Awareness was slow to return to me. That was something of a relief, as it meant I hadn't been caught by the New-U system, so I hadn't actually died. Even so, I was in no small amount of pain and the little light I could see was hurting my eyes. Before I could do much more, I felt something rest lightly on my shoulder, pushing me back down.

"Take it easy." A voice said softly. "You've had a hell of a time. You need to rest if you're going to be able to function. That was a hell of a beating you took yesterday."

I blinked slowly, unable to resist the pressure and returning to the ground. It had been quite a while since I'd be hurt as badly as I felt I had, but the experience was one I could have done without repeating. Finally, I managed to open my eyes and wrangle my misfiring brain back into some kind of order.

A woman, clearly armed as a warrior, knelt beside me. I managed to recognise several vials of used Insta-Health, as well as some more rudimentary bandages covering parts of me. While I absently recognised the skill and training that they represented, I was currently more interested in the appearance and identity of my saviour. She wore a cloak over red armour that had clearly seen a lot of use, but was well maintained. A military grade SDU and shield was apparent on her equipment belt and a short sword rested on her left hip. Her armour was scrubbed of any identifying marks, but was clearly of high quality as well. Blue hair, darker than Maya's, poked out slightly from under her hood, but her blue eyes were sharp and narrowed, missing nothing.

It was immediately obvious that I was dealing with a professional, but precisely who and why they were here remained elusive. Finally, I managed to get my mouth to work.

"Who are you?" I managed to get out, moaning slightly at the pain.

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised. I would have thought you would have recognised me from around the place."

"My brain's still rebooting, not exactly in the best shape to put things together." In all honesty, I was certain I recognised her from somewhere, and quite recently too, I just couldn't remember exactly where. I ran down the list of wanted posters I had seen recently, but nothing stood out. I was struggling to try and pull something out when I noticed something my first glance had missed. And then I wondered how I could have been so blind.

Few people in this day and age carried shields, especially on their forearm. The symbol that this particular one bore was familiar, and I finally realised where I had seen her recently.

A recent memory flicked up, Claptrap showing a photograph of his Vault-Hunting team on Elpis, running through the various members of the group. All of them were talented warriors in their own right, but it was the final member that had attracted my attention.

"Atlas's most deadly ever assassin, until she went rogue. Over a thousand jobs to her name, and never failed one."

My own words echoed through my mind as I looked up at the woman who had saved my life, pain and exhaustion draining away in the face of shock and adrenaline. Never in my strangest dreams had I expected this. A small, lop-sided smile crossed her face.

"Finally worked it out then?" She asked.

ATHENA AS

THE GLADIATOR

I salute you, YOU who are about to die!

"Athena." I breathed, still having difficulty believing the evidence of my eyes. She inclined her head slightly in acknowledgement.

"The famous Slicer. You're a hard man to keep track of."

Right now, every sense I had was on high alert. For Athena to have been tracking me did not bode well. There were very few reasons why an assassin like her would be keeping tabs on me and I didn't particularly care for the likely reasons why. I had no idea where her own loyalties lied and I was almost entirely at her mercy right now.

This could very easily go sideways in a hurry and I didn't like my odds if they did.

Evidently, she was able to understand where my thought pattern was going. She snorted. "If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't have bothered to intervene. If I wanted to capture you, you'd be in restraints without your ECHO or weapons."

I blinked, realising that she hadn't removed any of my gear, and there were no signs of restraints. Potentially good news, but nothing was certain right now. "Well, you certainly weren't just 'passing through'. What brings you here?"

"I told you. You're a hard man to keep track of. Even harder to keep alive, you seem to delight in finding trouble. Thankfully, you're mostly good enough to get back out of it in one piece. I haven't had to intervene too much. Don't want too many people to know what I'm up to, after all."

My eyes narrowed. "You expect me to believe that you decided to shadow and guard me, out of the goodness of your heart?"

"Of course not." Athena raised an eyebrow. "Principles are great, but even I need to be able to put food on the table and principles alone rarely pay well. I was hired to protect you, from the shadows wherever possible, but openly if needs be. And before you ask, no, I don't know who hired me. A blind ECHO account, dead-drops, nothing to physically connect me with my client, so you're wasting your time if you try to ask."

"Even if I did, I doubt you'd tell me anyway. Loyal to the mission, I remember Claptrap telling me. Speaks very highly of you. My condolences about your sister."

Lightning fast, her blade was at my throat. "You have a LOT of nerve speaking of the dead that you know nothing about."

I raised an eyebrow myself. So, it was possible to get under her skin. I was starting to wonder. "All I said was my condolences for your sister."

