A/N: Hey everybody! I'm back! This here chapter is a bit shorter, but in the flow of the story that's just how this one ended up. Regardless, enjoy! Remember that I own nothing!
...
Gaige grunted as she hopped off the buzzard and back onto solid ground, or at least, what passed for solid ground in Sanctuary. Zer0 and Salvador followed shortly after, and Gaige looked to her left to see the Doom Slayer exiting another buzzard nearby, his posture indicating obvious irritation.
Their mission to Lynchwood had been a definitive success, as the refinery and mining facilities in the town had been destroyed shortly after the demonic threat had been cleared out. This rendered it useless to the demons now, as there was now no way to procure more refined Eridium from the site. Additionally, whatever Eridium, Argent or otherwise, that was already in the town had been removed, with Brick enlisting the help of his Slab buzzards to transfer the palettes of glowing ore from Lynchwood back to Sanctuary.
To Gaige's right, she watched as the large palettes in question were slowly lowered to the ground via giant cargo nets attached to the underside of the buzzards, and as the Slabs that manned the crew of each buzzard began the process of unhooking them, Gaige heard the indignant voice of Dr. Tannis carry over the roar of buzzard engines as she arrived at the landing site.
"Careful, you inbred buffoons! The fact that you do not know what it is you are transporting is obvious and expected, but at the very least you could pretend to exercise caution!"
Gaige suppressed a smirk at the sight of the mad doctor taking charge of the bandits, and though it was obvious that the Slabs were not very keen of Tannis, they still adhered at least somewhat to her directions. Truthfully, Gaige figured that the Slabs were only begrudgingly following the doctor's orders due to the presence of the Doom Slayer, who had earned quite the reputation among the members of the bandit gang due to his performance in their King's initiation. The armored juggernaut was likely a living legend in the eyes of the Slabs, his notoriety even exceeding that of a vault hunter due to his consistent displays of sheer badassery.
Shortly, the last of the Argent Eridium was unloaded, and with their work complete, the Slab bandits climbed back aboard their buzzards and took to the skies, setting a course back to Thousand Cuts and their home base.
With the help of a few Crimson Raiders, the palettes of Argent Eridium were loaded onto a large hover cart and transported back to HQ, where Gaige could see Maya, Kreig, and Axton already waiting for them.
"Safe to say it was a success then?" Axton said with a smirk as he raised an eyebrow at the hover cart, which despite its size was barely containing the massive bulk of all the Eridium they'd looted from Lynchwood.
"Piece of cake," Gaige said, shrugging her shoulders in a show of nonchalance. "Those demons ain't so bad."
"Really?" Maya replied with humored skepticism.
"Yeah, totally. Ain't no thang, dudes," Gaige said, stretching her arms to further cement her display of indifference.
Wordlessly, Axton, Maya and Krieg all turned to Zer0 for confirmation.
"Endless hordes of hell," the assassin began. "Strength and numbers unrivaled."
Gaige crossed her arms in mock pouting at Zer0's truthful assessment of their encounters in Lynchwood.
"Buzzkill…" she mumbled.
"That said, Gaige fought well," the assassin concluded.
Gaige frowned at him for a moment, then let her shoulders fall as a defeated smile returned to her face.
"Aw, thanks dude! You were also on point out there today! I mean, that's like, always the case, but still!"
Zer0's mask lit up in an emoticon:
3
Gaige smiled brighter and made a similar shape with her hands towards Zer0 before turning back to the others.
"But yeah though, those demons are actually pretty tough. Like tough, tough. Like 'if Wilhelm was on steroids' kind of tough!"
"It sure was fun though!" Salvador added with a laugh. "Haven't had that much fun since mi abuela's 70th birthday!"
Despite Sal's light-heartedness, Gaige could still see obvious concern on Maya's face at the news of how much of a physical danger the demons posed. The Siren had been a bit shaken up ever since the discovery of the Argent Eridium back at the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, and Gaige couldn't help but wonder if there was some kind of "Siren-sense" that had been nagging at her about the demons this whole time.
