With a faint hiss, the elevator doors slid open and Nisha stepped out into the cavernous hallway of Tassiter's office. This marked the fourth time she'd taken the trip to Helios, and it wasn't getting any less boring. Her impatience was starting to mount and the only thing keeping her cool was the prospect of strangling the smug-faced suit at the other end of the hallway.

If Wilhelm was bothered by the colossal fuck-up in New Haven, he didn't show it. He followed casually behind, in no apparent hurry. It almost bugged her that nothing ever seemed to phase him. Then again, maybe his drones really had a point in calling him 'Alpha'. It was like watching a big dog ignoring the yammering of a much smaller and louder one. When you're already the biggest thing in the room, why should you care? Besides, he sure acted like an overgrown dog at times – she'd seen him eat after all.

As they passed the secretary's desk, the blond pencil-pusher called out, "Excuse me, are you here to see President Tassiter?"

Nisha resisted the urge to question whether or not the girl was slow since Tassiter didn't seem like one for charity cases. "Well, we're not here for the scenery."

"I'm afraid he's in an important meeting at the moment," she gestured toward the waiting area. "If you could take a seat, I'll let him know you've arrived."

Wilhelm's beard almost twitched up into a smile. "Trust me, he'll see us."

Without a backwards glance, the two of them continued down the hallway. The doors slid open to reveal the much changed office Nisha still hadn't grown accustomed to. It felt more like a gallery than an office: clinical and cold. Jack had a way of making every room he stepped into his own; lived in and touched. Curios, half-finished projects, and posters decorated his rooms inviting the eye to take it all in. In comparison, Tassiter's office was all work and no play – and boy did she miss playing here. She wondered if Tassiter would still be so fond of Jack's old desk if he knew what she and Jack and done on it.

As they approached the desk, Tassiter raised a finger to stop them without turning his attention away from his monitor. "...and you say this security breach came from within our own network?" he snapped. "Unless you're implying that we have a traitor within the company, I suggest you find out what went wrong. And now, Blake. I still have to explain this fiasco to The Board."

Tassiter disconnected the call with a sigh and rubbed at the bridge of his nose before finally acknowledging them, "To what do I owe the ah… pleasure of your company?"

Judging by all the whining she'd just heard, Nisha questioned Wilhelm's idea that Tassiter knew anymore about what happened than they did. "We came for answers, but you sound pretty clueless yourself."

"Is that so?" he smirked, and Nisha wondered if he'd still be smirking when she wrapped her hands around his neck. "And you came all this way just to ask? Shuttle trips aren't cheap you know."

"We wanted to be here in case we don't like the answers," Wilhelm splayed his hands on the desk.

Tassiter leaned forward and intertwined his fingers with a pleasant smile, "I see. Should Nigel be concerned for my safety?"

From the corner of her eye, Nisha watched Tassiter's silent bodyguard unfold his arms and drop them to his sides. She never saw Tassiter without him. The fact that anyone would need someone else to be intimidating for them annoyed her to no end. Still, the fact that Nigel – what a shit name – rarely ever moved unnerved her enough to make her legs itch.

Wilhelm, of course, only shrugged, "Depends on you."

"Let me guess," Tassiter sat back into his seat once more. "Still sore about being left out of the assault on New Haven? You saw Lilith's capabilities in action. Without the proper countermeasures it would have been you getting smeared across the battlefield instead of some random soldier. I would hope that the two of you could be more appreciative of the fact that I don't consider your lives that expandable."

"Nah, I get that part," Wilhelm propped himself up on the edge of the desk. "What I don't get is how a bunch of hicks in the middle of nowhere managed to turn your robot army against itself. I didn't sign on to get killed by my own backup."

Nisha paced, her mind picking over every possibility she could think of that could explain this mess. "So, is there a traitor?" This wasn't the first time after all. Her eyes drifted over to the wall that concealed the airlock and recalled happier times.

