Primed For Prequel

by dougaude

Told from the first person perspective of six Vault Hunters, this harrowing journey of epic proportions will end with death and only two will escape the Vault of the Warrior. This story is a direct prequel to my series Primed For Extinction. (Delayed until further notice)

2. Chapter 2: Where Angels Fear To Tread

A/N: Welcome one and all to the second long awaited chapter for the prequel to my popular series, Primed For Extinction. I really don't have any viable excuses for me not uploading this sooner so … yeah here you go. In all fairness I'm not used to doing chapters this long.

Primed For Prequel

Chapter 2: Where Angels Fear To Tread

I nervously liked my lips free of the cake remnants but not fast enough for Axton to notice. I swear sometimes that man has eyes like a hawk. Anyway he talked to me about completing the mission, and asked my how mine went. I told him this, "I want to move to Opportunity."

This, of course, confused the living hell out of him. And I know it makes sense, right? Why the hell would I want to live in a place…? Hello! Does Axton even know me? I asked him and this was his response.

"I would like to think so!"

"Well, Axton, if you truly know me then you should be able to guess why I want to live in Opportunity," I responded and left the poor soldier scratching his head. Realizing that he was too bamboozeled to continue with whatever thing he had been doing before I confused him, I decided to take it upon my shoulders instead.

"Come again?" He asked still major confused. Okay. Not to self: Do NOT confuse someone before you try and ask him or her a simple question.

"You feeling well, maybe you should go lie down. Just tell me what mission you needed to do and I'll go take care of it, besides I didn't do hardly any work on my last one." I looked around to make sure she didn't hear this next part. "Maya was a bit of a hog, took all the kills… I didn't have to fire a shot, so I'm technically still primed for a mission and one helluva fight!"

"Well looks like you're about to get one Gaige, have your Vault Hunter friends give you some extra ammo. Most of them are too bogged down with injuries or 'problems' to help you in this next mission," Roland said over the ECHO. "Are you sure you can handle what needs to be done?"

"Of course I can soldier man!" I said confidently, and for whatever reason I knew I could do it. Which was strange because up to this point I hadn't – myself at least – done most of the fighting I had been involved in. Mostly it had been just good ol' DT taking names and me just shooting him with Maliwan smg's to charge him up.

"Well, looks like you'll be taking over Axton's job. Come up to the command center and you'll get a briefing … and don't be bothered if we talk to you like you're the only Vault Hunter, it's kind of easier to wrap our head around VH's and solving actual problems," Lilith explained.

And that's how I ended up walking past Tannis – which is something I try to do without getting noticed. Instead of being stealthy, I got caught. She whispered in my ear fervently, "I would like to put something in you, a piece of tech would only take a second."

"What the hell?! No fucking way Tannis! EW! Gross!" I said a little too harshly, but the crazy woman seemed to take it in stride.

"Either way…" And suddenly the little viper stuck a four-pronged syringe into my flesh and blood arm.

"HOLY MOTHER OF FUCKING … why the HELL TANNIS! God let go of me!" I snarled and yanked or at least tried to but Tannis had a vice like grip on my arm.

"Stop struggling!" Tannis hissed depressed the rather large like plunger so all the liquid went into my bloodstream. "This will protect you in the end, but you won't like it."

By the time Tannis finished mumbling something about I wouldn't like it, I'd already made my way past her and up the stairs. I turned right twice and walked through the room containing the safe tucked inside one wall to my left. I then entered the control room, very high tech display but not much else.

In fact everything else besides the main display consol in the middle was very low tech, but some of it contained very high tech stuff. I looked up from my observations once someone started talking.

"This isn't a discussion. You're not going without me. Period," Lilith said.

"Look, I need you here protecting Sanctuary. If this turns out to be a trap, I need you to keep these people safe," Roland said. I stayed quiet.

"Is this because Angel told me not to come? It is, isn't it?"

"Lilith, damnit, would you just trust me? Okay?"

"If you get killed I'm gonna be really pissed."

"Noted."

"If you live, I'm tearing those clothes right off your body."

"Also… also noted."

I heard Mordicai complain with, "Ew, Lilith we're standing right here! No one wants to hear that!"

"Go on…" Brick said having just come in from the balcony. I walked up to Roland and said 'reporting for duty' at leas that's that I hoped I said.