"And Claptrap?" She snarled.

"Well, he was alive and well last time I saw him, and that was within the last couple of days." I said, confused.

She staggered back, her eyes searching mine for a lie. When she didn't find it, she looked stunned. "I saw him die!"

"I don't know what to say about that, but I met him in Windshear Waste, no more than four days ago. He helped me and a group of Vault Hunters get to Sanctuary. Showed me a group photo of Jack with your team from Elpis. Wilhelm, Nisha, Timothy Lawrence, Aurelia Hammerlock, you and him."

"Vault Hunters?" She asked sharply. "I thought Jack was luring them into traps and killing them off."

"He is. His luck ran out with this group. They're a good bunch to have in a storm, even though they have their rough edges. Caught them just as they boarded Jack's train, helped break up the ambush." I watched her carefully. "It would seem that we both have information the other wants. We also seem to have a bit of time on our hands."

Athena looked surprised, but interested. "What is it you want to know?"

"Elpis and the Lost Legion. Jack definitely wasn't perfect before that mess, but whatever happened changed him immensely. I don't really know what happened there and I've never really had a chance to talk to anyone directly involved in that. Jack never wanted to talk about it, only just met Claptrap, Wilhelm and Nisha followed Jack's lead and it wasn't that long after Elpis that I …. parted ways from Jack."

"And you can fill me in on these new Vault Hunters and what happened to force you out of Hyperion?"

I frowned. I was reluctant to talk about that again, particularly so soon after all the recent events. But I could imagine that whatever had happened on Elpis had to have affected Athena as well. She was asking for a lot, but so was I and she had saved my life as well. Reluctantly, I nodded.

"Seems to be that I'm telling that story a lot lately. But I guess that's fair enough." I sighed.

Over the next few hours, we talked extensively as I recovered my strength. Claptrap had correctly predicted Athena's reaction as I told her why the moonshot had landed so hard, and I was now nursing a new bruise on top of everything else. I wasn't surprised to hear that she had come across mentions of Angel on Elpis, though hearing about Felicity, the AI that had been twisted into the combat AI for the loader bots, disturbed me somewhat. Something was trying to get my attention, but I couldn't quite put a finger on it yet.

The increasingly erratic behaviour from Jack was also concerning, but not surprising with the benefit of hindsight. What was surprising, and flared my anger once more, was learning that Moxxi, Roland and Lilith had tried to blow up Helios by tricking Athena and the others into sabotaging the Destroyer's Eye that was the key component for the laser cannon. Lilith might be dead, but I was going to have some serious words with the other two when I saw them next. I never liked the fact that Jack had chosen to use such a weapon, but I did object to killing everyone on Helios to destroy one man, particularly when I was still on the station, thank you very much.

Athena clearly felt at least some sympathy for Zarpadon and her actions, realising that she wasn't a mindless murderer or ruthless killer that so many would have expected. In turn, I had realised that for all of Athena's ruthless reputation, she wasn't nearly as cold as I might have expected. In fact, while she wasn't necessarily warm, it was more a lack of social skills than anything else that might have contributed to her manner. As Claptrap had also predicted, I was coming to like her.

Finally standing, I moved through the motions, making sure that my battered body was still capable of fighting. Athena stood herself.

"You're heading out, then?"

I shrugged. "Still got a job to do. Don't suppose you'd leave me in peace, would you?"

She snorted. "I could give you that impression, but we both know it wouldn't mean much."

I laughed. "No arguments here. Then we're probably better off sticking together." I pulled out a new ECHO chip and handed it to her. "I think you know what this is for."

She nodded, sliding the card into her own ECHO and pulled back the hammer on her SMG. "I think I've got the general idea. How many idiots do you think will try to stop us?"

"Not enough." I said and meant it. Alone, I would probably still have some trouble, as I was a long way from fully healed. With Athena, it would take an orbital bombardment to stop us.

Still moving slowly, we moved through the tunnels, taking our time and clearing out the various enemies in our path. But there were fewer than I expected, far fewer. On top of that, resistance was weakening as we worked our way deeper into the cave system. By the time we reached the actual entrance to the Firehawk's lair, there was next to no enemies at all. Athena grabbed my shoulder, stopping me from advancing. I glanced at her and she nodded down. My eyes flicked down and spotted a few things that made me suspicious. Firstly, a number of pipes came out of the walls and ceiling ahead, all of them with mouths gaping open and pointed at the passageway. All of them were smoking slightly. Secondly, there were a number of dead bodies scattered near them, also smoking. Finally, the whole pathway was paved, with the first stone being very large and somewhat different from the rest. Athena and I looked at each other.

