"Warrior!" Handsome Jack yelled. The biological weapon roared as it surged out of the lava toward the Vault Hunters, plasma wings spread wide. Its open cry of war was met with a cacophonous explosion of sound as weapons began discharging at the Eridian construct.

"Gaige! Get that bot of yours up and running!" Axton shouted over his shoulder as he activated the protocols that would digitize his turret.

"On it!" The Mechromancer swung her arm up and forward in a gesture of command, and the robot that had only won third place at her school's science fair manifested before her, letting out a blast of electricity at the Warrior. Salvador gave off a fearsome cry of bloodlust as he swung around two assault rifles and began unloading their clips into the monster before them.

From the central dais, Handsome Jack gritted his teeth. He was on his knees, blood pouring from open wounds, an impenetrable shield surrounding him maintained by the Vault Key controlling the Warrior. Beside him, the Siren Lilith lay, groaning softly, the collar around her throat still glowing, keeping her strength sapped.

This was it; the final, pinnacle moment. Either he proved himself as the Hero of Pandora here and now, or the bandits won and chaos consumed the planet.

It was a fight he wasn't going to lose.

"Warrior! Burn them!"

The creature's head pulled back, bifurcated jaws snapping open as fire streaked forth from its maw. Axton ducked behind one of the rock pillars, leaving his turret to continue irritating the monstrosity.

The psycho Krieg howled in protest from further up the dais, leaping up on top of one of the Eridian pillars to jump the distance toward the Warrior's head. He landed on its nose with a solid thump, causing the gout of flame to bob dangerously. On the ground level, Maya scrambled out of the way of the altered path of flame while the Warrior growled angrily at its new attachment and shook its head, trying to dislodge the psycho.

"Krieg! Watch the aim on that thing!" the Siren shouted up to her teammate.

"Can you phaselock it?!" Axton cried out to her.

"No!" she yelled back. "Thing's too big and it's fortified!"

"Then we fill it with bullets!" Salvador chimed in, laughing maniacally as he tossed aside his assault rifles and pulled out an SMG and a heavy pistol.

From the dais, Handsome Jack grinned in something that was more a bearing of teeth.

"Dive."

The Warrior hefted its whole bulk onto its back legs, prepping to lunge up and over into the lava on the other side of the room.

"Krieg!" Maya cried out. "Get off it! Now!"

"The sun consumes all the little birdies in this land!" he yowled back, swinging his axe repeatedly at the Warrior's eye.

"Krieg!" she screamed.

The Warrior snapped its head up sharply, dislodging the psycho and sending him into the air. A moment later, he came back down, and the Warrior neatly caught him, Krieg's snarl of pain more of rage then agony as its teeth barely punctured his body.

But that's when it leapt for the lava.

"Krieg!" Maya's shriek echoed in the Vault, causing the rakk that circled in the air of the Vault to squawk to each other in alarm.

"Blanket the world in puppies!" he yelled back before the psycho and bioweapon both smashed into the molten lava.

"No…" The Siren's voice was barely a whimper as she watched the Warrior's tail vanish into the magma.

"Oh my god," Gaige whispered, eyes wide. Axton turned his face away, a scowl twisting his features.

From the dais, Handsome Jack smiled, no warmth in it.

"One down, kiddos. Five to go."

Maya spun on him.

"You bastard!" She lunged toward the shield, but was caught mid-leap by a black armored man. A heartbeat later, the Warrior's tail emerged from the lava and slammed into the ground where she would have been.

"Thanks, Zer0," she gasped even as tears clouded her vision.

"Focus on the fight/Don't let his death be in vain/This is our last stand."

"Yeah. Yeah, I know." She hopped out of his arms onto her feet only for both to have to dart apart as the Warrior exploded from the lava and slammed a clawed paw down where they had been standing.

"Come here, senorita!" Salvador called, tossing the Siren a rifle. Maya caught the gun and swung around, firing at the bioweapon. The Warrior roared and tipped its head, bodily charging toward her. She spat out a curse and dove to the side as the massive creature barreled across the dais.

"Light on your feet, senorita!" Salvador laughed beside her, tossing aside the heavy pistol and pulling out a shotgun.

