I was woken by an ache pulsing from my chest. A faint, but ever-present grinding of gears so very slowly approaching a halt. I blinked blearily and stood up, my joints feeling the same sort of grinding with every movement. As I became more awake I pulled up a diagnostic on myself, and quickly found the problem...

Something was happening to my core. Or at least my Dox battery. From what readings I got off of it, the sample of his blood and the mythril casing holding it were slowly bleeding off energy, and weakening me. I estimated I had enough energy still charged in it that I had maybe a day before it ran dry. I wasn't sure what was happening to it. Had... Had something happened to Dox to cause this? Or was it losing power just from being in a separate universe than him? I made to go to the basement to check on the other samplings of Dox's blood I had stored to see if the same thing was happening to them, maybe there was a common effect that could be derived from them and my battery. I was cut off by hearing a massive explosion going off somewhere in town. I looked up and my eyes went into scanning mode over the area it came from. I could see the forms of two humans/humanoids and some sort of robotic being, seeing to be attacking! I turned off my sensors and swapped over to a megaphone briefly.

"Kyth get down here! We got big trouble!"

I heard the sounds of Kyth moving to try and get himself together and in the meantime I dashed out of the door, hoping to intercept whoever the three people tearing up the town were before it was too late...

I allowed myself to drop a slight bit of power to use my thrusters to rocket over the town to get to them, only for a missile to blast me before I could get a look. I flipped myself around as I dropped through the air, thankful that I was already in combat mode as I landed on my feet-hooves. I stood up fully as I faced my opponents and my jaw nearly dropped. I wouldn't have believed what I was seeing if it weren't for what had happened over the two weeks...

Standing across the way from me were Gaige and Deathtrap, straight out of Borderlands Two, and along with them a being I hadn't thought of for a long time... See, Kyth showed me Borderlands a while back, and for the next two weeks after that I went a little... overboard, in fangirling. Like I went crazy with it for a while and became one of those fans. But that brings me to this guy... See I had an idea for a storyline if I ever met someone capable of modding and stuff that I could pay to try and program it together. It was about a supposed Hyperion initiative taken in their 'biological weaponry' programs, known as Project Valravn. The story would focus on the Vault Hunters finding out the story of the doctor in charge of the project, and what happened to him. Essentially he was the head of the project, with its objective being a way to emulate the powers of a siren in a normal being. The project eventually came close to succeeding, with the creation of an item known as the Valravn Gauntlet. The Gauntlet was a way of controlling and utilizing a swarm of form-altering nanites, which would be activated upon the gauntlet being worn for the first time by someone. Then came the drawback. The nanites would rewrite every single cell of the wearer, inside and out to make them into a half biological half mechanical hybrid being, that way they were capable of changing as the system required. Their mind would be torn apart in a storm of pain, so if they even survived then they would be driven completely mad by the process. The head of the project would be found by the player, wearing the gauntlet and having been left in a state giving them resemblance to a psycho of Krieg's level, but with the full powers of the Gauntlet...

Those of a twisted siren.

See, the Gauntlet would have data about all known sirens and their genetics. With the right input commands it would rewrite the biomechanical structure of the wearer to have similar features to the sirens and hybrids of their genetics. Compile that with a supply of eridium to offer power to the system and the wearer would have the power to match any preexisting siren, though practice would be needed to control it. The thing would have some preset modes, such as Phoenix, Blight Phoenix, and then the actual original set that it would contain, a mode focused around manipulating darkness and shadows in the same way a normal siren warped reality, known as Valravn. But I'm rambling now, so I'll get back to business.

The whole thing was mostly nonsense anyway, but that project head I mentioned? The Psycho with Siren Powers and little to no restraint? He was standing there with the other two, turning to glare at me with raw malice. I shook my confusion off and morphed one of my arms out into a laser cannon and made sure it was prepped. I spoke in a (hopefully) commanding tone.

"Hey! What the hell are you three doing!?"

Gaige turned to me, and I saw an unnerving purple glow in her eyes. Something about her just felt... wrong. Profoundly so. I blinked my scanners at her and found that she carried the same sort of aura as Messenger, completely shrouding her from me. She grinned when she saw me and gestured around at the damage they had caused.

"Getting your attention, duh! GET THE BITCH DEATHTRAP!"

