Chapter Text
Rhys couldn’t have been prepared for the elevator doors to his executive suite being thrown open and, despite his most desperate efforts over the last few months to find her, Fiona striding in, complete with a new look. Her hair fell longer over her shoulders, past the stand up collar of her sea green overcoat- the colors popping against her figure, completed with her very own bowler hat that she loved so much. The strip of red in her hair was the same as ever, if only a little faded against her curling hair.
He couldn’t believe it. He thought he was imagining the entire thing until Zer0’s voice struck through the chaos that reigned around them, around the Atlas base of operations.
“This must be a trick,” the assassin spoke, drawing their sword with one sleek motion, pointing it toward the woman who still advanced, a frown on her lips. “Step no further, impostor.”
“We don’t have time for it, Zer0,” she spoke, and her voice was the same. It was tired. But it was Fiona. “We’re all in danger, we need to—”
Zer0 lunged forward, swiping the sword up, only narrowly avoiding the woman’s frame to bring the blade’s point to a stop at her nose. “Must I repeat that?”
Fiona scowled and lifted her hand with ease to push the blade from her face, though she made no further advances, emerald eyes shifting past Zer0 to land on Rhys. “Look at me. Listen to me. It’s me .”
Rhys, ever wordless, could only stare, eyes wide. Zer0 did not budge, but neither did Fiona, though her frown steepened.
“If you’re Fiona, then tell us something she knows,” Zer0 spoke again, never dropping the poised posture, nor their blade. “That only she knows.”
Fiona sighed deeply, meeting Rhys’ eyes across the spacious office. “Rhys,” the woman uttered, her voice softening, “Before we went into the Vault, I asked you your intentions with my sister. You made stupid jokes. Like you always do. Something about notes in lockers, meeting by bike racks- but you said something really sweet about her.”
Rhys’ heart felt as if it were going to explode in his chest, his feet already bringing him forward to the woman before him.
“You said she was everything you’re no—”
Her words were cut off as the taller man threw his arms around her, Zer0 simply stepping aside as Rhys pulled his friend close. Fiona only allowed the moment to be exactly that- a moment- quickly pulling away to grip the sides of Rhys’ arms.
“We have to go, right now,” she told him, her eyes searching his face. “I’m really sorry about the base, but you’re more important than anything in this stupid office.”
Rhys did not argue as Fiona shifted to hold his flesh hand in her own, squeezing him tightly as the three of them stood another moment before Zer0 spoke up.
“He has escape plans,” the assassin remarked, pointing to the desk. “For emergencies only, tunnel under desk.”
Fiona quirked an eyebrow. “A tunnel under your desk,” she repeated, her tone looking for an explanation on that one.
Rhys could only grin. His voice was sure, but it was anything but steady, “I missed you, Fiona.”
Fiona’s eyes widened and she nearly laughed. “Come on, idiot.”
The destruction being wreaked around the base from the sky was visible through the high standing windows of the office. Fiona tried to ignore it altogether, very near shoving Rhys to his desk as her eyes darted back to the closed office doors. She watched as Rhys shifted to stand behind his desk, scanning the surface with a quick glance as her friend reached his leg beneath it before bringing his need up into the underside. There was a loud thud, the man recoiling with a yelp, barely managing to avoid tripping over his chair behind him.
Fiona blinked, looking to the floor beneath Rhys’ feet. “Where’s the tunnel?”
“Gonna be real, I missed the button,” Rhys wheezed, doubling over momentarily before snapping back into action.
Instead of using his knee the following time, the man opted to crouch and reach his arm beneath the desk and fumble around. Completely opposite to the loud strike of bone on wood, a sharp mechanical whirring sound filled the room, accompanied by the floor itself shifting. The desk simply slid away from Rhys on a patch of metal flooring, revealing a slightly depressed platform in a circular opening in the carpeted ground. Rhys looked up to his friend from his crouched position, managing a grin.
“A tunnel under my desk,” he announced, mimicking the same tone Fiona had had earlier. “And that’s only one of them!”
Fiona snorted, nodding. “I’m impressed, you paranoid jackass.”
Rhys shrugged before standing, “What can I say, having anxiety has its perks!”
“Let’s save the banter,” Zer0 piped up, ushering Rhys onto the platform. “Fiona, you stay with Rhys. I will hold them off.”
Fiona had joined Rhys onto the platform, her brows furrowing as she looked up to the assassin. Rhys’ eyes went wide and before another word could be spoke, his hand shot out, gripping Zer0’s forearm with enough strength to stop the Vault Hunter from shifting any further away.
“No, no, we are- we’re not doing that,” Rhys hurried out, seemingly disregarding when Zer0 tried to pull their arm free.
“There’s not enough room,” Zer0 replied, their tone even as it always was. “I’ll rendezvous at the point, and kill some pr—”
“ No! ”
Both Fiona and Zer0 nearly jumped at just how loud Rhys’ voice grew, his own face twisting into an expression that was rare, barely existent, even, for the man. His fingers tightened around Zer0 and he shook his head.
“We’re all- we are all going, together,” Rhys persisted, not batting an eye when an explosion went off frighteningly close to their location. “We’ll fit.”
There was a pause, but Zer0 had little time to argue as the elevator two rooms and two halls away dinged. A squadron of breach troopers filed in, making quick work of the distance. Rhys yelped, reaching over to the desk to slap his hand down on a button that blended into the top right drawer, a set of metal doors closing and sealing the main office.
