The wood paneled truck clattered down the asphalt path alongside a barbed wire topped chain link fence. The canvas topped transport had been "liberated" from a military motor vehicle pool, so it looked totally natural approaching outside this logistics depot. It backfired once as the brakes squealed the vehicle to a halt.

"You really sure about this pal? This seems like a crazy plan to me." Firo was dressed in a pale green suit with matching fedora. He turned his attention to the passenger as he shifted into park.

"Absolutely. However, if I do not return by 12:30 sharp, leave without me and deliver the goods to your employer." Zer0 opened the door of the truck and stepped out, but turned back to the young driver.

"Got it. But I still think you've got some screws loose, hatching a scheme like this."

"One more thing."

"Yeah, what is it?"

Zer0 activated his SDU and began constructing multiple high quality guns into the cab.

"What the heck kind of alchemy is this?" Firo asked perplexed.

"I need the extra space, so I'm leaving my collection with you for safe keeping. If anything happens to it I'm holding you responsible." Zer0 flashed up a :( on his visor.

"Ah, right... Don't worry; I'll keep an eye on them." The baby faced mobster laughed nervously while scratching the back of his head. "By the way, you got a real name or somethin'? I know aliases are part of the job but I like workin wid actual people."

"No."

The assassin turned to the fence, constructed his blade, and silently cut a man sized hole in it, gently placing the grating on the grass. Looking up at the wall of the warehouse, he saw some narrow windows twenty feet off the ground designed to provide light and ventilation. As it was a hot day, many of them had been opened. He threw his sword into the side of the wall halfway up, embedding it sideways into the concrete. With a running start, he managed to wall run up to it and grab hold, pulling his lithe frame up. He stood on the flat of the weapon and began to bounce on the springy blade building momentum. After a few seconds, he leaped at the apex of the blade's flex and grabbed onto the sill of the window, hoisting himself inside.

Firo let out a low whistle from the cab of the truck. "Man, just who is this guy?"

Maya stared intently across the café table at her newest revelation. Calliope scarfed down her sandwich almost instantaneously and moved on to the fries. The poor girl was clearly malnourished.

"So, where do you live Callie?" Maya threw out a softball.

"Around." She picked up her glass and guzzled down some water.

"You don't have any place to stay? Somewhere safe at least?"

The girl slammed the glass on the table and exhaled loudly. "Not since I got kicked out of the orphanage." Her gaze noticeably shifted away from Maya.

"What exactly happened to your parents? And why would they kick you out?"

Maya's brows furrowed in concern, but Callie misread this as threatening. She curled up in a ball on the chair.

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Please? It could be important. I know it's painful."

"No!" the girl starting tearing up a bit.

The elder Siren could tell pushing this wouldn't help. "Okay, why don't you tell me after desert then?"

Callie took her face out of her knees and stopped sobbing. "Really? I've heard people talk about that!"

"Sure. It's my treat." Maya put on her best impression of a maternal smile.

Firo drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. His new partner had been gone for about 15 minutes now, he was running low on time. He heard the squeal of a metal hinge. Looking in the side mirror, he saw Zero emerge from a set of double metal doors that was locked previously. The assassin approached the cargo bed, and with a thump the truck rocked backwards with newfound weight. Strange, he didn't see him carrying anything in his hands. Zer0 casually strolled back into the warehouse, emerging a short time later. Another thump as the vehicle's suspension sagged.

"Hey buddy, you need any help carryin stuff?"

"No thank you. I have it under control."

Zer0 made 3 more trips. Firo's pocket watch read 12:27. Zer0 made another running leap up the wall to retrieve his sword. Grabbing it in both hands, he pushed off the wall with his legs, performing a backflip into a perfect 3 point landing.

Firo gently clapped and whistled. "Were you a Circus performer?"

"Something like that." He wandered back into the warehouse.

"Hey, where you goin'? You've only got 3 more minutes!" Firo leaned out the window of the truck waving his pocket watch.

"Plenty of time."

"That idiot... If he blows this Luck is gonna be pissed!" He nervously watched the seconds hand tick by. At 12:29:30 he returned. The door swung open, and Zer0 recovered his arsenal.

"We're finished. Hit it."

"Geez, what was so important you had to go back for it?" Firo started the truck's engine.

"An artist always signs his work."

The extremely overloaded truck struggled to gain momentum as its trailer hitch dragged on the ground, sending a shower of sparks flying. It backfired again, the suspension squeaking and groaning with the weight of its ill-gotten cargo. As it slowly accelerated, alarm sirens went off in the compound.

Inside, a Staff Sergeant rushed inside the plundered warehouse with a squad of troops. Empty crates abounded, with the lids neatly pried open. The only evidence they found was an inscription carved into the wall:

"Absconding with Loot

Pilfering all your plunder

Victory is mine!"

Or, in other words:

ALL Y0UR BASE ARE BEL0NG T0 US!

Dirty dishes were quickly accumulating atop the wire mesh table at the café. By the third serving of desert, the waitress was giving Maya dirty looks. Maya explained it away saying it was the girl's birthday, but that didn't seem to deflect her scorn. Calliope leaned back in her chair and rubbed her belly, finally satisfied.

Maya figured she'd start with a softball question. "So, how old are you?"

"Thirteen... I Think."

