Timothy awoke to the sound of a toilet flush. He froze as he heard light footsteps cross the room and the creak of the cot as Angel flopped back into it. He laid still for several more minutes until her breathing settled into the even pattern of sleep before pulling on his shoes and slipping from his cot into the hallway. The last thing he needed was Angel thinking he'd been awake while she was using the toilet. She'd get all embarrassed and probably scream, he'd scream, and everyone would wake up - just bad all around.

As he exited the building, the night sky gave Timothy no clue to the hour and he had to pull out his ECHO device to check the time. He'd slept for a good nine hours or so, and he still felt like he could sleep for more. It was times like these that he missed Helios Station's day and night cycle. It was hard for him to understand how the planet's natives could spend half of their days under the darkness of night - not that Pandora was ever truly dark. Between the glow of Elpis hanging low in the sky and the blanket of stars, it was surprisingly easy to find your way around.

It seemed like Timothy wasn't the only one awake as he took in the activity going on in the center of town. Temporary tents had been pitched to accommodate the overflow of newcomers, and a couple of larger ones dominated the center of the square where food and supplies were being handed out. His stomach rumbled at the thought, but he had other things to take care of first.

Timothy headed towards the garage and hoped he'd find the pervy mechanic inside. He chanced a peek under the Lancer, but there was no sign of Scooter. He was just about to go look elsewhere when a distinctive voice called out to him from inside the vehicle.

"Oh, hey man," Scooter popped out from the turret. "What can I do ya for?"

"Hey, I'm looking for a ride and you seem like the guy to see," Timothy gestured to the garage around them.

"Shit, you new here or somethin'?" Scooter chuckled. "I handle all the transportation needs for every which person on this whole planet." All the good humor slid off his as he added, "'Least... if you got the cash."

"Is that sooo…" Timothy tried not to sound surprised. Scooter didn't seem like the kind of guy who could count past his fingers, let alone manage a planet-wide business. Then again, it took a strange type of person to flourish on Pandora. But how much money was this guy talking about? He'd hate to wake up Angel just to have her pull out some money out of thin air for him. "Actually, I'm doing a favor for Roland so if you could maybe do me a solid here…"

Scooter scrutinized him as he pulled off his cap to rub at the grease on his forehead. "Well, great!" he grinned as he ducked down out of the turret and stepped out of the car door moments later. "If Roland trusts ya, I ain't about to question it. He's got this sorta mind-voodoo thing where he can look into your soul and read ya… like a… l-like a book of words or somethin'."

Timothy followed the rambling mechanic as they crossed the courtyard back towards the entrance of town. Scooter lead him to a kiosk that came alive as they approached. "Hey, don't be shy now! C'mon, Catch-A-Riiiiiiide!"

Scooter smugly thumbed at the machine, "Recorded all that myself."

"Good ahhh, sounds great," Timothy forced out. If Scooter was getting customers, it sure as hell wasn't from his advertising.

"Alright, let's getchu in the system," Scooter held up his ECHO in front of the user interface and the screen changed completely.

"Hey there, Handsome. Coming back to check under my hood?" Scooter's voice echoed from the machine like a bad pick-up line.

"You uh… you can just ignore that," Scooter embarrassingly laughed off as he continued to enter information into the terminal. "So, whereabouts you planin' on goin'?"

"We're going to pick up Patricia Tannis," said Timothy, trying to be as short as possible to avoid conversation.

"Tannis? That woman's a few midgets short of a full circus, if ya know what I mean," Scooter said and Timothy didn't think he had room to talk. She'd hardly be the only one. "I'll tell you what, if you think she's gonna come back with ya, you gotta 'nother thing comin'. That woman takes to people 'bout as well as a skag in a play-pen."

"I'm sure I can handle it," Timothy waved him off.

"Alright, hold up your ECHO to the screen right there so's it can put you in the system," Scooter directed. Timothy did so, and after a few moments, his face appeared on the screen. "Saaay, you look awfully familiar. Have I seen you somewhere's before?"