In the beat of silence that followed, the gathering watched the Doom Slayer stride past their group and into the HQ building, silent as usual and still retaining the stiff anger that Gaige had noticed since they had left Lynchwood.
"Huh, he seems pissed," Axton noted. "I mean, relatively compared to normal."
"There was a demon / empowered with hell magic. / Stronger than the rest."
Gaige made to elaborate on the larger, more sinister demon they'd discovered, but they were all called inside by Roland before she could speak. Deciding that it would be better to give her full report with everyone present, Gaige instead shrugged and made for the entrance.
As they all filed into the building, the hellhound arrived with a flash of its teleportational lightning. The flaming canine had struck out on its own to hunt for food after their mission in Lynchwood instead of flying back with the group, which Gaige supposed made sense considering it wasn't actually able to eat any demonic corpses they'd killed during the mission itself. The hound acknowledged Gaige's presence with a look, then trotted after her into the building. Shortly, all of them had piled into the control room upstairs once more. Lilith, Roland, Brick, and Mordecai were already present, wrapping up a conversation that Gaige did not catch the details of. The Doom Slayer had already taken up a position in the room as well, his expression unreadable behind his helmet.
Curiously, Gaige noticed that Dr. Zed was also there, and her thoughts were echoed by Maya as the Siren asked about the medic's presence.
"Zed? Everything ok? Did something happen with Bloodwing?"
"Nah," Mordecai answered instead from his position opposite the console, his posture self-assured and actually holding a bit of pride. "My Blood is actually doing better than okay! I mean, she's like twenty times the size she was before and has got a bunch of crazy slag powers now, but she's healthy! She's out hunting right now, and I honestly pity anything she sets her sights on for food."
"Heh, couldn't have said it better myself," Zed said, crossing his arms. "But to be honest, I actually got no idea why I'm here. Your A.I. buddy called me in. Said my expertise might be of use to this upcoming assault of yours…"
"Hard to believe, I know," Dr. Tannis acknowledged as she entered the room, likely having just finished her examination of the newly arrived Argent Eridium. "There is little, if any, reason to enlist your services Zed, unless of course, taxidermy is involved."
"With that, we should probably begin," Roland said as Zed shot Tannis a look. "First off: Lynchwood. What happened?"
Together, Gaige, Zer0 and Salvador all recalled the details of their mission to Lynchwood. How they'd finally made contact with the demons, how they'd witnessed the aftermath of the massacre of all of the humans inside the town, and most importantly, how they'd uncovered the truth of how Argent Eridium was made.
"You're saying there's some kind of higher-ranking wizard demon that's doing it?" Brick asked confusedly.
"Yeah, totally looked like some kind of cult leader or something," Gaige said with a nod.
"VEGA?" Roland prompted.
"The demon you encountered in the town of Lynchwood is known as an Archvile," the A.I. explained courteously. "Translated artifacts recovered from the UAC's expeditions into hell have indicated that they serve as members of a ruling caste within the demon hierarchy. Records also indicate that their species is descended from one of the oldest races of demons that can be found in hell. It is likely that this particular Archvile holds a very high, if not the highest, position of command within the demonic force here on Pandora."
"...Well, at least we've got a face to put with the name," Lilith said after a pause. "If that makes any difference…"
"If this kind demon is really that high up on the totem pole, then we're in trouble, right?" Mordecai said. "I mean, if Knoxx was anything to go by, you don't have somebody that high-ranking on the ground without them leading a huge army of some kind."
"Your assessment is likely correct," VEGA replied. "An Archvile was never encountered on the Mars installation, but I hypothesize that the demonic force encountered on Mars was orchestrated by another high-ranking demon within hell instead. It is likely that this Archvile was given charge of the invasion here on Pandora due to its ability to infuse Argent Energy into Eridium."
"Then we're fortunate," Zer0 said. "Our arrival was timely. / We have stalled their plight."
Roland nodded.
"Agreed. We've managed to cut off their main supply of Argent Eridium. So whatever they're planning to do with it, we've at least put a damper on it for now."
"So, what's our next move then?" Mordecai asked.
