8Happy New Years everybody. This was a one-shot I absolutely could not get out of my head. Angel and Not-Jack are such fantastic characters that I can;t believe never got the chance to meet in the games. There where be some spoilers for the Borderlands 2 and the Pre-sequel.
Handsome Fools Rush In
Timothy Lawrence fidgeted in his chair, unable to get comfortable. It was Saturday and he had been looking forward to one or two days where his life wasn't in constant mortal danger. Unluckily for him his boss, the man currently pacing and muttering to himself, had different plans.
Handsome Jack, the President of the Hyperion Corporation and most powerful man on and over Pandora. The man was a legend, and quite possibly the scariest person Timothy had ever met. Which was saying a lot considering he had gone inside Pandora's moon of Elpis and fought some sort of ancient alien super monster. When he spoke, people listened, and then maybe died.
"Keep it together Timmy, just got to keep it together," he whispered before wincing. He hated the fact that he kept forgetting that his name was Jack, it had been for a while. He was pretty sure if the real one ever found out he forgot sometimes he'd…god make a skin suit out of him or something? His boss had gotten a bit completely insane after the whole face scarring and being betrayed by all his friends and loved ones on Elpis debacle.
To make matters worse, after the scarring Jack had made it so that all his doubles would have to wear masks just like he did. Timothy had been thankful they didn't need to scar their faces the same way too, but he hated the way the mask felt. It was hot, shifted on his face, and always had a funky smell. He wondered if the other doubles had the same problems. He wondered what the other doubles were like. Panic surged through him. Oh god, what if they were better than him? Was that what he was here? Was he getting fired, thrown out some airlock into space? His thoughts were interrupted when a pair of fingers snapped in front of him.
"Hey, you with me cupcake? Handsome Jack said, smiling but his eyes were narrowed. Handsome Jack hated being ignored. Timothy had seen corpse piles full of people who could attest to that.
"Um, uh, y-y-yes sir, I mean Jack, I mean President, I mean Handsome Jack," Timothy stuttered out.
Jack just laughed and walked around the seat, his hands gripping Timothy's shoulders. "Relax there Jacky. A face that Handsome should never look worried," the grip tightened. Timothy held back a whimper as it became painful and Jack leaned down to whisper in his ear, "ever, so smile."
Timothy had to force his lips to curve and managed a pained smile. He felt instant relief as Jack let go of his shoulders and nearly sagged in his seat. 'See, there you go, much better. Now, I called you here for a reason. Can you guess what it is my Handsome friend?"
"N-no," Timothy coughed, he could do this, he had to do this. "I mean," he winced as his voice cracked, "nope. No clue, other than the obvious chance to waste my time."
Jack smiled at the words. "Awesome, that's what I'm talking about. Now you sound like Jack." He took a seat in his large yellow CEO chair. "Look Jacky, I have a mission for you. One that only you can handle."
That didn't sound good. "M-me? I thought you had the others for missions and stuff. I thought my job was to stick around and look pretty"
Jack just laughed. "And you are doing a great job of that. Yeah, the others are out there right now handling my biz. I'm sure you know all about that."
Timothy did know. The others Jack had hired had either gone their separate ways or found new places in Hyperion's new regime. Nisha and Jack had gotten together, she was on Pandora that very moment running Lynchwood for him. Good for them, better for him since when they focused their attention on each other they would ignore Timothy completely.
Wilhelm was more machine than person at this point. He had gotten so into the cyber implants that Timothy couldn't tell where the man began, and the machine ended. Strangely enough the guy was about as talkative as he had always been. He was way better at killing now though.
Athena and Claptrap where…gone. One had disappeared after Jacks rise, the other Jack had shot in cold blood a few feet from where he sat at that very moment. He didn't like to think about them. He liked to think even less of Miss Hammerlock. The ice queen had run off as soon as she had gotten bored. The only person stuck in place was him, always him.
"I heard about what they're doing now."
"Cool, so what your doing now is heading down to Pandora for a very special mission. One I can only trust you with."
Oh, that sounded bad. So very, very bad. "Um, cool, why is that?"