"This is it everybody. Lilith, Mordicai? You're protecting the city. Brick'll provide support from Thousand Cuts, and I'll climb up to Control Core Angel from the cliff face. Any questions?" Roland asked getting right to it, no nonsense – damnit he made me nervous, almost too intimidating. Hopefully that queasy feeling would pass in the 'heat of battle'.

"Yeah. Why ain't I goin'? I gotta pay Hyperion back for Bloodwing," Mordicai said in response to Roland's question. I watched them all in amazement, they were legends – at least where my niche back home was concerned on Eden-5.

"And you will. But for now, I need you protecting Sanctuary in case this is just another trap. You'll get your payback, Mordicai, I promise.

"Long as you say so, Roland."

When Roland addressed me I tried looking in his eyes – but of course failed miserably, "Vault Hunter. We have a chance at stealing the Vault key, and stopping Handsome Jack from getting the Warrior. All you have to do is get past a wall that will atomize you, destroy a bunker carrying enough firepower to level a continent, and get through a door you can't possibly open."

"That's his way of saying, "we're probably gonna die,"" Mordicai said.

"It's time to get Claptrap to Thousand Cuts. We need him to shut down the forcefield," Roland told me.

Lilith encouraged, "Make it painful guys."

"This is gonna be fun!" Brick yelled pumping the air straight up with a punch.

After all the comradery inside the control room I decided to go find Axton and ask him for the pocket watch thing. I found him sitting on one of the benches in the center of town. I approached him and asked, "Hey, yo… listen Imma be straight up, I need that voice pocket watch thingy."

Axton blinked at me a little astonished, Christ, was he still super confused? For a moment there I thought he was looking at me, like he wanted to jump me. Whether in a purely sexual or sadistic way I couldn't tell. He handed me the device anyway and said in his normal voice, "Yeah you can have it, take the damn thing. I do not want to sound like Handsome Jack … at all if I can help it."

"I don't really care," Halfway through that sentence I heard myself, sound a hell of a lot like Jack. But then about that – I didn't really care since I wouldn't be doing much talking.

After that embarrassing moment I started walking over to Claptrap's place. For a moment while talking to Axton I realized I'd been fooled into thinking that I could actually blush. But no, that was not the case. As I passed a mirror going to Claptrap's … 'abode' I saw myself.

The telltale signs of a fading sugar rush, it must have made me look normal, and that's probably why Axton was still really confused. Every day since after the first day of high school I'd wanted to disappear completely from the hot chick's category.

Luckily – for me anyway – a few people had died near the Eden-5 first level primary education center, basically a fancy way of saying high school. This gave me the opportunity to not eat anything sweet. I still eat mind you, or else I would be dead. But mostly I ate protein and stuff that would keep me strong on the inside.

I looked more on the outside like a gaunt half robot middle aged teenager rather than a buff really smart and supposedly good looking 'hot chick' that was rumored to be waiting inside of me. I finally tore my self away from the mirror and made my way over to Claptrap.

"FYI… it may take some serious convincing to get Claptrap to head to Thousand Cuts," Roland warned and I didn't really doubt him. Claptrap's central processor was as of now a mystery to me. Mainly because I didn't think we could all afford me tearing into that bastard like a large slice of Devil's Food Cake. Apparently sugar draws out the sexy woman beast in me, not sure if I want that.

As soon as Claptrap saw me he said, "Minion! Let's go to Thousand Cuts."

"…Or not," Roland said.

Claptrap continued, "I enlisted you as my minion, then Angel just happened to attack Sanctuary. Don' you get it?! Jack was coming after me! It's time to take the fight to him! I'll meet you in Thousand Cuts."

I blistered like Claptrap had just insulted me, my family … ah who am I kidding. I think he's annoying, but not nearly as annoying as Jackass. I had the sneaking suspicion I'd be encountering the bastard pretty soon – since I was about to infiltrate Control Core Angel and possible come into contact with Angel herself. If I'm being honest with myself – which I always am – I'm genuinely looking forward to meeting this Angel chick.

None of the other VH's or former VH's – or anyone else for that matter – had gotten my attention. Angel though, better stop thinking about her until I find her and the mission is finished. Just thinking of Angel at the end of the mission prompted me to head for the fast travel station inside Sanctuary and deposit myself inside Thousand Cuts.