She didn't even sound like the Gaige from the games, other than her voice... I dodged to the right to avoid a claw strike from her Deathtrap as he lunged for me, and the next attempt he made I opened my right hand into fist of fury mode and caught it, swinging him around and throwing him away from me. I looked back to the two humans in time to be caught by a grenade detonating next to me. I pirouetted away as multiple more grenades were thrown at me and opened my left arm into a laser cannon to blast at Not-Gaige to get her to stop bombing me. I flipped back and delivered a kick into the Deathtrap as it lunged for me again, and then turned to blast a volley of shots at Gaige as she pulled out an assault rifle of some sort alongside a missile launcher. She opened fire with the former and I matched her with my laser cannon while still keeping the Deathtrap off of me with simple blows from my FoF. For a while I managed to keep it up and hold both of them at odds while still avoiding taking damage simply from the durability of my armor. Not-Gaige cracked a grin after a short while.

"Heheh... Alright then. Let's play it that way."

She drew her launcher and took aim into the town square, unloading it in all directions. Oh god she wasn't targeting me anymore, she was targeting the town! I ignited my pigtail thrusters and shot forward, grabbing the shots of out the air and holding them in my arms despite their own thrusters still going. I managed to snag them all before they impacted and turned to Not-Gaige with a smirk.

"Nice try but it'll take more than that to-"

I was cut off my Deathtrap ramming him claw at me through the missiles, both driving a pair of gashes through my chest's armor and detonating all of the missiles onto me. I grinded to a halt in a crater in the ground, leaving a long tear of disturbed earth behind me. Sparks flickered out of the gashes in my armor as I forced myself into standing up. I glared at the Deathtrap as it leaped at the opportunity, bringing its claw into another strike. I attempted to shift my hands back into weapon mode only to have my arms lock up midway, followed by a wave of the same grinding I had felt in my core. Before I could run a diagnostic the Deathtrap managed to clock me with its claw and throw me out of the crater. I rolled to my feet and moved my arms into an X in time to guard against the next strike and took the chance to grab it by the claw, whirling around and crushing its head into the ground. As it moved to try and right itself I managed to jump into the air and drive my legs through the chest and torso of the thing, effectively taking it out. I turned back to Not-Gaige with a glare as Deathtrap deconstructed and returned to her. I rolled my shoulder and cracked my neck as I attempted a transformation again, only to be met with the same results as before. A missile launched directly at me and I managed to catch it in my hands, only to be caught off guard by a grenade being thrown at me and then shot with a bullet to trigger it before I could dodge. The missile added onto it and blasted me as well, and the next grenade thrown I attempted to dodge, only for it to split apart into bee-grenade form. The miniature barrage blasted me from all sides, and I finally realized as a coat of ice covered me that it was a cryogenic grenade.

"Grr.... You th-think this can stop me?"

I attempted to muscle my way out and shatter the ice, a feat I expected to be of little trouble... Until I felt a wave of heavyness seem to pass over me, along with the same grinding on my systems. I murmured under my breath as I struggled to get loose.

"Huh? W-what the hell?"

I looked up in time for a newly reconstructed Deathtrap's claw to uppercut me, freeing me form the ice but sending a spiderweb of cracks across the armor of my jaw and throat as it barely withstood the blow. I slammed into a building and easily went through the wall, slowly standing up again despite the grinding that steadily spread across my limbs. I dodged to the side to avoid a barrage of bullets and moved through the town until I felt my speed seem to fade in the same way as my strength. I felt another clawstrike across my back send me flying through another building, and I realized I had actually landed in my own house. I grinned as I dodge-rolled forward. If I couldn't transform then I'd get weapons the old-fashioned way. I grabbed the orichalcum bucklers I had found in the cave where I met Messenger and slid them over my forearms and then grabbed two pairs of pistols from what Kyth had gotten when he was out with Dox and his friends, binding two of them into makeshift holsters at my sides and then holding the other two in my hands as Deathtrap caught up with me. I took aim and opened fire, forcing it to guard as I moved forward and hopped through the hole in the wall I had made with my arrival, before redirecting myself to be putting distance between us and the house. I turned on my scanners and intercepted another claw strike from Deathtrap, bringing up one of my bucklers to catch the blow.

Huh. The suckers were small, but sure as hell were they durable. They might even have been stronger than my own armor when it was full-strength.

I pushed back from the Deathtrap and unloaded my first pair of pistols into its head, managing to take it out and forcing it to deconstruct again. I moved back to where Not-Gaige was, and took aim, swapping my original pair of pistols for the second.

"Alright cut the shit! Why are you doing all this!?"