It did little to help as the doors were suddenly riddled with heavy duty bullets that splintered the metal. Rhys shifted to grip Zer0 with both hands, yanking his friend into the arms of both himself and Fiona. Zer0 ducked their head as the door was practically ripped open, reaching around to draw their sword and as the blade digistructed, in one smooth movement they stabbed the blade into the control panel. All at once, the mechanics of the device activated, only at a higher speed. With the platform dropping faster than it was intended, though dodging the immediate onslaught of bullets, the safety protocols were bypassed for long enough that the protective sheet of metal nearly raised around the trio too late.
Even so, the drop was faster than Zer0 anticipated, their hand struck by the edge of the opening in the floor before they could withdraw their sword. The blade was left behind, driven into the circuitry, Zer0 quickly bringing their hand closer to their shieldless frame as it throbbed.
“Shit- Zer0!” Rhys cried, unable to crane his neck enough to see whether or not his friend’s damage was superficial, or worse.
“My blade, it is gone,” the assassin hissed, their frame hugged tight against Rhys and Fiona. “For those Maliwan bastards...”
“You can get another sword, Zer0, is your freakin’ hand okay!?” Fiona shouted, her wide eyes struggling to get a good enough look at the point of pain.
“I will be alright,” Zer0 muttered, pulling their hand as close to their own frame as they could while the metal tube continued descending further. “Prepare for a rough landing. It will be ugly.”
There was only a moment between their words and the capsule hitting its landing point, the entire structure groaning from the impact. The three were practically smacked into the walls of the escape tube, each uttering their own sounds of pain before managing to stabilize. Visible through a now broken glass window in the protective metal was the tunnels they had escaped to. Rhys was closest to said window, the man shifting to stand against the door.
“It won’t… open!” he struggled, pushing his frame against the sheet. “Fucking-”
“Punch it!” Fiona suggested, trying to scoot as far away from the man as she could.
“Punching it!” Rhys responded, raising his cybernetic arm to collide the red knuckles with the hinges the door was held to. It first dented, then with another well aimed strikes, the hinges snapped and the entire plate of metal collapsed to the ground outside the tube.
The racket it made echoed and reverberated sharply off the fairly small tunnels around them. Rhys slid out of the cylinder first, holding a hand out for Fiona to take to help her out, and then doing the same for Zer0. As the towering assassin stepped out, they shifted, tucking their wrist against their hip before looking around the area.
“We should get going,” they spoke quietly.
“Dude, don’t- don’t you- here, let me see your hand—” Rhys’ words were cut off by Zer0’s other palm shooting out, gently catching Rhys in the chest to keep him at arms’ length.
When the man looked up, finding the ever impassive mask displaying a simple but familiar kanji, one word that Rhys knew to advise. He took a deep breath and stepped back out of Zer0’s reach, nodding before simply proceeding down the tunnels. Fiona paused long enough to scan Zer0 for any possible information, but she got nothing. She turned and followed Rhys, her strides wide to fall in step beside her taller friend. The footsteps of all three were soon a repetitive echo that followed through the winding escape route.
“Will they follow us down? Should we- should we be running?” Fiona asked, glancing over her shoulder, stealing a look of Zer0 still holding their wrist to their side.
“The escape...route, tunnel, tube, thing , reseals itself behind the uh- the actual—” Rhys paused after apparently struggling, frowning as his brows furrowed. “If they get down here, it’ll take them drilling through the floor and it’s like, uh- six tons of the metal? I-I forget, it wasn’t my top priority- Well, it was, kind of- Point is , there’s a lot to… get through.”
The makings of a smile touched Fiona’s face. “Right. Where do these tunnels lead out to again?”
The entire passage way itself was only about nine feet in diameter, with a ceiling that seemed about that length as well. The entirety of the walls, ceilings, and even the floor, were made of the same looking material, a steel of some kind that looked fairly new to Fiona. The ground was almost pristine, with little to no dents on any surface around them. Overhead, intermittent fluorescent tube lights were fixed, lighting the way with a dim green illumination.
Fiona found herself looking around, scanning for any other information she could ascertain as Rhys sucked in air through his teeth.
“Well, they can- they can lead out to the entrance of Atlas,” he replied, eyes straight ahead, glancing up to the lights when they flickered. “Like, th-the base itself. The front doors, really- there’s a manhole sort of thing just outside the doors, o-on the walk way inside!”
Fiona had to snort to avoid laughing outright. “Do you really still call it a manhole?”
Rhys finally looked over to his friend, eyes wide as his face became a slight red. “D-do you not call it a manhole? Ever?”
“No, me and most other cultured folks call it things like utility hole and maintenance hole ,” the woman answered, tilting her head as they walked side by side. “Hell, even sewer hole sounds less likely to get turned into a joke than manhole .”
Rhys couldn’t help but snort, lifting a hand to his face to hide his mouth. Fiona’s nose wrinkled as she looked across to her friend, her grin as wide as ever. As happy as she was simply walking beside him, something felt strange about the fact that he said nothing more, the conversation fading out as quickly as it began to be replaced by the sound of their footsteps. Fiona tried to focus more on the tunnels that just felt the same, over and over, repeating with every turn they took.
Barely anything changed about their surroundings, and when it finally did, it was only a pipe running from the floor up and into the wall halfway to the ceiling. It looked like it might carry water, but Fiona had no clue for sure. The silence around her finally brought her heart rate to a higher resting place before she managed to take in a deep breath that only alleviated so much of the pressure in her chest.