"Now, it's time to finally move in and take the vault key," Roland replied. "Next step: Assault on Control Core Angel. VEGA, is the voice modulator ready?"
As Roland finished speaking, a small compartment opened on the far side of the console, and from it, a tiny raised platform appeared from within, and sitting upon it was the pocket watch that Krieg, Maya and Axton had retrieved from Opportunity, which VEGA explained would house both Handsome Jack's biosignature and the hardware that allowed the voice modulator to work.
"So…what?" Axton asked. "We just wear the pocket watch and suddenly talk like Jack? It's as simple as that?"
"The pocket watch houses all of the circuitry and algorithms that allow the voice modulator to function," VEGA explained. "It will interface remotely with the user through a series of nanites that will need to be administered into the bloodstream."
"Wait, what?"
Doctor Tannis let out an impatient noise from across the room.
"Must everything be explained to you with monosyllabic words and simple gestures?"
Holding up a syringe that she produced from her belt, Doctor Tannis held the small item up for all to see and pointed to it for emphasis. Inside, Gaige could see some sort of thick clear fluid.
"Listen very carefully! I take this. I stick it in your arm. Magical tiny robots travel from your arm to your throat. They link up with the voice modulator remotely and make you sound like Jack. Any more questions?!"
"Uh, yeah, is there any way to do this that isn't as…intrusive? Can't it just, I don't know, work like a regular voice distortion effect you see on computers?"
"I already told you," came Angel's tired voice from the console. "It won't work. Jack spared no expense on the security to my control core. To use anything other than this simply won't be enough to gain access to my chambers."
Gaige frowned to hear how apprehensive and almost broken the A.I.'s voice sounded. A glance around the room showed that she had not been the only one to notice, and as a few perplexed glances were shared, Roland sighed before standing up and crossing his arms.
"Right, and that's the other thing. VEGA, care to repeat what you told us a little while ago? About Angel?"
"Yeah," Lilith agreed. "I think I need to hear it again too, just to make sure I understand completely."
Lilith appeared to be unsettled, which was a very not-Lilith thing for her to be considering her usual sarcastic or carefree reaction to nearly anything. Gaige frowned and listened intently as VEGA made to speak, but before the A.I. could begin his explanation, Angel's voice interrupted.
"VEGA…if…if you're really going to do this, then at least let me be the one to tell them. I owe them that much."
"Tell us what, exactly?" Salvador asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The truth…all of it this time. Even if you hate me for it. You would have all found out eventually, but I…I hoped it wouldn't have to be this soon…"
From next to Maya, Krieg growled and crossed his arms.
"Rrrgh! Grease-slick the blades before the rot consumes!"
No translation was required, as Krieg's impatience was shared by all present parties. The sound of a deep and shaky breath from Angel came from the console, then her story began.
…
To say Gaige was stunned was an understatement, and a glance around the room showed that she was not the only one as Angel revealed the true reason as to how Jack was able to artificially charge the vault key and why VEGA couldn't bypass the Hyperion security system. The truth, as it usually was, was far stranger than fiction, and as Angel spoke, Gaige found herself finally understanding why the A.I. had been so emotionally inclined, why she had been so eager to assist the Crimson Raiders in taking down Handsome Jack once and for all.
In hindsight, Gaige should have figured that with a name like "Angel", she should have been suspecting this already.
The A.I. wasn't a super advanced Hyperion construct. In fact, she wasn't a construct at all. She hadn't been built by advanced engineers working with lines and lines of code, and the makeup of everything that was "her", wasn't just a presence in the digital plane.
No, the Angel they thought they knew didn't exist, and never had. Instead, the voice they had spoken to over the ECHO net ever since that train crash, the very same voice that had led Lilith, Brick, Roland, and Mordecai to open the Vault of the Destroyer all those years ago…belonged to a being made of flesh and blood. A human born into the galaxy that even with power that transcended reality, had still only known a life of pain and confinement. A girl that, despite what she was, was still scared of them, of Jack, and even herself.
A Siren.