"Barely light enough! Look out!" She dodged beneath the Warrior's tail as it snapped through the air toward them. Slower then the lithe Siren, Salvador took the hit straight to the chest and flew back several yards, landing with a loud thump, weapons scattering out of reach.

"Salvador!" Axton yelled as the Warrior turned toward the downed Gunzerker.

"Get him," Handsome Jack snarled.

Zer0 leapt onto the back of the bioweapon and slammed his sword into its neck, but the Warrior gave the Assassin no mind. It lunged toward the Vault Hunter, focused only on Salvador. A metallic screech of challenge echoed throughout the Vault as Deathtrap dove straight into the Warrior's face. The bioweapon snarled as it careened off to the side, a robot of lashing and sparking metal slicing into its nose. Zer0 leapt off the back of the Warrior onto a nearby pillar while Gaige raced out to the Gunzerker and helped pull him to his feet.

"C'mon, c'mon, get up, Sal!"

"Huff," the big man gasped as he fought to get breath back in his chest. "That cabron hits like a truck." A groan escaped him as he stood.

Deathtrap let out a shrill scream as the Warrior twisted its head abruptly and snapped up the bot.

"DT!" Gaige cried out. Salvador caught her before she ran toward the beast. The bioweapon didn't take anywhere near such care with Deathtrap as it did with Krieg—it just chomped down on the bot, crushing it between its teeth. Deathtrap made a pained trilling sound before it cut off sharply.

"Oh, that's not good," Gaige whispered in horror as the Warrior turned on them, spitting out pieces of robot.

"Warrior!" Handsome Jack ordered. "Fetch!"

The Warrior bellowed a roar at both of them and coiled up, ready to pounce.

"Go, Chiquita, go!" Salvador pointed toward Axton and the robotics expert raced toward the Commando out of the bioweapon's path as the Gunzerker picking up his shotgun and fired into its face to garner its complete attention. The Warrior snarled and obliged him—it lowered its head and charged straight for him. Salvador immediately turned and ran toward the other side of the dais, dodging around pillars, leading the Warrior on a merry chase, giving the other Vault Hunters a chance to shoot at it.

It was a haphazard plan at best, however—Salvador wasn't the spryest of the fighters in the Vault, and the Warrior had no compunction about knocking over the Eridian pillars that decorated the dais. The moment heavy stone monoliths began falling, the Vault Hunters had slightly more pressing matters to deal with than the rampaging bioweapon.

"Move!" Axton ordered, his voice carrying across the booming of ancient rocks hitting the ground. The hunters took his command to heart and focused on dodging out from under falling pillars, pausing only to take potshots at the Warrior when they could.

"Anyone want to tag in?" Salvador called, puffing as he dove behind a pillar to avoid a burst of fire.

"I got your back, Sal!" Gaige called, ducking out of her hiding place and unloading the clip of the Maliwan SMG she was using. The bullets sprayed out into the Warrior's path, some hitting it directly, others disobeying every law of physics by ricocheting off nearby stone and colliding with the bioweapon's hide. The Warrior roared in pain and turned on the Mechromancer.

"Oh boy."

The bioweapon half unfurled its wings, as if readying itself to pounce, but instead of lunging toward her, it raised one clawed paw and hit one of the remaining standing Eridian pillars, sweeping it off the ground. The column careened straight through the air toward Gaige. Her eyes widened in horror.

"Hax," she whimpered.

"Gaige!" Axton shouted. He lunged over one of the fallen pillars and ran full tilt toward the Mechromancer, bodily knocking her out of the way. Gaige fell to the side with a yelp and managed to whip around long enough to see Axton get hit by the flying column.

"Axton!"

"Axton! No!" Maya cried. The pillar slammed into the Vault's wall so hard cracks spider webbed out from its impact point, a splatter of blood coloring the rock around it.

The Warrior gave no time for the Vault Hunters to grapple with the abrupt loss of the Commando—it took a quick look over the remaining hunters and singled out Maya. The Siren had emerged from her hiding place in the horror of Axton's loss, bringing her dangerously close to the bioweapon's tail. The Eridian weapon swung its tail to one side and then whipped it toward her. Zer0 noticed the motion and an exclamation point appeared over his faceplate.

"Maya!"

