Author's note: A warning to anyone who has not completed Borderlands 2, there are spoilers for the Angel storyline in this chapter, and any future chapters. Thanks for reading :-)
Everything went according to plan for Handsome Jack. Well, almost, Roland and most of the raiders escaped, but at least Roland's pet siren, Lilith, was dead, and New Haven was destroyed. They were weakened and would have to find a new base. Hopefully he could manage to pick them all off before they regrouped.
It was late one night, cold and damp, as it always seemed to be in her little corner of Pandora, when she was awoken to her ECHO lighting up beside her bed.
"Hey there, beautiful, I hope I am speaking to the one and only Celosia the fire siren?" Jack's unmistakably arrogant voice came crackling through.
She stretched and eyed the ECHO suspiciously. "Who is speaking?" She asked, just to make sure.
"Its me baby, Jack, you know, Handsome Jack? We met a few of weeks ago."
"Woah, hold it right there, Jackie boy, I am not your baby! We kissed like once, forever ago, and then you disappeared. We barely even know each other." Cel was determined to sound indignant. She certainly didn't want him to know she hadn't been able to stop thinking about him.
"I love your spunk." There was that infectious grin, she could hear it in his voice. "And I am pretty sure we kissed twice. I'm so hurt that you forgot that. I suppose you heard about New Haven?" He asked cautiously.
"Yes, it was awful! I heard the whole place was practically burnt to the ground. And a siren was killed! I have been trying so hard to find another siren for my whole life, and now she's dead."
"Oh, um, about that. Those people were bad people Cel. They were a mob of filthy bandits trying to stop me from bringing peace to Pandora. They had to be stopped. The siren was one of them, she was too dangerous to leave alive." Jack hoped she would take his word for it.
"You mean it was you that destroyed New Haven? Wait, was that why you left in such a hurry after our, um, time together?" Cel knew she shouldn't be surprised. Everyone knew Jack's reputation. People were starting to say he was crazy. Maybe it was true.
"Well, yes it was me. Who else has that kind of fire power? Anyways, before I get carried away with the awesomeness that is me, I have to tell you something. Some Vault Hunters are on Pandora looking for me and they are very dangerous. I think they are aiding the remains of the Crimson Raiders to prepare a pathetic attempt at a resistance to my plans for saving Pandora and the utilizing the vaults. My point here is this, I won't be coming back onto Pandora for awhile. I gotta stay up here on my Moonbase and deal with them from a distance. But, um, I don't know how to put this...I just can't stop thinking about you Cel. I just wanted you to know. I hope to see you again." He wasn't used to being this vulnerable. He hadn't been since...nevermind.
"Wow. Ok. So that's a lot to take in. You want to see me, but you can't set foot on your own planet because everyone hates you so much?" Cel knew she could be a bitch sometimes, but well, if he was too cowardly to come and see her face to face, she figured he deserved it.
"You are quite the little spitfire aren't you? I'll be in touch." Jack turned off his ECHO.
"Wait Jack! I didn't mean it. Jack?" He was gone.
She didn't hear from Jack in a while, in fact her ECHO didn't get a lot of use at all, so when she misplaced it while traipsing around outside a mysterious city called Sanctuary, she didn't think too much of it.
"Hello my little fiery siren! I've missed you." Jack's voice came crackling through the ECHO.
"Did you hear that?" Lilith and Salvador were upstairs in their base. The ECHO they had found outside Sanctuary was suddenly lighting up and Jack's voice was coming through. "Salvador, I think he knows I'm here, how could he know that?"
The ECHO lit up again. "Celosia? Sweetie are you there? Are you okay?" Jack's voice sounded concerned.
"Who the hell is Celosia?" Salvador called into the ECHO. Lilith sighed deeply, every once and a while Salvador wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.
"Oh crap." Jack recognized the Vault Hunter's voice.
Now the Vault Hunters knew there was another siren, and that Jack was looking for her, fantastic. He had to contact Celosia. If the vault hunters found her now, after that message, they would think she was connected to him and use her to get to him. He had to think fast.
"Angel!" He called through his ECHO. "I need you to phase-whatever-it-is-you-do and bring that siren, Celosia, up here to my base. Now! She's in danger."
"Dad, why do you care about whether or not she's in danger? You've never cared about anything like that before." Angel knew her father wasn't capable of love, or at least his version of love was certainly not how she thought love should be.
"Just do it Angel. I can't lose her. Not after..."Jack voice trailed off. He never could bring himself to think about his wife, after what happened to her.