"I Think?! How rough has this girl had it to not be sure of her age?!" Maya did her best to not let her concern show on her face. She reached over with a napkin and wiped the crumbs off of the ravenous girl's mouth. "So why aren't you in an orphanage?"

"I got kicked out. They said I was too scary."

"The other kids?"

"No, the adults. They called me a demon. I set the place on fire. I didn't mean to, honest!" She stared at the floor, crestfallen.

"Let me guess, you couldn't control your powers?"

"How'd you know that?"

"It was the same with me. As a girl, my powers would flare out of control when I was upset or emotional. It took many years of training from the monks to learn to wield them effectively."

"Huh?" Callie tilted her head, not used to Maya's vocabulary.

"It took a long time to learn to not hurt others when I'm mad."

"Oh. I see."

"So what happened to your parents?"

"I... I killed them." She started sobbing. "I got mad when they said they couldn't afford a toy for me. I was so mad, and then my arm started glowing, and then mommy's head exploded! Daddy tried to stop me but then he blew up too! I can still smell it! Their blood was everywhere! The stink of them burning! *sniff* I tried to stop myself but I couldn't! I wish I blew up too, it would have been less painful than this!" Callie escalated into full bawling by this point. The few other early afternoon patrons were openly staring.

Maya knew she needed to diffuse the situation. She pulled out a stack of bank notes from her SDU. Doing a rough calculation of the bill in her head, she left the notes plus generous tip on the table. Lifting up the wailing girl onto her hip, and the bag of groceries around the other wrist, she carried her off somewhere less public. She slowly rubbed and patted the young girl's back as she walked. "I'm treating her more like an infant, but what else am I supposed to do? Child rearing was not part of the curriculum at the temple." Maya thought to herself. After a few minutes of walking she returned to her apartment near the campus.

It was a pretty small room, the living room sharing space with a tiny open kitchen. The only decoration was a small bookshelf with books loaned from the academy's library. She set down the still weeping girl on the couch, and set to work putting away the groceries before they spoiled. She'd calmed down by the time Maya was finished, but her eyes were red and the skin still puffy.

"Why don't you take a bath? That helps calm me when I'm upset." Maya suggested.

"Really? I can?" She perked up at that idea.

"Yeah. The tub here is a little small, but I think you'll fit fine."

"Yaaay!" Maya showed her to the bathroom and sniffed the air. "She really does reek, even by our lax standards. She probably hasn't gotten clean in years..."

Once the orphan eyed the tub, she flung off her dirty raiment and smacked Maya in the face with it. The disgusted Siren quickly peeled off the rank robe and tossed it on the floor. The inside was deeply stained and discolored. It would have to be burned later, she immediately determined. Which means she'll need new clothes...

She went to fetch something from her school bag from the other room. By the time she returned, Callie had filled the tub and was soaking with a huge smirk on her face.

"What's that stick for?" She asked Maya.

"It's a ruler. I'm going to measure you."

"What for?"

"You need new clothing. Badly."

She looked happy but also confused. "Why are you being so nice to me? Everyone I've ever met has called me a monster, a freak, or an abomination."

Maya sat on the toilet next to her. "I wish I could say it was out of the kindness of my own heart. Partly, it is. But sadly, the world doesn't work that way. Everybody wants something from you."

"And what do you want from me? I don't have anything to offer..." Callie slid deeper into the tub to nose level.

"That's where you're wrong." Maya rolled up her left sleeve to reveal her tattoos. "We're Sirens. There can only be six of us in the whole universe at once. We all have phenomenal powers. That makes us special. But it also makes us vulnerable. There are many bad people in the Galaxies who want to enslave or kill us. Some want to worship us. But through all that, we've still got to lead our own lives."

Callie looked completely befuddled. "I still don't understand what you want me to do."

"For now, nothing. I just want you to grow up healthy."

"Does that mean you'll be my new mommy?!" She leapt up out of the tub to face Maya, wearing nothing but her birthday suit. Her emaciated frame showed ribs and multiple small cuts and bruises.

"I wish I could. Really, I do. But that's not possible right now. I don't have the time, means, or... how should I put this... a "home" for you."

"Eh? But isn't this your place?"

"Not really, no. The apartment complex is owned by the Academy. And I'm not from... this country." She decided to tell a half-truth for simplicity's sake.

"Oh. I see." She flopped back into the water, and soaked Maya with a splash.

"Don't worry, I'll find you somewhere safe." She started measuring the disheartened orphan.

In the back of her mind, she added "I hope."

Many lightyears away, Tourge's space truck streaked though the outer rim of this galaxy. On board the "vessel", Tina was teaching the Old Hunters about her favoretestestest game, Bunkers & Badasses. The group gathered around a circular table in the ship's lounge.

"Now... ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!" Tina screamed and rolled a 20 sided die.

"WHATS INITIATIVE?!" Tourge Bellowed.

"I think it's what order we move in." Lilith explained.

"Whats going on?" Mordy lazily sat up in his chair. "I wasn't paying attention."

"Hey! That's rude!" Brick smacked Mordy hard enough to almost dislodge his hat.

"Man, what's your problem?!"

"Enough, you two." Lil sighed. "Tina, why don't you start over?"

"Kaaaaaay. Welcome my fiiiine cats to the kewlest game in the world, Bunkers and Badasses! As your bunker master I will be spinning this tale of epic fantasy and-"

"Remind me again why we're playing this kids game?" Mordy complained.