The Siren looked up sharply, saw what was coming, and immediately understood what it meant.

"Fuck."

Then the Warrior's tail hit her. There was the sickening sound of bones cracking and she screamed as she was thrown clear of the dais out toward the fields of lava.

"Senorita!" Salvador hollered as the Siren flew out of sight. The Warrior turned on them and growled, fire sparking around its teeth. The Pandoran man stared back at it.

"Oh my god," Gaige whispered, shock stealing the strength from her voice. She scrambled back to her feet and moved closer to the Gunzerker. "Sal… We just… Both of them…"

"And then there were three," Handsome Jack all but purred from the central dais.

Salvador shifted his grip on his weapons, tossing the shotgun he had been wielding aside.

"Zer0?"

The Assassin appeared next to him, close to Gaige.

"Take Chiquita and get out of here."

"We need to fall back/There are other vantage points—"

"No," Salvador interrupted. "We're done, amigo. Get the girl out of here." He hefted up a rocket launcher to his shoulder. "I'll buy you time."

Gaige looked up at him in horror while Zer0 placed a hand to his chest, fist closed.

"You are a good man."

"Heh. Thanks, cuate. Now, do your disappearing trick. I'm about to make myself very popular."

"Sal, you can't!" Gaige protested.

"We don't have a choice, Chiquita. Go."

He didn't give her even a moment to try and sway him from his decision—he braced himself and fired the rocket launcher before lifting up a Vladof assault rifle in his other hand and unloading a clip. The rocket detonated over the Warrior's eye, causing it to roar angrily and charge toward the Gunzerker, straight into the hail of bullets. Zer0 didn't hesitate once Salvador pulled the trigger; he grabbed Gaige, tugged her close, and then she was gone and the Assassin was racing toward the bioweapon, sword at the ready.

The Warrior focused on Zer0 as he closed the distance between them. Fire flicking between its teeth, it snarled and snapped at the Assassin. Zer0 leapt aside and the Warrior followed him while Salvador fired another round of rockets. The bioweapon turned once more on Salvador after the rockets impacted, growling in fury, but Zer0 took the opportunity to get a slice in at the softer skin behind its jaw. The Warrior's attention immediately snapped back to him and it spat out a burst of fire while the Assassin nimbly jumped aside and cut into the bioweapon's nose. It roared angrily and bit down, catching Zer0 as he attempted to dodge away.

If the Warrior was intelligent enough to question the empty bite it ended up with after catching the Vault Hunter, it wasn't given long enough to focus on the fact as another round of rockets smashed into the side of its head. Its head whipped around to focus on Salvador once more and it roared. Salvador yelled back as he loaded another round of rockets and the bioweapon coiled up before lunging toward him. The Gunzerker fired, braced himself until he could feel flames licking across his skin, and pulled the pins on the grenades in his pocket.

Handsome Jack pushed himself up as the echoes of the explosion Salvador had set off died down and the Warrior bellowed in pain and rage. He stood, wobbling on his feet, and laughter rolled up within him. It was the sound of disbelief at first, but it quickly grew, passing from awe to triumph to something akin to maniac. The shield given off by the Vault Key dissipated as the Warrior sank back into the lava, and Handsome Jack's mirth caused Lilith to stir. The Siren groaned as she propped herself up, taking stock of the room and the carnage filling it. Handsome Jack stumbled to the nearby desk and opened one of the drawers, tugging out a Rejuvenate syringe and jamming it into his arm. It took a moment for the healing to take effect, and in that time he got control of himself, quieting his laughter.

"What… did you do?" Lilith demanded, gasping as she tried to sit up. One hand went to the collar still around her throat, yanking at it to try and remove it. He straightened as his wounds began to close and turned toward her.

"I executed a criminal," he began, ticking off on his fingers as he slowly approached her. "I crushed a rogue agent. I incinerated a psycho. I returned a Siren to the universe. I even deleted the null." He stopped before her, palm facing her, all five fingers extended. Then, he swung his arms wide, encompassing the room and all beyond it in a gesture.

"I fucking won, Lilith. That is what I did."

"You're a monster!" she spat up at him. His face tightened and he aimed one of his wrist-mounted lasers at her head.

"No. I'm the goddamn hero."

Then he fired.