In a matter of seconds a shaken and very surprised Celosia was laying awkwardly on a fast travel platform in a large docking bay. She looked around. A few dozen mechs were lined up, powered down next to a wall, and there were crates of ammo everywhere, but otherwise there was no one else in the room. She had no idea where she was until Handsome Jack burst into the docking bay where she had arrived.
"Jack?" Her voice came out a little more then an intake of breath. She forgot to be indignant for a moment, at the site of him all the feelings she had been trying to put behind came rushing back. Her whole body tingled as he approached and she ached for him to touch her again. She held back from rushing into his arms, what in the world was going on?
"Cel, you're okay." He stopped and looked her up and down. "And sexy as hell I might add." He winked suggestively.
"Okay, okay, where the heck am I? What happened?" Cel put her hands on her hips.
"My dear, you are on the Hyperion Moonbase. My home." Jack beamed as he gestured around himself.
The giant H for Hyperion had dominated the Pandora sky for as long a Celosia could remember. She had never in her wildest dreams imagined that she would one day be in it, far above the surface of Pandora. Let alone with Jack, as his guest, or whatever she was.
"As hard as it is for me to admit, I so rarely do anything like this, I may have accidentally, uh, put your life in danger." Jack clearly was not used to apologizing.
"What? I am very confused." Celosia decided honesty was the way to go. She was too shaken up to be snarky.
"I called your ECHO but somehow the Vault Hunters had it, so they heard me asking for you. If they found you and knew that you meant something to me, they would kill you or use you against me. I couldn't let that happen." Jack's words rushed out of his mouth, clearly he was very uncomfortable saying all this. But Cel didn't care, she had only heard one thing.
"Wait. I mean something to you?" Cel stumbled over the words. She had never meant anything to anybody.
Jack didn't answer, before she knew what was happening he was on her. He kissed her neck, and then slowly moved up to her ear, he breathed deeply, taking in the warm scent on her hair. She always smelled like a bonfire, and he loved it. His hands wrapped around her waist moving lower down her back as she leaned into him, relaxing into him, letting the tingly ache in her body take over as she gave into her desire for him.
She arched her back bringing raising her lips to caress his neck, then she grabbed his hair with her hands bringing his lips to hers. They locked passionately and she felt him tighten as he pushed against her harder. There was a desperateness in his movements now, as if he couldn't be close enough to her. He began to tear at her clothing. He ripped her top off and she tore at his jacket sending it to the floor. Clothes scattered everywhere. She fiddled with his belt buckle, she could feel him hardening beneath it as she pushed the belt aside and unbuttoned his pants.
He pushed her to the floor and she opened her legs for him, he leaned in and kissed her smooth, firm middle, making his way up to her bare breasts. She reached for his face to bring his lips up to hers and as she did she caught her finger in his mask and it tore off.
He jumped back and turning away suddenly, covering his face with his hands. Cel sat up and started to move towards him.
"No. Stop." Jack growled. "You can't see me like this. No one can see me like this. Get out!" He was screaming. "Get out now!"
She gently touched his shoulder. He spun around and lifted one hand to strike her while still covering his face with the other.
"Stop Jack. It's ok. I don't mind. I'm not afraid." She spoke with a gentle soothing tone. Something Jack hadn't heard from her yet, his hand stopped in mid air. "I want to see you Jack. The real you."
"No." He drew back. "You won't like it. No one does."
She reached up slowly and caressed his hand with hers. She gently began to lower it from his face. Her hand slowly, carefully, reached for his face. She stroked it softy. It was horribly scarred. The sign of the vault had been branded over his face and one of his eyes. She traced it tenderly with her finger. Jack had never had anyone respond to his true face this way. Hope flickered in his eye. Could she truly accept him this way? Was she the one he had been hoping and waiting for all this time?
He leaned forward cautiously. She met him with a kiss and kissed every one of his scars. He knew this was right. He gave into to his desire and as she lay back on the floor of the docking bay she beckoned to him and he entered her with a groan of pleasure.
She woke up, Jack was asleep naked, beside her on the cold hard floor of the docking bay. She was thankful he had mostly bots and mechs working for him. This could have been an awkward scene.
What the hell am I doing? She wondered. I just slept with Handsome Jack. I know who is, what he has done. There is no way this is going to end well. She hoped maybe she was wrong. Maybe he was just misunderstood. People tended to judge harshly those in power over them. Perhaps underneath the madness, he was a good man.