Author's Note:
This next chapter's probably not going to be extensively long, but I'll do what I can to make it entertaining. Hope you all enjoy it!
Pandoran Nights Chapter 3: The Son Returns. Begin.
Angel's digital face simply stared on at them as she herself was frozen by what she'd just heard.
(Angel, we don't have all day, we need you to do this. No matter what happens to us, we have to keep Maya safe. Even if that means keeping her safe from ourselves.) Krieg's inner voice said to the stunned siren. Krieg nodded in agreement.
"I... Okay. Your supplies should digistruct in your inventory in a few moments. I'll upload map data to you so you can reach the nearest fast-travel without too much trouble..." Angel replied, looking away.
(If there's something you're not telling us, now's the time to spill it.)
"If... If you come here... To my chambers instead of Sanctuary, you'll be safe. Not even my husband will argue with me if I let you stay here..." Angel said slowly.
"Nnnnnyyaah! The pepper guards advance and stuff their blistering redwoods in my retinas!" Krieg shouted.
(I had a feeling you'd offer to protect and help us. We need to atone for what we did up there.) Krieg's sanity said solemnly.
"Yes, but if Maya is still out there, she'll want to see you before you're torn limb from limb by the Crimson Raiders." Angel replied. "Atone later, after we've found her."
"AYYEEES!" Krieg bellowed, fully supporting the idea.
(Alright, two against one, I'm outvoted here. See you in a short while, Angel.)
"Of course. Feel free to Echo me if you need anything." She replied, signing off.
Krieg nodded to the hologram of her as it faded from view, the two minds and one body making their way towards the waypoint on their HUD. The picture was shaky and unstable as their device was beginning to tarnish after so much time and a lack of proper maintenance. They found the teleportation device with little issue, only running into a small group of skags on the trek.
"I'm going to force a digistruct hack to have you teleport into my chambers. We don't have time for you to go the long way. Fast Travel to Thousand Cuts and you'll instead be instantly teleported to my chambers." Angel said as Krieg activated the device. Krieg punched in the teleportation code for the Slab colony and the world became the familiar tunnel of blue and white light. However the small dirt mound and crudely painted New-U station of Thousand Cuts was instead the button to open the door to the Control Core Angel. However, even though it was obviously the same place, it was also obviously different. The containment tube and Eridium injectors were all gone, everything but the room was stripped away. In its place was a pink and red bed that was covered in frilly, obviously soft and outstandingly girly sheets. The walls had been repainted, given new colors of red and white in place of the Hyperion standard.
"Hello and um... Welcome to my room." Angel said, slightly embarrassed by having someone in her bedroom. Krieg looked around, his one visible eye roaming across the changed scenery once more.
(Yeah, does seem a lot cozier. Well, about as cozy as an evil corporation's containment cell can be, I'd say.) Krieg's inner voice commented, causing Angel to smile slightly.
"So um... Down to business. The last time I've seen Maya or any real trace of her was when you all were last at Sanctuary." She said, standing up from her seated position on her bed and walking over to a clearing in the room, waving her hand and a computer screen digistructing before her. An image of Maya during Krieg's rampage appeared on the screen. Krieg just twitched and his right arm began to grow, Maya immediately ducking under the table in fear and all the others rising to their feet in the same amount of time.
(Well, at least we know what happened now. How come Maya doesn't come back up from under the table?) Krieg's sanity asked Angel.
"In your rampage, you killed everything in your path, mutilated citizens, even decorated the resistance fist at the top of our levitation spire with intestines and various organs like some demented Christmas tree; there was no more footage after that, you destroyed everything, Krieg." Angel replied solemnly. Krieg's hands trembled slightly and he held his hands in shaking fists of anger.
"This... quiz in my brain... it will be wrenched forth aaaand ALL WILL BE SEVERED!" Krieg said, his tone growing louder and angrier as he spoke until he spun around and pointed a finger at Angel, his one visible eye squinted with rage.
"I... I know, Krieg. That's why I had you come to me. Not just for you to find Maya, but because I saw something interesting." Angel replied, rewinding the tape. She replayed it just mere moments before Krieg twitched in the video. There was a single flicker in the frames, like a portion of the tape had been corrupted, but only in a single section of the video recording. "I don't know what it is, but there's a chance it's not nothing. I'll keep investigating the tape, in the meantime, you uh... You should really take a bath or something. You smell worse than I've ever smelt you, friend." Angel said, grimacing and pointing towards a far wall of her room.