"Because I don't know, SHUT THE HELL UP MORDY!" Tina snapped back.

"Tina!" Lil scolded. "She's right though, shut up."

Mordy gave up in a resigned sigh.

"Since it'll take us some time to get to where we're goin, I figured we'd play a game to pass the time. Now, pick your characters. You got the Mechromancer, the Siren, the Gunzerker..."

"OOOH! OOOH! GUNZERKER FOR ME PLEASE! I WANNA USE A ROCKET LAUNCHER IN EACH HAND!" Tourge excitedly picked up a slightly recolored figurine of Salvador off the table.

"Can he even do that?" Mordy asked incredulously.

"Leeeeet's see. Just gimme a secco to check the rulebook..." Tina reached under the table and slammed down a weighty tome at least 600 pages thick.

"Tina, let's just start and we'll figure it out as we go along." Lil suggested.

"Right! So as I was saying..."

Overhead, a loud metallic creaking started to emanate from the air vents overhead.

"I'm no engineer, but I don't think your ship should be making that noise Tourge..." Lil expressed concern.

"IM SURE IT'S FINE!"

The groaning got louder and louder, until the vent burst with a twang! Something PLOPPED onto the table, scattering dice, pen and paper, figurines, and snack foods everywhere. The table sagged, and then buckled under the weight of...

"What the butts?! A bandit!" Tina shrilled.

Mordy drew his revolver, only to be stopped by Lil.

"What the hell?! You're protecting them now?!"

"I recognize this guy! I think his name was... Kreig?"

"You mean the Psycho who helped you out against the Bandit King?" Brick asked.

"Yeah but..." She poked the unconscious pile of man. "What the heck is he doing here?"

"I sToWeD aWay On tHiS fInE VessEL, LIkE ThE PrivaTEeRs oF YoRe! KIDNEY FARTS!" Kreig sprung to his feet with a surprising quickness. Tina dashed behind Brick's legs and peeked out.

"STOWAWAY? WHAT'S THAT MEAN?" Tourge asked.

"It means he followed us here." Mordy still held his revolver, half raised from the floor.

"Nice job genius. Not only did you break the vent like I told you we would, but you also gave away that we're not supposed to be here." Kreig's inner voice chided him.

Lil sighed. "Kreig, why are you here?"

He avoided eye contact and dragged one foot behind the other shyly. "ThE BarD TellS NoT hIs SecreTs!"

Further questioning was interrupted. The entire ship went quiet, then a deafing roar echoed though the halls. A massive explosion rocked the ship, throwing them all to the ground!

"DAMN IT TOURGE, WHAT DID YOU DO NOW?!" Mordecai shouted over the ringing in his ears.

"IT WASN'T ME THIS TIME, I SWEAR! I STOPPED BLOWING THINGS UP ON THE SHIP AFTER THE LAST SEVEN HULL BREACHES!"

"We need to figure out what the hell just happened!" Brick commented.

"I hate it when he makes sense!" Mordy sighed.

"Where's the closest Control Panel?" Lil asked Tourge.

"I CONTROL EVERYTHING FROM MY ECHOPAD!" He removed the device from his back pocket.

"WARNING! HYPERDRIVE NON OPERATIONAL! SWITCHING TO TOTALLY LAME IMPULSE POWER!" The echopad bellowed in a baritone voice. The device brought up a schematic of the Engine Room, where a large hole had been blown in one of the bulkheads.

"So, what happened? Mechanical failure?" Mordy asked.

"NEGATIVE! A LARGE AMOUNT OF EXPLOSIVES DETONATED DESTROYING THE PLASMA INJECTORS. PROBABLE CAUSE: SABOTAGE."

"Wait, so explosions can be BAD?!" Tina gasped.

"Don't these ships have bomb detectors?" Lilith asked.

"I SHUT THAT OFF A LONG TIME AGO. WITH HOW MANY EXPLOSIVES I HAVE ON BOARD IT WAS GOING OFF EVERY FIVE SECONDS!"

"Because of course you did." Lil facepalmed.

"Makes sense to me." Brick chimed in.

"Oh, GREAT. It only now occurred to me that we're LITERALLY FLYING IN A BOMB FACTORY!" Mordecai shouted exasperated. "I don't suppose you've got a spare Hyperdrive?"

"SORRY, FRESH OUT CHAMP!"

"That was a rhetorical question."

"Then we'll have to fix it. Tourge, show us the way to the engine room." Lil said with determination.

"RIGHT! ERR, I MEAN LEFT, DOWN THE HALL!"

"What uh, about tall, muscly, and orange?" Tina poked Kreig in the Abs.

"You uh, just stay put. We'll deal with you later." Lil shrugged.

Kreig said nothing, but sat in place like a dog.

"Wait, so you'll listen to her but not to me?" His inner voice asked.

"YoU DoN't HavE BoObsiCleS!"

""The power of boners is stronger." Why does that not surprise me?"

Back in Central Barracks, Ed was helping Gaige make some repairs. They were sequestered away in the armory. Ed clapped sharply, and dull blue glow engulfed a pile of coal and steel scraps. A new graphine cable appeared in their place, with steel strands woven in.

"Hopefully this version will stand up better." Ed picked up the coil and handed it to Gaige.

