Chapter Text
The chest inside the Vault opened.
The room filled with a purple glow. Rhys saw alien machinery before he gave a helpless glance up at Fiona; she looked just as confused as he felt.
"What is it?" said Fiona.
Rhys shrugged. "I dunno. Some kind of machine." Fiona started to reach for it and Rhys stepped in front of her. "Hey, don't touch it," he said. "We don't know what it does."
"Relax," said Fiona, reaching for the chest again. "We'll never find out if we don't mess with it."
As Fiona pushed past him, Rhys lost his balance and stumbled into the chest. Fiona caught him at the same time as his metal hand flew out to catch himself. His hand pushed something down with a loud 'click.'
Fiona and Rhys only had time to exchange a worried glance before the purple light intensified. It was so bright Rhys had to close his eyes. He grabbed at Fiona with his human arm and raised the metal one to shield them both as the machinery began to whir, louder and louder until it reached a fever pitch.
Then all at once it stopped. Rhys opened his eyes and couldn't understand what he saw. Elpis. He recognized a familiar view from a familiar set of windows that now only should have existed in his nightmares, when the chair he was apparently sitting in was violently spun around.
Rhys’s heart stopped. He heard himself scream, but didn't feel like it was himself making the sound. His every instinct demanded he get away, but he was grabbed by the throat before he could go anywhere. Rhys choked as he was slammed backwards into the chair, tears springing to his eyes. The dopamine injectors kicked in as Jack cut off his air supply, making it all feel syrupy and dreamlike. Rhys felt like it was happening to someone else, far away from him, but his conscious mind knew it was real.
Handsome Jack was standing over Rhys.
One minute, Fiona was standing in the Vault of the Traveler with Rhys. The purple light was blinding, then, and, as real as waking up from a dream, she was squinting into the hot sun.
At first she thought the Vault had disappeared and deposited them back in the Pandoran desert. But as she looked to see if Rhys was okay, she realized she was alone, and then she realized she was not at all in the same spot where the Vault had opened. She was definitely still on Pandora, but nowhere Fiona knew.
Until she did recognize it. She heard the whistle of a freight train and turned around to see the train station at the end of the street. A sign over the station announced her location loud and clear: This was the famous city of Lynchwood.
“Shit,” Fiona muttered. The Vault had screwed her over.
Of course Fiona had heard of Lynchwood. Every outlaw on Pandora knew about Lynchwood—that is, knew to stay away if they had any sort of self-preservation. In its heyday, the town of Lynchwood had been ruled by its Sheriff, Nisha Kadam, with an iron fist. Nisha the Lawbringer was notorious for her cruelty and sadism and she didn't look kindly upon those who broke her laws. It wasn't exactly a great place—the stories were more fitting for a horror movie than a western—and Felix had been smart enough to keep Sasha and Fiona far away from Lynchwood.
But Nisha had been killed almost two years ago by Vault Hunters, one of the many Hyperion-backed killers defeated during the downfall of Handsome Jack. Lynchwood was only dangerous because of Nisha. How much trouble could Fiona be in if Nisha wasn't here?
It didn't look like a ghost town, though. It looked as pristine as it must have two years ago, down to the Hyperion logo plastered over every piece of tech. Maybe the townsfolk kept it in good shape even without Hyperion, Fiona thought, or maybe two years wasn't enough time for a town to completely fall apart. There were so many perfectly reasonable explanations to why the town of Lynchwood looked straight out of Hyperion’s reign.
But there wasn't any perfectly reasonable explanation for the woman Fiona spotted exiting Lynchwood Station. Fiona didn't know what Nisha looked like, not really, but the star-shaped badge on her lapel gleaming in the bright sun could only belong to one person, and there it was emblazoned across the metal and across the matching star on her hat: the Sheriff of Lynchwood.
Shit. The Vault had really screwed her over. Fiona threw herself behind the nearest available cover, an old water trough. She guessed it was for authenticity, with the whole Wild West thing Lynchwood was doing, but Fiona couldn't imagine people took a lot of horses through here. She curled up on her side, hiding her body behind the trough, and pushed herself up slightly so she could peek over the edge.