"Eh, I hear that all the time," Timothy shrugged. "I've just got one of those faces..."

Scooter put in a few more commands before stepping away from the kiosk and the screen returned to its normal menu. "Okay, that should do it. Hey, weren't you the one that came into town with that cute girl? She still alive? Is she single?" he whispered the last conspiratorially.

Timothy had to restrain himself from laughing outright at the question. The concept of Scooter trying to get a date with Angel almost brought a tear to his eye. On the other hand, she had been awfully friendly towards him before... "Oh, you mean my daughter?"

There was an awkward pause as Scooter's mouth did its best impression of a fish out of water. "Oh, wella I was just uhhh… curious," he said finally. "Glad - glad to hear she's alright."

"You and I both," Timothy said with mock-cheerfulness. "Thanks for the help, Sport. I'll be seein' you around." He swiftly made a sweet-looking exit out of the situation and left the sheepish mechanic behind.

With transportation taken care of, Timothy turned his attention to the next matter at hand: supplies. His trip to the makeshift tent in the center of town was completed in slightly less time and with a helluva lot less awkwardness. He wasn't sure how long the trip out to Tannis' was going to take, so he'd asked for a few days worth of supplies. Angel probably wouldn't take well to the military rations he'd been given, but then again, he wasn't exactly thrilled himself. Speaking of sleeping beauty… it was time to go wake up Angel so they could hit the road.

Timothy arrived at their room to find Angel still asleep. He bent down to shake her shoulder gently, "Hey, wake up, Angel."

Angel whined and turned away, "Ugh, it's still dark out."

"Yes, and it will be for another six hours," Timothy agreed. "Now, c'mon."

Angel stretched and buried her face in her jacket. "Okay, just gimme a minute," she said thickly.

"How about we stretch it to five."

"N-no," she said with a yawn before finally sitting upright. "I'm getting up."

Timothy watched her as she slowly padded to the sink and began to wash the sleep from her eyes. "You ready to get Tannis?"

Angel looked back at him through the mirror with something of a smile curling her lips, "So, no running away to that tropical paradise?"

Timothy rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Well, the day is young. Anyway, you know where Tannis lives?"

"She has a dig site out in the Rust Commons," Angel said as she plopped back down onto her cot to pull on her shoes. "It should take us half a day to reach it, assuming we don't run into any trouble."

"Try not to jinx us," Timothy grimaced at the thought; they'd already been through more trouble than he'd like lately.

"I don't need to. It always seems to find us anyway," she said. With that happy thought, the two of them stepped out of the building and into the night. Angel shivered at his side as they crossed the center of town. "So, how are we getting there?"

Timothy made a grand sweeping gesture to the Catch-A-Ride kiosk they just reached, ignoring yet another inappropriate slogan. "Like any capable knight, my Lady, I have procured us a noble steed."

"My hero," she simpered and clasped her hands dramatically. "How did you get Scooter to let you into the system? He is… very protective of his vehicles."

Timothy shrugged, "Eh, I just told him we doing Roland a favor."

"That's nice," Angel said as she looked around and spotted the mechanic in question lounging outside of the garage. She waved cheerfully at him and Scooter began to wave back until he noticed that Timothy was standing next to her and scrambled back inside. "That was strange," she frowned.

The truck finished digistructing behind them as Timothy looked anywhere but her, "Yeah, forgot to mention: I maaay have told Scooter that I'm your dad," he said offhandedly as he walked to driver's side of the truck.

"What?"

"I still can't believe you told Scooter that you're my dad," Angel said hours later during a stretch of silence. She seemed to have trouble finding the same amount of humor in the situation that Timothy did.

