Chapter Text
It’s fun only the first few times it happens. Actually, scratch that, it starts getting old the second time she wakes up and finds herself god knows where at the bottom of the ocean.
Lilith inhales in surprise, which is all in all not her smartest move, and then proceeds to swim upwards as fast as she can. When she comes up she coughs so loud and so violently she’s sure she’s going to open her eyes to see her spleen and half of her other organs floating next to her. What she sees instead is water in all cardinal directions.
She clicks her tongue, “right,” she says, her voice raspy from the coughing, “isn’t this just the fucking pits.” She raises her left hand and flexes her fingers. Her tattoos are still there, still intact after she’d gotten them back from Tyreen. A part of her feels relief: looking down and seeing nothing but pale skin had been the weirdest fucking thing, like waking up in someone else’s body.
Lilith wills her powers into action in the way that feels like slipping on a pair of broken-in shoes but nothing happens. She tries focusing, concentrating, but patience was never her strongest suit and she soon groans in frustration. No reaction, no glow. Nada de nada. Well, that’s troubling. She’s about to scope the horizon for clues on where to head next when she feels something brush against her leg.
That’s not a good sign, she thinks, and before the horror of it can fully sink in she gets yanked back down. Lilith has enough time to register something huge and full of jagged teeth before her vision goes white and she wakes up on a blanket of snow.
She soon figures out the gist of it: it happens every few minutes or so that her tattoos will flare up like a lightbulb too full of electricity and before she can explode she will zap to a different location. She doesn’t get a choice about where, just to keep it a spicy pain in the ass. Sometimes she’s lucky and the place will be the middle of a deserted town, or a nice empty road, some other times she’ll curse any name she can think of as she gets whisked away to a freezing mountain top or in the middle of a pack of corrosive skags.
The one constant in all of the places she ends up in - and she would know because she knows the god forsaken planet like the back of her hand, like the map was written in her genes, is this: she’s stuck on Pandora.
The reality of it is frustrating. For all the bullshit you can find on this cursed rock she doesn’t come across anything resembling a weapon once. Whatever, she’s a big girl and she’s resourceful.
One time she makes it in the middle of an actual living room but before she can grab the ECHO on the haphazardly built coffee table to let anyone know she’s still alive, her arm flashes and she’s hanging on a wire hundreds of feet above the ground. Just plain cruel, in her opinion.
The small mercy is that she doesn’t feel tired or hungry at all, which is additionally an alarming can of worms she doesn’t even want to think about opening. Maybe she really is dead and this is her personal purgatory, she thinks, after she finally untangles herself from the wire to jump on the nearest rock. She catches her breath for a second before she notices her arm flaring up again.
She loses count of the times she's zapped just a few hours in. Days? Weeks? Who’s to say how time works when you’ve got a magic arm dragging you across the planet like a rag doll. This time she’s sitting on the grass in what she recognizes as Jakobs Cove. Last time she was here she’d been clearing the area of undead but now she’s the only soul haunting its grounds. Grim. And cheesy, Lil, stop being such a debbie downer. She almost hears that thought in Mordecai’s voice.
The area looks a different kind of creepy in the orange fog of daylight but she isn’t really paying attention to her surroundings, glancing at her tattoos at the corner of her eye, waiting for them to just get it over with and take her elsewhere.
They don’t. For longer than a few minutes, which Lilith is cautiously hopeful about. She tears her gaze away from them slowly, almost afraid that if she does they will betray her and blow up again. She rubs her arms and then looks at the sky.
She sees it sometimes, the mark she left behind after Elpis. She has to admit it looks pretty sick. What a way to go.
Her last moments often replay in her head. Maybe leaving the reins to a traumatized teenager wasn’t her soundest decision but she was running on adrenaline and unadulterated bravado when it happened, the others will probably pick up on it. She sure hopes they do instead of following her last words like a testament.
“Last words,” she mocks her own thoughts, “I’m not freaking dead.”
