Disclaimer: This is of course my very own personal "What If" idea of the main Borderlands story that it seems to be steering to, with my own small group of OCs as well as familiar and well-loved characters to be your lens to see through. I do want a love story to be part of this but I honestly don't know what kind of pairing seems appropriate yet. I am juggling between Lilith, Maya, and Gaige at the moment though (I am very basic, I'll admit that). Thoughts and comments would be appreciated and don't let the main character's age be a huge factor romance wise. Oh and thank you for taking the time to read this, I really hope you enjoy the ride.

Prologue: Maliwan born and raised.

Border Planet: Aries

Location: Maliwan Border Planet Headquarters

"Good morning, Lady Attica," A robotic male voice recited as the pair of electronic doors that served as the main office's entrance slid open to let a beautiful woman in a colorful business suit walk briskly through. "How are you today?"

The woman was a knock out. Despite nearing her mid-forties, she barely had any wrinkles on her pale skin. Her head was full of long, wavy, and golden blond hair that flowed behind her as she continued to walk at a slightly hurried pace to her office. Despite the obvious tired look on her face, her pale amber eyes shone with excitement. "So giddy with anticipation that it should be illegal, Hal. Thank you for asking."

The woman's name was Grace Attica, the current President of the Maliwan Corporation of guns, shields, grenades, and its very own special brand of liquor: Maliwan Black Label™.

"Ah yes," The robotic voice, belonging to Maliwan HQ's custom AI Hal, seemed to muse. "It has been a whole month since you have last seen your family. It is also your son's birthday today."

Grace couldn't help but grin widely and skip a little as she arrived to her office. It really had been a month since she's seen her beautiful wife and son. Ever since the death of the infamous Handsome Jack and almost annihilation of Hyperion at the hands of Vault Hunters in Pandora a month ago, Grace has worked tirelessly for that whole month to take advantage of the economic vacuum that Hyperion left behind. Not unlike what she had to do when Atlas experienced a similar, though more permanent, fall. Though she wasn't the President of Maliwan at the time, Grace thought amusedly as she turned her personal ECHOnet device on.

"Hal please patch me to my wife," Grace called out to the AI. "She and our son should be arriving soon."

"Sooner than you'd think, mi Amor," a sultry, all too familiar, Pandoran accented voice rang out from behind Grace. Filling her with so much longing and happiness that she couldn't help but tear up as she turned around.

"Delaney."

The owner of the voice sauntered straight into the office, swaying her hips a little more blatantly now that she knew Grace was watching, and by The Sirens did Grace love what she was seeing. Her wife wore all black. A tight leather jacket with matching leggings and combat boots. Delaney was born and raised in Pandora and with her olive brown skin tone as well her black hair, which was cut into a short and sexy bob, it really showed. But what Grace couldn't keep her eyes off of, ever since they first met, was the black inked spider web tattoo that adorned her wife's upper front. The spider web started from the lower front of her neck, through her cleavage, ending up to her belly button. Grace loved all of it, and before she could even think of saying or doing something, Delaney walked right up to her, grabbed her hips, and kissed her so deeply that all Grace could do was sigh loudly into her wife's soft lips.

Just like that, that whole month of not seeing her, not holding her, not feeling her skin touching hers just melted away. Like it never even happened.

"I apologize for the intrusion of affection, but good morning to you, Mrs. Delaney," Hal chimed in. "It is good to see you again."

Delaney broke the kiss and smiled up to one of the cameras that served as Hal's "eyes", "It's good to hear your pleasantly monotone voice, Hal. Gracias."

"And thank you for finally getting Hal to stop calling me 'Arachne'," Delaney said to Grace, who was currently reeling from their kiss. "He's literally the only one who ever calls me that nowadays."

Grace grinned at her and caressed her cheek in reply, pulling her in closely to hold her tighter. "You can't make everyone forget your famous title when you were a Vault Hunter on Pandora, sweetheart."

She then pointed at the spider web tattoo on her wife's breasts and neck. "Especially when you refuse to have that removed."

