This is also on my Wattpad account, OkamiWolf87
An hour later found me and Kiki wandering through the upper levels that had survived the crash, looking for useful items and other goodies when we found the jackpot. We pushed open a door and just stood there.
From Uncle Rhys' descriptions, I knew this place and my jaw dropped. "No Way." I murmured in awe as we entered carefully. Besides the gigantic statues being toppled and some of the larger pieces being flung every which way, the office was still intact. Kiki looked at me and whined. She was just as eager to explore this place as I was.
"Go sniff around, but be careful. If you find anything interesting, let me know, 'kay?"
With a bark of agreement, the large Skag was bounding off and I headed to the desk. Being bolted to the floor, the desk hadn't moved and while it took me a few minutes, I located the large chair that had used to sit behind the desk. Moving it back into its proper place, I sat in the chair. Kiki is coming back, a hat in her jaws, which she offers to me.
"What's this?" I took it from her and looked it over. It was a cowgirl hat, brown in color with silver medallion decorations around it. It looked a little ragged from the crash, a little dusty from the years, but it looked good overwise. I praised her. "Good find, girl." I placed it on my head and turned to the computer as Kiki bounded off again in search of more treasures. A glance with my ECHO eye told me that the computer could get power, but I'd have to reconfigure some things first. It took some doing, but I got it and settling behind the computer again, put fingers to keys and got to work powering it up. Closing my eyes, I let my fingers guide me as I felt my way into the system. I was doing good, browsing through all the information the former Hyperion base had to offer when I found something I couldn't reach. Regular hacking wasn't going to cut it any longer. I would need to dive deep into the computer to reach that something.
Digging into the pouch at my hip, I withdrew my matrix link cable and hooked into the computer. The moment I did though, the computer seemed to come to life all its own, lighting the room with an intense light. Sound crackled and I heard a garbled voice, full of static. There's the sound of coughing and I hear a male voice, clear as day, comment, "Wow! I thought I was dead."
"I guess being in the computer system when Helios went down saved you." I comment, removing the input jack from both ends and putting it away. Kiki had come to sit at my side, on alert.
It took a few moments, but a glowing blue hologram of a figure began to appear until it took the form of a tall male. I blinked, recognizing him from some of the old posters and advertising boards. Big Bad Boss of Hyperion himself. Handsome Jack. And damn, was he handsome.
I smiled and placing my elbows on the desk, rested my chin on my hands and regarded the hologram. Oh, this day just keeps getting better and better. "Well, well, well. Look what the hacker dragged from the system."
But there was no way I'd be telling anybody this part of my adventure. They'd all flip out. I knew what Jack has done in the past from the others, but that didn't mean I'd have to be terrified of him. Just on my guard.
He turned and looked at me. After a minute, he blinked, taking in the robotic arm, ECHO eye and temple matrix. "You look like that Rhys kid, with the arm, the eye and the temple matrix implant. But you're a girl. Who are you?"
"Rhys is my uncle. My name is Kira." I replied. "This is Kiki."
He looked over the Skag as she did the same to him. "You have a Skag. As a pet."
"I raised her from a Pup."
"I was unaware of the kid having a family."
"His best friend Vaughn is my father."
He blinked and drew back a bit. "That dork is your dad?" He smiled. "How could a nerdy guy like that make something as pretty as you?" His grin turned wolfish. "Your mom must have been hot."
I shrug. "I wouldn't know. She died not long after I was born. My dad was lucky to have all his friends to help raise me." I replied, petting Kiki.
He's silent for a few minutes. "You're not scared of me."
I look up at him and sitting back in the chair, propped my booted feet up on the edge of the desk and pulled together that air I acquired when I was at Atlas. The genius prodigy who co-ran one of Pandora's leading weapons manufacturing companies with a firm hand and a keen eye. "I lead Atlas besides Rhys, running it with a firm hand and a keen eye. I've raised a Skag, one of Pandora's most dangerous four-legged creatures, since she was a Pup. I've fought against psychos and with bandits. I took down a Badass Bullymong with only a Maliwan Incendiary pistol at my side and Kiki at my back. There's very little I'm scared of. You? You're a cute cuddly bunny compared to what I've faced."
He reached out a hand and took control of my mechanical arm, raising it up and moving it as if to choke me with it. With a smug smile at him, I removed it and held it up, giving the arm a tiny flip to position the hand so it was giving him the finger. "Nice try, sweetheart. I have had Bullymongs, Threshers, and whatever else grab my arm and destroy it when I've used it to defend. I went through countless arms that way until Rhys had the idea to make it detachable on purpose. You trying to threaten me with it? Not going to work."
"Smart and feisty." He chuckled. "I like you. So tell me, cupcake, what's a pretty thing like you doing in the bowels of this old thing?"
"Adventure, curiosity, and maybe find some old Hyperion data that we could put to use." I replied. "I had tried to explore when I was five, but that backfired."
"What happened? Daddy stop you?" He taunted.