“You- you haven’t asked me any questions,” Fiona finally uttered, not turning her head or daring to see Rhys’ face once she had spoken.
A painful silence grew from the statement. Fiona nearly spoke again just to hear something other than the reverberating footsteps and her own heart.
“Th-there’s a lot to ask,” Rhys finally answered, exhaling deeply while he said as much. “I, uh...I’m trying to think of the easy questions.”
Fiona hid her wince. “Right.”
“There’s- there’s not any,” Rhys murmured.
“No, there isn’t.”
They came to a fork in the tunnels, the lights following both directions overhead. Rhys looked between the two and then sighed. “Zer0, was it left or right?”
“Right is always right,” Zer0 replied.
“Right, thank you.” The man took a deep breath and gestured for the aforementioned tunnel, though he did not meet Fiona’s eyes. “Lady’s first, right?”
Fiona did not reply as she started down the tunnel, her teeth grinding together as they continued, every passing second spent in silence just another ache in her chest. When she felt Rhys join her side again, she found herself torn between leaning into his arm or pulling away.
“I know there’s a lot to say, and I know I have a lot to explain, I do,” Fiona all but blurted out, finally looking over to her friend, only finding a blank look on his face. “But Rhys, can you just say something ? Like, anything .”
The man abruptly came to a stop, his hands at his sides as they balled into loose fists. Fiona stopped too, turning to her friend as Zer0 remained a few paces behind them. The assassin went as far as moving to the walls of the tunnel, leaning against it and turning their head to look down the way they came. The tension was like a thick, ever expanding fog, and Fiona nearly burst as she searched her friend for any reaction. Her desperation was only masked in appearance, her voice and even her eyes telling Rhys everything he needed to know.
Finally, after what felt like hours, Rhys turned his head to look at Fiona. She very narrowly hid just how much it hurt to see the tears welled up in his brown eye, his brows drawn together tightly.
“Fiona, we looked for you,” he whispered. “We- we never stopped .”
The woman’s shoulders dropped, shaking her head as he continued.
“I just- Like, it was different, back then , before Promethea,” Rhys croaked, turning his head to look completely away from her. He brought his arm up, wiping his face in the crook of his elbow, “wh-when we weren’t, like- I don’t know, w-we weren’t- we didn’t feel like a family ye-yet, we didn’t say the words, bu-but we—”
“Rhys,” Fiona breathed, daring a step closer to him.
“I we-went missing, an-and I was- I was so lost, Fiona, I’d never felt that way before,” the man sobbed out, his shoulders shaking now. “B-but I- Fiona, th-that was like- that was nothing , nothing at all , com-compared- compared to—”
Fiona reached a hand out to touch Rhys’ arm, waiting for his reaction before shifting to turn the man completely, pulling him into her embrace. Despite the difference in height, Rhys had no problem bowing his head and letting his brow rest against Fiona’s shoulder. She tucked her own head against his collarbone, frowning against his vest as he all but clung to her.
“She’s okay,” Fiona murmured, her hands resting against his back as she held him. “You can see her soon. I promise.”
“It’s like everything- everything was just over ,” he continued, his voice barely above a whisper. “Like we didn’t even- like we weren’t family. Like you guys just l-le-left. Left me .”
Fiona squeezed her eyes shut, squeezing Rhys tighter for a few seconds. “No, big guy. Never.”
A long moment passed before Zer0 spoke up, their voice eerily bouncing off the walls.
“My friends, we must go- they will be here very soon,” they advised, but their voice was anything but impatient.
The pair pulled apart and with one final look exchanged, they turned back down the darkening tunnels and got moving again. Zer0 paused long enough that the two noticed the lack of a third set of shoes on the metal, looking back as they realized in unison only to find Zer0 standing in the same place. Their head was turned where neither of them could see, their figure unmoving.
“Z-Zer0, buddy?” Rhys called, taking a tentative step back toward his friend.
A moment passed before they pushed themselves off the wall, advancing once more. “They are coming, Rhys.”
Panic erupted on Rhys’ face and he stammered for a second, waiting until Zer0 was beside him before falling into step with the lanky Vault Hunter. Fiona glanced over her shoulder and then looked across Rhys’ chest, finding Zer0’s entire self impassive, without so much as a limp or a hum in their tone to indicate anything at all.
She didn’t like not being able to assess a person, and the lessening light bulbs overhead did her no favors.
“The tunnels lead into a sewer just ahead,” Rhys rushed out, his pace increasing until he broke into a full jog.
He was soon surpassing his friends to reach a barely visible wheel attached to the left wall. A pipe ran from it and into the floor, and as Rhys gripped it to start turning it, Fiona realized there was the tiniest of slits in the ground surrounding where the pipe connected. It spread out about four feet along the walls, opening up with a grinding creak with every full turn Rhys made. He struggled for a moment longer before the opening was four feet wide, a mechanism attached to the pipe and wheel that Fiona could barely make out in the darkness.
“Is it- it’s a real sewer, isn’t it?” Fiona balked, her nose turning up at the idea.
“Well it- it’s not as gross as a normal one?” Rhys replied, taking a moment to breathe. “It’s… maintained? So it’s not- it’s not gross. Usually.”
Fiona squinted at him for a moment before shaking her head. “All right, let’s get into the not really-sewer , we need as much distance between us and those bastards as we can get.”
“Shall I go first, then?” Zer0 piped up, looking between the two.