"There could be, but I very much doubt that's the case," said Tassiter. "No, I'm almost certain that it was someone else entirely. I believe we have John's daughter to thank for that."

Oddly enough, this didn't seem to surprise Wilhelm any. "Huh. Figured as much."

Nisha didn't bother to hide her anger. "Wait – we came all this way for something you already knew?"

"I didn't know, I suspected."

"It's not what she did, but how she did it that's important," Tassiter said. "As much as it may come as a surprise to some of you, John was keeping more than a few secrets before his death. Angel is a Siren."

"Guess that explains why Jack never mentioned her," Nisha said. She knew about as much as the next person when it came to Sirens: not much. Lilith was the first she'd ever crossed paths with, and it didn't seem like her space magic had anything to do with robots. "Wouldn't it have been helpful to mention this before we got our asses handed to us?"

"Not especially. From what I've gathered, Angel's powers allow her to directly interface with technology. As her powers posed no direct threat to you, I didn't think it would be an issue."

"Seemed like a pretty direct threat to everyone down there," Wilhelm snorted.

"So you're telling me that sending in a robot army sounded like a good idea? Remind me how you ended up running this company?" Nisha said blithely.

"Her abilities far exceed what the reports led me to believe she was capable of," Tassiter spat. "I assumed she had to be hooked up to some kind of machine for her powers to work in such a grand scale."

"Then what's the point of even keeping her alive if she's more trouble than she's worth?" Nisha snapped back. "She's a Siren – so what? If we kill her-"

"I'm sure that even the two of you can recognize the opportunities that obtaining such an individual could offer us," Tassiter interrupted. "Her unique ability could be used against virtually anyone: companies, governments – it's all up for grabs. John never used her skills appropriately and I won't make the same mistake."

Nisha rolled her eyes. Tassiter was always about scheming. Give her a gun and a target any day. "Great, so your robot army is useless. What're we gonna do now?"

Tassiter slipped off his glasses and polished them thoughtfully before finally replying, "I suppose I'll need a new one."

Tassiter watched from behind a wall of glass as a random stalker blinked in and out of existence. They were disgusting creatures, but even disgusting creatures had their purposes. Tassiter himself was feeling rather purposeless at the moment as he aimlessly wandered through the corridors of the station. His thoughts turned over how he was supposed to explain the New Haven disaster to The Board. The entire situation was a shit-storm. An entire company of soldiers and equipment lost and nothing to show for it. Nothing he could say would redeem himself and he'd been putting off the eventual conference call that was sure to follow. Instead, he'd gone for a walk to collect his thoughts until he found himself in the lower levels of Research and Development.

At least the 'Dynamic Duo' had been satisfied enough with his answers that nothing more had come from their visit to his office. He'd been loathe to reveal Angel's 'talents' to anyone else, but at least he could be reasonably certain that no one would be finding out from them. Hopefully, with the two of them heading back to the planet's surface, that would be the last he'd see of them for a while. Still, it didn't change the fact that they might have had a point. Perhaps he had jumped the gun by attacking so soon. Maybe things would've turned out differently if he had just waited for John's Siren countermeasures to be perfected….

Then again, it wasn't like Lilith had been responsible for the failed attack and the countermeasures wouldn't have worked on Angel anyway. The designs he'd seen called for a device that could stop Lilith's dimensional hopping, not something to stop a human computer. Clearly, a more general design would be needed for control purposes. Another thing to do while he was down here. Of course, he should have thought of this beforehand. Planning was Tassiter's strong suit, innovation was not. That had been John's specialty. Perhaps R&D was the right place for him to be after all.

Tassiter's thoughts were interrupted as the stalker before him launched itself at the glass startling him back a few steps. After recovering from the near heart attack, he meticulously straightened his suit before turning around and coming face-to-face with something equally disturbing.

"Oh, hello," Professor Nakayama said breathlessly. "Didn't expect to see you down here. I'd stay away from the glass if I were you. They ah… they take it as a threat."

