*Author's Note: A warning; this chapter is 20,000+ words long. So, if you're doing some kind of reading marathon or something and you don't think reading a long chapter will be for you, please stop now and come back when your mind and eyes are fresh. On the other hand, please witness the final chapter in like my longest story ever. No matter if I get flamed or whatever somebody might think of the work, I'm extremely proud of it. I'm also really happy to finish it at last. Without further adieu, here's my ending.

.

"Here lies Brick", Sir Hammerlock said to the gathered crowd, who all stood in their best winter coats except for the crazy ones, "'one of the great vault hunters and the only true king Pandora has ever known'".

Sir Hammerlock stood up before a group of about a hundred mourners for Brick's funeral. Brick had always wanted to be buried at the sight of the first vault he discovered with his friends, past the Eridian Promontory. It still snowed like crazy there and it was difficult to find a gravesite for the guy but with Deathtrap and Claptrap's improved lasers, they managed to carve out a spot for him. They used his sledgehammer as a headstone and it was etched with 'Brick; Dear Friend; Greatest Warrior; True King of Pandora; Will Never Be Forgotten'.

Sir Hammerlock stood atop of the pillar that the siren Commandment Steele had once stood to summon the Destroyer on accident some five years before. He stood behind a podium crafted by one of the Crimson Raiders with a microphone, giving the opening eulogy. He wore a coat made from the fur of a bullymong so he was well-prepared from the cold, cavernous setting.

"I'll admit that I hardly knew the man that was called Brick", he admitted, reading the words he wrote from his digipad, "but I knew his friends and the high opinions they had of him. Lilith, the beautiful siren and leader of the Crimson Raiders; Roland, who sadly isn't with us anymore either; Tina, you devilish tyke with a good heart, was practically attached to the man's hip up to a little while ago; the five vault hunters who saved my hind quarters more than I care to admit and saved all of you and continue to save you; all of them believed that Brick was a great man inside. All of them are the greatest friends that man like me could ever know. For that, I deeply regret that I never really knew him…"

He turned to look at the hole in the ground as well as the large casket next to it, crafted from eridium by Lilith and Maya.

"…and I'm sad that it's too late", he said, before gathering his digipad and preparing to walk away from the podium. "Thank you", he said as he walked away.

.

Tiny Tina crutched up the steps to the podium, helped by Gaige. Gaige placed her digipad in front of her to help her out. Tina bent over the mic, which Gaige had to readjust to her level.

"Hi everybody!" she said to the crowd meekly before staring at them with a blank face. "Okay, I promise I'm not in denial this time. Brick is gone and I know that. So, what I'm going to do is list my reasons for why God either doesn't exist or hates me. One: God let a psychotic douche named Handsome Jack get born. Two: God let another douchebag named Flesh Stick hand me and my parents over to Jack. Three: God made me watch as my parents were tortured to death. Four: God got my hopes up by introducing me to Roland, a cool guy who taught me how to fight, fend for myself and be a badass! Yeah! Five: Jokes on you, Tina; Roland can't be your new daddy because he's just gonna get shot in the back by that guy Jack! Remember him? Haha! Six: God says 'Oh don't cry, Tina, there's another nice badass named Brick who can be your friend and take care of you. He's too badass to die! Seven: Oh, wait; you live on a crappy planet where people can just shoot anybody with lasers! My best friend's dead; it's happening again!"

She emphasized this by slamming her palms on the podium and leaning against it, throwing the crutches aside. Gaige bent down to pick them up as Tina sobbed over her digipad.

Moxxi, who had been standing between Ellie and Scooter, had to excuse herself from the crowd.

"Momma!" Ellie whispered after her. "Where you goin'?"

"I'm sorry, sweetie", Moxxi apologized between tears. "It's just too much; I just need a moment."

Axton moved to possibly pull Tina off of the stage but Lilith pulled him back by the arm.

"No", she told him. "This is for the best. She needs to get this out."

"Why?" Tina asked, seemingly to everybody there with tears in her eyes. "Why does everybody I love have to die? Is this what's supposed to happen? Am I supposed to be alone? I'm thirteen, I mean, DAMN!"

"Hell No!" Ellie shouted from the crowd. "I'm here for you, girl!"

"We're all here for you, girl!" Scooter yelled. "I mean, hell, you know that!"

"While King Brick was alive", piped up a standing slab marauder near the front of the crowd, who took his helmet off, "it was mandated that Tina was to be looked out for and cared for every time she needed it no matter what! That order went for all the clans! Now, Brick's gone and it's a bit chaotic right now with the clans but I was a part of the Crimson Lance before I joined up with the slabs. I honor my word and I'm in a position where I can speak for the slabs at least. Brick was family and that means that you're family."

The other slabs in attendance murmured amongst themselves and nodded in agreement.

"Please don't go", Tina begged Gaige suddenly as she suddenly turned towards her with watery eyes.

"What?" asked Gaige, caught off-guard.

Tina hopped towards Gaige and jumped into her arms, wrapping her arms around Gaige's waist and burying her head in her chest. Gaige reluctantly held Tina as well; she held her crutches in her digistruct claw.

"Don't go to the vault", Tina repeated. "I don't want you to die too."

"Oh, come on", Gaige said. "I'm not gonna die. I'm a B.A., remember?"

"So was Brick", Tina reminded her, "and look at what happened to him."

"Hey", Gaige said, backing away from Tina and looking her in the eyes. She held Tina's chin in her free hand to comfort her. "I was there, okay. I saw what happened. Don't get it mistaken; Brick wasn't out-fought in any way. That coward Adam Blitzfield was in a spacecraft that shoots freakin' laser beams. Brick took him on with only a sledgehammer and still almost took him out. There was no shame in Brick's death. None. As for me, I'm gonna be fine. Adam can't park a peacesweeper in a vault, especially an underwater cave. We have the vault key so he has to play by our rules if he wants a shot at it."

"If you go, I'm really going to miss you", Tina admitted.

"I'm gonna miss you too, kid", Gaige said, roughing up Tina's hair with her free and unclawed hand, "but that vault is a doorway. If there's a door one-way, there's a door back. If not, we'll find a way to fly back. This isn't goodbye, this is 'see you later'."

The two hugged for a few more seconds before Tina backed away and nodded, satisfied that Gaige wasn't going to let her down. This was the third time she was hoping somebody wasn't going to die on her since her parents. She was hoping that whoever was watching over her didn't hate her that much. Gaige handed Tina her crutches and Tina went back to the microphone.

"I'm sorry, guys", Tina said, sniffling a bit. "You won't see me cry anymore, I promise!"

Tina then looked back at Brick's coffin.

"I'm gonna miss you, ya big dope", she said. "I'm gonna build my biggest bomb ever in your honor and use it on whoever turns against your slabs. You'll see."

After a second's hesitation, she crutched off of the stage with Gaige on her heels.

.

.

Up next, a short-haired blonde woman wearing the dinky scarlet armor of a slab marauder came to the podium; she was attractive in a traumatized woobie sort of way. You could tell by the look in her eyes that she couldn't believe that she was standing there. Hardly anybody knew who she was outside of the slabs.

"Hello, everybody", she said meekly into the microphone. "My name is…Dr. Sarah Veidt and I was one of the infamous scientists kidnapped at the Hyperion's extraction plant. Of course, some of us were rescued; I was…not so lucky."

She took a second to clear her throat before continuing.

"With my colleagues and I in captivity… I…we couldn't imagine what would…well we could but…we were afraid", she said, looking down. She bent her head down as she gripped the edges of the podium to gather her thoughts.

"I'm sorry", she said, raising her head again. "I'm not very good…at expressing myself. I'm working on it. Brick was an … absolute gentleman. Even when we were hostages, Brick would always say 'only scum hurt women and I kill scum'. He kept his word, he took real good care of us. Then, Hyperion left us behind and there went my home, my family, my life; my practice! I'm a medical doctor. We thought for sure that Brick would run out of patience with us; take out his frustrations on us but no. He began paying me to tend to his men. I now run my own practice again."

"Dr. Sarah Veidt", Dr. Zed said to himself in the crowd, "note to self: put a hit out on Dr. Sarah Veidt."

Somebody next to him shushed him.

"I met the love of my life", Dr. Veidt said, looking directly at the marauder who had spoken up for Brick earlier. He blew a kiss to her in response. "My point is Brick is absolutely the reason why I'm alive and doing so well today. The reason I'm telling you this is because I've heard of many people judging Brick for his actions, believing that he turned his back on people. Brick wasn't perfect but he didn't let anything happen to us girls so I don't want you to remember him that way. He was a great man and I'm gonna miss him."

.

Gaige was watching all of this solemnly when she heard some whirring next to her accompanied by some squeaking.

"Ahem", Claptrap said to get her attention. "Cough. Cough. Cough. Oh man, Gaige, I'm feeling really under the weather today. It must be all this cold and death around today. I don't think I'm up for any missions today."

Gaige rolled her eyes and folded her arms.

"Really?" she said sarcastically. "Is that so?"

"Cough", he said again. "Yup. I fear that I would simply be a burden and it would be a shame if I got anybody sick."

"I don't know", Gaige said. "I've been vaccinated and so has the others against everything so you can still come."

"Oh, no", Claptrap said, trying to sound meek. "I'm much too sick. My weapons wouldn't operate properly."

"What do you have anyway?" asked Gaige.

"The common cold", Claptrap said.

"The common cold?" asked Gaige. "You can't have the common cold. You don't have lungs, a nose, any respiratory or circulatory system to speak of; you can't catch a virus."

"What?" Claptrap asked. "I catch viruses all the time."

"A biological virus, dumb-dumb", Gaige answered.

"Oh", said Claptrap. "I have strep throat."

"You don't have strep throat", Gaige said. "You don't have an esophagus and strep is a bacteria. Again, that's biological."

"Cyber Flu", said Claptrap, snapping what he called fingers.

"Doesn't exist", said Gaige, shooting it down immediately.

"How do you know?"

"I'm the greatest robotics engineer alive", Gaige said, matter-of-factly. "It doesn't exist."

"Can-cer?" threw out Claptrap in desperation.

"Did you just say you have cancer?" asked Gaige, looking down at him.

Claptrap paused for a second.

"Yes", said Claptrap, pointing at her like he was answering something she cared about.

"If you don't want to come", Gaige said. "I'm cool with it. I'd rather you stay in Sanctuary. You could help protect it."

"Oh, really!" Claptrap fell on its chestplate and wrapped its metallic, spiny arms around her ankles. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mechromancer! You're the greatest! Um… do you mind taking off your socks and shoes so that I can kiss your feet?"

"Ew!" she said, yanking away from him. "No!"

.

.

A wiry, muscular, man of about six feet and seven inches took to the podium after Dr. Veidt. Everybody knew he was crazy because he was shirtless and wore orange jumpsuit pants like some of the other psychos. He wore a disconnected oxygen mask over his face that was cracked in half so that one eye was visible. None of the vault hunters knew him and frankly, most of the bandits didn't know him either.

"LET ME TELL YOU OF THE KING OF BLOODPILLOWS AND GUTNAPS!" he shouted entirely too loud into the microphone, causing some backfeed that made nearly everybody in attendance groan. "NOBODY PULSATES WITH GREEDY GREEDY MAN-HATRED LIKE HE OOZES WITH THE PUS OF A THOUSAND AND ONE ANTBITES ON YOUR EYEBALL! AND BOYYYYYY DOES HE OOOOOZE!"

"Who the hell is this guy?" Lilith asked Mordecai in the crowd.

"They call him Krieg", Mordecai answered. "Apparently, he's one of the craziest killers on the planet. He's a slab but he supposedly kills whoever he's around at random. Word on the street is Brick took a liking to him before he died."

"…Why does that not surprise me?" Lilith replied after a moment's hesitation.

"KING OF PISS-PUSS WOULD HAVE FLUNG MIDGET SPLEENS AND HOCKED LAVA LAMPS AT THE LOT OF YOU!" Krieg shouted as he flung his buzz ax into the ground where it stuck. He then picked up the podium over his head and smashed it to the ground where it shattered into pieces.

That was when Axton, Salvador and a few other guys walked over to him to haul him away in two groups on both sides of him. He looked both ways at them like a cornered animal.

"YOU'LL NEVER SILENCE THE BRONIE-BOY SCREAMS OF MINE ETERNAL SONATA!" he screamed at them as he ran between them to get to Brick's coffin. Good going idiot, the little voice in his head said to him though he wasn't listening. Now, we're a laughing stock and we're screwed.

He began to push it away from the others, sliding it in the snow like he was pushing a bobsled. The only thing was he was facing way from the crowd and towards the shut vault. If he had wanted to make an escape, he would have had to make a full circle with the coffin and push it past the entire crowd. He didn't get that far because Axton, Salvador and company ran over and tackled him to the ground before he really got started.

"I know he was their king and everything", Lilith said to Mordecai, "but that's the last bandit we let get their hands on the mic."

"Yup", agreed Mordecai, nodding his head eagerly.

.

.

Dr. Patricia Tannis, on the other hand, wasn't at Brick's funeral. It wasn't that she didn't care for Brick; she cared for him at the same level she cared for most vault hunters, which was barely above indifference. People who mattered to her were those who were a necessity; she wouldn't go so far to say that as soon as Brick ceased being associated with the crimson raiders that he simply ceased existing to her but she did have trouble remembering who he was at times.

At the moment, she was on an extremely rare mission outside of the walls of Sanctuary. She was at the Highlands at the precise site that the vault hunters had encountered their giant stalker with a vault symbol on its wing. She was sure it was the correct location; the waterfall was there and the rocks were in the same position and of the same size as they had described to her. She was curious about this place and why the stalker would go there.

