#broken!jack

“Chek! Chek! You got it, Chief!” They responded in unison.

Chief was standing by the desk, a dark gray metallic fist still buried in the smoldering twisted remains of the machine that brought Jack back to the world of the living. Her eyes examined it; half of her face was obscured by a white visor with yellow-tinged hexagon lines. The onboard AI scanned the remains, taking notes and sending them off to the tech teams for answers.

She pulled her fist out, giving it a good rub as the servos whined and whirred as the knuckles popped back into place one by one. Gnarled, scared lips twisted into a grimace as the smell of burning wires, burning flesh, and that strong copper from all the blood mixed together into some rather putrid. She was used to smelling all sorts of foul things on the job, but this just smelled wrong. Another deep whiff made her shudder.

“Eridium taint mixed in with the burn and rot.” She grumbled before spitting off to the side. “Thought my chemical bath on Vexos 12 was worse…”

She looked over her shoulder, looking at the smoldering — still twitching — jigsaw puzzle of a man on the floor her team was attending to. Handsome Jack.

“Fuc—“ She bit her tongue. Tch, tch, tch, language. Just laying eyes on him made that conditioning come back tenfold. She was going to miss being able to freely curse again. Curse his name. “Can’t believe my own freakin’ eyes. Again.” 

When she first saw the message appear on her screen back in the medical wing that Handsome Jack was in need of dire medical assistance, she thought it was a prank. It had been done before, to several divisions, to give every a good scare. It annoyed her and she would give the prankster a backhand when found.

She was about to close the popup until several more appeared. Views of Jack’s office. And then a “death” countdown popped up — a laughing skull — followed by not so veiled threats to her beloved med team and her then her only living family “to get a move on”. 

She could feel her blood running colder than the coolant flowing through her augments. It became more frigid when her team sent her messages of receiving the same messages. And it was on the brink of freezing when she received a call from her sister. The fear in her blubbering voice got her to her feet. This was no joke. This was all too real.

Chief rallied her crew together quickly, while trying to calm her sister, and had them break out their best gear. Once that was all done, they were here now.

“Just when I thought I could finally get my sister and crew out of this mess…” She grumbled under her breath, biting the inside of her cheek. Freer times were going to be gone if Jack survived this. Well… even if he didn’t, the man probably had some contingency plan to punish all of them for failing to save his pompous ass.

“At least he’s stopped convulsing.” She mumbled.

She looked over at Blake when she heard the man telling the security team what was going on. He was at a loss for words and what he told them sounded so farfetched. And sounded like… he was withholding some details.

“Hm.” She would have questions for him later. But now…

She tapped at a device on her wrist and then tapped the side of her helmet a few times before she headed over to her team and Jack. Taking care to step around the sprawling pools of blood.

“Starting report: Securing VIP… Handsome Jack. Somehow… he’s alive after all these da—  all these months.” 

Recording incidents like this was routine for her. A way to catch anything they missed that the doctors would notice and a way to cover their asses if their VIP would complain about treatment. Which probably wouldn’t help that much with this one being Handsome Jack… 

“Av! You’re slipping!” A harsh growl slipped from her lips. Scanning the scene, she noticed a few key items were not deployed.  “Why isn’t the stretcher out?”

“Sorry, Chief! Busy stabilizing the VIP.” Av apologized, somewhat waving her off. She was busy making sure there was nothing in Jack’s mouth. So far, it was just that oddly colored purple froth still coming out. Though she was small in stature, she had a good amount of strength as she turned Jack onto his side.

“I got the stretcher.” Oxron fetched the item, pulling out a large rectangular yellow box. As he placed it on the ground, it bounced up, blue thrusters activating, but keeping a low hover, as it fully opened; it stretched out to fit at least one adult person.

“Mind that back right thruster.” Mercury said, glancing up from his medical bag. “Still on the fritz, engineers can’t seem to ‘find’ the fix.”

“Freakn’ figures.” Oxron rolled his eyes.

“How’s he looking?” Chief asked.

“Honestly? Shouldn’t be bloody alive, Chief.” Spanner said. They were over the information the medical Surveyors were gleaning from scanning Jack. “Look at this!” 

Instinctively, Chief stretched out her hand to catch the tablet being tossed at her and soon took a look at the information. More impossible information.

“What the hel— what the heck is this?” 

Just about every bone in Jack’s body was broken twice, if not thrice, over. If all the readings were correct, countless organs were damaged and ruptured, if not outright falling. Over 60% of his body had second, third, and fourth-degree burns. And then the readings for that lucrative purple gold of a poison coursing through his veins were all over the place — all lethal amounts.

“Alerted the medical team about the Eridium?” She asked.

“Done n’ done.” Spanner swiftly nodded, causing the little bead charms to their helmet to clack and rattle. “Even put in a request for treatment for us… iftheycareenough. Nasty crap…” They more or so grumbled under their breath as a few words rushed through clenched teeth.

“Right… everyone, monitor your exposure levels.”

“Anyone need to switch carts, let me know!” Mercury said as he adjusted his mask. Fingers double-checking every lock, tubing, and o-ring to make sure it was all sealed tight. Never could be too careful. “Got some 0Xy and clnZer carts too if exposure is bad.”

“CLUCKING SKAGRAT!” A sudden curse came from Av, catching everyone’s attention. There was a spray of crimson as she quickly jerked her hand away from Jack, clutching it tightly. He was seizing again. “Clucking fingers. My clucking fingers!” 

“Move back and get that under control.” Chief shook her head, holding back a snort. At least Av had her cursing under control.

Chief quickly tossed the tablet to the side and went over to take over what Av was once doing. As she and Oxron were working to re-stabilize Jack, they both froze. There was a tingle in the air, followed by a jolt of electricity, and a sudden, icy stillness came over them. Something just made the hairs on their skin stand on end.“Hm!?”

“What the—“

“Whoa! WHOA! Back up! Back up! Back up!” Spanner suddenly blurted out as they grabbed Chief by her collar and pulled her back. Two of their bots nailed Oxron and Mercury in the chest, shoving them back.

Just as all three were clear from the body, purple energy surged through Jack's body before several bright purple bolts shot out, causing everyone else to immediately duck for cover. It lasted for a few seconds before all quickly dissipating, leaving behind faint swirling smoke of Eridium and a fouler odor.

“Whoa!” Mercury exclaimed.

“What the hell…” Oxron wondered what they had just witnessed.

“Spanner, get that to the medical and science teams, stat!” Chief ordered. “Oxron, let’s get him strapped and Mercury put a damn shield up when he’s strapped.”

“Roger.” They responded.

Chief and Oxron got Jack fully on the stretcher and re-stabilized, noting the scar on his face was glowing purple and were being cautious of any more energy spikes.

 “I’ll buy you a new hand if we can’t reattach those fingers.” Chief glanced at Av as she had fished out her companion’s fingers from Jack’s mouth. She grimaced at the purple froth and now black-purple sludge that clung to the severed appendages. She dropped them into a sterile bag.

Av wrinkled her nose at the sight. Though they were still gloved, vibrant purple veins glowed through the material and crept across. “I’ll take the offer. Ain’t riskin’ that taint. Wouldn’t mind some chrome like your fancy arm.”

That just made Chief chuckle.

“Shield’s on Chief and monitoring for any more energy spikes.” Mercury said.

“Good. Now you three,” Chief made a series of pointed jabs towards Mercury, Av, and Oxron, “get him out of here and to the med wing yesterday! Move! Move!”

All of them gave their response and quickly picked up the stretcher and made their way out of the room with Jack.

 She then looked at the security. She made pointed jabs at them and then at her crew several times. “AND YOU ALL ESCORT THEM! HE’S A VIP!”

The sudden outburst gave them a scare, but more than half of the security followed them out to clear a path.

She then looked Spanner and then pointed at the desk. “Spanner, get everything you can from the computer. Keep the tech crews in the loop.” They just nodded and went to work.

Chief watched them go until they disappeared through the doors.

“End report: Mercury, Av, and Oxron as moving the VIP to the medical wing as I speak. They have an escort. Will continue to gather samples for the doctors and science teams and make additional notes.” She grumbled as she ended her report.

She then turned her attention to Blake. The man was now shooing away the rest of the security team after the sudden lightning show. He looked beyond frazzled, strands of hair poking free from that neatly swept back hair, as he tugged and adjusted his tie.

“Mr. Blake.” She said, going over to him. “By all means, I hope you’re uninjured, but do tell me everything you witnessed with our… boss’ sudden appearance.”

“Ah! Ms. Char.“ Blake forced a smile. He was fond of her, but his nerves were rather frazzled. There was a slight twitch in his eye hearing her request. “I have a feeling you wouldn’t believe me, like the security team…”

“Blake,” she placed her hands on her hips, “just talk. Can’t be any more unbelievable than what we just witnessed. And then half the crap Jack has schemed up.”

Blake closed his eyes tightly, neck muscles strained as he tugged on that wistful noose of a tie one last time before letting go. Not now. Not now. Not ever… for a few decades. Taking in a deep breath, he folded his hands together, bringing them to his face. “I warn you, it makes little sense. It starts here.” He gestured over to the desk, specifically the smoldering device, and walked over to it.

He told her what he told the security, but gave a smidge more detail. Gesturing to the still-lit holo-panels, which were still littered with those error warnings that were giving Spanner a run for their money to take down. Of course, he repeated several times he had no clue Jack had such a device or contingency plan, partially(and cautiously) muttering under his breath he would have had it dismantled as soon as he learned of it.

Chief listened intently. If she still had eyes, they would be rolling out of her skull with how unbelievable it all sounded. But with half the crap she’s dealt with in her life, with most coming with her current “employment” Hyperion for the last few years, it wasn’t so farfetched. Jack was always scheming something up.

“Immortality? Seriously?” She raised a hand to her visor, shaking her head. “If Nakayama was still alive, I would snap that scrawny bastard’s neck.” A growl slipped out.

 The next moment her cybernetic fist slammed down onto the device, caving in a sizable portion; knuckle servos clicked and groaned as the metal twisted and crumpled underneath her grip. Blake tensed.

She pulled her hand from the mess and gave it a good shake. Joints clicked and popped until they fully reset. “How’s the Board going to react to this?”

Blake closed his eyes and shook her his. “Poorly, of course. I know they’ll want to oust Jack from the company as soon as possible since we have Hyperion back on track. Mostly. But…” 

“Knowing Jack, he’s got something cooked up.”

He nodded. Opening his eyes, he glanced over to the holo-panels. He faintly remembered some things he saw there. Troubling things. “I have a feeling Jack has several contingency plans to keep that from happening. Blackmail and threats. The usual for him.”

“His bloody favorite pastime.” A growl slipped out. She struck the device once more.

Blake nodded. “I take it your team was contacted with such messages to ‘save’ him?”

“Yep.” Another growl. Another sickening crunch of metal. “We’re the freakn’ best in the business.” She tossed in an imitation of Jack’s voice.

“Hm…” Blake bit the inside of his lip. He had a question he had to ask, but was hesitant. “Same… with your sister and her team?”

Chief slammed her fist back down onto the device with immense force. This time, each finger dug into the metal. The sounds of crunching metal grew until a sharp twang and several pings rang out. Chief let out an angry bellow as she pulled her fist back, tearing the device free from the desk, sending wood splinters everywhere, and threw it. It soared across the room before crashing into the wall and onto the ground in a heap. “Yes. Da— damnit, yes.”

“I am so sorry, Char.” There was a slight drop in his shoulders. “My legal team is still searching for a loophole in those blasted contracts. Same with the rest of the Eridium specialized scientists. How Jack managed to ‘headhunt’ so many of—”

A few metallic finger snaps, a harsh ‘can it’, and a raised hand quickly made Blake go silent.

Chief pulled on her chin a few times, shaking her head back and forth. “Headhunted.” That was a light way to put forced extortion and kidnapping. And her sister was a “lucky” one to be chosen for her research into elemental technology and a new budding interest in how Eridium amplified them.

Better if I died that night when they ambushed my exploration team. I can still see the faces of our escort… What was left of them. Why? They did their best to protect us, get us out of there… They were like family, sis. Words her sister told her one night when she had another mental breakdown. Her sister could put on a brave face most days with her current extraneous work, but that day deeply haunted her.

“Uuuugh, dammit.” A long drawn-out sigh of a curse came from her as shook her head again before looking back at him. “Sorry about that. But thank you for what you’re doing. We’ll figure out some way to break those damn contracts. Just hope nothing changes with him back.”

“No offense taken. I understand the stress you’re under. More than you would think.” He said. “I’ll see if I can draft up a few subtle changes to the contracts for a rather dazed Jack to sign.”A small smirk crossed his face. He had to hold in a chuckle, imagining Jack high off of painkillers that would probably be coursing through his system for who knows how long if he survived. “I believe I’ll also give a fair, friendly notice to your co-owner, Sir Papier, if he wishes to submit any suggestions.” That smirk grew even more. He was looking forward to that conversation. “A small amount of reprieve for you all.”

“Tch, I see he’s rubbed off on you, and you know he prefers Monsieur Papier.” She shook her head, but couldn’t help but chuckle. It was a rare treat to see his more devious side. “Truthfully, hope he crashes hard, but who knows the consequences of that.”

“I’ve already sent a memo to the legal teams and others about the possibilities of that.”

A few curses came from Spanner. “Going to have to get the tech boys down here. Lotta data is corrupted and some security crap way too high for me to break.”

“How lovely.” Chief wasn’t surprised to hear that.

Blake shook his head. “I’ll send a message to them.” Looks like his night just got longer.

An alert appeared on Chief’s visor. She raised two fingers to the side of her helmet.

“Yeah? I hear you, Oxron.”

A call from one of her crew. A few status updates. They had arrived at the medical wing and were shifting the VIP into the care of the doctors there. There were several “hms”, “mhms”, “whats”, “repeat thats”, and “how lovely”.  

“Alright, you three hand off what you have to the staff there and finish the decontamination process. Spanner and I will be heading over once we finish. And I’ll get Av a shiny new hand or arm. Her choice. And contact the rest of the crew down on Pandora. Got a bad feeling we’ll need everyone back on the station.” Chief finished the call. An annoyed sigh slipped out. “Things are going be freakin’ interesting.” 

She then looked at Spanner. “Have your bots gather more scans and samples. The docs are going to need a lot.”

“No problem, boss.” Spanner nodded and ordered their bots to do so.

She then looked over at Blake. “You’ll be getting copies of the status reports from my crew and be prepared for the reports from the doctors. Oxron informed me there were more energy spikes and Jack’s internal temp levels being off.”

“How… joyous.” Blake was not looking forward to that.

Chief and Spanner gathered more data and samples before departing. They bid Blake farewell and good luck. Blake did the same.

The head of security came around and Blake reluctantly filled out some reports as he was waiting for one of the senior-level tech teams to come around.

He eyed that heaping metal mess Chief turned that machine into. How long had Jack had that thing hidden, and this plan schemed up? He wished he had stopped her from damaging it further, but there were thousands of things swirling through his mind. Hopefully, there was still enough remaining for the scientist and tech teams to look at.

There was just a sinking put in his stomach, a gnawing dread, that Jack would somehow survive this ordeal and Hyperion was heading for murky waters once more.

Just how would they work around this? How would they keep this from getting out? That was going to be an impossible task.

