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The group of vault hunters gathered in the makeshift conference room that belonged to Vaughn’s bandit gang. It had been a while since everyone in the crew had seen each other. Lots of handshakes and hugs before the group sat down to crack open some rakk ale and catch up while waiting to see if anyone else would accept Rhys and Fiona’s invitations to infiltrate the vault of the Traveler. The table was all smiles, except Zer0 who sat at the head of the table, offering little to no comment. He was actually quite bored and wanted to get to the fighting part already. Vaughn explained, in great detail, how the Children of Helios had come to be. Fiona and Sasha swapped stories about their most recent scores. Janey recounted the story of her daring rescue mission to get Athena back from Lilith’s clutches and “marry the piss out of her.” Athena knew Janey was exaggerating how action packed it was, but didn't correct her. It was cute. Then Fiona turned to Rhys.
“So despite being dragged through the desert together, I actually have no idea what you've been up to,” Fiona said as she rested her chin on her hands, waiting for Rhys to share what he wanted to.
“Well, after crashing the space station and destroying all my cybernetics, I picked up a little something from the wreckage,” he said with a smirk. He reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and produced the ownership rights to the Atlas Corporation.
“Holy smokes! I didn't even know this document still existed!” Janey exclaimed.
“Yeah Jack kept it as a trophy after a certain someone in present company took them down one by one,” Rhys said, clearly hinting at Athena, whose smile had turned into a neutral face of displeasure.
“So you're gonna restart it?!” Sasha asked excitedly.
“I technically already have,” Rhys said, lifting his shiny silver prosthetic arm. “I went back to that base where the second part of Gortys was and I started tinkering with everything. Gave myself a new eye and a new arm. Working on some prototypes for other stuff.”
The room broke out into what resembled a high school lunch table. Everyone was giving their input on what weapons to reboot and redesign, what to never bring back, and what to innovate next. Even Zer0 had something to say on the topic of sniper scopes and pistol grips. Everyone was having a great time bouncing ideas back and forth. Except Athena.
“Rhys can I speak to you alone for a second?” Athena asked, though her tone made it sound like more of a command than a question. Janey elbowed her and gave her an angry look. Athena didn't care, her attention was still focused on the resident capitalist. Rhys swallowed hard. He had been going over many potential scenarios for this vault hunting meet-up in his head and this was one he was really hoping wouldn't happen. Fixing his jacket, he awkwardly obliged and followed her to a different room in the cramped base.
“Now Athena, I know what you're thinking,” Rhys said, instinctively looking around for potential exits in case Athena tried to kill him on the spot.
“I doubt it,” the gladiator huffed, crossing her arms.
“Listen Atlas isn't gonna be anything like what it was before. I-I've got plans! Big ones! And I can assure you what happened with them isn't going to happen with me and my staff!” Rhys blurted out. He paused for a moment then under his breath he added, “Once I have one.”
“That was a concern of mine, yes but saying you have ‘big plans’ scares me even more,” Athena said.
Rhys’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?” he asked, genuinely perplexed. “That's just how all business ventures work. Y’know failing to plan is planning to fail. Heh.”
“Do you want to repeat history?” Athena asked him, shifting her weight.
“Athena, I just told you it wasn't going to turn into the old Atlas. Please trust me,” the company man practically begged.
“You don't get it, Rhys. I know Atlas won't happen again. I trust you that much. If I didn't I would've stabbed you ten minutes ago,” Athena said, gesturing at the sword on her back.
Rhys didn't prepare for this. If it's not another Atlas she's worried about then what? Another Dahl? They did almost blow up the moon with her on it. But Dahl never has and never will have their shit together. He felt himself getting a little bit angry. He had nothing but good intentions for his reformed weapons company. Why was she automatically assuming he didn't? “Clearly you don't trust me! We wouldn't be having this conversation if you did! I just want to help people!” he yelled. “What the fuck is your problem?”
“A lot of big bads start out trying to help people!” Athena shouted back. “How am I supposed to know you won't be any different from them?”
“Because you KNOW me! When we first met the only things keeping me alive were you, a loader bot, and a can-do attitude!” Rhys retorted, taking a step towards Athena even though he knew it was a bad idea to approach an angry assassin. “And that last one is questionable!”
Athena turned to face the wall. She shook her head in disbelief. He really was this dense. It was right in front of him, all around him, but he wouldn't acknowledge it. She felt a lot of emotions come bubbling up, and with that came tears the gladiator had been holding back for years. She slammed her fist against the wall with a bang that was definitely heard in the other room. She turned back to face Rhys, looked him directly in the eye and yelled, “I CAN'T BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANOTHER JACK!”
Oh. Rhys’s eyes grew wide. Did he really just casually forget Handsome Jack's reign of terror? When they were literally standing in the remains of Helios? When he literally had that guy's consciousness rattling around in his head for a bit? When the guy had been his hero for years and she knew that fact? Now he could see why Athena was so worried. He inhaled. “Athena I-”
“I can't do it, Rhys. Not again,” Athena said, her voice cracking as she tried her damndest to not cry. Janey and Jess were the only people who had ever seen her cry. She wanted to keep it that way.
“Athena it won't be like that. I promise,” Rhys tried to reassure her, though he doubted that would help at all.
“You don't understand. I was there. Jack was my fault,” Athena said, her hands shaking and tears definitely pouring out of her eyes now. “I have so much blood on my hands, Rhys. So many innocent people died because of me. Because of my unwillingness to leave a job unfinished. I cared more about finishing the mission than what the consequences were. I can't sleep most nights knowing that I let him get out of that vault alive.”
There was an awkward silence between the two. Both of them stood looking at their feet, deep in thought. Rhys could relate, given that he let AI Jack loose on Helios and he was the cause of the very wreckage they stood in, but he didn't know how to handle such a hardened mercenary having a breakdown in front of him. So he let it hang in the air with Athena’s sniffling. It felt like an eternity before Athena cleared her throat and spoke again.
“When I met Jack, he had plans, but I wasn't aware of that at the time. He was a smart guy but had no means of execution. He hired six of us to do his work for him. Over the course of a few days, I watched that man go from a low-level programmer who was kind of a dick to a bloodthirsty psychopath who was an even bigger dick. And I stayed. And I didn't kill him. I even came back and took another job from him. And I don't want to make the same mistakes again with you.”
“So this is the part where you kill me?” Rhys asked nervously, shuffling backwards.
Athena shook her head. “I think you get it now.”
“Are. Are you okay?” Rhys asked.
“I haven't been okay since I got taken by Atlas,” Athena said in a very deadpan tone as she wiped the last few tears from her eyes with her scarf.
“Do you. Uhh. Do you need a hug?” Rhys asked, trying his hardest to be comforting. Athena hesitated before nodding and shuffling towards Rhys’s outstretched arms. They held each other for a second then he said, “You're not the only one who fucked over a lot of people because of Jack.”
“I know,” Athena replied, “But for a second there it seemed like you genuinely forgot.” She broke the hug. That was enough physical contact from someone who wasn't Janey for one day. She definitely needed a hug from Janey right about now though.
“I mean. I kind of did?” Rhys said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Repressed memories, y’know?”
Athena nodded in agreement. She had been there. The two of them looked from each other to the door and back. Rhys took a step back and gestured towards the door for Athena to go ahead. Athena made it halfway out the door before turning back to Rhys. “One more thing? If you tell anyone you saw me cry? I will have to kill you.”