A/N: Well, here we are again. Here's the second part of chapter 5. There's not really much to say other than I'm glad the story is finally getting somewhere. As necessary as the opening chapters were, I got a bit bored with them. Anyway, things are picking up from now on, so... yeah. Please excuse any grammar mistakes or missing words, most of this was written at around 1 or 2 am.

Archangel's Blade: Thank you very much, I appreciate that!

Please enjoy ;)

Gaige rolled her eyes and walked towards the gap, punching Koen gently on the arm on the way. Koen laughed as Gaige went ahead and squeezed through the small gap. Koen went in after her, followed by Marshall. They all entered into almost total darkness. They seemed to be in a long corridor, with the only light coming from an open door at the end of the corridor.

"I can't see anything," Marshall complained immediately, reaching out to touch the walls on the right side of him. Koen and Gaige followed suit, feeling around for the walls.

Once all three were touching the right side of the wall, they very slowly began to creep along the dark hallway, towards the only light source that was visible to them.

"Koen," Marshall whispered, "What are we even hoping to get out of this? Like, what was the point?"

Koen turned back to look at his friend, then remembered they were in complete darkness and couldn't see each other, "I don't know, aren't you a little bit curious? Hyperion could have left anything here, weapons mainly."

"This had better be worth it…" Gaige grumbled, just before tripping over something and stumbling forward, barely managing to keep her footing.

All three of them froze for a moment, listening to see if there would be any responding sound. When nothing came, they took a deep breath and moved on, feeling their way along the corridor. Eventually, feeling like it took way longer than it should, they reached an open doorway on the right side of the hallway. A dim, orange light spilled through the open door, allowing the three of them to see each other once again. Gaige leaned against one side of the doorway, while Koen and Marshall waited behind her.

"Well… like I said, ladies first," Koen whispered, pointing towards the open doorway.

Gaige rolled her eyes and pulled out her revolver, pointing it upwards and holding it beside her face. Marshall and Koen did the same, ready to move as soon as Gaige did. Gaige closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and swung around through the doorway, her weapon at the ready. Marshall and Koen followed directly after, ready to shoot anything that moved.

However, they didn't encounter any other people. Any other living people anyway. All three of them were accustomed to seeing death and destruction, but what they saw when they moved in shocked them. The entire room was absolutely saturated in blood. They quickly found what they guessed was the source of the blood. There, pinned up against the wall, was a decapitated corpse of a Hyperion soldier. Koen, Marshall and Gaige all lowered their weapons and stared at the corpse for a few seconds, studying it. The top half of the Hyperion uniform was missing from the corpse, revealing the man's bare chest. The strangest thing was, carved all over the man's torso, was a number of vault symbols. The corpse had its arms and legs stretched out, each limb pinned to the wall with what looked like sharp, metal poles.

"Jesus…" Marshall sighed, shaking his head slightly, "That's fucking inhumane."

"Welcome to Pandora," Koen replied quietly, turning around and starting to look around the room.

Gaige stared at the corpse for a few more seconds before turning around and following Koen. Koen was unsure as to exactly what the room was once used for. There were broken computers and cracked screens all over the room. Koen was looking at a few broken screens when a thought occurred to him. He spun around and glanced at the source of the dim light, a burning fire in the middle of the room. They had completely overlooked it when they walked in, but now things started to click together. The fire looked controlled, being fuelled by a few burning books. There was no way the fire was an accident, and besides, it would have to be fresh anyway. There was only explanation for the fire.

Someone else was here.

"Guys…" Koen said quietly, swinging his pistol back into his hand. Gaige and Marshall both turned to look at him, and Koen nodded towards the still burning fire.

Marshall and Gaige both took a look at it and instantly drew their weapons. Koen noticed Marshall mouth the words "How did we not notice that?" to him, but didn't reply. Koen very slowly made his way over to the other side of the room, towards another open door that led to complete darkness. Marshall went back to check the corridor they had come through moments ago.

Koen moved to the other doorway and stared into the darkness, trying his best to make something out. He leaned forward into the doorway until his entire vision went black. With Gaige and Marshall staying deadly silent in the room behind him, he could only hear the sound of his own breathing and his quickening heartbeat.

Then, all of a sudden, Koen felt something blunt smash directly into his face. He didn't know exactly what it was, but he was surprised he wasn't knocked out. He fired a shot at random as he grabbed his face with one hand and stumbled backwards, losing his footing and ending up on the ground. Before he could even try and sit up, he felt a heavy weight pressing down on his chest, pinning him to the ground. All of this happened within the space of two seconds, giving Koen no time to register what had happened. Once his vision cleared, he got a look at his attacker. From what Koen could tell, it was a man. He was wearing what looked like a wrecked Hyperion uniform, except he had nothing on from the waist up. The man also wore a metal sphere on his head, obscuring his face. The sphere was like a helmet, with large metal spikes sticking out from it, and a small gated hole where a mouth would be.