"I still can't believe that Homonculus managed to snap it. What other monstrosities are we going to face?" She walked over to a nearby reloading bench and clamped one end of the cable into a vice.

"Honestly, I have no idea. This is as much news to me as it is to you. Whoever we're up against definitely has skill and resources though."

Gaige threw the other end of the line to Ed, who threaded it through a winch off of one of the military's trucks. A nearby work order revealed it had recently been repaired. Ed powered up the device and the slack quickly disappeared. When the cable pulled taught, it snapped with a whip-like CRACK!

"Give it full power!" Gaige ordered.

Ed turned up the speed control as high as it would go. The bench started to slide towards the winch.

"Stop! Stop!" She waived her arms over her head to be noticed over the noise of the electric motor.

Ed quickly set the winch to reverse. The cable shot out the other side, collapsing in a pile like uncut spaghetti. Gaige shoved the bench back into its correct position, disconnected the vice, and slowly inspected their creation.

"Well, it looks fine. No visible stress marks or fraying. Now we move on to insulation."

"I've got the asbestos you asked me to get."

"And the masks and gloves?"

"Ah, yeah." He removed the items from his SDU. "Why do we need masks?"

"Because this stuff will give you lung cancer if you inhale it."

"Huh? I've never heard that mentioned anywhere before. Then again I don't read too much about medicinal alchemy... "

"Trust me; you don't want to mess around with this stuff."

"If it's so hazardous, why are we using it?" Ed gave a very skeptical look despite the facemask.

"Because the materials I'd normally use for this kind of application I don't have available, and I don't know what goes into them."

The pair gathered up the cable, asbestos, a can of glue, and some more steel scraps. Ed transmuted them. The cable reformed again, now with a steel braid on the outside, a layer of glue based sealant, the asbestos insulation, and the graphine core.

Al picked up the completed project and helped Gaige load it into her partially disassembled arm.

"Thanks a bunch. I definitely couldn't have made this without you."

"No problem. If you can have more non-lethal options, I'm glad to help. Now, if you don't mind, I've been meaning to get back to-"

Just then, Gaige's ECHO rang.

"Moshi Moshi? Oh, Hey Maya, what's up?"

Ed raised an eyebrow at the strange expression. Gaige still didn't always make sense to him.

"Woah woah, slow down! You're talking too fast!"

...

"Have you told Axton yet?"

...

"Hang on; this will be easier if we're all together. Let me call a meeting and I'll have you explain there."

"Something wrong?" Ed asked.

"Sorta. Tell the Major to call a meeting; I'm going to grab Axton!" She dashed out of the room as she talked.

"Hey wait!" Ed weakly held out a hand to stop her, but she was long gone. "I swear, where does she get off bossing me around?" He sighed.

An overcast day let in grayish light though the massive window overlooking the 20 foot long conference table. The occasional spit of rain on the glass added to the dreariness. A few small electric lamps in the room did little to cut though the gloom of the wood paneled room with dark blue carpeting.

Gaige set up her ECHO in the center of the table, and activated hologram mode. She called Maya, and a patchy, static filled bluish-white hologram appeared.

"Gai-"? "I can bar- He- Yo.." Maya's voice struggled to cut though all the static.

"Maya, just give me a second. Damn storms are interfering with the signal. Man, I really miss highspeed ECHOnet!"

Mustang sat at the head of the table, tapping his fingers impatiently. "Perhaps we should reschedule this?"

Axton looked a bit frustrated. "Can it wait? I was in the middle of my workout. You didn't even tell me what this is about Gaige."

It's not like I've got anywhere to go. My hot date canceled on me with the weather we're having." Falman moped, slouching in his chair.

Gaige fiddled with dials and sliders on the virtual display of the ECHO. Maya's voice fluctuated wildly in pitch and volume. "Almost there... Maybe if I piggyback on some other towers?"

Sgt Fury and Lt Ross stared out the window, watching the droplets hit the panes. Most of the rest of Mustang's men yawned or stared off into space, save for Hawkeye. She stared intently at Gaige's manipulation of the ECHO, watching her every move.

"-ge is that better?" the voice over the echo finally stabilized, along with Maya's hologram.

"Yeah! I can hear you now Maya. Sorry about all that, these old radio wave devices don't like storms too much." Gaige grinned. She was not about to let a little electrical interference stop her!

"OK, how much of that did you hear?"

"Nothing. Better start over."

There was an audible sigh on the other end of the line. The hologram of Maya panned around the room, watching Gaige take her seat next to Axton. Looking a bit further, Fullmetal and Alphonse were seated closer to the head of the table. And then she got to the top, and saw Mustang. The hologram snapped back to Gaige.

"You want to tell me what the fuck he's doing here?" Maya snapped. It was pretty rare for her to swear.

"It's uh, a long story."

"You seem to be filled with long stories recently!" Maya-gram crossed her arms and huffed.

"Look, none of us like the guy. But we determined we needed to work with him-" Axton interjected, but was cut off.

"And you were planning on consulting me about this when? Or does my opinion not matter as usual?"

"That's ENOUGH, all of you!" Mustang roared, standing up quickly and knocked his chair over. He glowered at the holographic siren. "Look. We don't like each other. I could make some stupid speech about teamwork and friendship, but I'll save that bull for the children. Right now, it's in everyone's self interest that we work together. And that means putting aside past insult or wrongdoing. If you want an apology, fine. I'm sorry. But we cant afford bickering, wasting time or secrets! Do I make myself clear?"