After arriving I walked quickly through the front 'gate' of Thousand Cuts (which was unoriginally a skull and tusks of some long dead beast) I immediately was weary for bandits. However I then realized that most of the bandits here knew me to be a Slab, and a few of the Nomads even respected me – which was weird…if anyone asked me why I was in such good standing with them I couldn't tell them.

At a run I dodged around a stationary Hyperion supply crate, hopped over a pile of metal garbage and ran lightly across a metal bridge spanning the gap to the other side. After reaching the other side I veered left and continued running. My legs had gotten plenty of conditioning – I wasn't cutting them any slack, just because one of my arms was bionic didn't mean my legs would get replaced.

After the lovely thought of amputating my legs to add mechanical replacements I arrived in No Man's Land. Craters, blood, decomposing bodies … all the good stuff. After climbing a brief incline I stopped before progressing any more up the hill. I moved forward and found Claptrap tagging one of the Hyperion cover thingies.

"Minion! I've started my attack! I'm gonna tag every last inch of this mountain if it's the last thing I do! Let's go!" Claptrap said and rolled on up the hill towards the death wall. "We're gonna make Jack regret ever setting up shop on this cliff! It'll take him minutes to wash this graffiti off! MINUTES, I SAY! Hey, you comin' or not?"

"No!" I yelled scooting back from the dangerous looking red field of energy blocking my path.

"Oh. Right. You're not a Hyperion robot. I forget that sometimes," Claptrap said and for whatever reason I kind of understood him. But then I realized that not all of me was mechanical therefore his comment was deemed invalid – by me. Claptrap then wheeled to the left over to a control panel. As he finished entering in the code he said, "Aaaaaand open!" The 'death wall' then evaporated before my eyes. Tentatively I stepped past the line and was relieved when I wasn't instantly vaporized. "Onward!" Claptrap said.

I started up the slope but immediately dove for cover as I spotted a fucking drone flying towards me. I popped up and shot – thankfully my Tea Pot blew the thing to pieces.

Brick then yelled music to my ears, "Got some buzzards headin' your way Slab!"

"I will defend you to the death minion!" Claptrap said just as a Loader came down on the path and unfolded. "OH GOD NO I WON'T!"

I sighed and blew the legs off with some corrosive shots with my Tea Pot then I switched to a non-corrosive Jakobs shotgun and blew a sparking hole in the robot where its eye once was.

"Oh you made it pas the security wall huh? That's, uh, real cute. Of course the bunker's still gonna obliterate ya but, none the less, cute," Jack said over the ECHO and I smirked not even bothering to reply.

I continued racking up kills slowly but surely increasing my Anarchy as well as keeping an eye out for anymore of those blasted surveyors. I spotted a group of four near the closed gate to the right at the top of the incline. I looked back down the incline and chuckled at the carnage I had made. Mistake.

The Hyperion commando supervising the surveyors yelled, "Scatter, evasive formation! Then … ATTACK!" He then took my shotgun blast to the face, I managed to clip two surveyors on their way up and then fell to the ground exploding.

The other two buzzed out of range for my shotgun and I switched to my Tea Pot blasting them out of the sky in quick … succession. Okay I may have used up five shots per but one shot eventually ended up hitting them. My Anarchy was souring but it was high enough for me to really be felling its effects. That door I mentioned earlier? It opened and out walked three combat engineers.

I laughed evilly and activated my digistruct claws on both hands. I shot forward and sunk my right and left hands into two guys chests, the claws exploding out the other side – their insides shredded. I pulled out my claws, and sheathing one pair my right hand became more comparable to DT. I used the extended length and power to quickly take care of the last guy, who was under the foolish notion that he could run away from me. Since I didn't want to drain my Anarchy too much I sheathed my claws and pulled out my shotgun. Next time I would just blast them and wait for something major to pull out DT.

"Be careful Slab! My boys see a ton of bad guys between you and the Bunker! I know you can do it!" Brick said over the intercom.

"Roger that," I confirmed and moved forward at a sprint. Red targeting circles appeared and I avoided them by cutting to the right and up the slope avoiding the road.

"I'm making my way up the cliff side, soldier. Keep pushing you way up and I'll meet you at the chamber!" Roland's voice told me.

"Yup, I'll keep pushing!" I told him back.

"Good luck!" He shouted then the connection faded with the sound of gunfire.