The man also carried what looked like a buzz-axe, which he raised high in the air, ready to bring down on Koen's head. Koen then realised he had dropped his pistol when he had fallen over and began to panic. But, just as the man raised the axe, there was a gunshot, and a bullet nailed the man in the arm, causing him to drop his buzz-axe. The axe clattered to the metal floor as another shot was fired, and then another, both shots hitting the man almost directly in his exposed chest. Blood gushed from the open bullet wounds as the man clutched his chest. Koen glanced back to see Gaige standing behind him, aiming her revolver at the man, with a look on her face that Koen hadn't seen for a long time. After a few seconds, the man finally toppled backwards. All this had happened so quickly, that Marshall barely had time to turn around before he saw the man hit the floor.

Koen breathed a sigh of relief and rested his head against the ground. "What the fuck just happened…?" He asked quietly, looking up at the ceiling as Gaige and Marshall stood over him.

"You nearly died, is what happened," Marshall replied, holding a hand out for Koen to help him up.

Koen picked his pistol back up off the ground as he got up, along with the man's buzz-axe. Koen gently swung the buzz-axe around a bit, smiling slightly. He kind of liked how it felt in his hand. "You know what, I think I might just hold onto this…" Koen announced.

"Oh dear, he's becoming a psycho," Gaige joked, cracking a grin.

"Speak for yourself," Koen shot back with a smile.

Koen then looked down at the Hyperion soldier they had just killed. The man looked just like any old psycho on this planet. History was repeating itself in that the employees of a once great corporation had been left behind on this planet to descend into madness. This was destined to happen since the death of Handsome Jack, and it had only taken a year.

"Alright you two," Marshall interrupted, looking around the room, "I say we get out of here in case any of that guy's buddies decide to show up."

"Yeah yeah, fine," Koen agreed, before turning to Gaige, "You're gonna have to talk to Axton, at least tell him where we are. Come on, what's the worst he could do?"

Gaige looked down at the ground and thought about it for a second, before sighing and slowly taking out her ECHO. She eventually called Axton and waited for him to answer.

"…Yes?" Axton replied after a while.

Koen and Marshall stood with their arms folded, allowing Gaige to do all of the talking. Gaige took a quick, deep breath before answering Axton.

"Axton," Gaige said confidently, "We're at the Hyperion Launch Facility in the Arid Nexus. Just… y'know… just sayin'."

"Okay, just wait there," Axton said calmly yet firmly.

With that, Axton ended the ECHO transmission. Gaige nodded her head slowly and chewed her lip a bit. "Soo…what now?" She wondered, "This is gonna be soooo weird, seeing everyone again after a year."

"Weird isn't the word I would use…" Koen shrugged, then stepped away from the others to take a wide swing at the air with the buzz-axe.

"Oh yeah, then word would you use?" Gaige asked.

"Umm… worrying?" Koen threw back, "I mean, Axton is clearly not happy that I let you come back to this shithole. I'd be lucky if he doesn't at least try and kill me."

"Oh come on, Axton's not that kind of guy, I'm sure he'd understand. Besides, I'll make sure to let him know that I insisted."

"Oh, yes, of course, I'm suuure he'll listen to that," Koen said sarcastically.

Gaige sighed, then walked over and punched Koen in the arm. "Shut up, you, nobody needs your negativity," She joked.

"Maybe, bu-" Koen was interrupted by a large banging sound coming from the direction that they came from, down the long corridor. All three of them looked at each other before instinctively drawing their weapons. Koen turned and moved quickly towards the door they entered through, poking his around the door frame and looking into the dark corridor.

Squinting, Koen could barely make a faint purple glow in the darkness. It seemed like it was coming towards him. Gaige moved up behind him and copied Koen, sticking her head out into the hallway. Meanwhile, Marshall kept watch in the room behind them, guarding the other entrances to the room.

Slowly but surely, the purple moved towards Gaige and Koen. As it closer, they began to see that the source of the light was a sphere, as well as hovering around three or four feet off the ground. Gaige and Koen both held their breaths, listening to their heartbeat and awaiting the purple light. Suddenly, Gaige decided she couldn't take any more of the waiting.

"Hello?" Gaige called, frightening the life out of Koen and making him glance back at her.

The purple light stopped advancing, and nothing happened for a few seconds.

"…Gaige?" Said a female voice all too familiar to Gaige, but completely unknown to Koen.

Once it clicked with Gaige who owned the voice, her eyes widened and a smile broke out across her face. "Oh my God…" she giggled happily. Gaige tried to move out into the corridor, but tripped on Koen's legs and stumbled into the other wall. She quickly collected herself and began walking towards the light. As she approached it, the light grew brighter and brighter, until finally Koen could make out the face of a woman, who had bright orange eyes and red hair.

"Lilith!" Gaige exclaimed with happiness, and ran up and hugged the now smiling woman.

It was then that Marshall walked out into the corridor, a look of total confusion on his face. Koen looked back at him and shrugged, not really knowing what to say. Still, the two boys couldn't help but smirk at each other's confusion.

"Now," Lilith announced, letting go of Gaige and looking at all three of them individually, "Let's get you three back to Sanctuary. There's a whole group of people just waiting to meet you."