Maya glared back at the hologram of Mustang from her apartment. Even at this small resolution, his steely gaze was quite menacing.

"Fine. I get it. What exactly is it you want from us?"

"Tell me everything. From the beginning. I need to know what we've gotten ourselves into. If I am going to put my men's lives at risk in this alliance, I don't want any surprises." The ECHO's lens panned to show Lt Hawkeye, Lt, Riza, Sgt Fury, Sgt Falman and Sgt Brosh.

"That's a long story..."

"Now you're the one saying it!" Gaige chided.

"Hush. Well? Should I?" Maya glared daggers between her friends and this snake Colonel.

"I've already told Ed most of it. It's not exactly a secret."

"Very well then. Once upon a time, there was a world called Pandora..."

Maya launched into the explanation of the history of Pandora. The early colonization attempts by Dahl. The abandonment of those colonies once the seas dried up and the wildlife attacked. The abandonment of the prison labor force that became the bandits. The invasion of the Atlas corporation. The Amestrians occasionally broke in with questioning, but otherwise listened intently. Occasionally Gaige and Axton took over when Maya tired.

"Wait wait wait." Sgt Brosh interjected. "You're telling me where your from, anyone can just... buy a gun. From a machine? On a street corner?"

Axton nodded.

"Isn't that... dangerous? And irresponsible?"

Gaige nodded. "We tried to get Marcus to stop selling to bandits, but he told us the same thing he told Roland: "Over my dead body.""

Falman looked on disgusted. "Man, no wonder your world is so messed up."

The vault hunters continued their explanation of the quest of the previous generation of hunters. Occasionally, Gaige broke in showing images stored on her ECHO, illustrating the hell that was Pandora. She explained that she had slowly been recovering the personal data that was damaged in the rogue datastream.

"So after they collected the key, Tannis betrayed them to Atlas. Steele wasted no time taking the key to the vault." Maya explained.

Gaige flashed up the file photo of Steele.

"Those tattoos... Another one of these "Sirens"?" Mustang stopped slouching in his chair, taking interest.

"Indeed."

"And what unbelievable powers did she have?"

"Unfortunately, we never found out. The Destroyer she released from the vault killed her before she could do anything."

"I think you mean fortunately. The old guard had enough to deal with that tentacley bastard stinking up the place." Axton chimed in.

"I suppose its a matter of perspective."

"Hold on, you're jumping ahead. Destroyer? Vault?" Riza questioned.

"Let me explain." Gaige flashed up a series of images. The first of an Eridian Guardian, the second of the unopened vault, and the third of The Destroyer.

"These guys are the only biological... well, semi biological evidence of the Eridians we know to exist. Tannis thinks they're a bio weapon created by the Eridians to guard the Vaults."

Lt Ross spoke up. "Wait, I thought this Tannis woman betrayed you?"

"As we said, long story. The short version is, Eridians disappeared a long time ago, but left behind advanced tech, sealed vaults, keys to those vaults, and big scary monsters." Axton clarified.

"Right. So said key was used to open this vault-" Gaige enlarged the image of it. "And out popped this beautiful girl." The hairy, gaping maw of the Destroyer appeared, with its tentacles, firing its purple laser from its... eye?

There was a collective Eww from the Amestrians.

"Is that... a...?" Sgt Fury asked.

"Say it and I'll smack you Sergeant." Lt Ross averted her eyes.

"In any case, The old Vault Hunters kill it, but discover no gold, gems, or guns, only purple ooze. So they left, the day saved. Or so they thought." Maya continued.

"Turns out their "Guardian Angel" was an A.I. working for Supreme Douchebag #1, Handsome Jack." Axton blew up Jack's picture from before he was scarred.

"A.I.?" Mustang asked. Gaige took a few minutes to explain the concept to the room.

"So anyway, as I was saying, the old Vault Hunters settle in for awhile, thinking all is well. But it turns out that Jack took the real prize from the vault: Eridum. This stuff turned out to be a wonder material. Good for power sources, exotic structures, but most of all for its mutagenic powers. It doesn't take much of the stuff to start twisting creatures into grotesque shapes and creating bio weapons with it." Maya recounted.

"With the money he made selling the stuff, It wasn't long before Jack was able to mount a hostile take over of Hyperion. And with that power he decided to make Pandora his Bitch." Axton practically spat the words out.

"Ax!" Maya retorted.

"What? Its true."

She sighed and ignored him. "Well yes, he started taking over. Killed anyone who wasn't to his liking... which pretty much any Pandora native. On top of that, the opening of the vault unleashed a major ecological shift, causing massive climate upheaval that killed thousands more."

Gaige posted the post-vault pictures showing Three Horns Divide, The Highlands, and Sawtooth Cauldron.

Brosh looked on incredulously. "This is all the same planet? How long did this take?"

"5 Years." Maya replied.

"That quickly? Damn."

"It really is unbelievable. If my home changed that much in such a short time..." Sgt Fury pondered.

"In any case, that's where we come in. Jack pretends to hire us, but then tries to kill us. Bastard." Gaige spat.