The sun was just rising over the far horizon as they crested a twisting dirt road. The light hadn't reached the canyon floor yet, but the dark indigo of night had already begun to give way to the burnt orange of sunrise. A slight fog hung low over the ground, but the sun's heat was already starting to burn it away. The ride had passed mostly in silence, Timothy's attention focused on trying to navigate the maze of criss-crossing canyons that made up the Rust Commons. The most excitement they'd had in the last few hours was when he'd come dangerously close to driving right into a spiderant hive. Fortunately the sound of the engine had scared them back into the ground.

"I can't believe you're still going on about that," Timothy said. "You can tell him the truth and the two of you can have a laugh, or you can not tell him and the two of you can have an inside joke about your 'over protective father.' Either way, good times."

"Why would you even do that in the first place?" she turned in her seat to scold him. "It's not like I have a lot of friends here. The Vault Hunters probably won't ever trust me the same way again, and it's nice to be around someone that doesn't know everything I've done."

"Well, he only likes you 'cause he thinks you're cute."

Angel crossed her arms defiantly, "And what's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, you are cute," he said airily. "But where do you think that's gonna go?"

"Well, maybe you should let me decide that for myself," she countered and Timothy couldn't help but shift uncomfortably in his seat. She was right. He really shouldn't have cared as much as he did. It's not like it mattered to him what kind of company Angel kept. But still… Scooter? She could do a lot better than that.

"You're right," he began. "I'm sure the two of you would be great for each other. Just think about it: the domestic bliss of a rickety shack in the middle of a junkyard - ten snaggletoothed children underfoot. In the evenings, you can grill fresh skag for dinner while he serenades you with a banjo sonata. What more could one want out of life?"

Angel made a sound halfway between laughter and choking. "Eww, I didn't say I wanted to marry him. I just want to be able to say hi without him running away."

Timothy promised himself that he would never admit out loud how relieved that made him feel. "So, we're fine then! Great. No problems."

"You're impossible," Angel rolled her eyes at him before turning back to her ECHO device, the faint glow of her tattoos just visible beneath her jacket.

The ride continued in silence for several minutes, broken occasionally by the squish of something he couldn't identify under the tires. "You know, it's weird," Angel said at last. "There's no mention of the attack on New Haven anywhere on the planetary network. I mean, I know it only happened yesterday, but something like this should be big news on Pandora."

That was weird. Anyone with an ECHO device should've been able to upload some kind of information onto the network. The fact that no one had said a thing was suspicious. "Huh. You think Hyperion's trying to hush the whole thing up?"

"Probably," she agreed. "Someone should have found something by now. The fact that it hasn't come up at all means that Hyperion is most likely actively censoring it."

Timothy flicked his eyes briefly at her, "Why? After their previous announcement, I can't imagine they're worried over a little bad press."

"Maybe it's because of their announcement," Angel said. "Tassiter did say everyone had a week to cooperate for a free ride off-planet. I doubt anyone would if they thought they were likely to get killed for it."

"Hyperion had no problem mining this world with the locals around before, why would they now?" he said. "That's why I think Tassiter might be after this 'Warrior' thing."

Angel fell silent for a few moments before she said, "And how do you know about the Warrior?"

Timothy shrugged, "I told you guys the other night; I saw it on Jack's computer. I saw all kinds of information on it - I even know the location of the Vault. Jack kept a lotta stuff on his computer. I guess he thought having his own private terminal off the grid was the only way to keep stuff secret."

"How did you manage to get through his encryption?" Angel said. "My dad was pretty paranoid about that stuff and you don't strike me as the programming type."

Timothy flashed a grin at her, "Oh, Jack didn't secure his computer, he secured the door to his office. I kinda have you to thank for getting me through that one."

"'Forgot your password,' huh?" Angel shook her head. "I can't believe I fell for that."

"Eh, don't feel too bad. You had no reason to question it."

"Why didn't you trust me?" she said after a short pause. "Things would've been so much easier if you had just told me everything from the beginning. I mean, we probably wouldn't even be here…"

In retrospect, Timothy really had screwed the pooch on that one. If he'd had Angel's help from the start, then things would've probably been completely different. He'd still be living the high life as Jack with more money than he knew what to do with, he would've probably been dating his secretary by now - what was her name again - and Tassiter would be none the wiser. Or a corpse. He'd settle for either. He would've been sitting pretty. But, that was a big what-if.