"Why do I have a very bad feeling about this?" I asked her.

"Because it's a trap system." Angel interrupted. Athena flinched slightly and I realised that Angel was also speaking to her.

Athena shook her head slightly. "It's not just a trap system." Her sharp eyes scanned the passageway ahead. "I think it's a timed trap system."

I swallowed. I'd trained with and against trap systems at Ghost, but that was a long time ago. And a timed trap system was worse. As our instructors liked to say, 'Beating trap is one thing. Beating them against the clock is something else entirely.'

My mouth was suddenly dry as I pulled out Roland's ECHOlog and scanned through it. "No mention of it here. Roland must have forgotten to put it in, or it's a new system." I nodded nervously towards the first step in front of us. "I'm guessing that starts the trap sequence?"

"Good bet and no way to avoid it either." Athena said unhappily.

I sighed. "Well, isn't today looking like a barrel of laughs." We both stepped back a few steps, knowing we'd want a run-up for this.

"Single-file, I'll lead?" She asked. I nodded and handed her the supplies.

"You've probably dealt with these more recently than me. These are probably safer with you too."

She nodded. "Good luck."

A whistle of a bullet raced past my ear, and we both turned to see a group of bandits charging at us. Athena took off and I only paused to toss a grenade behind us before following.

Without hanging around, we both charged at the trap-riddled passageway. I made sure to run exactly where Athena stepped, but a couple of paces behind.

Just as well, too, because the fire that burst from the pipes had just enough of a gap for us both to pass through. This was tricky enough as it was, but the hail of gunfire behind us wasn't helping matters either. But as we raced through the trap system, a variety of things occurred to me.

I was definitely one of the best combat engineers that had come out out of Ghost. But combat engineers weren't necessarily soldiers and Athena had trained for even longer than I had as an assassin. I smiled slightly.

It had been far too long since I had had an actual challenge to chase. Athena was definitely a better fighter and soldier than I was. But that didn't mean I couldn't work to close the gap. And I was damned if I wasn't going to start right now.

Pushing the residual pain aside, I worked to follow her perfectly, avoiding the traps at speed as the system continued to work unstoppably towards its finale. Hurdling and dodging flame-throwers, even sliding under or somersaulting over some blasts, sometimes running along narrow paths, at one point running full speed across a narrow pathway that had just enough room for a single foot with a massive drop on either side.

Our enemies didn't make it easy for us either. While we had lost the ones behind us, others had clearly managed to make it part way through as well and we were having to fight on the run. For the record, shooting accurately on the run is not an easy trick to pull off and more than once, we dealt with a psycho or marauder with a stiff arm across the throat. A pair of Badass Psychos caused us a lot of issues, charging into our fire without a care. Athena managed to bounce her shield off both and sink her blade into one. I took advantage of their lack of shields and managed to throw my sai into the eye-socket of the other, snatching the blade back out as we ran past the bodies, but it was probably more down to luck than skill on that occasion. Finally, we reached a hill with a massive door at the top, a door that was closing rapidly and an array of pipes that were burning rapidly. With the smoke being generated, if we didn't make it through the door, there was a very good chance we'd be dead of smoke inhalation.

With a final desperate effort, we both dove under the door, moments before it sealed shut. Athena rolled smoothly back to her feet, scanning for the next danger, but I stayed collapsed on the ground for a moment.

I groaned. "I'm getting too damn old for this fucking shit."

Athena chuckled. "Come on. We're not done yet." Staggering back to my feet, I noticed a set of vending machines ahead of us and no immediate threats. With a sigh of relief, I lurched over to the health vendo and grabbed a set of health vials, injecting them straight into my veins. The sudden rush was eye-watering, but finally I was back to something near full-strength. I blinked slightly and shook my head.

"Ok, let's not do that again."

To my shame, Athena wasn't even winded. I definitely had some catching up to do, but then again, Vault Hunters were a step above everyone else on the planet and Athena was definitely still a Vault Hunter. Together, we made our way into the next room, beholding a set of monitors over a set of three circular platforms. There was no one in sight, which confused me and I rested my hand gently on my weapon as Athena gripped her own tightly.

I've no idea why I realised there was a threat, but my instincts were still sharper than almost anyone else and they screamed to get out of the way. With no time to explain, I shoved Athena off to the side, using the force of the blow to propel myself in the other direction, just as purple light flared where we were. As I rolled back to my feet, drawing my weapon as I went, I saw a young woman standing where we had just been, looking somewhat surprised. As I drew a bead on her, Athena rolled back to her own feet before letting out a startled exclamation.

"Lilith?!"