His guts were twisting into knots just thinking of the reaction the Crimson Raiders and Vault Hunters would have. A small, naïve part of him hoped they would treat it like a crazed rumor and wouldn’t investigate. But there was Lilith. 

“I wonder if I still have some of that Cayenbell berry wine Papier sent. And maybe some of that cognac they sent me. Just need a sip.” Just something to soothe his nerves… or enough to make him pass out. “A sip…” No, he needed to get a mountain of work done before he could dream of sleeping. “Wonder if I can get some more or both. Just have to make some conversations and deals… The Golden Age, tch.”

He brought out his phone and drafted up a message. He needed to get back in touch with his secret contact first. Details needed to be shared. Plans needed to be changed. A storm was brewing.

-------------------

Word of Handsome Jack’s return spread quickly across the station. Most thought it to be some kind of joke. It had to be one of those lookalikes or someone in costume. Happened fairly frequently. But some were curious and went to investigate this news; some kept an eye out and others went to his old office. And those curious ones were all that was needed to spark a fire of bonafide proof. A half-dead man strapped to a stretcher. Handsome Jack was back. 

How quickly Chief’s crew had to deal with crowds of people appearing around every corner as they rushed Jack to the medical bay. They were so happy for the security escort. Especially for those more overzealous fans that their “god” was back. Which wasn’t helped, as Jack was slowly coming back to consciousness and was registering pain. A lot of pain. A small bonus, this caused several people to back off. An immediate downside is the yelling drew more attention.

The crew was rather happy their helmets allowed them to isolate and tune down Jack’s screams as they moved. 

Additional security was called in. They arrived just in time to keep their path clear, as the shielding put up to protect them from energy spikes was slowly failing. The eridium spikes were inconsistent. Sometimes the ‘voltage’ was low and other times crackles of energy would pierce through the shields like they were nothing. Even additional shielding from Surveyor drones that were called in barely helped. The bots instead got zapped and downed, systems fried to a crisp.

Everyone felt like they were way past their nine lives with each warning alert blurted out, followed by Jack yelling and convulsing before the eridium energy went wild every couple of minutes. So far they weren’t injured, but a few overzealous fans that managed to break through were zapped for their troubles. Eridium energy tainted their bodies, with sickly purple veins and skin discolorations. Just subjects for the appropriate scientists to study.

So far, Lady Luck continued to be on the crew’s side, and they prayed she would stay.

A new alert caught the attention of the trio. Monitoring systems were picking up a new anomaly brewing within Jack. His core body temperature levels were starting to shift. Dropping and jumping several degrees in an erratic manner just like everything else going on with him.

Something else to send to the medical wing before they arrive.

They arrived at the medical wing with no more trouble and concerning developments with Jack. Greeting them were several medical members in heavy-duty PPE suits who quickly directed them to a secured operating room prepared for Jack. With Jack situated and handed over, they also passed on all the data — especially the deadly energy spikes — and samples taken from Jack’s office and wished them good luck.

With that done, Oxron called Chief to update her on the situation and once that was done, the trio headed over to decontamination. Av had a rather thorough examination done with booster shots mixed in due to the injury she sustained and wasn’t too surprised they would probably have to amputate her hand with it showing signs of eridium poisoning. At least Chief was paying for the replacement. 

-------------------

The operating room. Careful murmurs permeated the air as the doctors, nurses, and technicians prepared for the impossible task that lay before them. They all still couldn’t believe it. It had to be some sort of sick, cruel joke. But there he was. Their old boss. Lying barely conscious, twitching, and bleeding profusely on the table.

With an air of calm authority, the head surgeon spoke. “Nurses, technicians… Get the scanners going to keep track of his vitals. Double check the oxygen“ Fingers curled and tensed as they re-tightened their gloves. Eyes drifted over to one monitor tracking Jack’s heartbeat. A heartbeat that was somehow still going, steadily thumping along with erratic blood pressure readings. Then their eyes hesitantly drifted to a few holo-panels floating around them all.

A timer ticking down second by second and the warning accompanied them.

THE CLOCK’S TICKING. CHOP. CHOP. OR YOUR HEAD’S ON THE BLOCK.

Feeling their heart in their throat, the head surgeon knocked their knuckles against their chest as they swallowed hard. They needed to refocus. 

“No one approaches the patient until we have these shields recalibrated to deal with the eridium energy and redirect it elsewhere. Our gear can handle only so much.” A hand drifted down to their left side, fingers soon tapped on their Hyperion-issued shield. A button press here, a dial turned ever so slightly there — a faint shimmering blue honeycomb-patterned bubble tightened around them. “And everyone, double-check your suits before approaching the patient. No holes. No gaps. Make sure those breathing apparatuses are sealed tight. Eridium poisoning is… unpleasant.”   

The precautions were taken with the utmost care. Nurses and technicians quickly went to work to make sure the scanners were going and properly syncing with the monitors. It didn’t take long for engineers from R&D to show up with the eridium siphoning device — a rather clunky, if not hastily put together rectangular device with an excessive amount of heat vents — to protect them during the operation. They placed the rectangular device towards a corner of the room and began to quickly rig up various redirection and director shields to the ceiling that would lead to it. And just in the nick of time, as Jack’s vials began to spike and sirens went off, the air began to crackle. Everyone froze. Except for the engineers — they just worked faster.

As soon as the last few shields were in place and the device was turned, several bolts of that swirling energy sprung forth from Jack’s body. Twisting and crashing together, it all arced up towards the shields, cracking with thunderous booms as they jumped from one to another as they were swirling towards the device. The flaps to the heat vents burst open as billowing clouds of steam shot out. It sputtered as metal slats clinking and shuttered open, revealing the hidden cells within gathering the energy. Empty blue cells glowed with energy, slowly becoming purple. As quickly as it all started, the energy excursion ended.

The tension in the room quickly dropped as heavy sighs of relief escaped just about everyone. At least one thing was under control and now they just had to worry about keeping their boss alive.

“Well… heck.” 

A mild curse from an engineer by the device, followed by them barking out some technical orders and some engineers running out of the room, made all that tension come back.

The head surgeon spoke through gritted teeth. “Dare I ask… what is wrong?” 

“Weeeell, our slapdash job works, but boy, there be a ton of juice being pumped out. Already at 80% capacity.” The engineer explained in an odd southern drawl as they pulled a panel back. “Glad we thought of makin’ these cells swappable or we’d be up a creek without a paddle… Well, more or so fried to a crisp and chokin’ on our lungs. This ain’t surviving another blast ’til we get these cells replaced.”

The surgeon’s brow twitched. More sweat poured down their face than ever before. “That’s… good to know.” Terrifying, really. “Keep doing your job so we can do ours.” It was better than nothing. 

The surgeon turned their attention back to the others and began giving orders. “Let’s get to work, start cutting his clothes. Make sure all the lines are going and get that anesthesia going on the triple. Ease some of his pain and keep him knocked out. And get the tubes ready if we have to intubate him… somehow he’s still breathing on his own.”

The delicate operation began that soon trudged on for five days as they all worked in shifts — with several people having mental breaks — to save Jack’s life. Somehow, the bastard was still clinging to life as he went through more blood than one could find pouring out of a bandit camp — especially those highly cannibalistic ones and those with bloodletting altars. Besides that, replacing his less-than-repairable organs was another headache, as his body would spontaneously reject the replacements — be it fully synthetic or organic. They switched over to various external machines to act in place of the organs until they could solve the rejection issue, but at some point, Jack’s body finally stopped the weird rejection dance. There were questions, but they didn’t exactly care to investigate what equilibrium they reached to achieve that. They just prayed it wouldn’t happen again.

The device the engineers rigged up was still going strong, though it gave them a scare from time to time when a harsh metal-on-metal grinding sound crashed against their ears, followed by black smoke and sparks billowed out of the vents. Then another scare came, this time from a careless engineer who improperly handled one of the filled cells. One thought the burnt flesh and sulfuric stench clinging to Jack’s flesh peppered with eridium was bad enough as their suit filters could eliminate only so much— the freshly eridium charred engineer made everything so much worse.

The operation continued to be an unpleasant ride with several roadblocks. The constant blood( and other fluids) replacement was still a constant. Speaking of blood, there was a need for constant decontamination and siphoning away all fluids due to it being heavily tainted by eridium. The fumes wafting off of the fluids were overwhelming their breathing apparatuses, leading to clouded thoughts, dizziness, and a few passing out. The engineers quickly reconfigured the room’s fans to recycle the airflow more quickly and went about bringing in some air filters.

  Another surprise roadblock of a headache came around the 32nd hour. Jack’s internal body temperature began to fluctuate again, dropping him to near-frigid levels before skyrocketing to scorching ones. This went on for a while before it decided to stick to one side of the spectrum. The hot side. 

Ice packs and ice quickly became a commodity on the station as they worked to lower his temperature until they were able to rig up the room to near-freezing levels to aid in the process. Some quick shield augmentations to turn the inner layers into a heater allowed them to continue their work in the frigid cold. As shifts were swapped again, they all had new gear more insulated to deal with the temperatures just in case those shield augmentations broke.

Then another issue arose. 

Jack woke up.

-------------------

With a rattled gasp, Jack’s eyes flew open, and he shot up straight like a stick, causing the oxygen mask to slip off. Racked, heavy breathing, pupils as small as pinpricks darted across the room. Everyone froze where they were. Surgeons in the middle of making incisions. Others in the middle of suturing. They were too afraid to make any movements. But someone was whispering — almost panicked, scattered yelling — for the anesthesia to be adjusted.

Though everything felt numb and distant, Jack seemed to be processing where he was. What was going on? Eyes took notice of a rack nearby that held a mass of something pinkish-purple that was squirming. And looked like one long tube led back to him. 

Don’t look down. Don’t look down.  

But he did.

He saw it. His beautiful chest slice opened from collar bone all the way down his stomach, not quite sure where it stopped as multiple arms were in the way. But he could see what little remained of his organic insides at the moment. Two milky white sacs decorated with a honeycomb pattern and that big black “H” shuttered and trembled, encompassing his still-beating heart with every breath. Breath.

What…

His breathing paused. They paused. His breathing quickened. They quickened. Lungs. Those were his lungs. New ones… Neat.

What the hell…

No, no, not neat. There was nothing neat about this. Where were his old ones? What were these idiotic surgeons doing? Carving him up like some animal? He wasn’t that badly injured… was he? 

He barely heard the surgeons trying to speak calmly to him and tell him to lie down. That brain of his was examining every bit of work done so far. What was still there? Why is it so hot? What had been replaced? Why is it so hot? More synthetic and mechanical bits replaced their organic counterparts. Faint plans to reinforce the muscles running along his spine as he noticed several cracked vertebrae. Were they going to replace that, too?

A cybernetic spine would be freakn’ neat. Wait no, no, no!

He closed his eyes tightly as he took in a deep breath. Opening again, they were filled with fury.

“Are… you…” A wheezed sound escaped his lips. “Are you trying to turn me into FUCKING WHILHELM!?”

Those whose hands weren’t in the man’s body backed away.

“What the hell do you think you all are—HURK!” His mouth hung open as his whole body suddenly tensed. Pupils shrunk again as his whole being shuddered. His stomach — the organ, new and synthetic — trembled and churned as a deep purple glow grew within. The man hacked and gagged as purple veins crept up his neck and a bulge grew in the middle of it. Seconds later, a vile substance spewed forth, splashing onto everything and everyone, covering them in a dark, noxious substance. Once that happened, he fell back down with a heavy thud.

A few surgeons shrieked, dropping their instruments as they attempted to escape the mess. Others cursed as they stayed calm and attempted to finish their work. But kept a close eye on their toxin levels.

“Just get the cleaning bots going.” One surgeon spoke up as they wiped the vomit off their visor. “We can’t exactly stop rig—”

Seconds later, the eridium sensors roared to life, filling the room with deafening warnings that toxin levels were rising. 

The latest head surgeon glanced at their monitors. Eyes narrowed as a frustrated sigh slipped out. “Everyone stop. We need to decontaminate. Levels are rising too fast. Nurse Juniper, send in the other tea—” 

The monitors on Jack sounded off. Eridium saturation levels were on the rise like his heartbeat. His body jerked about. Hacking, gagging, and gurgling came from the man followed by a white and purple froth emerging from his mouth.

The head surgeon just wanted to curse. “SUCTION HIS MOUTH NOW!” Instead, barking out orders would alleviate their stress. They turned to the nurses. “SEND IN THE OTHER TEAM NOW AND GET DECONTAMINATION GOING NOW!”

The shift change was disorderly as people bumped, tripped, and slipped around the room trying to get to decontamination or to their places. 

Just as they thought the situation was under “control” again, Jack rose again with another racked gasp, followed by him spewing out the froth. Eyes opened wide, he tried to speak, but his jaw hung loose as he froze. Pupils shrank to mere pinpricks as he felt a spark, then several crackles of searing pain rip through his body. He screamed. Back arched, head thrown back and jaw seemingly unhinging itself like a snake’s, he just screamed. That nasty energy crackled and whipped off him.

But there was something new. Something different. All too concerning. It was barely noticeable at first. The “steam” leaving his mouth mixed in with the steam wafting off of his skin and ice packs. But the color shifted to a dark purple and grew in denseness as this now thick noxious fumes poured forth like a waterfall and more erupted from his nose. 

The sensors went off again. 

There was always something leading to a new frantic dance to get control of the all-around horrendous situation under control once more. The engineers were double timing it replacing the cells to the machines, tweaking everyone’s personal shields, and recalibrating the ventilation system for the new source of iridium vapors filling the room at an alarming rate. The semi-fresh medical team had their hands full attempting to calm down Jack. It took a special concoction of anesthetic drugs, enough to put down four Alpha Skags, to knock the man out cold. Nurses were quick to bring in more ice.

Both had to work in conjunction to create a mask to siphon the fumes still during out of his mouth and nose, but still feed the man fresh oxygen.

It took several more hours before everything came down to a more stable state. Come the end of day 4, the  96th hour, the major portion of the surgery was completed. Jack was stable. More or less. There was still work to do on the man.

More sensors to monitor his health. More augments to continue stability. 

The installation of rudimentary infusions and drainage ports was a necessity to continue the blood and nutrient transfusions. Eridium poisoning was still rampant in his system, evident by purple veins that pulsed and crept across his skin. It looked like the constant blood transfusions (organic or synthetic) kept the worst of it at bay, though his body still trembled. They still needed to get to the root of the problem. Find a way to neutralize the eridium. Find a way to cure it, if that was even possible.

Mr. Blake gave full access to all the experimentation records from that insidious Wildlife Exploitation Preserve and other eridium testing facilities for all teams to go over. Collaboration was going to be their best way of solving this mess and making sure everyone survived.

He also sent out requests for their still-alive top eridium specialists stationed across the six galaxies to come to Helios Station immediately. They needed those specialists yesterday. Those onboard the station had done good work, but they were out of their depth for long-term care. 

-------------------

A few days had passed since the incident. Anxiousness permeated the station. A majority of those closely involved in the incident were borderline nervous wrecks. The less informed, and well, fanatical fans of Handsome Jack were all too excited for his return.  

 The only rare positive was that dreaded “retaliation counter” had stopped once it registered Jack was still alive and now “stable.” Though all involved knew that could change at any second, as Jack’s condition was still in flux. 

