Disclaimer: Borderlands and all of Pandora's residents are the intellectual property of Gearbox Software. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter 15

The Vault Hunters arrive on Titan Lux. Some are more happy to be there than others.

"I can't believe I spent six weeks on a transport so that we could give some girl a freakin' pep talk," Mordecai says.

"Angel gave us a billion dollars," Gaige says. "It won't kill you to say thank you, you know."

Six weeks cooped up on an interstellar shuttle, and now Mordecai is being admonished by a girl young enough to be his daughter. "Couldn't we a just, I dunno...wrote a note, or somethin'?"

None of the Vault Hunters are in a good mood. They've just spent a month and a half surrounded on all sides by the vacuum of space. They've just spent over forty days watching stars drift by the porthole.

Six weeks of living in the same cramped cabins.

Six weeks of pacing up and down the same narrow corridors.

Six weeks without bandits to mutilate. Six weeks without guns to shoot.

In outer space, all it takes is for one single trigger to be pulled, and then the pressure drops and the air rushes out, and lungs shrivel up and all the oxygen in the blood starts doing all sorts of funny stuff. In outer space, all it takes is for someone to punch the wrong thing in frustration, and then the gravity fails, or the life support malfunctions, or the entire vessel judders suddenly to a halt.

When their shuttle finally touches down on Titan Lux, in the city of Munificence, the Vault Hunters are...high-strung, to say the least. Cranky. Irritable. Stressed.

Six weeks trapped on a spaceship. Six weeks of those same, strange sounds repeating in their ears.

Angel can wait. Right now, the Vault Hunters aren't in the mood for happy reunions. Right now, the only thing the Vault Hunters care about is getting utterly, hopelessly blitzed.

The Vault Hunters pile off their vessel, and get ready to embark on a tour of the best bars and clubs that Munificence has to offer. Booze will be imbibed. Brain cells will be obliterated.

There's just one small problem.

Titan Lux is a bureaucratic world. Titan Lux is a world obsessed with rules, and protocols, and red tape. When space vessels arrive from distant systems, all non-human, non-indigenous biological organisms on board have to be surrendered to quarantine.

There is no way in hell that Mordecai is going to hand Bloodwing over to goddamn quarantine.

He's grown too fricking big to hide inside luggage. Mordecai briefly considers setting him loose the moment they get out of the transport, and letting him hide among the high-rises and skyscrapers of Munificence...but he'd probably get shot down by some weird-ass robotic pest control or something.

So Mordecai decides he'll simply bribe the customs officials. He's just spent six weeks on a spaceship. He's not thinking straight.

"Aw, come on!" The cops have their knees on his neck and his face in the ground. They're twisting his arms behind his back and snapping cuffs on his wrists.

"Every time a Munificence cop bags himself a bribe-giver, they get a bonus!" one of the arresting officer tells him. "Welcome to Titan Lux, idiot!"

Usually, when Mordecai is threatened, Bloodwing will launch into action, ripping out throats and spilling guts on the ground. Not now, though, no. Right now, Bloodwing is just perching unhappily on a table, glaring resentfully at his master as the cops fasten a collar around his neck. Mordecai just got him a holiday in a quarantine facility. Asshole.

()()()()()()()()()()()()

Axton asks himself:

When the hell did we become such a bunch a wusses?

I went to Pandora for adventure! And glory! And because I was sentenced to death by execution squad, but mainly for adventure and glory! And now I've come all the way to this fancy-ass planet just to ask this creeptastic girl to climb back into the Vault Hunters' tree house.

And it's not just me. I've seen Salvador break men's kneecaps so he could chase them down in Technicals, laughing his ass off the whole time, and now he's come to the swankiest, swishest world in the galaxy, just to ask a Siren to hang out with us again. I've seen Zer0 slice a thousand bandits into little pieces, and now he's on Titan Lux to help with Angel's little self-esteem problem, cause he's worried that if he doesn't, Gaige'll give him the silent treatment.

What the hell happened to us?

Axton and Salvador are on the streets of the city, checking out the Munificence nightlife. Axton's wearing this cashmere suit he picked up in Opportunity, just before they left Pandora. Bespoke! Bought a whole bunch of them; hey, he's a millionaire, now; may as well look the part.

Unfortunately, tonight Axton is the only Vault Hunter that made an effort.

"The hell is a 'dress code'?" Salvador asks, brow furrowed in confusion. They're standing outside the entrance to a fancy club, a pack of black-clad bouncers in front of the door, all sunglasses and earpieces.