The group explained how they rebuilt the rebellion against Jack, reuniting the old Vault Hunters and rebuilding Sanctuary along the way. About how Lilith made the city fly, and then teleport.

Then they reached the assault on the BNK3R.

"So we push though a shitton of robots and climb this mountain to reach the Bunker. Wasn't a big deal really, just some silly turrets up there." Axton feigned disinterest.

"But then this huuuuge ship takes off and starts fling around ,bombing us with missiles and mortars! Explosions everywhere!" Gaige was getting into this part of the story.

"Wait, a ship? You mean like, with sails? Or steel and steam?" Fury asked, confused.

"No, a spaceship. Or at least I assume it was capable of space travel." Gaige replied.

"Why would Jack build a drone like that with space flight? It was only designed to defend one location." Maya pointed out.

"I don't know, when did jack ever make sense?" Axton shrugged.

"In any case. We're getting off topic. The true bunker was not the concrete fortifications, but instead this very heavily and armed flying monstrosity." Maya clarified to Fury.

"Sorry. Anyway, it took some doing but we finally blow it the hell up, and it comes crashing down on top of this archway. And for whatever reason, Jack tied his security system to it, so when we destroyed it his forcefield around the elevator went down." Gaige continued to explain.

"I still don't understand why villains do that." Axton shrugged.

"So anyway, after we descend the hundreds of meters down to the center of the mountain, we are greeted with a vision of angel. Except she's not an AI. She's a human... No, a Siren, like me." Maya recounted, with sadness in her eyes.

"So she deceived you. What did she want?" Asked Riza.

Axton drew a deep breath. "To help us kill her."

The room gasped and then went silent.

"Why the hell would she want that?!" Edward stood up, and slammed his automail fist into the table, shaking the glasses of water.

Outside, a bolt of lightning flashed, followed 3 seconds later by thunder, as the rain pummeled the window.

"Because she was the key to Jack's security. She had the power to interface with and disable any computer or defenses." Ax explained.

"I won't go into the details of hacking right now, but suffice it to say with her encryption in place we were not going to be able to get to the vault. Not to mention she had the vault key..." Gaige gazed at her shoes.

"And, more importantly to her I'm sure, Jack had abused her her entire life. We later found the audio logs." Maya played them back for the Amestrians.

The room listened in horrified silence to the abuses of a madman to his own kin.

The Amestrians all looked sick. " What kind of bastard does that to his own daughter?" Ross's fists clenched.

Fallman looked up, smoking away. "I don't understand. Then why not simply rescue her? Wouldn't taking her away be enough?"

"Unfortunately, that wasn't option." Axton flicked the display on his ECHO, and a picture appeared on Gaige's projecting in the room. "The Eridum injectors he had her tied into were increasing her powers, by how much we're not sure. But they also caused dependency, which means that removing them from her would kill her. But she knew it was the only way to stop her father."

Edward balled up his fists, while Al clanked as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Their gaze met, neither saying anything. But they were thinking of one person: Nina. Even if they had heard this story before, seeing the images for the first time only reinforced the horror.

Axton continued: "We went to destroy the injectors, but Jack intervened and activated the defenses. It was a never ending barrage of loaders, turrets, electrical traps, and other nice surprises. As we fought, Lilith and Roland eventually showed up and joined the battle."

"It was a close one, we all went down at least once. But with the old hunter's help we made it though and destroyed the last injector." Maya recounted. "But as we thought we were in the clear, and Angel thanked us, that's when it... It happened."

"Jack got the better of us." Gaige chocked back tears. "We never thought he had the stones to face us. In a way, he didn't. He had a cloak like Zero's, and he shot Roland in the back. In the same instant, he threw on some kind of collar on to Lilith. Before we knew it, he had her as his hostage, and we... we..." Gaige finally lost it and started bawling.

" It's OK, I'll take over." Axton patted the crying girl on the back. He put on a tough face, but the tenseness in his face and neck belied his own emotions. "I've never seen a wiry nerd move so fast. It was over in an instant, all of us too frozen in shock to do anything. Before Jack could do anything. Lilith used the last of her power to teleport us out of there and back to Sanctuary."

Maya chimed in, seeing Axton's expression. "We had the key and the means to access the path to the vault, but at the cost of our leader. Our friend."

"I see. I'm sorry to hear it. We've all lost comrades on the battlefield." Mustang's hands clenched thinking of Hughes, even if he didn't let his face show it. The rest of the Amesterians were not so controlling of their emotions, a few of them crying.

"We tried to revive him from the New-U, but no luck. The old hunters had taken themselves out of the system, not trusting Hyperion with their lives. No telling what he'd do with them if he had rerouted their digistream to his moonbase. Even if they had, its unsure if it would have worked. Hell, the only reason it worked for us at all is because of Angel's intervention, which she hid from Jack."

Mustang flipped though his notes of the hunters. "New-U... Ah yes, here it is... That teleportation device? The one we covered over with concrete. Forgive me, I'm not understanding. How would teleportation help your dead friend?"

"It's not just a teleportation device. Its a personal reconstruction and duplication machine."

Riza tilted her head, confused. "What do you mean by that?"

Gaige wiped up her tears. "Its a digistructing cloning mechanism that replicates you upon... upon.." She started crying again.

"Will you please use smaller words?! We can't understand you!" Ross snapped.

