Rewriting history

The citizens in sanctuary have been keeping themselves so busy that they have not noticed the reappearance of the weapon over head. Mordecai and Maya both stand with Lilith on the balcony staring upward in horror. Not wanting to attract attention to this new happening she snarls and marches inside, she looks over to Mordecai then Maya.

"We need to know why this is happening, we need to know whose been stationed in there, we need to know everything and fast-"

Mordecai cuts her off before she can start spitting out orders, he knows she's the leader but he still doesn't like being told what to do.

"I can head to Opportunity and see if the databank there has anything on it."

Lilith nods at Mordecai as he turns to exit the room, he smiles at Maya who trots along beside him.

"You coming with me mami?"

She looks at him and slows to a stop confused by the question.

"I would like to, if it is no trouble."

He gives her that smirk, that smirk that makes her cheeks feel warm every time she sees it. Funny the way things have been going lately, eight days ago he was really just a figure that walked in and out of the background of her field of vision. Seven days he was someone she was struggling to get to know and now she just wants to know everything about him.

Mordecai can't help the smirk, it just sort of happens when she makes that face. He watches her face turn rosy and wonders if she knows the way she looks. Still with a smile he leans down and lays a chaste kiss on her warm cheek.

"Come on then mami."

Only just an hour later Mordecai kicks aside the carcass of a long deactivated loader to get to the motherboard, Maya looks out the open door at the dead engineers. The look of shock and confusion still on their faces. Apparently no one has come here in years, the thought floats through Maya's mind and then is lost while she watches Mordecai lift panels off the 'dead' computer. He snips broken ends off wires and ties them to others, pulls out green boards with little colorful ribbons all over them and tightens little screws. He looks carefully at the work before placing it back down into the slot he pulled it from, afterward he places the closure back down and reaches across the keyboard to tap the little green power button.

Maya's eye go wide when she watches the screen flicker to life and begin loading up the operating system. When everything had reached one hundred percent the screen then disappears behind the word 'password'. The little cursor bar blinks in the small word box, just waiting for an answer. Mordecai's face is stony when he sees it, his earlier good humor having faded. Maya just watches him type in;

'I love you'

When the screen reappears he plucks a small data drive from his pocket and plants it into the available port. He taps away at the keyboard and flicks at the cursor ball beneath the keyboard, they watch as a progress bar transfers every bit of information onto the little drive. When everything is done he plucks out the drive and stares at the screen, for some reason he doesn't like the information remaining available. So he continues tapping at the keyboard, until the words 'reset hard drive?' appear on the screen. He just taps the 'y' key and watches the progress bar as it deletes everything including the operating system and shuts down. Being the paranoid thing that he is, he pulls out the long green boards and snaps them over his knee, and then breaks the screen.

Maya wonders to herself if he's mad or just being thorough... perhaps both. They stroll away together, he drops the data drive into her pocket and pauses to look at one of the engineers missing an arm.

"Your aim is getting better."

In the satellite overhead, little red lights are flickering to life along with the sound of damaged circuits fizzing in the smashed in cases of mostly broken computers. The red lights flick to green and suddenly engines are grinding as they struggle to return to life, everything hisses in great cloud of steam, smoke and heat. Somewhere in the bowls of the craft a large glass tube filled with hundreds of small metallic hands is being flooded with oxygen and a strange purplish fluid. On a small screen in front of the tube outdated information piles up and pumps into the tubes circuits, the small hands spring to life. They pull a strange off white putty from underneath the dome atop the tube and begin quickly shaping bits and pieces of a human skeleton.

Firstly are the many small discs of a spine pinched and pressed together like the most bizarre kind of puzzle, then the skull, shoulders and so many other little tiny pieces. When the skeleton is completed, the arms split apart into many much narrower versions of the originals all with little blue veins running from the base of the mechanism to the little needles at the tips. From the tips of these needles a pink fibers are placed inside the ribcage and pulled and stretched by the other tiny arms, this process repeats until several organs can be placed. At the same moment another set of arms is stretching fibers across the skeletal structure to form small muscles to hold the organs in place. This continues for hours until all that remains is for the hundreds of tiny arms to reconnect and switch places with a different tool.