Axton tries to play the conciliator. "Listen, guys, uh...I'm not sure my friend here is gonna look any prettier, even if you put him in a suit. Get what I'm saying?"

"We run a sophisticated, classy establishment," the head bouncer – a guy who seems to take a hugely unwarranted pride in his place of work – says. He points at Axton. "You can come in." At Salvador. "He stays out. If our clientele wanted to look at bums and slobs, then they could step out onto the streets!"

"Oohohohoho!" Salvador cracks his knuckles, and Axton gives a sigh. "I see. So I am not pretty enough for your service! Well, I think I know what to do! Maybe you let me inside if everything is a little bit uglier, no?"

The bouncer's nose is just out of Salvador's reach. Not a problem. Salvador buries his fist in the guy's belly; he doubles over in pain, et voilà – nose within range. Salvador fires off an uppercut, and now blood is gushing down the bouncer's face in a really satisfying way.

The rest of the security begin yelling and crowding around the diminutive little thug that just brutalized their colleague. Behind Axton, there's a long line of revellers and party-goers, all attired in the latest Titan Lux fashion, all waiting to get in. They begin to clap and cheer as a brawl erupts before them.

Axton rolls his eyes to the light-polluted sky, and groans. Great.

Well, I went six weeks without violence. New record, I guess.

Axton wades in. He looses off a left-right, and a bouncer topples into the dirt. Salvador scoops a guy clean off the ground, cackling madly, and launches him screaming through the air.

Axton's never fought in a suit before. At least he looks really good.

()()()()()()()()()()()

Three hours go by, and then Brick decides that Munificence is goddamn bullshit.

At first, he was really excited to be here! Munificence is bright lights. Munificence is massive, towering skyscrapers. Munificence is massive-ass viewscreens showing music videos and cute cartoons. Munificence is jaunty pop ditties pouring out of electronics stores.

For the first twenty minutes or so, Brick was happily trotting around the streets, feasting on the sights. Munificence has something of the adult theme park about it. Everything is bright and colourful.

Then Brick began to get hungry.

Right now, Brick just wants to find a nice restaurant. Brick wants hamburgers. Brick wants fries. Brick wants soda to wash it all down.

But Munificence is so confusing.

Climb into a transport and look at the city from thousands of feet in the air, Munificence looks perfect and pristine. Get down to street-level, however, and you'll quickly see how horribly planned the layout of the city really is. It's a dazzling confusion of flashing lights and befuddling sounds, and alleys and sidestreets and roadways.

It doesn't help that the streets are always thronged with pedestrians and moving traffic.

It doesn't help that, in Munificence, everything looks the same.

"Goddamn streets," Brick rumbles, passersby glancing strangely at the muscle-bound colossus talking to himself. "Why's it gotta be so damn complicated?"

Brick walks for miles and miles. He goes round in circles. He tries to retrace his steps, but only ends up in strange places. He tries the Fast Travel system a few times, but that only serves to make him even more disorientated.

Brick spent six weeks on a spacecraft. He's seven-foot-three and three hundred and twenty pounds, and he just spent six weeks in a tin can. He's tired. He's hungry. He's lost. He's getting more and more pissed off, and he's not sure how much more of this he's gonna take.

Alright, Brick, alright. Nothing to worry about.

You know what to do.

When you get lost, all you gotta do is make note of specific, recognizable landmarks.

Landmarks.

In Munificence, everything looks the same.

In Munificence, everything looks identical.

Well, nothing to worry about. Guess I just gotta make some landmarks.

On a street corner, Brick flips a luxury car, and then sets it on fire. A really expensive car, upside-down, on fire. Landmark.

On a main street, Brick sends a gigantic sign crashing across the road, causing a dozen-vehicle pile-up. A dozen vehicles sandwiched together. Landmark.

In a pedestrianized area, Brick smashes a window, and then smashes the shit out of the mannequins within. Shattered glass, window dummies with their clothes ripped up. Landmark.

After a while, Brick feels like he's beginning to catch his bearings.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()

The Vault Hunters all feel a teensy bit bad when Gaige stalks into view.

"You all got arrested on the same night?" she says, from the other side of the bars. She's all dolled up. At some point during the evening, someone drew mouse whiskers on her with a thick marker. It doesn't make her look any less pissed off.

"Sorry, kid," Axton says. Axton, Salvador, Brick and Mordecai – the Munificence police knew that they'd kick the crap out of any normal criminal, so they locked them all up in the same cage. "Guess we had to let off some steam, you know?"