Mr. Blake was keeping an active eye on everything and gave orders when necessary. He was using Jack’s office as the main hub for communication despite it being treated like an active crime scene. Best computers on the Station and the tech teams had cleared out most of the errors and lockouts, allowing it to be 83.5% usable again.

He had a lot on his plate. First and foremost, he was using every resource available to run damage control across the Station of news of Handsome Jack’s return. He had the security divisions cracking down on any mention of Jack and deleting any footage taken. He was taking precautions just in case Jack survived against all odds. The man would not like any evidence of his vulnerable state and proof of his failures in conquering Pandora. Then their competition didn’t need to know about this. The Vault Hunters didn’t need to know about this; any lick of this news and he knew Lilith would be champing at the bit to attack the Station sooner rather than later. For any news that escaped to the ECHOnet, he had some propaganda campaigns whipped up to claim it was all fake positives.

The Board reluctantly approved of his work, but with no suggestions, as they were preoccupied with Jack's colorful threats from his contingency plans.  They had to play everything by ear and were putting their lives in Blake’s hands. Another stress he didn’t need.

Besides all of that, Blake was also coordinating all their eridium specialized scientists they could pull to the Station. He didn’t ask for her help, but Chief intruded on his research once she caught wind of it. Her reasoning was her team would most likely have to work intimately with these scientists and wanted to make sure they played nice. He just knew she preferred not to be left out of the loop and let it slide. 

“From Dr. Evon: ‘Can’t stop my research on these Eridian ruins concerning eridium. Perhaps they will hold answers for.. Handsome Jack’s… condition.’ Fair. From Dr. Wesker: ‘Too deep in with Maliwan on Nekrotafeyo to leave. Would be suspicious.’ Understandable. From Dr. Wen: ‘Gythian's curse holds my very being on Xylourgos… I can’t leave and it begs for blood. What?” 

Blake was reading off the latest messages from some of their elite specialists that had to decline the urgent request he sent out. A fair amount of them had accepted the request and were on their way or were already at the Station toiling away on their boss. Some had plausible reasons for declining. While others, he felt like were finding every excuse possible to avoid taking this task. He didn’t blame them.

“A curse? Hmph, that’s a new one.” Blake shook his head as he reread the message again to make sure he wasn’t misreading things.

“Oh, Xylourgos?” Chief said. She was sitting on the edge of the desk. “They’re not joking about a curse.”

He shifted his eyes to her and raised a brow. She chuckled.

“I’ve been. Quick SAR mission turned sour. There’s a Vault on that planet. The beast is dead but still influences and taints the land. Hope they’re at the Lodge with the… creepy owner. One of the few safe spots on that planet. ”

That brow stayed raised. It wasn’t farfetched, and he had seen more “supernatural” things firsthand. “I’ll take your word for it.”

He continued reading the messages and Chief threw in a comment here in there. She knew them, heard of them, or briefly worked with them. Or knew of the location they were stationed at.

One message piqued his interest. “Accepted” was in all caps.

“Who is this?” He opened the message and quietly read it. His brows raised and scrunched together several times. This person was eager to drop their current work and lend their expertise. They even included a list of their previous and current work for Hyperion.

“Hm, this is surprising.” He wasn’t expecting such an enthusiastic email. It made him smile.

“Someone eager to work on this fool’s errand?” Chief asked.

He nodded. “Seems like they’re unbothered by the dire circumstances.” He scrolled through the rest of the message quickly. “Who is this from? Dr. Viktoria Finlay. Viktoria… hm.” That name sounded familiar to him. Both in a positive and negative way. That negative way bothered him. With some typing and taps, he brought up their profile. He grumbled as the profile was taking forever to load.  “Viktoria…” Why, why, why was that so familiar?

“Viktoria?” Chief asked. She got up and went over to him. “As in the Viktoria Finlay? Transhumanist extraordinaire?”

If possible, his brows would be floating high above his head. He mumbled under his breath at her words. “Transhumanist extraordinaire.” Why did that sound familiar? “You know them?”

“Know her? Briefly, in passing. Not sure if that’s when she mostly had most of her ‘ganic body or was dabbling in her body frames she switches around frequently.”

“Body… frames…” He rubbed his chin. 

There was a faint chime. The profile had finally loaded. His eyes snapped to it, quickly looking for a face. He saw faces. Several faces. Eyes squinted for a few moments before they went wide. 

“Oh, her.” 

He didn’t recognize over half the faces. Only a few ticked familiar memory in his brain. The human-looking one jogged an old memory when they first crossed paths on Pandora. A thin, somewhat frail build. Coiled, puffy dark brown hair she kept tied down with a bandana, and she wore questionably thick glasses he wondered if they were fake for novelty’s sake. She was taking over an “excused” researcher’s work on eridium and its effects on humans. Even witnessing the researcher being beaten and arrested, she had a great deal of pep in her step and took to the task with little trouble. 

“She has… changed quite a bit over the years… in appearance.” He mumbled as his eyes drifted to the other portraits. One looked like a robot, partially constructed like a Maliwan mech, but more “light” streamlined. Thankfully, she kept the colors Hyperion related — sticking mostly to black and the old red with touches of yellow. It had a visor that could be removed, revealing a more human-like face that looked like the old her. And then the other portrait that had him deeply puzzled. It looked like some sort of alien animal. Something canid mixed with that simian species, Jabber, with how colorful the fur was. It was his best guess.

A quick scan through her file to jog his memory on why she had these different portraits.

“Ah… right. Had a health condition before joining us and then her Eridian research exacerbated it. Was already interested in splicing her DNA with various creatures and beings to enhance her capabilities and starve off her condition. Began dabbling more with cybernetics and bio-augmentations to treat her failing health.”

“That’s her.” Chief nodded.

“Hm… why the ‘bodies’ again? I faintly recalled she was at a near terminal stage.” He mumbled as he continued to scroll through her profile and spotted internal review notes. “‘Viktoria stumbled across a solution to her ailment, which involved transferring herself into new custom-built bodies. She has not divulged how she came across this solution and has continued to be tight-lipped. The only information we have been able to decode is it deals with Eridian technology, eridium, and other alien elements. Seems to have ‘cured’ herself but walks a dangerous line with the eridium. ’ Huh.”

He continued to read the speculations that she first began her experiments for building a new body on her personal bodyguard, Geise Walker, after an incident left him barely alive and torn to shreds. His eyes drifted to a before and after image of said bodyguard. He faintly recognized the former more than the latter. Then again, he looked like a typical geared-up mercenary that wasn’t crazy. The latter image was a hulking hooded beast of a man; body littered with discolored skin, scars, and dark scales. He wondered if it was the same person. “That… that explains a lot. Is that eridium growing out of his skin?” He rubbed his chin as he digested all of this information. “She must have done good work to get away with keeping whatever she found and kept secret. Exceptional work if this went under Jack’s radar.”

“From my brief meeting with her, she’s eccentric but means well. Not a half-bad medical doctor. Steady hands for scalpels and needles.”

“You’ve worked with her?” He looked at her.

“Again, briefly. My team was called in to pick up some of her injured men. Got into a scrape ourselves just trying to get to them. By the time we got to them, she had tended to their wounds and kept them in stable condition and lent a hand to patch us up.” She traced a few areas around the left side of her collarbone.

“Interesting.” Though Chief was in her work gear, he could only imagine the potential scar it left.

Blake returned his attention back to her profile and then the message she sent. “Maybe she can be of great help as she has cybernetics and bio-augmentation under her belt and I’ve read what has been done to Jack to keep him alive.” He muttered his thoughts. Yet, there was a pit of worry deep in his stomach. He wasn’t sure why. Nothing in Viktoria’s file gave him pause to think she could harm Jack. Those unanswered questions about how she “cured” herself bothered him. 

“As long as she doesn’t get any funny ideas with Jack, I believe we’ll be fine.”

“She does ask, before augmenting.”

Blake glanced at her, half annoyed and half concerned. She chuckled.

“She offered that during our brief meeting. A bit too eagerly.”

“Noted.”

He composed a quick message to her, thanking her for her service and was looking forward to her arrival and to who she would be working with.

“Excuse me.” He made a ’zip it’ motion to Chief as he placed a call to one of the lead doctors overseeing Jack. “Hello Dr. Booth, I’m calling to give you heads up. I’m going to send you the file of one of the eridium experts that will be aiding you in treating Handsome Jack. Her name is Dr. Viktoria Finlay and— what” He paused, brows furrowing as his eyes narrowed.

Chief raised a brow.

“What do you mean she’s already here? What do you mean she’s examining him?” Irritation slipped through gritted teeth. As he listened to them explain, he jumped back to the message she sent. Somehow, he had glanced over that she would be there within two to three days since he sent out the initial requests. “How did she and her team pack up so fast?” 

With swift typing, he brought up a holo-panel showing a live feed of the room Jack was being kept in. Though the view was obscured by thick clouds of steam permeating the room, he spotted her. There she was, in her robotic body, and her team was with her as well as some of the other doctors. All in heavy PPE gear. “Tell her I want to talk to her yesterday, Booth.” With that, he hung up and turned his attention to the camera feed.

“Volume, volume.” Fingers searched around for the button. Once found, he jabbed at it repeatedly.

Once it was on, he heard them discussing of Jack’s current predicament and new findings. Viktoria was picking up one of Jack’s trembling arms and pointing out the faint glowing eridian-like swirling markings that were beginning to appear on his skin. 

“This is fascinating. Like faux siren tattoos. Waves, dots, circles, swirls.” A finger traced the still-forming marking. “None of my eridium experiments caused this to appear in the subjects.” She said. “Perhaps it’s a side effect of his close interaction with Eridian relics over the years? Maybe similar connections were made like that Zarpadon woman, though she never sported such markings. Hm!” She shrugged before placing his arm back down. “Speculations will only take one so far. We will have to do a great deal of research and tests!”

“Already on the task. Like the work ethic.” Chief commented.

“Hm.” Blake rubbed his chin. Nothing too concerning so far. He continued to watch.

“Now,” Viktoria produced a marker out of nowhere and flicked its cap off, “those rudimentary infusions and drainage ports will need to be replaced and moved.” With the marker, she began to draw place markers for where the new ports should be placed. Shoulders, neck, ribs, and both sides of his stomach were a few places she marked. “They will work better in these areas. Also, how is the damage to his spine? Does it need replacing? That will dictate what port can be placed there. And where’s the liquid eridium for the test? It should be here by now.”

As she said continued to draw more place makers, she began to list all the materials and components that would need to be ordered and prepped for future surgery.

“Hm. Already planning a major surgery. And what’s this about Liquid eridium?” Blake muttered. Talk of liquid eridium concerned him. It was barely quelled as the Station’s doctors gave their input here and there and seemed to be in agreement with her plans. He shifted his attention to any new entries into Jack’s treatment. It was more or less the same with the main concerns being his fluctuating body temperatures and the faint traces of eridium flowing through his veins. 

“Oh, hello Mr. Blake.”

Hearing his name uttered in a nonchalant way caused his attention to snap back to that camera feed. Viktoria was waving at the camera.

“Got your message. I apologize. Sometimes my giddiness gets the best of me. We will talk later.”

“Hm.” He shook his head. At least she got the message. Chief laughed. “Our conversation later will be interesting.”

“I see you vetoing her suggestions for any splicing to treat Jack.”

He let out an exasperated sigh. “Don’t jinx it.”

For another hour, Blake went through the other messages for the specialists, “politely” threatening a few he could tell were lying to pack up their gear and come to the Station immediately. Chief left to go regroup with her crew.

A few hours after that, he headed down to the medical wing to meet with Victoria and her team.

-------------------

  Viktoria and a few of her team were just outside of the room Handsome Jack was being kept in. She noticed him entering and promptly made her way to him.

“A pleasure to work with you again, Mr. Blake!” Victoria was quick to greet Blake. She flipped off her visor so he could see her ’synthetic yet human’ face. Cybernetic hands quickly scooped up a free hand of his and shook it vigorously. “Again, apologies for stepping over any protocols you may have had. I just had to see if it was true.”

Mr. Blake was nearly taken aback by 7ft tall doctor, and how forward she was but kept his composure. He eyed each of her workers and the 10ft tall being lingering nearby with glowing, icy blue eyes peering through holes in his loose cloth-like mask. Intimidating. Must have been her bodyguard. “Dr. Finlay. I—”

“Call me Viktoria, please.” She let go of his hand. “And this is Geise.” She gestured to her bodyguard.

“Hi.” Geise’s voice was as rough as sandpaper. He waved.

“Right… And hello.” He nodded at Geise. “Dr. Viktoria, we thank you for answering the call so swiftly. I believe your expertise will be invaluable for this task.” He put on a smile. “Now, what have you discussed with the doctors?”

She gestured for him to follow her back to the observation window. “We’ve been going over all the notes they made as they pre, during, and post-Jack’s surgery.”

She went about explaining everything in the simplest terms he could follow. No major developments since the surgery. They were keeping a close eye on his body temperature, which was still inching towards hyperthermia. And the eridium in his system still lingered at low levels, like something was producing it. It was being controlled by semi-frequent blood transfusions, but long term, his body wasn’t tolerating it well.

“Now we want to solve this eridium problem and possibly introducing—”

“No unauthorized splicing.” Blake cut her off with a firm glare. “We’re already on thin ice with the mass organ replacement that had to be performed a few days ago.” His shoulders tensed as he recalled rewatching that section of the surgery recording. “When Jack is mostly coherent, you will have to talk to him about the minuscule possibility of tweaking his DNA.”

Viktoria let out a stifled giggle. “I will keep that in mind. I know how he feels about his looks.” She chuckled again. “But I wasn’t going to suggest that.”

“You weren’t?”

“I’m eccentric, but not crazy.”

Once they made it to the window, she gestured to what was happening on the other side. The doctors, guided by her workers, were setting up fresh IV lines and prepping bags of a glowing purple liquid.

“We’re about to perform a test.”

“Test?” He raised a brow. Looking inside, it took some effort for him to make out what was going on due to all the steam in the room and coming off of Jack’s body. “What kind of test?” He noticed the glowing bags. “What is that?”

“Liquid eridium.”

“What!?” He recalled her asking for that when he spied on her earlier. “Are you insane?”

“Eccentric. And it’s diluted don’t worry.”

“Even diluted eridium is highly toxic! What in the world are you testing?”

“To see if Jack’s body has become dependent on the substance. What runs through his veins is the equivalent of slag, and the levels are low. His body may respond positively to a more ‘pure’ form of the substance.”

“Dependent? No, no, no…” He shook his head, not believing that. Nothing in the files alluded to him being dependent on the substance. More like the exact opposite with the element slowly killing him and everyone exposed to it. “Stop this madness! I’m not letting you risk Jack’s life with this asinine test.”

“Too late.”

Blake winced. His eyes saw it. That glowing liquid speedily traveled down the line and into Jack’s body. No, no, no. All he could do was wait. And wait. And wait.

A few minutes passed. Jack’s shaking grew less. The sensors steadily kept their course. Jack’s breathing, though shallow, was steady.

Blake took a few minutes to recompose himself, tightening and loosening his tie, and think of the choice words he would use.

“Dr. Victoria.” He paused, biting his tongue for a moment to keep him from speaking through his teeth. “I warn you now. Do not pull this sort of stunt again without my explicit authorization. Everyone’s lives are at risk.”

