Suddenly his mouth felt dry. What to say to someone who had nearly died because of him? "Oh, hey there... Fiona."

She regarded him coldly where he still knelt on the ground. "Let's make one thing clear, if I so much as think you're going to try hurting me or my sister you are dead and to hell with the vault. Got that?"

"Uh... yeah."

"Good. Now what the heck went wrong with you?"

This time he paused, collecting his thoughts rather than blurting out the answer. Sasha had already proven that approach didn't work. She was still glaring at him from across the room, gun pointed at his chest.

Nervously Rhys tugged at his tie. "Do you remember just after we first met? When you were trying to shove me and Vaughn out of the caravan?"

Fiona nodded. "How could I forget?"

"Right. And then I used that ID drive to track the case? Well, slight problem, that I might have not mentioned... there was a, uh, AI version of Handsome Jack in there, and he kind of got dowloaded... into my brain."

Sasha snorted, pulling a face at her sister. "Can you believe this crap? I mean come on, Fi, he's obviously lying."

Fiona was studying him carefully though. Reading people is what I do, she'd said once. He hoped that she was as good at it as she always insisted, that she could look past the pain, the anxiety, the desperation... and see that he really was telling the truth.

"I always wanted to tell you both," he added hesitantly, "it's just, it never seemed like the right time..."

Even to him it sounded a lame excuse. God, how had he screwed up this badly, what had he been thinking? Somehow it had always been easier to put it off one day after the next, pretending that it was a problem he could deal with later, that it would never really catch up to him. Jack had taken full advantage of that stupidity.

She leaned back against the wall, arms folded. "So what you're saying is that it wasn't you, it was Handsome Jack who tried to kill us. That after you went up to his office, somehow he got control of you."

"Yes," he said, relieved.

"And he's in your head."

"Yes... I mean no. I mean he was but I'm not sure anymore... it's not the only place he could be."

"Convenient," Sasha muttered.

"Look," Rhys said, "I know you don't like it but it's the truth. I can't prove it, but please, trust me on this... I would never... I wouldn't do that... hurt you I mean. It wasn't me..."

He stared at the ground, remembering Jack's laughter as his hands tighten around Fiona's throat, Sasha's screams...

"Alright," said Fiona.

He looked up in surprise. Sasha was equally shocked.

"Fi-" she began, but Fiona cut her off.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I believe him... or that I forgive you, Rhys, but right now we have other things to deal with. So do as we say and make yourself useful, then maybe we won't shoot you."

"I do like not being shot," he said with an awkward smile. They didn't flatter him with a laugh.

Fiona made her way over to the door. "You can start by getting up. As much as I enjoy your groveling you're no help on the floor."

Rhys wasn't even sure if he could get up. Although the throbbing of his head had dulled a bit it was still painful and the room blurred around the edges. However, since they were no longer likely to shoot him he supposed he could give it a try. Cautiously he pushed himself up, arms out for balance, and stood to his full height. Everything swayed. He'd never realized how tall he really was before, but now it felt as if he were perching atop a rickety ladder in high winds. He staggered a little and Sasha half moved to steady him before she caught herself.

He opened his mouth to say something to her – a thanks, an apology, he wasn't sure – whatever it was died in his throat. She still wouldn't even look at him without glaring, he'd only spur her anger. However much he wanted to try to fix things, to salvage what might have been, he knew it had to wait.

Fiona held the door open for him as he tottered through and out into what looked like a large storage room. The shelves reached right to the ceiling leaving a labyrinth in their wake, but as strange as it was there was something familiar about the place. Sure enough a quick glance at some of the boxes and their Hyperion stamped labels told him everything he needed to know.

"Wait, we're still on Helios?" he demanded, nearly falling over as he spun to face her.

"Well yeah," said Fiona, "not long after you were out the whole place went into lockdown, we couldn't have left if we wanted to. Nearly went deaf with all those alarms. What did you think? That we were on Pandora?"

Steadying himself against the nearest shelf he blinked. "I guess... no, I don't know. How long was I out?"

She shrugged. "A couple of hours? Not long enough for them to search the entire place apparently but now would be a good time to be leaving."