I gasped at the sudden revelation. "Lilith? Roland told her she was dead!"

The woman snapped her head around. "Who the hell are you?"

LILITH AS

THE FIREHAWK

The ultimate ambush predator, in every sense.

I froze, very carefully pointing my weapon away from her. "Name's Jason. Roland sent me to bring some supplies here for the Firehawk. I'm going to assume that's you."

Her eyes narrowed as she took in my words. In response, I watched her closely. Fiery red hair and with the tattoos marking her as a Siren on full display, there was no way that I'd ever mistake her for anything else. Lean and fit, she was every bit the fighting machine that I had expected. I wasn't exactly scared of her, but I was very cautious. If she didn't believe us, Athena and I had nowhere to go and I knew more than enough about Sirens to know that we'd be seriously outmatched against her.

"You have any proof of that? I wasn't expecting anything for a while." She snarled.

I reached carefully for Roland's ECHOlog and handed it to her. As she took it, she moved aside, keeping both of us in view. As I glanced at Athena, I saw her shaking, but exactly why I couldn't tell. But I did remember that she hadn't exactly parted from Lilith in friendship. I also guessed that Lilith would still have a burning desire to destroy everything Hyperion. Hopefully, Roland had talked to her since New Haven and explained a few things, because otherwise I might be in serious trouble, again.

She tossed the log aside and nodded slowly. "Ok, fine. You brought them, I assume."

Athena stirred, her voice slightly shaken. "I've got them." Quietly, she pulled the supplies out and handed them to Lilith. Lilith's lip curled as she accepted them, tossing them aside as well and glaring at me.

"Any reason you brought this piece of filth with you?"

My own eyes narrowed in anger. "Well, she did save my life. I know you two have something of a history but-"

She snorted. "A history? Yeah, you might say that. Given she used to work with Jack and he's done his best to burn us to the ground for the last few years, that's one way of putting it."

Athena was clearly on edge, unhappy and very wary about being in a room with a woman that clearly wanted to burn the flesh off her bones. I interrupted to draw Lilith's attention away from her, "Used to work with Jack isn't exactly an unusual situation. I've been in that boat. Way I hear it, you worked with him too at one point."

Now, Liltih's anger was directly straight at me. "Be very careful about your next words, Jason. Roland told me about you. Showed up out of nowhere just as we were cleaning up after Hyperion attacked New Haven, claiming you didn't know anything about the attack. Just because you put on a good show for the rest, claiming you had family that died there. I've heard better lies from-"

My vision had been getting steadily redder as she threw her accusations and I wasn't proud of what I did next. But my anger had burned for long enough. My left fist smashed into her face, rocking her back as I charged in, grabbed her by her top and hoisted her straight off the ground, any pain or weakness burned away with anger and adrenaline.

It was suddenly silent in that chamber, as Lilith's eyes widened. I was holding her a good foot off the ground and there was absolutely no trace of compassion in my face. I didn't shout or scream, but when I did speak, my voice had cooled to near-absolute zero levels.

"Don't you dare talk about things you don't understand. You know nothing about me. You have no right to judge me for what I've done. I knew nothing about the attack and for good reason."

I tossed her to the ground in a heap and drew my father's pistol, levelling it at her. "You see this, Lilith? This is the only thing I have left of my father. A man I looked up to, admired all my life, destroyed by Jack's cruelty along with everyone else I ever cared for. I have barely….." I trailed off as my eyes spotted something on Lilith I hadn't ever thought I'd see again. One thing that had been missing when I saw my mother's dead body in New Haven.

Her locket.

Words failed me. Anger built higher and higher within me and my hand shook with it. Venom coated my voice. "No respect for the dead, huh? Weapons I can understand but THAT!" I pointed at the locker. Lilith and Athena's eyes locked onto it and Lilith went pale. She grabbed at it, starting to babble unintelligibly and she did the one possible thing that could have possibly stopped my anger at that point.

She opened the locket.

I dropped the gun in astonishment as she looked between the picture inside and me. Swallowing, she spoke softly. "It's you. They were your family." Her voice was disbelieving, as if something she could never have expected had just occurred.

I knew the feeling well, because that was exactly where I was at at that precise moment. I stared at Lilith, unable to process what I was seeing, knowing it couldn't possibly be true but unable to deny the reality in front of me.

"Jason?" Another voice drifted into my perception and I somehow dragged my eyes away from Lilith to find Maya and Gaige staring at me. Maya looked at Lilith, recognising the locket as well and, unable to hide her own shock, stared back at me.

"Is that what I think it is?" Gaige asked quietly. I nodded, unable to speak. Out of everything that I had expected to find here after Roland's words, this wasn't even close to being on my list.