"Oh yeah, and this is the part where I decide to spill every detail of my plan to you because 'I've already won' when in reality you're only at a slight disadvantage. But still, not telling you anything would be fairly lame so I'll give you a few bits of it. It involves you, us, and Hyperion's systems getting a major asskicking... And before you start talking about how you'll stop us, let me just say one thing."

She smirked at me and spoke in a low voice. "I've already won."

Before I could respond a wave of numbness spread over me, starting in the small of my back and then engulfing my entire body. I slowly rotated my head to see Valravn standing behind me, his body obscured in an aura of darkness and his hand planted directly onto my back, sending black pulses into me. I saw a flicker of lightning around his fingers and his eyes locked onto mine with a blank, vacant gaze...

And that's when every little bit of that numbness turning into utter agony.

As black lightning spread across my entire body, seeming to conduct along every aspect of my form I finally figured out what was wrong with me when I was fighting. I was out of power. My Dox battery, in its draining state, had a day at best before emptying out. Then when I had started fighting, flying, accessing weapons... All of those had been drawing massive amounts of power out of what little I had left. And so little by little my systems had been automatically shutting down to preserve core functions. First my weapons, then my armor, then my strength, and then my speed...

And finally as pain wracked my entire body, consciousness.

I found myself in the same virtual mindscape I accessed for artificial dreaming, with only a vague awareness of what was going on in the real world. The pain going over my physical form wasn't able to affect my virtual self, but I managed to pull up a minor diagnostic of my systems with the tiny bit of power I had. Everything about me was shut down, the only thing left was simple processing and that was fading fast... I looked around the mindscape to see darkness at the edges of it quickly approaching me. I managed to reactivate my optical and audio processing, that way I could at least see and hear what was happening... It registered to me that my body was lying on its back, with Valravn and Not-Gaige standing over me. Valravn seemed to silently communicate something and she nodded, reconstructing Deathtrap. I tuned myself to hear them as she spoke.

"Alright Deathtrap you know what to do... Plug up to this Hyperion bitch and get cracking, the sooner we have her rewritten the sooner we can use her access to F.A.U.S.T. to start attacking Hyperion's systems. They have contacts in who knows how many worlds, and with luck when we get their network crashed it'll bring them all to a screeching halt..."

Deathtrap floated over my body and a green, almost corrosive glow came over its claw. I started trying to redirect power, to thrusters to movement to ANYTHING that could help here, to no avail. It rammed its claw into the torn up armor of my chest and its claw seemed to reconstruct into wiring as it tore into m-

I screamed in binary static as the pain I had felt before shutting down returned to me in the mindscape, only even worse... Oh god, they weren't just getting data from me they were rewriting me!

I looked around in my mindscape as the darkness that had been approaching was replaced with a burning green haze. I threw my hands to either side of my head as it began trying to alter my systems. I yelled out into the mindscape to no avail, for anything to stop this...

"̫̜̦̯̠̠̰ͣͦ̉ͭ̆́ͅK̺̖̰̈́̂͌ͧ̆-̖̠͉̝̿ͨ̓ͩ̓́ͬ̚ͅk̳͇͖͓͓̻̟͔̑͂̃͋ͨy̬̳̗̦̥̗̰ͪ͐͒͆̂ͯ̃̍̚t̤̩̤̮̥͓͓̍̆͊̚h̩̰̓ͦ͐̀ͥ ̬̟͇̲͓͔̮̀̂ͦ͊̂H̦͔̲͍̳̝̄̆͐͐͒ͦͧ̃-̤͙̜͉̣͋ͤĥ̖̲̞̞̖̲̫͚̙ͬe̮̱̮̺͇ͭ̌ͣ̎̽l̝̜̱̗̾̔p̘̞̠ͬͣ͆-̺͇̗̮̟͖̻̤́̀̓͗͋p̳̗͔̹͖̳͆ͬ̈̽̓̄̈!̝̲ͣ͋̏̂͗̓ͦ̚ ̳̙̼͇̗͇͉̲͐ͤP̝̙͚̼̓-̠̩̱̲̖̗͚̐̍ͫ͑͂̋̈p̫̦̘̮̥̩̰̲̯ͦ̿͋l̪̫̣̮̖̜̗̋̎̏̔̍̚e̝̹̻̗̦͖̗̻̋a̟͕͙͕ͧ̉s͍͇̓e̦̠͉͙̙̲̒.͕͙͕̳̃̓̓̏.̳̝̘̬̠̭̰̒ͦ.̯̱̪̲͂͗"̬͔̭̪̻̙͔̚

Darkness overtook me...