She could see Nisha walking down the street. She was a tall, dark woman with a bright fuschia cowboy hat. It hid her face mostly in shadow, so Fiona couldn't make it out under the harsh shadows from the bright sun. But she had heard of Nisha’s proclivity for hurting animals, and the woman had a massive skag on a chain following behind her reluctantly. Too slow for Nisha, because she yanked it out of the station with a weird amount of aggression. This had to be her.
Nisha and the skag were coming up on Fiona's hiding spot. She lowered herself back down, trying to make herself as small as possible until they were past. She could hear the skag sniffing loudly. The sound made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
Stay over there, she thought. Good boy. She tucked herself as far under the water trough as she could get. Her new jacket was getting filthy.
But Nisha stopped walking down the street. Of course she did, nothing good could ever happen to Fiona. Fiona could hear the steady click of her cowboy boots until she couldn't anymore. It wasn't hard to tell from the proximity of the sniffing where Nisha had stopped.
“What do you smell, girl?” A tough, feminine voice spoke that could only be Nisha. Shit! The stupid skag was gonna sniff Fiona out! She had squeezed herself most of the way under the water trough, but Nisha would see her if she looked far enough over it.
“Oh, what, you thirsty?” Nisha laughed. It was a surprisingly light sound, contrasted against the stories Fiona had heard of her. “Too bad.”
Fiona could hear the pitiful sound the skag made as Nisha yanked it along. She let out the breath she was holding as the click of the cowboy boots returned for another blessed few steps, before they stopped again.
Just go! Fiona thought, gripping her hat and pulling it on tighter, as if it would protect her from the crazed maniac only steps away from her hiding place. She could hear what sounded like Nisha rummaging around in her coat pocket and then the beep of an ECHO being answered.
“Yes, Jack?” Nisha's voice sounded tired, but fond, like he called often. “Yeah, Jack, I'm fine. What, did you get paranoid or something?”
Jack? Like Handsome Jack? So it wasn't just Nisha who was alive, but Handsome Jack, too. The Vault of the Traveler had sent her back in time. This had to be all Rhys’s fault. He was the one with the psychosexual relationship with Handsome Jack's ghost! It had nothing to do with her! If Rhys was here in the past with her, Fiona had to find him, so she could kill him.
She had to get out of here while Nisha was distracted on the ECHO. She technically wasn't doing anything wrong. She could just walk away, couldn't she?
As slowly and quietly as she could, Fiona scooched out from under the water trough. She backed up towards a nearby gap in the buildings, craning her neck to make sure Nisha was looking the other way. Once she got between the buildings, could take a side street and disappear.
But then the skag lazily turned around and met her eyes. Fiona froze, then began to shake her head pleadingly. No, no! Bad skag!
With a thunderous bark the skag lunged toward Fiona, yanking Nisha along with it. Nisha shouted at it and Fiona almost disappeared into the gap between the buildings when the skag bit into the back of her jacket and yanked her backwards.
Fiona shrieked, falling over. The skag dragged her a little ways until she was deposited in front of Nisha on the dusty road. The skag let her go and trotted a little ways away, then sat, staring up at Nisha with pleading, wanting eyes. Nisha only graced it with a single glance.
“She's trained to sniff out outlaws,” said Nisha, stepping on Fiona’s chest hard enough to make her wheeze, “So you must have the stink of an outlaw on you.”
“Not me,” said Fiona. “I'm a law-abiding citizen.”
“Quiet.” Nisha went back to the ECHO with one foot still on Fiona's chest. Fiona could hear a frantic voice tinny on the other end of the ECHO, but she couldn't make out the words. “Jesus, calm down, I'm still here. Skag managed to sniff out some girl I've never seen before trying to sneak around Lynchwood. Huh? Who the hell are you talking to?”
“What? It's just some girl.” For the first time, Nisha glanced down at Fiona. Her cold yellow eyes flicked down her body and examined her without a hint of emotion. “Nice body, fancy clothes for a bandit, short brown hair with a red streak.” It was weird to be summed up so succinctly. “And a sexy hat, yeah. What, do you know her?”
Nisha raised her eyebrows at Fiona and shrugged. A brief pause, and then: “No. I'm busy right now, Jack. I have shit to do.” The voice on the other end got loud and Nisha rolled her eyes. “If it'll stop you from having an aneurysm,” she said, stepping off of Fiona's chest and hanging up.
Nisha crouched down in front of the skag. “House,” said Nisha sternly. It whimpered and took off down the street.