Axton sighed. "Occupational hazard of having a scholar and a mechanical genius as friends." He cleared his throat. "In simple terms, its a machine that creates a copy of you and resurrects you upon your death."

A dead air settled over the room, the only sound being rain hitting the window.

Some uncomfortable seconds passed. Mustang broke the silence. "Isn't that akin to human transmutation?"

Ed stood up, clearly angry. He walked over to the vault hunter's side of the table. "Why."

Gaige looked up at Ed. "I'm sorry?"

"Why. Why didn't you tell me?! HUH?"

"Brother please-" Al tried to mediate

"NO! Al, we need to know. If there's away to bring people back from the dead that doesn't involve alchemy... The people we could save!"

"I'm sure they had their reasons..."

Ed grabbed Gaige by the collar. "So when were you planning on telling me this, huh?!"

She stared him in the eyes. "Never."

Ed gazed back angrily. "Why not? Don't you think that's important to share?! Aren't we friends?!"

Axton stood. "That's. Enough. Get your hands off her."

"You knew too! Why shouldn't I just beat it out of you?"

Axton slapped Ed with a resounding crack. A red hand shaped bruise appeared on his face. The rest of the room leapt to their feet.

"Enough, both of you! Stand down fullmetal!" Mustang roared.

Ed recovered from his shock. Acting purely on instinct, he didn't hear a word the Colonel said. He just swung his automail arm. Hard. A sickening thunk reverberated though the room as metal crunched against bone, Axton's head recoiling upward from the punch. Axton staggered back, tripping over his chair, sprawled out on the floor.

"I said enough! Everyone, separate them!" Mustang's squad did as ordered and restrained Ed. Axton quickly stood up, ready to beat the snot out of this brat, but was dogpiled by blue uniforms before he could. Gaige stood up, her pigtails whipping around as she looked at both of them, trying to process what had just transpired. Al stood in the other side of the room freaking out, unsure what to do.

Maya stared on from the hologram, shaking her head. "Damn idiot boys."

Ed and Axton were dragged out of the room in opposite directions, hurling insults at each other.

"Bastard! I'll get to the bottom of this!"

"Try me pipsqueak! I'll give you a few uppercuts, might actually make you grow!"

"I AM NOT A PIPSQueaaaak!" Ed's voice trailed off as he was dragged into the hall.

"Wait wait wait. You got punched out. By the midget? BWAHAHAHAHAHAA!" Tina rolled over backwards in her chair, almost knocking it over, sending several empty snack containers flying in the Crimson Raider safehouse.

"I did not get "punched out." He got in a cheap shot is all. I thought slapping the kid would be enough to knock some sense into him. I shoulda punched first. Axton huffed defensively.

"I might not have been there, but you did go flying pretty good from what I could see over the ECHO." Maya chuckled.

"I tripped over the chair! What did you expect?"

"It is never wise to underestimate a smaller or younger opponent." Athena commented.

Ax looked at Gaige hoping for some defense.

"I mean, it wasn't funny at the time, but he did sock you pretty good." She chuckled.

Axton flopped back down and sighed in his chair, exasperated. "Fine. He got me. Are you happy? Can we move on?"

"Certainly, el presidente!" Tina crouched on top of her chair, munching on some pudding.

It took 30 minutes for everyone to calm down. Mustang reconvened the meeting, drumming his fingers on the table. This time, he had Axton and Edward sit on opposite sides of the long table. Both of them stared daggers at each other.

"Now. There will be no more outbursts. I will remove you and have you thrown in the brig. Both of you. Do I make myself clear?" Mustang rubbed the tips of his gloved fingers, making small sparks.

"Yes Colonel."

"Crystal."

"Now. If you would be so kind as to continue Maya, I would also like to know why you withheld this information. "

"I wasn't keeping it a secret, although I can't speak for my friends. I didn't mention it because we don't have access to that technology right now."

"But the device in the bunker?"

"If Gaige's assessment is correct, and I have no reason to doubt that it is, it's most likely unrepairable."

"Even with Alchemy?"

"Although the mechanics might be fixed, it would do you no good for a new user without an uplink to Hyperion's servers. And we're out of range for that."

Ed shrunk into his seat. "So that's why..."

"Yeah. I didn't tell you because I didn't want to get your hopes up over something impossible." Gaige looped one of her pigtails around her fingertips. "Even if the device was working, it has to scan a living person first. If you entered in someone who was already dead, all you would get back out is a copy of their corpse."

"I see. I'm sorry."

"Brother, you were a real jerk! Apologize to Axton too!"

"I don't wanna."

"I will make that an order if I have to." Mustang growled.

Ed took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I punched you."

"And I'm sorry you're a pipsqueak." Ax grinned.

"YOU WANNA-"

"Enough. Apology accepted." Mustang cut him off.

Al pulled on Ed's sleeve, pulling him to his seat.

"I'm sure Miss Gaige was just trying to protect our feelings." Al attempted to diffuse the situation.

She nodded. "It seemed rather insensitive to tell you after you told me what happened to your mother and Nina."

"Now, if we have the ruffled feathers out of the way, I'd like to hear the rest of the story." Riza guided.

Maya resumed the story. She recounted the last remaining fights, the ruins of Fyrestone, and the slag ruined wastes caused by Jack's activities. Finally they reached the assault on the vault itself, the apparent death of Brick and Mordecai, and the final confrontation with Jack.