"Steam?" Gaige snaps, not bothering to keep the volume low. "Nuh uh! You all want to get kicked off this planet, don't you? You don't want to have to deal with Angel, so you're all trying to get the po-lice to deport your asses, aren't you?"

"Naw, Slab, that ain't it," Brick says, shaking his head.

"Hey, Gaige!" Salvador throws up his hands. "You know that lateral thinking hurts my head."

Mordecai shrugs. "Maybe..." he says.

Gaige narrows her eyes at Mordecai. "I paid your bail at the desk," she says, turning to leave. "They told me it's probably gonna take 'em about sixteen hours to do the paperwork, though. Bureaucracy!"

The Vault Hunters look at Gaige as she walks away. Then they look at each other.

()()()()()()()()()()()()

Someone was waiting for Gaige outside the police station. Some guy she met at a club. He was pretty enough, with a nice car. She brought him back to the stupendously luxurious hotel at which she was staying, and led him to her room.

When she was done with him, Deathtrap materialized out of nothing and kicked his ass out. Yeah, that was her favourite part.

Afterwards, Gaige is sprawled on her plus-sized bed, surfing the echo net on the room's enormous viewscreen. It seems Titan Lux gets the same crappy casts and movies as Pandora, and everywhere else in the universe.

The minutes tick by, and then suddenly the hotel room is overlaid with white and blue interference. A ghostly face superimposes itself upon Gaige's vision.

"You didn't have to come here, you know," Angel says, a voice in Gaige's ear.

Gaige reaches for the remote control, meaning to mute the viewscreen...and then a thought occurs to her. "Wait a minute," she says, unnerving scenarios assembling themselves in her mind. "Were you just watching me screw?"

Ever since the Vault Hunters entered Titan Lux's space, Angel has been rehearsing a conversation that she knew she would inevitably be forced to have. She never expected it to stray into this particular area. "What?" she says, flustered. "No."

Gaige stares dubiously at her a moment, but then lets it go.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Things are awkward, at first. Small talk is not something Angel will ever have much understanding of.

"So," Gaige says, drumming her fingers on her knee. "How do you like your new world?"

Angel allows the question to hang for a moment. "Do you want an honest answer?" she says.

Gaige gives a shrug. Sure.

Angel wonders where to begin. "When I lived on Pandora, I could see everything," she says. "This...this was while Jack was still alive, you understand? While I was still connected to the Hyperion network. I could see everything. I never missed anything. All across the world, people were living their lives; bandits, and criminals, and innocent people, and Crimson Raiders, and Vault Hunters – they were all just trying to survive on this planet, and I could see it all. Every moment of it. I could see all this, all this life, unfolding before me. Beneath me."

"And...none of them ever knew I was there, but I was. I was always there. And...we...we shared things. Moments. When the people of Pandora faced incredible adversity, I was there. With them. I was there! And when they triumphed over impossible odds...I was there, also! Heh heh heh! I...it was fun. Sometimes, a gang of bandits would topple a Badass rakk hive, or a squad of Crimson Raiders would destroy a swarm of mutated varkids. And they never even suspected that I was watching...but I was there! I was with them! And they'd be laughing, and cheering, and high-fiving, and clapping each other on the back, and...it made me happy. It made me feel good. Even though they couldn't see me. Or hear me. Even though I was just a ghost."

Angel briefly averts her eyes, but it's difficult to hide your emotions from someone when your image is literally flickering in their mind. "And then you guys came along, and you freed me," she says. "And...yeah. It was nice."

Angel looks directly at Gaige. "I have reconnected myself to the Hyperion network," she says. "Just as before. Just as things once were. Except...things are not as they were, are they? I'm not on Pandora, any more. I'm on Titan Lux, and...well, it's different."

Angel raises an eyebrow. "What do you think of Titan Lux, Gaige?"

"It's pretty cool," Gaige says. "I mean, I'll probably like it better when I'm not suffering from freaking dire lag."

Angel gives a wry smile. "There are no bandits on Titan Lux. No Crimson Raiders. No rakk. No varkids. No bullymongs." Her nose wrinkles. "On Titus Lux, there are...businessmen. Businesswomen. Shareholders. Chairpersons. Presidents. Vice-presidents. Executives. Lawyers. Lobbyists. Office workers. Efficiency officers. Motivational speakers."

"Eeew..." Gaige says.

"I see everything," Angel says, and now certain consonants receive a certain pronunciation just to let Gaige know just how distasteful she finds the entire situation. "Everything that happens on Titan Lux. And it's not like Pandora at all."

"Sucks," Gaige says.