Tassiter was left wondering how the man could sound almost feverish about absolutely everything. Not sure how to respond, he fussed with his tie. "Good to know."

Tassiter wasn't sure what to think of Nakayama. The man was… odd to say the least. His employee file had been surprisingly sparse on details. Other than the usual generic qualifications topping the page, John had left far fewer personal observations about the man than he had left for his other workers. The words 'creepy' and 'a little bit obsessive' had been scratched across the page along with John's customary defacing of Nakayama's personnel photo. On the whole, the entire file had been largely useless. Still, keeping Nakayama on to head up slag research had been an easy decision despite his quirks. He'd already been working on John's projects since before the man's death and the only other scientists with any expertise on them had been unceremoniously terminated during the Lost Legion occupation.

A sudden burst of growling caught Tassiter's attention and he turned back to the glass window just in time to see a second stalker pounce on the first. They rolled in a tangle of limbs, clawing and biting as each tried to gain the upper hand. Despite the warning, Tassiter leaned closer to the glass as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. The attacker clearly had the advantage due to its larger size and Tassiter wasn't all that surprised when it finally pinned the smaller one. On the other hand, the sudden burst of fire seemed to catch both himself and the attacker off guard. Tassiter stared transfixed as the larger stalker lept off singed and smoking before flickering out of existence as it fled.

Tassiter was almost at a loss for words, "What was that?"

"Oh, that was just a bit of a scuffle," Nakayama waved away. "Ricky's been trying to butt in on Lucy's territory for the last several days. Stalkers are naturally solitary creatures and-"

"I can clearly see that," Tassiter cut off the incessant rambling. "I meant where did the fire come from?"

"Oh, that," Nakayama paused to gather his thoughts. "Well you see, Lucy is one of the Pandoran specimens we've collected for examination since she showed signs of mutation due to eridium exposure. She is one of two specimens we currently have housed here that display the capability of spontaneous combustion. I named the other Marmalade!"

Tassiter's eyebrow curved upward, "Spontaneous combustion?" If he hadn't seen it firsthand, he would have been tempted to call the concept ridiculous.

"Oh, yes!" the Professor breathed excitedly. "Lucy's able to ignite the entire surface layer of her skin with no lasting detrimental effects. Well, besides from the ah… lingering smell that is."

"So it's normal for things to catch fire on Pandora?" Tassiter clarified. Somehow, that seemed oddly appropriate for a planet so chaotic.

"Well, not just fire of course," Nakayama chuckled as if bursting into flame was hardly something exceptional. "Fire's just the ah… the most common. We also used to have one that could generate electricity until we tried to test whether or not it could power a microwave. It uh… it took a while to clean up the mess…" he trailed off before clearing his throat, "Anyway, based on the information we have, we estimate that almost two percent of all of Pandora's creatures have similar mutations. Of course, the numbers do appear to be rising ever since the opening of the Vault."

"And the human population?"

"Not much to go on I'm afraid; eridium is highly toxic. The creatures that we see displaying noticeable mutations are just the ones that actually ah… survive the exposure. Even then, the mutations are usually far more mundane: like size discrepancies or horribly disfiguring cancers."

That explained the disturbing amount of midgets on the planet. "So humans can't gain the same benefits?"

Nakayama grinned unpleasantly, clearly enjoying having an audience. It was mildly pathetic. "We haven't observed anything in the population of Pandora, but there's another avenue I'm currently exploring. You see, members of the Lost Legion in proximity to the Vault on Elpis possessed characteristics similar to the mutations we observed in Pandoran wildlife."

"What gave you that impression? Were they bursting into fire as well?" If only all his annoyances were so easily dealt with.

"Well, no, nothing like that," Nakayama chuckled lightly, "but the bodies we've recovered show definitive signs of mutation. Y'know what: I'll just show you. Trust me, it's ah… it's just terribly interesting!"