She’s not, hopefully, but she virtually is to everyone she knows or has ever cared about. If only she could land somewhere with people or any means of communications for once.
“Look at you, Lil.” She says as she gets up on her feet, “This little time away from being commander and you already feel like an anxious mama hen.” She smiles to herself, “What happened to the cold feet, uhu?” She looks ahead and decides to start walking towards the hospital on the hill. With a bit of luck she’ll maybe find a radio.
She’s taken three steps when she hears something snapping behind her. She turns around with quick instincts and her eyes zig zag around the forest of skeletal trees. She squints, “anyone there?”
In an instant, she gets tackled to the ground. She wrestles frantically, trying to get the stranger off her back until they finally get the upper hand and pin her wrists over her head, straddling her back. Lilith’s face is pushed on the ground, she sputters the dirt out of her mouth and raises her head high enough to be able to speak, “Who—“
“Goddammit!” They say through gritted teeth, “no dice.” It’s a voice Lilith definitely recognizes.
Lilith blinks, “Tyreen?” Her face goes on a journey from confusion to disappointment to annoyance. She groans and lets her head fall back down on the dirt. “I was joking when I said you were probably still alive—“
“Nuh-uh, Fire-bitch, I do the talking here.” Somehow, Lilith complies. What the hell, let’s see what she spills. She’s had weirder Tuesdays. “Funniest story! So there I was, minding my business, leeching one of the most powerful beings in the universe which, by the way? BIG high but not sure if the come down is worth it. I’ve got a hangover the size of Elpis.”
Lilith scoffs, “Go vlog about it.”
“Anyway! You absolute thorns in my fucking side manage to kill me and right as I think ‘you know, what? Fuck this. Fuck the entire universe sideways, I’m out.’ What happens then, Lil’ ? My body gets ripped out of itself and I land straight into hell. And hell looks a lot getting flung from one side of this wretched planet to the other with no powers and no way out. It’s a fucking nightmare .” She growls.
“Yeah, welcome to the club.” Lilith says, “Were you trying to drain me just now? Wait, why am I surprised.”
“And to top it all off, here you are!” Tyreen says, using the tone of someone coming back home to their puppy, “the worst fucking person in the world, joining in for the ride. Isn’t that great! No one else around, just endless deserts, or ice caps, fucking jungles,” her tone gets angrier as she goes on, “not one! Fucking! Way! Out of this hell!”
Lilith waits for her to be done. “Are you d—“
“No.” She makes her point by twisting Lilith’s wrists. Lilith hisses. Gotta give it to her, for a runt she’s unexpectedly strong. “This is ALL your fault!” Tyreen says, tightening her grip.
Right, Lilith thinks, that’s enough. In a smooth movement she knocks Tyreen off of her and gets up.
Tyreen rolls away then scrambles to get back on her feet. She’s lost her cape and her old clothes, draped in what Lilith assumes to be rags she found along the way but the most jarring difference is the scar disfiguring the right side of her face down to her arm. Tyreen must’ve noticed her staring because she glares back at her, daring her to say something about it.
“Nice scars, hot shot,” Lilith says as she massages her wrists, “was it worth the absolute embarrassment of a failure you went through to get them?”
Tyreen growls and sprints towards her to no doubt deck her on the solar plexus but before her fist makes contact Tyreen’s tattoos flare up and she’s gone.
Lilith sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. Add that to the headache, she guesses. When she opens her eyes her own arm is starting to glow.
“Back at it again.”
She doesn’t meet Tyreen next zap. On the one after that she’s on a nice beach, the sun setting on the horizon and the shore littered with metal scraps brought in by the ocean. No signs of civilization or technology nearby so Lilith lands on just sitting down and catching a break when something splashes loudly out of the water, gasping for air.
“Oh fuck no.” Lilith says, eyeing Tyreen, who’s staring at her with what Lilith assumes could only be murderous intent.