She grabbed Fiona by the front of her vest and pulled her to her feet. “Come on,” said Nisha. “I don't know what you did to piss him off, but he's definitely freaking out."
“I haven't done anything to him yet!” protested Fiona. If you didn't count her sister using his billboards for target practice, which he shouldn't, because everyone did that. It was the AI Jack who knew Fiona, not the real one. How exactly had Rhys managed to screw them over now? “Why does he know who I am?”
“Beats me. I don't know who you are.” That was probably a good thing, but the utter lack of recognition was a little bit insulting. Wasn’t Nisha the Lawbringer supposed to know every outlaw in Pandora? Fiona had done crimes. “Come on, hat girl.”
“I'm not hat girl,” said Fiona, trying to push her away. “You're hat girl!”
“Jack likes girls with hats,” said Nisha, bodily pulling Fiona over towards a fast travel machine like Fiona’s struggling didn't even register. “Maybe he wants you for something fun.”
“I doubt it,” muttered Fiona sullenly, tripping slightly as she tried to keep pace with the taller woman.
“Fun for me, sweetheart,” said Nisha, looking down at her with a condescending smile. “I don't mean for you.”
“Whose rent boy is this?” said Handsome Jack. “Get the hell out of my chair!”
Jack threw Rhys onto the ground. Rhys landed hard on the stairs that led up to the raised podium his desk was centered on. The stair caught Rhys under the chin and he saw white as he once again took a hit to the head. His noggin was sturdy and all, but he was starting to get worried about the possibility of a TBI.
It would maybe explain how the fuck he was on Helios with Handsome Jack—the physical, alive Handsome Jack, a Handsome Jack with a body who was currently beating the shit out of Rhys. Rhys could put the pieces together quickly; the Vault of the Traveler had done this. It traveled in more ways than one. But knowing the why didn't make it any less horrifying as it dawned on Rhys what he had brought with him in his breast pocket.
Jack’s AI. Rhys had been a coward, and hadn't crushed it. All because of Rhys's weakness, his selfish desire to keep a single piece of Jack with him no matter how much he knew he shouldn't, he had doomed everyone. When this Jack got his hands on the AI, there's no way they wouldn't fucking talk.
Rhys tried very hard not to look at the slight bulge in the breast pocket of his suit where the remains of the ECHO-eye were wrapped in a silk handkerchief. If he acted too protective of it Jack would know something was up. Rhys was apparently so busy worrying about not drawing attention to the ECHO-eye that he didn't realize the past Jack was talking to him until he smacked him upside the head.
“Hey, idiot! Pay attention when I'm talking to you!” Jack kicked him in the gut, which hurt tremendously, but Jack was talking to him again and Rhys struggled to listen before Jack had to repeat it a third time.
“One last time before I snap that scrawny little neck—and don't test me, ‘cause the way that you leave your collar open like that, it's like you're just begging for me to wrap my hands around it.” As if to illustrate his point, Jack grabbed Rhys by the throat again, picking him up and throwing him into the desk. Papers went flying everywhere as Rhys hit it, hard, and then slid to the ground. “What the hell are you doing in here, and how the hell did you get in?”
Rhys focused in on the present, which was also, unfortunately, the past. There was nothing he could say to get himself out of this. He thought of pretending to be an obsessed fan, or whatever the opposite of a corporate assassin was, but there was no lie Rhys could think of that wouldn't lead to him being shot. He couldn't believe this. He managed to open a Vault and this was his reward?
“I didn't—mean to come here,” was what came out of his mouth. He knew it wasn't good enough even before he finished speaking, but it was too late. “It was an accident, I swear. I-I just want to get as far away from here as possible right now, believe me.”
“An accident?” Jack laughed as he moved in close to Rhys, caging him in with his body. “How the hell do you accidentally end up in the most protected office in the six galaxies? Try again, pumpkin.”
“There was….” Rhys couldn't tell Jack about the Vault. Handsome Jack could not get his hands on ancient alien time travel technology. But there was no way Rhys was getting out of this alive unless Jack got something out of it. He had to try to mitigate the damage as much as possible. “E-experimental technology involved…”
“Uh-huh. Listen, do you think I'm stupid, you little twerp?” Jack pushed Rhys onto the ground. He stepped on Rhys’s face, digging the sole of his shoe hard into his cheek. Rhys caught a glimpse of himself in the dark window that overlooked them, with red lines across his cheek in the pattern of Jack's sneaker treads. “Because you must think I'm fucking stupid if that's your goddamn excuse. Your experimental technology got you into this office? All right, cough up some proof, pretty boy.”