"Cause the others are valuable, and I'd hesitate doing this to the them," Jack said as he pressed a button on his desk. "Not with you though"
Timothy felt the mask tighten and fear gripped his body. "What is this, what are you doing?" He pulled at the edges of the mask, but it was practically seamless at this point.
"Sticking that sucker on you tight," Jack said with a smirk. "I wouldn't actually try to pull it off. The bomb in there has a pretty high yield and I just mopped the brains of the last guy off my floor."
"Why are you doing this? I've never-I wouldn't betray you!"
"I know that, pumpkin. Trust me, this isn't personal or anything, just insurance for the little task I have for you. Now, shut up and listen." The chill in his tone caused Timothy to stop tearing at the mask. Somehow Jack seemed to instantly become more dangerous than the bomb literally strapped to his face.
Jack smiled at the compliance. "Good, now I have a job for you. This," he said flipping his computer screen over to Timothy, "is my daughter, Angel."
The screen showed a small girl. She had a happy smile, electric blue eyes and raven black hair. It took Timothy a few moments to process the information. "You have a daughter? Since when?"
"Uh, awhile now, keep up Jacky. Now here's where I really need you to pay attention." Jack typed in some commands and Timothy watched some images pop up. He nearly gagged, they were horrific. Some people who looked like scientists running and screaming, gore, electrocutions, and the same small girl in the center of all of it. "She's a siren."
Timothy nearly fainted. "A s-s-s-siren? Like one of the most powerful beings in galaxy type of siren?"
Jack gave a weak smile as he thankfully waved away the images. "Yeah, that kind. For her own protection I've had to put her in a special defense bunker. She's safe, but far away." He took on a wistful look, it was as close to human as Timothy had ever seen him. It was replaced by a wolfish smile. "Which is exactly where you come in, Jacky. "You see, I need my baby girl to know her dad to know that he's looking out for her. Otherwise she may get some bad ideas, fall in with the bad crowd, normal teenage shit, you know how it is."
"So, you're going to go visit her?"
"What, me? No, I am way to busy up here to that. You on the other hand…"
Oh crap. "But I'm not her dad, you are."
"Actually, pumpkin, you are me. You look like me, you act like me, do you see where I'm going with this? It's perfect!"
Timothy's head was spinning. "Won't she tell that I'm not you…like instantly?"
Jack just clicked his tongue. "Jacky, so little faith in yourself. You've been me long enough to get it down. And if you don't, well there are other Jacks to give it a go. So your shuttle to Thousand Cuts leaves in let's say…twenty minutes?" he tapped some commands into his computer. "Yeah, twenty minutes."
Oh god, he was going to die. This sucked so much. But when someone faces their inevitable death, they often get a surge of last minute bravery. 'What if I say no?"
"I blow your head right off your shoulders and call in the next guy," Jack said without looking away from his computer screen. "Any other stupid ass questions?" Timothy suddenly found his courage had run dry as he let out a small squeak. "No? Get going then. Oh, and if you tell anyone about anything I just told you," he made and explosion motion with his hands.
Timothy felt like he was in a daze. He barely registered getting in the shuttle, the trip to Pandora, the ride to Thousand Cuts, or his arrival at the bunker. It didn't help that he hadn't seen a single other living person the entire trip. It had been all robots from the station, Jack had really kept security tight. Standing in front of the triple locked doors leading inside the bunker Timothy couldn't help but gulp.
He was so dead.
Alright, he knew what he had to do. Be Jack, be Jack, be Jack, c'mon he could do this. He walked through the multi-layered security. He put a swagger in his step, and grew more confident with each step. Yeah, yeah, he wasn't just Timothy Lawrence, he was Handsome Jack. He had been Jack before Jack had even been Handsome Jack. He had this in the bag.
He stepped into high tech looking room and looked around before letting out a loud shriek as the floor began to move. He composed himself and dusted himself off when he realized it was just another elevator. When it reached the bottom, he found himself in front of two massive steel doors. As he walked forward they opened p with a slow, loud grind and he entered a large circular room.