The corners of her mouth twitched as if she was trying to hold back a bemused smirk. “I will… keep that in mind. Unless exigent circumstances rise and —”

There was a loud, deep gasp. 

“Dr. Viktoria! He’s waking up!” One doctor said.

They looked over. Jack’s chest was rising and falling at a rapid pace. The next second, he shifted and slowly raised himself up. One hand flew to his face and began to pull at the breathing tubes. His pale skin was looking more vibrant.

“Keep him from making any sudden movements, pulling the tubes and IV out!” She yelled. She looked back at Blake. Electronic eyes twinkled with excitement. “Let’s continue our conversation later.” Victoria smiled before hastily making her way to the entrance of the room. “Geise, stay outside! Don’t want you scaring the boss.” He let out a grunted laugh and parked himself by the entrance of the room after she entered. 

Blake’s mouth hung loose for a moment before he promptly shut it. He pinched the bridge of his nose so tightly he drew blood. He mumbled something about updating his will and other personal matters. Fingers shifting to his earpiece, he tapped into the audio to see what they would be talking about.

-------------------

“Readings on the eridium in his system with the infusion?” Viktoria asked as she entered the room. She kept an eye on the workers, making sure Jack wasn’t moving after they pulled the breathing tubes out before he hurt himself. Look like they didn’t have to do much. The man looked confused out of his mind. Pinprick eyes darted around, mostly looking at himself as one hand rubbed his neck and the other clawed at his chest faintly remembering it was wide open days ago.

“Elevated slightly, but everything is reading stable.” One answered.

“Looks like his body is responding positively so far. There’s some color in his skin again. Tremors are nearly gone. Body temp is still high, no changes there.”Another brought up a before image of Jack. “Additionally, we’ve noticed his incision sites are rapidly healing. Your guess may have been correct.” Another said.

“Perhaps. We have more tests to run.” Viktoria said. “This could just be a false positive.”

They continued to monitor him for 10 minutes. Everything hovered at a stable level.

“Good, good.” She tapped her fingers together. “Let’s see how coherent he is.” She walked over to him, shooing away the workers by him. “Mr. Jack. Handsome Jack.” She crouched down until she was at eye level with him. “Can you hear me, sir?”

The man barely moved a muscle. Eyes drifted over, lazily focusing on this person, if not a robot, crouching next to him. A robot with a human-looking face. Who the hell was this? He closed his eyes tight as his mind tried to think. A sharp pain cut through his skull. He grunted, face contorting from the pain. No, no, no. He shook his head. It still hurt to think. Eyes open once more, he looked at her. Still, nothing clicked. His eyes shifted back down to his chest. Thumb still rubbing the faint incision that ran down his chest.

“Sir, how are you feeling?” She asked another question.

A throbbing pain emerged in the back of his head. He closed his eyes tight. “ShhhHHHHHhhh… robot lady.” His voice was hoarse. “You’re… too loud.”

She let out a snort but kept silent. She gestured for her workers to quiet down and for them to dim the lights.

A few minutes later, he opened his eyes again, and this time shifted his face towards her. He studied it. Nothing about her looked familiar. He had no recollection of any of Hyperion’s robots having a chassis like hers. Their robots were more sharp and angular. Hers was more rounded and smooth.

“Who…” He paused, shaking his head to get rid of some wooziness. “Who the hell are you?” He looked around. “What’s with all the fog?”

She simply smiled. “Dr. Viktoria Finlay. And that’s steam.”

He squinted. His mind worked through old and shattered memories to put a face to that name. That thumping at the base of his skull grew and grew, but he didn’t stop thinking. He wanted to know. “Finlay… Viktoria… no… Viktor… Viktor… Vicky… Vicky. Viktor… Vicky… Yeah, yeah.” Something about those two names felt familiar. A memory from years ago was slowly piecing itself back together. 

“You’ve called me those two before. Constantly mistook me for a Viktor before settling on calling me ‘Dr. Splicer.’” 

“Dr…. Splicer.” A confused mutter slipped out. A faint memory was coming together. He looked around for a few moments before his eyes widened. A memory finally came together. “Dr. Splicer.” There was more confidence in his voice. He looked her up and down. “You loooooook… different. Taller… And more… robotic.” He cocked his head to the side, body nearly following the sudden movement, but he barely caught himself. “Like Wilhelm. Though more… robot. You still human or all AI?” He cocked his head to the other side, noticing a missing key feature of hers. “Where’s the thick specs?”

She just chuckled at what he said and the faint memories she had of him. Looked like he was still out of it. “I’m still human. Very much human. It’s been a long while since we’ve met in person. And,” she paused, tapping her lip, “can’t quite remember if I was in one of my new bodies yet when we spoke last.”

“New body?”

“Not important!” She clapped her hands together. He winced. “Too much for your pain-riddled brain to process right now. We have more important matters if you’re coherent enough to process the information.”

Coherent? That was asking a lot out of him. His mind was still in a fog and it was taking forever for it to clear up. But part of him wanted to be up and not unconscious again. Unconsciousness was unpleasant. Felt like he was constantly free-falling with no end. Raising both hands to his temples, he rubbed them before taking a deep breath. “Shoot for it, sweetheart.”

With his permission given, Viktoria took it slowly with her questions for him and mixed in a few physical tests. Jack stayed fairly calm, if not confused, through it all. Questions on how he was currently feeling were given short answers. Hot, foggy, and shitty. Questions on what he could remember were also short, if not causing him some agitation. Everything is a foggy blur. It hurts to think. She didn’t fully believe that as it seemed like he was hiding something as his body trembled with rage for a few seconds, but for now she wouldn’t press further.

The questions and examination went on for a few more minutes before finally ending.

“Now, do you have questions for me?” She asked.

Jack was picking at those glowing markings on his arm. Eyes closely examine the sweeping waves and dots. It looked Eridian. His eyes then shifted down to the IV connected to it and the purple liquid inside it. Heard one of them mention eridium infusion… no way they’re pumping this into me. “What the hell…” He raise his arm and shoved it infant of her face. He pointed at the markings. “What the hell is this? What the hell is happening to me?”

“Ah, that. We don’t know yet.” She said.

His eye twitched. “You don’t know yet? What…” His voice shook, laced with irritation. Fingers curled into fists. “What do you mean you don’t know yet!?”

“Sir,” she gently pushed his arm down, “this is a new development currently being investigated. My best guess at the moment is this is a long overdue reaction to close interactions with Eridian relics and exposure to eridium.” She explained. “Do you have a recollection of interacting with either?”

He looked away for a moment and thought. “The Vault Key.” One Eridian relic he interacted with the most over the years, charging it with countless amounts of mined eridium. “And…” He paused. His mind flashed back to some years ago on Elpis and its Vault. His mercenaries, his team defeated the Guardian and then that device that showed him everything. “And…” His voice shook. He tightened one hand into a fist. Everything. Before it was all interrupted by that bandit, Lilith. The other shakily went to his face and touched that scar, fingers tracing every indent and crack. He flinched. It was healed, but occasionally would be plagued by phantom pains of that searing impact of that punch. “And… nothing.” Not for her to know. Not for anyone to know.

“Hm, that could be part of the source.” She mused. “Whatever the cause, it seems to have caused your body to become dependent on eridium. Or at least positively respond to freshly processed eridium.”

He froze. Dependent on eridium. He had to be hearing things, right? Right? “What...?” He quietly questioned.

“It’s a speculation.” She picked up on his growing distress. “But…” She wasn’t one to lie. With a finger, she tapped at the IV line. “You seem to be responding well to this infusion. Your color has come back and your incisions are healing quicker.”

“What.” He had to be hearing things. There was no way he had become dependent on that liquid death. No way he could be suffering the same fate he inflicted on his daughter. No, she was fine. It was those bandits that killed her. My little Angel was fine.

“And speaking of infusions,” she then tapped at the ports, “need to change those for future treatments.” She then went on to explain what she meant by that and the potential surgeries. The entire process was complicated and would be painful — intertwining the components with muscle fibers, veins, and nerve pathways.

Jack wasn’t listening. His mind was else were. Memories were coming back and pounding against his skull. Back to the Vault Key. Back to his daughter. Eridium was addicting to Sirens. Too much eridium and they became dependent on it and would die if their source was cut off. “Did I… did I kill her?” He whispered to himself, covering his face with his hands. His mind recalled those Vault Hunters destroying the last injector, snuffing out her precious life. “Did I?” No, no, no. It was those bandits who killed my defenseless girl. She was fine. She would be fine after I unleashed the Warrior. We would figure out that “dependency” problem once Pandora was cleansed. She was fine. 

He clawed at his face, drawing blood from quickly healing scratches, as more memories pieced themselves together again. The fight before his death. The minutes before his death. “They killed my Warrior.” He whispers to himself. How did they kill that great Eridian weapon? Then his memory flashed forward to his death at the hands of Lilith. Hand grasping his head, fingers digging deep into his scalp. The iridium-enhanced power of hers coursed through his body, burning every nerve to a crisp until it all went black. Lilith. Lilith. Lilith. That bitch is the cause of everything. Yes, yes, yes, it was her. She was the cause of his pain back then and was the cause of it now. Whatever she did then must have been the cause of his predicament now.

A deep growl came from his throat. He clawed at his face, the scar one last time, before slamming his fists against the table. “I’m going to strangle that bitch!”

The sudden shout startled the workers. 

“Sir?” Viktoria was less disturbed, but there was concern in her voice.

It took a moment for him to register that someone else was there. Right, doctor’s here. He snorted, took in a deep breath, and exhaled. “Vicky, sweety,” he grinned, “you have the green light to do whatever you need to get me in tiptop shape, pronto.”

She pulled her head back and blinked twice. Where did this sudden gusto come from? She was pretty sure he didn’t hear half of what she was proposing. “Are you sure? This surgery will be tremendously painful and you’ll have to be awake for every second of it. Especially the fine-tuning process. It was unpleasant for Geise. It was unpleasant for me.”

“Details, minor details.” He waved her off. It couldn’t be that bad. “I have a company to run and scores to settle.”

“Huh.” She snorted. She then turned to the observation window, face beaming with a wide grin directed at Blake. He raised a hand to his face and shook his head in response. “Well, Mr. Blake, looks like I have authorization for the surgeries.”

And then there were those Crimson Raiders and their Vault Hunter buddies. They still had a score to settle with Hyperion. They wanted to pay back every single ally, close friends, hell, even the innocent bystanders caught up in Jack’s megalomanic quest for “peace” with massive amounts of collateral damage and blood.

Despite some annoyances, operations on Pandora continued and part of the moonbase become a tourist attraction of sorts. Despite everything he had done, Handsome Jack had somehow cultivated a cult of personality of sorts amongst some in Hyperion, and then from those that caught his inane broadcasts to the six galaxies. The man did have an odd charm. A thinly disguised psychotic charm. Then again, the verbal and physical abuse he subjected his employees through broke them mentally in more ways than one… some consider him a god.

So, deluded fans of the megalomanic paid big bucks visit and for those more than willing to part with a huge chunk of change — and surprisingly there were a lot of gullible people — for VIP access could enter his office turned memorial. The little attraction brought in quite a pretty penny. And an odd form of amusement for some employees. There was always a running bet on how many entitled fans would get vaporized for trying to enter Jack’s office without authorization by the end of the week. Large amounts of money changed hands frequently with these ongoing bets.

So the station was quite functional, if not dysfunctional; much to Mr. Blake’s chagrin.

Mr. Blake… That devil-horned suit. A lot had been dropped onto his shoulders since Jack’s death. But he was expecting it. Sooner or later, someone would have killed the man and all responsibilities would be oh so gracefully shunted onto him.

Shortly after Jack’s death, the man became acting president of Hyperion. Nearly instantaneously, restructuring began. Partially to course correct many of Jack’s insane and wasteful plans to “civilize” Pandora, and then some bright-eyed employees wanted to climb that corporate ladder, find a more cushy spot in the hierarchy. There were many instances of various “accidental” deaths occurring on the station. The occasional airlock failure, food poisoning via allergic reactions, the Loader bots targeting systems malfunctioning, causing a few instances of people being gunned down, and the list goes on. A few even targeting Blake. But Blake somehow stayed on top and out of harm’s way. Seemed like he always had a contingency for everything.

Eventually, the death and turnover of station employees stabilized and slowly lowered once the restructuring was nearly complete.

Jack’s office became his. Despite it being used for those lucrative tours. After hours, he would put it to use. It could still act as the command center of the station and had the best computers there. It would be wasteful not to use them.

And it was another day — or night, can’t tell with space — that Mr. Blake was there. After hours, contemplating how to sort out Hyperion’s many, many troubles.

After hours, and the office was empty once more. Just the hum of electronics and hidden machinery kept the room from being dead quiet. Most of the lights were shut off. They rarely turned those soft blue lights illuminating the colossal busts of Handsome Jack off. But there was another calm source of light. Those reflected rays from Elpis, filtered in through the windows, kept the darkness from completely swallowing the room.

And standing by those windows, just behind the desk, was Jeffery Blake. That sharply dressed and lanky man was looking out those massive windows. Hands behind his back, his eyes were transfixed upon that red scar on the moon. 

How it all began… Well, one of the many ways it all began for Helios station and Hyperion’s operations on Pandora. Insured Jack’s descent into madness and rise as a power hungry tyrant. To think he was once a mostly humble programmer. Mostly…

A subdued scoff left Blake’s lips. Humble probably was not the best way to describe Jake back them, but he was a lot more pleasant to be around even with his off-and-on had an over an inflated sense of grandeur that would peek through as he ran the station.

“I wonder how things would be now if everything was handled differently… and if Jack had help for his… other… issues before everything else.”

The thought occasionally crossed Blake’s mind. Actually, crossed his mind many times as he was stuck working under Jack. The man had a lot of issues he hid well... at first. 

But Blake occasionally wondered, if the destruction of the “Eye of Helios” had been dealt with differently, where would Hyperion be now? Where would Jack be now? Truthfully, he viewed the betrayal by Moxxi, Roland, and Lilith to be quite reasonable. What in the world was Jack thinking building that thing? 

And to think that was one of the many drops in the pond — with a few being boulders — during that whole incident. A conga line of poor decisions for all involved, an ever-growing stress that kept all from thinking rationally. And that final nail in the coffin was when Lilith rammed that Vault relic into Jack’s face. Any last shred of sanity in that man snapped.

“Should have made sure that attack killed him. But the others were there with him. Guns at the ready. Her shields wouldn’t have lasted long.”

Still, he wondered… how would things be if Jack was killed then and there?

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on the past.

Blake’s eyes shifted away from Elpis.

“Let’s get down to business.”

A moment later, holographic screens appeared around him, surrounding him in a blue glow. His eyes fell upon them, shifting from panel to panel. Raising a hand to his face, he tapped his chin. He even turned his body as he looked at each panel.

An active tracker for Hyperion stocks caught his attention. Steady and rising. Then messages from the Share Holders and Board of Directors. The usual business asking about profit margins, how things were being run, and what not. 

His eyes narrowed as his bite the inside of his cheek. For a moment, he winced as he bit much harder than he expected. 