“I can't,” Rhys’s heart pounded as it took hold of him that he was going to die, and he began to panic and words came out before he could think, “Because Handsome Jack can't be trusted with the kind of information I have, a-and—Look, if you're gonna kill me, just do it now! I’m not gonna tell you either way!”
“Sooo…” Jack nudged Rhys's face with his foot until he bared the unmarked side, and carefully pressed matching marks into the other side of his face. “So what you're saying is it’s worth torturing the information out of you.” Jack kicked Rhys forward, toward the window. Elpis gazed down at Rhys unflinchingly. “I mean, yeah, no, that's cool, I'm fine with that. There's no way I'd rather spend my day than throwing on some T-Swift and torturing the light and hope out of some dumb little twink’s eyes. Seriously, you're doing me a favor, kiddo, it'll be a blast.” Jack walked over to where he threw Rhys and crouched next to him, grinning down at him. “For me. Not so much for you.”
“Torture doesn't work, you know,” said Rhys weakly. “There have been studies.”
“Then I guess you'll be fine, huh, princess?” said Jack, grabbing him by the back of his jacket. As he yanked Rhys to his feet, the ECHO-eye in Rhys's breast pocket slipped out of the handkerchief and clattered to the floor.
“No!” Rhys grabbed for it, throwing his whole body on the ground in a desperate attempt to catch it. His flesh hand wrapped around it, but then Jack grabbed his wrist and squeezed hard.
“What's this?” said Jack, twisting Rhys’s wrist. “Because you were talking about experimental technology, and if you don't want me to have it, I think I should have it.”
“No! Let go!” But Jack was stronger than Rhys. No matter how hard Rhys tried to hang on, Jack pried his hand open.
And the ECHO-eye fell into his outstretched palm.
Rhys wasn't expecting anything to happen, at least not yet, but nothing could go right for him. There was a great surge of Vault energy as Jack made contact with AI Jack. Rhys was thrown backwards into the desk by the sheer force of the energy that exploded out from them. The ECHO-eye disappeared in a flash of purple light and Jack took his mask off, right there in front of Rhys. He dropped it and it clattered on the tile floor and Jack collapsed with it, falling to the ground with his head in his hands.
Rhys pulled himself as upright as he could manage on the desk, his eyes glued to Jack. Purple light was seeped out through Jack’s fingers, glaring across the window to Elpis. Jack yelled, then began to laugh, slowly at first and then reaching a maniacal pitch. He raised his head and Rhys saw a scar on Jack's face, a scar in the shape of a Vault symbol Rhys hadn't even known was there until he saw it now, effused with the light of the Vault.
“Oh, Rhysie,” said Jack, and he laughed. Rhys didn't. He sat there drenched with cold sweat, panic bubbling up in his throat. Jack shouldn't know Rhys's name. “Oh, Rhysie, look what you have done!”
He laughed again, harder, and staggered to his feet, taking a lurching step toward Rhys as the violet Vault symbol seared itself into Rhys's vision. Rhys flinched as Jack moved for him.
“You beautiful little idiot,” said Jack in a rasp, his shaking hands clasping Rhys's pale face. The light of the Vault went out and Jack's mismatched eyes were clear and wide with knowledge. “You gave me a second chance.”
Then Jack kissed him, fisting his hand in Rhys's hair and craning his head back to give Jack deeper access. He threw Rhys into the chair and forced his wrists down against the armrests. Rhys struggled, of course he did, but the handcuffs snapped into place and Rhys was trapped.
“Jack—” he started to say, but Jack shoved a piece of fabric into his mouth.
“We'll talk in a minute, cupcake,” said Jack with the same familiar tone of sarcastic affection Rhys knew so well, tying the gag around Rhys's mouth and then kneeling down to put his mask back on. “I saw everything. I have to check on some things first.”