"I'm sure," Tassiter monotoned as he followed the Professor down the hall, feeling anything but interested.

Tassiter was tempted to turn around and quietly make his escape, but it was either this or go face The Board; and dealing with Nakayama was only slightly less annoying. Nakayama continued to ramble the entire way and Tassiter did his best to tune him out. The last time he had walked through the twisting corridors of R&D was when he'd been on tour with Lawrence. At the time, he hadn't bothered to pay much attention to the impostor's vague explanations as Tassiter was too busy analyzing the man himself. He didn't pay much more attention this time around either as he pointedly tried to ignore Nakayama's awkward attempts at maintaining a conversation.

Nakayama gestured at a passing laboratory, "...and in here this is where we ahhh… what are they doing in there?" he trailed off unsure as he squinted at a window. "Well, this is where we do science!"

Tassiter was once again left wondering how Hyperion's hiring standards could have dropped so low as of late. Restraining himself from rolling his eyes, he was relieved when their impromptu tour finally came at an end outside Nakayama's laboratory.

The Professor's laboratory was surprisingly typical considering his eccentricities. Unrecognizable scientific equipment dominated the tables and several small animals scurried around in their cages. The one thing that definitely didn't belong was a large shrine entirely devoted to John. Candles, stuffed animals, pictures framed in glitter-glue, and what Tassiter could only assume to be hair clippings and used chewing gum adorned its surface. Briefly, he recalled John's notes about the Professor being 'a little bit obsessive', but that seemed like a little bit of an understatement. He suppressed the urge to shudder as he trained his eyes elsewhere.

"Sorry the lab is such a mess," Nakayama laughed awkwardly. "I don't often get ah… visitors." He swung open a body refrigerator and slid out a rack and Tassiter barely had time to brace himself before the Professor pulled the sheet off with a flourish. "Well, here we are!"

Tassiter pulled back at the sight of the body with distaste. It barely looked human. The body was completely hairless, its skin instead dotted with patches of purple boils. The skin held a grey hue that even the pallor of death couldn't hide. Even the eyes were different as their near luminescent purple stared lifelessly into the harsh light of the room. But the most unsettling feature of all was the proportions of the body itself. The entire thing looked… stretched, the limbs almost comically long. The fingers had become so spindly that they resembled claws more than human hands.

"It looks hideous," Tassiter sniffed. "Aside from that, where they capable of anything useful?"

"Well, they displayed incredible capabilities for energy manipulation," Nakayama gave the corpse a proud pat on the head. "There's really nothing you can compare their abilities to except for the Eridians themselves. Well, that, and maybe Lilith."

Tassiter's thought process ground to a halt. The Siren? Suddenly, he was much more interested in what the Professor had to say. Perhaps this little distraction might prove fruitful after all.

"They seemed to have more primitive versions of the abilities we've seen used by Eridian Guar-"

"What do you mean similar to Lilith?" Tassiter interrupted.

"Well, Lilith's powers aren't really that different from Eridians either. Eridians can seemingly disappear and reappear at will: so does she, and so did some of the mutated members of the Lost Legion. There obviously must be some kind of connection. And that's not even counting Colonel Zarpedon."

The name seemed oddly familiar in the back of Tassiter's mind, but he couldn't quite recall where he'd heard it – possibly at some meeting or other. "And whom might that be?"

"Oh, you'll love this!" Nakayama exclaimed as he opened up another body freezer. Sliding out the tray and unveiling yet another corpse, he grinned expectantly at Tassiter. "This is the late Colonel Zarpedon. Ignore the ah… bullet holes."

That was a tall order. "And who was she?"

"Oh, sorry, forgot you weren't here for that," Nakayama chuckled. "She was the one who led the Lost Legion during their occupation of Helios. Jack – he ah… he was the one who... " Nakayama swallowed thickly and pointed to the body's head, "he w-was the one who s-set things right."