"Day Five of submerged vault quest", she said into her echo recorder, "I'm at the site of the original stalker sighting and so far, see nothing out of the ordinary. Where could this beast have come from and how could it have stay hidden for so long? Also, why are there no animals around today?"

She had driven there by runner and at no point did she even see any stalker, thresher or skag; nothing. It was quite strange.

She looked around her, almost ready to move to another area nearby for clues when something in the waterfall caught her eye. It was really the low-point of a small waterfall where the water pooled into a small stream that eventually led to the ocean. The rockface that the water cascaded over was brown and a light gray but in the center of the rushing water was a shifting sliver of black, as if there was a crevice behind the waterfall.

"Hang on to your hats", she said into the recorder, "I think I've found something."

Tannis maneuvered over to the far edge of the pool, closest to the waterfall and used the wall as support, keeping the recorder out of the water. The spot under the water had a small stone ledge that she climbed onto, hugging the recorder tight to her body. Indeed there was a jagged crack in the mountain hidden behind the waterfall. For its misshapen quality, it was still far bigger than her so she had no problem walking through it. She found that the path was a large tunnel. She took out a small torch, actually a glass rod that shined with bright light, a favorite tool of hers for excavating. She slowly walked the tunnel, noticing the decline as she walked.

"The path seems to be heading at a downward slope", she said into the recorder, "possibly beneath the ground level. This is terribly exciting! I can feel my heartbeat racing and strange things happening in my groin! Is this what butterflies feel like?"

She continued until the path seemed to wind downwards and to the left, like a winding staircase underground.

"I've always admired the structure of the eridians' subterranean construction techniques", she said, "but the things I've recently discovered are absolutely amazing. The vault hunters have to know about this."

.

.

Tannis was finished with her exploration of the path beneath Pandora and was beat. The declining path had become an incline on the way back and that was a killer on her thighs and her calves. She stepped from the ledge beneath the waterfall and waded back over to land. She was so excited and focused that she never bothered looking around at her surroundings. As she pulled herself onto the rocks, she heard a familiar distorted voice.

"Hey, Peppermint Patty", he said.

She looked up and perched on a large ten-foot high boulder, was her old chatting buddy Rocket-Tooth Joey. He wore the black steel skull mask and the wet suit that she knew him to always wear. He had his rocket harpoon gun in his hands, armed and ready.

"J-Joey" Tannis said, "I wondered when you'd resurface again. I saw you digitize. Yet last time I checked, New U-stations were taken offline when Hyperion began to leave."

"Well, when you can hack into networks and terminals like I can", Joey told her, "that crap doesn't matter."

He slid off of the rock towards and helped her to her feet.

"Anyway, enough about me", Joey exclaimed, changing the topic, "what about you? Did you guys go through the doorway yet? Huh?"

"You know what?" she said, moving towards her runner to dry off with a towel she brought. "We did and we didn't. It turned out we needed three keys to activate the doorways. We already input two keys and we just retrieved the third."

She took her towel out of the passenger side of the runner and began running it through her hair.

"Cool, cool", Joey said with a nod. "So, do you have the vault key with you now?"

Tannis had been drying off her face, neck and ears when she stopped and chuckled at the question.

"No, Joey", she said, "that would be foolish!"

"I guess it would", Joey chuckled back. "You know what else is foolish? Being out here by yourself; it's foolish to go at it alone, sucka! Do you even carry a gun? No, because…"

"I'm above that, thank you", she answered for him.

"You're above that, I almost forgot", he said, nodding.

"I always excavate alone", Tannis said, "you know that."

"Yeah, I do", Joey said, "you do talk to me a lot. More than the vault hunters, I bet."

"Well, you're easier to talk to", Tannis said. "I never see your face so even when I talk to you in person, it's like I'm talking to a computer. I like that."

He watched her as she casually changed into a new tanktop and pair of fatigues in front of him, though not changing her bra and underwear. She sat in her seat to put on a new pair of socks and boots.

"Right", he said casually. "So maybe I should come along with you more; You know, for protection."

"I'm fine", Tannis said, "really. I excavate alone for a reason; anymore voices in my head would be a distraction."

He watched as she finished tying her boot laces and just looked up at him for a second. He reached down and softly caressed her chin, though it was a bit impersonal due to Joey's armor. Tannis wasn't very receptive and her face read of high confusion.

"You remember that promise you made to me for taking you to the vault?" he asked her. "You said I could have you."

"What?" she asked, chuckling to lighten the mood as he set his harpoon gun down on the hood of her runner; she turned her head away to pull away from him. "We're friends; I thought you were joking."

"I wasn't", he said, gripping her by the back of the head and arms and pulling her a bit too hard out of the runner towards him. "Come on, I could keep the helmet on. It'll be just like doing a computer."

"Stop, Joey", she pleaded with him as he held her against him. "You're hurting me!"

He held her tightly against him, running an open palm down the base of her spine before bringing down to caress her buttocks. He then brought it around the inside of her thighs, sliding up her belly all the way up to her chest where he squeezed her right breast.

Tannis roughly pushed him aside and puked on the ground, as he went well beyond her threshold of intimate contact, even without skin on skin. She found herself on her hands and knees, releasing three more volleys of vomit.

Joey sighed in response, throwing up his hands.

"Ah, Patricia", he said in exasperation. "You're pathetic!"

She was still on the ground, violently dry heaving when he bent down behind her to lift her weakened body and put her against front right tire of her runner. He then leaned in close to her.

"Please…don't…", she pleaded of him in a weakened voice, looking and feeling quite noxious.

"Please, don't?" asked a mocking Joey, sounding taken aback. "Please, don't do what? Do this…?"

He pulled her towards him and punched her in the stomach, drawing a sharp, shocked gasp from her. He reached back and punched her in the stomach again, causing her to bleed out of the mouth and fall forward on her hands and knees before sliding to her stomach against him. She began gasping desperately for air and held onto his ankles for support. He reached down to lift her to her feet, met with meek pushing by her and stood her up. He then hit her with a hard left hook, knocking her to his right onto her side, away from the runner.

He then practically dove into the passenger side of her runner, looking under the seats first before taking her bag and dumping its contents all over the place. Weighted to the bottom of it was the hexagonal third vault key. He laughed out loud when he saw it. He picked it up, rubbed it all over and jumped out of the runner to look down at Tannis' beaten form.

He watched her for a second, admiring her newfound beauty, and kicked her in the right shoulder to roll her on her back. He slid over on top of her, sitting down on her sternum and pinning her arms down with his knees. He watched and felt her breath in short, hollow breaths, knowing that she was fading from consciousness. He reached beneath his faceplate and pressed the release latches to take his helmet off. He flung the skull helmet to the side and untied his bundled mass of hair, letting it fall naturally to its natural length beneath his shoulder blades. He reached up to his face and readjusted his dust goggles.

"Okay, boys", Adam said to his wrist-mounted echo communicator, "you can come in now."

He reached down and lightly smacked Tannis back and forth a few times to stir her awake.

"Hey!" Adam said, lifting her head up so she was forced to groggily look up at him. "Look at me you foolish hag! I knew you couldn't stand to go anywhere without the vault key in your possession! Now, the key is mine."

He looked around as three peacesweepers came over the mountains and began to descend to the ground nearby, drawing a smile from him. He lifted her head off the ground and pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes behind his goggles, breathing in.

"I did come to care for you, you know", he admitted to her, "in my own special way; almost as much as Joanna. She's a mangled corpse now, thanks to our mutual friends."

He backed away from her slightly until he looked her in the eyes.

"My name is Adam Blitzfield", he said with a smile. "I don't think we've formally met."

Her answer was her spitting blood all over his face, making it spittle all over his goggles, nose and mouth. He paused for a brief moment, the smile fading. He didn't bother to wipe away the blood.

"I'm going to have some fun with you", he told her emotionlessly, "and then you're going to beg me to kill you. I won't; first, I'm going to destroy your vault in front of your very eyes. Only when you finally give up physically, mentally and emotionally will I finally end you."

.

.

Lilith had the microphone in her hands, calling for anybody who might have had something to say.

"Please" she implored the crowd, "if anybody else has any words they would like to say before we lay one of my oldest friends to rest. Please don't hesitate."

A large number were surprised to see the vault hunter Zer0 of all people approach Lilith and reach for the microphone, most of all Lilith herself. She solemnly handed the microphone over and Zer0 faced the crowd.

"I've heard murmurs", Zer0 said to the gathered crowd. "Murmurs that vault hunters are directionless; that we are aimless killers begging for a target. That if we didn't have the vaults for glory, we'd dog ourselves out to the highest bidder. Well, I was like that once. It wasn't so bad. I mean, the money was great. I had to be the best; the thought that anybody was better was unacceptable. Relying on anybody else was a weakness worth death. That is, until I came here. I had to learn to trust people and be trustworthy because I would die without them. We learned not only to battle alongside each other but to battle as one. That is what a vault hunter is, to the purest definition."

Axton, Maya, Gaige, Salvador, Mordecai, Lilith and even some novice vault hunters amongst them looked at each other with pride.

"Loot, vaults", Zer0 went on. "All of those are trophies but when you can do that with people who dearly hold your life in your hands and vice versa, then you don't have to ask if a vault or treasure is worth it. You've already validated everything. Brick knew this; he may have been the bandit king but he was a vault hunter at heart and that's why he laid down his life."

Zer0 actually looked back at Brick's coffin as if it pained him to say what he intended next.

"One day my time will come as well", he said. "I just hope to see you again one day in a second life. You always did amuse me with your boasts."

Zer0 then went to hand the microphone back to Lilith, who yanked him towards her for a hug. As unexpected as Lilith's embrace was, he gladly returned it. Afterwards, he slinked away from her towards the others.

"I hear all of this talk about Brick being a vault hunter and a bandit king" Lilith said, "but before all of that, he was one of my oldest friends. This sucks; I mean this really sucks. I'm not going to tell you this was some honorable death or something; under all of that battle-hardened, 'bloodthirsty' stuff, Brick was more hopeful than all of us. He wanted Pandora to be better. He might just have his way too. Maya; Axton; Sal; Gaige; Zer0; I'm coming with you to the vault to see this bitch Adam put down if for nothing else."

.

Axton, Salvador and a group of six other men lifted Brick's eridium-crafted coffin and slid it into his resting place in the rocks at the site of one of his proudest moments. As promised, after some guys shoveled rocks and snow back over his spot, Deathtrap sealed his tomb with a superheated laser. Then and only then, did Lilith allow herself to shed her tears.

.

"It was so sad", Salvador recounted to Shanna De Lumen as he relaxed for a bit with a beer in his hand. The two were lying on lawn chairs on the high rocks in front of De Lumen's Isotope Reclamation Tower. The two were watching the horizon as well as De Lumen's skag friend, Anya wrestling aggressively with Dukino. "Everybody was so down; my funeral will be a celebration of my life and accomplishments! There will be dancing, singing, happy stories told and lots of harmless shooting in the air!"

De Lumen chuckled at that and took a sip of her own beer.

"Oh, Sal", she said, "you say that now and your friends may even agree with you but you can't control how your friends will remember you bye. It may not be a celebration to them; it may turn into their mourning of you. It's not really up to you. See, it's not really your funeral, it really belongs to your loved ones."

"Ay coño", muttered Sal as he took a swig of his beer, "now I do feel sad."

They turned their attention to the skags rolling over each other. Though Dukino had grown slightly larger than the full grown Anya, she had experience and cunning over him. She rolled over his back and took him down by his neck until he was under her. This was of course a form of play to them.

"Oh, Anya", De Lumen said with a chuckle, "you dirty cougar you!"

Sal laughed as he looked over at her, drinking his beer.

"I never thought I'd ever miss you, you know", he said to her.

She didn't answer, simply smiling and looking back at the skags.

"Nothing to say, eh?" Sal said.

"I told you, Salvador", De Lumen answered without looking overĩĩ. "I can't leave this place. My home is here, with the animals. I'm sorry."

"Sì, I heard ya", he said looking down at the beer in his lap.

"Hey", she said, reaching into his lap for his left hand and held it. He gripped her hand right back. Silently, they agreed that they accepted that this was goodbye for now.

"I'll come back to visit you and the animals as much as I can", he told her.

"Good", she answered. "I will wait for you."

They stared into each other's eyes, having a million silent conversations of things they each wanted to say but neither one of them could or even needed to say. He wanted to do something else as well; there just wasn't enough time.

"Sal", called Axton over the echonet, "we're in Overlook. Come over."

"Now?" asked Sal.

"Yeah, man", answered Ax. "You wanted to be here for this, remember?"

Sal groaned as he set the beer down on the rock and leaned over to Shanna, kissing her hard on the forehead.

"I have to go", he said to her. "I'm sorry".

"I know", she said, rubbing his right arm. "Go. Go."

He slid down the rock past her and ran down towards his runner.

"I'm not going to tell you 'I love you'!" he shouted back at her.

"Good!" she shouted back with a smile, standing up. "I don't like clingy guys!"

On the way to the runner, he veered off towards Dukino and Anya and slid to his knees next to them. They were grazing in the sun, snuggling on each other. He rubbed them on the necks.

"'Till next time, friends!" he shouted and ran to the runner. They got back up and roared their own goodbyes to him.

He waved back at them and Shanna as he started the runner and sped off. She returned the wave until he made it to the tunnel to Overlook and left her sight.

.

Salvador made it just in time. Maya stood before the Overlook citizens in a crowd. The first one up to be healed was a little nine-year old girl. Her plastic mask was soaked with blood spots and her breaths came in ragged wheezes. Maya looked even more imposing in front of her as a bald woman because her tattoos loomed over her scalp and the back of her neck.

The girl was hesitant to feel Maya's touch, fearing more pain.

"It's okay", Maya assured her. "What's your name?"

"E…Eliza", the girl said hesitantly.