He yanked his ECHO out of his pocket and paced agitatedly around Rhys's chair. “Angel?” The word came out thick with fear, and Jack tried hard to adjust his tone with his next words, clearly going for casual this time. “Angel. Hey, sweetie, are you okay? Oh, you are. Good. Good.” His voice broke. Evidently Angel thought he was acting weird, because the next thing Jack said was, “Nothing, Angel, honey. Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about. Daddy will take care of everything.”
Jack’s pacing took him behind Rhys's chair and he reached out to touch Rhys absently, his fingers twining through Rhys's hair. “No, baby. Don't worry about the Vault Hunters anymore. I don't want you talking to them unless I tell you, understand?” Jack's hand tightened in Rhys’s hair. “That's enough. Do as you’re told so Daddy can keep you safe, okay, Angel? Now listen to me. Nothing's ever gonna hurt you, alright? I promise.”
Rhys was scared to look at Jack's face. He'd never seen him look so vulnerable before. She killed herself, he remembered Jack saying.
You gave me a second chance, he said, and Rhys felt cold and numb despite the dopamine injectors, a ringing in his ears. Did he just stumble his way into dooming Pandora?
“I love you, kiddo. I'll talk to you later.”
Another phone call, this one brief. “I want the security forces around the bunker tripled. Now. Go!”
He paced away from Rhys, turning his back toward him as he made another call. “Nisha. It's Jack. How are you?” He sounded shakier than Rhys had ever heard him.
“No, no, I'm fine. I'm great. I'm better than great, actually, I’m—” There was a loud barking sound even Rhys could hear over the ECHO, and then some shouting. “Nisha,” he said, in a tone of carefully controlled annoyance, “I am talking to you.”
Another brief pause. “A girl? Wait.” Jack whipped around. “Rhys—who else was with you in the Vault?” Rhys couldn't respond, because he was gagged. But Jack was on the right track—he couldn't find Fiona. Nisha must have responded first, though, because Jack's attention snapped back to the ECHO. “Yeah? And a sexy hat?”
Fuck. If both of them were captured, they'd never be able to warn the Crimson Raiders. Everything was falling apart like a rapidly collapsing house of cards.
“Good. Come up to Helios, Nisha. Bring her with you.”
Jack frowned. “I don't care what irrelevant shit you have taking up your time in Lynchwood right now,” he said, a muscle in his temple jumping. “I am trying to save your life! Come to Helios! Now!”
“Good!” shouted Jack into the ECHO, and hung up. “Now! Rhys.” He turned to Rhys with eyes wide, rubbing his hands. Rhys was reminded of that goblin in that movie, manic over the ring. “Rhysie, Rhysie, Rhysie. Oh, am I glad to see your beautiful, dweeby little face. You fixed everything for me, cupcake. Absolutely everything.”
He pressed a button and the restraints on the chair flew open, but no sooner had Rhys’s hands moved than Jack was grabbing him by both wrists and dragging him toward a towering bookshelf. He held onto Rhys's wrist with one hand and grabbed a book from the shelf with the other. He flipped it open to reveal a keypad and input a code, then jammed it back on the shelf. While he was doing that, Rhys pulled down the gag.
The bookshelf opened to reveal a reinforced door covered with locks. Still holding onto Rhys's wrist, he input security checks until the door swung open. The heavy, steel door revealed a well-furnished room almost like a hotel room, except for the boxes marked “SUPPLIES” stacked everywhere.
“I need you, Nisha, and your little girlfriend in the panic room ASAP. Nisha can watch you, it'll keep her safe and you under control.”
Jack yanked Rhys forward by his wrist, as if suddenly remembering something. “Were any of your other little friends in the Vault with you, huh? Answer me!”
“No,” said Rhys truthfully, because there was no point in lying. “It was just me and Fiona.”
“Great,” said Jack, and he laughed. “Great,” he repeated. He shoved Rhys into the panic room’s door. Rhys tried to cling to the doorframe, but Jack easily overpowered him. Jack manhandled him into the door and knelt in front of him, grabbing Rhys's face again.
“Everything is going to go so much better this time, Rhysie,” he said, petting Rhys's face frantically. “I'm gonna fix everything. This time I'll make sure I win.”
“No,” said Rhys, turning away and trying to shake Jack's hands off of him. “You already lost once. You'll lose again.”
Jack laughed. “Yes,” he said, grinning, grabbing Rhys's chin to turn his face toward him. “And if I don't, I'll open that Vault and go back as many times as it takes until I do.”