There was nearly half a minute of silence after Angel had finished. Like dead silence. It was the least amount of noise Gaige had experienced since before arriving on this planet. The only noise at all coming from the hum of the center console and the faint crackling of the hellhound's fur as it blazed in its continuous fire. After a few more seconds, the teenager awkwardly cleared her throat.
"Well, uh, guess that clears up a few things."
"And spawns a million more questions," Axton grumbled.
"Questions that we need answered," Roland agreed with a nod. "With that in mind, VEGA, what's this plan of yours?"
Immediately, VEGA's A.I. symbol appeared on the console.
"Though our original strategy for assaulting Control Core Angel remains effectively the same, there are a few additions that I have made to facilitate the removal and subsequent transport of both Angel and the vault key back to Sanctuary."
"VEGA…" Angel made to protest. She was unable to speak, however, as VEGA began speaking over her, which came as a mild shock to Gaige, as she had never seen VEGA interrupt or attempt to speak over another person.
"If it is agreeable to you, Lilith, I would like to make use of your teleportational abilities to quickly extract both Angel and the vault key after the assault has reached its end."
"Works for me," the red-haired Siren said with a smirk, and Gaige noted Roland's disagreeing posture from across the control room.
"Unfortunately, your window of timing will be very small, as Angel will likely be in critical condition once the charging process for the vault key is interrupted."
"Wait, what? Why?"
"I have run numerous calculations on the amount of Eridium required to charge the vault key to its maximum capacity. For Handsome Jack to have processed enough Eridium through Angel to shorten its charging time from two-hundred years to five years, approximately several tons of Eridium will have been needed. From my investigation into how you yourself use Eridium, Lilith, I have deduced that continuous exposure to such copious amounts of the substance has rendered Angel completely dependent on it to survive. Cutting off her supply will likely cause her life functions to fail within minutes."
"So, why bring her back here then? If she needs as much as you say she does, then we only have enough viable Eridium here in Sanctuary to keep her alive for maybe about an hour at most."
"You are correct, Lilith. That is why I intend to utilize the large supply of Argent Eridium that the vault hunters and the Doom Slayer recovered from Lynchwood."
"Didn't you just get done telling me a few hours ago that absorbing that stuff would seriously mess me up? Are we just throwing that out the window now for Angel?"
"While the Argent Eridium in our possession does have the capacity to stabilize Angel, I do not intend to use it in its current state, as to do so would likely inflict the detrimental and dangerously potent effects on her Siren physiology we discussed earlier. In order to create a viable compound, I have requested the assistance of Dr. Tannis of creating a new form of Eridium. One that has had the corrupting component of Argent Energy removed while still maintaining an increased energy capacity over standard Eridium."
VEGA then explained that Argent Energy as they all knew it was actually an infusion of two separate power sources. The first was the natural and corrupting demonic energy generated by hell itself, while the second was a pure more stable energy derived from ancient creatures that he simply referred to as "Wraiths". By utilizing all that he knew about the refinement and processing of Argent Energy, VEGA was confident that with Dr. Tannis's help, he was able to safely split the Argent Energy inside the infused Eridium into its two foundational energies and subsequently remove the demonic energy from it. What would be left behind was Eridium that was still infused with great power, but theoretically held none of the pernicious properties associated with hell exposure.
It was at this point that Dr. Tannis eagerly took the floor, happily reporting that she believed that both her and VEGA had made great strides in their research so far, and that the successful fabrication of this new Eridium (barring any and all human error) was not only a very feasible goal, but one that had already been reached.
To prove her point, Tannis then produced a bar of Eridium from the bag she carried at her side, and this time, instead of glowing its original purple or the malignant red of its Argent infused version, this Eridium glowed a lighter shade of blue, and though its presence was diminished compared to its Argent version, Gaige could still see that a power of some kind still swirled beneath the surface.
"Behold, our first success! Completely free of demonic corruption! Again, rights to name it will have to be discussed at a later date."
To her right, Gaige saw Maya glance at the new ingot with interest, the Siren's shoulders relaxing ever so slightly at the sight of the powerful yet non-demonic ore.