"Eliza, my name is Maya", she said, crouching down to Eliza. "I would never lie to a child; I promise you that. Have you ever had a bubblebath, Eliza?"

"…Yes", Eliza said after a second.

"Now, when you had that bubblebath, did you have your favorite toys?" Maya asked her.

"Yes."

"Now, didn't that make you feel happy and clean all at the same time?"

"Yes!"

"That's how I'm going to make you feel like and I'm going to take away that nasty headache of yours."

"Promise?"

"I swear to God", Maya said, holding up a straight palm.

"OK", Eliza said after a moment's hesitation.

Maya gently placed one palm on her forehead and her other palm on the back of her head, beneath where the occipital lobe would be.

"Just close your eyes, sweetheart, and try to remember your fondest memory", Maya told her.

"OK…"

"Got it?"

"Yeah!"

Maya focused her energies into the sweet girl's cerebral cortex and worked on flushing out the eridium-born toxins and rebuilding dead tissue. Eliza visualized a memory of playing with her mother in the Highland streams. This memory and her vision in general became clouded with a purple mist.

Finally, Eliza opened her eyes as Maya released her. For the first time in a while, it didn't feel like her brain was going to explode and she breathed fresh, clean air.

"It doesn't hurt anymore!" she exclaimed. "Is this real?"

Maya was just about to answer when Eliza turned around and shouted for her mom.

"Mom!" She shouted back at the woman standing a few places behind her with a mask on herself. "My head doesn't hurt anymore!"

"That's so great, sweetie!" the lady said, putting a hand over her already covered mouth, tearing up a bit.

"Do you think you can heal my mom, lady?" Eliza asked.

Maya reached out and caressed the girl's cheek.

"I think so", she answered. "I think I can heal everybody."

"You...you're an angel", Eliza said.

"No, I'm not", Maya replied. "Angels don't have tattoos. I'm just a woman who made a promise."

.

.

Salvador and Axton were standing on a porch nearby watching as Maya worked on healing everybody that was in line to meet her. They were both smoking finger-rolled cigarettes.

"Did you ever see us like this, Sal?" Axton asked. "Curing the sick? Giving water to an entire planet? Did you ever imagine something like that?"

"Hoped for it, yes", Salvador said, blowing some ash from the tip of his cigarette.

"'Hope'?" repeated Axton, with a chuckle. He reflected over those words by taking a drag and blowing the excess smoke from his nostrils. He flicked some ash off of the tip. "Hope. The only thing I've ever 'hoped' for was to become rich and not to brag, but I'm technically a millionaire."

"Bragging about money again?" Gaige asked as she walked over to their porch with her hands in her hoodie pockets. "Dude, we're all as rich as the money we haven't given to Marcus yet."

Salvador spit to the side angrily.

"That traitor isn't getting another thing from me except a bullet if I don't go through that vault today!" Salvador yelled.

"Okay, Okay", said Gaige, throwing her hands up. "I practically broke his face, remember? You're preaching to the choir, man."

"Oh, look here comes the usually 'silent' assassin", Axton pointed out as Zer0 approached them behind Gaige. "You've been talking a lot more lately. What's up with that?"

"Our current events call for a change, don't you think?" Zer0 asked.

"I liked your speech for Brick earlier", Gaige said to him. "It was nice."

Zer0 turned and looked over the town of Overlook and even over the Highlands beyond that.

"Our time is coming to an end here", he said to the others, "whether we survive or not. It would be best if we said our goodbyes and settled our affairs before our departure from this world."

"I've said everything I've wanted to say to everybody I've wanted to say it to", Salvador said. "I say we go now. Why give Helios a chance to recover? We should grab the doc from whatever crazy crap she's up to and go now."

"Now, we're talking!" Gaige said, hopping up and down excitedly. "I've been waiting for this for like a week!"

"Calm down, kids." Axton said, flicking his cigarette down and stomping it out. "Wait until Maya's done and then we'll talk about it. We make decisions as a group."

Zer0 stepped down from the porch and began walking towards the fast travel station near the entrance of town.

"Where are you going?" asked Axton.

"To grab Tannis", Zer0 said. "This is a waste of time. I already know what will Maya say; you're dragging your feet, commando."

"Commando?" asked Axton, taken aback. "I've never been called that before."

.

.

Zer0 made it back to Tannis' apartment in Sanctuary and knocked on the door. She didn't answer so he knocked on it a few more times. He used his b0re vision and realized the door was unlocked. He turned the knob and stepped inside. Using his concentrated vision, he realized that she at least wasn't downstairs so he crept upstairs to her room. She was nowhere to be found up there as well.

He heard some creaking in the hallway behind him so he pressed himself against the wall behind the doorway. When somebody stepped inside, he shoved them against Dr. Tannis' dresser and put his blade to their throat.

"Zer0!" yelled Mordecai. "What the hell, man!"

Zer0 released him and gave him some space.

"Where's Dr. Tannis?" Zer0 asked.

"I was checking around her place for some clues", Mordecai said, checking his throat for blood. "There's something you need to see."

.

.

"Thank you, so much", Karima said, holding Maya's hands in her own. She had just been the last to be healed by Maya per her request. "You don't know how much this means to all of us! You've given us our lives back! It's really gone now! I can feel it!"

"You're welcome", Maya said with a slight smile. She had healed everybody in town and it had put stress on her energies. Her eyes were a bit glossy and she felt like she could take nap for a few hours, but she knew she had to press through that. "Karima, this has been my last gift. You're going to have to take care of your people from now on, okay?"

"Of course", Karima said.

"No", Maya said, shaking her head. "You don't understand; I mean, this is goodbye. We'll be leaving this planet."

"Really", Karima asked, "I mean, wow."

"We'll try to come back", Maya said, "but honestly, I think our time is done here."

"Well, here", Karima said, trying to take Maya by her hand to her place, "let me fix you something to eat. I make a mean skag stew; I know it's small but it's the least I can do…"

Maya was pulled a bit but held her ground and pulled her hand from Karima's grip.

"I'm sorry, Karima", Maya said, apologetically, "I can't. There's no time. We …we have to go."

Karima walked back towards her.

"But the kids…they love you", she said, pointing out some of the kids, including Eliza who were watching but keeping their distance while the adults talked. "How am I ever going to repay you for everything you've done?"

"Live", Maya answered. "Live the best life you possibly can. Make sure all these people do the same. They're all depending on you now but you're Karima, so I know you can do it."

Karima stared at her for a second, before walking over and hugging her.

"You know", she whispered into Maya's ear. "You look pretty good bald."

"Ugh, don't remind me", Maya replied.

.

.

They then exchanged goodbyes when Maya walked away towards the other vault hunters at the entrance of Overlook.

To Maya's surprise, Mordecai and Lilith had joined the usual gang and they were both suited up and ready to go to war.

"So, you guys are coming to the vault?" asked Maya.

She saw the group give each other awkward glances.

"Show her", said Sal.

Lilith took out her digipad and replayed the echnonet feed that was originally sent over the net an hour prior.

.

.

The first thing to be seen in the video was a close up of the black skull mask of Rocket-Tooth Joey. Then, the mask was pulled away to reveal the dust-goggled face of their archnemesis Adam Blitzfield. He began chuckling as he was clearly proud of himself. Surrounding him was a shed-like room, filled with a bunch of hooks of various sizes as well as various guns, harpoons and general fishing tools.

"Now, I know this video is going to get back to the vault hunters", Adam explained to the camera, "so I'm just going to talk to you guys from now on. Vault hunters, you are seeing the inside of Rocket-Tooth Joey's Cliffside shack in the highlands. Funny thing is, there is no Rocket-tooth Joey! That dude that Tannis has been chatting with all this time has been me! I've been dying to get my hands on one of these vaults for a long time and now I have the motherload of them all. Even better…"

He gestured the cameraman to follow him into another room. In the back room were two soldiers standing guard over Dr. Patricia Tannis, who was sitting, taped to a chair with a bloody face and her head slumped forward.

Adam walked over to the table next to her and picked up the vault key and held it up for the camera.

"I've been inside your vault guys so I know its layout" he continued. "I have your key, I have your vault and I have your archaeologist! So much for the final battle, huh? I've already won! By the time you see this; I'll already be in the vault blowing the crap out of it! Oh, feel to drop by though. Just do me a favor and remember that just before I slaughter all of you like pigs; that all of you, Brick included, died for nothing."

Dr. Tannis began to groan as she resumed consciousness.

"Oh, look", Adam said as he went to her, "my princess awakes."

He went behind her and placed his gloved hands over her eyes.

"Oh, Patriciaaa", he called out, "I have a surprise for you! See, Jack had so much fun listening to those tapes that he put them on the net. So, I already knew certain things about you before we talked; sorry for cheating."

"Everybody knows what all your so-called friends already know", he said, saying into her ear just loud enough to be recorded on film, "that you're a schizophrenic, spastic, freak. How could anybody ever like you, huh? You even make me sick. It's okay, though, I brought you a present anyway."

Adam removed his hands from Tannis' eyes, revealing what his men had placed across from her. They had apparently found her ceiling chair beau, Phillipe, and taped him back together. To anybody else, he was just a wooden chair with a sticky adhesive that could stick to the ceiling, but to her he was once her Mr. Right.

"What is this?" she asked flippantly. "That was once one of my ceiling chairs, yes, and I was once disturbed but you've clearly just taped it back together."

"Patty, it's me", a monotone tape recorded voice said that was attached to the chair by tape in the back, "Help!"

"Phillipe, my love!" she screamed, struggling in her chair. "You monsters! Don't take my Phillipe away again!"

She shook her chair enough to fall over on her side but remained helpless. Adam nodded an order to one of his guys by the ceiling chair. The soldier took his sledgehammer and began smashing the chair to bits in front of her eyes.

"No!" she screamed, turning away as 'Phillipe' cried for help. "Not again!"

Adam then stepped back in front of the camera, talking as Tannis cried out in the background.

"So, you got to see me break her emotionally" he said. "You don't get to see the best parts where I can do anything I want to her. So, here's me signing off. I'm Adam Blitzfield and I already beat you so don't try to stop me. Actually do try so I can kill you too. Bye."

He then moved to turn the camera off.

"How do you send these out to the net anyway?" he asked his cameraman.

"Go to the waterfall, hunters!" they heard Tannis yell in the background incredibly fast. "Where the stalker was; the hole's…"

.

.

That was where the video ended.

"Great!" shouted Salvador. "It's over!"

"Wait!" said Lilith, "we don't know that! How can he even destroy the vault?"

"There's three pulpits that you place the keys into", explained Axton with his arms crossed. "I believe they're the keys to the other worlds. I don't know, if he can destroy those maybe he can make the vault useless."

"So, you're just gonna give up?" asked Lilith.

"Hell no!" Salvador yelled, taking out an unkempt Harold revolver in each hand. "He may destroy the vault but I'm gonna kill his ass for it!"

"Honestly I've been thinking", Gaige brought up. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news or whatever but how are we even going to get down there? We used one of Joey's…I mean Adam's boats last time. He's not going to leave one for us again. Unless, Maya; you think can take us in one of your phaselock fields."

Maya did not think she could take them like that. She was already tired and the vault entrance was underwater with the cave at the end of a winding tunnel that hundreds of yards long. She didn't feel like she was up to the task but didn't want to say that out loud. Too much stuff was happening at once.

Zer0 had taken the digipad in his hands and rewinded the last five seconds of the video.

"Listen to this", he said, walking over to them and replaying the last seconds.

"Go to the waterfall, hunters!" they heard Tannis say clearly. "Where the stalker was; the hole's…"

"The waterfall?" asked Salvador.

"The stalker?" asked Gaige. "Does she mean?"

"Yes", Zer0 said turning to go to the catch-a-ride station, "I think we should be on our way."

They all followed Zer0 except for Mordecai and Lilith temporarily.

"Wait!" Mordecai yelled. "Where the hell are you going?"

.

.

The two runners drove to the same waterfall that Tannis had been to just two short hours before. Tannis' runner was still parked in front of it.

"This is the spot!" Axton told Mordecai and Lilith as they braked to a stop. "This is where we went against the stalker that pointed us in the direction of the vault."

"That's cool" Lilith said as Axton got out, "but what's so special about it now?"

Zer0 could already see the entrance due to his B0re vision and got out of his runner. Gaige got out as well; when Maya tried to get out, she felt lightheaded a bit and almost slipped on her face. She fell onto Gaige's back, who turned and pulled her from the runner. She then helped Maya stand up and checked on her.

"Maya, are you okay?" asked Gaige.

"Yeah, I'm fine", Maya answered.

"Do you need to rest a bit before we go on?" Gaige asked.

"No, I need to get to that vault and get rid of Helios!" Maya said, pushing Gaige aside. "I'm just a bit tired. That's all."

This did not escape either Lilith or Axton's notice; they looked on with great concern. Axton went over to Tannis' runner and looked over her emptied pack in the front passenger seat.

"There's a path back here!" Zer0 announced as he stepped behind the waterfall. Gaige and Maya quickly walked over and leapt onto the rocks to get to the crevice; Salvador, Mordecai, Lilith and Axton quickly followed. Maya illuminated the path with a ball of her energies, though it manifested quite dim. Lilith then stepped next to her and encased herself with a form-fitting shell of her own siren energies, illuminating their path over twice as well.

"Well, I guess we're good to go", Lilith remarked.

Maya nodded and the vault hunters made their way down the darkened path.

.

.

Adam held Tannis' hands behind her head with his left hand in a way that he could break her index and middle fingers if he wanted to; the other hand held a pistol to her spine as he pushed her towards the central chamber of the submerged vault. When he got her where he wanted her in the center of the chamber, he kicked her in the back of the legs and put her on her knees. He then backed away and trained the gun on her head. Twelve Helios soldiers walked past him and awaited his orders.