They made their way through the storage room, Sasha tailing behind. August was waiting by the entrance door with his gun in hand and Gortys beside him. The little robot waved at them as they approached.

"Hey guys," she said, then froze. "Oops. Sorry. We were suppose to be playing the quiet game."

"Hey Gortys," Fiona replied before turning her attention to August. "No trouble?"

"No, heard people walking past a few times but no one's stopped by."

"Alright." She looked back to Rhys again. "So, here's the deal. Finch and Kroger had to leave the caravan but they've got us another ship, trouble is the lockdown's still in place so we can't get to them since the stairs are blocked and the elevators won't shift without clearance. Oh, and to top it all off the hanger bay doors are shut tight. What are the chances you can... hack into whatever needs to be hacked and get us out?"

He closed his eyes, fighting the blinding pain in back of his head. "I... yeah, suppose I could, if I get somewhere with access."

"And where's that?"

"There's a panel by the elevators. If I hack that then I can get us moving, but I'll have to get to the power core to override the doors."

"Right, let's do this."

"Yeah!" added Gortys with enthusiasm.

"Wait, hang on," said Sasha, "are we really just going to go charging out there like this? I mean, we are kind of conspicuous."

"Do you have a better plan?" Fiona asked. "I figure this is better than sitting in a store room and waiting for someone to find us."

"Point taken."

Fiona gestured to Rhys. "You, you walk with me and try not to trip over your own feet. Sasha, August, you make sure that if anyone tries to stop us... that they don't stop us."

"What about me?" asked Gortys, gazing up at her with a look of expectation.

She paused. "You, uh... keep up the moral support, Gortys."

And just like that they set off.

It was slow going, partially because Rhys still had trouble walking in a straight line and partially because the only thing that could make them more conspicuous was rushing. Thankfully they didn't see any guards. They did pass a few Hyperion workers, but August narrowed his eyes at them and they quickly remembered they needed to be elsewhere.

Every step of the way Rhys was acutely aware of how completely exposed they were. Someone was looking for them – had to be if there was a lockdown – and all it would take was for them to glance up at the security footage at the right moment or for one Hyperion suck up to bother reporting the suspicious group making its way through the corridors. Then it would all go to hell.

His tension eased a little once they finally reached the elevator.

"Get a move on, Rhys," Fiona snapped as he dithered at the access panel.

"Yeah, thank you for the encouragement." He had enough of a headache as it was. Rhys opened his mechanical palm and activated the ECHO-

A sudden burst of white hot pain flared in his skull, grinding all coherent thought to a halt as he cried out, dropping to his knees.

Static flickered across his vision. It was agony in the truest sense, stabbing at him with a thousand heated daggers as he clutched at his head and gritted his teeth. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop... Through the ringing of his ears he thought he heard voices but he couldn't find words to reply, could only hold in screams. Why wouldn't it stop? Why wouldn't it-

He shut the ECHO system down. Gasping he blinked back tears, drawing the world into focus again. Fiona was clicking her fingers in front of his face.

"Maybe you should try slapping him," suggested Sasha, "that ought to snap him out of it."

Rhys flapped an arm weakly, waving them away. "I'm fine, I'm... sort of fine."

"Then what was all that about?"

"I think..." He examined his mechanical arm carefully, testing its motor control. "Something's wrong with my cybernetics... I tried to link up and... the ECHO system just malfunctioned. Exactly how hard did you hit me?"

August frowned. "What, so now this is my fault?"

"Forget that," Fiona interrupted, "can you still hack the elevator?"

He winced as he pushed himself back up, using the wall for balance. The access panel sat there accusingly.

"No," he admitted after a moment, "the Hyperion system is complicated. If I can't interface then it's no good."

"What about your cybernetics? Can you fix them then?"

"How? I don't have any tools and I don't even know what's wrong with them. It's... it's very delicate work."

"So what... you're saying we're trapped here?"

There was a look of disbelief on her face, a total refusal to accept the facts. He shrugged, unable to offer anything else. If this had been his opportunity to begin making up for his mistakes he was off to a poor start. "Yeah... sorry, I guess."

((Possibly a few errors in there since I'm pretty tired but I don't feel like sitting on it. Maybe I'll do some editing later.))