“Why…”

The “Handsome Jackpot”. A name he had some to loathe. There were so many messages concerning that scam of a casino Jack built. How many zillions of corporate money did that man invest in building that thing? Well, it did quickly pay out by draining those “lucky” patrons that went there. And now those patrons and so many others were trapped in that death trap of a casino as soon as Jack died. Why did he program the place to lockdown in the case of his untimely death?

“Megalomaniac…” Blake shook his head as he read the reports.

All rescue efforts were going poorly. The top-notch security to the station quickly obliterated all attempts to leave the station, no matter what was tried. But the casino was more than welcoming to trap any and all newcomers. Fixing the issue was getting pushed to the back-burner until they could disable the security measures.

   His eyes then shifted to a screen containing the ECHOnet news concerning all things on Pandora. It was the same old same old bandit madness, peppered with the escapades of the Vault Hunters. Speaking of Vault Hunters… them and the Crimson Raiders… he needed to figure out a way to sate their bloodlust. They were making good on their promise to destroy all things Hyperion. A few things Blake didn’t mind being destroyed, a few things he could ignore and write off like Opportunity and the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve. 

“Opportunity…” A snort came out, followed by a chuckle. Another crazy plan of Jack’s. He wondered who would even move there with all the questionable laws, but then he thought of the fanatics that attended the tours on the station. There’s always a gullible person out there. For now, the construction of the settlement continued to not be an entirely wasted venture. It became the perfect place to house all those “lucky” workers who ran the mines.

Mines… Those Eridium mining operations. Blake’s eyes shifted to another planet. There was something he couldn’t ignore forever. The Crimson Raiders and Vault Hunters’ ongoing attacks were bitting into Hyperion’s profit margins. The Board didn’t like that too much and wanted the nuisances completely wiped out. 

A disgruntled hiss slipped from his lips thinking about those meetings.

Blake knew that would be a tall order. They had just waged war against Hyperion a while back and had won. He was in no mood to wage war against them again. There was a strong chance a second war could end with Hyperion having to completely abandon Pandora. There had been discoveries of eridium on other planets, but not in the abundantly vast quantities found on Pandora. It would be too great of a risk to strike another war.

“Maybe I can see if I can broker a deal with them if Lilith is willing to listen.” Blake muttered to himself. “Though I’ve heard she’s had a few Hunters capture some Hyperion spies for interrogation. Heard they’re determined to take out the ‘eyesore in the sky’.”

And in response, they had increased security on Helios. Again.

Blake toyed with the idea in his mind from time to time. He had decent professional relations with Lilith and her cohorts years ago, cleaning up the “Claptrap Revolution” mess. But who knew where his standing with them was now after everything with Jack.

He shook his head. It was a thought. A thought that needed to take shape and become action sooner rather than later. Just a little more planning out all the details and maybe a deal could be struck.

His eyes drifted back and forth between the panels as he thought of how to respond to messages here and there, and then giving out orders on how some operations should be handled. Until something caught his attention.

A buzzing rumble at first before a pinging rattle against metal. Blake glanced over at the desk and down. It was his phone, a yellow screen flashing as it vibrated across the desk. Odd. He didn’t remember setting the vibration that strong. 

“Hm.”

Those holo-screens flickered out one by one, blue glow disappearing , before he walked over to the desk. He looked down again and at the screen.

Hidden Caller: 

>ACCEPT || >DECLINE

“Hm…” Oddly strong vibrations. And there was a pattern to it that repeated a few times.

-... .-. --- -.- . -. / ..-. .- -.-. .- -.. .  / -... .-. --- -.- . -. / ..-. .- -.-. .- -.. .

“Hm.” He tapped his chin. Was it? He shook his head. Only one way to find out. He reached over to the phone, picked up the earpiece, and put it in his ear as he answered the call.

“Hello?”

A series of electronic pings and screeches quickly greeted his ear. Head jerking to the side, he gritted his teeth as it went on for over a minute. Then there was silence. He took in a breath.

“The Golden Age.” He uttered those words. A pause. More silence for just a moment and more of the screeches came through before slowly transitioning over to a voice. A heavily distorted voice. “Ah, you. Wondered when you would call again.” A smile crossed his face. Just the contact he wanted to hear from again. “Where did we last leave off?”

Blake paced back and forth; holo-screens flickered back into existence and kept pace with him. The conversation focused on the ongoing problems on Pandora. Specifically, the activities of the Crimson Raiders. They had info to share on what they were up to and where some of the Vault Hunters were. Off hunting those closely associated with Handsome Jack, even if for a short time, for interrogation.

So, ideas were being tossed around on how to negotiate a truce that would bring the least amount of profit-loss and bloodshed.

Buy them off? Did they even care about money that much to give up their vendetta?

Give them an exorbitant amount of guns? Couldn’t go wrong with that, since they had to deal with those crazed bandits. But… but that could so easily backfire in Hyperion’s face. There were those confirmed rumors the Crimson Raiders were planning on assaulting Helios station.

Perhaps place some bounties on them or amass an army to wipe them out? Wait… how did that go for Handsome Jack again? That option stayed at the bottom of the list.

So ideas continued to be tossed out and mused upon.

Blake’s pacing slowed as he passed by the desk, before anger flashed over his face. One moment his right hand was swiping through some messages and then the next it came down hard onto the desk, making a slighty loud thud. 

“That’s the last thing we want!” His voice was just below a shout. A moment later, he winced, quickly rubbing his wrist. A robust metal desk, topped with finely carved wood panelling imported from Eden-6 did not play well with weak wrists.

The voice on the other end laughed, rattling off a few things. He rolled his eyes. Then shifted them to a panel that showed multiple views of Pandora from space. That massive eridium rift, a vibrant purple glowing scar that stretched across one side of the planet. Amazing how it appeared so suddenly after the defeat of the Destroyer years ago.

As he continued to listen, Blake narrowed his eyes. “I don’t find that funny. Operations will not be abandoned or destroyed in a bait and switch to get rid of them.”

He then pressed a few buttons on the keyboard on the desk, activating some holo-screens, and transferred what he was doing over to them.

“Now less joking. Tell me what you know about their latest plans. Heard they recently grabbed a technician from the station that was recalibrating a moonshot beacon a short while ago.” He brought up the profile of said technician. Someone low on the food chain, but that’s all it could take to start a fire. 

His contact gave him the details, and he made notes and remarks. Looks like they were going to have to increase security again and update some security codes… again.

Soon, Blake was sending out orders concerning the much needed updates. And to increase security of the important workers down on Pandora.

As he continued to work and talk, a barely audible whirring sound came from the desk.

On the left, towards the edge, panels shifted, sections pulling away from the sides as something rose; a slim, rectangular column. It looked inconspicuous. Just a dark gray plinth, barely anything about it looked interesting. As is rose, flaps unfolded from the side, revealing the hidden magic within. Several lenses one could find on those major Fast-Travel hubs.

That whirring increased as those lenses lit up blue until a solid hum took over.

A new holo-panel appeared by the ones Blake was working it. 

EXECUTING:  NO ONE LIVES FOREVER… EXCEPT ME.

It went unnoticed. 

That hum grew louder. Holographic streams of pixels and particles swirled around the lenses before several lines of light were projected out, making an outline. Quickly, a silhouette began to take shape. The blue glow grew brighter as more streams of pixels and particles appeared and swirled towards the shape as those familiar electronic swirling sounds of a digistructing(or teleporting) item or person filled the room.

Line by line, a body was coming through, being built block by block. A body that twitched and dripped blood.

Blake’s nose wrinkled. There was a strong sulfur smell biting at his nose, making his eyes water, peppered with the smell of burnt clothes and flesh. Human flesh. A smell he could never forget after spending some time down on Pandora. At least it wasn’t rotting and mixed smell of Skag piss. Ugh bandits…

“What the hell…?” He muttered, taking a moment to wipe his nose. “Is the maintenance crew working in the ventilation again? Someone lose grip on their torch or touch a loose wire?”

The digistruct sounds grew in intensity and a few flashes of bright light occurred.

“Huh?” That finally caught this attention. He looked up. A brow raised. Those typing fingers froze. “What in the world?”

Who? What? How?

He looked down to the source, that hidden plinth inside of the desk. When was that there? Then again, even Jack had his secrets.

Backing away from the desk, holo-panels quickly closing, he grab his phone and sent a message to security. This person had to be an idiot to transport themselves in here. But why the smell of sulfur and burning flesh?

“Hm?” Blake’s eyes shifted towards his ear piece. The voice was still talking. “No… something’s come up. Unexpected guest. We can still talk before security arrives.” He moved to the right side of the desk, giving the digistructing body a wide berth, but was curious to see who this bold, idiotic person was. 

The lower half was fully digistructed and the upper half was slowly coming in piece by piece. But with what was there, they were riddled with bullets, burns, and slashes that had to come from a Buzzaxe. Clothes were absolutely ripped to shreds, and all those wounds were bleeding. A massive chunk of the person’s left thigh was missing. And there was fresh crimson running down said leg. 

Blake wrinkled his nose. A hard swallow soon followed, chasing down a growing burn in the back of his throat. A hand soon covered his mouth. Needed to add the clean-up crew to that security call he made. Didn’t need that blood staining that expensive wood flooring.

“Hm.” Blake muttered. Something about those pants looked oddly familiar. Something about that silhouette was familiar. Especially those shaking laser lines around the hair. Swept back, faded slightly on the sides, with a few arched locks. Where had he seen that last?

Security was taking forever to arrive, but Blake kept watching, just entranced by the morbid sight. Until something in his mind clicked. “Wait…” His head quickly spun around and fell onto one of those gaudy statues of Jack that lead to the desk.

“What… no…” He looked back at the digistructing body. The torso was nearly done now and was just as battered as the lower half. A few more chuckles of flesh were missing, making Blake question if this person would be alive when the digistruct ended. The clothes were ripped and riddle with bullet holes, but were still recognizable. 

“No… no… no…” 

Something was clicking. Troubling things were clicking in his mind as his eyes focused on the clothes.. That gray suit jacket, brown vest, white dress shirt, and yellow shirt underneath. What remained of those blue tattoos on the right wrist as part of the skin of the arm was charred black, with a deep divot of flesh and muscle missing from the forearm. And then were a few rings he recognized.

“No… no… no.” Blake shook his head. He looked back at the desk and noticed there was still one holo-panel up. He went back to investigate.

NO ONE LIVES FOREVER… EXCEPT ME. 87.50% COMPLETE.

WARNING: MEDICAL INTERVENTION NEEDED ASAP. TRAUMA TEAM CONTACTED. ETA… ERROR…

MULTIPLE LACERATIONS DETECTED. HEAD TRAUMA DETECTED. BRAIN TRAUMA DETECTED HIGH BLOOD LOSS DETECTED. SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH DEGREE BURNS DETECTED. ERIDIUM POISONING DETECTED

“What the hell?” 

He expanded the panel to get more details. A series of panels appeared. His jaw nearly dropped. A profile image appeared. That smug face of Handsome Jack greeted his eyes. Then he saw the rest. Read the rest. Vital stats, walls of text listing every single last injury he had sustained and then some details on how this digistruct of a teleport was working… and then a concerning amount of error messages that were appearing.

Before he could even decipher what those where, something caught Blake’s eyes. Details of what this “NO ONE LIVES FOREVER…EXPECT ME” execution was. He dug deeper. A brow twitched; his face reflexively contorted in disgust as he read the file. Immortality. A harebrained idea implanted into Jack’s mind because of Professor Nakayama ages ago. A considerable amount of the company’s expenses were wasted in the venture of using Digistruct technology to copy one’s mind and build a new body with a ton of failures until one courageous soul was able to convince Jack it was pointless and was taking away precious resources from the Eridium experiments. He surprisingly conceded… after throwing them into an airlock and spacing them.

   “This is… impossible.” But Blake couldn’t believe what he was reading. What he was seeing. A functioning prototype for a mad grasp at immortality. He glanced back at Jack. That head was nearly done. He could see the remnants of those clamps that held Jack’s mask in place. This hinges broken, and the flesh around the edges was torn and bleeding.

Jack was dead. They had photographic and video proof of his long coming death from those Crimson Raiders and Vault Hunters. Those Vault Hunters gave Lilith the pleasure of killing the man. A firm hand gripping the man’s face, bringing him to his knees, followed by a quick burst of her Siren power coursed through his body and threw him to the rocky ground, splitting the back of his skull open like a ripe vineapple. 

“That was for Roland, asshole.” A brutal death, yet efficient. 

Several items were pilfered from Jack’s corpse, especially that mask, and they left him there to rot in the Vault of the Warrior. After planting a bullet to his brain. One last release of frustration from Lilith, and she swore she heard him gurgle. Hyperion was unable to retrieve his body, as once they regained control over the area, the arena was flooded with lava.

“Impossible…” Blake muttered as his eyes went back to the panels. He looked back to his ear. That person was talking, asking what was up. “I… I… I don’t even know where to begin.” He shook his head. “Hm!?”

Suddenly, a massive “ERROR” obscured the main screen.

98.989897% COMPLETE. ERROR. PROCESS INTERRUPTED. ERROR. PROCESS INTERRUPTED. INVESTIGATING ERROR.

Both brows were raised. He looked back over at Jack. Those digitstruct sounds and particles began to wind down and so did the lights. Just a few particles swirled around the floating, near lifeless body — as there was a finger twitch here and there — of Jack. The processed looked to be done. Jack looked to be entirely there. Wounds and all.

“Hm…” 

“Hm…” Blake transferred the panels over to his personal system and made his way towards the front of Jack. Still, he gave him a wide berth, carefully eying the possibly living corpse suspended in the air. He studied the burns and bullet wounds. The rising burn of bile came back up, but another hard swallow forced it back down.

It surprised him there were not more gruesome wounds — minus his one arm, thigh, and recognizable slices from a Buzzaxe — as those Vault Hunter’s came down on him hard in his final hour. Just a pack of rabid dogs dishing out much deserved justice against him with their overkill weaponry.

Though… there was his head… there was just a massive amount of fresh crimson running down his neck, coming from the back of his head. And from what Blake he glimpsed as studied the body, there was a chunk of hair missing, revealing shattered white fragments of a skull and that all too familiar pinkish-red brain.

“Huh…” The man tapped at his chin as he paused in his tracks. He was curious about that wound, though his brain was yelling at him not to look. Taking a few steps back, both brows were quickly raised. Another hard swallow followed, but a gag slipped out.

The back of Jack’s head was split open, but the brain looked rather intact. There should have been parts of it missing.

As he was pondering on the thought, moving forward again to study the rest of the body, he nearly tripped over his feet — way too close to the stairs. Really needed some guardrails on the platform — once his eyes saw the face. Jack’s face. It was him. Face plain, eyes closed, and mask torn off, revealing that embarrassing scar underneath. It was really him.

“How…?” Blake muttered as he got himself steady once more. His eyes focused on that face, especially that bullet wound right in the middle of his forehead. It was leaking. “Just how…?” 

If Jack had this working failsafe, why didn’t it activate as soon as he was killed?

“So… we may have a problem now.” Blake spoke to his contact. Throwing caution to the wind, as his curiosity was getting the best of him, he slowly inched towards Jack to getting a better look at him. “Something big just came up. It may be rather troublesome for the future of Hyperion.” 

As he got closer, Jack’s eyes flew open suddenly. A strangled gasp came out as his mouth snapped open. Blake’s eyes went wide; stumbling back, his butt hit the floor. He nearly tumbled down the stairs, barely catching himself.