“Can you- are you gonna be able to with your hand?” Rhys asked hesitantly, grimacing as he dared a glance to the hand in question.
“My hand will be quite alright,” they replied, stepping to the edge of the opening. “I take no risks, Rhys.”
Rhys’ grimace didn’t disappear. “That’s kind of misleading, you know.”
Zer0 simply flashed a brief wink on their mask before stepping onto the ladder and lowering themself into the darkness below one rung at a time. When the sound of their friend hitting the ground below echoed back up, Fiona looked to Rhys. The man was frowning as he stared down into the darkness, not noticing her gaze locked on him.
“Stubborn,” Rhys muttered before shifting to climb down the ladder as well.
“Can’t tell who got it from who,” Fiona remarked with a smirk, earning a slight over the shoulder sneer from Rhys.
After he had hit the bottom as well, Fiona cast one more quick look around the tunnels before joining the pair below.
The sewer was smaller than the escape tunnels, only four feet in width and height, leaving the trio hunkered over as they proceeded. With a wheel at the bottom of the ladder, Rhys closed the overhead entrance, sinking them into total darkness without the dimly flickering bulbs to guide them. As the last shreds of light had faded, Rhys’ cybernetic eye began to hum, the blue of the synthetic iris lighting up before suddenly casting a wide cone of light, the beam projecting far into the darkness.
Fiona blinked rapidly as she adjusted her eyes, squinting them just in case Rhys were to turn and look at her. “That’s insanely bright, and this sewer is insanely dark- and also does not smell like a sewer.”
As she prepared for, Rhys instinctively turned to look at her, the heavy duty light nearly causing Fiona to see spots as she snapped her head away. Rhys hurried out an apology before looking ahead once more, leading the way.
“So, it’s- it’s a special system, a lot of places on Promethea have it- see, there’s an automatic process where all the sewage gets flushed out with specially treated water and chemicals,” the man explained as they all but crawled through the space. His voice bounced off the walls in an even more strange way, the echoes lasting for seconds at a time as he continued, “It all gets washed out into this big- like, strainer thing. All the trash and solid stuff gets caught and disposed of, and the contaminated water and liquids get purified and also treated.”
“Oh, that’s kinda cool.” Fiona nearly cringed at her own voice amplified. “These aren’t yours, right?”
“Psht, no, I just think they’re neat,” he replied, the smile in his voice audible. “The, the uh, escape tunnels, those were fully Atlas, but, like, I always wanted them to meet the sewers. Cool escape route.”
“These were here before, escape tunnels came after,” Zer0 spoke, their voice quiet and hardly ringing back. “They meet purposely.”
Rhys glanced over his shoulder, Fiona easily catching sight of the grin. “Isn’t it cool?”
“Oh, the coolest,” the woman agreed, her friend’s smile contagious.
The three of them grew quiet, the noise around them seeming to all at once deter all of them from conversation. Their footsteps carried them through more winding tunnels that eventually started to widen just a bit. Not long after that, they arrived to a ladder sitting against the wall that divided into two more tunnels. It led straight up, no mechanism trailing behind the ladder, to the maintenance hole cover that no doubt exited onto the streets of the Meridian Metroplex.
“The coffee shop is just overhead,” Rhys explained, grabbing the first rung of the ladder and slipping into the enclosed area that followed the metal bars upward. “When we get out into the street, we need to immediately get inside it.”
Fiona looked to Zer0, the assassin still having to tilt their head forward a bit to stand up in the tunnels. “A coffee shop?”
“Belongs to a friend,” Zer0 replied, watching as Rhys began his climb. “You might get to meet them soon. Their name’s Lorelei.”
Fiona hummed, waiting until she no longer saw Rhys’ shoes to speak. “You got hurt earlier, didn’t you? Like, more than a sore wrist.”
“A common event that will only worry him,” Zer0 answered, their voice quietening considerably. “I will fix it soon.”
“Just tell me if it’s more than your hand?” Fiona ventured, her words slowly spoken as she narrowed her eyes at the Vault Hunter.
“Unfortunately, it reached my shoulder, as well.” They took a step forward, peering up the escape route to find Rhys waiting with his hand on the maintenance hole cover. They stepped back, gesturing to the ladder. “Say nothing to him.”
Fiona worked her jaw before shaking her head. “I’m not going next. You are.”
“It would be w—”
“You’re going next or I’m ratting on you,” Fiona interrupted, looking over to the other with a stern expression on her face. When Zer0 looked to meet her eyes, they paused for a long second.
“Hey, uh, guys? Everything okay down there? Waiting on you!” Rhys called, his voice carried down but not echoing like before.
“We’re coming up now!” Fiona called back, leaning under the opening. She stepped back again, gesturing widely. “If your arm won’t snap off, get moving.”
Zer0 did not move or speak for a moment, then flashed yet another kanji across their mask. The red light from it spilled an equally red illumination around the tunnel, Fiona completely unsure of what was being said, but was satisfied nonetheless when Zer0 complied. She watched as the red light faded and the assassin climbed onto the ladder, waiting a few moments after Zer0’s figure disappeared completely to join her friends on the rise.
The metal screeching of the cover was enough to make Fiona cringe, squinting as she looked up and into the ribbons of daylight slipping down. With the manhole removed completely, Rhys was quick to scramble off the ladder and out of sight, Zer0 soon following. Fiona found herself gaining a burst of speed before reaching the street, making a quick assessment of her surroundings. She heaved herself out of the sewer entrance completely and made a beeline for the coffee shop nearby, the chalkboard outside the establishment still boasting a brightly written menu.
