Fifteen miles south east of Sanctuary.

Pandora has many defining characteristics that made it a well known planet within the galaxy such as vast desert wastelands, frozen tundras, volcanic landscapes and the vault. Those features were the reasons why the planet was saught after by thrill seekers, treasure hunters and extreme survivalists; Pandora however was not known for this, Pandora (in modern history at least) was not known for vibrant Jungle's, grasslands and lakes. This sight met the Vault hunters awed looks of disbelief as they remembered the meeting they had with Tannis back at Sanctuary.

Flashback: Sanctuary- Tannis' lab.

It took less than half an hour for the remaining Vault Hunter's to arrive, Brick and Mordecai arrived first, then Salvador, Axton and Zero, after that Maya and Kreig showed up and finally Gaige made an appearance atop of her DeathTrap.

Their greetings to eachother were short and to the point, exept for Kreig whom greeted each Vault Hunter with violent profanity, but deep down he knew how important the meeting was, after all they all had seen the meteor and the strange explosion that had followed after.

They waited for a further five minutes before Tannis made her way to the lab with Lillith and Tina in tow, "Alright, listen up you blathering Neanderthals as I am sure you are all aware a meteor struck Pandora at 1900 hundred hours just over an hour ago south east of Sanctuary's current location, while this is not unusual... meteor showers are quite a common occurrence after all, the mystery comes from its unusual color and tail. You all saw it, it was black surrounded by a black and crimson fire..." Tannis explained but was cut off by Salvador.

"Yeah we know! Can you tell us something new like how to kill it!?" Salvador shouted Impatiently.

Tannis supressed a groan and continued her explanation, ignoring the murderous ramblings of the short Gunzerker, "After the initial impact the usual rampage of local destruction did not seem to occur, according to Lillith and the hell spawn a dome of once again black and crimson energy expanded outwards until it dissipated". Tannis concluded then turned to her computer and began typing on the keypad.

The room fell silent.

The silence lasted for fifteen seconds before Brick spoke up, "Is that it?". He was ignored.

"Yes we all know that Tannis, I'd hoped you had something new" Maya added while crossing her arms. Once again Ignored.

"I'll use your chest like a meat toboggan, I'll play football with your head crazy lady!" Kreig screamed ((Translation: Tell us something we don't know you crazy bitch!)). Definitely ignored.

The other vault hunters began to voice their own disappointment to the mad scientist but they all fell upon deaf ears, they had wasted valuable time for information that they already knew and as they were about to leave Tannis spoke up again "I however have managed to analyse the energy the meteor has been releasing shortly after its impact" Tannis said as she showed everyone the computer screen.

They all looked on at the lines on the monitor with silent anticipation but soon it gave out "I don't get it" Gaige commented with confusion. A load of nods followed.

Tannis let out a long suffering sigh and counted backwards from ten then sighed deeply once more "This is the energy reading from the meteorite and for those who dont understand. Look, look how they fluctuate, if you have visited doctor Zed it should look familliar. Well does it?".

Another round of confused silence filled the room before Tannis screamed into her palms, "For the love of the Eredians listen to this" Tannis snapped as she turned up the speakers and played back the energy readings.

Ba-dum

Ba-dum

Ba-dum

Ba-dum

The room was filled with the eerie sound of echoed druns filled the air, the sound chilled the bones of everyone in the room, bar Tannis, "Do you see now, it has been consistently releasing a large amount of energy in the same pattern as a heartbeat".

Multiple eyes widened with stunned realisation, some with excitement and bloodlust but all knew one thing. They are dealing with something powerful.

With a fake cough to gain everyone's attention Tannis shut off her computer and turned towards the gathering of Vault Hunters, "This is a huge scientific discovery and I'll be damned to miss it, so tomorrow myself and whoever volunteers will accompany me to the outer badlands and we'll secure the meteor for transportation" Tannis concluded leaving the floor open for Lillith to start speaking.

"You heard Tannis she will need volunteers to join her, I volunteer myself" Lillith announced.

"Why not? it'll be almost like the old days" Mordecai said.

"You know I'm in, s'long as I can punch the dam thing" Brick shouted excitedly.

"I'll join too, the energy it gives off has me interested" Maya said cooly.