This set of arms is shaped differently with a curved opening over a smooth surface, from the opening splurts a strange thick goo that is poured over the muscle and smoothed down. The data on the small lower screen blinks brightly until the tool set switches again, this time the tools rise up to the newly formed face. They gouge out chunks of flesh and press down the scar tissue with heat to stop the bleeding, they continue until they have removed part of an eyelid and damaged the retina beneath. Part of the lip is removed and turned to scar tissue, the damage deeply ingrained and completely irreversible. Their job is almost complete, they drain out the fluids and press several hands against the chest directly over the still heart, jolting the body with bolts of electricity.

In the halls of the empty station no one hears the scream of Handsome Jack.

Mordecai and Maya arrive back at headquarters with what appears to be good news, Maya hands the drive over to Lilith who pops it into her the outdated system.

"So whats the word?"

Lilith looks at Mordecai and his expression of continued worry.

"Says it's the emergency generator that just turned on. Apparently this whole time the life support system was still working up there and it finally shut down- so the system went to emergency power."

"Then whats with that face?"

"I just...I'll feel a lot better if we can just knock that damn thing outta the sky."

"If nothing is actually going on up there then that would just a waste of man power and resources."

Maya watches as Mordecai huffs, clearly not happy with that answer. She looks down at the floor before a thought crosses her mind.

"Isn't Hyperion the company that created the respawn stations?"

Both Mordecai and Lilith freeze in place and stare at her.

"So it stands to reason that they may have the same technology on that vessel, yes? I mean why wouldn't they? Isn't that where they would keep the most important people?"

He wakes with a horrible pain all over him, a sudden and unrelenting migraine forces it's way into his skull and rattles him from his sleep. He reaches up to grip his head but his hands slam against a glass window, the space is small, almost claustrophobic. Jack begins thrashing in place struggling for freedom in a sudden wave of panic, the lid clicks and hisses as it slides slowly open. He tumbles forward and collapses into a heap on the cold dirty floor. The place has yellowed lights flickering in the distance, Jack curls himself into a ball and grips his skull. He screams through clenched teeth, the pain is deep in him and it's keeping him away from coherent thought. His eye clenches shut, he breathes loudly and deeply in an effort to calm himself. After a few minutes the pain fades to a dull throbbing, through every muscle in him, the headache reduced to a mild nuisance.

Cold. Why is it so cold? He rolls onto his back and feels more cold all over his back side, along the with a strange grainy feeling. Dirt. How the fuck did dirt get in here? It stinks, why does it stink? The odor flips his empty, churning stomach. He allows himself to look up, the ceiling is riddled with smoke damage and bullet holes, what? Why? Jack sighs and forces himself into a sitting position, the pain in his spine flares for a moment. It is then that he looks down at his lap and realizes that he's naked. Not really surprising given how cold he was, he looks around and sees the old model of the cloning station standing open. The insides still wet and glistening, he jolts up and stares at it in horror.

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!?"

Nothing. Why aren't the satellite computers responding? Why isn't there anything going on except that retarded light!? Is no one else alive? Wait-is no one else alive!?

His eyes go wide as panic settles back into his chest and his mind as he bolts away. He rounds a corner to find the elevators, he smashes the little up button repeatedly- no such luck. To the right is a silver door with the words 'emergency exit' printed on it. He rushes it and runs as fast as his skinny stiff legs will carry him. His muscles begin to burn and so do his lungs, although he pushes forward. Three flights up and he crashes through the door, stumbling to a halt. He leans against the wall and sees a chair with a white coat hung over the back, he plucks it up not bothering to look at the rotten body off to the side. That explains the smell, all over the place- bodies tossed all over the place.

Jack slips the coat on and buttons it up before sprinting down the hall around the corner and too a large set of double doors. He places his right hand on a scanner on the center of the door, it gives a weak beep before only one door grinds open halfway. Jack walks in and stops dead in his tracks, blood is strewn every where, blood and scorch marks. Crusted puddles of dry eriduim is caked onto the floor surrounding the bed on which Angel had lain. When he sees it empty he bolts forward and opens his mouth in a silent scream at the image of Angel's body thrown on the floor, rotten, leathery.