"Line all three pulpits with the wire", he ordered them. He pointed to the pulpit at the front of the central chamber. "They all look like that. Be careful of the wall of energy. A kraken tentacle might get you."

"Yes, sir", one of his men said, who had explosives in his hands. He and a few others went to go wire them. One soldier went to wire the pulpit in their chamber. Tannis watched him anxiously.

"I don't even know why you're doing this", she said. "What does it serve? Do whatever you want to me but this is great art! History!"

"Get up and shut your mouth!" he ordered, yanking her up by her shirt. He tore it a little but she got up just the same.

He pulled her over to the sectioned window in front of the pulpit.

"This is where you saw the doorway, right?" Adam asked.

"Yes", Tannis answered. "It appeared just over the water there."

"Wow", Adam said. "It must have been beautiful, huh?"

"The most beautiful thing I've ever seen", she answered.

"That's a shame", Adam said.

"Bring me the key!" he yelled behind him to his men.

One of his men did in fact bring the key to him, which he grabbed and held it in front of her. She struggled to move but he crushed her fingers together, threatening to break them to dissuade her from moving again.

"Aaah!" she screamed in frustration through tears. "If you're going to kill me, then do it! I'm tired of playing your games, you sick bastard!"

"That's not up to you, sweetheart" he said to her. "Don't you worry, though; your pathetic life's almost over. First, answer me a question. How deep do you think that water is?"

"I don't give a damn", she answered.

"I would say about twenty feet", Adam said. "That's pretty deep. Then, there's no light so it's pretty dark too. I'd say that's quite a swim."

He then flung the vault key past her head into the deep pool of water where it would sink to its deep bottom. Tannis lost it after that.

She flung her right elbow into Adam's face, knocking him back and making him stumble. She then lunged for him with her nails out, intending to claw his face. Adam ducked around her and pushed her in the back, to the ground. He put his weight on her back and struck her in the side of her face with his pistol twice. This made her stop and she laid there on her side, spitting blood from her mouth.

"I…can't wait…", she whispered. "…until they…kill you."

Adam's bomb squad returned to the central chamber.

"I'm done with the wire", one of them said. The other was done as well. The man in the central chamber finished his own not too long afterwards.

"Good", Adam said, clasping his hands together. "Umm, that's too easy. Drag the doc over to that pulpit over there, let's get in the sub and we'll blow up the doc along with her crappy dreams. Sounds like a plan, huh?"

One of his soldiers began to pull Tannis towards the pulpit when they heard a large splash outside of the chambers.

.

The path from the waterfall had taken the vault hunters down into the depths of the submerged vault, ending with a slope that landed them into the pool of water that led to the three chambers of the vault. Salvador, lacking swimming ability, immediately hated that part. He waded desperately in the water but thankfully, Axton crept up behind him and dragged him towards the chambers. Salvador almost drowned Axton a few times in panic but Axton stopped that by threatening to leave him on his own if he didn't calm down.

.

"What was that?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Crap", said Adam, already knowing. "Give me the good doctor."

The soldier pulled Tannis back to Adam, who grabbed her and put the gun back to her head.

"Everybody get into positions!" he ordered his men. "Prepare for a fight! Don't fire until my go-ahead!"

His men kneeled down in seated firing positions, preparing to do battle. Suddenly, the wall crashed in in the first chamber as that was where Lilith flew in with her phasewalk mode. Maya followed suit, using her phaselock to hold and levitate the rest of the vault hunters inside. Immediately, they realized the first chamber's pulpit was strapped with bombs.

"Holy crap!" Axton remarked with an equipped Damned Cowboy rifle. "It's actually strapped."

"That's right, Axton!" shouted Adam from the second chamber. "All three of them are strapped and at least four of us have detonators. Now come in here, please!"

"Nah, I'm good!" yelled Axton. "Let's say you let the doctor go and hand us the detonators. Then we might let you get out of here alive!"

"That rich!" Adam yelled back. "I don't care if you have a siren…"

"Actually, we have two", said Ax, cutting him off.

"Doesn't matter", answered Adam. "I have you outnumbered, outgunned, we have something you want over your heads and someone dear to your hearts. Add in that I'm willing to martyr myself for this and that my men are willing to martyr themselves for me. You've already lost!"

"Just kill him!" screamed Tannis. "He already threw the key in the water!"

"I've heard enough", said Adam. "Blow the pulpits!"

"No!" Tannis screamed as she watched the central chamber's pulpit explode in front of her very eyes, along with the vault key with it.

The vault hunters turned towards the pulpit in their chamber and saw it explode in a mass of dust and flying stone shards. They heard an explosion and some rumbling from the third chamber, farthest away from them and knew that pulpit was gone too.

"Dammit!" Sal yelled, "I've had enough!"

He ran towards the second chamber for Helios.

"Sal, wait!" shouted Gaige as she followed. The others followed suit.

They stopped in their tracks as soon as they entered the second chamber, however. This wasn't because Helios had some superior weaponry including a couple of large photon cannons. It was because Adam had Tannis on her knees with his gun on her head.

"You bastard", Axton called Adam.

"It's okay", Tannis said to them. "Go on, hunters; there are other vaults than these…"

She wasn't able to finish that thought because Adam pulled the trigger, putting a bullet through her brain, spreading her blood and a bit of gore on the floor. Tannis slumped forward lifelessly on the ground and left the hunters stunned. First, Adam had killed Brick; then he had killed Tannis.

.

He threw his pistol aside and pulled out a photon beam pistol. He fired a beam right at Lilith, hitting her in the chest, taking her shield out immediately.

The vault hunters quickly returned fire, causing the Helios squads to scatter. Salvador's unkempt Harolds took down one stray soldier, blowing massive holes in his chest.

Axton threw down a couple of turrets that hurled rockets over at them. A couple of Helios soldiers managed to shoot them out of the air. Their men also threw down high walls of protective plasma shielding that could stop most bullets. As the hunters were out-numbered, Mordecai had pulled back into the hallway between the first and the central chamber to pick off whoever he could with a sniper. He managed to headshot a soldier who strayed too far into his vision. Both sides continued to exchange fire.

Lilith quickly had enough; she phasewalked over to the Helios side and created a large fire nova in the center of the enemy. This caught several of them on fire, causing them to scream out in pain. An unharmed mercenary flung a pod at her feet, which released a ring of red energy that swung around her. It encased her in a solidified barrier of red energy. She tried to touch it but it shocked her.

"Crap!" she shouted in response.

Adam tapped on the soldier to his immediate left and showed him a sign of bringing his arms spread apart like wings. This was their sign of breaking contact. Another soldier saw this as well and began relaying the signal to the others. Adam then took out a smoke grenade and hurled it over to the vault hunters to cover his retreat into the third chamber. He tapped a few of his men to come with him. A few of them stayed and fired back at the hunters to cover their retreat; one by one, they bounded back into the third chamber. The last soldier to bound back used a rocket launcher, firing it at Zer0. Zer0 managed to strafe out of the way and it hit the ground, knocking a hole into the ground and making rocks crash into the water below.

"Screw that!" Axton said, attempting to follow them until Zer0 put his blade out to stop him in his tracks.

"Wait!" Zer0 said, "it's surely a trap."

.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. They struggled to keep their footing as the concentric circular chambers began to move beneath their feet as if they were on some kind of geared carousel. The walls separating the three chambers began to descend into the ground, morphing them into one big chamber. Gaige heard a strange wet sound behind her and turned towards the energy doorway near the center of the first chamber. The energy suddenly dissipated and it became just a hole in the wall. She then saw the wall around the hole vibrate and shift as if something massive was trying to smash its way through.

"Um, guys", called Gaige. "We have a little problem!"

Maya saw it as well. Mordecai saw it and moved out of the chamber to rejoin the others for safety.

"What the hell is that?" she yelled out.

A huge hole was blown through the wall and a large dragon-like beast poured through. It sort of looked like a stalker but it was very dark and its wings had a webbing-like membrane on them that made them look like flippers. Its body oozed with a black slime that dripped down on the ground, leaving massive puddles as it moved. It was much larger than a stalker, about the same size as the giant stalker that had attacked them not so long ago and started this whole submerged vault mess to begin with. To make matters worse, another dragon padded its way out of the hole and sat down next to its partner. It nipped at the other's neck, producing a snarl from it. They both looked at Gaige, who stared back at them and gulped.

Introduction Alert:

Raskillions- The precursors to stalkers; they didn't devolve due to being hunted to near extinction but were bred to have more flaws to give other species a fighting chance. The first guardians of the submerged vault.

Even with the chambers continuing their shift and the walls sliding down into the ground, one of the raskillion charged at the hunters and smashed through the wall between them. It bowled right through Salvador, Lilith and Mordecai, knocking them all to the ground as it skidded to a stop in the center of all of them. It then roared at them as Axton began open fire at it, aided by his turrets. The bullets were absorbed into its oily exterior, sinking into like a ballistic gel. Axton looked at that in confused shock. The raskillion responded by swinging its tail in a wide arc, smashing both of his turrets and sweeping him hard to the descending wall about eight feet away, knocking him flat out. Salvador, Lilith and Mordecai were struggling to move as the oily substance that covered them from the raskillion was trying to form itself to the very ground and solidify, to all of their collective horrors.

.

.

The other raskillion cloaked itself to become transparent and followed the third chamber with its eyes as it was shifting and spinning out to the left away from them towards Helios' submarine. It readied itself and leaped high in the air for Helios. It landed near the edge of the chamber by the water and immediately scooped a soldier into its mouth, crunching down on his head before uncloaking itself. Adam and his men watched as the raskillion stared them down as it raised its head, raising their comrade above their heads. It then closed its jaws, letting the headless body fall to the ground.

They opened fire at the beast as it lunged towards them, knocking Adam to the ground. Adam scrambled to his feet as the beast saddled itself over another soldier and crunched into him. A BURNER-suited soldier began fanning the raskillion with flames, making the monster turn suddenly and screech at him as it crawled backwards slightly.

.

.

The raskillion that the vault hunters were dealing with was being burned by Lilith as she phasewalked into it, slowing its motions temporarily and hitting it with a fire nova. This also burned away the oil covering her. The raskillion staggered away but circled away from her before coming back around and pinning her to the ground with its overbearing frame. It was just about to close its jaws on her face when Maya hit it with a phaselock.

It levitated slightly above Lilith for a second as Lilith scrambled away from it to get to her feet. Lilith went over to Mordecai and Salvador, burning off their oil with her phasewalk. They were able to move then. Maya held the raskillion there for a second before it began roaring and struggling against her. Even with Salvador, Mordecai, Gaige and Deathtrap firing on it, the raskillion broke her phaselock and immediately turned and ran, making a beeline for her.

Maya screamed out as the raskillion caught her and bit down on her uncovered left arm, the arm she usually uses to phaselock.

"Holy crap!" shouted Gaige.

Salvador, Zer0, Mordecai, Gaige, and Deathtrap all closed their distance on the two, firing on the raskillion.

Maya continued to scream and tried desperately to keep up with the raskillion as it crept back and shook at her, really trying to rip her arm off.

"Let go!" she cried at it as she punched it repeatedly in the face with her other phaselocked fist. "Let go! Let go! Let goooooooo!"

This only made the raskillion bite down harder, making Maya scream louder.

"Damn!" shouted Mordecai. "This isn't working! Somebody do something!"

That was when Zer0 ran around the beast's tail and struggled to climb upon its body as it had incredibly smooth flesh and was really slimy. Its properties caused its slime to attempt to absorb Zer0 into it, which also slowed him down. He carefully but quickly made it to the beast's head and jammed his blade into the monster's head in the upper jaws, dragging upwards and to the right, making a gash towards one of the raskillion's eyes. The monster opened its mouth and roared out in pain. Maya slipped to the ground with her arm broken in a few places and was bleeding profusely. She was shaking and growing colder by the second as Lilith bent down and held her head in her lap.

The raskillion moved away from the hunters as Zer0 pushed on his blade, trying to plunge his blade deeper and deeper. It bucked but Zer0 wasn't going anywhere. It then ran towards the front of the chamber, which had no walls then and leaped towards the water beneath them, hitting some stalactite hanging from the ceiling on the way down. It crashed into the water, looking to swim until Zer0 either gave up or drowned.

.

.

Axton, who had regained consciousness again, limped over to the group and wanted to see Maya. He saw that her arm was damaged, nearly severed and that she was bleeding out so he took off his belt and went over to the arm and wrapped it around her shoulder and armpit, tightening it as much as he could.

"Hang in there, Maya", Lilith said, stroking her head. "Everything's going to be alright."

"We need something to wrap up that arm", Axton said to the others. "Gaige! Your hoodie might do it. Tie it around that arm! Don't worry about hurting her; pain is a good thing right now! Just don't rip it off! She might have to lose it anyway but she could heal it later!"

Gaige took her hoodie off and crouched down to wrap it tightly around Maya's arm as Axton put pressure on it.

"Sal!" he said. "Put pressure right here!"

"Got it!" Sal said, taking Axton's place and placing his hands where Axton's were. Maya screamed and whispered out a string of curses.

"Sophis lied", she whispered. "Calime lied." She strangely began whispering this over and over.

"Maya!" Mordecai yelled. "You're gonna be alright! You hear me?"

"What are you doing?" Lilith asked Axton.

Axton was rummaging through his pack he usually wore as a backpack.

"That belt isn't good enough", he admitted. "I have an actual good tourniquet somewhere in here if I can just find it…; hah! There you are!"

He produced a black metallic pad. He brought it over to Maya and placed it down on the belt.

"What is that thing?" asked Mordecai.

"A tourniquet", answered Axton matter-of-factly.