It all looked so high tech and complicated Timothy count make heads or tails of it. He realized he needed to focus. Angel was somewhere around there, and he needed to meet with her. It shouldn't be to hard.
"Mr. Lawrence?"
Timothy shrieked as he fell backwards over a tube and banged his head on the ground. His vision swam as he groaned out in in pain. "Ow."
When he could finally see straight he found a young woman looking over him. She was pale, with messy brown black hair and electric blue eyes…oh. "Angel?"
She just gave him an odd look. "Uh, yeah. Sorry for startling you. I just don't get visitors…. ever."
Timothy coughed as he stood up and brushed himself off. He could salvage this, he knew he could. "Me, startled? No way, it's just been awhile since I've seen you, pumpkin. You've gotten so big!" That sounded like something a good parent would say. Timothy's parents used to say stuff like that all the time. Before he got shipped halfway across the galaxy. He opened his arms. "What, no hug for your dear old dad?" He was totally nailing this.
She just gave him a confused look. "Um, right, Mr. Lawrence you do know I helped Jack hire you, right? I helped hire all his doubles. I can tell you all apart right down to your heartbeats."
Oh crap. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap oh crap. "I, um, didn't know that actually." Timothy was screwed. Ten seconds in and he had already sighed his death certificate. It must have been some sort of record. He did the only thing that came to mind. He sank to his knees and started begging. "Please, please, oh please, do not tell your dad about his!"
He looked up to see Angel looking down at him confused. "Whoa, whoa, calm down. What are talking about? What are you even doing here? No one ever comes here."
Timothy explained his new job. Every time he looked though it seemed like Angel had become sadder and sadder. Poor girl, he couldn't imagine being Handsome Jack's kid. He was pretending to be Handsome Jack and he thought she had it worse. When he was done telling the story she just huffed and began to pace while she muttered to herself. Huh, like father like daughter.
"I cannot believe-arrogant self-entitled-I just want to-ugh!" She screamed in frustration causing the lights in the room to flicker. Timothy suddenly had flashbacks to the photos he had seen back in Jack's office. A chill went up is spine as he realized he was dealing with a siren. He'd seen what sirens could do.
He thought maybe he could comfort her…away from murdering him. "Hey, hey, it's alright." He put his hands gently on her shoulders and she gasped before jumping backwards. Timothy raised his hands up and took a few steps." Whoa, okay I get it, no touching. Crystal clear."
Angel looked embarrassed. "Sorry, it's just…I haven't had any physical contact with anyone for…years." Wow, that was super sad.
There was an awkward beat of silence before Angel spoke up again. "I can tell Jack that I was glad he dropped by. Hopefully, that will be enough to convince him not to kill you."
Relief completely flooded through Timothy and he dropped to the floor and hugged her leg. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you." As he let go and stood up he saw that she looked like she was holding back a laugh.
"No problem, thanks for coming by. The door back there leads back to the bunkers entrance. Executing phase shift."
There was a loud electric sound and the doors behind Timothy opened. He gave Angel two thumbs up before practically running to the opening. But just as he reached the exit he paused. Looking back, he saw the girl floating around, looking miserable. He knew what it felt like to be completely isolated, to be alone. It was how he felt on Helios every day.
He stepped away from the door and walked back over to Angel. When she turned around she looked surprised to see that he hadn't left yet. Timothy fidgeted where he stood and looked around bashfully. "Hey, um, I mean I don't have to leave like right this moment. Do you want to …hang out?"
She seemed to pause, looking like she was processing he words. "You want to hang out with me?"
"Yeah, sure. I mean if you don't want to its totally fine."
"No, no," she said waving her hands frantically. "I've just never had anyone visit to just hang out before. This is new, for me I mean, not for you."
Oh good, she was just as bad as he was at this. "So…what do you do for fun around here?"
Soon they were sitting around a digi-structed board of the Game of Life, Pandora edition. Timothy spun for his number and moved his technical a few spaces forward before picking up a card. "Your town is burned down, and bandits kill your wife and children. Remove those pegs from your vehicle. You know I don't remember this game being so violent."
