June 15, 2026
2:45 P.M.
Helios Station

I guided the Vault Hunters through the Veins of Helios, even talking to them about the infected workers they met along the way. They made their way, on their own, to the central platform. I had Winny laying in my lap, sleeping soundly. Yes, I called her Winny because that's her nickname from me.

Moxxi's voice entered the communications line, causing Winny to wake up. "Hey, sugar. I hear you're trying to shut down that laser." I hate it when she calls me that, and I can tell that Winnaya hates it too.

I groaned. "Yeah, that's the plan. Knock it off with the "sugar" thing, will ya?" I know it's harsh, but I don't give two shits.

"Look, whatever you're about to try isn't gonna work. A laser of that size, using that much power? There's no way the Colonel hasn't rigged it to blow the entire station if you try to disarm it." What does she mean by that? Wait, how did I not think of this?

I growled in frustration. "She -- yeah! Of course she did! Dammit, how did I not see that coming?"

Mox was going to pull some type of one-liner to get me all excited about this, but I'm going to be a mature adult and handle this the right way. "Good thing you've got a tech whiz on your side, sugar. I'll help you get that laser down, no muss, no fuss, no explosions." Fuck the adult shit.

"Thanks, Mox. I appreciate it. I'll send you the blueprints now" I replied, sending the blueprints to Mox, or also known as Balloon Tits.

Moxxi went silent for a few and then started talking again. "Alright, I've got a plan. Roland and Lilith -- head to the station's reactor. Jack, I need you and your Vault Hunters at the Eye of Helios itself. Once everyone's in place, we should be able to shut the laser down and save the moon."

Then, I lead the Vault Hunters to the main console to shut down the barrier. Of course, when they said Fast Travel was up and running, I went with Winnaya to go defeat Zarpedon.

We walked beside each other, hand in hand. "Let's kick that bitch's ass." I smirked and she nodded with a smile and kissed my cheek.

(~ Time Skip ~)

Everyone finally got passed the barrier after killing all the douchebag troops. We officially got to the fast travel area and got it online. Everyone was conversing amongst themselves, while Winnaya went to the machines to get a better shield and more ammo.

My voice boomed through the area. "Yeahhh, uh – we're gonna have to go through... here." Protests came from the Vault Hunters, but Winny walked up to me and nodded. I bet they think she is the most insane person ever.

"It's an electrical convergence... yaddaya, it doesn't matter. Just wait for the laser to fire before you run through. It'll momentarily drain the power and stop all the electricity" I explained to them how this works as they all lined up, ready to charge past the electric trap, "Wait for it... Now! Go!" We all ran as fast as we could to the other side, everyone making it successfully.

I tried to open a door that lead straight to the Eye, and that door wasn't opening. "Son of a... Aw, it – of COURSE it's locked from the other side! THANKS, ZARPEDON! We're gonna have to take the long way around – let's hit the elevator and go topside." I walked towards the elevator with Winnaya clinging to my arm. I could tell she wasn't ready or she was doubting herself.

I closed the elevator doors and everyone reloaded their weapons. "Winnaya, we can do this okay? I promise we are going to protect each other, even you." I kissed her forehead and pulled her close to my side.

When we reached the top, we saw a robot and more troops. I ran off, leaving Winnaya with Athena and my doppelgänger. She started to cry for me to come back. Athena pulled her with her, separating us more. That tugged at my heart strings.

After a lot of ammo and blood being spilt...we finally defeated Zarpedon. I turn around and Athena gently pushed Winnaya to Timothy to hang onto. She continued to try and escape to get back to me, but she was struggling.

I heard clicks of guns going up, but I put my hand up. "Hold your fire – I'm not done with her yet." I wasn't done with her yet, that's the truth. She tried to hurt my precious Winny. She was going to pay for that, and she was going to pay good.

I continued to stalk towards the bleeding son of a bitch. "It doesn't matter what happens today... your fall is coming." Like hell I would believe anything from her.

"Yeah yeah, cool. Where's the Vault?" I said, no concern showing for her well-being. I hope she dies a slow and painful death. What she did was unforgivable.

She grunted in pain. "Hidden beneath a tangle of chemical filth! I've seen what lies inside it. You can't –" Hold the fucking phone...what did she just say?

"Waitwaitwait, you've seen inside it? The Vault's open?"

She replied with her voice cutting out. "You must turn back. The power within the Vault will trigger a chain of events that –" Fuck the slow death shit. This is just fucking stupid to keep her alive.

I raised my gun. "Bored!" I pulled the trigger and her body fell to the ground. That was for trying to kill me...and my girlfriend.

I turned around and started walking towards the Vault Hunters. "The Vault's already open, huh? Cool. Now let's deal with that laser core." They nodded and I felt another body crash into mine. I smiled, instantly knowing it was Winnaya, and I hugged her back tightly. I felt her wet tears on my shoulder as I rubbed her back.

She continued to cry. "Don't do that again!!" Her gripped tightened on me, and so did mine on her. I hope she knew that I had to do that so she didn't get hurt. I would never forgive myself.......

(~ Time Skip ~)

We all arrived back at the Command Center after resetting the laser. Congrats for our team, now we need to just shut it down and reboot it.

"Alrighty – the bad guy's dead, we're about to save the moon, and the Vault full of cool-ass alien stuff is, apparently, already open. Just shut down the laser and we can get to the fun part – finding that Vault. I'll let you all do the honors" I said, holding Winnaya close to me with a smile on my face and leaning my forehead down to touch hers.