He pushed a single button and the device took a second to measure the dimensions of Maya's arm before producing a band that wrapped her shoulder and armpit. This cut off circulation to her arm, stopping the bleeding and saving her from death hopefully. It tightened on her automatically. Maya was starting to talk less and shake more, leaning her head back.

"We're here, Maya", Axton said to her. "All of us are here. You have to fight, Maya. You have to stay alive. Somebody elevate her legs; like raise them up!"

"She needs water", Lilith said.

"Got it!" Sal said, running over to the water.

.

.

Adam and his men weren't faring very well against their own raskillion. It had already taken out two more of his men and their weaponry other than their photon cannons weren't doing very well against it.

"Focus your photon cannons!" he ordered his men. The remaining troops hit the beast with their long streams of concentrated light in its right side, while he Adam fired his own photon pistol at the same spot.

They watched as the raskillion's slimy membrane began to burn off in that spot to reveal the soft flesh underneath. Their lasers burned through that, causing the raskillion to shake and squirm on the ground as they burned inside of it. Eventually, it let out a dying squeal and stopped moving. Adam signaled them to shut off their cannons.

He walked over to it cautiously to check on its body to get a closer look. He kicked it in the spot that they burned but it didn't respond; it was dead.

Suddenly, they heard loud pounding in the wall above them. The convulsing flesh that seemed like it was a part of the cave ceiling itself shifted and moved away from what was actually a large hole in the cave ceiling.

.

.

Both Helios and the vault hunters saw this: a gush of slimy green water spilled out of the crevice, splashing down and cascading over the chambers; then a large bloodshot yellow eye appeared to peer through the hole. It shifted its angry gaze from the vault hunters and then to Helios, catching sight of its long-awaited victims.

Salvador returned with some water for Maya, putting it inside one of his detached holsters. He caught sight of the shifting eye like everybody else and stopped in his tracks.

"What the hell is that?" he wondered.

They all struggled to retain their footing again as the ground began to shift beneath their feet again.

This time, all of the walls to the chambers completely descended into the ground so that there was no more separation. It really was just one chamber then; the vault hunters saw the raskillion corpse that was laid down in front of Helios.

The floors began to shift again; this time, small compartments that were beneath the floors of the chambers began to separate and fan out from them so that the chamber expanded over the entirety of the pool, instead of a fraction of it. Helios' sub was crushed and pushed down into the waters' depth. It was like the vault was expanding into a battlefield, which was actually exactly what it was doing.

"Oh crap, what about Zer0?" asked Gaige aloud as she realized the floor was leaving him without a way to climb back up.

Salvador looked back behind him and saw that the floor was leaving a small space in the corner of the room where one could enter or exit the water.

Holes began to open up in the floors in various parts where large pillars of wet rock began to rise up through. The jagged shards of rock reached upwards to twelve feet. About nine formations of them sprouted up across the ground.

Axton, Lilith and Salvador moved Maya behind one of them while Gaige and Mordecai followed.

"What the hell is going on?" Axton asked as he looked from behind their newly formed cover to look up at the ceiling.

The pounding continued and the ceiling opened up, spilling some rocks over the ground as the true monster revealed itself.

The monster had a large bulbous head that seemed to inflate and deflate in a way as it breathed, along with tiny feeler tendrils scattered about its face. Its eyes were large, bulging and aware with yellow pupils. It had a long horizontal slit near the bottom of its head which served as a mouth. It had six large, thick tentacles that it let slip down to the ground to feel around. These tentacles were morphing as well as malleable and seemed to be able to extend and retract at will; In fact, they were the same tentacles that brought them to the vault in the first place as well as what crushed the intruder Adam Blitzfield the first time around in the vault. Its flesh was the ugliest part of it. It had an apparent thin membrane of skin that was decidedly orange in color but was mostly transparent to the white soft tissue, skull, veins and capillaries and some other various organs beneath it.

Introduction Alert:

The Guardian of Worlds- Mysterious guardian of the Submerged vault and tamed scourge of the eridians. This is it, ladies and gentlemen. The real final battle begins now.

The Guardian's entire body wasn't in the room either. They could see that there was the beginning of a neck that was hiding the rest of its body just out of the large hole. This was only the head and that scared Axton. The vault hunters watched from behind the rocks, anxious to see what its first attack would be.

The Guardian slowly opened its slit of a mouth and revealed that its entire face parted to reveal a giant hole filled with circular razor sharp jagged teeth that seemed to only be separated by inches. Its mouth looked like giant motorized circular grinder but more than that, there was a strange purplish light that seemed to emanate through the teeth at the back of the Guardian's mouth.

"What the hell!" shouted Gaige. "Do you see that thing?"

"I see it!" Salvador yelled. He took out two assault rifles and peered out of the other side of the cover and fired some shots at it.

The bullets had absolutely zero effect on the beast as the light began to emanate from the front of its teeth. Suddenly, they heard a loud whirring sound before their hearing all went out at nearly the same time. They looked around confused and realized why.

They all felt an incredibly powerful force yank them against their giant rock as if they were metal getting pulled by a giant magnet. It felt like it could actually pull them through the rock. Gaige was being grinded up and down against the rock in mid-air, hurting her left shoulder.

Salvador was actually yanked from behind the rock because he hadn't been able to get back behind it completely in time. He tumbled twenty feet through the air until he managed to grab the top of one of the jagged rocks and hang there. He could see dust and rock pieces flying past him and even his two assault rifles flew past his head. He felt a lot like when he was hanging out of Helios' airship but the Guardian's pull felt at least twice as powerful. He managed to turn his head back slightly. He could some blood splash against the Guardian's mouth and some body parts swirl around in its jaws. They obviously belonged to Helios. More than that, he actually saw some bubbles of water flit past him towards the Guardian's mouth. He was beginning to lose his grip.

.

Fortunately, the Guardian retracted its vortex and slowly closed its mouth. Salvador fell to the ground and exhaled in relief and pain. Adam and his remaining four soldiers ran from their far end of the vault towards the exit to the water on the other side to get to their submarine. They were out of luck because it was underneath the floor, likely crushed.

The Guardian, having closed its mouth and could see again, saw this. It extended one of its tentacles down in front of them and flattened it like a bludgeon before slamming it on the ground a few feet in front of them, stopping them in their tracks. It was a warning basically saying: nobody leaves until either you destroy me or I destroy you; Them's the rules.

It then raised that same tentacle and reverted it to its original shape before sweeping it towards them, knocking all five of them off of their feet.

.

The Guardian then used another tentacle to smash the rocks that Salvador was lying next to and had just used to save his life. He barely managed to roll out of the way before taking a Conference Call shotgun and a Fibber handgun out of his storage deck and shooting the tentacle, drawing splashes of rancid blood from the multiple shots. It coiled on the ground in front of him in pain as he approached it.

"Yeah, you son of a bitch!" he shouted as he gunned it down. "Get it!"

It did manage to try to swipe at him in defense but he managed to roll out of the way before continuing his onslaught.

The tentacle had enough and the body retracted this tentacle back towards and hid it in the ceiling to keep it safe from harm. The other five tentacles morphed themselves into bludgeons and moved towards Salvador.

"That's what I'm talking about", he commented, welcoming the challenge.

.

He turned and began running for his life as the five tentacles began smashing the ground around him, trying desperately to crush him. He began to zig-zag as they alternated and continuously came at him. He circled around Helios, managing to get one of them bludgeoned. He passed another set of rocks when the Guardian got smart and knocked him to the ground with a sweeping motion, smashing that pillar at the same time.

Salvador rolled a few times on the ground with some rocks. He pushed himself up to knees with the guns in his hands; he never dropped them. One of the tentacles crept closer to him and he realized that stuffed inside layers of protective membrane and transparent muscles were long bundles of optic nerves and dozens of small eyeballs. He assumed that this was the same for all tentacles.

"Oh, so you have eyes on me, huh?" he said. "Well, look at this."

He put down his guns temporarily and stuck up both middle fingers at the monster.

"¡Esta es para tì, cerote!" Salvador shouted he touched both middle fingers together in front of the tentacle.

Suddenly, he watched as Deathtrap zoomed through the air and slashed the tentacle ten feet in the air, causing it to recoil a bit.

Gaige ran out after it, blasting it with her Hyperion-brand incendiary plasma caster SMG. It recoiled further squirming on the ground before the Guardian withdrew that tentacle into the ceiling as well.

Axton ran out into the battlefield, deploying two of his turrets.

"This bitch ain't nothing new, Sal!" he shouted to Salvador as he picked his guns back up. "It's just something else in the way!"

"Hell yeah!" shouted Salvador in agreement.

.

Mordecai and Lilith were still behind their protective rock, guarding over Maya. Maya was unconscious but she was breathing regularly.

"It's up to them right now", Lilith said to Mordecai.

"Damn!" Mordecai said, snapping his fingers in frustration. "I hate being out of the fight!"

"Hopefully, they end that thing before things get any worse", Lilith said.

The two noticed the raskillion that had taken Zer0 for a swim earlier climbed up on the edge of the chamber with its mouth and claws. It got on and squeezed through the opening; they noticed Zer0's blade was still stuck in its head. It didn't seem to care, dripping its black slime on the ground. It seemed to hone in on the vault hunters, who were strafing around and shooting the Guardian's tentacles. It roared and began running at full speed towards them.

"Guys!" Mordecai poked his head out and shouted at them. "You have one of the stalkers coming at you!"

.

Gaige turned around in time to see the raskillion almost on her with its jaws open. She barely managed to jump out of the way, missing its claws but getting her right leg trampled at the knee in the process.

She screamed as she rolled over, clutching it.

The raskillion skidded to a stop and turned to look at her, roaring in triumph.

"Ah, ****!" she screamed in pain. "That's definitely broken! DT!"

The raskillion bounded back for her, looking to take a bite when Deathtrap swooped in and picked her up in his arms just in time. The beast jumped for them but Deathtrap was too high and out of reach. The beast turned around in time to catch a light beam in the face from Adam's photon pistol. It winced and tried to get away but Adam and his three men with the photon cannons advanced on it.

Axton glared at them as Adam passed them. They exchanged glances but Axton didn't act on anything. They had their hands full with the Guardian of Worlds and the strange stalker; he would take on Adam afterward, if he was still alive.

He watched as the Guardians of Worlds withdrew all of its tentacles.

"Get behind some cover!" screamed Salvador.

.

Everybody scattered to get behind a rock pillar. Adam and his men were unfortunately flanked from behind by the raskillion, who cared not for the Guardian of World's vortex mouth. He grabbed one of Adam's remaining men in its jaws and began gnawing on his armor.

"Help!" shouted the doomed soldier.

"Sorry, guy!" Adam yelled his apologies before talking to his last two men. "Move, move!"

They ran and got behind the same pillar as Axton just in time. Axton was just about to shoot them all when all the noise in the room drowned out again and he felt himself getting pulled back into the rock again. Adam was yanked face first right next to him. Axton stared at Adam with all the hatred in the world but couldn't move due to the pull.

.

.

Salvador, Deathtrap and Gaige were behind the same pillar and watched as Axton's turrets flew towards the Guardian's pull as well as the raskillion and that unlucky Helios soldier.

Finally, thought Salvador. Only a second later, his feet retouched the ground and his ears began ringing again. The pull had stopped so suddenly after only ten seconds.

He stepped out from his pillar and saw the raskillion slithering away from the ground in front of the Guardian. He was a bit confused at that. He then watched as a tentacle reached down and grabbed the raskillion corpse nearby and flung it through the air away from it.

"I don't think it wants to eat the stalkers", Salvador said to Gaige. "That might be why it stopped."

"Really?" asked Gaige, panting and wincing in pain as she sat on Deathtrap's shoulders and held on for dear life. "You think we can use that?"

"I don't know", Salvador answered. "We should move."

"What?" asked Gaige as Salvador ran off. "Hey!"

Quickly, Deathtrap took her away from the pillar as well. A few seconds later, the Guardian smashed the pillar with a strong swipe. It also destroyed the pillar that Axton and Helios were standing behind, though they had all left that pillar by then.

What was bad, though was that one of its tentacles traveled to the far end of the room and smashed the pillar that Maya, Lilith and Mordecai were hiding behind as well.

"Dammit!" yelled Axton as he ran over to the pile.

Salvador and Gaige tried to follow suit but they were being chased by tentacles and were forced to maneuver around and do battle with them.

Axton ran over to the fallen pillar and began throwing rocks out of the way. Lilith pushed a few off of herself as well.

"We're fine", Lilith said, checking on Maya underneath her, whose eyes fluttered open. "I took all of the punishment and I'm fine."

"Hey, I'm fine too", said Mordecai as he pushed some rocks off of him. "Hey, is that Zer0?"

They looked over to their right and watched as Zer0 climbed up onto the chamber from the pool.

"Hey, Zer0!" called Axton. "Glad to see you're still alive! Don't mind the giant tentacle monster; it's just the guardian of this vault!"

"So, that was what was in the ceiling, huh?" Zer0 asked. "They never cease to amaze me."

Zer0 looked out over the large room and spotted Tannis' body across the room. She had been pulled up towards the Guardian in all of the commotion but had luckily gotten stuck behind one of the pillars. What wasn't so fortunate was that the raskillion was sniffing her head wound and was even licking it. It was going to eat her most likely. Zer0 couldn't have that; the damned woman deserved a proper burial.

Zer0 took off across the room.

"Wait, Zer0!" Axton shouted after him. "Where are you going?"

"Ax…", Maya moaned to him, reaching for him.

"I'm here, Maya", Axton said, scooting close to her. "What do you need?"

"We need to move", Maya reminded him.

"Right", Axton said after a moment of hesitation.

He, Lilith and Mordecai helped Maya to her feet.

.

.

