BEHOLD!
I am not dead! I successfully kicked my finals in their asses and am returning to work on Legendary!
I have to admit, this chapter is not exactly the *greatest* by any means.
But I like to think it shows how much Pandora is changing.
Anywho. Thank you for being so supportive!
And shout out to CGAdam for being my beta/editor/best bro for the story

Also, this chapter (and the rest of the story) is dedicated to my good friend Befuddler (he wrote Psychosis Maybe) who was in an accident a few months ago. May he recover quickly.

The Eridium Blight was strangely quiet. No psychos running and flailing about while screaming profanities. No Bullymongs throwing rocks and bellowing. Not even the occasional rogue Loader-Bot stumbling by. It was utterly dead.

It was also trying Zer0's patience.

"This is no challenge" The Assassin drove his blade into one of the new mineral formations and carved out a chunk the size of his hand, "Not much poses a challenge/ but this? Even less." Collecting rocks was not a challenge. He observed the rock in his palm and analyzed it, sending his data back to Sanctuary. Then tossed the cluster into the deep abyss next to him.

He and Gaige had been at this process for hours: chip away rock shards, analyze, dispose, lather, rinse, repeat. The only "entertainment" was that the spunky Mechromancer had her ECHO playing some sort of punk-rock tunes to keep the awkward silence at bay.

"Ugh, this is so not fun…" Gaige groaned as she kicked a clump of dirt down the deep fissure. "I mean like...Everyone else gets to go out and adventure. Not me! I get stuck on rock duty!" She shook her fists at the sky theatrically. "Is this because of the blender incident, Lilith?!" she yelled at the clouds. "I said I was sorry!"

It was obvious that she was screaming at no one in particular, but her question piqued the Assassin's curiosity. "Blender incident?" Zer0 questioned, a bright "?" bobbing above his visor.

"Oh. Forgot you were here. But yeah, blender incident...I uh...Well…" She rubbed the back of her neck and chuckled nervously, "So it was laundry day, and everything was getting washed, like, EVERYTHING. I see why we have like six washers now, anyways, I had just gotten back from doing some stuff out in the Dust and my socks were filthy, like I'm pretty sure I brought home half the desert with me. Well since all the washing machines were full, and clanging and clattering like they were going to explode...I did what I remember seeing some guy on a movie do."

"Which involved a blender?" Zer0 sounded slightly amused.

"Yeah, I'm getting there. I filled the blender with some water, soap, threw my socks in and pressed 'mix'. It was all fine until it jammed, then kinda...cracked...and...exploded." Gaige finished sheepily, "Lilith really had it in for me and I lost my favorite socks…" she jutted out her lower lip in a pout.

The Assassin just nodded slowly and returned to carving out more Eridium rocks. He stabbed his sword into the stone and prepared himself to drag the blade.

His sword refused to budge.

Zer0 stepped back for a moment and stared at the large stone. He had no trouble before carving out chunks, why now? Once again he wrapped his hands around the hilt of his sword and attempted to move it, but still no luck.

"What is this problem?/ The stones seem harder this time/ I don't understand…" Zer0 exhaled and released his sword.

Gaige looked away from her work and over at her friend. "Zer0? What's up?"

"My sword is stuck." He projected a ":\"over his helm.

The Mechromancer scoffed and hopped to her feet. "Stuck? Pfft, c'mon man, I thought you were stronger than that." She clicked her tongue and walked over to where the sword was trapped. Gaige squinted at the blade, analyzing its position, then furrowed her brows. She grabbed the sword and pulled as hard as she could, but the thing didn't even twitch. Her hands slipped and Gaige went stumbling backwards. Zer0 chuckled softly.

"Ohhhhkay, that really is stuck…"

The two stood there for a moment, staring at the weapon in silence.

"Uhm...try...digistructing it away?" Gaige mumbled and shifted her weight.