Krieg grumbled audibly before deciding to listen to the young siren, heading towards the wall she'd pointed to. (You know, she's really nice. Almost as nice as our siren, eh, big guy?) Krieg's inner voice asked his insane side. Krieg grunted softly in agreement, nodding as he walked casually toward the wall. Krieg eventually came up to a small panel on the wall with a button on it. Looking around for a moment, he quizzically pressed the button and looked on as the wall hummed, opening inward into a bathroom with a huge bath and a walk-in shower on the other side. Beautiful ivory colored tiles decorated the floor and cream and blue tiles made intricate patterns along the walls and ceiling. He walked in, looking about as the panel whirred closed behind him.
(Well, Big Guy, time to clean up. Won't be as nice as when Maya would help us, but it needs to be done. We smell like a dead skag buried in its own bile.) Krieg's inner voice commented as he walked up to the tub and began working the controls cautiously.
Outside the bathroom, Angel was watching the footage closely, working various different programs and hacks to clear up the distortion. What looked to be a white line of distortion came from off-frame to the back of Krieg's neck, and then disappeared after a mere instant, leaving no trace of ever having been there. I shouldn't be surprised by how lousy this camera footage is, Marcus was never one for spending money, let alone spending money on good quality cameras. Jease, these look almost as old as the sniper rifle that Zero purchased a few months ago. She mused.
It was at that time that a loud commotion from the bathroom caught Angel by surprise, scaring her to no end; her emotions nearly short circuiting a few light bulbs. She nervously walked up to the wall that the bathroom was hidden behind, knocking softly.
"Uh... Krieg? ...You uh... you alright in there? Do... um... Do you need some... um... help?" she asked, rapidly growing embarrassed and even more nervous by the current situation. Please say no. Please say no. Please say no! PLEASE SAY NO! She thought to herself as she awaited an answer.
(No... We're... We're good. Just got hit with some cold water and the big guy punched a hole in the wall.) Krieg's inner voice replied in her mind. The siren audibly sighed, her discomfort fading in mere moments.
Thank The Vaults he didn't say yes! Angel thought to herself, walking back to the video footage she'd been working on. The next few days are going to be very difficult... She thought to herself, hearing another loud bang from behind the wall, followed by a cackle by Krieg.
"I'll taste the chicken in the turbulent prescriptions and govern them with my zealous questionnaire!" she immediately heard him shout, the sound of bending metal and crumpling plastic echoing from the wall as well.
...For the both of us... Angel continued thinking, drooping her head and sighing once again.
Several Days Later, In Sanctuary
The Crimson Raider HQ was quiet, almost dead silent as Roland reviewed the latest findings from the other Vault Hunters.
"Raiders, we have a situation. Meet me in the HQ." Roland said, leaning over the holo-table.
"What's going on?" Lilith asked, sitting up from her reclined, lazy position on the tattered couch.
"Yeah, you usually don't talk like that unless, well... You always talk like that. What's up?" Mordecai responded.
"Our Psycho's disappeared." Roland replied dryly, crossing his arms.
"What?! That bastard's gone?! After what he did to us, how did he find enough time out of sight to disappear?!" Brick shouted, clenching his fists.
"I don't know, Brick. He's been bumming around what used to be the Dahl Headlands for quite some time now, then, nothing. It's almost like he found our blind spot." Roland answered.
"How would he do that? What would that lunatic even do to notice a satellite in the sky?!" Mordecai asked, also getting rather perturbed by the situation.
"I don't know." Roland said sternly, looking to the hunter. With that, the other Vault Hunters slowly made their way into the room. One by one, they piled in until all were in accordance: Zero, Salvador, Axton, and Gaige, as well as the original four. "Friends, something unsettling has happened. Krieg, the one who betrayed us, has disappeared. I don't know how, I don't know why, but he's gone. The last image of him we had was this." Roland stated, addressing them all. He then presented them a picture of the psycho rolling on the ground, digging his fingernails into his own scalp, seemingly in pain.
"Looks to me like the guilt finally got him and the piece of garbage offed himself." Axton commented, disdain for the deranged man obvious on his face.
"That's possible, but judging on what Angel's told us in the last few days, he didn't remember why he was wandering the wastelands. When he did, he just snapped. But even she doesn't know what happened to him. Let alone what happened to Maya for that matter." Roland replied, gesturing with his hand.