"Yeah, that sounds good in theory, but look at it this way," Timothy began. "I had just killed a man only to have a daughter he never mentioned show up a week later. And then I find out that this daughter has superpowers. How could I possibly trust you? You could've turned me in, you could've killed me, or I could've ended up on the run down here anyway. Do you really think the two of us could've worked together? Remember how well you took it when I told you the first time?"

Angel fell silent once more before she finally said, "Do you really think things would've been so different? Sure, I would've still been angry, but it's no different than how things turned out down here. There's no one else I could've turned to in Hyperion; it's not like my father had any friends there. He was the only one that protected me, and with him gone, you'd be the only one who could. I could've helped you run the company and no one would've ever known."

"That's easy for you to say now, but how could I have known that? I would've spent every day wondering if 'today was the day she didn't need me anymore.' It never would've worked," he said. He wished so badly that things could've been that easy.

His thoughts drifted as his mind turned over her words. Could things really have been so different? The way she talked about the what-if brought to mind her tropical fantasy from last night. It was… strange how easily she accepted him being apart of her future. Then again, somewhere along the way, all of his plans had become their plans as well. Besides, tanning on a beach sounded a lot better when you had someone there beside you. But the same thought kept nagging at the back of his mind the more he thought about it: who were they going as and what did it mean for the two of them?

"What about when we're sitting on that beach after this is all over?" Timothy flicked his eyes back to Angel, only to find her looking down towards a steep ravine alongside the road. "Do you really think the two of us can play 'happy family' together?"

"What do you mean?" she said, confused.

"I'm not your father, Angel-" he clarified bluntly, the words eerily reminiscent of the ones he'd said to Jack back on Elpis, "-and I don't want to be." Now, just as then, he was terrified of what the response might be.

"I know that. I didn't ask you to be," she said, and he could tell by the tone of her voice that he'd said something stupid. He could almost taste the shoe polish in his mouth after that one. Why the hell did it matter so much anyway?

An uncomfortable silence lingered between them until Angel switched on the radio and Timothy continued driving to the sound of Vladof preaching of the ever looming revolution.

Angel peeled back the lid on a tin of Dahl rations and sniffed distastefully at the contents. There didn't seem to be anything recognizable inside, but rather a thick paste of rusty brown… stuff. She looked on the sides for a label to tell her what was in it - or an expiration date for that matter - but there was none to be found. Lacking any alternative, she gingerly gave it the sniff test, only to find it conspicuously odorless. The sound of metal scraping caught her attention and Angel glanced over to find Timothy indifferently digging into his.

"How is it?" she said despite herself. For the past hour, the two of them had fallen into a strained silence and Angel still wasn't sure she wanted to be the one to break it. The seconds dragged on as she wondered whether or not he would respond at all.

Timothy swallowed thickly, "Well ahhh… it's food. Meaty, I guess."

"What kind of meat?"

"I dunno, all of 'em? It's kinda realllly generic," he shrugged, and propped up his feet outside his window.

The last few pings of the cooling engine could be heard over the surrounding wildlife as Pandora came awake with the morning sun. Timothy had parked the truck on the crest of a hill - for safety he said - and Angel couldn't help but wonder where he had learned these things. He didn't seem like the survivalist type.

Satisfied that the food probably wasn't going to kill her, Angel dug a sporkful of the paste out of the tin and tried to focus her attention on anything else but the taste. It wasn't hard; she'd done nothing but think ever since he had to be a jerk. Why had he brought that up anyway? His words had felt like a slap to the face. If anything, he'd been the one that constantly acted like her father whenever it suited him. When they first met, in Lynchwood, and now this morning with Scooter… he never seemed willing to give up the act.