I moved forward taking out a couple of loaders hiding on a raised section of rock with a corrosive mirv grenade. I then had to duck behind crates because of two turrets were shooting projectiles my way. I scurried around to the front of them hiding behind some more crates.

"They ain't rollin' out the welcome mat! Maybe you should take out those turrets on the towers so they'll open the doors!" Brick said giving me the option I needed. I couldn't risk taking pot shots; I'd run out of ammo from my constant missing. So in substitute I ended up tossing a Tesla grenade, which arched two electric streams that whittled down the turrets until they exploded. "Knock, knock bitches! Open up!" Brick yelled and the door opened and out poured several Hyperion engineers and a bucket load of Loaders.

I took perhaps five minutes to mop them up, mainly because they had caught my slightly off guard, and I also didn't use Digistruct or DT to take them out quickly. I was conserving my Anarchy. Speaking of which, my levels were reaching the midway point to critical mass – which was awesome.

I moved through he doors and immediately spotted the enemies gathering on the three rising successive levels of the structure in front of me. A badass constructor was deposited on the top level giving me a greater sense of danger. I raised my right hand and Death Trap exploded in front of me. He soured through the enemies and in a matter of a minute or two would reach the badass constructor.

I followed closely behind DT thinning out the enemies enough to speed his passage through. Despite this he somehow still managed to take out the stragglers. I then took the lead plowing through while DT did what he had already been doing. We worked for perhaps the first time as a true team, coordinated and deadly. Because of this the worry of me being on this mission alone faded into nothing, and my confidence rose.

Once we reached the badass loader DT pretty much had a grudge against the hulking thing. I let DT duke it out with the constructor while I used Digistruct to zip around ripping out the throats and severing the heads of the Hyperion engineers with deadly efficiency. The constructor exploded just as I mopped up the last of the combat engineers DT faded off to since no hostiles were in the immediate vicinity.

I temporarily sheathed my claws and ran up the stairs to the top level of the Control Core loading doc. I made it to the top and sprinted across the flat rock surface all the way to a bridge that connected to the spire of rock the actual control core was built on top of. A door was built into the rock and I approached it.

"Hey you know how I got my hands on that Vault Key? See, a few years back, Wilhelm and I paid a visit to your little buddy Tannis. And we beat her for hours. We ripped it out of her broken fingers. But we let her live. Because that's what heroes do, they show mercy," Jack said ranting.

I tired to ignore him but failed, poor Tannis.

"Slab! You're comin' up on the Bunker! I'm sendin' some of my boys to help you out!" Brick informed my and I sighed in relief. I wouldn't have been this worried had the others come with me, what the hell were they doing right now that was so much more important than this? Personally I didn't care; in fact I didn't want them to come. I wanted to prove myself … as if I hadn't done that already.

I moved through the door and after moving through I came to a rock slope that cut through and wound up the thick pillar of rock reverse corkscrew style. I moved up and almost immediately I heard an auto cannon firing, at my air support. I sprinted forward.

"Eyes to the sky Slab! My buzzards are comin' in!" Brick said one of the buzzards fell in flames. "Take out those auto cannons, slab – they're tearing up your air support!"

I continued to rush forward making my way up the steep incline. I made it to a Hyperion hexagonal floor. After rounding the rock pillar some more I saw a blue force field to my right.

"That force field protects the way to my chambers. It will only deactivate once you've destroyed the bunker," Angel said and I smiled at the sound of her voice. However, before I could reply she got off the ECHO. Couldn't blame her, it was about to get ugly.

I made my way further along the floor checking DT's status – after getting a green light I used Digistruct to go faster … by this point it was at max so using Digistruct didn't deplete my Anarchy one bit.

"Alright, playtime's over, kiddy – Brick and his mouth-breathers couldn't bust my Bunker … and neither can you!" Jack said taunting me which was his mistake not mine.

I moved onto the right and somersaulted backwards up onto the center platform. I did substitute part of my brain with a beyond complicated bit of nano tech which unlock a shit ton of Digistruct options for me to use.

I do remember vividly going through the operation, and the moments before begging my dad to get it over with. He had paid a very surprised and very brief to Pandora to check up on me. Instead of catching up I immediately pressed him to do this very invasive and possibly deadly surgery. Luckily for me dad handled it like a pro and it had gone smoothly. I even got to hug him goodbye.