The man looked on the verge of tears and Tassiter was on the verge of slapping him. "You said something about a connection," he prompted in an effort to change the subject. "What made Zarpedon different?"

"Well, as you c-can see-" the Professor paused to wipe his streaming nose on the edge of the sheet he'd pulled off the corpse, "d-despite displaying the same capabilities, she had none of the extreme physical deformities. Other than the eyes and markings, she seems like the superior version – not unlike Lilith."

And not unlike another Siren Tassiter knew as well. The markings covering her body were too similar to the ones on Angel and Lilith for him to ignore. If she also showed similar capabilities, then the only difference between Zarpedon and a Siren was that she hadn't been born this way.

Which meant she wasn't that way by chance...

Tassiter turned away and began to pace around the room. Giving the shrine a wide berth, he gathered his thoughts. Zarpedon had been made; so there was a process; a process can be recreated; if we can find the process, then it can be mass produced. Suddenly, things were looking up for Tassiter.

He turned sharply back to find the Professor wearily eying him. "Y'know, all your pacing is getting a bit creepy..."

Tassiter chose to ignore the irony of his statement. Instead, he gestured at Zarpedon's corpse, "Can you recreate this?"

"The mutation? Well, I mean, sure it's theoretically possible, but I wouldn't even know where to begin!" Nakayama floundered weakly. "I'm sure eridium is involved, but other than that, it's all guesswork. Maybe you'll end up with another Colonel Zarpedon, maybe you'll end up with a midget – and that's assuming they even survive the process!"

"I didn't ask about the difficulties, I asked if you could," Tassiter snapped.

"Well, sure I guess," Nakayama shrugged. "With enough time and budget, you can do anything."

"And if I gave you anything you needed, how soon could I get results?"

This made the Professor pause before he hopefully asked, "You mean like anything-anything?"

"Anything."

Nakayama grinned.

Timothy scratched at a drying blood stain on his vest before settling back against the wall of their impromptu clinic. Their arrival in Jaynistown had hardly been one of celebration as the Lancer pulled up to a stuttering stop. The scene was a bleak one as survivors tended to the wounded or sought each other out in the crowd. With no medical expertise to speak of and no connection to anyone in town, Timothy had settled for merely watching everyone pick up the pieces.

Angel seemed to be of the same mind. She hadn't said anything for the past few hours and simply sat at his side, her arms loosely wrapped around her legs and head on her knees. Timothy felt tempted to strike up a conversation with her, but what was there to really say? Hey, we're still alive... unlike all those other people you cared about. Yay? He just couldn't summon up his usual optimism in the face of their current circumstances. Getting off planet was a tall order at this point, and going home was out of the question. Nope, they were in the thick of it now. He wanted to feel resentful towards Angel for making him play hero, and he would if it wasn't for the fact that things were hardly sunshine and rainbows for her either.

Briefly, he was reminded of the way Angel had dropped to her knees after saving his life – by ending someone else's. If he hadn't turned the truck around, they could've been on their way to Tartarus station coming up with a plan to get off planet. They could've been at Mom's by the end of the week putting puzzles together and Angel wouldn't have to live with the fact that she'd killed a lot of people. Truth be told, it had been both awe inspiring and more than a little frightening to see her use her powers like that. Fiddling with doors and ripping off vending machines was one thing, but that was… something else. Her powers had instantly gone from an amusing novelty to a dangerous weapon. Now, Tassiter's desire to get her back made all too much sense.

Suddenly, Timothy came to the uncomfortable realization that he still didn't know exactly how Angel had 'helped' Jack. I've killed so many people, she had said, and there was no easy way to ask what that meant.

Suppressing a shudder at the thought, Timothy tossed a glance at his silent companion. Angel hadn't shifted once in the last fifteen minutes or so as her eyes stared unseeing into the crowd. Timothy recognized the signs of shock well enough, but wasn't sure how to go about breaking her out of it.

He tried anyway, "You alright?"

Angel spared him the briefest of nods, "I'm okay."