Pain crossed Jack’s face. He grunted, face twisting into a grimace as his fingers arched. Those eyes, one blue and the other a cloudy green, darted around. 

Where? Where? Where the fuck am I? 

His mind was in a heavy fog, his body was numb, but the layout of the room seemed familiar to him. Those two gorgeous busts of one handsome man. And then he saw someone on the floor. His assistant, more like unwilling butler, Jimmy a.k.a. Blake. Mouth hanging open, the man was white as a sheet, like he had seen a ghost.

“What…” A mutter escaped his lips. What was he doing back in his office? Last thing he could remember was facing those wretched bandits in the Vault of the Warrior. But those memories were so foggy. His nose wrinkled as he closed his eyes tightly. Why were those memories so foggy? Why did it hurt to think?

He fought against that pain and searched for those memories. He won his fight against those stinkin’ murderous bandits, right? Right…?

His eyes flew open once more, face dropping, eyes trembling as they stared blankly ahead. The memories hit him. He did not win. The Warrior was summoned, but those bandits killed his long-awaited weapon. And then Lilith, the damn Siren killed him! Killed… him… He had died? 

Impossible… Impossible!

His mind refused to rationalize that. There was no way those bandits killed him. There was no way.

“Welcome back,” a female-voiced AI suddenly spoke, “Handsome Jack!”

Nononono…. Impossible…

“Death is barely a temporary setback for your Handsomeness!”

Fuck no…

Blinking a few times, a d brief shake of his head, his eyes fell onto the Blake. The man was still snow white and stammering “he’s alive” or some stupid nonsense. The man had to have answers. He was good at keeping track of things. Staying up to date on all the important information.

“What the hell is going on Jim—“ Jack froze as he felt something course through him. Mouth agape; pupils were mere pinpricks.

“ERROR. PROCESS INTERRUPTED. TRANSFER PROCESS INTERRUTPED. DNA DATA CORRUPTED. TRANSFER DATA CORRUPTED.” Another AI spoke. More robotic and cold. “FATAL ERROR OCCURING.”

 “mmmmMMMMMIIIIIY—,” Jack’s voice returned, going up several octaves as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, “AAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!” Before it turned into a full-blown wail of pain.

Blue bolts of energy erupted from the machine like lightning, quickly ensnaring the man. Blood shot out of every wound. His body thrashed about in the air like a puppet being jerked around by a child, causing him to contort on himself several times. A few times, his back arched until it felt like his spine would break in two and then those limbs contorted nearly beyond their natural ranges until… a few snaps were heard. 

Blake had to turn away. This time he lost his dinner.

White froth soon left Jack’s mouth. And that Vault scar on his face began to glow… purple.

“What the hell…” Blake muttered, hand wiping his mouth. His mind trying to process what was going on. And his body was far too frightened to move a muscle. “He’s… alive.”

The entrance doors to the room opened. A thunderous stampede of footfalls entered the room. Blake looked over his shoulder.

“Took security forever… and there’s the medical team?” For a moment he wondered why they were there as he didn’t request them. Then his mind remembering the wailing corpse in the room. “Lovely…” Probably some hidden protocol in the program sent a message to them.  

Could he keep them from saving Jack? It was better for Hyperion — really everyone — if the man stayed dead. 

He pondered on that for a moment before pursing his lips. He took in a sharp breath and sighed. If Jack had this cooked up, what else did he have planned? Possibly additional orders in that hidden protocol to kill anyone that tried to stop the medical team from saving him.

“Why, why, why? Always something…” It was just a speculation, but Blake didn’t like. He had enough fun working around and tearing apart insane rules and loopholes the man had implemented to keep his power — and getting Hyperion back to its old black and red color scheme was one rule that was making him want to tear his hair out. He was so tired of that damn yellow.

 So, there probably was some hidden clause somewhere dealing with this, and Blake very much wanted to keep his head on his shoulders.

An annoyed sigh slipped from his lips. He barely noticed the medical team sweeping past him and over to Jack. Someone deactivated if not destroyed the machine. The moment it was off, Jack unceremoniously crashed to the ground, still a twisting and shaking mess. 

He barely acknowledged the security team and his ears being flooded by a sea of questions as hands firmly clasped his arms and raised him back to his feet. 

Is that Handsome Jack?

Handsome Jack is alive!?

Handsome Jack is back!?

“Oh, things are going to get interesting again…”

Looked like Blake’s and his contacts plans were going to have to be put on hold for the time being. 

For everyone’s continued safety, Viktoria kept Handsome Jack in the loop. A useful tip Blake passed onto her to help them placate Jack’s ego… when it would fully come back. He strongly disliked not knowing the details of things dealing with him directly and hated if you kept key details from it. And then that ego was just finicky as his current health. Currently, part of him seemed more mellow since his return to life. But just the right(wrong) word or action would set the man off, leading to an hour long raving rant before an eridium level spike would lay him out.

Jack’s health was a constant tug-o-war of touch and go. One moment, he would be fine and mostly lucid, as they did some tests. Then, the next moment, a random surge of eridium energy would rip through his body, causing him to froth at the mouth and seize for minutes or some hours. Re-stabilizing him was a constant pain as the errant eridium energies and gas spewed from his mouth were a biohazard to all. Additionally, they also had to deal with his constantly fluctuating body temperature. The fact he somehow wasn’t suffering from brain damage, more organ failures, or spontaneous combustion eluded everyone. Dr. Viktoria was more intrigued.

She floated around theories, with all that would be privy to the situation, on how the eridium was both killing and keeping him alive. Why? She wasn’t quite sure yet. She was still formulating some theories, but they weren’t to a degree she wished to share with the others. If they were shared too soon, it could cause a great deal of chaos if it reached Jack’s ears.

But there was one theory she plucked at. The late Colonel Tungsteena Zarpedon and her most likely Eridian-gifted abilities. Perhaps he, too, had been blessed — more like cursed — by the Eridian technology he meddled with. How to test that?

For the current time, more tests dealing with introducing refined liquid eridium to Jack’s system were taking place. It looked like the insane treatment option was alleviating the worst of his ailments. Just too slowly. The transfusions needed to diffuse more quickly in his system to achieve the balance it was lacking.

Viktoria had some ideas to fix that. She had already extensively marked the areas of his body where the new infusion and drainage ports needed to be placed. But with Jack’s more unique condition, she needed to make more extensive modifications. If their lovely boss would be up for it. She knew Jack was rather touchy about this appearance. And Mr. Blake was more than kind to show her a recording of his first surgery when he came back to the world of the living.

Though Jack gave her the go-ahead to do whatever was needed to get him back up and running, she knew she had to approach all future operations that could alter his appearance with the utmost care, as everyone’s necks were on the line.

She figured the best way to do so was to get the man involved before any major surgeries would take place. It would be a dangerous game of playing with and placating his ego as she would bring up the potential augmentations that may be needed. Maybe letting him make some design “suggestions” would keep him in a good mood?

——————— 

“Soooooooo, Mr. Jack.” Dr. Viktoria said as she walked over — almost glided — to her boss with a tablet in hand. “Let’s discuss the operation for removing the old ports and putting in the new ones that you’ll be undergoing in just a few hours.”

A few days had passed, and it was nearly time for the first stages of this mad endeavor to begin. They had moved Jack to another retrofitted medical room that could better handle his ever-changing condition. She was still rather surprised how Jack hadn’t been making any demands to have a more extravagant room for his long medical stay. Looked like the more logical side of his brain had beaten down that megalomania. But they were prepping a room like that, just in case. 

Jack had been up and fairly lucid for some hours, without any major issues. He just occasionally shooed away Viktoria’s workers as he when didn’t feel like being touched. He never knew skin could be so sensitive. 

Currently, he was catching up on the ongoings of Hyperion, Pandora, and the Six Galaxies. New Vaults found. Corporate wars on the horizon. Although he had returned, the Handsome Jackpot stayed locked down, yet it still drew in new “customers.”  He grinned at that. Then, the Crimson Raiders wrecking at least three major Hyperion mining operations on Pandora. Furrowed brows and a snarl quickly replaced that smile. In due time you bastards. There was so much to take in. So much had happened since his defeat.

  “Hm?” Jack looked up from a few holo-panels he was reading. Eyes followed that quirky doctor as she sat down next to him. He had so many questions about her current body, but those would have to wait. “Haven’t we gone over this like a bajillion times?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “But your memory retention has been poor due to several, factors and I just want to make sure you understand everything.”

He rolled his eyes. That was true, but he didn’t see how it mattered. With a few hand gestures, he turned off the holo-panels and turned to face her. He rolled his hand a few times. “Just peachy… let’s get this over with, cupcake. Again.” 

Turning her tablet to him and causing a few holo-panels to appear, Viktoria began to go over what was going to be done in just a few hours. He would be under general anesthesia to remove the old ports, but for the new ports, she strongly reiterated several times that he would be under no anesthesia as they would be integrated into his system.

Jack just nodded along, giving the occasion “uh huh” and “mhm” as the doctor went over where the key ports would be placed around his body. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes at how she continued to express how painful it would be. It couldn’t be that painful despite her claims of her self-operation, and what she did for the overgrown, mutated slab of mutilated meat of a bodyguard, Geise. 

Overdramatic. It can’t be that bad. Nothing I can’t handle!

They discussed what materials would comprise the composition of the ports as well as color options. Much to Viktoria’s surprise, Jack didn’t care too much about the color. He off-handedly assumed that could be changed later, if he even cared, as they would be covered 99% of the time and the galaxies wouldn’t know. He was more interested in the materials as the mention of how they would interact with him and the eridium in his system tickled that more technical part of his brain.

“So besides the usual Hyperion tech, you’re using the E-tech we created and patented — Makes sense. Wonder how R&D has been going…” Jack’s eyes were scanning the information on how they would adapt the technology to help control and redirect those randomly occurring energy spikes. 

“Recovered intact Eridian tech that can manipulate eridium in a similar manner…” His voice trailed off as he skimmed the details and images. “Huh, nice finds. Though the more bio-mechanical stuff…” He closed his eyes. His shoulders tenses as his body briefly shuddered. The thought of having any of that tech integrated into his system… No, no, no. That will totally mess up my good looks. He figured she was just referencing to see how to reverse engineer some aspects of how it worked. She wouldn’t be crazy enough to integrate any of that into him. 

“Some almost look like… Vault keys…” He noticed how some split into three parts. “How many are out there now?” 

The design of some of the artifacts caught his eye. Each was uniquely shaped. Though he was obsessed with the Vault of the Warrior on Pandora (and would sort through the other Vaults on the planet once it was cleansed), as he researched the Vault and Sirens, he learned of other Vaults on many planets across the cosmos. 

Maybe there’s something greater than the Warrior out there? Yes, yes, there is. There’s something far greater than the Warrior that’ll snuff out those bandits. When I’m better, I’ll take a look at the archives from what I saw in the Elpis Vault. My memories are… fuzzy right now.

He shook his head. Not the time for those thoughts just yet. He needed to get his health back in order. With his mind refocused, he looked at the last entry Viktoria had.

“And finally… Maliwan and Gemini Helix tech?” A major competitor and some mid-size bio-corporation. A brow was raised before he looked at her. “Why?”

“For Maliwan, they are pioneers in elemental tech and they’ve made strides with the handling of Slag. I will be using their filtration methods to filter out that waste that courses through your system.” She smiled before continuing. “Additionally, their E-tech modifications will aid with energy regulation and other minor details.”

He raised a hand to his chin and tapped his lip. He nodded. “Makes sense. Just make sure everything has the Hyperion aesthetic. And make sure we don’t have any issues with ‘copyright infringement.’”

“I will keep that in mind, but no one will be able to see what’s under the skin. And we have that covered.” She chuckled. 

“How about those Gemini people?” He was trying to remember what they did, but it escaped his mind.

“Courtesy of our ever so keen corporate spies, Gemini Helix has been dabbling in some eridium experiments. “Borrowing” their data, we will be applying just a touch of genetic modification to help your cells better handle the eridium transfusions. Just another failsafe for the Slag filtration.”

He pressed his tongue against his teeth. His eyes shifted back and forth from the corners before he looked at her with a pointed squint. “Genetic manipulation?”

“Oh! Nothing major. I dare not mess with your sublime form.” Her brow twitched faster than the eye could catch.

He snorted. Damn straight. The squint softened as he straightened himself up, almost puffing out his chest.

“Now, for the next part. I warn you, this is not for the faint of heart.”

“Sweety,” a wicked grin crept across Jack’s face, “try me.”

With a few taps, Viktoria brought up various images and videos of Geise’s operation, and then some mockup videos of Jack’s body showing where the major ports would be placed. 

They both showed the excruciating detail of how the surgeries would go. The incisions through the several layers of tissue to get all the way down to the organs and bones. Using the bio-mechanical Eridian tech to help the other tech interlace with the cardiovascular and nervous system. It was like a web of vines sprawling across the layers of tissues, rooting themselves deeply into every nook and cranny. 

“And you must be awake for every second. All of this will be excruciatingly painful.” Viktoria said. “I’m not being sarcastic when I say that. I am beyond 500% serious. You will wish for death every single second.”

Jack was barely listening to her as he was watching Geise’s operation. “Huh,” he mumbled under his breath. “looks like he got torn apart by some Skags. Or rabid bandits.” 

Geise looked more like a neon glowing mangled puzzle of a corpse than an actual human body laying on the operating table; barely sustained by the tech Viktoria and her crew had on hand. The work they had to do to get him to resemble a functional body again before the intensive integration of cybernetics, bio-organic material, and eridium began.

Though there was no volume, he could almost imagine the howls of pain the bodyguard let out as he thrashed on that table. With each new part integrating into his system as the reconstruction trudged on, the thrashing grew worse. 

Jack let out a laugh seeing one clip of a later date where Geise grabbed the throat of an unlucky worker, nearly snapped their neck, before throwing them across the room.

Viktoria’s brow twitched. I can’t tell if he’s frightened, intrigued, or… turned on by this… The stories I’ve heard and those files Blake gave me did not warn me enough about this.

“So, what the hell happened to him?” A part of him was curious. 

Her shoulders tensed as her hands tightened around the tablet. 

“An incident on Erebus while my team was assisting another team in the investigation of Eridian ruins. Some idiotic treasure hunters were also in the area and some eridium smugglers. A firefight broke out. Someone activated the Guardians to the place and some beasts of shadow poured out of every crack of that pitch-dark hell.” Her voice trembled for a second. “I think that area may have held a Vault with how ferocious those things were. It was a bloodbath.” A minor sigh slipped out before she could catch it; her shoulders dropped too.  She closed her eyes before forcing a smile as she opened them again. “But I’m sure you don’t want to hear all the trivial details of that minor inci—”

“Actually, I do.” He said. There was no hint of sarcasm in his voice. He faintly recalled the planet and reports from a survey team that had been sending information on Sirens and Eridian interactions. “What happened? What were you searching for?”

“Eh…?” She was expecting him to be more dismissive or tell her to cut to the chase, but this was different. Just taking a quick look at him, she noticed an intensity in his eyes. He wanted details. Me and damn mouth… “Very well…”

Viktoria explained a little more about the incident, but it was all too obvious she did not like talking about that day. Her line of work for researching Eridian tech was always dangerous, but this was something else. That planet was just another piece of the puzzle in finding ways to more safely manipulate eridium and learn how the Eridians created their bio-mechanical constructs. Anything that dealt with Sirens she wasn’t too privy to, as the other research party kept that information to themselves. 