Angel just shrugged as she spun for her number. "Hyperion feels the need to be as accurate as possible to Pandora life." She moved her technical and pulled a card. "Handsome Jack has generously invited you to live in the golden city of Opportunity. Erase all your loans and pick out any amount of money to take from the bank, sweet."
Timothy frowned at the change and spun again. "Hey, you ever been there? To Opportunity I mean." He picked up another card, apparently Marcus Munitions sold him bad merchandise and he lost all his money.
"No," Angel said as she pulled a card stating that she would receive a massive check from Hyperion every space. "I haven't been outside this room in years. I know what it looks like though. Executing phase shift."
Suddenly the room changed. It became a holographic dome of changing colors before shapes started to form around them. Timothy could only watch in awe as the room around them became a perfect copy of Opportunity. Complete with sunny sky and warm air. "Wow."
Angel just shrugged again as she looked around. "I know what every place in Pandora looks like. Hyperion satellites keeps me updated on everything."
"Even people?"
"Sure, I can tell you what everyone in Sanctuary is doing right now."
The room suddenly changed, and Timothy was suddenly standing in Sanctuary. He had never actually been there, but he knew of it. People surrounded him and walked around minding their daily business. A few gunshots down the street marked it an average day on Pandora. The world shifted, and Timothy stood next to Angel as they visited the different places around town. "This is so cool."
Angel gave him a small smile. "Yeah, I guess so." Her eyes suddenly furrowed. "Hold on, I need to check on something." The world shifted, and Timothy suddenly found himself at Sanctuary's entrance. He stood there face to face with six brand new people.
"Um, Angel, who are these guys?" He knew that they weren't actually there but the group made him nervous anyway.
"These are the new vault hunters on Pandora," Angel said simply, and Timothy gulped. "Jack has had me following them since he blew up their train in the southern shelf. Their apart of some kind of master plan of his to destroy sanctuary."
"Sounds like Jack." He couldn't imagine pissing off a group of people like this on purpose. A military man, a girl with a robot arm, what was clearly two Pandora natives, some kind of ninja-robot man, and… "Is that another siren?"
"Yep," Angel said popping the 'p'. "her name is Maya. She's pretty strong."
"Jeez, three sirens on Pandora at once."
"Yeah, I wish I could meet them." Angel suddenly began sounding sad again. It made Timothy feel guilty for bringing the issue up. He looked around and had an idea.
"Hey, you want to play bunkers and badasses, Angel edition with me?"
She looked at him confused and before long they were traversing dungeons and fighting monsters Angel made with the help of her room. Timothy was an all-powerful wizard while Angel was the techno witch. They played around in the room for days, constantly thinking of new adventures to create and go on. Sometimes Timothy was the enemy and sometimes they worked together to fight the nefarious bandit lords, but he made sure that she never took the villain role. It just didn't feel right.
Handsome Jack checked in one day while they were styling each other's hair. Angel had decided to go for a side shave while Timothy had opted for dreadlocks. They were finishing his new style when the room began to blink.
"Crap it's jack," Angel said as she stood up.
'What do we do?" Timothy suddenly felt the weight of his face on him. If Jack was in anyway displeased it would mean that there would be a very large boom soon.
"Stay down, I have this." Timothy hesitated before nodding. Angel was way more capable than he was, he would trust her. He ducked under a digi-structed table and Angel answered the call.
Jack's voice blared out from speakers around the room. "Sweetie, how're you? Good, I'm guessing from…is that hairstyle? It looks…good."
"Um, thanks Jack, why are you calling?"
"Can't a dad call in to say hi to his little girl? What's so wrong with that?"
"That's fine, but you just left the room like a second ago to go to the bathroom."
There was a pause. "Did I?" The words came out in a cool growl.
"Yeah, you've been here for like a week. It's been really nice having you around."
"Right," Jack said in faux surprise, "right, right, I have. And I am just having a blast hanging out with you sweetie. I just called because I was…. just missing you so much. Yeah that's right. I'll be right back in but I also wanted to check in on how our little project is going."