"Oh you know you love it. That was all you stared at when I walked in," Delaney grinned back, her dark eyes full of laughter. She prepared to close in for another kiss, when a loud cough interrupted her.

"Uhhh hey, mama'? I know you haven't seen her in while, but I wanna say hi to her too." A voice awkwardly piped up from behind them. Causing Grace to look over her wife's shoulder.

She broke out into an even wider smile. "Pollux."

A young man, easily taller than both Grace and her wife slowly strode into the office at the mention of his name. With nothing but a bright red T-shirt with the word Maliwan in dark yellow text, blue stone washed jeans, and red sneakers with yellow trim. He flashed her the biggest smile.

"Hi mom, I missed you."

Grace let go of Delaney and ran up to give her son a warm hug. "I missed you too, honey. Happy 18th birthday."

Delaney walked up and smacked Pollux on back the head. "How come you never show me this much affection, boy."

"Cause you hate it/ affection disgusts you/ you're kindaaa evil but not really?" Pollux drawled sarcastically, which earned him another, albeit more harder smack from Delaney as she walked by on her way to her wife's desk to sit on her fancy Maliwan presidential chair.

Meanwhile, Grace still had her face pressed on her son's chest. She tilted her head up to get a good look at him and whistled, "You've grown a couple of inches huh?"

Pollux shook his head, still rubbing the spot where he got hit twice. "Nah, just one. Finally just 5'11."

Grace reached up and patted his head, beaming all the while. Grace couldn't help but coo at how handsome her son had gotten. Pollux wasn't related to her by blood at all, but when Delaney decided that she wanted a baby, and volunteered to be the one to get pregnant, she insisted on finding a surrogate father that had as many of Grace's facial features as possible. By a miracle they were able to find one. Pollux's eyes were the exact same shade of amber as hers. With a sturdy jaw line and high cheek bones, as well as olive brown skin that seemed to glow under her office's fluorescent lights, Pollux was the splitting image of Delaney. Save for his eyes and especially hair. Though he had his straight black hair cut stylishly short like Delaney's, in a vain attempt to please his other lighter haired mother, the tips of the front of his hair where his bangs spiked upwards, were dyed golden blonde. To Grace's relief, it didn't look that terrible but she always made it a point to gently point out what she found wrong with her son's hair.

"Honey. Your hair sucks," Grace said flatly. "Please cut it. Immediately. Seeing you sometimes makes me want to burst out crying at how horrifying you look. "

Pollux rolled his eyes and then glared at his other, Pandoran mother, who was silently laughing so hard that she was visibly shaking in Grace's chair. "Yeah, yeah. 'It sucks', 'why would you commit such an atrocity to the world', 'Why can't you just be gay like your mother and me. Then none of us would be paranoid for un-planned pregnancies!'"

"Anything else you want to add, mom?" Pollux continued, though he was still clearly angry at the fact that both his mothers were making fun of him. Again. "And can you please stop laughing at me, mama'. Ustedes nunca me toma en serio!"

Grace looked over at her wife straitening up for once, her look of laughter turned serious in a millisecond. What their son said must have struck something. Too bad I don't speak Pandoran Spanish though…, thought Grace.

As her son sullenly walked over to stare through the large gaping window that made up an entire wall behind her desk, Grace couldn't help but feel something was off. She quickly ushered Delaney over to her side.

"We really did it now, De. He looks so angry and upset. What did he say?"

Delaney let out a tired sigh. "He said that we never take him seriously."

"He's been saying that a lot lately ever since you left for a month, Gracie," Delaney added. Grace noticed that her wife looked a bit sad. She never looked sad unless something was seriously wrong, which made Grace panic a little.

"U-um uh… Pollux!" Grace managed to stammer. "Your mother and I completely forgot! Presents!"

Grace shot her wife a look, something which Delaney understood instantly. "Uh… Yeah! Boy, what would you like this year? We know you've been wanting to get enrolled back to that Archery academy on Artemis!"