When it came time to explain how Geise was torn apart, her memory was fuzzy as she blacked out at some point due to her ailing health being strained by the stress of the situation. More or less, Geise had intercepted one of the shadow creatures gunning for her as she had snatched an artifact as they were escaping and angered the horde. The creatures swiftly swarmed him. However, he used this to his advantage to lead them away from Viktoria and the others and deeper into the ruins. 

Shortly after escaping, she blacked out and was unconscious for several days. When she came to, the others had gone back once things had calmed down and found Geise’s remains. The shocker was he was somehow still alive.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jack raised his hands, “so you’re telling me that he was alive for days after being turned into mincemeat?”

“Yep.”

“There is no freakn’ way that’s possible!” Though he had seen many impossibilities.

“I can only theorize a mix of his cybernetics, the sheer spite ol’ shaved sides could radiate, and whatever was in those ruins kept him alive.”

“And then you decided to waste a bunch of time and resources putting him back together when you could have bought another bodyguard?” He made a dismissive hand gesture as his tone began to shift into a slightly mocking tone. “What? Couldn’t let the old dog die? Or were you guys lovers or something?”

A few of the workers snickered at the comments he made.

There it is. Viktoria wasn’t sure if she should feel some sense of relief hearing that tone. “Yes, and no. He was a loyal bodyguard and close friend.” She nearly bristled at the lover’s jab. 

Why do people always say that? Faint cracking sounds could be heard as hands shifted the tablet about. She shot a harsh glare towards some of her workers, who only snickered more. If I had a death wish, I would take his head off. 

Taking a moment to calm her nerves, she spoke. “Geise volunteered for the risky operations.”

“What?” Jack raised a finger to his ear and twirled it around in the canal a few times before removing it and flicking any wax at her. “What?” He repeated himself and she said the exact same thing again. He wasn’t hearing things. “Volun-fuckin’-teered!?” 

“Better to be used to test that major theory of mine than to let his body go to waste.” She explained. “To think that planet was the final piece of the puzzle.”

There was a brief pause before he started laughing. Several thuds echoed in the room as he banged his fist against the table. “Ha! Haaaa! That’s fucking insane!” Tears were nearly coming out of his eyes with how hard he was laughing.

It took him a few moments to recompose himself, even more so when he broke into a hacking fit and coughed up some purple glowing sludge. He tried his best to ignore it. A cleaner bot quickly took care of that hazard.

“And what was that theory?” Jack asked, rubbing his chest.

Viktoria gestured to herself. “You’re looking right at it. Well, one of them.”

His brows knitted together as he was puzzled by her statement. He looked her up and down before those gears finally clicked. 

“Your robot body?” As she was about to answer, he raised a finger. “And what the hell is with the robot get-up, anyway?”

“It was a solution to a lifelong ailment of mine that would have killed me some time ago.” A huffed sigh slipped out as thoughts of how her health dropped severely once she became “employed” with Hyperion. She mumbled under her breath how she wished Gemini Helix would have headhunted her better but felt like she would have roughly been in the same position with her health. And then she heard some rumors that the biomedical company was dabbling with Vault explorations. I would most likely be sent on similar expeditions like I’ve been doing for the past handful of years. Though maybe with better healthcare.

She typed away on the tablet and pulled up some images of dead Eridian constructs and recovered weaponry that had been dissected. “I’ve been fascinated with Eridian bio-mechanical technology for a long time. Dissecting their constructs and weaponry gave me some clues on how to replicate some aspects and put them to use.”

She kept her explanations brief on her fascination that slowly became more of an obsession as the years ticked by; she avoided most scientific terms, as she felt that would go over Jack’s head. Overall, the process was painstaking as she with through many trials and self-experimentations to keep herself going and aid in further explorations into Eridian ruins.

It eventually paid off after studying some of the more intelligent Guardians as they died. How a reddish energy would evacuate the body upon death and would either wander away or immediately plant itself into another viable construct body to return to battle. 

How she obsessed over that. Was it their soul? Or some equivalent? How to replicate it? How to transfer oneself into a more adequate body? With Geise’s near sacrifice and a great deal of experimentation, she finally figured out something. 

“It’s far from a perfect copy of whatever the Guardians do. But marrying the Digistruct system with more Eridian tech, cybernetics, and genetic manipulation got me somewhere close enough to where about 80% of my bodies are in a ‘usable’ state.” Her electronic eyes sparkled with energy. 

“And of course, eridium. Can’t forget that golden poison.” She laughed. One that sounded like she was hiding some pain. “Though I still need to work on the neuro-electricity build-up and another feedback issue keeping things from being truly long-lasting, but let me stop now before I start babbling in some jargon you would barely be able to follow.”

Jack listened intently. He was fascinated by what she had to tell. Sounded like she may have found that fabled key to immortality. Something more tangible than what that incompetent, obsessive professor was working on. Naka-whatever… We only got as far as making a digital copy of me, a poor one at that at the time. But this… this sounds more like the real deal. Thinking about that… where is that digital copy?

As his mind was going to wander back to the AI clone, his mind snapped back to what Viktoria had told him. The brief mentions of all the experiments to achieve a more stable body. The work done on Geise and his current look. She had yet to show any evidence of her self-experimentation over the years. Would her ‘help’ make him look like her bodyguard or have him shoved into some robot body like her? 

“Hold, hold, hold on.” Jack raised his hands. The room went silent. “Whatever the slagging hell you’re gonna do to me is not gonna turn me into a walking hideous monstrosity like the big guy,” he threw a thumb towards the viewing window, “or some robot like you, is it?” He then pointed at her.

Viktoria raised a hand to cover her ever-twitching mouth. Was waiting for that. “No,” a snort slipped free, “you’d kill me for ruining your luscious looks and body.” She knew that danger all too well and wouldn’t even try without explicit permission from him. And even then, she would be hesitant to modify his body to that extent. She then gestured to her head with her thumb. “And I still have my ‘ganic brain in here. Just the body is a ‘robot’.”

“Hm. Hm.” Jack nodded. His chest puffed up with pride at hearing the compliments. “Heh, heh… you’re a smart cookie. I like you.”

“Buuuuut…” There was something she had to bring up. “While we are on that subject, I want to talk about your spine.” Her fingers were already working to bring up the medical information and images. 

“What about it?”

Several images appeared before them. All of them were detailed images of his spine at various angles. The foundation work the surgeons had done to realign, strengthen, and stabilize it. There were still some collapsed disks and a few vertebrae were crushed. And just about every last one of them was riddled with fractures ranging from hairlines to sizable cracks. 

“Your spine is quite the conundrum, like the rest of you.” Viktoria gestured to each image. “No offense, Mr. Jack, you shouldn’t be—”

“Alive? Yes, I know dear-y. Heard y’all mention it a zillion times by now.” Jack rolled his eyes.

Tightening her fingers, she held herself back from rolling her eyes. 

“I know you’ve heard that many times over. What I was going to say is moving.” She pointed and gestured at each image. “As you can see, you have several still cracked vertebrae, and some are crushed along with some discs.” 

Then she pointed to one image and tapped at the base of his neck, which highlighted a vertebra that had a massive crack running through it. The discs above and below it were crushed “T1. You should be paralyzed neck down as well as some additional issues with the state these vertebrae are in, but you are not.” 

Jack looked at where she was pointing. Even though his medical knowledge was scant, what was in the X-rays didn’t look too good. 

Subconsciously, a hand went to the back of his neck and began to rub the area. There wasn’t any pain there. He wasn’t really feeling any pain in his spine to think of it. Well, the pain was an off-and-on thing all over this body, especially when those eridium levels would spike.

He listened to the doctor’s words. So far she had been truthful, didn’t hide any of the unpleasant bits or sugarcoat them too much to stay on his good side. Honesty. He liked that. “So, how am I still walkin’? And talkin’?

“That… I am not entirely sure of, but,” pausing, she raised a finger, “it is most likely related to the eridium coursing through your veins. We have noticed some minor repairs whenever you have those ‘venting’ moments. Yet, that has equally caused some more damage, as those are uncontrolled energy spikes.”

Jack raised his brow. It all sounded so far-fetched as his mind remembered reports of the eridium tests at the one facility down on Pandora. But… 

His eyes drifted down. A hand pulled his medical gown open just enough for him to see one of the ports embedded into his side. Purple residue discolored the metal with a faint glow. And more concerning, in the surrounding skin were faint patches of purple spider-like veins.

This all feels like a dream. A really fucked up dream… but it’s freakn’ real, huh? 

His mind still wanted to deny the truth before him. The eridium treatments that were stabilizing his body so far. It just felt so… impossible despite what he had witnessed on his mad campaign to cleanse Pandora. 

Eridium… killing and healing me… Like a… Siren… Lilith…

For a moment, his mind thought of the eridium he pumped through Lilith to finish charging the Vault key. He reveled in stabbing and shooting her repeatedly as that alien ore mingled with her Siren powers, causing all wounds to heal nearly instantaneously. It was all intoxicating and fascinating how ore worked with her Siren biology. It made her the perfect little torture toy. She deserved every second of it. I will do it again.

As the slightest smirk graced his face, it fell away as his face sudden grew dark. His breathing became shaky.

Was this what you felt for years, my Angel?

She never showed any signs of pain as he made — tasked her with charging the Vault key. Did she experience pain? If so, did he ignore it? 

Chest tightening, his breathing hitched as the outside world faded into the background. He raised trembling hands to his face to cover his eyes that were closed, clinched tight like a vise. 

Did I? Did I? Did I? Her screams when those couplings were destroyed… Her screams.

Those would forever etched in his mind, unable to be overwritten. Every moment of that specially crafted bunker being violated by those Vault Hunters would always play in the back of his mind. He shouldn’t have treated them so lightly.

They didn’t have to kill her. She was just a little girl. A girl, for fuck’s sake!

How could they? And they call themselves “heroes”. They were child murderers. Psychos! It made him want to laugh. Only a choked wheeze slipped out.

Her... little… moments of defiance…. I should have— No, no, no, no… She was just scared… A little frightened. Yeah, that’s it. Just a little confused and frightened.

His little girl would never betray him willingly. Would she? But his mind couldn’t help but remember her little infractions here and there that allowed those Vault Hunters and their allies to get much further than they ever had before. Without her… without her… they would never have….

Focus, Jack! REFOCUS!

His nails dug deep into his forehead. He slowly dragged them down, tearing the top layers of the skin off and drawing some blood.

She would NEVER betray her father.

Denial. A sweet little lie to keep that picture-perfect version of his daughter intact in his mind.

The world came back into focus, one shaky breath at a time. His eyes fluttered open to take in the world once more.

Viktoria was up on her feet, pacing around with several small Surveyor bots hovering alongside her, that were projecting images of his spine. She seemed oblivious to his near spiral; still going on about his spine and how she wanted to augment it. 

The holographic projections caught his eye. Every so often, another projection would manifest over the spine in a swarm of pixels. As it formed itself, various little wires, tubes, and other bits would build around and into it. Some looked to be exoskeletons and others looked to be partial to full spine replacements.

At least it won’t be as “industrial” as Wilhelm’s. Poor bastard of a murder machine, I miss you. But still needs my touch. Think I still have some plans I thought I would have to implement for… her.

Just as he was focusing back in on what the eccentric doctor was saying so he could butt in, he heard murmurs from her cohorts. Looked like they had noticed his small break from reality as his vitals had risen.

Shit. No. Don’t let them see that weakness. Take control.

Jack loudly cleared his throat. That barely made Viktoria stop yapping, but she cocked a glance towards him.

“Blah, blah, blah.” He waved his hand around. The doctor rolled her eyes. “You yap too much, doc. So a spine reinforcement and spiffy upgrade will help fix me? Cool.”

Her brow twitched. “It may be an outright full spinal replacement as well as cerebral cortex impla—”

“Ap! Ap! Ap!” He raised a finger. “Too. Much. Talking.” A grin crept across his face as he watched the irritation grow in her eyes. “Less talking, more action!” He then pointed at one of her cohorts. “One of you get me, I don’t know, some freakn’ paper and a pen or a tablet I can draw on.” He then pointed at another. “You go get Jimmy and tell him to get Chief Data Engineer Brie if that cheese-head hasn’t fried his brain on those EchoNet dives .” 

The activity in the room came to a screeching halt, with Jack’s sudden change in demeanor. Someone questioned the name “Brie” being unfamiliar with the name, and nothing showed in the database, only to be hushed and given the correct name “Bryce.”

They looked at Viktoria for what they should do. Were they hearing things?

The lack of response made Jack bristle. A faint growl of frustration slipped out. Was he losing his touch?

“Come on!” He clapped his hands. “Chop! Chop!” His eyes then narrowed and his voice dropped. “Remember, your heads are still on the block.”

Viktoria just nodded, eyes flashing a few colors. Her workers got moving.

“And you!” Jack’s voice picked up with a hint of glee. He was pointing at her now. “Show me all the schematics, all the variations for this spinal augment. I have to put my touch to it.”

Raising a hand to her face, Viktoria sightly cursed, slipping off into a mix of languages so he couldn’t hear him. Just what had kicked his butt into gear and into that more unsightly side of him? Best not to keep him waiting, as she could see that sadistic side of him was just below that craggy surface, ready to burst through and renew itself.

“Right.” That hand slipped away as she put on a smile. “Where are my manners?” 

Just as one of her workers came back with a tablet for Jack, she snatched it. Producing a chip from one of the ports on her body, she put it into the tablet before configuring some things. With that done, she passed it off to him.

Jack happily took it and began parsing through all the information. There was a lot to go through, a lot of study, a lot to play with and tweak to fit him. He was going to be busy for the rest of the day and maybe a few more.

“Now, what was that about a cerebral whatever implant?” He came across that implant and the diagrams. That interested him. But he was also hesitant. 

The diagrams didn’t hide it. If this was done in combination with some of the spinal augments, it looked like it would stand out, being readily apparent on the back of his head. His mind drifted to his daughter and the “cranial dual—feed inputs” implanted into the right side of her skull. Like her, a good chunk of his luscious hair would have to be shaved in addition to sacrificing a chunk of the back of his skull to have it installed. 

Wait… didn’t someone mention there was a hole in the back of my head?

A troubling thought crossed his mind. He wasn’t sure if the person was joking, as he was faintly aware of the hole in the center of his head that was mostly healed. It left an unsightly scar. And all too aware that his mask was missing with how often he clawed at his face and felt that old scar. But he would forgive their unknown transgressions of viewing his face… for now. Nothing some mind-altering nanobots and drugs couldn’t fix with a touch of blackmail once he got a new mask.

“Somebody… get me a mirror. No. MIRRORS.” His voice teetered between a faint whisper and controlled yelling. “No! Better yet, rig up a video feed with those bots. NOW!”

Viktoria’s workers were hesitant again. This was something everyone had been waiting for. Dreading it. It was a surprise he never flipped out about everyone seeing him without his mask and that scar.

Viktoria was mostly unfazed. She shooed her workers away. With a few thoughts, she sent commands to the Surveyor bots. The holograms of the spine augments disappeared. They shifted their lens’ towards Jack and soon hovered around him.