"It's going well, Jack. The vault hunters are about to deliver the booby-trapped core."
"Great, that's great sweetie. Well as soon it's plugged in send out the signal, then we can wipe these bandit assholes straight off the face of Pandora. Doesn't that sound fun? I'm sure it does, talk to you soon baby."
Jack hung up and Timothy got out from underneath the table. "Wow, I can't believe that worked." He must really want this plan of his to work if he thought Timothy had pulled it off. He was about to joke about it with Angel when he heard shaky breathing.
He saw that Angel's entire body was shaking and she looked like she was holding back sobs. Timothy panicked, she had always gotten sad at points, but he had never actually seen her shed any tears. His mind whirred into action and he did the only thing he could think about doing. He got in close and wrapped her in a hug. "Um, there there."
He was surprised when she hugged back and cried into his shirt. He patted her on the back awkwardly and they just stayed like that for a few minutes. She sniffed as she spoke in a muffled voice through his clothing. "If-if I did something bad, something really bad, would you still want to be near me? Would you still like me if I was a bad person?"
Man, what a question. What even was a good person anymore? The best people he knew all had kill counts. He was sure he wasn't a good person, not anymore. He'd been there when innocent people had died, and done nothing. He'd hurt a few innocents himself, he could still remember what happened to Felicity.
"I'm not perfect either, Angel," Timothy said as Angel broke from the hug and he stepped back. "I have done so many bad things. Like an absurdly large number of bad things, you would not believe how many people I have killed or ruined for your dad."
Angel looked away, shame in her eyes. "How did you get over it, how do you live with yourself?"
Timothy had to think about it, how did he live with himself? "I guess, I sort of just keep remembering that I didn't do all that stuff alone." He was a little comforted by the fact that Nisha and Wilhelm were way worse than he was. Athena and Claptrap had to do bad things too, he wasn't alone in feeling bad.
"But I am alone," Angel said bitterly. "I tricked these people, and now I'm about to stab them in the back. That's all on me."
Well it was all on Jack, clearly. But Timothy knew that the whole thing with her dad would take a lot of convincing and probably years of therapy. So, he decided to do what he could do right then and there. He held out his hand.
Angel just stared at it in confusion. "What are you doing?"
"Um, holding out my hand?"
"Why?"
"So that you can hold it, we can do this horrible thing together, that way it can be both our faults."
She looked so skeptical that Timothy could only fidget as she looked at him. "How does that work?"
Crap, he didn't think this far ahead. "Uh, well, look at it this way. Doing nothing is the same as committing the crime, right?"
"I guess…"
"So, me not trying to stop you is the same as just letting those people get hurt."
"Stop me? You know the loaders would tear you apart if you tried right? Or Jack would blow your head off with the bomb in your mask."
Timothy just waved off her concerns. "Yeah, but what else is new? People have been trying to kill me ever since I got here. If I help you though, I'm just as guilty."
She looked at the hand, skepticism replaced by fear and sadness. "Are you sure about this?"
She was asking if he wanted another atrocity added to his list. He really didn't, but he knew how much having a friend in moments like these helped. So, he reached his hand out again. Timothy watched as Angel slowly reached over and took it. He almost laughed at the way her shoulders sagged in relief. "Thank you," she said whisper he barely heard. "Executing phase shift."
Suddenly they were back in Sanctuary. They were standing behind the new vault hunters as they were replacing what looked like a power core into the energy tower. Timothy shuddered when he realized that it was the same power core that had been powering Wilhelm. The man was dead just so Jack could set up this trap. His number one enforcer made a pawn. What did that make him? Or Angel? He was never close with the Wilhelm, nobody was, but that didn't make him being gone any less weird.
They put in the core and Timothy felt Angel squeeze his hand. Jack began to speak. "You know, I think it's time I told you that little secret. Angel's working for me."
Angel let out a shuddering breath. "…lowering sanctuary shields, Jack. Executing phase shift." She then lowered the shields around the town.
And then the screaming began.