There were moments where the real Timothy would surface; goofy and awkward. It almost made it easy to overlook the fact that it was still her father's voice talking to her. And when the light hit him just right, she could almost picture the soulless redhead he jokingly referred to himself as. Of course, the change of his hair color probably helped that. She couldn't help but wonder sometimes what he looked like before his surgeries. But inevitably, he always slipped back into his Jack-impression. It seemed like he had a harder time letting go of her father than she did.

Still, maybe she was overthinking things. Maybe Timothy was worried that she'd start treating him like her father - not like she would. It seemed like such a strange thing to bring up, and it didn't help any that she'd already been thinking about her dad after finding out about the hidden computer. Her father didn't keep things from her and she had been the closest thing to a confidant he ever possessed. As Angel had grown older, and her powers more useful, it eventually became second nature for him to bring her in on his plans. But ever since she had crashed on Pandora, she'd been finding out about one secret after another. And the more she had found out about the man her father had become, the more she realized that she didn't know him at all.

No longer hungry, Angel traced little designs in the paste with her spork. "When I was a little girl, my father used to keep all kinds of things from me. Little things, like… when he put me in my first containment cell, he told me that I was a princess and that my cell was my castle."

Angel could feel Timothy's gaze on her, but settled her eyes on the lazy heat rising on the far horizon. "I guess it was easier for me to understand than the truth. Those first few years… they were the hardest. The only people I ever saw were the scientists, and they were so busy just trying to figure me out that I was barely a person to them. As I got older, I still didn't see much of my father and I began to think that maybe he had some other family out there. I used to think that they were the reason why he didn't want to see me. That he was mad at me for ruining our old family…" she trailed off quietly.

She glanced back to find Timothy on the verge of saying something, but when nothing was forthcoming, she continued, "Of course, when I finally learned how to use my powers, I realized how silly that idea was. I could see and talk to him whenever I wanted, and suddenly, he wanted to talk to me too. He couldn't keep secrets from me anymore, at least, not until the end." Angel finally held his gaze and added, "I guess what I'm saying, Timothy, is that I don't want you to be my father. My father kept things from me and he was never around. As long as you don't do that, you will never be my father."

Angel had expected Timothy to make some kind of response, but he remained quiet for so long that she started getting antsy. He must've made up his mind eventually because he tossed his tin into the truck-bed and hopped out of the truck. Circling around to her side, he pulled open her door and she wondered what the heck he was doing.

"Scooch over, you take the wheel," he shooed her over.

"Um, why?"

"Well, I'm gonna do one more thing your dad never did," he said with a grin. "I'm gonna teach you how to drive."

The truck stuttered to a stop as Angel pulled up in front of the narrow passage in the canyon wall that separated them from Tannis' camp. Turning off the ignition, she tried to remove the keys but found them unwilling to budge. She gave another few hopeless tugs until she shot Timothy a frustrated look.

"The keys aren't coming out," she said needlessly as Timothy tried not to smile.

"That's 'cause you didn't put the truck in park," he tapped the shifter between them and Angel resisted the urge to slap her forehead on the horn.

"Right, right," she sighed and struggled with the shifter until she put it in park. The key came out of the ignition with ease and she plopped the keys into his hand. "I don't think I like driving very much."

"You'll get the hang of it," he said, pocketing them. "That wasn't so bad for your first time. We'll have you racing across the planet in no time."

Angel highly doubted that. Timothy was right though, it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. At first, she had worried about accidentally crashing into something and ruining the truck, leaving them stranded. Eventually, Timothy had gotten impatient with her hesitant driving and pointed out that there wasn't a lot of things they could run into out here. The canyon bed was easy enough to navigate, and other than a few hangups with avoiding some chimney-like spiderant nests, the drive had been relatively uneventful. Still, if it gave Timothy a rest during their road trips, then she'd get used it.

She hopped out of the truck and made her way to the crevice in the canyon wall, Timothy following close behind. "So, I should probably warn you about Tannis... " she said, wondering where to begin with the archaeologist's many eccentricities.