The doorway was sprinted through for the third and final time, the overhead electronic bell ringing softly with the detected motion as she approached the counter that her friends stood by.
“All right, plans, let’s consolidate,” Fiona announced, her eyes scanning the inside of the building. It was all devices and machines to prepare and perfect the various drinks and foods the shop had to offer. Assorted pictures and awards hanging from the walls caught light on their glass frames and metal bases. Behind another counter lined with various coffee machines there were deactivated, unmoving bots, along with means to make coffee apparently left in the open in a hurry.
“Okay, so, Lorelei will definitely be looking for us,” Rhys started, turning to seat himself in one of the tall bar stools. “That means if we can get back in contact with her and Atlas forces, we can put together plans to get back inside HQ, and- well, go from there.”
Fiona blinked, glancing to the door as her brows furrowed. “You want to fight an entire invasion force?”
Rhys paused. “Well, yeah, if that’s what we have to do!”
The woman stopped, at a loss for words. She stammered at first, her voice almost shaking as she finally spoke, “Maliwan has control over like, most of the planet- Katagawa has a laser! Like, a huge space cannon! And those Siren twins? Rhys, this- this is bigger than Atlas!”
The man shook his head just a bit, blinking. “Fiona, what do you mean?”
“This is galaxy wide!” she continued, throwing her hands up. “It’s not- it’s not just Helios, o-or Pandora this time, it’s, like, everywhere! They are everywhere! And they have two sirens hellbent on- I don’t know, universal domination or something!?
“An-and, like- Rhys, I really understand, you put so much into rebuilding this company, but, dude.” She paused long enough to take a quick breath, not giving him space to interject as she went on, “It’s bigger than just your company!”
“My company is helping Promethea,” Rhys finally protested, standing up off of the stool once more. “The people who are defending themselves from Maliwan- they need my weapons! They need the things I make.”
“If Atlas wasn’t here , Maliwan wouldn’t be either,” Fiona argued, gesturing vaguely to the door behind them. “All they want is to say they have more shit absorbed into their megacorporation bullshit!”
“You know that’s not the whole story, Fiona!” he fumed. “If they have my guns, they have more fuel for their armies, and the good guys lose to the psychopaths that, just like you said, are trying to take over the universe!”
“ You matter more than the stupid company!” she practically shouted, pointing her hands out to him.
“If that was true, you wouldn’t have abandoned me! ”
The words seemed to reverberate off the walls around them as soon as they left Rhys’ mouth. It sunk in just as quickly as it was uttered, Fiona’s eyes widening, while Rhys’ chest heaved from only a short distance away. She watched as his face gradually, after only a few moments of silence, began to lose the tension, frustration, even anger, melting away to be replaced by the compete opposite.
“Fiona, I—”
“We told you to back out!” Fiona retaliated, her hands forming fists. “We tried- we tried to tell you! That was us, trying to- to warn you! You knew the war was getting worse! You knew, Rhys!”
“My friends, we must stop,” Zer0 finally spoke up, looking between the pair.
Silence hung in the air like heavy chains, and whatever semblance of regret Rhys had only moment before seemed to dissipate, faster than it appeared.
“Fuck you, Fiona!”
“Rhys, you have to stop th—”
“No, stay out of this Zer0!” Rhys turned his attention back to Fiona, jabbing his flesh and bone finger through the air at Fiona. “You’ve been with me- with me this whole time, Fiona, except for the literal worst goddamned moments of my life! Where were you when Helios fell? Where were you when I had ripped myself apart , all for the sake of that stupid fucking planet ?!
“We spent three and and a half years of our lives trying to build this shit back up, because I wanted to make a difference! I would be the difference, I was going to help people, and it wasn’t going to be like HIM! ” Tears had been building, and spilled from his eyes as his voice loudened but only broke further, “And that’s what this was! That was gon-gonna be us, together , like a FAMILY! And you fu-fucking left me! ”
Fiona finally found it in her to disregard the drum like pounding of her heart, her entire figure shaking.
“They were coming after us! They were going to take us if we didn’t disappear! ” Fiona screamed, her eyes wide and full of fire. “I had to keep Sasha safe! She’s my sister, and I had to keep her safe if you fucking weren’t going to! They were looking for Vault Hunters, Rhys, they were looking for you and me! It wasn’t all about you this time, and you were too fucking stubborn to realize that! She was in danger!”
“She was my fucking wife! ” Rhys cursed, flipping his hand around to display the wedding band still tucked just above his knuckle. “All I ever wa-wanted to do was protect her!”
“If we hadn’t left when we did, they would have found you and used you to get to me!” she retorted, her own eyes finally pricking with tears. “Do you get that?! We couldn’t tell you that! Who the hell knows what you would have done, because I can think of at least two stupid things you might have gone for!”
“We were a family, Fiona! We’re supposed to tell each other everything!” Rhys bellowed.
“Not when it gets you fucking killed! ”
“I would have died for both of you in a hea-heart beat, and if you knew that, if you really knew that, none of this would have even happened! ”
That seemed to force the pair back into complete silence, both of them crying fiercely as the words shot across the room took their toll. Rhys practically stumbled backward to catch himself against the counter. Fiona’s eyes looked anywhere but his face, her own feet carrying her closer to the surface of different counter to rest her hand on, propping herself up as their sobs created a duet of desolation. Zer0 kept their distance from Rhys, though their attention never seemed to leave their friend as he shook against the only thing holding him away from the ground.