"Yes! The Huntsman Academy for Archery!" Grace added on excitedly. "You love that place, honey! Would you like me to enroll you for another year there? First class seats on the space shuttle to planet Artemis!"

Pollux stayed quiet as he continued to look out through the huge window. For a few minutes, Grace's office was dead silent. The bad feeling that Grace had earlier started to creep back up her spine. She noticed that Delaney must have had the same bad feeling because she was fidgeting all over the place while still not saying anything. Finally, Pollux slowly turned around to meet eyes with both of his mothers.

"Mom, mama'… I wanna be a Vault Hunter."

Grace quickly exchanged a look with her wife, both of their eyes were wide as saucers.

"WHAT?!" they both screamed out in unison. Which was followed by Delaney suddenly turning away to mutter a long string of curses in Pandoran Spanish under her breath.

"You both heard me. I want to head to Pandora as soon as I can."

"WHY!?" Delaney howled unexpectedly, smashing her right hand into the nearest adjacent wall. Which left behind a small fist sized crater "You know how hard it was for me when I lead that life, boy. You know how many times I almost died, how volatile that way of living is!"

Grace started hyperventilating a little, but soon calmed down a bit. A weapons manufacturer President would not lose her cool here. "She's right, Pollux. Why would you ever want to do that? You have such a great life here right now."

Pollux's eyes stayed stern. His amber irises almost a burning orange as he stared defiantly at Grace. He went silent for a moment, took a deep and asked. "You've both have heard the Legendary Vault Hunter Lilith's galaxy wide broadcast haven't you?"

Grace turned to her wife yet again to exchange another look. Delaney still looked mad, but she ended up just giving out a tired sigh and walked over to the same wall she punched earlier to lean against it.

"We have," Delaney simply said.

Pollux's eyes went upward, looking right into one of Hal's camera eyes. "Hal, you've received the broadcast too. Please replay it via your speakers."

If you are a Vault Hunter, please listen to this message. My name is Lilith. Yes, the Lilith of Pandora. Opener of The First Vault, Siren, Current leader of The Crimson Raiders, The Firehawk, and… One of the Vault Hunters who defeated Handsome Jack. Lilith's voice crackled through the speakers. Grace recognized her voice all too well, seeing as how her message has been broadcasting all throughout Aries, as well as the whole galaxy, for almost a month. I ask for every Vault Hunter, Soldier, Engineer, anyone who's a good shot to join The Crimson Lance here in Pandora. Ever since my friends and I opened the first vault, it set forth a chain of events that forever changed the Galaxy, as you all know. But… It also awoke something even more sinister than The Destroyer, Atlas, Hyperion, Handsome Jack combined. An alien race from another dimension that The Eridians tried to stop, wiping themselves out in the process. The Destroyer was a mere watchdog to these aliens, something to alert them when the First Vault, the lock that barred them from entering our dimension, was opened. They are gods in their own realm, their own dimension and they now seek devour ours. Please… Believe me. Please, join me, as well as every Vault Hunter and Crimson Raider soldier here in Pandora. Help us fight them. Help us try to save the trillions of lives this galaxy holds. Help us win. This is Lilith, signing off.

The room was even more dead silent than before. A feeling of dread seeming to envelope everyone's bodies and mind. Grace had been staring at the floor the entire time the broadcast played, fully aware that her son was still staring at her intensely. She turned her downward facing head a little to check up on Delaney, and saw that her wife was still propped up against the wall, her eyes staring hard at nothing. Grace finally tilted her head up to stare back at Pollux's burning gaze.

"Honey…," Grace finally spoke out, trying to be as tentative as can be. "Yes the message sounds dire and yes, our family is one of the few people in the galaxy who actually believes her. But… That does not mean you can just go and run off to the call of duty!"

"Y-you just turned 18 and you may be a proficient archer because of years at the academy, but you have zero combat experience! You don't know what it's like out there!" Grace continued desperately, though Pollux looked like he wasn't budging.