In retrospect, that was a really stupid question. He tried again, "Hey, I'm really ah… I'm really sorry about all… everything."

"S'okay," came a muffled response.

"Do you wanna maybe talk about it?" he prompted.

Angel closed her eyes with a tired sigh, "Not really. Not right now."

Well, at least he'd tried. She'd talk to him eventually. He just had to wait for her to be ready. All things considered, she was dealing with things better than he had after his first kill. Resigning himself to silence, he was almost glad to see Roland's boots stomp up to the edge of his vision.

"How are the two of you holdin' up?" Roland said.

"Alive and too tired to complain at the moment, sooo we're good," Timothy shrugged.

"Well, we're all alive thanks to the two of you," Roland said shortly. "So you uh... you got a moment?"

Timothy silently checked with Angel who shrugged her shoulders and slowly began to push herself to her feet, "Guess our schedule's free."

If Roland didn't care for Timothy's less than enthusiastic response, he didn't comment on it. Instead, he silently lead them across the town square. Jaynistown didn't seem like much of an upgrade over New Haven, but at least there was ninety-five percent less junk piled around it so that was something. The solid walls and turrets also made it look infinitely more defensible in a prison courtyard sort of way. Other than that, it was still the same rusted buildings that were typical of Pandora, though these lacked the more homey touches that New Haven's had possessed.

The town's many new arrivals still milled around in the center with nowhere to else to go. The impromptu clinic was busy as a doctor and his assistant claptrap unit worked to patch up the injured. Timothy did a double-take as he recognized Doctor Zed from his many vending machines scattered around Pandora. If his disclaimer was serious about not having a medical license, then Timothy was more inclined to trust the claptrap.

Roland led them into a cramped garage where the Lancer was getting patched up. A pair of legs slid out from beneath before the scruffy mechanic greeted their entrance. "Dang, Roland! This girl's more busted up than a blow up doll at a bachelor party. I don't think she's gonna be goin' anywhere for a while."

Timothy caught the momentary flicker of a pained expression cross Roland's face, "As long as you can get her running again, never know when we might need it."

"Don'tcha worry 'bout nothin'," Scooter flashed him a greasy thumbs up. "I'll have her cleaner than a virgin's honey pot in no time!"

Something told Timothy that Scooter knew precious little about women or their 'honey pots'. Neither Roland nor Angel flinched at the mechanic's vocabulary, which he found even stranger. Roland gave the Lancer a lingering pat before leading them through a doorway at the back of the garage. He closed the door behind them, cutting off the last of the evening sunlight, and Timothy had to wait for his eyes to adjust to the murky gloom a flickering light bulb provided.

The atmosphere was heavy with worry as Timothy found the Vault Hunters waiting for them. Judging by the set of their faces, he figured he might as well be comfortable, and the two of them slumped down into a sunken couch.

"So, what now?" Brick unceremoniously began, and all eyes in the room looked towards Roland.

"That's what we're here to discuss." Roland didn't take a seat and instead slowly paced around the living room. "First thing's first: what the hell happened back there?"

"You mean, why Hyperion jumped us?" Mordecai clarified over the lip of a bottle. "Hell if I know. Thought we had time to get our shit together before Hyperion started booting us out."

"Exactly, we were supposed to have a week." With a sinking feeling, Timothy caught Roland's gaze as it flickered over himself and Angel. "If they were willing to go this far, they must've had something really important on the line."

"This is Hyperion we're talking about here," Lilith said. "Were we really expecting them to keep their word?"

Timothy could see what was happening here. He's fishing. Roland either knew what was going on, or at least had a good enough idea, and was waiting for either him or Angel to say something about it. But what was the point?

Angel interrupted Timothy's thought process with a raised hand, "We all know it was me they were after."

"And you wonder why we didn't want you two around," Lilith half-shrugged. "Hyperion already has enough of a bone to pick with us without the two of you being involved. And now: we're right back where we started."