“Why can’t you j-just admit, ju-just admit you did leave?” Rhys sobbed, shaking his head. “Wh-whatever you meant by it- wh-whatever the fucking goal wa-was, Fiona, yo-you left me. Sh -she left m-me. Why can’t you just admit you were wrong?”
Fiona brought her free hand up to her face, sniffling as she did her best to wipe away the tears that still flowed. “B-because I br-broke everyone’s h-heart.”
Rhys scoffed, blinking away what tears he could as he looked up, directionless, to the cracked and crumbling ceiling above them. “Yeah, F-Fiona, I thought that was obvious at this point.”
She didn’t speak again, sweeping the strands of hair behind her ear that had fallen before. The woman took a deep breath, finally dragging her line of sight to Rhys’ face. He was still leaning heavily into the counter, his own chest rising and falling with breaths he took to recompose himself. She was only able to watch for a brief moment before her eyes found one of the various cracks that had been left in the floor from the ongoing war.
Seconds bled into minutes, and anything past the first two felt like eons long. It was a mixture of relief and only heightened distress for Fiona when Rhys finally spoke again.
“I saw you looking at her picture,” he whispered, his voice still breaking as he spoke. “I couldn’t… I couldn’t even have it on my d-desk, for the first few months. I couldn’t- couldn’t even look at her. Not without…”
“We were nev-never going to stay gone forever,” Fiona murmured.
“How was I supposed to know that, when one day, y-you had told me to abandon the only good thing I’ve ever done in my life, and then my two closest friends abandoned me the next?” His words stayed quieter than before, the scratchiness in his voice giving away just how sore his throat was.
“I don’t know! ” Fiona cried out, the roughness of her words reflecting the same as her friend’s. “I just- I don’t know! I was scared! I didn’t- Rh-Rhys, I didn’t know what else to do! I ju-just- I just needed Sasha safe!”
“We could have done that together ,” the man argued, pushing himself off the counter once more, taking another step forward, closer to Fiona. “Like, th-there’s- there’s not even a single reason to keep fighting if you’re not even going to try and apologize! Because- wh-whatever you wanted , whatever you tried to do , still fucking- it still left me by myself, not knowing if my fucking family was alive.”
Fiona hated that her lip quivered, trying to press them together to hide that she shook at all. She darted her eyes away from the man, no longer replying at all. She vaguely registered the sound of Rhys shifting again, the man looking to Zer0.
“This discussion’s d-done,” the man spoke without looking to Fiona. “Do you think w-we can- I don’t know, rig up something from in here to contact Lorelei?”
“If you had let me, I would have shown you this thing.” The assassin stepped behind the counter Rhys stood against, reaching beneath the machines to pull out a small handheld device. “Emergency calls.”
Rhys nodded, sniffling as he reached up to wipe his face. “It looks- it looks a little crappy.”
“Broken, needs repairs,” Zer0 replied, setting it down on the countertop. “On the bright side, while it’s fixed, we have the coffee.”
Rhys scoffed, and the sound was almost a genuine laugh. He took the device into his hands before moving past Zer0 to step around the counter. “While I fix it, you mean,” the man murmured as he began searching every drawer, cabinet, and otherwise covered compartment until he has a small set of extra tools to work with.
“My hand is damaged, or else I would help you out,” the assassin countered, their tone mild. “On that note… please rush.”
Silence fell over the coffee shop with ease after that. Fiona slid into a seat nearby, crossing her arms over the countertop top. Her eyes unfocused as the rest of the world faded out.
The near screeching of the device from Rhys’ hands snapped Fiona’s attention back up, blinking her eyes as it continued uttering a mess of chattering that she couldn’t discern. She watched as Rhys fumbled, muttering to himself while Zer0 looked on as well, until the racket clarified and there were very intelligible voices coming through the small speakers.
Rhys scrambled, hitting several smaller buttons and tweaking the thin antenna on its top before attempting to speak over the mess of communications.
“This is Strongfork, repeat, Rhys Strongfork, needing a secure line!” he half shouted into the receiver. It crackled again, Zer0 taking a step closer as it hummed and a few more panicked voices came over the line.
“ Who needs a secure line? ” came back a voice he was only barely familiar with.
“Rhys! Rhys Strongfork!” the man cried, his hands trembling as he visibly stopped himself from shaking the device in frustration. “Do you copy!?”
“ Man in the sky copies you, sir! Transferring you now! ”
Another pause filled with hissing and static. Fiona tentatively climbed out of the booth but ventured no further than the seat opposite hers. She watched as her companions listened closely, her own ears straining, waiting to hear something.
“ Rhys, is that you?! ”
“Lorelei!” Rhys practically whined, his shoulders dropping as he brought the device closer to his face. “Listen! Is this secure!?”
“ Of course it is, arse for brains!” they shouted, their voice stabilizing a bit through the static. “ What do you take me for? I would never put you in harm’s way!”
Rhys sighed heavily, bringing the device to rest against his forehead. “L-Lorelei, no, I know, I just- Listen, we-we’re at your coffee shop! Me, Zer0, and- and uh—”
The man turned his head to focus on Fiona for long enough that his exact kind of confusion and hesitancy was felt by her.
“An-and another survivor.”
Fiona had no time to really react as their conversation proceeded.