Zer0 zoomed past Sal, Deathtrap, Gaige and the remainder of Adam's men.

"Zer0?" asked Gaige questionably as he passed.

Two of the tentacles turned their attention to him. They took turns trying to bludgeon him as he closed the distance on the raskillion, but he zig-zagged out of the way both times. They swung back around in front of him as he jumped on the wall, using his momentum and speed to run along the rocky wall's surface.

The closer tentacle swung towards the wall to smash him into it but he pushed off of the wall and dodged over its strike by vaulting over it, backwards. He landed on his feet in a crouching position and pulled out his shock-elemental Commerce SMG. He noticed the tentacles swinging towards him from both sides so he did the smart thing and darted away at the last second, causing them to slap against each other. This drew a loud groan from the Guardian and made it wiggle the tentacles in pain, trying to get motor function back.

Zer0 then turned his attention back to the raskillion and Tannis. He saw it prepare to bear down on her head so he ran towards it, shooting it a few times with the Commerce. The raskillion turned and roared at him in anger as its body crackled with static electricity. He ran then past it and leapt up to the highest point of the rock pillar next to it that he could reach and used that to push off and leap towards the raskillion's head. He grabbed the hilt of his digistruct blade and his weight coupled with gravity caused him to drag it around in its skull again. It screamed in pain as Zer0 placed his feet down on its face but slid off due to its oily surface, yanking out his blade with him.

Zer0 landed a few feet in front of the raskillion. It looked at him with fury and shook its head. It began to limp painfully towards him. Zer0 brought his sword behind him and sheathed it by re-digitizing it back into his storage deck and flung five slag-imbued kunai right into the raskillion's head. The raskillion huffed and flinched in response. He then leveled his Commerce at the creature with both hands and let loose a volley of about twenty-five rounds at its head. The raskillion's head began violently convulsing from all the electricity and to even Zero's surprise; the head suddenly exploded.

Gore and oil splashed all over Zer0 as he stood there stunned. All he could do was stand there and think, Wow, that just happened.

.

"Hey, Zer0!" Gaige called out to him, waving at him from the right shoulder of Deathtrap. He turned towards her. "That was awesoooome!"

He wished she could see him smile but he guessed it was a consolation of sorts that a smiley-face emoticon appeared in front of his mask instead.

"Zer0, look out!" Gaige shouted at him.

It was too late, though. A tentacle was hovering over him from above, and smashed him into the ground like a hammer banging a nail. It made sure to twist into him like somebody snuffing out a cigarette before rising and going away, satisfied with its job.

"Zer0000!" Gaige screamed out, drawing Salvador's attention as well.

They both fired on that tentacle, drawing more of that rancid blood and forced the Guardian to withdraw that tentacle as well. Then both ran to check on their fallen friend, leaving Helios to fight off against the three remaining tentacles. Axton and Lilith moved Maya to a rock pillar that was closer to the others and therefore closer to the Guardian.

.

Adam managed to blast a tentacle that was terrorizing them long enough that the Guardian withdrew that one as well.

"Good shot, sir!" one of his guys said.

"We just might make it out of this", Adam said.

Suddenly, another came down and smashed the soldier right in front of his eyes and then another wrapped his last remaining soldier and smashed him into the wall, killing him. Both of the tentacles then withdrew back to the Guardian, leaving Adam to stand there stunned.

"Well, damn", he said in shock.

.

Salvador and Gaige made it to Zer0. He didn't really look broken but he was shaking horribly and was struggling to crawl towards Tannis. A large piece of his mask was broken off in front of his right eye and that side of his face. They could see a glowing eye and a strange dark face hidden underneath.

"She's fine, man" Salvador said to him as he kneeled down to him. "She's safe behind that rock. I'm gonna have to move you man. We have to get behind it, too or that thing's gonna chew us to bits."

Salvador grabbed Zer0 under the arms and dragged him with him as he crawled towards the pillar.

"Hurry, Sal!" warned Gaige as Deathtrap flew behind the pillar. "It's coming!"

The Guardian's mouth began to open again and the light began flowing towards its teeth again.

Deathtrap set Gaige down gently as it could next to Tannis and flew over to Sal and Zer0, yanking them back behind cover as the Guardian's vortex began.

The corpses of Adam's last two soldiers flew through the air where they were mutilated and swallowed by the Guardian. Soon enough, the corpse of the raskillion made its way through the air towards its mouth. It made sure to disable its pull and close its mouth before it could taste the horrible raskillions.

.

Maya was standing on her own then and didn't need as much help from Mordecai and Lilith to move.

"We gotta go!" shouted Mordecai as they ran out into the open battlefield.

The Guardian made sure to destroy the rock pillar they left behind just in case. It also destroyed the one that Adam was behind but the man had already moved. There were only two more places to hide; one that was nearly in the center of the vault and one that was about twelve feet from the monster itself, relatively close to it. The Guardian only had two free tentacles left so things evened out pretty much.

Axton, Gaige, Deathtrap and Salvador left Zer0 and Tannis safely behind cover to take on the last two tentacles.

.

Axton ran out and flung another turret out on the field. It immediately began lobbing rockets at both of the remaining tentacles. Gaige and Deathtrap floated through the air and while Deathtrap sent out a floating orb of electricity, Gaige made sure to shoot it, producing a powerful electrical storm between both tentacles. Both of the tentacles wriggled around the room in pain.

Salvador, on the other hand, went with his usual tactic albeit a bit differently. In his right hand was a slag elemental PBFG rocket launcher and in his left hand, a shredifier assault rifle with a gatling barrel attached.

"Oh yeah, baby!" Salvador yelled, firing up at the ceiling a few times with the shredifier. "It's raining bullets tonight!"

He ducked under a high tentacle swipe.

"Hah!" Salvador yelled back. "I'm not even that tall, ugly!"

He fired off two slag rockets that hit high up on the tentacle, creating two large spheres that quickly exploded with bright purple smog. This painted the tentacle with a deep purple that he would go on to take advantage of; he let loose a long, continuous volley of about thirty rounds at the beast. He hit the tentacle twelve times but it was enough to tear clean through the flesh and slice it in half. Sal, Gaige and Axton scatter in different direction as the long squirming tentacles floundered to the ground. The three of them couldn't help but laugh as they were having fun for the first time in a while. As they watched the giant appendage on the ground squirm and wither a bit, it made them remember hunting giant beasts like the Warrior and Terramorphus. It became exhilarating to them again.

The Guardian swung its unharmed tentacle at them but it was way off-target as they each easily avoided the beast that was in tremendous pain. It was like a frustrated kid playing whack-a-mole and just barely missing his targets. This went on for another twenty seconds before the Guardian just resigned itself and removed its remaining tentacle from the battlefield and pulled it up to its body out of harm's way. Everybody knew what was coming next.

As there were only two more rock pillars for cover, one in the center of the vault and one near the monster itself, everybody naturally went for the one in the center as they were all closer to that one. Maya, Lilith, and Mordecai were already there with Zer0 and Tannis; they were soon followed by Axton, Salvador and Deathtrap carrying Gaige.

.

Adam Blitzfield, without even thinking about it and without backup of any kind, headed behind the pillar for sanctuary as well. He was met with the raised guns of Axton, Mordecai, Gaige, along with the barrel of Salvador's PBFG rocket launcher. He was stopped short well out of range of being protected from the Guardian's pull and realized immediately that he had no play so he simply raised his hands in surrender.

"So, this is the part where I get what I deserve?" Adam asked. "You all shoot the bad guy and live happily ever after, right?"

"Nah", Axton said, "we're not going to shoot you. Slide over that cool-looking laser gun."

Adam slowly crouched down and slid his photon pistol to them.

"We're not?" asked Gaige, angrily.

"No", Axton said, carefully bending down to pick up the photon pistol. "He's just gonna stand right there. Actually, step to the side, from behind this rock."

Adam actually did it to Gaige's surprise but not Axton's.

"Like I said before", Adam went on after he moved and dropped his hands as he watched the Guardian opening its slit-mouth, "I already won. Even if you kill this thing; you're not going to spread your evil and greed. At least, not today; So…I'm okay with this."

"I'm so not going to miss you", Gaige said.

"You know, on second thought", Axton said, "aim for the legs."

"What?" asked Adam.

They all complied; Axton, Salvador, Gaige and Mordecai let loose on him. The first couple of rounds were absorbed by his shield but the rest seeped through, tearing into his legs with over eighteen high-caliber rounds. He immediately fell to the ground, howling in pain. If he wasn't about to die, he would never be able to walk again without a lot of help.

"That was for Brick and Tannis, ya bitch", Mordecai said before spitting at Adam.

"Now, I'm okay with this", Axton quipped.

Finally, they all felt themselves getting pulled backwards into the rock again. Even more than that, Adam was yanked off of his back into the air towards the Guardian's open mouth. Although, Axton couldn't see it happen, he really wished he could. As far as he was concerned, they deserved each other. Adam's body was immediately slashed and gashed between its teeth, tearing and grinding apart in ways cattle never even experience.

.

.

The hunters endured another ten seconds of the pull before they felt it calm down. Immediately, Lilith got under Maya's good arm to support her.

"We have to go, Maya", Lilith told her. "That thing's gonna smash this rock."

Axton helped Zer0 to his feet as well, noticing the smashed piece of his mask but chose not to bring attention to it.

"Come on, buddy", Axton said to him. "There are other vaults."

Salvador put away his weapons and snatched up Tannis in his arms, carrying her with him as the group hurried away from the rock. Predictably, the Guardian smashed the rock with its last tentacle. To their collective horror, the beast then brought its four other unsevered tentacles back for another round so that it had five appendages to use as weapons.

"Okay, that's not fair", Gaige said.

"Guys", Maya said weakly, "I have a plan. It's risky. We could die horribly."

"If it gives us a fighting chance", Salvador said, "then I'm up for it. We're royally screwed otherwise."

"Sal, Gaige, Mordecai!" Maya said. "I need you to distract those tentacles! If they crush that rock, we're finished."

"What are you thinking?" Lilith asked her.

Maya grunted in pain as a response but Lilith followed her gaze to the Guardian's mouth and came to the same conclusion that Maya did after a few seconds. Lilith silently nodded in agreement.

"Can you enlighten us, then?" asked Gaige.

"No time!" Lilith screamed. "Let's go!"

.

The group made their way towards the last protective pillar that was relatively close to the Guardian's body. Its regenerated appendages coiled high towards its body, daring the hunters to try for that last piece of solace behind the rock. They would get smashed first. The hunters were a mess; Maya, Zer0, and Gaige were all injured and had to be cared for; Tannis was a corpse and was being carried by Mordecai; Axton carried Zer0 and Lilith carried Maya. Gaige had to rely on Deathtrap for mobility and with her broken leg, she was hampered even more. She and Salvador were their only defense, really.

"We have to get rid of those tentacles, Sal", Lilith told him as he lifted his PBFG rocket launcher and Shredifier yet again. "It's really our only chance. It smashes that rock, we're screwed."

"Got it", Sal answered.

"Hey, don't forget about us", Gaige said as Deathtrap brought her next to him. She grunted in pain.

"Okay, DT", she said to her robot, "I will hopefully regret this if we live but don't listen to my bitching or screams about pain, okay? Go as fast as you can but don't let me fall! That would be bad!"

"Be careful, guys", warned Axton.

"That's the only way to do it", answered Sal as he looked over at Gaige. The two nodded in silent agreement.

The two approached the monstrosity.

.

"I know you can hear me, ugly!" Sal shouted at it. "I bet Ellie has boils on her ass that are prettier than you!"

"Yeah!" shouted Gaige. "It's a good thing you have six of those arms because going off your track record, you can't hit a parked runner that was painted yellow!"

"Nice", commented Sal.

"Thanks".

The two approached the poised arms of the Guardians as they rose in anticipation for their next actions. Salvador pulled the trigger of the Shredifier, waiting on the two second delay as the barrel spun and warmed itself up. When it began firing, he spread the wealth around; he swayed his arm back and forth, making sure to hit all six of the arms and hitting the Guardian's eye and body for good measure. The eye and body didn't seem to be damaged but blood poured forth from the tentacles. They swayed back and forth in pain as Salvador worked on reloading the rifle. Deathtrap raised his metallic palms, unleashing a stable stream of electricity from one palm and a beam of super-heated energy from the other to keep the pressure on the Guardian's arms. Gaige had made sure to implant a plate of granite and copper wiring in his chestplate to ground Deathtrap so that she wouldn't get electrocuted when they did something like carry Gaige on his shoulder as he did it.

Deathtrap burned into a couple of the tentacles, causing the Guardian to scream out in a mixture of fury and pain. Gaige then let off a few shots with her own plasma caster, which only added to the distraction. Two of its arms suddenly lurched out for Gaige and Deathtrap, while the others went for Salvador. They scattered in opposite directions, taking the attention of the Guardian with them.

"Come on", said Axton as he pulled Zer0 with him on a clear path for the last rock. Mordecai and the others were right with him.

Gaige grunted and cried out in pain as Deathtrap zoomed in and out of the flailing tentacles swings. Occasionally, he would strike the appendages with zaps of lightning. Gaige wrapped her arms around his neck for dear life and bit down on the edge of her digistruct claw to withstand the pain in her leg.

"I hope you know what you're doing!" she cried out. He simply replied with a grunt.

Sal rolled on the ground, barely dodging the smash of a tentacle. He then got up and began firing rockets at the ground a good distance from him but still relatively close. He fired about four rockets, confusing the Guardian. However, the rising smog from the blasts combined with the slag vapors created a blinding mist that blocked Salvador from the Guardian's vision. It's tentacles on that side of the room began feeling around in the mist for any hint of Salvador.