He whips around to look away and finds himself staring at another one of the outdated cloning tanks. The image of hundreds of small metal arms sculpting Angel's spine leaves him in a mix of relief horror and fury. A breath later it's complete fury twisting into rage and spinning every gear in his head. Someone is going to suffer for this.

In Sanctuary Lilith's gaze drags across Mordecai, Maya, Axton, Salvador and Zero. Most of them look at her with horror evident on their faces, Zero's helmet simply displays a large red explanation point. In their minds they recall the screaming battle the blood and gore that splattered across them when they battled Jack, when they took down the Warrior. They recall destroying the satellite and everyone inside, as they think further. What they remember the strongest is the way Mordecai had screamed for revenge, the way he ran forward into battle. Axton looks over his shoulder to see Mordecai with his jaw clenched tightly, waiting for Lilith to tell them to get a damn move on already.

"You understand? You are to make sure that the satellite is actually empty and make sure to set the satellite to self destruct. Am I clear?"

Axton and Salvador nod slowly, Zero displays three dots. Maya looks up at Mordecai worriedly, he's so tense. She looks away.

"Maya."

She looks over to Lilith, curiously.

"You're going to sit this one out."

"What!?"

Maya snarls, her face quickly turning to one of utmost rage. Her fists curl at her sides before she slams them down on the center console and glares her fury at the rather surprised woman across her.

"The hell I will!"

"You will."

She blinks in bewilderment, stunned to hear Mordecai telling her to stay put. He says it without waiting for her to respond, then turns on the ball of his foot and walks out. She stares in shock at his back, then glares at him as well. Who the fuck is he anyway?

"And just WHY do you think I'm staying here?"

Because you don't have enough experience."

"Well how do yo-"

"I am telling you stay PUT!"

His mouth curls into a snarl as he glares over his shoulder, he shouldn't have to argue this.

"You know what, we don't have time for this. You talk all you want- but I am going."

She marches past her husband with her mind made up, the last thing she expects is his hand whipping out and grabbing a tight hold of her shoulder. He forces her to turn around and face him before pushing her backward, she stumbles and her head slams against the wall. His firm grip pinning her to the wall prevents her from falling, she stares at him stony faced. He looks at her with a sharp intense stare focused directly into her crystal eyes. Maya can see it there deep into the pit of darkened jungle green eyes, a fury and sorrow that has yet to leave him. He isn't going to argue this, in the back of his mind the image of Roland falling to his knees plays out over and over again, blood pooling around him before he lands face down.

"What's wrong with you?"

There is no longer any real expression on his face, just a cold emptiness. It sends chills down Maya's spine, she finds herself frightened and growing angry about it. WHY DOES HE DO THIS!? He does things to make himself seem so kind and sweet, as if he truly care for her. Then he does this crap- what's going on! She snarls at him and slams her flattened palms against his chest, he doesn't budge.

"Fine, don't slip in your blood."

She hates him now, that's okay it would have come to that ending anyway. It always does, always. Mordecai let's go over her shoulders and leaves without a backward glance. Zero looks at her although his expression is unreadable, he leaves also with no words. Axton shifts awkwardly in place before moving for the door, he pauses and says.

"Sorry..."

He can't seem to find the rest of that sentence so simply leaves, Salvador sighs and looks at Maya with a sense of pity. He looks up at her, she looks away refusing to be seen like this.

"He didn't mean it, he's not that guy. You just... you weren't there. I know when we get back he's gonna tell you how sorry he is- he's a good guy. It won't be long okay were just gonna go-"

"Then just go already."

Salvador looks at her saddened by the image of her tightly set jaw and glassy eyes, he pats her arm before walking out. Maya watches as Lilith glares out the balcony, she tightly grips her own elbows. She wants to be there, to go and fight again along side them. How long has it been since she left this place? Her yellow glare softens as she turns to look at Maya, who looks so betrayed and hurt.

"You gonna tell me didn't mean it now?"

"No."

Maya looks at Lilith whose brow is furrowed with irritation, she swipes a loose bit of hair back behind her ear.

"He has been watching his friends die for years, I bet he would have broken your damn leg if you kept on like that."

Lilith can feel the heated glare that Maya focuses on her, she rolls her eyes.