The explosions came fast and loud, people began dying left and right as the Helios station rained down hellfire on the town. It was horrifying to watch, Timothy wanted to look away but Angel seemed to want to be in the thick of it. She was absorbing the pain that surrounded them, Timothy felt her grip tighten almost painfully as she watched as Jack tore the place apart.
"You shouldn't be looking at this," Timothy muttered. Unfortunately, she heard him.
"So what, I should be ignoring it?"
"No," he said embarrassed, "but it isn't like you could help them? I mean you have to learn to pick your battles you know, help who you can." He had learned that the hard way. You could get into shootout with bandits, but talking back to Jack was a way more sure-fire way to get killed.
"Help who I can…"
Suddenly, there was a flash of light and they were floating over a crater where Sanctuary used to be. "Did-did it explode?"
Angel just looked around incredulously. "No…" The world shifted forward, and they were suddenly at a nearby cliff. The new vault hunters were there, apparently Lilith had teleported them away.
Timothy noticed the way Angel's eyes lit up with determination. "Uh, Angel, what are you doing?"
"Helping where I can. "
Timothy watched as Angel guided the new vault hunters back to Sanctuary. How she convinced those left to trust her again, and how she fed Jack lies to keep the madman happy. Jack seemed to have completely forgotten about him, focusing more on hating the vault hunters. He was especially driven after they killed Nisha in Lynchwood. Timothy couldn't say he would miss her, he'd seen her do things with her whip that still haunted his dreams.
Jack was so focused on the new vault hunters he didn't even notice that Timothy wasn't among the Jack doubles who died in opportunity. It was around that time that Timothy started wondering some stuff himself.
"Uh, Angel."
"Yeah?" She said without looking from the calculations she was running through.
"What's the plan here?"
That got her to pause and look at Timothy. "What do you mean?
"I mean, your leading them here. Helping them, guiding them, why? I don't even think they know you're a person."
Angel paused. "Handsome Jack needs to die, they're going to be the ones to do it. I need to play my part in making sure they reach him to stop the warrior from destroying this world. And any other world."
Right, the warrior, the godlike super monster capable of razing planets. "So, your building to some sort of big team up, right?"
She gave him a weak smile. "Right." She stopped for a few seconds before her smile widened, the sad look in her eyes didn't go away though. "Hey, you want to watch some more movies? I can digi-struct us a theatre and some popcorn."
The next few days consisted of Angel guiding the new vault hunters and hanging out with Timothy. They checked out exotic places, enjoyed spectacles and even reenacted their favorite movie scenes. But none of it was real. He knew it wasn't, none of the food tasted right, and the feeling of wind in his hair or grass under his feet just felt off. He could tell why it sucked living there, it was just a play world Jack had given his daughter while she helped him achieve world conquest.
Timothy noticed Angel had begun to slow down over the course of the last few days. She was eating less, but she was smiling more. They were hanging out on a digi-structed beach eating ice cream and watching the sun go down when she spoke. "Hey, Timothy."
"Yeah, Angel?"
"This has been the best few weeks of my life."
"Same here, it's been great. I can't believe Jack thought that his plan to send me actually worked. I guess I'm a better actor than I thought."
"Yeah that might actual be because of all the edited footage I've been sending him. "
"Oh." That made sense. Plus Jack would probably just like to think that he thought of another brilliant plan that worked.
"Just lies, like his, like this," she said waving her hand and dissipating the world around them.
Timothy frowned as his ice cream disappeared. "I was eating that."
"It wasn't real, none of it is. I just…is it too much to ask for something to be real in my life?"
"…no, not really. I'd hate it if I lived in a hologram."
"Yeah. I, um, things are going to get intense around here soon. The vault hunters are getting close." Yeah, that was obvious. They had been following Angel's instructions to the letter, looking badass while they did it. Timothy was sure they'd be the ones to kill Jack. "So, before everything gets all crazy, I want to give you something."
That was so sweet. "Aw Angel, you shouldn't-what the hell is that?" She looked bashful as she held out a thin cord. It looked like it was made of rope, but as he looked closer it was actually- "Is that hair?"