Zer0 made a slight movement with his hand and a few pixels flickered around the blade before dispersing. The Assassin tried again, this time the sword glowed and began crackling loudly. The light radiating from it also lit up the stone below it, giving it a bright purple hue.

Suddenly, veins of Eridium began forming around Zer0's katana, creeping up the blade in a slow but clear attempt to consume the weapon.

Gaige's eyes widened. "ZER0! ARE YOU SEEING THIS?! It's like...eating your sword!" She bounced in place.

"Do you think me blind? / I am standing beside you / and it's my weapon," he commented, sarcasm lacing his voice. Zer0 shook his head and attempted to pull the sword out again, he couldn't let some alien rocks take his blade away. This time he tugged and willed the katana to deconstruct. A surge of power crackled through the blade and the rock gave one last blinding flash before shattering.

"Well, that was weird. But totally cool." Gaige leaned back. "Definitely gonna have to tell Tannis that one…" She paused for a moment, thinking quickly on something. "Shit, we still need to find out how far this crack goes…"

With a flick of the wrist, the Mechromancer digistructed two small surveyor drones and began programing some directions. The little robots buzzed and chirped a few times before diving down into the rift.

"When did you get those?/ I don't recall you having / surveyor access." Zer0 looked over the edge to see the drone flying down the rift in opposite directions.

"Sarah let me download the specs for one of her basic bots." Her face lit up. "They're gonna measure how far this crack has gone and send the data back to Tannis so she can ETA our lives."

There was a quick moment of silence.

"You suspect we'll fail?" The assassin crossed his arms, Gaige just shrugged.

"I dunno. I mean, this thing has been going on for like...8 years and no one knew? For all we know this planet could just swallow us right now!"

As if on cue, the ground trembled. Smaller cracks weaved out from the main rift and large Eridium shards pushed through the planet's surface.

"It was an expression!" Gaige groaned and stomped her foot. The ground trembled again, a low bellow roared from inside the rift and the shards began cracking. The two Vault Hunters backed away from the abyss and scanned the area. The breaking shards trembled and began glowing.

"These shards appear to / be those of crystalisk's kind / charged with Eridum." Zer0 commented and drew his sword. The ground shook once more before a horde of crystalisks rose up. Their normally golden colour now replaced with deep violet that seemed to radiate. Each one was the size of the legendary "Blue" from down in the Caustic Caverns. However the beasts trembled in instability and could barely move.

"Ohhhh shit." Gaige's eyes grew wide and she slowly backed up.

"Looks like it's angry / no matter, we've had much worse. / Let's get to work Gaige." Zer0 drew his katana and nodded at the mechromancer.

"Right!" The spunky girl summoned DT and equipped her shotgun. The ground trembled again and the crystalisks stomped challengingly. Gaige let out a battle cry and began firing shell after shell into the oversized monsters as DT swung its claws into the shaky legs, only to get stuck. The robot let out a shrill, distressed chirp and began thrashing around wildly.

Zer0 just shook his head and Gaige made some sort of noise that sounded like a gasp and a scream. She fought her instinct to dash up to her beloved bodyguard and instead motioned for him to deconstruct. DT fizzled in a flash of blue light followed by a loud pop and several pained chirps. The Mechromancer felt her bot's data store itself in her arm and she sighed.

"Sorry boy look's like you-"

"Gaige." Zer0 interrupted and pointed at the leg DT had attacked, "Look."

"What…" She looked up from her arm to where the Assassin was pointing and nearly shrieked. Her beloved robot was still stuck on the crystalisk, his eye lifeless and his chassis limp. Veins of Eridium crawled over his arm and onto his torso, the crystal appearing to want to consume DT. Fire burned under Gaige's skin, this problem had just gotten personal. She loaded her shotgun and gritted her teeth, ready to unleash a leaden hell.

Something crashed into her side, sending her sprawling to the ground and knocking the wind from her. She sucked in a lungful of strangely hot air and looked up.

Zer0 was crouched over her, staring hard at the crystalisk.