I was woken up by hearing Jen yelling into a megaphone somewhere downstairs.

"Kyth get down here! We got big trouble!"

I tumbled out of bed and threw on a shirt and puled my pants up, grabbing my sword from where I had left it and hooking its sheath onto my belt before charging out of the room. I looked around when I made it down the stairs and called out.

"Jen? Where is this threat exactl-"

An explosion went off somewhere in town and I decided that was a god bet for whatever Jen was talking about. I rushed out of the house and took into the air with my wings to find Jen and whatever was attacking the town. I looked around town and saw Jen talking with...

"Okay what the what?!"

She was talking with what looked like Gaige and Deathtrap from Borderlands 2 along with some kinda armored Psycho. I dropped to the ground and kept in the shadows, hoping to get the drop on them if thing escalated. I watched the Deathtrap lunge for Jen and I moved to try and intercept, only to feel something grab my throat from behind and throw me back and send me down an alleyway and into a wall. I cracked my neck and stood up, drawing my sword as the odd Psycho put himself into the only entrance to the alley. I glared at him as he looked at me with two glassy eyes bearing a purple glow. He spoke in a low, quiet voice.

"Gotta buy time... First the metal then the flesh, both fallen to me... Burn..."

He jerked his head to the side as he moved his right arm up, showing it to have a mechanoid metal gauntlet of some sort, which he opened a plate of and entered something in. His eyes locked with mine as he began to lift off of the ground, an aura of flames beginning to surround him, forming a pair of ethereal wings on either side of him. On the arm bearing the gauntlet I watched as a jagged, lime green flame burned across it, inscribing the tattoos which Sirens all held in the Borderlands universe, though... Different. They looked...Jagged. Geometric. He aimed the arm at me and spoke in a low voice.

"Phoenix mode..."

His form distorted as he seemed to rocket towards me, unleashing a wave of energy into a single blow, which  barely managed to block with my sword. I brought my sword around to slash him, only to find that he had dashed back. I spun my sword around as he moved again and again with the same strikes, each time becoming more and more difficult to block as he kept on with the same empty stare. I brought my sword around and went on the offensive, charging into a strike.

"Flaming Strike!"

Something clicked in his gauntlets and his aura seemed to shimmer and my blade stopped an inch from him in a distorting aura.

"Phase... Lock."

He brought up his fist into the same strike before I could react, sending me flying back as he held my sword suspended in the air. I glared and moved my arms into an X to block the next of his strikes, bringing one of my wings across his chest and smacking him with the other. My wings were nowhere near as good as a sword but they were actually sharp enough at the hooks to cut at someone. His armor managed to block me however, and I kept my glare on him. He rose into the air and a sphere of the same distorting aura appeared in each of his hands and his wings took on a green tint.

"Blight Phoenix... Phase walking strike..."

His form erupted, going intangible as he seemed to disappear, only to return to view right in front of me, both of his hands placed... In my chest. I slowly looked up and met his gaze.

"Rapture."

I yelled in pain as black blood erupted from my chest where he had torn into me, and he ripped his arms to either side, drawing a pair of long tears along my chest. I noticed him seem to open and close his hands a bit, smoke curling off of his armor. It was as if my blood was...

Corroding it? My blood being black was weird enough but... I looked down and saw my blood, at least that of it around my chest, seeming...ethereal. It hung in the air, somehow uninhibited by gravity's pull. I got a twisted idea and grinned at my attacker. If my blood melted his armor but not my own body... That meant I could use it. I grabbed it in my hands and yanked off a blob off it from where it hung in front of my chest, working it into a ball and spiking it at him. He held up both of his hands with the same distorting aura.

"Phaselock..."

A shimmering barrier appeared in front of him, and both of us were caught off guard when the ball of my blood tore through it like it was nothing before bursting apart and soaking my attacker in it. He looked up, even with the blood covering his eyes I could see the same purple glow forcing through. He spoke in a low voice and his eyes actually seemed to focus slightly on me.

"Valravn."

Darkness seemed to spread across him, and the flame wings on his back were consumed and replaced with a pair of jagged shadow wings. He rose back into the air, his armor still corroding from my blood as he aimed an arm at me.

"Phase Shadow."