The Guardian felt something that felt like a bulb of some sort before feeling an intense burning sensation coupled by a few mini-explosions. Salvador had laid several contact grenades in the mist before bailing, effectively setting a trap for the monster. The Guardian pulled back its tentacles, revealing bloody stubs at the end of two of them.

"That was for Zer0!" shouted Salvador at the beast as he put away the Shredifier briefly.

All of the tentacles began convulsing as well as the Guardian's main body itself. This left Gaige visibly stunned as Deathtrap came to a halt. The tentacles on her began to withdraw. Rapidly, all of the tentacles began to withdraw towards the corner of the ceiling near its body.

"What is it doing?" asked Gaige.

"Get behind that damn rock!" Sal shouted to Gaige.

The others were already behind the rock, almost underneath the monster itself.

"It's time, Lilith", Maya said to her.

"Damn", Lilith said simply, but nodding her head.

"Ax!" Maya shouted back at him. "You got Adam's laser?"

"Yeah!" Ax shouted. "It's pretty cool!"

"We need you to blast through this rock with it!" shouted Lilith. "Try to get as low to the ground as possible! We need as much of it as possible!"

"Are you crazy?" Axton shouted. "That rock's the only thing that's keeping us alive!"

"Just do it, Axton!" shouted Maya. "It's our only chance!"

The Guardian's slit of a mouth began to slowly open.

"Dammit!" commented Axton as he stepped forward with the pistol in hand and sat on one knee in front of the pillar. He took the safety off and pulled the trigger. The laser sparked but didn't produce a beam.

"Come on", he said slapping it on the side.

A small beam shot out, burning a small through the rock.

"We need it bigger than that", Maya told him. "Hurry!"

"Okay, okay", Axton said, adjusting the lever on the top, raising the power. He really began searing through the rock, sending small flakes of hot rock everywhere. It was around this time that Gaige, Deathtrap, and Salvador rejoined the group behind the rock.

"What did we miss?" asked Gaige.

"Crap, this is hot!" Axton shouted out. He got through a decent chunk of it within seconds.

"That'll have to be enough!" Maya told him. "Step aside."

Axton did and Maya shuffled forward.

She placed her good, gloved palm on the rock and imbued her body with her phaselock power, attempting to lift the damaged rock in the air. In her weakened state, however, she couldn't budge it.

"Lilith!" Maya cried out as she strained. "Lilith, help me!"

Lilith scrambled to sit beside Maya but looked back and forth between her and the rock confusedly.

"Wh-what do I do?" asked Lilith.

"Put your hand…on my…shoulder", Maya panted breathlessly with her forehead pressed into the rock. "One of my tattoos; push your essence into me, like what you do with eridium but in reverse."

Lilith looked at Maya for a second and took her right glove off before placing her palm over the markings on Maya's bald head. The markings on Lilith's and Maya's bodies began to glow their respective red and blue colors. Maya pressed into the rock again.

Slowly the rock began to crack around the area that Axton had burned into, all the way around to the front of it.

"Come on!" Maya begged.

The Guardian's mouth open and its pull started again, bringing everybody else towards the rock and yanking Lilith off of Maya. Maya screamed out soundlessly in strain as she was pulled face-first into the rock as well. Still she worked on pushing the pillar off of its base with her powers. After ten seconds of pulling from the Guardian and pushing from Maya, the rock pillar swung through the air, carrying everybody else with it. They were all expecting certain death.

.

.

Axton came to a few minutes later and expected heaven or hell. Instead, what he got was the same rough ground of the submerged vault and crumbled rock all around him. He looked around him and some of his friends were coming to as well. Above him was a strange gurgling sound, accompanied by the Guardian swinging its head back and forth with blood pouring from the corners of its stuffed mouth. The rock pillar that Maya and Lilith had dislodged had gotten stuck in the Guardian's mouth, breaking a lot of its teeth, blocking the passageway of its vacuum and choking it.

Axton got up and stumbled away. Loud thumping noises could be heard above their head, accompanied by the occasional rock spilling down. That was the Guardian's tentacles struggling in the ceiling for survival.

Salvador got up and began ripping into the beast's eyeballs with his Shredifier.

This was accompanied by the laser beams of Deathtrap. Axton watched as Lilith went over to pick up an unconscious Maya and carried her in her arms away from the Guardian. Mordecai dragged Zer0 away as well. Axton himself, flung down a turret to take care of his light work; it began firing rockets and machine gun rounds at the weakened Guardian. In the meantime, Axton ran over in a scrambling crawl to collect Tannis' body.

"I'm sorry, doc", Axton said as he reached her and lifted her into his arms. He moved off to the side as he carried her back behind Salvador, Gaige, Deathtrap and his turret.

After another minute and a few hundred rounds later, the Guardian's eyes rolled back and its head reared back as its mouth widened. The lodged pillar slid out of its mouth and crashed with a loud bang. At first, Gaige and Salvador flinched at this, expecting another tunnel. Instead, what spewed out was a pool of bile, blood, piles of eridium and an array of weapons and items neither Gaige nor Salvador were familiar with.

"Well, would you look at that?" asked a surprised Salvador as a slimy brick of eridium landed at his feet.

"I know, right?" Gaige added as she had Deathtrap bend down to pick up a strange-looking SMG with glowing bars of purple and gold running alongside the barrel. "What the hell is this thing?"

Her wrist-mounted data collector told her it was called an Anti-Social PB&J. It was both a slag and explosive-elemental SMG and it was manufactured by Helios. It had come off one of the Helios soldiers.

"Cool", she said, looking it over in her hands, studying it.

Salvador reached down to pick up a small orb. It was a dim blue color with three metallic rings, separating the front of it into sectors. At the back of it was a wire attached to a small fuse. It took him a few seconds to realize what he was looking at.

"Hey!" he called up to Gaige. "I got another present for ya!"

He flung the small object at her, which she caught with her claw after putting the PB&J in her storage deck.

"Dude, is this Blitzfield's eye?" she asked. She flung it away from her. "Ew, dude! Just…ew!"

"Oh, you're okay with blowing somebody's brains out but touching a fake eyeball is too much?" asked Sal, shaking his head. "Kids nowadays."

Salvador looked down and picked up a shield he had never seen before. The data collector told him it was Blitzfield's Peace Treaty, manufactured by Helios. He made sure to put that in his storage deck.

They heard some more rumbling coming from the direction of the Guardian but all it turned out to be was the Guardian crashing through its hole in the ceiling spilling out onto the floor. Its head did at least as the hunters saw that's neck was much longer than anticipated. Even though the giant beast landed face-first in the ground, bringing its slackened tentacles with it, its neck still extended just out of sight. Gaige could see that there was another set of six tentacles further down its worm-like body but fortunately since the Guardian was dead, they were slack and harmless. They couldn't tell how long the monster was but they couldn't care less anymore.

Gaige had Deathtrap go on a sweep across the floor with Sal, collecting eridium and guns, though none of them piqued her interest quite like the PB&J.

.

.

Helios the company wasn't quite as dead as the vault hunters assumed; in fact, they were far from it. Helios actually had an improvised outpost at Hyperion's abandoned Extraction Plant. Helios used Hyperion's abandoned equipment as well as their own to manufacture weapons, loverbots and make improvements on their peacesweeper designs. Their work was constantly ongoing with on and off shifts interchanging between eighty qualified staffers and security was run by twenty mercenaries. Their numbers were way down from when Helios was at its peak under Adam Blitzfield but they recently made a breakthrough with technology where the number of soldiers they had didn't even matter anymore.

A medical officer who had been monitoring Adam's vitals through a digipad saw that he had perished in the vault. That would fall under information that their lieutenant commander would like to know.

The doctor found Oscar on a floating mobile stairwell underneath a peacesweeper with an engineer in the extraction plant dam, monitoring the man install a new chip onto its motherboard that would allow for cloaking abilities. He had his helmet off; he had taken to not wearing it anymore since he was finally out of his commander's shadow. He ran his hand over his buzzcut, preferring it to the long hair he used to have. The doctor would have to climb down the ladder and wade through the knee-high water to get to Oscar and the peacesweeper.

"Alright", he said to the engineer. "That looks good; we'll see how this test goes. If this works, we can have peacesweeper ninjas and peacesweeper heavies. Heavies have more firepower. Of course, ninjas are stealth."

"Sir!" the doctor called from the foot of the stairs. "I have some vital information for you!"

Oscar turned towards the voice and looked down the stairwell.

"Oh, yes!" Oscar said, walking down the steps towards him. "The doctor; tell me something that I want to hear!"

When Oscar reached the doctor, he made sure to salute his new commander. Oscar returned the salute. Oscar took off his protective goggles, which he had worn in the presence of his engineer installing the cloaking chip. It struck the doctor again how eerie it was to see Oscar. He was a modified clone of their fallen leader, Blitzfield, hacked from their recently patented New U software. He had all of the memories of Adam but his eyes lacked Adam's sensitivity to light yet retained his combat and strategic advantages. Like Adam, he could see over six hundred meters away at zoom level with one eye and see through most objects with the other. He just didn't have to wear goggles, so the doctor could see and admire the rotating false cornea in Adam's eyes always looking to lock on and track something. It was somewhat amazing to see.

"Sir", the doctor said, handing Adam-Oscar the digipad with Adam-Prime's flatline vitals. "Commander Blitzfield is dead; you are now the commanding officer of Helios. I'm sure President Blake will be pleased."

Blitzfield stared down at the digipad, scratching his head as a wide grin formed on his face. He looked back up at the doctor.

"Good", he said, "now we can start doing things the right way."

.

.

Axton and Lilith managed to get Maya to wake up again; she shifted her head in Lilith's lap and opened her eyes.

"Is it over?" she asked them.

"Yeah" Lilith told her. "It's dead. Thanks to you. We did it."

"Fine", Maya said, shifting painfully to get up. "Let's go home."

"Wait a second", Mordecai said. "You don't want a second to rest? Maybe to celebrate being alive? We almost bit it back there."

"We're worst off than ever", Maya said to him. "What's there to celebrate? Brick is dead. Tannis is dead. Zer0 is probably dying. Maybe, I'm dying. I really don't know. All I know is I'm tired and I'm probably going to lose this arm! The keys were destroyed; all of this was for nothing!"

"Nooo", they heard Zer0, this time with his actual voice as his helmet was so damaged that the vocal modulator didn't even work anymore. They all turned their attention to him. "It's not…all…lost. I can see the last key; still intact."

"What?" asked Maya. "How?"

Zer0 reached underneath his mask and gingerly unhooked the latches. He then took the helmet and flung it away. His face was black, as black as ink or tar with sockets that weren't filled with flesh but with small orbs of colorless energy. His head seemed to be hollow behind his face; he didn't have a skull or brain inside of his head or anything that a human would have. His face seemed to exist on its own without any tendons or flesh holding it in place, as simply a template to express emotions or simulate speech. He looked at all of them and was admittedly amused at their shocked expressions. Even Gaige and Salvador came over to gawk.

"You're like…Calime", Maya said at last.

"An eridian, yes", Zer0 said, "but not like her. She is a binder and a royal one at that. I am a warrior. My powers are small compared to yours. So small that you couldn't even detect me even when I was right in of your face though you could channel sirens planets away."

"Holy crap, you're an eridian?" Lilith asked.

"Yes, Lilith", Zer0 said with a chuckle. "Let's move on."

"Why did you hide yourself?" Maya asked him.

"A long time ago my entire class was exiled from the rest of my kind", Zer0 told her. "It's been a long time since I thought it was worth my time to go over the past."

"Dude, an eridian?" Lilith asked again. "Right under my nose?"

"I think Lil's in shock", said Mordecai as he went over to her and waved a hand over face to no response.

.

The sound of scraping rock pervaded the entire chamber, drawing everybody's attention. It seemed that the extra floor was being withdrawn back into the original vault layout and returning to the three concentric circle vault design. The only difference was that the walls never rose from the floor again. The purpose for this could be assumed to be to make room for the portals. Of course, without any pulpits and keys, there would be no portals.

"Guys", Zer0 said to the others, pointing over to the spot Adam had thrown the key in earlier. "Help me over to the pool. "

"So, now that I feel like I know you for once", Axton said to Zer0 as he helped him walk, "I feel like I can ask you, 'how do you feel, buddy?'"

"Oh, I'm dying Axton", Zer0 said to Axton, looking him in the face for the first time ever. "I'm bleeding internally but we can at least do this one thing before it's over."

"You're being very calm about the whole thing", Axton said as Zer0 stopped him at the edge of the chamber with a hand.

"I've lived for a very long time and I'm tired", Zer0 answered.

"Well, you don't have to die", Axton said, looking to Maya. "Can't you heal him?"

"I don't even think I can heal myself right now", she said apologetically.

Zer0 got on his knees and peered over the side into the water.

"Maya, come here", Zer0 said, pointing to the left of him.

She cautiously went to his left, still clutching her damaged left arm. He opened his left hand for her, gesturing for her to take it, which she did.

"I'm not very strong", he told her, "I'll have to channel you."

.

Zer0 reached out for the water, producing an illuminating purple spot on the surface. Slowly, the glowing spot drifted towards them. The third vault key rose from the water, showing cracks with bluish light seeping out from within. As it rose above them, the key's exterior crumpled back into the water. What remained within was a morphing blue, floating bubble energy that rapidly expanded until it filled the room in front of them until they could barely tell the difference between the portal and the water beneath it. None of it seeped out and drowned them, however. It was like a floating ocean in front of them.

Lilith ventured forth and touched it. The wall rippled and produced slight waves at the site of her touch.

"It feels like water", she said, pulling her fingers back, "but I'm not wet."

"Ah, the wonders of our binders", Zer0 said. "If you are left without a pulpit, just add water. Well, these waters anyway."

"Dude, I still can't get over this", Gaige said, looking at Zer0.