I unloaded my Tea Pot into the base of the first automatic turret and it exploded in acid and sparks. "Hell yeah! One auto cannon down," Brick said. "Oh crap – keep fightin' slab, bust those guns!"

11 – no joke – more auto cannons appeared all over the outer ring and center platform. I was quick to use my Tea Pot to take out the auto cannons and thankfully the buzzards were efficiently distracting and occasionally taking out some of the loaders. I brought out DT to make sure no Loaders shot me in the back while I was destroying the auto cannons.

Brick said, "Laser countermeasures! Jump!"

And I did avoiding the lasers jumping to great heights and using a corrosive sniper I had snuck from Maya's personal stash. I didn't really feel guilty about it, since I technically needed it more. I went into a haze taking out the auto cannons went in a blur, Brick's voice snapped me back into reality, "Ha-HA! No more auto cannons! Good job slab!"

"You really thought I'd protect Angel with only a couple of bots and flimsy turrets? See, you're not at the bunker right now. The Bunker isn't a place," Jack said and as I landed on the center platform from a particularly high jump the odd shaped thing rose from the platform. It was big and I could tell obviously LOADED with deadly weapons. "THAT'S the bunker. Meet the BNK-3R the greatest defense bot ever built. Designed her myself. Now do me a favor and die."

I summoned DT to my side and prepare for a harrowing fight. I used Maya's sniper rifle three times to get started on the bunker's health when Maya contacted me saying, "Are you using my sniper rifle?!"

"KIND OF BUSY AT THE MOMENT! YOU KNOW, THE BUNKER'S TRYING TO KILL ME!" I yelled back and temporarily disabled my ECHO communications from Sanctuary.

"Oh crap, the bunker went airborne slabs – this is gonna get messy!" Brick said.

"No shit," I replied and adjusted my scope just waiting for the bunker to settle down and stop flying around. DT covered my back and sides from the Loaders while I concentrated on the front swiveling to follow the bunker's flight path.

It settled and I switched to my final gun in my relatively small arsenal, a corrosive Bitch. I concentrated on a the bunkers sensory unit near the middle of its body facing me and in a matter of 30 seconds of me doggedly pouring corrosive bullets into its system it flew off and changed its flight course above the raised roof section directly across from the waterfall. I stood in the middle of the central platform; DT hovered silently at my side.

"Holy crap – that is a big ass gun," Brick said. And indeed what looked like a Gatling gun sprouted out from the bunkers underbelly.

"DT! Waste that waste of metal!" I shouted and DT charged up and shot a highly concentrated fire-y beam of destructive awesomeness straight into the bunker's main optic nerve.

The bunker crashed onto the roof structure and died down. Jack stayed oddly silent.

"With the bunker destroyed you can access the door to my chambers. Move quickly," Angel said. She didn't have to tell me twice. I moved quickly jumping down a level and hurrying back to the blue force field.

"I'm nearly there, soldier! I'm climbing up the rear of the control core – I'll meet ya inside!" Roland said and I picked up the pace.

I made it to the place I remembered the force field being, but now it was gone and in its place a doorway was open to me. As soon as I stepped inside the tight doorway I heard a robotic voice say, "Preparing bio-scan. Please stand on the Hyperion emblem."

I complied and the system said, "Scanning bio-signature." I was scanned and it a moment later it said, " Bio signature confirmed; hello, sexy. Awaiting password."

"The password is…I love you," Angel informed me.

Roland said, "That voice modulator better work or this will have all been for nothing."

I inserted the pocket watch above the voice recognizer. Jack's dull voice said, "I love you."

The robotic voice confirmed a success and the final doors opened. "Consider this your final warn – no consider this MY final warning. Turn around and I promise I'll make it quick. But I swear, you take one more step, every soul back in Sanctuary will die staring at their own lungs as I rip them from their chests."

I was thoroughly disturbed by Jack's comment, but I knew I needed to go through with this. I walked onto the elevator and pushed the button. As I descended Angel said, "Eridium alone could never charge the Vault Key. It needs a catalyst – something to awaken its powers. It needs … a Siren. Jack acquired his Siren catalyst a long time ago. He kept her hidden from the world for years, but – finally you will be able to set her free."

The elevator finally stopped and finished its decent. I turned around and walked toward the door while Angel said, "I detect you're getting close. Hurry and reach me – you must get the Vault Key and … deal with me."