"Does someone want to fill me in?" Axton butted in. "Like, who the hell these two are and why Jason is looking like he just discovered that black is white?"

Gaige glared at him in fury, but I finally stirred, shaking myself out of my shock and back to the people around me. "Everyone, meet Athena and Lilith. Ladies, meet the Vault Hunters." I gestured to each person as I spoke, but my voice was quiet, shock still running through my system. "What are you guys doing here?"

The six looked at each other, before Salvador finally spoke. "Roland's missing."

Athena, Lilith and I all snapped our gaze onto Salvador. "Explain." Lilith said, her anger beginning to come back.

"According to the Raiders, he went out on a recon mission, then his ECHO went dead." Maya replied. "Moxxi and Gaige were able to locate his last position and we checked it out. We found this."

She tossed a helmet down in front of us, with an insignia I recognised well. That of the Bloodshots. The same Bloodshots that had been attacking Lilith here and that Athena and I had fought through to get here.

"The Raiders are lost/and lacking any direction/Moxxi sent us here." Zero added. Lilith and I exchanged glances.

"Explains why the Bloodshots are pushing so hard here, they've just got a hell of a morale boost." Athena said quietly.

"He'll be at the dam." Lilith said. "It's the Bloodshots' primary fortress. Best place for them to hold him."

I nodded but before I could speak, something else attracted my attention.

The lack of noise.

I looked to the others. "How hard was it to get through the bandits to get here?" I asked.

Zxton shrugged. "Not at all, barely saw any. Guess you guys cleaned them out pretty well."

Athena shook her head. "No, they won't have given up that easily."

"So where are they?" I asked.

A sudden crash from above and the sound of ropes hitting the cliff walls as they were thrown over the top of the cliff above answered that question. Bandits in the dozens began to drop in and in the blink of an eye, we were back to a massive fire-fight. There wasn't a lot of cover anywhere on the platform, so we made our own little formations and charged around the battlefield, working together. Somehow, I ended up teaming up with Axton, Salvador and Zero, sheltering behind his turret as it opened up on everyone around us while Salvador blazed away. Firing my SMG one-handed, I made a decision and flicked a few commands on my ECHO. I grinned at the pair as I closed my command interface.

"Got a present for you two." I stood and smirked at the bandits. "Hey boys, I think you need to change your batteries!"

With that, the firing pitch suddenly changed once more, as every bandit weapon shut down. Unlike before, however, all of the Vault Hunters were still firing and Athena was also firing hard, thanks to the chip I gave her earlier. Lilith would have been affected, but she wasn't shooting anyway, preferring to dish out her punishment with her Siren abilities, charging in and inflicting considerable damage out of nowhere, before disappearing and repeating the process with the next group of enemies. All in all, we took out the next wave fairly quickly, far quicker than anyone had expected, giving us a chance to catch our breath and restock our ammo. Lilith glanced at me.

"Neat trick, for a hacker."

I shrugged. "Hacking is for simple methods. I'm a slicer, precision strikes are more my style. And digistructed weaponry is so easy to interfere with."

Axton laughed. "Got to admit, I've missed seeing you pull that trick and actually being able to work with it."

"Indeed, it was an/irritation to not have/my full set of skills." Zero added

Maya slapped the back of his head. "Don't forget to say thank you, boys. Or did both of you forget your manners?"

Both the stealthy assassin and the towering commando flushed and looked at the ground. "Thank you." They both said quietly.

"See, now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Gaige said sweetly. She and Maya high-fived each other and Salvador burst out laughing.

"Come on, amigos, look on the bright side. Chica isn't likely to turn you inside out and use you for parts any more."

Both men flinched and I raised an eyebrow at Gaige. She shrugged. "Do you really want to know?"

I glanced at the two men almost cowering, the shit-eating grin on Salvador's face, the amusement clear in Krieg's eye and the mischievous smile on Maya's face. "You know, Gaige, I'm good." I glanced at Lilith. "I'm sure you ran your group of Vault Hunters the same way these two control us, right?"

"Oh absolutely, it's always amusing letting the boys think they ran the show and then putting them in their place." A smile crossed Lilith's face for the first time since we met. Before we could continue, the sound of approaching bandit cries alerted us to the next wave, which we duly met with a wall of gunfire, grenades and general death. For the bandits of course.

That proved to be the final wave and we reassembled in the middle of the platform. Lilith rummaged around in one of the lockers before emerging with a small ingot of eridium, which, before our stunned eyes, she proceeded to absorb into her body. As if nothing had happened, she joined us on the platform. "Right, so let's talk about rescuing my boyfriend. Well, ex-boyfriend."