"I'm coming too!" Tina said shocking everyone, "What? If some bitch ass space rock needs some splodin' I'm your girl after all... I'm Tiny Tina Pandora's foremost expert on stuff that goes BOOM!" Tina finished with a V for victory pose.

No one to dared deny or question the demon child known as Tiny Tina, they all knew she'd find a way to join them even if they had said no, so with unsure nods of concent Tina cheered loud and proud, meanwhile Axton, Salvador, Zero and Gaige decided to hang back at Sanctuary to act as back up in case back up was needed.

After the short debate of who does what Tannis regained everyone's attention once more, "Okay now that's over with I'll need you to take this prototype experiment of mine" Tannis said while handing over a small black box to Lillith who eyed the object cautiously.

"What is it?" Lillith asked

Tannis smiled in a way that made Kreig seem sane and that honestly scared the present Vault Hunters, "My dear Lillith that is the result of years of reaserch, trial and error AAAND many many many atomised bandits" Tannis exclaimed triumphantly.

Lillith almost lost control of her bladder at the mad scientist's explanation that did not explain anything at all, after all the words trial, error and atomised should never be said in the same sentence as prototype so after a deep calming breath Lillith looked from the box to Tannis, "What is it Tannis?".

"PFTS, Portable Fast Travel System" Was the only thing Tannis said before she a disappeared into the next room.

"Oookay you heard the crazy bitch we leave tomorrow bright and early" Lillith announced as she left the lab with Tina Tina following behind, Maya shot a nervous glance at Mordecai and Brick before also leaving and it wasn't long before everyone else also vacated the lab.

Back to present time: Meteor crater.

It took a few moments for the Vault Hunter's to get over their awe and continue to press on through the thick jungle, it seemed to go on for miles but with their extremely slow progress it was hard to tell, the only one who seemed to be having any fun was Tannis whom was merrily collecting samples from various plants while humming a jaunty tune and annoying the others.

Mordecai was in a foul mood because of a killer hangover that he had awoken too, the sharp shooting sniper had decided to go to Moxxii's the night before and have a drink... Well a few drinks... Okay he ended up drinking himself under the table, it was a miracle that he was even able to attend this little expedition fortunately Brick managed to drag Mordecai out despite the headache from hell.

Tannis' incessant humming annoyed everyone else but there had been enough exposition, the exploration team traveled for what seems like miles more before coming across the crater, ground zero, and it was breathtaking, sitting in the middle of the deep hole was the meteor but it wasn't rounded like most celestial bodies no, it was like an obsidian snowflake that gave off an aura of power but the most amazing thing was that it was intact with no signs of damage. none at all.

Tannis screamed with glee as she reached into her bag and took out a chisel and hammer, "Oh my Eredian's this is absolutely amazing, this is like nothing I have ever seen before" Tennis awed as she placed the chisel upon the meteor and struck it with the hammer, however a piece did not break off like she had predicted, no, the chisel broke, snapped clean in half.

"What the hell" Lillith whispered, she like everyone else wasn't expecting it to be so tough but of course this shock translated to glee on the face of one certain berserker, Brick with a crazed smirk pushed Tannis out of his way and pulled his fist back and with a roar shot his fist forward making contact with the meteor with a loud echoing thud.

However within a second of impact Brick was sent flying backwards through a couple of tree's, the tree's crashed down on him leaving Brick with dazed expression "Look at the pretty little Rakk's Mordecai, ain't they pretty?".

While the team worked to get Brick out of the pile of tree's Tina walked around the meteor with a twisted sense of curiosity, her thoughts along the lines of 'I'm gonna blow you up'. However something soon caught her eye, something strange, something was poking out of the meteor, a sword handle to be precise, a sword handle that seems to be wrapped in white fabric. Curiosity got the better of her as she swore that she could her whispering

Tina grabbed the fabric then with a gasp that gained the attention of the others Tina fell to her knees gripping her head with a silent scream as her vision went black.

Vision: Tina's Mind.

Tina shielded her face as the darkness suddenly turned to a blinding light that hurt her eyes but after a few seconds of adjustment Tina removed her arms from Infront of her head to find herself standing on the side of a building in a strange city, with thundering clouds hanging above? To the side? honestly she didn't know, her sense of direction had been completely smashed and atomised, but one thing stuck deep into her mind and that was 'I should not be able to stand here'.