Following that cryptic message I moved forward and passed through the door. I entered a tight metal circular area that branched off to the left in a corridor that ended in another circular area. I moved along the corridor and reached the adjacent chamber. Upon reaching the middle of the area I pressed the green button on the stand sprouting from the middle of the floor.

"Executing phase shift," Angel said and suddenly everything dissolved into streams of digistruct data. "The key is here but… To truly stop Jack from waking the Warrior, you cannot just steal the Vault Key – you must destroy his catalyst. You must destroy… me."

As I walked forward in amazement I just stared at Angel impressed even more by her beauty up close. I let her explain, "Jack spent years pumping me full of Eridium, using me to charge his Key and manipulate his enemies. Destroying the Eridium injectors that keep me… alive… will stop the Key from charging. And it will end a lifetime of servitude. Now…"

"You get the hell away from my daughter!" Jack yelled. Angel was pulled back through an opening doorway and she screamed. I ran after her regardless of what lay ahead. "What the hell are you doing, Angel?!"

"Stopping you, you piece of –"

"Rrgh – language!"

"The Eridium injectors destroy them!" Angel prompted. I shot at them but Jack retaliated.

"Ah no you don't, shields up!"

"No!" Angel said. "I'll try and expose the injectors just hold on!"

"Bandit, if you keep this up, I'm heading down there to blow your brains out myself. You hear me?" Jack asked very pissed off.

An alarm went off and red blinked. "He's lying – the coward would never face you in person."

Out of some pads built into the floor robots emerged. I quickly dispatched them with quick eye sots with Maya's nipper rifle.

"I can't stop Jack's defenses. Be careful!" Angel shouted. "I'll help you however I can!"

Shock shield generators popped up all around the room and one began to shock me quickly depleting my shield. I quickly summoned Death trap to shield me while I disabled it.

"I'm sending ammo to you!" Angel said and I rushed over to the center of the room, where Angel was digistructing an ammo crate on the outside of the forcefield surrounding her. I grabbed it and continued to use my corrosive Bitch to take out Loader after Loader; DT was guarding me since I really didn't want him getting damaged.

Suddenly Roland said, "Hey, up here! Need a hand?"

I looked up and saw that a bridge had digitized. Roland was running cross it.

"Roland, I need you to lower the shields surrounding my Eridium injectors!" Angel prompted. And I waited around wary of any spots where Loaders could appear at any moment.

"Uh… did I miss something? Or is Angel a SIREN?" Roland said in semi shock.

"I meant NOW, Roland!" Angel prompted more strongly.

"Right I'm on it!" Roland said promptly.

As soon as Roland reached the consol more Loaders showed up and suddenly I had my hands full. Not only that Core defense laser turrets showed up and started pestering me. Thankfully DT retaliated with a much bigger laser of his own, frying them to pieces while I attempted to stem the tide of Loaders.

"This is how you Bandits fight, is that it? You can't come strait for me, you gotta kill an innocent girl?!" Jack said.

"That's how he works – he'll try to guilt you, to make you think it's your fault. Don't listen," Angel reassured me.

Suddenly two War Loaders showed up and I stuttered, "DT handle this! Now, please!" My trusty robot friend then started to lay waste to all robots insight, going from biggest to smallest.

"Shield's down, hit the injector!" Roland said and I obliged. As soon as I shot it and the thing broke free spewing Eridium all over the floor angel cried out in pain. Roland jumped down from the bridge and joined DT and me in the fray. We fought for perhaps 30 seconds until Roland yelled, "Badass Loader!"

And there I saw it; across the room one of them was emerging from a panel in the floor. Unfortunately for it DT was right on it ripping it to shreds as soon as it materialized.

"I'll expose the injectors – just stay alive!" Roland yelled out at me and I gave him an affirmative shout back. DT went back to wreaking havoc and I concentrated on avoiding the Loaders' collective gunfire staying alive and taking out the ones that I could.

Using the Digistruct part of my brain I temporarily shut down my Anarchy in order to have a lot of accuracy. I stayed well away from the bots and tried to pick them off from a distance.

"You're endangering my baby girl. This is my vow, every friend, every child, every person you've passed on the street. I'm gonna kill them all. You didn't follow the rules, bandit," Jack said menacingly and I knew I needed to put a stop to his schemes as soon as possible.