"Don't look at me like that, you weren't there. You didn't see what we saw-"

"Oh shut up, I don't even care."

Maya huffs and marches out the door, Lilith leans over and taps at the keyboard. Placing a password lock on one of the fast travel stations available destinations. Maya taps at the little dot next to Fyrestone and reappears close to home... the house that Mordecai put together for her. Rather than head back there she finds herself staring at the ammo station, she looks across the way to see Marcus's gun vending machine. She walks up to it and begins counting the money rolled up in one of the pouches hanging in her hip. She taps the little screen and begins scrolling through merchandise, rocket launchers, rifles, revolvers...sub machine guns. Bingo. She finds one that's strong and fast and ooh corrosive. A Maliwan something or another, she buys as much ammunition as she can carry then goes back to Zed's vending machine. She grabs a new shield then heads for the gate.

Just as she walks out the front she spots a bizarre dog type creature rushing at her, why waste ammo? She locks it up into a smaller violet bubble and moves her arm in a sweeping motion, the bubble launches forward and craps the animals body back into the den it ran out of. It's body is crushed up against three others that had been trying to rush out as well, let them rot. Maya continues walking, she just wants to shoot things til she feels less like crap and stops hearing that stupid question playing out in her head. Whats wrong with her? Whats wrong with him!? The bipolar bastard, a skag howls and runs in that bizarre zigzagging pattern before she aims and squeezes the trigger at it. These things stink like vomit, shit and long dead bodies. Bullets rip through it so fast whole chunks of flesh are lost in the fray before its dies, its body skidding forward with leftover momentum.

The further along she goes, she finds there are more of these things- some look absolutely bizarre with long black spikes shooting off their backs and skulls. These ones spit what looks, and smells, like stomach acid at her- how disgusting. Some others are bigger and bulkier, they mange to almost corner her before she shoves the end of her gun right in their slanted mouths and holds the trigger til their bodies stops twitching.

As Maya walks around, not really looking for anything, she finds little tiny safes horribly hidden around the rocks and run down shacks. Most of them are filled with little rolls of money, others have a gun or ammo stashed in them- those ones are fun.

The group appears in a familiar place, a cold sterile white hallway, why is it this clean? Shouldn't it still be full of dead bodies? Mordecai looks left and right before quietly moving forward, he follows the sound of gears whizzing and motors hissing. He looks through his scope and sees several modified loaders pushing bodies into an air lock and releasing them into space while another few loaders mop up the mess that was left behind. Six loaders, all of which where taken from their security designations and made into janitors. A little red light glows brightly in the chest of one the ones sweeping up, he pulls the trigger on the light, watching the loader hiss to a halt. When it collapses onto the tile floor one of the other loaders tosses it into the airlock then continues cleaning.

Curiously he steps forward out into plain sight, the remaining five pause to look at him then go back to work. Mordecai look behind him at Axton and the others, just shrugging his shoulder at them. The group walks past the robotic janitors to search for any form of life.

Upstairs Jack growls in frustration at the blank screen in front of him, no matter what he searches for nothing comes up. Someone deleted the central data bank, damn! The satellite itself was no longer attached to the Hyperion servers anymore- how the hell was he supposed to figure out what happened when no one kept track of any of it. Something bright catches his eye, a bright red streak across the screen of one of his security screens. Someone's here?

He swivels his chair to direct his attention completely on the small cluster of... how the hell did bandits get up here? The man at the front walks around, his expression is unreadable with those damn goggles on, behind him walks a smiling soldier, amused by what he refers to as 'Cinderella bots'. Trailing along behind the soldier is a dwarf carrying two guns and a... what? What is that? Guy in a suit? What's with the zero on his freaking face? Face... hmmm. Jack blinks and looks around his quarters, wonderfully untouched by whatever had happened out there. He gets up and walks over to his closet, slides open the large door and walks in. His gaze roves over suits in various shades of blue and then to a shelf built into the wall. He crouches down and reaches into the bottom shelf pulling out a small firesafe, he punches in a code and watches it pop open with a click.

When Jack returns to his chair to watch what these bandits might be up to, this time he feels complete. With his artificial face clipped over the layer of scar tissue, the synthetic face now complete when a wide grin spreads over it.