With another thought, windows appeared on the tablet in Jack’s hand. 

He had a 360° view of his head.

There were no sounds but the hums of medical equipment and machinery as Jack studied himself. A shaky hand went to the back of his head. Fingers spread out to feel all that was different. And find was missing. 

A warm metallic sensation greeted his fingers. His fingers spread out to get a better grasp of how large the damage was. As they traveled closer to the edges, he flinched. It was the all too familiar sensation of raw skin. But his fingers continued to work, carefully tracing the edges between the metal plate, skin, and singed hair.

The area felt as big as a baseball. He clenched his teeth. No sounds slipped out.

That hand slowly shifted to the front, towards his face. His face. How he hadn’t seen that beautiful face in so long. Once beautiful, once handsome. He quietly lamented in his mind. A finger went to the center of his head. That singular entry wound that sprawled out greater than it should have. A red stained scar on his forehead. Was that inflicted before or after Lilith overloaded him with her Siren powers? Didn’t matter, it was there and so apparent. He would have to redesign his mask to cover this and the other scars.

Then those fingers started tracing that Vault symbol of a scar on his face. It felt larger than before. Like there were more cracks along its edges. Was it always purple? Memories are still fuzzy, but it doesn’t matter. That bitch did this to me. 

An all too familiar anger boiled in his chest. A deep, unbridled anger that wanted to lash out at the nearest meat bag. He bit his tongue and fixed a vise grip on that tablet, nearly shattering the screen.

Save it for them. Save it for her.

It took a few deep breaths before he calmed himself. He then looked at the doctor. His tongue pressed behind clenched teeth.

“So… about that cerebral. Cortex. Implant…”

——————— 

Jack spent every precious conscious moment working on putting his touch on the potential spine implant. Which was becoming more of a possibility whenever he would have an “episode” and additional damage was done to his spine. The current eridium transfusions kept him fairly stable but would either result in him blacking out for random lengths of time or being high as a kite. Mr. Blake took advantage of the latter to begin his work on “fixing” some contracts.

Jack was hesitant to tweak the designs for the cerebral cortex implant. His daughter clung close to his mind. Though the design was vastly different than hers, just seeing the mockup x-rays of how it would look and some additional “control node” implants made his heartache.

It was for the best. Had to control those unruly powers of hers so she wouldn’t kill dear ol’ dad like her…  And we could put them to better use!

Dr. Viktoria’s incessant pestering shifted that loadstone of sorrow in his brain to finally selecting a design for the head implant. She tentatively promised that the port could be hidden and still have his gorgeous hair — which she repeated quite a bit — as well as it would further assist them in monitoring his health. And there was a chance they could hook him up to Hyperion’s systems so he could access and control the company tech with his mind.

Hearing the last part made him hesitate. Angel came to his mind again. Would he be tethered to one place for the rest of his life like her?

No, that was just temporary, Jackey boy. Just needed that Vault Key charged. Open the Vault. Boom bam! Pandora is cleansed and safer for the more civilized to take over. Safer for my Angel. We… we just needed to… to fix that one teeny tiny problem. It was just temporary.

The thoughts of his daughter didn’t leave his mind as easily as the first time. 

Jack just kept his focus on the spine implant and applied tweaks here and there to the cerebral cortex. He somewhat foisted it off to Chief Data Engineer Bryce since the man had a similar implant of his own and would probably know what was best. He just wanted to play that one by ear. Hopefully, the spine, new ports, and whatever else the doctor was cooking up would do the trick.

Eventually, the time came to replace the ports on his body. 

——————— 

“Ah…. AaaAAah… AAaaah!”

A long, raspy gasp was dragged out of Jack’s lungs.

“Hold still, sir.” The voice was clinical, nearly as cold and sterile as the operating room they were in.

Heck, heck, heck, heck, hell, hell, hell, hell, HELL, HELL, HELL!

Jack’s mouth flapped loosely. Nothing came out but drops of saliva. Those were the only words repeating within his mind as he shakily tried to regain control of his body. Regain control of his dignity.  

But then came another prick. One located just around the upper left part of his chest, his pec, just below the collarbone. Then the other sensations started again.

Heck, heck, heck. No, no, no, no, no!

He could feel it. A feeling he couldn’t prepare himself for, no matter how many times it had occurred by now.

It started as a faint tingle that crept across his skin like a lattice before it dug deeper into the layers below. With each passing second, a spiderweb-like network intermingled and bit into each layer. Epidermis. Dermis. Subcutaneous tissue. Muscle. And once it reached the bone, the sensation exploded across his nervous system. It was like thousands of burning, ice-cold needles were stabbing him all at once. And then that faint ringing in his ear increased.

Another choked gasp came from him before he slammed his jaw shut and chomped on his tongue. He drew blood.

She wasn’t lying! The doc wasn’t fuckin’ lying!

He wished he were unconscious or outright dead. That sweet dream eluded him.

The sensation lasted for a long time before it finally released him. As soon as the doctors’ hands pulled away from him, he just collapsed. His back hit the cold surgical table with a hard thud before he curled onto himself. All composure left him. 

Eyes closed tight, he panted like an overheated dog to force away the biting remnants of the latest insertion. He tapped the back of his head against the table to make the ear churning ringing stop. It barely died down.

Hesitantly, he raised a hand to the area. He swallowed a faint gasp as his finger barely brushed against the skin around the latest port. It felt raw. The nerves were sparking like a loose live wire. Too much activity. Too sensitive.

“Do you need a break, Mr. Jack?” That same cold, clinical voice spoke again.

Break? Break? Part of his mind was tempted to accept the offer. But the other half wanted things to be over it.

“A f-f-feeeew… a few s-s-sssec-c-c-conds…” The shakiness in his voice caught him by surprise. He bit his lip. Get it together. 

He raised his hand to his neck and started to rub it before he found himself biting his tongue, drawing more blood. Damn ports on my neck. Two ports sat on either side of his jugular. They were one of the first ones changed out to get the “worst of the screaming” out of the way.

“G-g-g-ive…” He paused. Shaking his head, he cleared his throat. “Give me a few… fucking seconds!” Better.

“Acknowledged.” The surgeon answered before giving instructions to have the last batch of ports prepared. 

How many more do they have to do? Jack was beating himself up for not listening to Viktoria and the others about the finer details of this surgery. It had taken about 4 hours to work on his neck and lower half. He had blacked out about seven times and vomited many times more. All of that paused the work. He even kicked the surgeon, or some unlucky assistant, in the face as they worked on his legs. They nearly had to restrain him with energy cuffs off and on.

His eyes drifted over to a clock. A timer kept track of how this section of the surgery was going. About six and a half hours in.

Heck… This is taking too long. At least that ringing has stopped. Better than the whispers. Damn alien whispers. He only had himself to blame, thinking this would be quick, like snapping his fingers. His mind just refused to accept how poorly his body was doing and why all this was necessary. 

Eyes drifting back down to his chest, he eyed the other pectoral muscle. A hastily inserted port surrounded by scar tissue, leaking purple flowing fluid. An old one that needed to be changed.

His body shuddered and a “brr” slipped from his lips as a cold spell struck him. Frigid room… What’s my body temp right now? He rubbed his arms to get some warmth, only to be reminded of several cool, metallic sensations. There were a few ports there that also needed to be changed out.

One, two… four, five… seven, eight… Freakn’ great. He wondered who was going to get punched when they worked on his arms. Maybe he’d crack a face plate? 

Maybe are face or two. It’ll help calm me down as they finish up my upper half. He snorted.

As swiftly as the amusing thought came, it swiftly left, as dread swept over him. Upper half… That wasn’t entirely right. Hell! They still need to work on my back.

His entire being shuttered as his mind raced. He faintly recalled Viktoria saying the work on his spine would be a hundred times worse than all the other replacements. That couldn’t be true, right? She was joking, right? 

The faintest tingle of a cold, burning pain danced up and down his neck. He felt his stomach twist and churn. With a hard, stutteringly slow swallow, his eyes closed tight. 

Neck close to the spine… Remember, handsome, you blacked out when they were working on your neck. Four times!

He wasn’t looking forward to another hell.

Thinking of the zappy doctor…

Jack took a deep breath to steady himself as he lifted himself back up. “Where’s Doc Vicky?”

“Finalizing the details on the spinal augments.” The surgeon answered. 

“And she’s doing that whyyyy?” A faint sneer slipped out.

“In her words, ‘everything has to be just right for our dear ol’ boss or else the feedback will fry his system to a point he will be deader than dead. Or spring up as an eridian zombie, which will not be good.’”

Jack’s brow twitched. “Gotcha.”

“I do have some good news. She is nearly done. Possibly by the time we are done, she will be here to work on your spine.”

“And how long will this,” he gestured to himself, “take?”

“As long as your systems stay level, you don’t black out, and —” They paused. No need to bring up how he kicked two of their assistants. “Pretty much, give or take four hours.”

Jack took in a sharp breath, puffing up his cheeks, before letting it out real slow. “Peachy.”

Just as the conversation came to an end and Jack was preparing himself for his next round of torture, he heard something that made his heart stutter.

“The eridium levels are dropping.” Someone whispered. “Some of his vitals are beginning to shift in response.”

“Hm. Watch it and prepare an injection. If it goes below the second threshold or his vitals become erratic, we’ll give him a fresh dose.”

Jack cursed in his mind. Again. What shot was that now? Four? Five? Twelve? He lost count, especially after the latest blackout. He didn’t want another dose, even if it was necessary to keep him stable and awake. Those fresh doses sure did perk him up. They wired him up like a triple shot of nitro espresso. Sometimes, it even knocked away the pain. But at the same time, everything felt so wrong. 

That ringing in his ears would be replaced by whispers. He didn’t know what was being said, but it sounded alien. Eridian. Especially if the dose wasn’t enough. And then there was always the chance he would crash. Those were the worst. It would be so subtle that the doctors wouldn’t catch it until his body heat was increasing, and the tremors affected his whole body.

“Ready to continue, boss?” 

That clinical voice of the surgeon pulled him from his thoughts. He noticed the scalpel in their hands and the tray hovering nearby, holding the next port.

He forced a smile. “Get on with it.”

——————— 

The next set of hours were pure agony for Jack. 

His mind and body could never get used to the sensation of a new port being set. And he thought that was the worst it could get until they touched his back. Oh, his back.

His shrieks, howls of pain, and thrashing could not compare to the first few hours when they worked on his neck and legs. At some point, they had to  restrain him after he cracked two faceplates of some assistants, forcing them out of the room. Those energy-based restraints were a lifesaver. 

As the agonizing surgery came to an end, Jack was barely conscious. His eyes were glazed over. His pupils were mere pinpricks as his mouth hung open loosely. Saliva dribbled.

With him lying on his side, they had connected an array of tubes and cables to the ports on his back. There was a faint hum and sloshing as the nearby machinery connected to the tubing worked away to supply his body with needed fluids and nanomachines. 

“It’s been 30 minutes. That should have given the nanomachines a head start to finalize the connections. Start the Eridium transfusion. Record his reaction.” The surgeon said. At the moment, they were taking notes of the tissue clinging onto the old ports and taking samples.

With the go-ahead, one assistant activated the Surveyors with the cameras. An array of them circled Jack. Another assistant retrieved a container from a security box. A visibility window on the side showed the refined poison contained within. They hooked it into the machine. 

There was a rough brr and some clicking before it began to cycle to fluid. That glowing, purple liquid ore slowly crept down the tubing, inch by inch, until it finally hit Jack’s body.

Around the ports, purple veins began to spread out like a spider’s web. The veins continued to spread and glow with each passing second.

One minute. Two. Four. Seven. Twelve. Seventeen. Jack’s pupils dilated. A wracked gasp came from him as his whole body shuddered. This repeated a few times until his breathing was more stable but faintly stilted.

A weak “argh” followed by a long, drawn-out groan slipped out as he pulled his knees to his chest. His nails dug at the ports at his sides. He was shaking like a leaf in the wind.

“At least he didn’t vomit this time.” One assistant commented. “Levels are elevated, but stable.”

Mind rolling back to full consciousness, Jack wasn’t paying attention to them or whatever conversation was going on about his reaction to the eridium. Pain was hogging most of his attention. The current infusion was taking some of it off, but the wrongness to the eridium was slowly kicking in.

He was hearing something again. Eridian whispers, picking at the information that he received from that Vault on Elpis. So much information concerning the Eridians, the Vaults, and the weapons they built. The whispers were pulling forth those visions he saw. That glory that was ripped away from him by those Vault Hunters.

Curious. You’re alive once more. The voice was female with a wispy echo to it. The Seer’s predictions are off. Ah, Sirens and their powers. Chaos incarnate.

Jack’s eyes jumped around. Who? What? He saw nothing. Nothing but the workers observing and taking notes, and some Surveyor drones hovering around, recording all the details.

Has death taught you a lesson? Yes? No? Let it be the former rather than the latter or else you are destined to make the same mistakes.

“W-w-who’s there? Who’s talking?” He croaked, the words barely left his mouth.

Everyone in the room didn’t react to his question. It wasn’t the first time he babbled nonsense.

You may have a chance to set right what once went wrong. Your actions and, in turn, the Vault Hunters’ retaliations have set in motion The Beginnings of Many Ends. The voice paused before a static-like chortle followed. Time will only tell which one will reign supreme. 

“Who the fuck is talking?” Jack demanded. That slow fury was building in him.

That made everyone in the room quiet down. Maybe he was more lucid than they thought.

“What are his levels?” The surgeon asked. They were stable for a moment before they suddenly started to tank.

Ah, the Eridium energy wains. The connection fades. Yet, we look forward to what that doctor will do next. Till that time. Learn from your suffering.

The intruding voice faded from his mind. In turn, all the odd sensations from the eridium transfusion began to fade. As they dropped, Jack’s body began to shake violently.

“Fuckn’ hell…” His whole body felt flushed with heat. His digits twitched. His stomach churned. Heat and cold flashed through his bones. A heat was building up in his lungs. He knew what was coming. “Not…tt-ttt-ttt…. a..ag-g-g…gain…” His eyes began to roll into the back of his head.

Sensors went off, warning all to get back.

First he began to thrash. The restrains barely kept him on the table. Next, he started to choke before the frothing began. A noxious combination of eridium-tainted stomach fluids spewed forth and all over the floor. Then he screamed. An intoxicating, dark purple miasma soon erupted from his mouth, choking out the scream. 

As quickly as it all began, it stopped. His mouth hung open as a death rattle came in and out of his ravaged lungs. His eyes were mere pinpricks. The world was spinning, blurring all into an indecipherable blob. Everything was muffled, but he could tell something wasn’t right. 

“Vitals dropping again.” Someone said.

“Dose him again. Twice the last amount.” The surgeon said.

Even he had his faculties, he would be yelling at them to not to do that. Only a pitiful wheeze could come out. He couldn’t feel his limbs. All was static. All he could do was lie there like a dying mutt and brace himself for the cycle to repeat.

There was a harsh brr as that machine kicked into overdrive once fresh eridium canisters were placed into it. That purple gold of a poison surged through those tubes.

Jack let out a pitiful cry of pain as it felt like someone shoved several icicles in his back. He felt all the other sensations come back tenfold, ripping through his body again. The cycle repeated.