"Plus, that puta Lilith is lying," Grace looked over to the side to see that Delaney had broken out of her silent trance and was walking up to Pollux. "I still have contacts with old Vault Hunter buddies over there at Pandora. Although it's been a month since she and her friends killed Handsome Jack and crippled Hyperion, a lot of Vault Hunters in Pandora think that she's full of shit and haven't joined her 'Interdimensional War Army'."

"Isnt one of your buddies four feet tall, has blue hair, and has more steroids running through his veins than blood?" Pollux asked. "And you actually believe Lilith! Why don't you try to help get more Vault Hunters on their side?"

"That buddy was my next door neighbor growing up." said Delaney, looking up at Pollux with same amount of defiance. "And I'm not helping because I am no longer a Vault Hunter. I left that life for Grace. For you, mijo."

"Don't you both know what this means?" Pollux asked. "This is a chance of a lifetime for me to do something that can actually help save the galaxy! For me to get off of Aries and see what the universe has in store for me. Because I know taking more archery lessons at some stupid and preppy academy isn't going to save lives. I have to do this."

Pollux's hard stare finally softened a bit. "Please..."

They really are like mother, like son, Grace thought as she slowly walked behind her wife to embrace her from behind. She rested her head on Delaney's shoulder and looked at Pollux, yet again locking gazes. "Sweetie, is this really what you want? How can you become a Vault Hunter in such short time?"

Pollux looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "I dunno. Maybe by being the son of the president of Maliwan?"

Grace said nothing as she watched her son stride over to her desk. "Mom, remember the incident at Elpis years ago? Maliwan helped manufacture a certain Vault Hunter's special ability at that time. A certain, Baroness' elemental ability?"

Grace's eyes went wide as memories of the incident suddenly slammed into her brain. Though she was only a minor scientist when it happened, Maliwan did create the Cold as Ice project for Aurelia the Baroness, Lady Hammerlock. A shard that could home in on enemies and inflict massive cryo damage as it flew from target to target.

"OF COURSE!" Grace suddenly yelled out, taking off towards her desk fast. "HAL! GET PROFFESOR SIEGFRIED FROM R&D ON THE ECHO LINE RIGHT NOW!"

"Right away, Lady Attica," Hal said, before the literal sound of a phone ringing filled the office.

"Gracie… seriously?" Delaney asked, referring to the phone ring.

"I'm old fashioned, my love. Sorry," Grace replied back, beaming her a smile. This new idea that she had instantly concocted in her head could potentially save her son from instant death and she was more than happy to share her joy. "Hello, Siegfried? Is that you?"

"Guten Tag, Lady Attica!" Professor Siegfried's voice rang out from the speakers. "Vat can I do for you today?"

"I have a new idea for research and development. A… personal project, if you will." Grace said.

"I'm alvays happy to help, Lady Attica. What do you need made?"

Grace crossed her arms, mulling the concept over in her head so that she could explain it well. "You don't have to make anything, Siegfried. I was thinking more along the lines of… re-tooling. Re-forging an old project."

Professor Siegfried's voice went silent over the speaker, before coming back on louder. "Upgrading?!"

Grace smiled. Good, he's getting excited, she thought.

"Precisely, old friend. I want you to take the Cold as Ice project we made years ago during the Elpis Incident, and remake it into a very specific design that produces radically different results."

"Yes, yes!" Professor Siegfried practically squealed. "You vant to take out the cryo damage and change the original diamond shaped shard design yes?"

Grace shot Pollux, who was standing next to her quietly listening to the conversation, a knowing look. Grace almost laughed out loud at how big her son's eyes got in disbelief.

"Mom… are you going to do what I think you're going to do?"

Grace patted him on the head and kissed him on the cheek in response. She turned over back to the speaker. "Siegfried, I want you to change the shard design into an arrow. And I want every bit of Maliwan's pride and glory etched into that arrow."

"Fire, Shock, and Corrosive damage…," Professor Siegfried trailed off.

Grace smiled yet again, finishing the thought for him. "… All rolled into one."

"With a specialized bow for manual targeting of course," Grace quickly added.