"Yeah, there's nothing in here I can actually make that will last outside the room. So, I got some of those clippings from when we styled our hair together and fashioned them into a bracelet. Sorry, is that creepy? It's probably super creepy."
It was super creepy, and weird, and gross. But luckily years of acting like Jack under life and death circumstances finally paid off. "It's not creepy at all, I love it. Here put it on me," Timothy said with what sounded like perfect sincerity as he held out his arm. Angel sighed in relief as she wrapped the hair bracelet around his wrist. God, it was itchy, so very, very itchy. "Man, that is…so awesome. Sorry, I didn't get you anything." Maybe a collage of toenails clippings?
"It's no big deal. This is stuff that friends do right?" She suddenly looked away. She acted like she had just said something terrible, Timothy had seen people drop grenades who looked less nervous. Then it hit him, they had never called each other friends before. That sucked.
"Nope," Timothy said as Angel looked sad. He put a firm grip on her shoulder. "This is stuff best friends do."
She looked shell-shocked, before her face split into a radiant smile. The brightest he had ever seen from her. They shared a hug and enjoyed hanging out at a digi-structed arcade for a few hours. Time seemed to pass by instantly, soon they were hearing muffled explosions outside the bunker.
"Jeez," Timothy said as a particularly loud explosion caused dust to trail from the ceiling, they're really coming at this place hard."
Angel grimaced as she went over her screens. "Yeah, they'll be here soon." She suddenly looked sad, sadder than he'd ever seen. "Hey, Timothy."
"Yeah, Angel?"
"It's been a fun ride, hasn't it?"
Oh boy, he did not like where this was going. "Um, Angel, that sound like last words kind of talk. And I have heard a lot of last words."
"Yeah, I am sure you have. I have another gift for you."
"Is it another hair bracelet?"
"No," she giggled, "better than a bracelet." Her hand brushed along his face, and with a soft click he felt his face become lighter. As Angel drew her hand back she was holding his mask. Timothy was speechless. Angel giggled again at his slack jawed look. "I've been working on getting this thing off you for weeks. I just finally cracked Jack's code."
"I-I-I don't know what to say. Thank you."
"It's just something best friends do. I wanted to give one last thing before the end." Timothy felt the terrible feeling come back tenfold. "Hey, be sure and remember me as a good person at the end. Okay?"
"Angel-"
"Executing phase shift."
"Angel, no!"
The world suddenly lurched around Timothy and the room became a hallway. He regained his balance and saw that he was back at Helios. Panic gripped his body as he reactivated the new-u and tried to get back. But access was restricted, and he was locked out. "Shit!" He slammed his foot against the machine drawing terrified looks from surrounding employees. "Shit, shit, shit!"
Timothy thought fast. There was only one place he could do anything. He started sprinting through the halls, people leapt out of the way as he barreled past. He ran all the way up to Jack's office. The scream he heard as he ran through the entrance chilled him to the bone and he looked to see that Jack's focus was on the monitors surrounding him. Jack suddenly teleported away, and Timothy was left lurching forward towards live video of his dead friend.
Angel lay there on the feed, lifeless and surrounded by the vault hunters. Roland was there too, but Timothy couldn't find it in himself to car about what was happening. He swiped his hand ending changing the monitors and typed quickly. "Why isn't she coming back? Why isn't she at a new-u?"
The computers told him everything. Jack had kept her DNA off all servers to protect himself. The asshole had hidden her away and made sure no one would ever know who she was. Inconsiderate, monster douchebag. Even if he brought her back she'd be in the Hyperion system. Jack or someone else would take notice, and they'd both be dead. It was hopeless.
He sank into a nearby seat and soon began to cry. He never should have listened to that Hyperion asshole and his lies. He never should have gone on that stupid rocket and come to that stupid moon and helped Hyperion…
Timothy suddenly sat up. Hyperion hadn't always been top dog on Pandora, hell they hadn't even been the best company on Elpis. They had stolen most of their tech from rivals. Jack was a hack, he didn't build, he only lied and took. Meaning the old systems might still be in place.