“ When we cut through the Maliwan bastards in HQ, we found your office empty, an-and Zer0’s sword and- Rhys, we thought you were bloody dead! ” his friend continued. “ We thought he got his grubby little stupid hands on you! Or- or something! What even happened?! ”
“Listen, I promise, I’ll explain everything later,” Rhys spoke, glancing to the windows of the store. “We’ve already been in here, for like, I don’t know, half an hour? We escaped through the secret passage under my desk and followed the pipeline here- I-I’m not hurt, not her either, bu-but Zer0 busted their hand on the way out, we could really use some backup like, soon.”
Static came back, the whining of the device piercing the air again and the three of them tensed up while listening.
“Lor-Lorelei?!” Rhys cried, smacking the side of the gadget.
There was another moment of garbled noises before Lorelei’s voice was heard once more.
“ We’ve got Vault Hunters here, they were dealing with the Calypso bullshit- I’m sending some of them to come get you! ” she elaborated. “ I’m- My hands are tied, I can’t exactly- fuck, Rhys, listen- who’s the other person with you?”
Rhys glanced to Fiona once again, shaking his head. “It’s, uh, it’s- It’s really a long, very long, story, it would be easier if we just do this in person!”
“ No, Rhys, that’s not what I meant- Listen, I know it’s been rough, but you- Agh, fuck all! ”
Their voice disappeared and for another moment, static came back through, but unlike before, other unintelligible voices were being transmitted behind it all. Rhys’ brows furrowed, looking to Zer0 as his face fell.
“Lo- Hey, Lo, are you okay?!”
“ Rhys? ”
The voice that spoke through from the other side wasn’t Lorelei’s, but despite the man’s fears, the unexpected response did not evoke panic in his chest. He froze, his fingers tightening around the instrument in his palms as Fiona shifted closer, her steps carrying her over in an instant.
“Y-you- Th-that’s—” Fiona’s stammers were not enough to bring Rhys out of his trance.
The man uttered a sob, eyes staring into the speaker as if he expected a video transmission to appear.
“S-Sasha?”
“ Rhys, it’s- Rhys, it’s me!” the woman cried from the other end, her voice full of the tears that he knew were bursting from her eyes. “ Rhys, baby, I’m- Baby, I’m so sorry, Rhys, I’m so— ”
“Sasha, I-I’m- Sasha, babe, I lo- Sasha, a-are you okay?” he sobbed into the receiver, his figure shaking as he nearly collapsed, hunched over. “Baby, I’m- Oh my god, are you- are you okay, are you- are you safe? Lo-Lorelei, they—”
“I’m okay, I promise- I can-can’t come with them, w-we can’t go with the Vault Hunters I’m- I can’t leave the- Listen, it’s gonna be okay,” Sasha continued, her voice never even again. “ Just g-get home safe, I-I’m gonna be here, I-I’ll b-be here when you get home! I promise, Rhys, I’ll be here, I’m with Lorelei, th- they- We’re gonna keep each other safe! ”
“I-I’ll be there soon, baby,” he whispered, sniffling as he clung to the communicator. “I’m coming, Sasha, I-I’ll be there.”
“ I’ll- I’ll be waiting, Rhys, I’ll be here. ”
The communicator switched hands again, the hissing replaced quickly by Lorelei’s voice. “ I’ve got them on their way, we’ll get you back here safe, soon, buddy,” she assured. “ Just be on the lookout, they’re heading to the shop now! And absolutely do not go anywhere, it’s not safe right now!”
“Co-copy that,” Rhys croaked, one of his stiff hands finally leaving the device to wipe his face. “You t-two, you both stay safe, got me? That’s an or-order.”
Lorelei managed a tense chuckle. “ Will do, Captain Obvious. Just, uh… get back here soon, all right? Need you to be here. ”
“Be there as soon as p-possible,” Rhys replied, smiling just a bit.
As if on cue, the noise from the other side was replaced by static, the racket becoming unbearable before Rhys finally switched it off altogether. He hid it back around the counter where Zer0 had taken it from, taking a deep breath as he moved back to his friend’s side. He made no efforts to look at Fiona and he hoped it wasn’t obvious just how much he struggled to avoid her eyes.
“How bad’s your hand now, buddy?” Rhys asked softly, not daring to reach for it. “I know I’m no, uh, doctor, especially for- for a special kinda guy like yourself, but you know.”
Zer0 hummed. “It’s not that bad, Rhys, you just worry far too much. New-U or a health kit will fix it.”
“You lie way too easily, though,” Rhys muttered, sniffling. “I can hack the New-U after you use it, and see what gets updated or fixed or whatever, I bet that’s a thing. I b-bet I can catch you in a lie.”
“Interesting idea.” They paused long enough for Rhys’ attention to shift back up to their helmet, the dim red light of a smile covering the man’s face. “Worry about your wife, first. She’s waiting for you.”
“I can multitask.”
Despite a reluctant Zer0, Rhys was finally allowed to use his arm to scan his friend’s injury, discovering exactly what was ailing the assassin. Amidst Rhys fussing almost immediately about not being told about the extent of the wound, Fiona’s attention grabbed by movement in the streets outside. The small windows were closed, but the door gave a very small view into the outside streets from the glass pane taking up a third of the entrance’s surface. Beyond the Maliwan signs that stood on the sidewalk, there were figures moving towards them. Fiona narrowed her eyes at their frames before shifting, walking backwards to Rhys and Zer0.
“Th-those- Hey, guys, we got company!” she said, her voice seemingly indecisive on whether to be loud or not.