"Yeah," Angel concurs. "I keep the Hyperion Corporation operating at peak efficiency, but Blake also has me carrying out corporate espionage. It's not as exciting as it sounds."

"It doesn't sound very exciting," Gaige interjects.

"Mmmm."

Silence a while. Angel gazes morosely into the distance.

"Angel," Gaige says, at last.

Angel looks up.

"Come back with us."

There's yearning in Angel's eyes. Longing. "Three months ago," Angel says, "a billion dollars vanished from Hyperion's accounts. That was my payment for returning to Hyperion. Do you imagine Blake is going to simply forgive and forget if I leave again?"

"Who cares what that creep-ass thinks?" Gaige says, fire blazing to life in her eyes. "C'mon, come with us to Arius, Angel! If that weirdo comes after you, it'll be me, Lilith, Maya..."

Angel's eyes widen. "Maya?" she says.

"Maya and Lilith are on their way here to Titan Lux right now, Angel!" Gaige has a delirious grin on her face, now...and then said grin vanishes just as quickly. "And Moxxi, too...geez, can't believe I used to like that woman..." Gaige's mind wanders a second, and then her attention ricochets back to Angel. "This is a rescue mission, girl! We've come to pull your ass out of Hyperion! Come on, Angel! Vault Hunters are where it's at! If Hyperion wanna start some shit, then bring it on! Mebbe if we kick the crap out of 'em a second time, they'll get the picture!"

Angel's eyes are aglow. Angel returned to Hyperion because the Vault Hunters were falling apart, but if Maya is back...

A question comes.

What were the happiest days of Angel's life?

When her mother was still alive? Yes...but that's gone. Those days can never be recovered.

Apart from that, what was the happiest time in Angel's life?

Well, is there really any contest?

She had to haul that massive Eridium Injector around everywhere she went.

She had to endure countless surgeries and amputations.

She had to contend with murderous black moods that threatened one of the only friendships she ever had.

But that was all irrelevant. Meaningless. Angel knows when she was happiest. Angel knows when she was most joyful.

Those few months she spent in Sanctuary.

Those few months she spent practising phaseshift on unfamiliar technology. Those few months she spent with Gaige playing echo sims into the early hours of the morning. Those few months she spent going to the Torgue Arena, watching Maya kick the stuffing out of her opponents.

Maya has returned to the Vault Hunters. Gaige is here, on Titan Lux. Maya and Lilith will be arriving soon. Hell, Moxxi will be arriving soon. Moxxi can wink at Angel and shoot off her innuendos, and Angel can snigger and smile nervously.

That life is within reach again.

Those happiest months of her life are just within sight again.

"Okay," Angel says, slightly breathless. "I'll...I'll leave Hyperion. I wanna come with you guys."

"Yay!" Gaige claps delightedly. "After we've had some R&R, we'll put together a strike team, and pull your no-doubt atrophied and emaciated ass out of Hyperion HQ!"

Angel seems pained, all of a sudden. "Ummm...there's just one problem..."

Gaige blinks. "What?"

"Well, in order to take control of Hyperion once more, I had to expose myself to eridium again." Angel fidgets uncomfortably. "I...I'm..."

A girl who hacked off her own arm is not going to judge a woman who intentionally exposed herself to substance addiction. "Oh, yeah!" Gaige says, unexpectedly upbeat. "Umm...actually, Lilith says she may have some kind of solution to that...I didn't really understand what she meant, but...yeah. You'll just have to wait until she gets here. She can tell you."

"Oh," Angel says, clearly uncertain about this. "Okay." For the life of her, she can't imagine what Lilith has in mind.

A big yawn comes, and Gaige doesn't bother trying to conceal it. "Need to get some shut-eye, Angel," she says. "Six weeks on that shuttle – eeesh! Umm...we're probably gonna need to crash for a few days before we can come get you."

Angel gives a warm smile. "Don't worry," she says. "Make sure you get some good rest."

Gaige sniggers evilly. "Hee hee! Oh, I'll be getting good rest, tonight. Mordecai, Brick, Axton and Salvador probably won't, ha ha!"

"Oh, I freed them several hours ago," Angel says, matter-of-factly.

"What?" Gaige says, eyes bulging.

"Yeah." Angel stares blankly at her, as though it's the most obvious thing in the world. "Hyperion Corporation has considerable influence upon the police force of this world."

"Hyperion can just have prisoners released, just like that?" It takes a moment for this to sink in, and then Gaige's face wrinkles with disgust. "Ugh! The police aren't supposed to serve corporations! They're supposed to serve the people!"

"Smash the system!" Angel exclaims, quick as a flash.

"I know, right?"