Across the table, Lilith's eyes also widened considerably as well, and Gaige saw the red-haired Siren stand up straight for a moment before seemingly thinking better of it and leaning back against the wall she had previously occupied.
Gaige turned back to Tannis had finished speaking, and the mad doctor's enthusiasm dwindled considerably as VEGA spoke next to Dr. Zed.
"It is for this reason that I requested your presence at this briefing, Dr. Zed. I believe your assistance in successfully administering this new Eridium to Angel upon her return to Sanctuary will be crucial to her survival."
"Well, I ain't exactly an expert on Sirens, but I did bandage Lilith up a few times back in Fyrestone. Anatomy should be about the same…"
"You realize that means you two are gonna have to play nice, right?" Mordecai said, pointing at both Dr. Zed and Dr. Tannis simultaneously, and despite the seriousness of the situation, Gaige almost snickered at the looks on their two faces.
Zed seemed to be the first one to slump his shoulders in resignation.
"Well, I guess I wouldn't be much of a doctor if I shied away from every inconvenient situation now would I?"
Tannis, whose face still looked as though she had swallowed a lemon, took a moment, then spoke very carefully to Zed next.
"For the sake of science, I shall endure this."
Her whole form appeared to be trembling slightly as she tucked the new blue Eridium back into her satchel, but she refused to say more.
It was at that point that VEGA had concluded his portion of the brief, allowing Roland to take the lead once more.
"VEGA, your plan is mostly sound, but as soon as Jack finds out Lilith has left Sanctuary, he'll bomb it out of the sky. There's no victory in claiming the vault key if we have to sacrifice the city in the process."
"It is for that reason that I suggest Lilith remain here in Sanctuary until both Angel and the vault key are ready for extraction," VEGA said simply. "Additionally, once Angel is removed from the Hyperion Network, I will be able to access the systems aboard Helios Station and prevent any retaliation from Handsome Jack."
Roland listened along, then nodded his approval, and though Gaige noticed that Lilith appeared slightly upset that she would not be participating in the assault itself, she still appeared to see the logic in VEGA's plan.
From his position at the head of the console, Roland took a deep breath and addressed everyone present.
"Ok then. This is it people. Mordecai and Lilith, you two will stay here and protect the city. Brick, you and your Slabs will provide air support from Thousand Cuts while I lead the main assault from the ground. Zed and Tannis, you'll stay here with VEGA and make sure everything is ready for when both Angel and the vault key are brought back here to Sanctuary. Any objections?"
"Yeah! How come I ain't going?" Mordecai asked indignantly. "I still gotta pay Jack back for stealing Bloodwing!"
"You will, Mordecai, I promise. But right now, I need you protecting Sanctuary in case Jack tries to pull anything while we're gone."
"Hmph, long as you say so, Roland…"
"Anyone else?"
"Uh, yeah, actually…"
Everyone turned to Maya, who had raised her hand uncertainly.
"I know Angel did try to trick us and everything, but have we even asked her what she wants? Like, it's probably not gonna change anything, but we should at least hear her out, right?"
There was a brief moment of silence, then Roland tilted his head toward the console.
"Angel? You got anything you want to say?"
There was another pause, then Angel's voice began tentatively over the net.
"I…I think—"
Gaige then flinched as Angel suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream as though she'd suddenly been slashed by a sword, and as her agonized breaths echoed throughout the net and the control room, Handsome Jack's voice suddenly cut through the air, carrying over the cries of the Siren.
"You seriously thought I wouldn't find out what you were up to, Angel? Is that really what you thought?"
Gaige had never heard Jack's voice use such malice before.
"Say goodbye to your little friends, Angel. Say it!"
Angel's next words wavered, as though she was struggling to breathe them out.
"See you…soon…"
The line then went dead. And even though they all waited a brief moment longer, Angel's voice did not return. Roland sighed.
"I guess that's that. There's only one thing left to decide before making our final preparations."