Tyreen starts running towards the shore at a speed Lilith might be honestly impressed by if she wasn’t busy running away from her.
“Are we seriously doing this now?” Lilith says between trying to catch her breath. She’d gotten too complacent with being able to phase places, her cardio is honestly miserable, “Are you just going to, to what, keep trying to jump me every time we meet?”
Tyreen screams instead of an answer, gaining on her and tackling her on the ground. Lilith has enough time to realize what she’s going for when Tyreen’s left hook meets her jaw.
“Fucking OUCH —“ Lilith yells then squints up at her, “is it out of you system now?”
“Not even close.” She goes for a right hook this time and Lilith braces herself with her forearms.
A second passes. The blow doesn’t come.
“Are you just waiting for me to take my arms down? ‘Cause that’s not happening.” Lilith peeks between her wrists and notices Tyreen staring at something to the side, her fist frozen in mid-air. She follows her gaze to find a man brandishing a metal detector and staring back with his mouth agape.
“Holy gosh darn moly ladies, both your arms are on FIRE!”
And just like that, they’re gone.
The one thing Lilith finds out about herself while being in her own weird personal limbo is that she truly, deeply, honestly, with all her heart and a cherry on top hates the fuck out of running. Naturally, it’s the thing she gets to do the most.
Now running on even ground is one thing but doing it in a cave where the only light available is coming from the faint glow of the bioluminescence around her, trailed by an absolute cunt of a woman who won’t stop trying to get her fists to meet her face, topped by a pack of spiderants who look like they haven’t eaten in weeks? Well. It sort of sucks big tits.
“This sucks big tits.” She laments to nobody, because Tyreen is most definitely not even trying to listen to her, “God I hate this. I hate this, I — wait.”
Up ahead, like a mirage, she spots the light of day at the end of the tunnel. She could honestly cry. With one last push she sprints and leaps and almost falls flat on her face but she ultimately makes it out, running for a few paces more before needing to stop to catch her breath. She turns around to check on the spiderants. No signs of them or Tyreen, the hole of the cave just a big spot of inky blackness.
Should she…check on her? She spends a good handful of seconds considering it when she hears an animalistic shriek coming from inside the cave, followed by Tyreen’s voice taunting threats left and right.
Lilith shrugs. Eh, she’ll be fine. Better the spiderants than her.
Taking it as the perfect opportunity to get away from the woman, Lilith turns on her heels and starts walking away from the cave and across the desert. There’s what looks like a road and a Catch-A-Ride far in the distance. Lilith hums disappointed. With her luck she’ll probably zap away before she can even reach it. Worth a try anyway.
She takes the rest of the scenery in as she walks. Not much to look at really except for a mountain chain on the Horizon and the top of Helios peeking above it. Wait. Helios?
To her merit, her hunch is right. She zaps before she can take the next step.
Lilith sits down on a piece of rotting wood while scanning the sky, which is hard enough to do with the tall trees and vines blocking most of the view in all directions. Helios is nowhere in sight but neither is her Firehawk mark. She sighs and tries to bury the memory. She really can’t deal with the implications right now. Just as she’s about to rub her eyes, something flashes several feet in front of her, sending leaves floating about.
Lilith gets ready to run again but Tyreen simply looks at her with her eyebrows scrunched and profound tiredness in her eyes. She looks pretty knocked up but overall not injured. Too bad.
“Asshole.” Tyreen says.
“Take it up with the spiderants, not me.”
“Already done.” She produces a detached claw from behind her and throws it at Lilith’s feet.
Lilith nudges it with her boot, begrudgingly impressed, while still keeping her sights on Tyreen. There’s no telling when the nut job will go back to trying to give it to her. To Lilith’s surprise, Tyreen just sighs and sits down on the muddy dirt.
Lilith doesn’t really know how to react to that.
“I still hate you, by the way.” Tyreen says, her eyes closed and her head lulling back.