"I wished he had." I replied and then explained. "I'm determined to the point I'm stubborn. Uncle Rhys had been telling me all these stories about Hyperion's glory days, about how it had been his dream to sit behind this very desk and I guess it's kind of his fault that I went exploring. Kiki had been just a Pup then. I remember seeing something on the other side of this pile of rubble, something shiny, and like the ever-curious child, I wanted to see what it was. I found a hole and went to crawl through it and that's when it happened. I must have hit the support that was holding it up and the whole pile collapsed on me, crushing my arm and damaging my face to the point that I lost my eye. Like a child I was then, I was scared, screaming. Kiki went to get help. Uncle Rhys fitted me with a mechanical arm and ECHO eye. My dad wanted to make me promise never to go into the depths of Helios again while I was recovering and learning how to use my new arm and eye."
"Yet here you are." He commented.
"Because," I smiled. "Even at that age, I was smart. I still wanted to find out what that shiny thing was so I countered. I wouldn't go exploring Helios again on the condition that I was allowed to do so when I got older and was more able to take care of myself."
"Did you ever find out what the shiny thing was?" He sounded curious.
"I found this place first."
He chuckled and looked around. "Yeah, this is a nice office, isn't it?"
I turned the chair around and looked out the huge ceiling to floor windows. Windows which were just now empty holes, looking out at the cliffs use beyond. "Must have been a hell of a view, looking down on Pandora."
"Close your eyes." I hear him instruct softly and trusting him, do so. I feel a spark at my temple matrix port and jerk back opening my eyes. "It's just me, relax." He soothed and resting back against the chair, closed my eyes. I feel that spark again and then I find myself back in that same office, but it's cleaner, the air fresher, and it took me a minute, but I realized that I was seeing this very office before Helios crashed into Pandora. It was magnificent. I'm urged to turn around and I do, giving a gasp at the beautiful view before me. Pandora rested before me, floating in the vast expanse of space, the sun just starting to peak out from behind the planet.
'This is the view I saw every morning.' His voice glides across my subconscious.
"For a fucked-up planet on the surface, it's beautiful." I replied. The humming spark leaves my temple and I open my eyes to see Jack leaning against the edge of the desk next to me as we both looked out the windows.
"It's the only reason why I was up so early, just for that view." Kiki sat between us and he was petting her, running a hologram hand along her shoulder. I didn't see her objecting to his static touch, so I guess she liked it. Probably felt like a massage.
I had never been to Helios before it crashed, it was before my time. "You were sharing a memory."
"Yeah."
"Why show me?"
"You don't see me as the man I used to be. Mainly because you don't know. And I guess being stuck inside the Helios mainframe with nothing to do kind of humbled me a bit."
I shook my head. "You're wrong, Jack. I do know. I'm friends with Mordecai, Lillith, Maya, Zero, Athena, Brick, Salvadore, Axton and all the other Vault Hunters. Mordecai and Axton taught me how to shoot. I know what they know about you." I looked over at him.
"You know about the murder, the lies, the deceit, all the bad things I've done, and yet you don't hate me."
"I don't hate you and I also don't care about what you've done. You were a man, you were human, you made mistakes. It happens. And things happen for a reason. It's best not to look back and let the past determine your actions now. The past is in the past. You've been awakened again to start anew. You have a blank slate and the option to learn from your mistakes. What are you going to do?"
He looks at me for a minute. "You make a convincing argument, princess, I'll give you that."
"I've had my father and my Uncle Rhys wrapped around my finger since I was two because of it." I smile and he gives a light laugh.
Closing his eyes and bowing his head, he's silent and I watch him. By the intense look on his face, I know he's thinking, but what, I have no idea. I can only hope he makes the right choice.
Finally, he lifts his head and opens his eyes to look at me. "I want to change, to be a better man, but I don't know how." Moving away from the desk he begins to pace and I take a few moments to admire the way he seemed to slink across the floor, like a predator. He had been this handsome badass motherfucker for so long, it became ingrained in the very way he walked.
And fucking hell was it sexy. I already had a crush on this guy and he was a fucking hologram!
Yeah, no way was I telling my dad and Rhys, they'd kill me.
As he paced, I listened. He went on about how he was scared that he would be betrayed again and then outlining all the times he had trusted and been stabbed in the back in return. My heart went out to the poor guy. He had had it rough. He was an asshole and made the mistakes he did because he was trying to protect himself from being betrayed again.
Rising from the chair I go over to him. "Jack, look at me." He ignored me and continued to pace, clearly worried. I said the one thing that was sure to get his attention. "Hyperion sucks ass."
He spun on me. "Hey now." He was about to scold me and stopped, seeing my smile.
"Got to admit it got your attention." I grinned, smug.
He offered me a smile. "Yeah, it did."
"Listen to me, Jack." I hesitated for a moment. I wanted to touch him, but wasn't sure how that would work, with him being a hologram and all. After a moment, I threw caution to the wind and attempted to place a hand on his cheek. I felt the static tingle in my palm that indicated that I was touching him and tried to keep my hand in place as I spoke. "I may not know you very well, but I do know this. The way you were..." I was about to continue when we heard a crash. Due to the dead silence, it could have been anywhere. All three of us look to the door, where the sound seemed to have originated from. Or at least, that direction.
"Uh, cupcake, was there anyone else here with you?" Jack asks softly.