Welp, I'm gratified at the response for It's the End of the World as We Know It, so for those of you who want to read the full story, check out my profile. In the meantime, here's the second chapter of Spanner in the Works...
SPANNER IN THE WORKS
CHAPTER 2:
RELUCTANT ACCEPTANCE
Harry pinched the bridge of his nose as they sat in a cubicle Moxxi led them to. "So, let me get this straight. It's the 56th Century(1), we're light-centuries from Earth, and I'm on a shithole of a planet that's groaning under the yoke of a corporate twat who happens to be your sperm donor. And we're amongst your father's enemies, who might decide to shoot us."
"If you're lucky, they may only decide to shoot me," Angel said, apparently not offended by Harry calling her father a sperm donor. "And why did you ask me about the year?"
"Because I'm from the 21st Century. I was born in 1980. Anyway, you're a human with powers called a Siren, a very rare type of human, and your special ability is basically technopathy."
"Yes. And from the 21st Century?" Angel peered at him sceptically. "Why are you wearing robes? Are you an academic? Or were you cosplaying?"
"Not exactly. It's a long story. You could say I'm a bit like you, only I'm sure I don't have blue tattoos all over me. The short version is, I'm a wizard. Or rather, that's what we called ourselves back home. I personally call them self-important lazy idiots."
Angel snorted. "Even so, a wizard? Okay, you've definitely got abilities, at least that teleportation thing. And there's something…well, Dad hooked me up to a feed of Eridium for…reasons. Long story short, Eridium boosts the powers of Sirens, but we become addicted to it. In massive doses over a long period of time, we become so dependent on it…well, Dad estimated I would die within a minute of my Eridium feeds shutting off. And yet, here I am. I'm feeling…a power from you. Something that's taking the place of Eridium, keeping me alive."
That had Harry pausing for thought. Anything to keep his mind off the fact that he was a long way from home, and three and a half millennia into the future…and that it may be a one-way trip. Was it his magic keeping her alive?
He didn't notice the man coming up to them until he heard the deep voice say, rather calmly, "So…this is what you look like in real life. And here we were thinking you were an AI, when you're actually a Siren."
Harry turned to find a man with dark skin, muscled, wearing a military uniform, looking at them. His expression was calm, but calculating. Angel, when she saw him, sighed. "Yeah. A pretty far cry from what I looked like over the ECHOnet, right?"
The man nodded. "Still recognisable, though. I have to admit, I didn't believe Moxxi when she said that the Guardian Angel was here, and with company. For the benefit of your friend, I am Roland, leader of the Crimson Raiders."
ROLAND AS
LEADER OF THE CRIMSON RAIDERS
Si vis pacem, para bellum(2)
Harry looked the dark-skinned man up and down. "Huh. I didn't think you'd be this calm."
"I'm going to listen. That's all I can promise you." Roland sat down next to Harry, and looked at Angel. "So, you're a Siren. That explains some things. And Moxxi told me you claim to be Jack's daughter."
"Yes. I didn't exactly help my father willingly, not after you guys opened the first Vault. While I was forced to stick to the script and I couldn't warn you about the Destroyer, I genuinely tried my best to help you. Unfortunately, after what happened with Zarpedon, and what Lilith did to Dad…well, you know what happened next. I didn't want to do it, but Jack had control mechanisms. If I didn't obey him, he would cause me pain."
"I saw it for myself," Harry said. "That prick tortured Angel just because she swore."
Roland nodded, digesting the information. In a way, the man reminded Harry of Kingsley Shacklebolt, and not because of the skin colour and muscular body. There was a calm and collected nature to Roland that seemed reassuring, even if his next words weren't. "I see. That doesn't make me feel any better, even if you're telling the truth. Too many people died at New Haven."
"I'm sure it wasn't. I was made to bring down the defences myself. I was even made to control some of the Loaders. But I…oh no!" Angel seemed to come to a sudden realisation. "I was too busy thinking of escape, I…dammit!"
"What do you mean?" Roland asked.
"…Jack was using me to charge the Vault Key," Angel said. "Normally, it takes two centuries, but a Siren, pumped full of Eridium, can catalyse a much faster recharging. And you may know that he is drilling for another Vault, the Vault of the Warrior. Of course, with me gone, his plans have been delayed somewhat. Not by much. Instead of a few weeks, it's a few months. It…well, it wasn't right next to me, but it was nearby. I could have found a way to grab it while we escaped, but I was more focusing on escape."