Angel tensed next to him and Timothy could practically feel her sharpening her claws. He reached out to calm her down, but was rewarded with a hand digging into the flesh of his arm. Oh, boy. Here it goes.

"You don't get it. None of you get it. Hyperion doesn't care about you guys, Jack did – and he's dead. And Timothy: he's just a convenient scapegoat," Angel seethed. "When I was in their battle network, their only order was to take me alive and kill anyone else."

"Which means that every moment you're around, we're risking another attack," Lilith countered before turning back to Roland. "If they want her that bad, they're not going to stop trying."

Aaand exit stage left, Timothy thought as he readied himself to pull Angel up from the couch before someone drew blood. They'd already made their stance clear before, and he didn't think today was going to help that any. They didn't need them anyway: he and Angel were doing just fine on their own.

"Why do they want you so badly?" Roland said.

Angel held up her arm to show the tattoos peeking through the bandages, "I'm a Siren, remember?"

"I didn't forget, but Lilith's a Siren and you said they don't care about her," Roland shrugged. "What makes you different?"

"It's not just that I'm a Siren, it's what my power is," Angel began. "My power allows me to project my consciousness into electronically based software and networks."

There was a short silence before Brick's voice broke it, "What?"

"Basically, I can talk to machines," Angel sighed. "I can interface with any piece of technology that has operating software. From there, I can alter its function to do anything I wish within its designed capabilities."

Brick chuckled, "So could you make the freezer make me a smoothie?"

Angel gave him a bemused look, "Well, no. I can't make it do something it couldn't do before."

"So you're like a computer virus," Roland said.

"No, a virus is software too. It can't work outside the scope of its own programming," Angel explained. "I'm... more like an artificial intelligence, but better since I don't have the logic hang-ups and limitations."

"So you're the one that turned Hyperion's robots against them," Mordecai said. "I guess you saved our asses back there."

"I suppose so," Angel said quietly and Timothy grimaced. Reminding Angel of her body count definitely wasn't what she needed to hear right now.

"What about my Lancer?" said Roland. "I don't remember my ride being able to blow up like that."

Angel shifted uncomfortably at his side, "I-I don't know what that was. I didn't expect the shields overload like that..." Timothy had the distinct impression that she wasn't telling the whole truth with that one, but decided to keep that to himself. If she didn't want the others to know, she probably had a good reason.

"Sooo, as enlightening as this little chat's been, it's probably high time for me and Angel to hit the road. Wouldn't want to jeopardize your safety and all," Timothy struggled to pull himself out of the couch that threatened to swallow him whole.

"We can't let you leave," Roland said with a finality that stopped Timothy short.

"Why not?" Timothy said slowly as a feeling of dread settled into the pit of his stomach. Up until a few moments ago, they'd seemed all too happy to be rid of them. "Wait – we going for a repeat of Helios here? 'Hyperion can't have her, so I guess you guys have to die' sorta thing? 'Cause we've gone through this before."

It was Roland's turn to look uncomfortable. "No one's killing anyone here. What I mean is that we can't risk someone with powers like that falling into Tassiter's hands."

"Yeah, it's not like she couldn't help us," Mordecai nodded. "I mean, look what she did with those robots."

"No," Angel said firmly. "I'm not... I won't do that again."

"Why not? That was awesome!" Brick looked like he couldn't fathom the idea someone not finding the utter destruction she caused appealing.

Angel's hands knotted in her lap, "I'm not a killer… at least, I don't want to be."

"Coulda fooled me," Lilith snorted. "You had no problem working with your dad."

"I spied for my father, I fabricated information for my father, I even manipulated and blackmailed people for my father. But my father never asked me to kill anyone," Angel snapped.

Timothy took an almost perverse sense of satisfaction in seeing how stupefied Lilith was by that burn. If it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation, he'd definitely be going for a high-five right now.