"Nah, it's fine," Timothy waved off. "Scooter gave me an earful already, and if he called her crazy, then it must mean something."

Angel made an exasperated sound as she carefully picked her way through the rocky corridor, "What is it with you and Scooter?"

"It's not about Scooter, it's this entire planet!" his voice echoed behind. "Everyone here is crazy, it's like a - a smorgasbord of weird."

Angel couldn't really argue that; the planet was full of strange people. Still, strange didn't make them bad. Just… different. Maybe she just didn't notice it much anymore. After spending the last few years of her life watching Pandora from a distance, it seemed all too normal at this point. Realizing that saying as much to Timothy might give him the wrong idea, she decided to keep that thought to herself.

"Well, Tannis might be a little crazy, but she's also crazy smart," she said as the passageway opened up in front of them.

Timothy whistled beside her. "Now that is impressive."

Angel had only seen Tannis' camp from satellite imagery, but it paled in comparison to the real thing. The dig site was a mess of tools, equipment, and scaffolding. Piles of rocks and dirt sat haphazardly against the canyon wall where they had been moved to reveal the site beneath. And what a sight it was.

Columns and archways of pale stone sprouted from the ground, their swirling patterns of eridium giving them a near luminescent glow in the morning sun. From the shimmering light they gave off, Angel assumed they would light up the entire area at night. Here and there, enough dirt had been cleared away and she could see the stone that made up the floor softly glowing at their feet. She couldn't help but wonder what the Eridians had one used this area for.

Angel's steps slowed to a stop as she glanced up at a towering sculpture of a humanoid figure. Its features had been worn away by time, its arm amputated at the shoulder. The sheer alienness of the area was enough to give her a feeling of discomfort, like they were somehow trespassing on forbidden ground.

"Have you ever seen anything like it?" she said in a whisper, as if the stones could hear.

"Actually, yeah, I have," Timothy said lowly at her shoulder. "Back on Elpis, your dad sent sent us after this 'Vault' thing. Long story short: we ended up on a fetch quest for Jack that took us somewhere a lot like this." He nodded up at the statue above them, "Saw those guys in the flesh too. Can't say I cared for their company much."

Angel looked sharply at him, "There was a Vault on Elpis?"

"Yeah, you know that one crazy lady that tried to blow up the moon with your dad's laser?" Timothy reminded her. "Well, she was doing it to destroy the Vault inside the moon. After we took her down, she ended up telling your dad about it before he popped a cap in her."

"So she was trying to blow up the entire moon just to destroy the Vault," Angel reiterated, stunned. "That's so stupid. Why didn't she just cave in the Vault to block it off?"

"See, you think like that 'cause you're a reasonable person," Timothy shrugged. "But Pandora makes everyone crazy, even on its moon. Maybe it's some kinda EM-wave or something," said with a spooky wiggle of his fingers. "If I ever start raving about meat objects of any variety, I give you permission to put me out of my misery."

"Likewise," she agreed as they continued past the statue.

They left the dig site behind as they made their way uphill and deeper into the encampment. Angel nearly stepped on Timothy's foot in surprise as they passed under a marbled archway and disturbed a sleeping rakk that screeched indignantly before flying away. As they approached the top of the hill, she saw a small building nestled in an alcove at the back of the canyon. They hadn't taken more than a dozen steps in its direction, before they were interrupted by a bleating warning siren.

A turret Angel hadn't seen before on the rooftop swiveled in their direction before it threatened, "Halt. This area is off-limits. Any aggressive actions taken by your persons will result in your immediate termination."

"Wow, Scooter wasn't kidding about Tannis not liking company," Timothy gave a middle finger salute to the turret.

Apparently, the turret took that as an aggressive action because it said, "Threat detected," and opened fire.

Timothy immediately grabbed Angel by the wrist and pulled the two of them behind a leftover pile of rocks and dirt from the dig site. Her palms stung from where she had scraped them on the ground as the shooting died down. Wincing, she looked over to check on Timothy, only to find him peeking up over the pile, incensed.