Her call brought the other two to look up, the appearance of the Calypso’s fanatics familiar to both of them. The assortment of mostly humanoid soldiers of the Siren twins were running full speed, screaming, toward the coffee shop from only a short distance down the road.
“Weapons, look for weapons!” Fiona cried, scrambling through the near maze like interior of the shop. “Zer0, get behind the far counter!”
The assassin could not have protested if they wanted to, already being half shoved by Rhys to take cover as instructed. As Fiona joined them, all three of them partially hunkered over, she looked across the tools Rhys had amounted earlier, but not with much hope.
“You good with a, uh… espresso scoop?” Rhys asked, his own voice full of doubt.
“Not for a few years,” Fiona replied, looking back to see their enemies were on their literal doorstep. “Lorelei kept an emergency communicator but no guns? ”
“Listen, she works in mysterious ways, and after a while, you just stop questioning it,” Rhys offered, sighing heavily before grabbing a screwdriver from the toolset he had scraped together. “Zer0, this can work as a stand in for your sword, right?”
“That’s not funny, Rhys,” they deadpanned.
“We don’t have a lot of options, jokes are all I have!”
The frantic shouting from the fanatics outside became distant, coupled with a very close, very rapid beeping that gave Fiona all the heads up she needed.
“Get down!”
In just a few seconds, an explosion erupted, blowing the door completely down and tearing through the windows. Rhys shifted first, lifting his mechanical arm as it clicked and hummed. Fiona watched wide eyed as a small spherical device was pushed out of his palm, the man quickly hurling it over their only barrier and into the unlucky face of one of the fanatics.
“Down, down!” Rhys hissed.
Only a moment passed between his throw and the device clicking loudly, the panels opening from the top of it to release a bright flash of light and a screech of a noise. The cries of the foot soldiers rang out along with the apparent flash bang’s effects, and with them, Fiona rose to her feet to draw the hidden pistol from within her coat’s sleeve. She spun the barrels to lock in the Shock bullet, taking aim before firing at an electrical device nearest to the most amount of adversaries. It sparked to life before practically exploding, electrocuting three of the invading fanatics and leaving them prone as Fiona ducked back down.
“Rhys, do you have anymore shit up your sleeve!?” Fiona asked as she slid her second and final bullet into the Roshambo’s chamber.
“Uh, well—” The man’s hand curled into a fist, palm facing himself as a singular wide blade shot up and out of his knuckles, the gray metal of it matching that of his wrist joint.
Fiona’s eyes widened. “Oh, that’s sick.”
Rhys managed a half hearted grin, which was quickly wiped off his face as all three of them jolted at the scream of the fanatic launching herself over their line of defense. The woman already had her rifle raised, her eyes wide and her grin stretching across her face.
“Time to DIE! ”
The bullet that embedded itself into the fanatic’s face burst with electricity, the blue element causing her to convulse before collapsing. Zer0 shifted next, ripping the rifle from the now dead soldier’s hands and immediately standing, the muzzle of the gun simply moving side to side as the assassin emptied out the magazine inside the shop. Every visible enemy dropped with pained screams, leaving a silence that the gun’s noise seemed to echo in. None of the trio shifted, the stillness seeming to stretch for an eternity.
However, the revving of outrunner engines soon motivated them to shift, Zer0 all but tossing the gun away before pulling their arm back to their torso, a soft groan leaving them as Rhys scrambled upright. The man stayed at Zer0’s uninjured side, ensuring Fiona followed as he led his friend to the door. Before they even got through the doorway, the two outrunners they had heard became visible, one driven by a thickly clad figure with a Skag of all things, sat neatly in the driver’s lap. In the other vehicle close behind was a woman with familiar bright blue tattoos swirling around her dark skin, her blue tinged black hair pulled back.
She was the first to screech to a stop, standing up in her vehicle to look past the mess on the street to the three exiting the shop.
“Rhys, Zer0, and Fiona!” she greeted, her grin wide. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all at last.”
She seemed unfazed at the lack of response by the three, leaping onto the asphalt to close the distance between herself and them. Before she reached them, however, her eyes darted up, the grin disappearing in an instant. She shouted, her skin lighting up as six arms identical to her tattooed limb appeared around her in ethereal blue illumination.
Despite her quick reaction, those she sought to warn could not run faster than the duo of Psychos launching themselves from the roof of the coffee shop with screams of insanity. Zer0 and Rhys were crashed into by one of them, Rhys’ head hitting the ground first as Zer0 took most of the Psycho’s weight. Beside them, Fiona’s legs were dove into by the other Psycho, but with his failed trajectory, his face smacked into the asphalt anyway with a wet thud.
Even with the speed that Fiona scrambled to Rhys’ side and the Siren reached her hands out to attack, the Psycho grabbed hold of both Zer0’s biceps, screeching out laughter as he jerked them up and back. Just as a sextuple steel ball bola of pure Siren energy sent the Psycho flying off of the assassin’s back, they uttered a scream of unbridled agony, shifting onto their uninjured side with a sharp curse.
“Flak, quickly!” the Siren shouted, her arms disappearing as she crouched beside Rhys’ unmoving figure. She nodded to Fiona, carefully pulling the man’s limp form up and into her arms. “Get in my gunner seat, we must go now.”
Flak was just as quick and careful to bring Zer0 up into their own arms, the group wasting no time in reboarding the outrunners before racing back through the destroyed streets to the Atlas campus.