"Can he use any Siren?" Roland asked.
"Theoretically, but they need to be exposed to Eridium for some time before they can be of any use. The only Siren I know of is a new Vault Hunter who just arrived on Pandora, Maya. Jack had me vetting a group of Vault Hunters he could con into helping destroy Sanctuary by having me pull their strings. They may even arrive soon. They're not actually working for Jack, though."
Roland nodded. "I see." He closed his eyes, and considered things carefully. Eventually, he said, "I'll be blunt, Angel. A lot of people are angry about what you did to New Haven. But I will be willing to give you a chance, in exchange for telling me everything you know about Jack's plans."
"That's fine," Angel said. "I figured that's what you wanted at a bare minimum. I want sanctuary here at, well, Sanctuary, for both myself and Harry. I can also help guide the new Vault Hunters here. You'll need all the help you can get. And Roland? Jack doesn't know that Lilith is still alive. I've managed to keep that from him. I know she's working for you as the Firehawk."
"And how do you know?" Roland asked sharply.
"I'm a technopath," Angel said. "I can hack most computer systems, given time, and even if I couldn't affect Sanctuary's most vital systems without some sort of hardware to bypass the systems, I managed to hack Lilith's computers by accident while nosing around for info on the Firehawk. It wasn't hard to figure out you were chatting with Lilith, even if you were careful to not mention each other by name."
"Sorry, who's Lilith?" Harry asked.
"Dr Lilith Cashlin. Another Siren, and one of the original Vault Hunters," Angel said. "And Roland's ex."
At this, Roland looked embarrassed. "That's private correspondence," he said with a small cough. "I doubt that Lilith will be pleased to meet you, though learning you are a Siren may have her hold off on killing you first. At least for a time. Commandant Steele was a Siren, and that didn't stop her from trying to kill Lilith, or any of us. In any case, I'll have to go on a mission to deal with the Bloodshots before long. I'll try to fit in an initial debriefing."
"Harry stays with me," Angel said. "He's a newcomer to Pandora, and if he's telling the truth…well, he's come from a very long way away."
"Fine, but no funny business, or I will take you both down, hard. I am responsible for the lives of every person here, Crimson Raiders or civilians, and I don't want to risk their lives more than I have to…"
Roland took them from Moxxi's bar (the buxom bartender promising them rooms at her establishment), and to a building that doubled as some sort of command centre. Harry couldn't fail to notice that Angel looked very uncomfortable, which was hardly surprising if she had been forced to attack this New Haven place. Thankfully, nobody seemed to recognise her.
Eventually, they were brought to a command room, with a table in the centre with a hologram projected in the middle, and Harry sat down as Roland and Angel discussed things, things he didn't really listen to. Half of the stuff he couldn't have followed anyway. He was new to this time, to this world.
And it began to hit him, then and there. Malfoy had sent him over three millennia into the future, and light-centuries to another world. Some of his friends had still been alive at the time…but they weren't now. And he had no way of heading back to that time or place that he knew of.
The enormity of such a concept began to overwhelm him, and he put his face in his hands, and began to sob quietly. He was stranded on a faraway planet in the future. Even if he could get back to Earth, what was there for him? Even if he could somehow find a Time Turner, the only one he knew of could take him back hours, not the centuries he needed.
He didn't realise Roland and Angel had stopped their debriefing until he felt a slender arm around his shoulders, and a large hand on one of them. "Homesick?" Roland asked kindly.
"My friends are dead," Harry sobbed.
Angel said, "I think he's been in cryostasis until shortly before saving me. He claims to be from the 21st Century. And he's surprisingly ignorant about a lot of things. I can see the confusion in his eyes about things. But he also saved me from Jack. I told you that he somehow teleported between my prison at Thousand Cuts and here, and he teleported right next to me when he first came here. He claims to be a wizard."
"A wizard, huh? Sad thing is, I've seen weirder," Roland said, before kneeling down in front of Harry. "Hey, Harry," he said quietly. "If what Angel told me is true, you did good. You have just thrown a major spanner into the works of Handsome Jack's plans, and you saved at least one young woman's life from misery and slavery. That's more than most people would do on Pandora."
Harry looked at Roland through teary eyes, and scoffed bitterly. "An old friend of mine once told me, rather exasperatedly, that I have a 'saving people thing'. And given how Jack treated her…well, she told me to take her away, even if it meant her dying. I'm glad it didn't end up with her dead. So far."