Maya's eyes were wide. "I've never seen anything like that before and I've studied Sirens for years."

Lilith grinned. "Ever since we opened the Vault of the Destroyer and this Eridium stuff started appearing, my powers have got a little…..crazy. Definitely get a major power boost from this stuff. Anyway, I should be able to transport all of you right into the middle of the Bloodshot's stronghold. Be a nasty little shock for them."

I held up my hands. "Before you do, I think you and I still have some things to discuss."

Lilith froze before nodding. "Yeah, I guess we do."

Athena's eyes narrowed at me but I stopped her before she could say anything. "I'll be fine Athena. Besides, it would probably be good for you to see Roland."

Athena's lips thinned before nodding shortly. Maya and Gaige didn't look so convinced.

"The last time we weren't with you, you almost died." Gaige said quietly.

I smiled softly at her. "I'm not alone though, am I?"

"When we walked in, it looked like the pair of you were about to kill each other." Maya pointed out.

"We both have too many questions we want answered for that to happen now. I'll be fine."

"Don't care. I'm staying too." Gaige's puppy eyes were in full effect.

I growled. "Gaige, if we both stay, then there won't be an engineer to help out. I'm not going to be that long and this is one conversation that I think I need to have in private. It's personal."

Gaige screeched wordlessly, stopping her foot in fury. "FINE!" She screamed and wheeled on Lilith. "You harm him or allow him to come to any harm, you will beg me to do to you what I did to Marcie Holloway."

"For the record," Maya interjected, "Deathtrap exploded Marcie. And that goes double for me. I'd love to learn more from you about Sirens, but I don't allow harm to come to my friends."

The other Vault Hunters, even Athena, nodded. "Jason's one of us. Anyone that attacks him better be ready to answer to us." Axton said with a low growl. I raised an eyebrow at that. I had expected to still have to work through some issues with Axton in particular. Clearly, he was, if nothing else, professional enough to put any problems aside.

Lilith held up her hands, looking almost as if she was impressed against her will. "Relax, guys. Like Jason said, we're just going to talk." She paused, waiting for anyone else to interject before continuing. "OK, hold still and here we go."

I was blinded by a blaze of purple light before vision returned and I saw the others had vanished. My ECHO suddenly crackled.

"Well, that didn't exactly work." Athena's voice came over my channel. "We definitely got transported some distance, but we're still in Frostborn Canyon. Probably just as well, gives us a chance to start clearing things out so you can catch up. We'll meet you at the dam."

"Got it. Stay safe." I replied, closing the channel. I turned to Lilith, who looked somewhat sheepish.

"So, yeah, powers are still acting up somewhat."

I shrugged. "They aren't hurt and they're still on their way. Good enough for me. But I might take the long road when I catch up."

She nodded. "Can't argue that."

She sat heavily on one of the steps and gestured for me to sit beside her. "So, the locket. You kind of freaked out about that."

"Yeah, you might say that." I bit my lip, more than a little nervous. "I assume that you got it at New Haven."

She hummed in agreement. "Yeah." She looked away for a moment. "When the attack came, it was just so fast. One minute, I'm talking with her and the rest of your family, the next, I'm ducking for my life as Hyperion bots start overrunning the place. That first blast disorientated everyone. Jack, Wilhelm and Nisha were beating the hell out of us and it was only that we finally managed to punch through to their constructors and take them out that they ended up retreating. But by then…"

"By then, a fair chunk of the population were already dead." I stared out over the platform. She nodded.

"When I finally got back to where your family were, there wasn't much left to find of your father. His instincts were good enough to draw that gun of his," she nodded towards the pistol on my belt, "but, as I'm sure you know, he never got a chance to get a shot off. Your sister…." She trailed off, her eyes tracing back through painful memories, "I think the blast basically incinerated her on the spot. The locket must have been torn off her because we found it where she'd been, but there wasn't much more than ash otherwise. Your father must have managed to shield your mother somewhat, because she was still alive when I found her."

My gaze fixed on her, intent on the full story. She swallowed. "There was no way she was ever going to make it. I knew that and she knew that. But she had just enough strength to take her locket off and give it to me. The only thing she told me was 'show it to my son.' She died before she could say anything else. I….I'm not proud of what followed. I just about fell apart." She snorted. "It was crazy. I'd known them for less than a day and I was already close friends with all of them. Roland and your dad got along brilliantly, as you'd expect from a couple of military men. Your sister was cute, very inquisitive, reminds me a lot of Gaige from what little I saw. I'm sure she got up to mischief, but I never found out anything."