"Ya! That vould make the calibrating easier!" Professor Siegfried said excitedly. "I'll vork on it right away! It will take at least a few months to properly make though. Prototypes, testing and all that."

"Make it so, Siegfried," Grace chirped out happily. "Oh, and title the new project Apollo will you?"

Professor Siegfried laughed from the other side of the line. "Of course, Lady Attica. Zis is Siegfried signing off."

To Grace's utter delight, Pollux still looked incredulous.

"I just wanted that cryo shard power but this is soooo much better!" He exclaimed.

"Hmmm, not yet, Pollux," Grace wagged her finger at him. "Like Siegfried said, it'll be while. Which is something I hoped for."

Grace then turned to her wife, who looked very unhappy about what was unfolding before. "Love, I assume you know what I'm going to ask you next?"

"Grace, I am not helping our son go into a life that I left," Delaney said darkly. "Too many close calls, too many deaths witnessed, and I almost lost my sanity."

Grace met her wife's furious stare, walked over, and pressed her lips to hers. Grace could smell a hint rakk ale in her wife's breath, but all she cared about was how good it felt to kiss Delaney's soft lips again. "You wouldn't have found me if you didn't become a Vault Hunter."

Grace looked into her wife's eyes again and saw that the kiss met its purpose. Delaney looked much less angry. Thoughtful even. "Delaney, Pollux has your stubbornness. You know that he won't back down from what he believes he must do. The least you can do is get back out in the game to train him. Make sure he doesn't die the moment he steps on Pandora, you know?"

"… Fine," Delaney finally said. "I'll train him. Little mierda wouldn't last a minute fighting bandits without me by his side."

"You hear that, boy?" Delaney drawled out, walking over to Pollux. "While your mom works on your 'birthday present', I'm gonna use that time to get you combat ready. Break you down and build you back up so that you won't have rely on some stupid Vault Hunter ability. Just guns and melee!"

"Vault Hunter trial by fire sort of training, mama'?" Pollux inquired.

Delaney grinned. "Precisely. You and I are gonna go on a Come Back Tour of sorts. Hunting bounties and clearing out raider gangs all over Aries."

"A 'Come Back Tour'…?" Pollux asked, confused yet again at his birth mother's words. "For who?"

"The Spider Huntress, Delaney 'Arachne' Attica." Delaney smiled sinisterly. "Acclaimed Vault Hunter, wife, mother, and active founder of the Goths Still Exist In The Future, Get over it society."

Grace couldn't help but be pleased at how her wife and son were getting along. She still had reservations about Pollux going out in the world and trying to take on a race of Gods from another dimension. The boy didn't even know how to have a good hairstyle. Nevertheless, she couldn't argue about his talent with the bow, how good his natural aim and reflexes were, and how determined he was to do this. She would just have to trust faith to bring her beautiful son back to her. Plus she could always send some military trained Maliwan troopers over to assist him whenever she felt like he needed it, so there was that. Ultimately though, a small part of her knew her son had something in him, something that was destined to be a bigger part of this whole universe. The thought made her worried, yet, excited her at the same time.

"Okay Pollux, now that this whole ordeal is sorted out, please step out of my office and wait for me and your mom in the waiting room so that we can finally go out and eat," Grace said. "Your mom and I have to discuss a quite few more things in private."

"Right. I'll see you both in a few then," Pollux said as he walked out the office doors, which shut tight behind him. As soon as they closed, Grace and Delaney exchanged one last final look.

"We're really letting our child do this…," Delaney said sullenly.

"He's an adult now. Who are we to stand in the way of his choices?" Grace quietly answered. She turned to her desk one last time. "Besides, I know for a fact he won't be alone. Hal, please contact Mr. Torque."

The same phone ringing sound filled the room again until the sound of Mr. Torque's voice exploded over the speakers. "I AM ANSWERING THE PHONE TO TALK TO LADY ATTICA OF MALIWAN. Why am I narrating what I'm doing when there's already someone writing this story? BECAUSE F*CK THE 4TH WALL."