The system spoke. "Reboot sequence activated. Command control reset. Rebooting in... Five... Four... Three... Two... Shutdown aborted. Invalid energy configuraton." Wait what?

"Oh, great, what now?" I rolled my eyes.

More chatter went over the comm, then everyone started to be pulled towards the window, and Moxxi spoke. "Good job, everybody." What the fuck does that mean?!

"What's Moxxi – w-what the hell are you doing?!" I yelled, holding on to the railing in front of me and trapping Winnaya in front of my body so she didn't get sucked to the window.

"Betraying you. Trying to kill you. Two things I shoulda done a long time ago, you power-hungry psychopath" she replied nonchalantly. What the hell did I do?!

Winnaya's feet started to slip, so I moved upwards towards the railing to the point where she was pushed up against it. I grabbed and wrapped a long piece of durable cloth around us, tying it to the rail on each side of us so we didn't get even more injured than we probably would be after this.

"What do you mean, Moxxi? How did you even –" Why did she do this?! I was trying to save other people.

"I've been watching you, Jack. And behind that smile, behind that hero complex, there's something wrong about you. If you come down from Helios alive, a lot of decent people will live to regret it."

That's it!! I shouldn't have trust someone like her!! "No no no NO NOOOO! Dammit, I TRUSTED you, Moxxi! Do you know what you've done?! You just killed us all!"

"Bye-bye, sugar" that was the last thing to be heard before everything went white and my body collided with the floor, breaking the cloth on the way down.

(~ Time Skip ~)

My vision was going in and out as I could faintly see Winnaya above me, freaking out as I wouldn't wake up. My eyes finally adjusted and I sat up coughing and stood up, making my coughs sound even worse.

I groaned and eventually started to go on a rampage. "Dammit. DAMMIT! The EYE! That was ONE OF A KIND! The things I could have DONE! Friggin' liars – friggin' COWARDS! They're no better than BANDITS!" I felt arms around my waist from behind and started to slowly calm down and hug the woman I loved the most. I will come after you...you Bandits.

I looked as all the Vault Hunters helped each other off of the ground, groans of pain being heard. "In time. We'll deal with 'em ALLLLL in time. But for now, we just need to get to that Vault before they do... dumb bastards probably wanna destroy what's in there. Zarpedon said a "tangle of chemical filth" -- did she mean Dahl's old Bakkaberk refinery site? Get back to the moon's surface and check it out. There's gotta be something there that'll lead us to the Vault." The Vault Hunters healed themselves and headed out.

Winnaya tried to leave with them, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her back to me. "You're not going, so get comfortable. We will go there when they are done with the Vault."

Of course, Tassiter comes back. "What's going on up there, John? The readings we've--" THAT'S IT!!

I told Winnaya to cover her ears and she obeyed. "SHUT THE HELL UP, Tassiter! SHUT. THE HELL. UP. My ex-girlfriend and her two BFFs just tried to kill me and my present girlfriend, and the LAST thing I need right now is your senile ass WHINING IN MY EAR! If I get ONE more message from you that isn't "addaboy, Jack!" or "I'm sending you a big bag of money!" then I'm gonna reach through my ECHO communicator and GOUGE YOUR EYES OUT WITH MY PINKIES! ARE WE CLEAR?!" I hope I can kill him after this.

"I... Goodbye, John" he mumbled.

"GOODBYE! THANK YOU FOR CALLING!" I shut off the comm line and looked at Winnaya. I sighed and fell to my knees in front of her. She ran her hands through my hair and down to my shoulders to help me calm down.

What would it be like if she would have never gotten involved with this whole fight when it began back when I had to save her from a perverted troop? Everything would've changed, but now...I don't want anything to change. I want everything the way it is...especially me with her.

"Winnaya, could I ask you something?" I asked and leaned my head up, resting it on her thigh. She nodded in reply as I sighed. I hope this goes well.

"Winnaya, I love you. I love every little thing about you and I want you to know that I will always be by your side through everything, and I know you'll be by my side too. To ensure that we have something to fight for, I want you to marry me...to be my wife that I will be able to wake up to in the morning for every morning for the rest -" I was cut off by her arms latching around me.

"YES YES YES JACK!!" She shouted happily. I smiled and stood up, holding her off of the ground.

"Yes..." I replied with a smile. It felt so good to hear that from her...my fiancé and soon-to-be wife. Winnaya...is finally my wife.

I made sure to silence my ECHO and I pushed my lips to hers, kissing her passionately. She kissed back, which makes me happy as hell. I placed her on one of the broken monitors and continued to kiss her until my comm sounded.

I groaned and growled. "What?!"

"Good news, John! You're through. And this time the board is behind me. You've been terminated." Asshat said. He ruined my moment with my fiancé...he's dead after this.

"You say one more word to me and I will make your death slow" I growled. If I know Tassiter, and I do, he's not going to listen. Dumb ass always wants the last words.

"What are you--" I cut him off, "--That was three. I'll be seeing you soon." I ended the ECHO and looked at Winnaya as she kissed me again. She slowly made me forget my anger, but not about Tassiter dying. He will be killed after this.

Then, I pulled away and open my visual comm line to see what the Vault Hunters saw. They are going against the RK5 ship thingy. Oh boy, here we go at 7:15 P.M.