I chuckled slightly. "Sounds like her. Very smart and talented, great and getting into and out of trouble without being caught."

She laughed. "I'm not surprised. But your mother and I, well it was almost like we just clicked. Seemed like we'd known each other for years. To see it all just get blasted away. Everyone said I died at New Haven and a part of me did. I've never really known why it affected me so much, but it did."

I sighed. "Thank you. I know that can't have been easy for you."

"If anyone deserves to know, it's you." We sat in silence for a moment, as I geared up to say my part.

"You asked why I freaked out about the locket."

"I think it's kind of obvious now." She commented. I shook my head.

"Not completely. There's more to the story that you don't know. And I'll guarantee you won't like what it means."

Lilith snorted. "Jason, I haven't liked much of what I've heard since New Haven. Why is this going to be different?"

I sighed. "Did my family ever tell you exactly why they came to Pandora?"

Lilith blinked. Of all the questions I could have asked, that clearly hadn't been one of the ones she expected. "Not exactly. All they said was that it was personal. They did seem interested in me, but I kind of expected that. I mean, Sirens aren't exactly that common and most people would live a lifetime and not see one."

I grimaced. Most people would indeed, but my family wasn't most people and my family had known at least one Siren for a very long time. Pushing away the memories, I replied, "I've no doubt of that. But I think I know why they were so interested." I paused for a moment, gathering my thoughts. "Family was everything to my family. We were very close to each other. We had one relative outside of our own group, my father's sister. We kept in contact with her for a long time, long before I was born. But when I was a child, we found out that she'd had a daughter, but we never got to meet her. Then Dad found out she basically discarded her own child like trash. I was about 4 when this all happened, but I remember that argument. I've never seen my father so furious. She kept trying to defend herself, saying she'd have nothing to do with anything unnatural and Dad hit the roof. Told her to never contact us again, that if she couldn't be bothered to care for her family, then she didn't deserve one."

Lilith had gone steadily paler as I spoke and was shaking with some emotion, though exactly what I couldn't be certain of.

I continued, "Dad raced to her home planet, but he wasn't able to find our cousin before she disappeared into the system. For all of his skills and contacts, he had very little information to go on. For the next twenty-five years, my parents searched for her. I joined the search once I got into Ghost, using their resources to try and narrow the search. It's no small part of the reason why I joined Jack, the challenge was great, which attracted my attention, but Hyperion had resources we couldn't touch any other way. I forwarded any leads I could find, but searching for one person across six galaxies with no name or description other than red hair…."

"Like searching for a microscopic needle in a planet-sized haystack." Lilith finished. I nodded.

"But something in what I sent them must have attracted their attention because then they ask me to get them onto Pandora. That was something I never expected, but after some quick talking with Jack, I managed to get them planet-side."

"Just in time for New Haven." Lilith commented.

"Took a little while to get there, but yes. Wish Jack hadn't forced that Hyperion team to go with them, but there really wasn't any way around it. No doubt that's part of how he planned his attack. Rather obvious in hindsight."

Lilith clenched her teeth. "Wasn't your fault. Jack was there for us, not your family."

I sighed. "I know that, objectively. It wasn't my fault, but would Jack have hit you so easily withou that team?"

"Who knows? There's just no way to tell. But if your family were at New Haven, did they follow the trail of clues there, or was it a stopover?"

That at least was a question I did know the answer to. "No, they were following the trail. In fact, I think they reached the end of it."

Lilith looked shocked. "You think they found your cousin?"

I nodded with certainty. "I'm sure of it." I stared at her.

Lilith was many things but stupid wasn't one of them. "You think that I'm your cousin?"

My voice didn't have a shred of doubt in it. "I'm absolutely certain. For a few reasons, actually, but yes."

Lilith swallowed, obviously shaken by this conversation. I couldn't blame her, I'd basically thrown her entire world view and life story into a high-speed corkscrew. I still had trouble believing it myself, but the evidence was irrefutable. Finally, she managed to speak.

"What makes you so sure?"

"A few things." I nodded towards her hair, "That hair of yours is rather distinctive, and a very good match for our family's." I gestured towards my own, slightly less vibrant, but still distinctly red hair. "Seems to be a feature of our family. Definitely not conclusive on its own, but it would have attracted my family's attention. But when you mentioned their interest in you, it was a pretty good indicator as well."

"None of that is exactly rock solid." Lilith commented, still shaken.

"No, but the fact that Mum gave you the locket is very clear evidence. She wouldn't have given that away if she wasn't sure of who you were."

"The locket's that important to you?"