Grace pinched the bridge of her nose. A habit she picked up from talking to Torque too many times. "Hello, Torque. I have something I want to ask of you. You owe me if I recall."

"EXTORTIONNNNNNNNNNNNNNN. BRING IT ON GRACE."

"Good. Because what I'm gonna ask you will hopefully help tip the scale of this war in our favor. I can only hope it will save my son's life as well."

As Pollux walked towards the waiting room, he felt the knot in his stomach grow tighter and tighter. He couldn't help but feel like he betrayed both of his moms, lying to them like that. If he was being honest with himself, he would have just admitted that joining the front lines of this war terrified him. The reason for wanting to be a Vault Hunter wasn't solely because of Lilith's broadcast. Though he did want to do something to help the galaxy and keep it safe so that neither of his moms would get hurt, the final nail in the coffin was an ECHO message that was delivered to him a couple of weeks ago. A message that forever rocked and shattered his world.

This is a message directly for Pollux Attica. Pollux remembered every word of the message, having listened to it constantly every day of the last two weeks. First of all, my name is Raiden. I'm a Vault Hunter and the one who offered his sperm to your mother so that she and her wife could have you. This may seem like it is random and out of nowhere, and if I was being honest with myself, it is. I never tried to contact you or reach out to you for obvious reasons, and I'm sorry to say that the only reason why I'm contacting you is because both of your mothers kept something from you. A secret. You weren't the only baby that was in your mother's womb, there was another: your identical twin. Your sister. Her name is Castor.

Pollux remembered when he first heard that news, he dropped the ECHO device. Too many questions flooded his mind. He had a twin sister? His dad was a Vault Hunter? Why would the both of his mothers keep this from him? He shook his head, and picked up the ECHO device to finish the message. Unfortunately that wasn't the shocking part.

Your mothers only wanted you, they felt like taking care of twins would be too much for them. So I offered to raise your sister by myself. She grew to be a wonderful young woman and she's a Vault Hunter like me. Chip off the old blocks hehe. But that's not why I sent this message, Pollux. When your sister was five years old, strange blue tattoos appeared on her abdomen and left arm. Her hands started glowing blue. If youre smart, you'll know that your sister is a Siren. I had to find out the hard way. It wasn't until she was seven years old, she was so mad at me for not letting her play with her friends. She started yelling and crying, waving her hands around. All of a sudden, blue wings of pure energy appeared on her back, and a bright blue beam made up of the same energy shot out her left hand. Thankfully that hand was pointing up, creating huge new skylight in our house. I did my best to raise her right and tried to keep her identity as a Siren a secret. For the most part I succeeded, she trained herself to better handle her powers and I taught her how to defend herself. It's going to be her birthday in a couple of weeks. Yours too, Pollux. The planet that we're in just picked up Lilith's broadcast as couple of days ago, which would almost certainly explain why Castor ran away from home today. Pollux, your sister is heading for Pandora to join Lilith's army, her goodbye note only saying that something calling her to Pandora. I'm heading after her but I have too many strings I left unattached to leave right this second. That's why I'm asking you if you can go after your sister as soon as you can. Convince her to come back, something, I don't know. Pollux could tell that his biological father sounded tired at this point. At least… just make sure that she's okay, Pollux. I'll see you later, goodbye.

Just like that, the message ended. Which left Pollux with so many questions that his brain almost turned to mush. He wanted to confront his mothers about Castor but they had every right to give her up when they felt like they couldn't take care of her properly, and to keep her a secret. There was only one thing very clear to him. He had to go to Pandora. He had to sign up for Lilith's army so that it would be easier to find her. He had to meet his sister and make sure that she's okay.

Sucks that she already got a huge head start training and getting her powers, Pollux thought with a sigh. A few months… it felt like he would have to spend years training so that he could just enter Pandora. But he had to get stronger. He had to become a Vault Hunter to help save the galaxy and see his sister. He would do whatever it takes.

"Castor… Wait for me," Pollux said out loud as he neared the waiting room. "Cause I'm gonna find you. Together… We'll send those Old Gods packing back to their own Dimension."