Lilith decides not to poke at the blessing and ignores her. For a second she considers looking for a way up the trees to get a better look at the sky but she ultimately votes against it. She’ll zap away soon enough, might as well use the time being to rest.
Tyreen suddenly groans loudly. Goodbye to the notion of rest, she guesses.
“I need this to be over, like, now.” Tyreen moans, “It sucks big truck nuts. I’m over it.”
Lilith looks her up and down, annoyance starting to trickle under her skin. "Boo-hoo?" When Tyreen acidly looks back at her Lilith scoffs, "you're pretty good at playing up the poor little tortured soul act for someone who brought this on herself. Not to mention how you — you know what, actually? I don't have to have this conversation with you. I've dealt with enough megalomaniacs to last two entire lifetimes." Lilith gets up to walk away from her.
"I didn't fucking ask." Tyreen mutters, "But sure, take the moral high ground. How did it feel to sic your dogs on my brother, by the way?"
Lilith halts. She knows what Tyreen is doing, the little ball of unrepressed anger she is. She ignores her.
"Oh, so no comment? Wow, I guess even Your Righteousness can admit to being a murderer."
Hold it back, Lilith . Her voice of reason says, sounding like Roland as it's wont to do, Don't fall for it. She's being a child.
"Did you get that, Fire-bitch?" She can hear Tyreen getting up and starting to walk towards her. Lilith's feet are pinned to the ground, "Mur-der-ers, that's what you and your fucking possey are, nothing but a bunch of self-absorbed, brother killing lunat--"
The slap hits Tyreen clean across her cheek before Lilith can think about stopping herself.
Tyreen, out of all the things she could've done, chuckles. It turns into laughter. She hunches down, holding her sides and everything, before coming back up with a flick of her hair, looking at Lilith like she was an old friend who just cracked a great joke. "The Fire-bitch bites!"
"You," Lilith starts, digging a finger into Tyreen's sternum hard enough to make her take a step back. "Are an insufferable little prick. Shut the fuck up."
Tyreen is smiling still, looking at her with curiosity and newfound mischief, as if she's trying to figure out more ways to rile her up. She probably is. It makes her want to knock her down a peg so fucking bad.
“You keep bringing your brother up,” Lilith says and watches as Tyreen’s shit eating grin gradually fades, “as if I’m supposed to believe you actually cared about him.”
“...watch it.” Aha, look who’s got her nerve struck now.
“What, you did? So much so that you didn’t waste a second to turn him to ash after he died?”
Tyreen grabs her by the jacket with unexpected force, “You don’t know the first fucking thing about me and my goddamn brother,” she says, and something about her expression this up close makes Lilith believe she means it, “ He—you don’t know shit!” She shoves her hard and turns away, walking deeper into the forest. Lilith watches her as her vision flashes white.
No Helios this time too. Well, to be fair, no visible sky at all but that’s not the first thing Lilith notices as she takes a look around the massive cavern.
“A town.” She breathes out, almost losing it on the spot, “a freaking town! Holy shit!”
Beside her, something rustles under a tall pile of garbage on the street and Lilith takes a step back before she notices Tyreen’s head poking out, looking like a grumpy cat that’s been bundled in smelly blankets. It's an image. Lilith can’t help a snort as Tyreen wrestles her way out of the pile.
“Stuping fucking arm,” Tyreen mutters to herself as she tries to thrash away from the pile and get up on her feet, “and don’t fucking laugh at me!” Tyreen growls annoyed, rolling around and onto her knees, ready to go for the jugular when they both hear an inhumane screech coming from across the road.
A handful of psychos burst out of a mostly barricaded building, hollering all sorts of noises.
Lilith groans then notices the big smile worming its way on Tyreen’s face. Oh no.