"Ugh! What the hell, Zer0?!" Gaige hissed and glared at her partner. He said nothing and instead pointed to a long scorch mark along the ground where Gaige had stood.

"Oh...THESE THINGS HAVE LASERS NOW?!" The Mechromancer screamed and scrambled to her feet as another white-hot laser nearly grazed her shoes. The two Vault Hunters dashed for cover behind their Technical, and dove behind it.

"What the hell do we even do to these things?! They're like...invincible!" She looked at the horde of creatures, noticing that none had seemed to take any significant damage, "We don't have the time or the ammo to shoot them all night an-"

Zer0 made a shushing noise and brought a finger to his helm. He pointed to one of the Crystalisks, the shard on its back glowing brightly and humming with power. He looked at the seven monsters and how only one seemed to be interested in killing them.

"Is simply living/ pushing these creatures too far?" He eyed the creatures, plotting his next moves carefully. "I need more data."

The Assassin took aim at the shard (which wasn't hard since it was a large target), tensed his finger on the trigger and waited. He took a breath and everything slowed, the only noise now was the fluid in his veins and the growing hum of power from the crystalisk 100 feet away. He waited, feeling the air grow heavier as if a thunderstorm was brewing, watching the monster hunch forward and brace itself.

Inhale. Exhale. Pull.

With a shattering crack, the Crystalisk cried out in pain-sounding like nails on a chalkboard, and bright trails of energy rippled through its body, cracking the infecting Eridium. The creature staggered and one of its legs snapped in half, leaving it even more immobile. But it was not dead, the Crystalisk chittered in distress and began charging again. Zer0 laughed and motioned for Gaige to watch.

"Watch. They are stronger / and quite intimidating / but not invincible." The Assassin took aim again, firing as soon as the charged crystal glowed its brightest. A larger pulse of energy rattled the monster and the Eridium infected crystals along its body began popping like lightbulbs.

"Talk about a real flaw," Gaige snorted and watched as her friend took his position one last time.

With one last shot, the injured crystalisk shrieked and popped. The Mechromancer cheered and held up her hand for a high-five, but Zer0 just stared at the remaining monsters and projected a "O.e" over his helm.

"Duck."

"What? AH!" Gaige gasped as the other Vault Hunter pulled her behind cover as several lasers hit the side of the Bandit Technical. The vehicle exploded in a cloud of smoke, fire, and debris, throwing a wave of heat and scorching metal against her shield. The energy barrier prevented any real damage, but Gaige still winced at the impact of some of the large bits. "Gonna have some bruises tomorrow."

As the smoke cleared, the other six beasts hummed with energy, charging for another attack. There was no way to interrupt them all without taking a large amount of damage. The Mechromancer sighed and looked over to Zer0...who wasn't...there. Gaige stared terrified as she witnessed the Assassin Gh0st out of sight and duplicate himself six times. Each virtual copy planted itself on top of a crystalisk and waited.

"Zer0 you crazy ass." The teen laughed and shook her head, knowing that all she could do was watch from a safe distance. She darted up a hill and watched as the monsters take aim at each other. "Man, these things are dumb."

In a blinding purple flash, the lasers went off all at once, and the shrill cries of pain rang through the air. Zer0 reappeared next to Gaige and gave a short laugh.

"Barely a challenge."

The two stood in silence for a few seconds before being interrupted by a deep bellow that resonated from within the abyss. It no longer sounded like a tremor; rather, it sounded like something alive.

"We need to tell Tannis about this."

Zer0 only nodded.

So. A few things to lay out first.
I decided that during my absence to start up a new series called
Pushing Boundaries. Which is pretty much a shameless indulgence series for my current Dragon Age obsession.
But you should also give it a read because REASONS.
Also. My writing style might change a little as the story progresses (and you'll all get to see the actual snarky asshole I truly am)
ALSO ALSO.
I have re-opened my commissions to bring in some nice extra cash-flow for the summer (and to prove to the parents that
"Yes, I can make some money on my art")
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so follow that link to see the details!