He went through the computers files and found what he was looking for. There were still plenty of active Dahl medvacs on Elpis. He took the time to erase his file from the computer too, a little tric he picked up from Angel. He didn't have time to grab his money though, he let out a small whine before pressing the delete option and erasing Jacks final doppelganger from the Hyperion system. He found the nearest location and downloaded it on his ECHO device before heading out the door. A trip the hanger bay and few well placed threats later and he was heading down to the moons surface.
He didn't land so much as get shot down. What followed was the usually fare of bullets, butt-slams, and laser blasts that he remembered from his old vault hunting days. Soon he was back in Concordia. He had no time for nostalgia though. He used a hood to hide his face and found the medvac he had been looking for. He had no idea how to use the thing but had no idea how it worked.
Luckily, he knew just the person to call.
The phone rang, and kept ringing until he heard a familiar accent. "Springs here."
"Janey, hey it's me, Not-Jack. I need your help, please."
They exchanged some pleasantries and caught up a bit before Janey told him how the medvacs took in DNA to bring someone back. She didn't know where he would get the DNA of someone who didn't exist though. He only responded by lifting his wrist, hair bracelet attached.
"I have it covered."
"…is that a hair bracelet?"
"I gotta go." He hung up and activated the DNA scan button. With a deep breath he inserted the bracelet. He watched it disappear into digital space and for a few moments he could feel his heart pounding in is chest. The machine suddenly dinged green though and he let out a sigh in relief.
The machine processed the new DNA. And with a flash of light Angel was suddenly standing in front of him. "What-" she fell forward and caught her in a tight hug.
"Oh, thank god, it worked."
"How did-how am I alive? Why did you bring me back?"
Timothy only snorted. "C'mon, what are best friends for?"
He carried over to Nina's clinic, which surprisingly hadn't been burnt down or blasted apart yet. Nina owed him some favors, so Angel got a free examination and free lollipop. Nina also promised not to tell anyone about them. After she was given a clean bill of health she left to go deal with an unfortunate situation where someone seemed to have gotten their hands caught in the Grinder. This gave Timothy and Angel some time to talk.
"So, Jack has no idea I'm back?"
"He also has no idea that I'm gone. "
"So, what does this mean?"
"I guess it means we're free," Timothy said before letting out short giggle. "We can do whatever we want." The giggle turned into a full laugh. Angel began to laugh too, and soon they were both laughing so hard they were bent over. When they finally stopped Timothy felt lighter than he had in years.
Angel wiped her eyes before suddenly looking serious. "You know I might not be on the system, but you still are. Plus, you still look like Jack. There might be no place on Pandora safe for you."
Timothy snorted. "Yeah, tell me something I don't know. If that bothers you-"
"You are not going to say we should go our separate ways," Angel said as she poked him in the chest. "Friends stick together, especially best friends, right?"
Timothy could only smile as he nodded. It was so nice to make a friend who wasn't a homicidal maniac or would leave at a moments notice. "Yeah, yeah they do."
"So, we can do whatever we want? Go wherever we want?"
"I guess so?"
"Shouldn't we help stop Jack?"
Timothy just blew a raspberry. "You literally died to stop him, you've done enough. Let those other guys deal with this shit for once." He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and helped her up. She leaned into the support and together they headed to the door. "I feel like a beer, you want a beer?"
"I've never had alcohol before."
"Gotta fix that. Since I can't access my Hyperion money for awhile maybe we should pick up some jobs around here and go out in a buggy."
"I've never been in a car either."
"Gotta fix that too. Let's just figure it all out as we go, how does that sound?"
"That sounds…awesome. This is pretty exciting."
"It sure is Angel, it sure is."
That's all for now. Writing this brought up a ton of new ideas in case I ever want to come back to these two characters leading non-terrible lives. Angel's first time driving, shooting practice, reuniting with Janey, attempting to save Athena from the Crimson Raiders, meeting the characters from Tales from the Borderlands, there are a lot of opportunities. For now this seems like a good place to leave things.