"We had his account in the digistruct network slashed, so if he did die, he's staying dead." Lilith said, sighing. "I just wish we'd gotten some answers out of him after what he did..." she continued, sighing.
"I trusted that man/ He then betrayed all of us/ I'll see his head roll." Zero said swiftly as even the cool assassin was far beyond bent by what the psycho had done.
"First, we need to find him and get some answers, soldier. If we're ever going to find Maya, we need to get him back into Sanctuary as soon as possible." Roland said, lifting a hand to halt the assassin.
"Hah! Now you're talkin' my language. Get his crazy ass up here and I'll beat the information out of him!" Brick shouted, cracking his knuckles. Just then, the holo-table lit up with a bright white and purple glow, Angel's holographic visage appearing above the table top.
"As much as I know you'd all like to beat the information out of Krieg, that won't be of use. I've been repairing the rather shoddy camera feed from that day and discovered something interesting. What Krieg did that day wasn't his fault." Angel said softly, eliciting mixed reactions from the onlookers.
"What do you mean?" Roland asked, surprised.
"While I was overseeing him, I've been working on tapping into people's minds at long range, and I managed to enter his. He really lost memory of everything that happened that day. But I managed to trace his movements back and found some of his hair. There were traces of a foreign chemical in his system." She continued.
"Where's this going, Angel?" Lilith asked, shifting on her hip.
"The chemical was the very same used to mutate Krieg into what he is now. After clearing up the video footage of that day, I found this..." Angel replied, showing the feed on the holo-table. "Now watch closely. See? There's a distortion in the video in a perfect line that stops right at his neck." She said, highlighting the image on the screen.
"Okay, what's that prove?" Roland asked.
"This is the same footage after it's been cleaned..." Angel said, replaying the footage. The distortion was gone, and this time, a small object sailed through the air, embedding itself in the back of Krieg's neck. It looked to be a dart of some sort, a small blinking light emitting from its back. "You see, after observing Krieg, I realized that he regretted what he'd done. When his memories returned, he tried to kill himself. And not like always, he was actually cracking his own head open: he was almost into his brain when I stopped him. He-
"You stopped him?!" Axton shouted at her, his eyes wide as he stepped toward the table, pointing a finger at her hologram.
"Yes. Now please listen. I read his thoughts. His feelings. He wasn't the culprit for that day. He was just the gun used to start a war." Angel said, practically stunning everyone.
"What do you mean "Start a war"?" Roland asked, crossing his arms in thought.
"Krieg was used as a diversion. I don't know who, or why, but I can only guess that Maya was the target. Now if you still intend to beat the answers out of Krieg, he will come to you willingly. After I contacted him, his inner, sane voice asked me for the following..." Angel said, playing what Krieg had said.
"Please digistruct us a new mask, some Insta-Healths, and let us back into Sanctuary. We're going to help you and the others look for her, even if we have to die to do it." It said.
"How are we supposed to trust him? After what he did, he's lucky we didn't nuke his ass once we found him!" Brick shouted, practically going into his berserk just from hearing it.
(Then you're free to nuke us once we've arrived. Krieg and I have been staying with Angel for the past day or two, working to find out what happened. We want Maya back and safe just as much as you do, so you can go ahead and lock us up, execute us, anything you like once we're there, just let us help you all find her. She... She was all we had...) Krieg's inner voice said through a Psychic Link with Angel.
"And Zero... I'm sorry for keeping this a secret... even from you..." Angel said solemnly, her voice and even her digitized appearance showing deep regret.
"Angel, it's okay/ I am not upset with you.../ Just... very surprised." Zero replied, reaching out toward her projection, making her smile slightly.
"But even if this is all true and Krieg's innocent, we need to keep him locked up." Roland said.
"Wuh... We... S-swallow the... judgment-t..." Krieg said, forcing out as close to the proper response as possible.
Roland nodded in affirmation and Angel then turned off the connection, using her powers to manipulate the digistruct network to send Krieg to Sanctuary.
Pandoran Nights Chapter 3 end.
Hey, everyone, transcendantviewer here. I'm so sorry for the huge gap in uploads for this story! A lot's happened and my interest in writing sort of dropped off for a while. Huge writer's block hit me like a freight train and I just sort of stroked out for a while. I'll try to keep updates going, but they might still be under long delays. I'll do the best I can to satisfy all you wonderful readers out there.