A lance of black energy shot forward at me and I darted to the side, barely avoiding it. I watched it seem to move with its own mind, turning before hitting the ground and aiming for me again. I kept moving and managed to get past my attacker, using the blood on my hands to melt the bubble holding my sword and grabbing it again, feeling lightheaded from the wounds on my chest. I shook it off as best I could and brought my sword around only to cut empty air as Valravn dropped down and moved back from me.

"That's enough time."

He lashed out with one hand and a wave of black lightning erupted from it, right into the wounds on my chest. I yelled in pain again and snk to my knees, holding myself up with my sword. His form shifted into darkness and he faded from view, moving out of sight. I forced myself to stand, noticing slightly that my blood seemed to be pulling itself back into me, sealing the wound. I growled and started moving towards the sounds of combat and gunfire. When I got there I was greeted by a horrifying sight.

Jen lay on the ground, covered in blood/oil, with the Gaige lookalike and the guy who attacked me standing over her, and a Deathtrap unit tearing a claw into her chest. She shuddered in what could only be pain and both of her eyes had gone dark. I shook where I stood, rage pouring through me and searing its way through my veins.  I spread my wings and rocketed forward, my sword charging with energy as I brought it down, scattering the two humans from Jen. I was pushed back by a wave of darkness and I matched glares with the odd Psycho. The Gaige doppleganger ushered a command to him.

"Take him down Valravn! Nothing can interfere with Deathtrap while his systems are focused on the hack!"

So his name was Valravn. Good to know the name of the guy I was about to take down. I brought my sword down towards him, only to be caught in a field of distortion and thrown back. Something in me felt... wrong. My mind felt like something wasn't happening properly. So my blood was the only thing that could pass that guy's Siren knockoff powers? Well alright then. Something in me made it seem like what I did next was a good idea. I ran the blade of my sword along the wound on my chest and gave them a manic look, my sensibilities numbed by rage as I gave them a lazy grin.

"Hehe... My blood's black ya know."

I surged forward again, this time my blood-soaked blade tearing through every one of his barriers. I threw my sword at him and grinned maniacally as it successfully cut a massive swath into the gauntlet that seemed to regulate his abilities. My mania was cut short as a missile detonated into me, only kept from injuring me by the shield I got from Jack as I was thrown to the ground. I rolled to my feet, only to be caught off guard as a barrage of bullets ripped into me, peppering my entire body. I sank to my knees, a blank expression on my face, the last thoughts in my mind being that I was blacking out again, just like I had during the bachelor party...

Valravn and Gaige looked uncertainly at the creature before them, the one by the name 'Kyth', as well as another Displaced to make ties with Hyperion. Both of them weren't certain what to make of it when his eyes faded to black, seeming to draw in light as he gave them a look of unbridled hatred. In a single move he surged forward, delivering a fist into each of their abdomens and launching them back. Valravn stood up, attempting to gain a response from the gauntlet on his arm, only to be seized by the throat and sent flying across the field. Gaige stood and opened fire with a rifle, only to watch as it seemed to shrug off all attacks, no longer vulnerable as he had been previously.

He drew the sword he had thrown from the ground and brought it to bear, decimating the Deathtrap as he turned to face the two humans. His demeanor changed, and both of his eyes gained a sickly glow as he spoke in a voice that wasn't his.

"Listen and listen well, children of the Architect... I have an offer for you."

I blinked as my senses returned, and I found myself in the town square where they had been doing whatever that was to. Jen- JEN! I lurched to my feet, looking around drunkenly and registering that I was covered in my own blood along with that of someone else. Ugh... What...what had I just done? I couldnt... Couldn't remember... I looked around wildly until I found Jen, laying where she had been previously and rushed over to her, trying to wake her up.

"Jen? JEN!? "

I thought wildly as to what I could do to help her, I didn't know first aid or how to fix robots or anything useful for this! I managed to remember that Jen had mentioned she had something to call F.A.U.S.T. with back home, and struggled to lift her up. Pain spread form the still bleeding wounds across my chest as I strained... Some part of my dulled mind knew that I shouldn't have this much trouble carrying her if I was alright. I slowly moved forward with her and headed home, stumbling to the closet where Jen had left the Acquisition Beacon from F.A.U.S.T. and her old body... The latter of which was gone. The last bit of my will left as I rammed a fist into the beacon, the thing whirring to life as I finally succumbed into unconsciousness, knowing that this time I wasn't losing control of myself but thinking of what I could have done in that fight to get rid of the Gaige doppleganger and that Valravn guy... Next Chapter: Chapter Twenty: Repairs Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 14 Minutes