"Threat? What do you mean 'threat?' I'll give you a threat," Timothy phased his gun into his hand.

Angel was just about to point out that she could deal with the turret with a lot less mess than he would, before the sound of a squeaky wheel caught her attention. Timothy looked about ready to shoot, until the familiar form of a claptrap unit joined them behind cover.

"You're still alive!" it said cheerfully. "Hellooo travelers, Patricia Tannis would like to welcome you to her dig site - unless you're selling something, in which case you can sell it to the turret!"

"Of course we're not selling anything!" Timothy spat out. "We're here to see Tannis!"

"Oh. Well then, follow me!" the claptrap gave a terrible mockery of a bow. "Don't mind the turret, it shouldn't target you for now."

The 'for now' didn't help set Angel's mind at ease as she dusted off the dirt on her knees and followed after Timothy. She could tell from the set of his shoulders that he hadn't calmed down any after their brush with death. The claptrap wheeled up to the door and opened it with a flourish. The first thing Angel noticed when she stepped inside was the mess. Papers lay strewn about on every available surface, datapads were stacked six deep, and equipment of an unidentifiable nature laid haphazardly around the room. She couldn't begin to imagine how Tannis could find anything in this room.

Ahead of them, tucked between an overflowing filing cabinet and a desk covered with more strange rocks, Patricia Tannis herself stooped over a microscope and held up a single finger at their approach. "Please keep those greasy appendages you call fingers from straying anywhere near my equipment," she said without bothering to look up at them.

Her words didn't seem to improve Timothy's mood any, "What kind of welcoming committee was that? Do you shoot at everyone that shows up at your door?"

"I was merely under the impression that you could follow simple directions," Tannis replied coolly before turning around. "Clearly, I overestimated you. However, being that you're still alive, there must be some purpose to your unsolicited visit."

Angel could already see Timothy forming a response, and she decided to cut him off before he could do anything too damaging. Lightly touching his arm, she glanced up at him with a look that begged for composure. "Um, Roland sent us," she began. "New Haven was attacked and we could use your help."

"And why should I care?" Tannis said dismissively. "New Haven is constantly under siege by the unruly savages that populate this planet. How is this news?"

Unlike Timothy, Angel had expected this type of response. Tannis didn't care about other people, the fact that she chose to live alone in the middle of nowhere was proof enough of this. The trick was capturing her attention. "This wasn't a bandit attack," Angel corrected. "This was Hyperion. The town was destroyed and we need your expertise to understand Hyperion's next move."

Tannis' brow arched ever so slightly, "Hyperion is behind those asinine demands broadcasting for everyone to vacate the planet, yes? While highly entertaining in their stupidity, I'm surprised they went so far as to pick a fight with the Vault Hunters. Given their history, you'd think Hyperion would be inclined to hire them instead. In anycase, what makes Roland think that my help will be of any use? I'm afraid his impeccable pecs are more suited to acts of violence than myself."

Timothy seemed to understand the game Angel was playing because he finally said, "We think that Hyperion might be after a Vault containing some Eridian thing called the 'Warrior.' Roland said you're the expert, so here we are."

"The Warrior you say," she said, clearly interested now that the subject concerned her obsession. "In my research, I've uncovered legends that tell of an ancient Eridian Guardian that can only be awoken by a special key. If my hypothesis are correct - and they always are - I believe the key it's speaking of is the very same key that was used to open the Vault. However, why Hyperion would be so interested in a Vault Guardian, is beyond me."

"Well, Handsome Jack seemed to think you could control it," Timothy said.

"Well, this 'Handsome Jack' is stupid," she said blithely. "The Guardians of the Vaults are irrelevant, only the contents matter. The Guardians themselves are nothing more than a simple security system, not unlike my turret. What makes him think that one could be so easily controlled?"

"I dunno where he got that bright idea, but I do know that he turned the eye of the last Guardian you guys killed into a planet destroying laser," Timothy shrugged.

