get a peek of his father from behind him—why did something feel off? Everything had happened so quickly, and his father's mask, there were so many questions unanswered and Rhys had a feeling deep in his gut that something was wrong.

"Go on Rhys, unless… you don't want the job?" Jack's words brought Rhys out of his thoughts. The older man glanced at his son, his smiling vanishing into a frown as he waited for Rhys's next move.

Rhys closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in, "No, I want it with every fiber of my being." He said, clearly and loudly, "I uh, my stomach is just a bit… queasy." He gripped his stomach, trying to push the feeling in his gut away—it probably was from something he ate, anyhow.

Jack's grin returned, "That's from eating all that junk food for so long. When we're on Hyperion I'll treat 'ya to some good, real food!"

He smiled, glancing behind him at his father, "That sounds good, dad!"

"Tut, tut, tut," Jack clicked his tongue, "Let's drop the whole 'dad' thing, alright? I'm your boss now—call me Handsome Jack from here on out."

"Oh, uh, alright Handsome Jack…" The words were strange to say as Rhys never had called his dad Jack before, let alone calling him 'Handsome', well, it was odd for him, to say the least.

"Thanks, kiddo." With that, Rhys went to gather his belongings, many questions rushing through his head as he did so.