“My loyal subjects!” She preens, getting up and flourishing her arms about. It doesn’t look as grand without her cape but Tyreen’s stage presence alone seems to make it work, “Yes, it’s me, your God-Queen, you’re free to prostrate yourselves,” Tyreen laughs delightedly as the psychos notice her, exchanging looks and gathering around. Lilith tries to seize the moment and run but Tyreen is quicker, grabbing her by the wrist and tripping her so she can push her flat on her stomach to sit on her back. “I have one special quest for you all. You do this for me, you may get a nice place in my church when I rise again, how’s that sound?”
Lilith struggles to throw her off this time. Tyreen grabs her by the hair and pushes her head down in the dust. This is getting old.
There’s a pause before the psychos respond, the one probably appointed as the leader of the pack tilts his head and stares at Tyreen. “Your face is like a meat grinder!” He yells. “It looks taaasty.”
“What,” Tyreen says flatly, “the fuck did you just say to me? I’m your God-Queen, you little shit!”
“What’s a God-Queen, meat grinder?” Another psycho hollers from the back.
“Get the fuck off, Tyreen.” Lilith flails under her, “These idiots don’t know you, they’re probably out to eat our eyelids.”
“SNACKS!!!!” Another guy chimes in.
“Case in point,” Lilith gives one last push with her back and Tyreen decides to step off. When Lilith gets up she catches Tyreen’s upset expression for a second before she books it. She makes it as far as one block before she bumps into a muscle bound badass. He turns towards her, his laboured breath audible from behind his mask. Lilith backs away as he advances, “You’ve got to be shitting--”
“Wait!” She hears Tyreen yell to the psychos, “You want something tasty, right? That lady over there is waaaay tastier than I am. You go get her and have a bite. I promise she’s delicious.” Lilith can almost make out the smugness on her face. The little fucking shit.
The psychos, dumb as bricks as they are, don’t need to be told twice. They start advancing in unison, shrieking and hooting.
Lilith glares daggers at Tyreen. The dickhead winks at her before running in the opposite direction. Fuck. Lilith knocks two psychos down with a kick and punches another one in the neck, it’s enough to create an opening so she can duck out of the badass’ grip and away from them at large. She could take them all down, she knows she could, but she also knows when fleeing is the smartest option, especially in her current condition.
She takes the first alley she sees and runs as fast as she can, bandits on her trail. The alley leads to a larger road with no hiding spots except for a pile of scraps on her left, the only notable building is a bar in front of her, the signs read “The Purple Skag” in bold letters. Her other option is more running in either direction. Fuck it, she decides as she hears the screams getting closer, and heads for the bar. She slams the door behind her and ducks down.
As she peeks out of the window she sees the bandits emerge from the alley, looking around for signs of her. They stupidly and blessedly decide to continue running down the road. Lilith sighs in relief as she sees them disappearing behind a corner.
“Bar’s closed.” Someone says behind her, someone that doesn’t sound like they’ve completely lost all of their marbles.
Lilith turns around to see a blonde man with a nose piercing standing behind the counter and polishing a glass. He stares back, giving her a once over before his eyes widen in recognition.
“Wait, wow,” he snaps his fingers without taking his eyes off of her, “you’re that Vault Hunter chick what’s-her-name, your posters are all over the place.”
Lilith forgets how to talk for a moment, her mouth hanging open. Something about the scene fills her with an odd sense of deja vu. In the second that follows she’s scrambling her way towards the counter. The guy takes a step back and looks around as she plants her hands on the bar and looks up at him.
“Can I uh, help you?” He asks.
“Sanctuary,” she says, “Please find a way, tell them,“ her words almost die in her throat as she notices her tattoos starting to glow. Shit. She looks back at him, pleading, “Tell them to find me.”
The man at the counter blinks. The woman in front of him is gone.
“Hey babe, I just got word from Lidia Strauss, she’ll be here with the Vault key tomorrow...were you talking to someone?”
He turns towards the woman currently present in the room with him, “I think I was, Sash.”
“Are you...ok? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”
August blinks again. He stares at the spot where the Vault Hunter had disappeared in a flash. “Something like that.”