"So the bastard is using not just cloaks, but holographic duplicates, and this really annoying personal shield drone." Axton recalled. "All said though, he wasn't too much of a challenge, and we kicked his ass. But with his last bit of energy, he slams the vault key into the lock. It creates a small barrier that locks him in with Lilith."

"More importantly, he unleashed the Warrior." Maya sighed.

Gaige threw up the image on her ECHO. It beeped with a low battery warning. She then played video of the battle from her perspective.

"As you can see, the Warrior was a humongous being of lava, fire, and death. It was heavily armored, and only by destroying its armor plates were we able to defeat it."

"You guys... killed... THAT?!" Fury asked incredulously.

"What the hell even is that thing?" Falman asked.

"That thing might actually have even more firepower than you, Colonel." Riza said slightly snidely.

Mustang did not seem amused by the comment. "Even if I had entire battalion and artillery support, I'm not sure I could have stopped that thing. For the 5 of you to take it out..."

"In any case, we killed it, and jack starts this long winding speech about "freedom" and lost potential or some such. I tuned him out." Axton's face wrinkled hearing Jack talk on the video.

The video feed turned to Jack. Deathtrap and axton's turret digistructed. Maya phaselocked him. Zero stabbed him though the heart, Sal a punch to the balls. The summoned constructs did their job. There wasn't much left.

There was some dry heaves in the room. Ed and Al looked the most horrified.

The feed showed Brick and Mordy returning, and Lil about to destroy the key. She glowed with power, and the starchart appeared. Gaige froze the video.

"What am I looking at?" Mustang asked.

"It's a starchart centered on Pandora. Each of those inverted V's in a circle represents a vault." Maya replied.

"And now that I know roughly where we are in relation..." Gaige threw up the starchart she had gotten from the observatory. "If I overlay them like so, and rotate it a bit..." The images aligned, showing that Amestris was one of the systems with a vault on it.

"Wait, so this means..." Ross trailed off.

"Yeah. Combined with the scan data I took off The Swan, there's no doubt. There's a vault here."

Mustang stared intently at the images. "What about this key? Is there any risk of our vault being opened?"

"Nah, that's back on Pandora. And even if it were here, it would need a Siren and a boatload of Eridum for it to be charged."

That answer didn't seem to calm Mustang any. "Well. Now a siren is here. If someone were to come up with a key, I don't even want to consider what might be in our vault, given what was in the last two."

"If there was a key, or someone trying to get one, we wouldn't stop until we had it." Gaige reassured him.

"I can see that now. I can also see that we need each other, like it or not. You require alchemists help to recover your friend from this... "Truth". And we need to make sure our vault stays closed at all costs. And we also have to figure out who is pulling the strings behind this conspiracy..." The Colonel leaned way back in his office chair, clearly exhausted.

Maya laid back in her chair, rubbing her jaw, tired from talking so much. She had no idea this would turn into such a lengthy discussion. Outside, the late evening sun filled the drying air with dim orange light.

"So I'm sure now you understand. Can we move on, or do you need anything else explained to you?" Maya's patience had run out.

"No, thank you. I believe we have an understanding now." Mustang stared intensely at the hologram, slowly sitting upright again.

"So, are you going to introduce us now?" Gaige asked with a bit of excitement.

"Introduce who? I still don't know why we got dragged into this little trip down memory lane." Ax cocked his brow and yawned.

"Make that double for me. Gaige already told me most of this." Ed had his head propped up on his hands on top of the table.

"Give me 5 minutes. I've been sitting here for hours and I'm pretty sure she fell asleep." Maya replied.

"Agreed. Everyone, take a break, we're reconvene here in 5 minutes. Sharp." Mustang stood. "Dismissed."

Everyone slowly shuffled out of the room, some of them yawning and stretching.

When they came back, a second figure appeared on the ECHO holo screen.

A shy girl in a long teal dress with removable sleeves appeared. She was much cleaner, but still had some bruises on her face and arms. Her blue tattoos coiled up her left arm to her neck.

"Maya, Who are these people? I'm scared!" She rubbed her eyes, obviously just awoken.

"Don't worry, It wont hurt you. Just look at it and say hello."

"H-Hello. "

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the 5th known siren out of 6, and the 3rd known to be living. Her name is Calliope."

AN: So uh. Hey. It's been a hot minute. (Cue jokes about sky falling, pigs flying, blue moons.)

I won't lie, I lost interest in this story for a long time. I had it half finished on my hard drive, but every time I went to work on it I either got writers block or found an excuse not to write. But whenever I got an email notification about a new follower, I felt guilty about it. So since the announcement of BL 3 trailer, I've been working on this off and on. It didn't turn out exactly as intended (The recounting of Pandora to Mustang and company got much bigger than I expected.) so there is hope for another chapter as I didn't have space for what I wanted to do here. (my chapters are plenty long, I didn't want to balloon this one to 40+ pages, plus I wanted to release something.) Beyond that though, I'll be straight up and say I won't promise anything. I do have plenty of free time, and I recently got into Dungeons and Dragons. I became a Dungeon Master too, so if people want it, I can include more Bunkers and Badasses content into future chapters. Beyond that, I hope you enjoy this blast from the past, if you can even remember the previous chapters, ha ha.