Tannis looked impressed and from the odd contortion of her face, it didn't seem like a look she was used to making. "It seems that this Handsome Jack isn't the imbecile his choice of name implies."

"Yeaaah, that didn't turn out so well for him. He's dead." Timothy gestured at Angel, "This is his daughter."

"Charmed," said Tannis, her eyes barely flicking over to Angel. In a span of two seconds, she did double-take. "You - the waifish youth. What are those on your arm?"

Angel forgot that she hadn't bothered to pull on her jacket since the heat of the day began to rise. It's not like she expected anyone to recognize the marks on her arm for what they were, almost no one was familiar with Sirens. But this was Tannis, and Tannis lived and breathed anything Eridian.

"Oh, well, I'm a Siren," Angel admitted as there was no point in denying it.

"That much is obvious," Tannis intoned. "You wouldn't by any chance also be related to the Siren they call Lilith?"

"Definitely not," Angel said.

"Interesting, would you allow me to take some samples from you?" Tannis said, her eyes alight at the prospect. "Hair, blood, tissue, maybe a urine samp-"

"Oookay, that's not what we're here for," Timothy cut off, clearly uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken. He stepped forward as if to block the scientist's line of sight with Angel, and while she appreciated his concern, the prospect of giving up a few samples didn't exactly bother her. After all her years spent as a lab experiment, there was little Tannis could do to phase her. "Focus here, Tannis. We're here about the Vault, remember?"

"I've already told you everything I know," Tannis said evenly. "Feel free to use it in whatever manner your menial intellect can conjure up. In the mean time, I'll remain here," she dismissed Timothy and returned her attention to Angel. "Do let me know if you would like to donate a bit of your time - and bodily fluids - to my research. Lilith still isn't letting me near her after the last time."

"Hold on a minute," Timothy was looking increasingly desperate. "Look, Roland wanted you to come with us. You're no use to us out here."

"And leave my research? Roland and his uncanny facial symmetry are severely misinformed if he thinks that I would leave my dig site to share a living space with those slack-jawed mouth-breathers," Tannis snorted. "Tell him that if he's so keen for my company, he can relocate here."

Timothy knifed a hand through his hair as Angel watched him struggle to win her over. "Well uhhh… what about if I gave you other research? A ton of research - like years of research. Eridians, Vaults, Sirens - you name it."

Tannis looked unconvinced, "And I suppose you expect me to believe that you did all of this?"

Angel tried to act like this wasn't news to her, but internally, she had no idea what he was talking about. Was he bluffing? Because this was a terrible bluff. There was no way Tannis was going to join them on a promise. Especially not one as flimsy as that.

"Nah, not the scientist type," Timothy waved away, suddenly the picture of confidence. "But Handsome Jack was. He spent his entire life researching everything Eridian. And I've got all of it."

What? Angel looked up at Timothy, but his face gave nothing away. Sure, her father had spent years looking into everything Eridian because of her, but he didn't share his findings with anyone. Even the scientists that had worked on her were replaced often enough that none of them knew everything. How had Timothy gotten his hands on it? And then it came to her: her father's computer. Timothy must've transferred the files before he tried to erase them. But then, why hadn't he told her?

Timothy continued reeling Tannis in, oblivious to Angel's unease. "I'll let you read it all, but only in the comfort of Jaynistown," he smirked. "So, are you coming with us?"

Tannis smiled, "I'm already packed."

A/N: Wussup! LittlePorcelainDoll and Orieon here again with another update and just one thing to address/gripe about this time.

So, we had to point out the ridiculousness of the 'blow up the moon to save Pandora' plot TPS gave us. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea and do they regularly use cannons to kill mosquitoes? If the relic was all they needed to keep away from Jack, why not destroy it? Or cave in the Vault? Maybe with a giant laser…? Basically, we could think of a dozen different ways in which Zarpedon could've handled the Vault, but hey - at least we got space Australia, right? Good times.