"Fair enough," Roland conceded, and Timothy was grateful that the issue was swept under the rug for now. "But can we count on your help in other ways?"

Timothy glanced over at Angel who shrugged in reply. It wasn't like they had a better plan anyway. "I suppose so…? Does that mean we're staying now?"

"Yeah, welcome aboard, Soldier," Roland nodded. "Of course, if we're going to be fighting Hyperion, we're going to need more manpower than just the six of us. We'll need an army. "

"I dunno, Roland," Mordecai paused briefly to down the last of his bottle. "That sounds like a tall order. Pandora's nothin' but bandits and psychos."

"I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that are just as unhappy over Tassiter's little eviction notice as we are," Roland said. "Besides, I've got the perfect group in mind."

"Yeah, and that's what I don't get about all this," Lilith wondered. "Tassiter had to know that this wasn't exactly going to go over well. What could he possibly gain by kicking us all out? Hyperion already mines everything down here, what else could he want?"

As he listened to the Vault Hunters debate over the relative value of Pandora, Timothy wondered the same. Outside of eridium, it's not like this rock had anything worth fighting over. Even Jack's plans for the future of Pandora had involved demolishing everything with a giant kraggon and…

Oooh, shit.

"Hey, guys. Guys!" Timothy interrupted their discussion. "I think I know why Tassiter might want Pandora all to himself." The room went quiet and everyone looked expectantly in his direction. "I think he's after a Vault."

"We already found the Vault," Roland corrected. "It's what started this whole mess."

"Not that Vault, I mean another Vault," Timothy clarified. "I saw it on Jack's computer back on Helios. The Vault's got some kind of giant kraggon that he planned to release on Pandora. Y'know, another one of those weird Eridian things like on Elpis."

Lilith looked unimpressed, "You mean like the Destroyer? 'Cause that thing was a pushover."

"No, not the Destroyer. It was uhhh…" Timothy snapped his fingers, "The Fighter? No, no – the Warrior. That's it."

The Vault Hunters exchanged skeptical looks between them before Roland shrugged, "Look, I don't know anything about another Vault, but we got bigger problems right now – like surviving the next few days. First, we're going to have to bury Helena and get all the civilians settled in. Jaynistown hasn't been occupied for a while and we don't have the supplies to last here. Once we take care of that, we're gonna have to look into getting a little more firepower in case Hyperion finds us again."

Timothy could see his point. What would Tassiter's plans matter if they all starved to death. "So what do you want me and Angel to do?" he offered. If they were going to be roommates, they may as well play 'house'.

Roland glanced around the room as if looking for suggestions. When none came, he sighed, "I don't know, we just got here and nothing's set in stone yet. In the meantime, if you want to follow up on this Warrior thing, I've got just the person you could to talk to. No one on Pandora knows more about the Eridians than she does."

"Alright, sounds easy enough," Timothy agreed.

"Well, good luck getting anything out of her," Roland chuckled. "Tannis can be a little… eccentric."

Oh joy.

A/N: Alright, so we're a little late, but this chapter's hopefully long enough to make up for it. Not much to talk about in this chapter that didn't already get explained except for maybe one thing.

Let's talk about Lost Legion Eternals. C'mon, their design was pretty lazy. They basically slapped Eridian masks on the Dahl soldiers to justify them having powers. We decided to use some creative license and make them actually look a little more unique.

But let's face it, there's a much larger problem that these guys create by their mere existence that we should address. Namely, they kinda invalidate Sirens. Like, completely invalidate. The whole schtick about Sirens is that they have these crazy cool powers and that they're somehow mysteriously related to Eridians. In comparison, Lost Legion Eternals have crazy cool powers and have a direct connection to Eridians since they were mutated by a Vault. Zarpedon makes this even worse by having Siren-like markings. In other words, all the mystery is gone and Sirens are no longer unique. Thanks Gearbox Australia. Now all we need is an MMO – oh wait.

Okay, mini-rant's over. See you next time.