I fought more bots, and Angel provided me with more ammo.

"Sweetheart, everything you could ever want is within four walls. Angel, do you have any idea how much I've sacrificed for you?" Jack demanded. "The bandits I've killed, the people I've manipulated – everything I've done was for you!"

"Promise me you'll kill him friend," Angel pleaded. And I nodded.

"I lowered the shield, hit the injector, now!" Roland yelled. And as he fell from the fading bridge I shot the next injector. "Damnit! Now I can't reach the last injector panel! I don't know what—"

"How you doin'?" Lilith asked materializing between Roland and me.

"Lilith?! What the hell?! I told you not to come!" Roland said.

"Yeah and I didn't listen!" Lilith retorted, personally I was glad for the support. "Oh look, bad guys!"

What followed was my wet dream coming true … well technically my second wet dream. The first was banging Angel, but seeing as how I was killing her that really wasn't going to work out. DT and I were fighting alongside two badasses and in about 2 minutes we had killed so many Loaders I lost count.

"I've got ya!" Lilith said once no more Loaders were coming. She teleported her and Roland up to the injector panel, she then said something I didn't like, "This isn't over, stay on your toes!"

I sighed and juiced up DT just a little and got to work, I was only getting worse at dodging the robots bullets so I used Death Trap as a sort of shield only part of the time.

"Please. Okay. Are you hearing me? Please don't kill my baby girl," Jack pleaded. "Do you know what you're DOING?! Who cares about the godamn Key – you're gonna end the life of an innocent girl!"

"Jack ended my life long ago. This has to end NOW, Vault Hunter," Angel said with regret and a tear rolled down my cheek. But that was all I could spare as I finally used my Digistruct to tear open a Badass Loader. Lilith was along side DT and me.

"I got the shield down, hit the injector!" Roland prompted and I promptly blew the fucking thing to smithereens. The shield around Angel dropped.

"It's done. It's finally done. Thank you… friend," Angel said quietly as she sat there gazing up at me Lilith and Roland.

"Angel, you can STOP this! I'll still forgive you, baby!" Jack insisted.

"Dad I have to tell you something… You're an asshole."

Angel died her body crumpling into a head. Jack cried out, "Angel? No Angel!"

"What kind of person would do this to their own daughter?" Lilith asked somberly.

"The kind of guy who deserves to die," Roland answered simply. He stopped down and examined Angel's body. He rose and said facing me, "She's dead. Jack just lost his only way to awaken the Warrior. We got the Vault Key, but this isn't over yet. We gotta find Jack and take him out. Lilith take the Vault Key to Tannis, I'm going after Jack."

Suddenly a gunshot went off in the still silence and a bloody hole filled Roland's chest. Lilith screamed, "ROLAND!"

Jack had materialized behind Roland, he said, "Sup!"

"You bastard, I'm gonna –" Lilith said in a rage gunning towards Jack. He flung his fist forward and attached a shock collar to Lilith's neck.

"Language," Jack chastised. "What's that saying? Don't pick a fight with a man with nothing left to loose? See, I'm gonna show you just how much you have to lose – and I've got the most powerful Siren on the planet to do it with. Lilith, kill the Vault Hunter. We've got a date to keep with the Warrior. Do it Lilith," Jack ordered.

"[Screaming] NO!" Lilith said and she held her hand out, suddenly DT vanished and I was teleported to an unknown location.

"What happened?! What the HELL JUST HAPPENED?! First Bloodwing, now THIS?! Vault Hunter, find me in Sanctuary – we gotta get Lilith back!"

I blinked my eyes and looked around me, realizing where I was must have been Marcus's munitions back store room. I was too much in a shocked daze to really rob him of goods and other such things, and before I could scream loot I was out and into his firing range.

"What the – how the hell'd you get back there? Friggin Vault Hunters. Son of a Bitch – robbed my blind!" Marcus said the door opened to the back of his selling counter.

I waved my hand and said chipper, "Don' worry sir, I didn't steal anything." I then left before I said anything that would make my head explode.

A/N: Despite the fact that I didn't like how long this chapter was, I am definitely looking forward to doing another chapter. If I'm being honest with myself the next chapters may be longer than this one by at least a thousand words. But no promises, the only thing I can promise is another chapter within a week. See you then.