"Fair enough. I won't lie to you, Harry. Pandora's a hellhole of a world. Outside of these city walls, we have alien monsters, bandits who will rob, rape, and kill you, and not necessarily in that order, and you have Hyperion's forces, 'civilising' this world. This isn't a place for a hero. At best, the Crimson Raiders are trying to keep people safe from Jack and his underlings. We've done some rather dodgy things, as Angel may know."
Angel shot Roland a look. "It's not trying to kill him on Helios that I object to, Roland. He had already locked me up and tortured. It's nearly taking the other Vault Hunters down with him, and endangering innocents on Helios. Athena, Claptrap, and Timothy didn't deserve your betrayal."
"Timothy?" Roland asked.
"Jack's body double," Angel explained. "Dad may have already been evil, but what you guys did took him to the next level."
"Hey, do you think I enjoyed doing that? And I hoped that the workers would be fine. And while Athena, Claptrap and Timothy may have been inoffensive, what about Wilhelm, Nisha, or Lady Hammerlock?"
"You have a point. Even then they were bad. But my point still stands. I'm staying here because, despite that, you're much better than Jack."
"Well," Harry snarked, looking at them with bloodshot eyes, "from what I've seen so far, he sets the bar pretty low."
The laughter that followed was a little forced, but still somewhat genuine. Harry's snark had helped break the ice a little. He didn't know everything about what was going on…but this situation was so familiar. A small group of rebels, going against a megalomaniac who would wipe out anyone he deemed unworthy? Yeah, he'd been here before…
And you believe her?
Roland looked at the message from Lilith on the screen. He couldn't risk sending messages over the ECHOnet, so using a different communications system was better. He'd switched encryption since Angel's admission to having tapped the comms of Sanctuary, but hopefully, that would be enough to deter Jack, especially as he was without his pet Siren.
His daughter. His own goddamned daughter. Moxxi had been right to suspect Jack was rotten to the core, even before Jack's madness reached a new level after Elpis.
Eventually, Roland typed out, I'm taking it with a pinch of salt. But what she says so far checks out, even if I don't like it, and I think she's telling us the whole truth. They've gone to Moxxi's to stay for the night. It's been a long day for both of them, and we can trust Moxxi to keep an eye on them.
After a moment, Lilith's reply appeared. Jesus. I mean, I still feel angry for what happened at New Haven, but…Jack's sent out a bounty over the ECHOnet, to the top hunters. The ones he can trust not to do anything stupid, including Wilhelm and Nisha. The bounty's ridiculously high. He wants both of them alive. I'm guessing he wants Angel for the Vault Key, and this Harry Potter to torture for abducting Angel. I don't like this. I'll trust your judgement as far as she is concerned for now, but I want her to look me in the eye and apologise for New Haven and everything else.
I'm a little wary of sending her out, especially if Jack's put a price on their heads, Roland typed out. And I'd rather not have you abandon your post, given how well you've been keeping the Bloodshots in check, along with the other bandits. Not to mention risking exposing the fact that you're alive.
I'm not a bloody porcelain doll, Lilith typed back irritably. Look, I'll Phasewalk as much as I can to the Fast Travel station, and I'll use that to head to Sanctuary tomorrow morning. At least we know where Jack took the Vault Key, so we can consider having Brick storm Angel's former cage to get it out.
Roland sighed. He knew how stubborn his ex-flame was. It was part of the reason they had hooked up, and part of the reason they had broken up. He just hoped that she wouldn't put herself in danger doing this. Especially if Angel was telling the truth, and any Siren could potentially be used as a catalyst for the Vault Key…something Handsome Jack wouldn't hesitate to exploit…
CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:
So, Roland and Lilith have been brought up to speed, and the enormity of what has happened to Harry has hit home. These first few chapters are set shortly before the events of Borderlands 2, by a couple of days. We'll have more Harry/Angel before long…and some Moxxi!
1. I don't know when Borderlands is set, but after punching in some keywords into TV Tropes, I came up with someone claiming a character to be in the 56th Century, and as that was as good a time as any to set it, I chose that. I don't know whether that's even remotely canon, but…well, we don't have anything else to base off, AFAIK.
2. If you want peace, prepare for war in Latin. I thought, given Roland being an ever-ready soldier who only fights when necessary, it was a good motto for him.