"I have so many questions", Maya said to him.

"And I will answer them, siren", Zer0 said, bowing his head to her slightly, "if we have time."

"Time?"

"Please gather Patricia Tannis", Zer0 said to Mordecai.

"Yeah, I got her", Mordecai answered as he went to lift her body.

"I would like to bury her on the next world", Zer0 said. "It's only right that she see it after all she accomplished. She was always one of us; the only difference was she didn't carry a gun. I would like to be put next to her should I succumb too, if that's alright."

"Yeah", Maya said, nodding after a second. "Me too if I bleed out or something."

"So, we going or…?" Mordecai asked, dragging along Tannis.

"Hell Yeah!" shouted Salvador, who suddenly leapt forward through the portal. For a second, they saw him sink in with his hair and clothes swaying like he was walking on the ocean floor. He turned around slowly to look at them, raising his fists in triumph with air bubbles seeping out of his mouth and nostrils. After another second, there was another ripple across the surface and he was gone.

"Freakin' Salvador", Axton said with a chuckle.

Next was Mordecai with Tannis, in his arms.

"Finally, there's a reward for all this crap I go through", Mordecai said with a sigh. "Bloodwing, Brick, Roland; this is for you. I wish you could be with me."

He stepped through and disappeared with a ripple.

"Jerk stole my line", Lilith said as she stepped in front of the portal and she looked over at Maya and Zer0.

She and Maya shared a chuckle. Lilith then put a hand on Maya's right arm.

"We did it, sis", she said. "Thanks for letting me be a part of this. If I can help it, the both of you are gonna live, dammit. Zer0, don't think I don't have any questions either, because I do and I've had them longer."

"Understood", Zer0 said with a wide smile.

"That's creepy", noted Lilith before she, too stepped through the door.

Deathtrap levitated towards the puddle with Gaige.

"I guess the revolt continues" said Gaige as she stared into the doorway from atop DT's shoulder as she reached down and tapped his chestplate, "huh, DT?"

He grunted in response. She winced in pain.

"Oh yeah, DT", Gaige went on. "Remind me to build you a voicebox. Also, I need a splint for my leg. This crap really hurts. Alright, let's go."

Deathtrap floated through the portal.

"Well, I guess this is it", Axton said, looking over at Maya. "Hey, are you crying? There's no crying in vault hunting."

There were indeed tears streaming down Maya's face but she chuckled at Axton's comment. She wiped her eyes with her good hand.

"Shut up, jerk", she jabbed back. "I don't think I can take much more of this. I'm just so tired, Ax."

"What?" Ax said, blinking. "After all that, you're scared now? Anyway, you don't have to worry about falling anyway because I'll be there."

Axton took a second to look at Zer0, who sheepishly smiled back.

"I mean we'll be there", Axton corrected himself. "The vault hunters; you know…"

"I think I get it, idiot", Maya laughed.

Axton pulled Maya gently towards him by the neck and surprisingly kissed her on the top of the head on her markings. At first, Maya was taken aback but then she began to relish his comfort and affection. She closed her eyes and smiled. After about three seconds, Axton pulled away and rubbed her on that spot.

"What was that for?"

"Rubbing a bald head is good luck, you know?" said Axton.

Maya looked at him and smiled knowingly.

"Are you ready?" asked Zer0 with a smirk.

"Yeah, I think I am", answered Maya.

Finally, the three of them stepped into the portal.

"Wow, it is cold", observed Maya as the portal rippled again, taking them to another vault, another world and maybe some peace. Or maybe not.

.

.

"And that is the end of my story, you little brats", Marcus said to his orphan slaves, as he sat back and felt relieved at finally being finished. He looked over their faces as they sat in stunned silence.

"Now, my weapons need more cleaning", he said finally, keeping things moving. "The shelves aren't going to dust themselves; the skag kennels need to be washed out. I will find out whoever gave Barlow that pudding pop and I will hurt you."

"Marcus", said one of the interested little girls, "what happened to Maya? Did she lose her arm?"

"Yeah!" said a spiky-haired boy in front of Marcus' rocking chair, whose eyes followed him as he got up. "And what happened to Zer0? Did he die? What was on the other side of the portal anyway?"

"Enough, kids!" Marcus shouted. "The story's over! All of that is stuff is for another time! Now, go outside and play! I don't even want to look at you! Go on! Get outta here!"

The kids got up and ran out of his shop laughing, helped a bit by his broom, which he had picked up and taken to chasing them with. The kids ran out of his front door, laughing their heads off into the streets of New Haven. New Haven had been rebuilt in the shadow of its former location, looking much better than it had before, not hurt at all by the majority planet climate change from arid wasteland to ample rain and weather conducive to growth that a large area had seen.

The kids ran down the cobblestone street past clothing shops, gadget shops and even a store where you could buy echocasts from the vault hunters themselves. Those were always low on stock and those shop owners made a killing. In the center of town was a statue of its former leader, Helena Pierce. The bronze statue had the left side of her face marred and had her robotic hand on her waist.

Marcus walked back into his living room, muttering to himself over those damned orphans. He clothed them, fed them, gave them the privilege of cleaning his guns and stalls; all he got in return was irritation and being asked to tell stories he didn't want to tell. He was glad he never got Moxxi pregnant; the thought of a brat of his own was too much to think about.

"Something's been bothering me, Marcus" said one little boy from his walking chair as he walked in to take a load off.

"What the-", Marcus stammered. "Where did you come from? Go outside and play, you dirty rat."

"How did you know all that other stuff?" the kid asked seriously.

"What stuff?" Marcus asked, intrigued.

"You know, the stuff about Helios, the eridian, even the bandits sometimes", he said. "Sometimes you focused on them. You knew the vault hunters so I get that, you could talk to them; but how did you know what the other people were doing and what they were talking about?"

Marcus thought this over and chuckled, shaking his head.

"Kid, you have something to learn about telling stories", Marcus told him. "It's called 'embellishing'. You ever heard of it? I fleshed out the details to make it more interesting. I made up all of that extra stuff."

"Oh", the kid said, sinking in his chair a bit.

"Ah, you look disappointed", Marcus said. "Tough, this life is full of disappointment. Now, go outside and leave me alone. Tell the others they have half an hour before I come after them with a shotgun. Now, go."

The kid reluctantly got up and walked towards his front door before hesitating.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" asked Marcus.

"Actually", the kid said, his voice going cold and turning somewhat feminine in nature but not sounding like a child at all, "I'm disappointed in you. For a second there, I thought you had figured out that the story was never yours to begin with; it was always mine."

"Wait a second", Marcus said, stunned. "You're not one of mine…who are you?"

The boy turned to face Marcus from his doorway, showing off the hyper-reflective, black eyes that he had.

"The worlds could always use more vault hunters", it said. The door to Marcus' shop closed behind it.

.

.

Three Months Prior to the Battle at the Vault of the Warrior- Three Horns Valley

.

"Okay, now close one eye and line up the front sight post with the red circle. Do you see it?"

"Yeah, I see it."

"The spot at the very tip of that front sight post is where that bullet is gonna go. Now place that spot on the center mass of the target. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Good; now hold your breath and slowly squeeze the trigger."

Gaige held her breath and slowly pulled the trigger in. As she did, she was startled a bit and jerked her arms as she did it, hitting the far edge of the rock instead of the red ring that Salvador had marked out for her.

This occurred several months before they heard of any submerged vault. They had come to Pandora in search of a vault and treasure but were embroiled in a conflict between Hyperion and the crimson raiders. All Gaige wanted was treasure but the sad fact was she didn't know how to shoot a gun. So, Salvador took Gaige to Three Horns Valley and marked some spots for her to practice on and was helping her with the fundamentals.

"Man, I suck", lamented Gaige, putting her hands down.

"Chill, man", Salvador said. "You don't suck, you just need practice. Come on, kid, you don't want to be just a lame engineer. Vault hunters are more badass and we get rich faster. Come on, let's try again."

Salvador pushed her hands up again so that she could take another shot. He held her arms up with his and kicked her legs out farther so that she had a more stable base. He pushed down on her shoulders to make her bend down more.

A fully masked Zer0 walked past them, shaking his head.

"She's a waste of time", Zer0 said as he passed. "A skag could be a killer. Her; I don't see it."

"Hey, why don't you shut up!" Salvador yelled at him, moving away Gaige for a second. "I'm getting real tired of your crap! Grab a gun! You and me are gonna settle this right now in a duel!"

Zer0 laughed at Sal and simply sat cross-legged on a nearby rock as a response. Gaige tried to take aim at the rock again while Sal went over to Zer0, but grew frustrated and put the gun down.

"I said get up!" Sal yelled as he went for Zer0.

Maya watched this exchange from a distance, shaking her head. She ran her ungloved hand through her blue hair. Maybe she was just better off if she went at it alone. It wasn't like they could even stand each other.

"Animals, aren't they?" Axton asked as he approached her with an assault rifle slung over his shoulder. "Makes you wonder how they ever survived that train."

"You again?" Maya asked. "I thought I told you I wasn't interested. Leave me alone."

"Wow, you are really full of yourself", Axton said. "Not every guy wants to do you, okay? I just think it'd be more beneficial if the two of us worked together as partners and left these losers behind."

"I'd rather be with any one of them than you", Maya said. "I'd rather be by myself."

"By yourself?" Axton asked as she started to walk away from him. "Don't be so cocky. I know you got these big powers but you're a novice fighter. You wouldn't last that long."

Maya turned to look at him and began to say something. Axton noticed a runner filled to the nines with psycho bandits coming right for the two of them, threatening to run Maya over.

He ran to her and yanked her aside out of the way, yanking her on top of him. The runner came over and parked in the center of the vault hunters. Psychos got out and ran down Salvador, Gaige and Zer0, while a couple of marauders got out and took shots at them.

Salvador took out two pistols and shot the psycho running for him in the knees, making him fall on his face. He took a few shots from of the marauders in his shield before stepping behind a nearby boulder for cover.

"Is that blood in your hair?" asked the psycho that went for Gaige as she backed away from him. He raised the buzzax in his hand, intending on getting blood on it.

"Get 'em, DT!" she said, digistructing her bodyguard. With one swipe, Deathtrap knocked the bandit's head off, producing gory spurts from his neck and jagged spinal column.

Zer0 simply flung some kunai at the psycho's face coming for him. The psycho fell to the ground, screaming as he held his face. A kunai was sticking out of each eyehole.

"Aaagh!" he screamed, "my eyes!"

Zer0 jumped for cover when the marauders turned their attention on him.

The marauders then had to duck down in the runner for cover when they started getting hit from the back with rounds. It was a sabre turret that Axton had thrown on the ground.

Axton watched on pride as Maya stepped beside him and strafed around the vehicle. When she got a good view on the bandits, she was able to lift them both in the air with her phaselock. She then casually picked off one of them with an SMG while Axton took out the other with his rifle. Both of the marauders bounced off of the runner and landed next to it on opposite sides.

Zer0, Gaige and Salvador approached the runner. Nobody said anything for a little while.

"Well", Sal said, breaking the silence, "I guess we don't need a truck anymore."

"Yeah…", said Gaige awkwardly as they stood in silence for a few seconds.

"So, we should go, right?" asked Axton.

"Yeah", said Sal. "So, who's gonna drive?"

"Maya!" said Zer0, Axton, and Gaige at the same time.

"Why do I always have to drive?" asked Maya.

"You just do", answered Zer0.

"Things would run a lot smoother if you just accepted it, driver", said Gaige.

"Fine", said Maya with a sigh as she headed towards the driver's seat. "So; where to, guys?"

"Let's see what's up at the Happy Pig", suggested Salvador as he headed for the passenger seat.

"Man, I wanted to check up on that Doc Mercy guy", whined Gaige.

"Zed did make that kill sound interesting", admitted Zer0 as he got in the back.

Axton ran and slid over the hood to beat Salvador to the passenger seat. He sat down and popped a piece of gum in mouth and smiled at the short vault hunter. Salvador walked off, flipping him off and cursing him off in Truxican.

"Gum?" Axton asked as he looked over at Maya and offered her a piece.

She simply laughed him off as she started the runner. Sal, Gaige and Zer0 were in the back.

"My legs", cried out the psycho that Salvador had shot as he crawled towards a large rock.

"My eyes", cried the psycho Zer0 had hit with his kunai as he writhed on the ground.

When Maya took off, she did a three hundred and sixty-degree donut, running over the both of them. She then took off towards the Happy Pig Motel.

"Let's do them both, right?" Maya asked.

"Why not?" asked Axton, smacking on his gum.

"Hey, guys", Gaige yelled out. "I'm developing a new technology that'll negate my suckiness at aiming. I won't need to purposely hit anything. My bullets would just ricochet into their targets. Cool, right?"

"Sure, Gaige", Salvador said, tapping her arm.

"Maybe you just shoot at whoever I phaselock", Maya offered. "That could work."

"Don't quit your day job, little boy", said Zer0.

"I'm a girl", corrected Gaige.

"Oh", answered Zer0.

"Hey, Maya", Axton said, "pull over, I gotta take a whiz."

"What?" Maya asked as she turned around a hill. "No. We're almost there!"

"But I can't hold it", he said before he snapped his fingers. "You know what? I got it!"

He stood up gingerly and held onto the roof frame as he moved to unzip his pants with one hand.

"What are you doing?" asked Gaige.

"I'm peeing out of the side", Axton answered nonchalantly.

"What?" shouted Maya. "Don't do that!"

"I'm already doing it!" shouted Axton with a sigh of relief. "This is happening."

"I freaking hate you so much", Maya confessed. The truck bounced over the terrain towards the Happy Pig Motel.

Zer0, Gaige and Salvador laughed as Maya giggled begrudgingly.

"Dude, you should definitely drink less water."