Tina looked down to what she assumed was the ground but it was not visible, just how tall? Long was this building?, 'How is this possible' Tina thought to herself as she slowly laid down against the cold glass window praying to whatever deity who was listening that the gravity did not decide to correct itself.

"What are you doing child?" Asked a deep echoed voice, Tina slowly turned her head to the right and saw a tall middle aged man standing on a pole. His face thin with stubble and sharp eyes gazed down at the teenager with an unreadable expression, "I'll ask you again. What are you doing?" The man repeated.

Tina stayed silent as she looked at the strange man, the way he looked at her with an uncaring gaze unnerved her but his aura of wisdom and power demanded respected so without thinking Tina opened her mouth, "I don't know" Was her simple reply.

The man jumped from his position on the pole and slowly walked towards Tina who grew more nervous with every step he was taking "Get up, you will not fall here child" The man said gently.

Tina cautiously stood up but was still afraid of falling so she gripped onto whatever she could until she felt stable, that thing happened to be the old man's coat. The feel of the material was strange to say the least, it felt as if she was holding nothing, almost like a shadow so with scared eyes she met his gaze and nervously spoke "Where am I?".

The old man looked down at Tina with a blank expression before he turned on his heel and walked away with Tina in tow "You are in a place that is neither dream or reality" Was his cryptic answer.

Tina was confused by his statement, 'neither dream or reality' what did that mean exactly? Where the hell was she? Do the others know that she was missing? Tina hoped that they did, maybe they'd come and rescue her.

The man stopped walking causing Tina to crash into him, he looked down at her once more and put his hand gently on her shoulder, "Tell me what you remember and maybe I can help return home" He said gently.

Tina racked her brain trying to remember just how she got there, but nothing was coming to her so she retraced her footsteps in hopes that she'd find the answer, Tina thought long and hard about Sanctuary, the meteor, the meeting at Tannis' lab, the expedition, finding the meteorite then finally seeing a sword sticking out of the space rock and grabbing a ribbon. "That's it!" Tina exclaimed, "I grabbed a ribbon that was attached to a sword that was sticking out of a meteor!"

The old man's eyes widened for a split second before returning to normal, "I see, so you found us?" He said with a thoughtful tone that hid his happiness and excitement.

"Found us?" Tina asked curiously, "What does that mean?".

The old man sighed and looked up to the stormy clouds hanging overhead "What you found wasn't a meteor but a prison, a prison that my dear friend willingly put himself into just to ease the minds of a few narrow minded fools" The old man explained sorrowfully.

"No freaking way! I don't believe it one bit" Tina exclaimed loudly, "There is no way someone is in thar snowflake shaped rock, it's impossible!".

"Believe me it is child, the man sealed within this meteor as you call it was put there after saving his world from a man who wished to become god" He explained.

Tina couldn't believe what she was hearing and didn't know if she should believe the old man or not, she looked at him closely, his words were crazy but his facial expressions and body language spoke truth so Tina decided to bite the bullet and asked a question that has been burning in her mind for the last minute. "How? How did you end up on Pandora?".

"Pandora? So that's the name of the planet that we are on... I'm not sure how long ago it was but something happend to his home and we were sent hurtling through the void of space, that is all i can tell you" The old man explained as best as he could.

Tina looked thoughtful for a second before opening her mouth again but no words came out, so she thought again and once again voiced a question that was burning her mind "Who are you and Who is he? The one trapped in the meteor?".

"My name is Zangetsu and the one sealed within is called Ichigo Kurosaki" The man answered.

"Kurosaki" Tina's eyes widened in shock, how was it possible? How could he... "He shares my name" Tina spoke in confused awe.

Zangetsu omce again looked down at the girl and with a small smile he spoke "What is your name?"

"Tina... Tina Kurosaki".

AN: I'm ending the chapter here, I hope this was good enough because this is my 15th draft.I had many outcomes drafted for this chapter but in the end I went with Tina being a kurosaki. It will be explained in either the next chapter or the chapter after that. Anyway I apologise for taking so long and I offer no excuse for my procrastination.On another note, I have decided to give my Daddy Dragon fic up for adoption in hopes that someone will finish it. As a final respect for my fic I'll be posting one last chapter with all I have planned for it up until its end, including why I didn't include Erza in the pairing vote.Once again my apologies.SSPP signing out.

ps: why is my AN bunching up like this... Strange.