Roland then gestured to Tannis, who noticeably perked up despite her altercation with Zed and strode to the center of the room. Reaching down, the mad doctor produced the syringe of voice-modulating nanites once more, this time brandishing it high and showing it to all parties present.
"Now, who would like to bite the proverbial bullet and sound like the most hated man on Pandora for the next several hours?"
As Gaige expected, no one stepped forward for a considerable amount of time, then with a heavy sigh, Roland stepped forward.
"I'll do it Tannis. Thank you."
"Perfect!" the doctor replied, taking a step towards the leader of the Crimson Raiders and switching her grip on the syringe.
"Now, side effects may include animosity from others as well as a severe desire to tear your own vocal cords out, but I assure you that it is extremely common—"
Suddenly, the very ground beneath their feet lurched, and everyone stumbled in place as Sanctuary itself seemed to drop a few inches. Immediately Roland accessed his ECHO.
"Scooter! What's going on?"
"Oh, you know…" came the voice of the town's resident mechanic and proprietary owner of the "Catch-a-Ride" service. "Just a hiccup in the ol' engine stabilizers. And by hiccup I mean one of 'em just exploded…"
The nervousness in Scooter's voice defied his attempts to trivialize the issue.
"Don't worry, I'm working on her now. She'll be right as Matilda in no time! Which is to say right as my right hand 'cause Matilda is what I named her. Not that you need to be really thinking that hard about why my right hand has a girl's name…"
Scooter was then cut off as another loud rumble tore its way through the city, and this time, it was enough that everyone in the control room was thrown from their feet as the rumbling continued. Simultaneously, Gaige suddenly felt lighter, and her blood froze when she realized that Sanctuary was literally falling out of the sky.
"Scooter!"
"Hold on, just gotta reattach this bypass valve and…done!"
Suddenly, the rumbling ceased, and Gaige felt the floor beneath her become solid once again. She stayed that way for a few moments, then shakily rose to her feet, as did everyone else.
Across from her, Roland took a deep breath, both of his hands holding onto the console for support, then called out over the ECHO once again.
"Scooter? Are we clear?"
"Yep, should be good to go!" Scooter's voice jovially crackled in response. "I mean, I'd avoid any sort of motion like jumpin', or runnin', or maybe walkin', but at least we ain't falling outta the sky no more!"
Seeing as how that was the most reassurance any of them were going to receive, their group all collected themselves before standing up yet again.
"Alright, if we can do away with any further interruptions, I'm ready to receive the voice modulator, Tannis. Hopefully Angel can still provide us the passphrase when we reach the entrance."
"Excellent!" Dr. Tannis replied as she took a half-step towards Roland. "Now as I was saying…"
Tannis immediately froze before looking around wildly.
"Wait. No one move a millimeter! I have dropped the syringe!"
Gaige wisely did so, shuddering to think about being even in any proximity to a stray needle that had the power to make her sound like Handsome Jack of all people. A look to the other vault hunters showed that they shared in her fear.
"You see it anywhere?" she asked softly to Axton, who was currently scanning his eyes back and forth on the floor in front of him.
"Nope," the commando replied. "Maya? You got anything?"
"Nothing," the blue-haired Siren replied. "Krieg, is it over by you?"
"The evening swan eludes its darkened past!"
Gaige froze the second she heard Krieg's voice.
To her right, Maya and Axton froze as well.
Slowly, all eyes within the control room looked over to the psycho, who was standing in a stunned silence. The single eye that Gaige could see behind Krieg's mask was wide open in shock, and slowly, ever so slowly, the singular eye lowered his gaze to his upper right arm.
There, standing out like a glass tower across rolling hills and dunes of skin and muscle, was the syringe, its needle plunged halfway into Krieg's arm and its contents completely discharged into the tissue within.
...
A/N: Uh oh! Big cliffhanger! Also more canon divergence here! I'm really going into uncharted territory here, so hopefully this works out ok! As always, please don't hesitate to let me know what you thought of the chapter, and don't hesitate to be as ruthless as you like. Like I said before, I know this one is a bit shorter, but the way I'm organizing events just has it working out like this. Until next time!
-ImpulsiveWeaver