I nodded firmly. "Very much so. Those lockers are unique, there's only four of them in the galaxy. They're a custom job, Dad got them made for my sister's first Mercenary Day. There's a lot of tech built into them that would take too long to explain right now, but most importantly for us right now is the fact that they have a genetic lock."

Lilith's eyes widened. "How on earth did you pack a genetic lock into something so small?"

I chuckled. "Very carefully. Dad wanted us to be able to open each other's locks, so it wasn't linked to a single genetic signature, which was part of why they had to be custom made. But the bleed-through of that is that another close family member could open it."

"Like a cousin." Lilith breathed.

"Exactly. Give that to anyone else, they'd never manage to get it open, no matter what they tried. But because of your familial link, you can do it as easily as I can." To prove the point, I opened both my own and my sister's lockets, then handed them to her so she could close and open them herself.

Lilith was silent for several minutes, clearly taking everything in. Then she held out the locket she had. I closed her hand around it and pushed it back.

"It's yours now. Mum would definitely want you to keep it."

She bit her lip then hugged me. "Thank you. Cousin."

I grinned. "You're welcome, cousin." And for perhaps the first time since I'd set foot on Pandora, everything actually seemed like it could actually be alright.

(Author's Notes)

Yep, I've actually managed to update this in a semi-reasonable timeframe. I didn't think that that was still possible.

So, parts of this chapter I've had planned out from day one. Bringing Lilith in was always going to be a bit of a conflict, as both Jason and Lilith have strong, dominant and passionate personalities that were always going to clash. There are a few reasons why I wanted to have Jason as Lilith's cousin and one big one is this; as Jason has pointed out, he doesn't really have much reason to stick around and deal with the suspicion from the Crimson Raiders about being ex-Hyperion. It's not exactly like he's going to be telling everyone his story to get them to trust him, so he has to have another reason for them to accept him, or at least give him the benefit of the doubt. He doesn't have the history with them that Claptrap does, so that doesn't work in his favour either. There are a couple of reasons why I wanted to do this, but that will come up later in the story.

And Athena! Who expected Athena to come into the story so early? In all honesty, I had originally had other plans on how to bring Athena in, but they never seemed to quite work with me. It wasn't until I was writing the final part of last chapter that it occurred to me to bring her in, but I'm very glad I have. While Athena was pretty cool in The Pre-Sequel, it was Tales From The Borderlands where I thought she really shone. There's a bit of stuff about her that will be explained down the track, but I'm enjoying having her around.

There's been some talk about how Gaige is going to be sidelined and Jason can't be a better engineer than her etc. For those thinking on those lines, I'd point you back to early in the story. Jason acknowledges that Gaige is a superior engineer back in Chapter 2. I mean, come on, she built a death-dealing robot with an AI in high school without being formally trained. I don't care who you talk to, that's impressive. Where Jason is better than Gaige is in programming, combat and experience, because he simply has been around and experienced a lot more and been trained far better. Gaige and Jason are going to have something of an apprentice/master relationship. I didn't really want to get into that too much in this chapter, because this was mainly about Jason, Lilith and to a lesser extent Athena, but expect to see a lot more of that relationship going forward. Additionally, Gaige is going to be teaching Jason some things as well, we've seen Jason hit his limits and now he's going to work with the other Vault Hunters, but especially Gaige and Athena, to improve. As I've said before, the Vault Hunters, and Jason in particular, may look more powerful than you might expect, but Jack is an order of magnitude above. Everyone is going to have to step it up a notch or ten just to come close to matching him.

Now, reviews:

HavcOlyte, I'm looking forward to the DLCs too, there's a lot to explore in those. Will I get to Borderlands 3? I do have some ideas about what I can do there, no question. But if the DLCs are a long way ahead, BL3 is almost an eternity. I'll get there, but that might be under a sequel to this story, rather than this one itself. It's going to take long enough just to get to Jack, let alone beyond that.

Now, for those that read my other stories, I have not abandoned When One Domino Falls, by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just a little stuck on where to go at my current point in the chapter and I had plenty of inspiration for this chapter. I will be working on that hopefully in the next few days, though I'll never give a guarantee as to when a new chapter will come out, I just don't work that way. I'm also working on a new Borderlands story with my good friend Sharnorasian Empire, with some Star Wars and Mass Effect elements included, that is looking like it's going to be a lot of fun, so keep an eye out for that in the next few months. The other story that the two of us are working on, Chronicles of the Draconic Knight, is also moving along and we have some interesting plans for that one.

Ok everyone, I hope you enjoy this new chapter. Please read and review and I appreciate everyone's thoughts on this.

Until next time.