When my cautiousness returned, I found myself in the vault, but this time I felt like I had a body in here. I could feel the ground, smell the air. I was getting lost in my memories again—the clean sky giving me a kind of calming feeling. As I was walking around, thinking about what to do, about my future, about Mei, and about the family I lost today. When I was about to look for a way out, I felt a hand press down on my shoulder and heard someone speak to me: "Settle down, kiddo. We have a lot to talk about." This person had an eerily familiar voice, like someone I know, though I couldn't quite place it. It really threw me into a loop.
"Hey, didn't you hear what I said?" I turned to see who this person was, but what I found shocked me. In front of me was... well, me. He looked just like how I'd imagine myself when I grow up. The only notable difference was that he looked more like I did in the past, with my original brown hair and heterochromatic blue and green eyes. I was a bit weirded out by the mask on his face—well, it was his face—but it looked artificial. I could see the difference in skin tone and the small gaps between it and the real skin. His outfit was both elegant, stylish, and practical in one fell swoop. I quite liked it.
"Okay, are you done hyper-analyzing me, pumpkin, or do you want to waste our time for another 10 minutes?" The older me looked impatient and annoyed now.
"Well, who are you and what are you doing in here? I don't remember making you, and I'm certain no person can even enter here, let alone someone without permission." I quirked an eyebrow. My day was already shitty enough—I didn't have the energy to deal with this situation as well.
"You're wrong about two things: One, you could never make me, even if you wanted to—I'm just much greater than you could ever imagine. And two, the question of how I got here? Well, it's really simple: I did have permission—mine!" He looked rather smug after he finished.
"Okay, now you're just pissing me off. Stop with the fucking riddles and tell me who or what you are!" I was getting really fed up with him.
"Damn, did you get dropped on your head as a baby? You're dumber than even Butt Stallion. I am you. If it's not somehow obvious after all my hints." I was really shocked, speechless even. The other me just sighed and continued, "Alright, let's just take a walk and talk, okay, buddy, or is that too hard for you?" My eye was twitching—this guy really knows how to get under someone's skin.
"Alright, enough jokes, let's get serious. I am Handsome Jack, President of Hyperion, and the true hero of Pandora—or at least I was until my 'death.' You following?" I stopped in my tracks when I heard the last part—I was truly speechless.
"Look, kid, this talk was long overdue, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't freak out like a toddler every five seconds when something shocking happens. You're going to hear way more outlandish parts of my story than its ending, so at least try to keep yourself together. You got that, sport?" I just nodded and started walking beside HJ. "Now, where was I? Oh yeah, so before my death and me being the cool badass trillionaire that I am now, I was just a nobody. I was born on a backwater planet in the middle of nowhere called Tantalus. The main governing body there had long since disappeared after the war between the manufacturing corporations. My planet was under Atlas's rule for a long time, but when they deemed it no longer profitable, they just dipped and left everyone there to rot on a nearly destroyed planet. That's when my family decided this wasn't the life for them, so they left Pandora, their home planet and family, behind. My pops got a job at Hyperion as a simple engineer to work on their giant space station near Pandora like the countless other lowlifes with no future. But this didn't matter to us. I was only six, but I felt happy, thinking this was our way out of hell and into heaven. Oh, how wrong I was." Jack became a lot less cheerful as he said, "You see, Pandora is not like hell—no, that would be too kind to that shithole. It's the abyss. Once you enter, you can never come out as the same person you once were." He just sighed and slid his hand through his hair as he said, "I got this wake-up call not long after we arrived back 'home' on Pandora. All I ever saw there was murder, violence, and insanity. This planet was originally like Tantalus, simply being used by Atlas to turn a profit, but what they did to this planet was truly terrible. They brought prisoners from all over the galaxy to help them find a vault they could pillage. When they failed, they left the bandits and the insane behind on a wasteland of a planet." He looked at me with full seriousness. "Let me tell you, it was not pretty. My family were the descendants of some of these psychos. So when we got back there, I thought we wouldn't stick out too much. I was wrong. Just two years after arriving, disaster struck. My mother was killed in a random act of violence by some local residents who just thought it would be funny. My father? Well, I'm pretty sure he died on Helios. It was not uncommon for people to die unfortunate deaths during the construction. He just went missing one day, and I never saw him or his body again." That was a pretty shocking turn of events, but as selfish as it sounds, it made me feel a bit better that he could understand my pain.
"Hahaha, of course I understand your pain. I am you, after all. Since we share the same brain, I know exactly what you're thinking." I stayed silent this time and let him continue.
"After I was left alone on Pandora, I had to move in with my grandmother. She was honestly a monster—she beat me, tortured me, and even almost killed me once." Jack's face darkened as he continued, "I managed to get away when I turned 15. I ran to the nearest still-standing Hyperion base. When I got there, I was almost shot on sight, but I managed to explain myself and use the money from my dad's old Hyperion account to get enrolled in a Hyperion-sponsored school. They were training future employees of the company, and security there was top-notch, so I thought I'd be safe for a while. I learned programming and even got a job offer aboard the brand-new Helios moon base." Jack smiled, as if remembering fond memories. "My life there was truly great. Yeah, I was just a lowly programmer out of hundreds, but I was happy. I even met my wife there—Emma. She was like me, just one of the many accountants aboard the station. She was everything to me. We got married two years after we started dating and had a daughter named Angel—my sweet little princess. But Pandora, being the cesspool it is, wouldn't let me enjoy my life. When Angel was about six, disaster struck my family. Me, Emma, and Angel were about to go on a holiday vacation we'd saved up for, to give Angel a truly great birthday. But just as we were about to leave the Hyperion base for the launch site, we were attacked. Bandits were waiting for someone with access to the base, which was us. The automatic turrets were inactive since no hostiles had been reported in the area. I tried to protect my family, but I got shot multiple times. Luckily, my Orb Shield took most of the damage, so I wasn't gravely injured, but I knew we weren't going to get out alive. I ordered Emma to grab Angel and run. As I saw her pick up Angel and flee, I felt relieved, thinking they'd be okay if I held the bandits off long enough."
Jack's expression darkened as he continued. "I fought with everything I had, even managing to kill two of them, but I knew I couldn't hold on much longer. I looked back at my retreating family one last time, only to see Angel looking at me with tears in her eyes. Then, something incredible happened—Angel suddenly manifested tattoos on her body and started flying with ethereal blue wings. I knew then she was one of the only six Sirens in the entire universe. But that's when I saw the problem. Emma was thrown into the air by the shockwave of Angel's awakening. I watched in horror as the automated turrets came online and turned toward the bandits. Emma, unfortunately, was in the line of fire. The turrets tore through everything in their path, not caring about anything but their targets. The bandits were gunned down, but so was Emma. She was shredded, and the last time I saw her alive was midair, looking at me, terrified. I lost it after that. I did some seriously messed-up stuff. I locked my daughter in what was essentially a computer—the Control Core Angel. I told myself I did it to protect her, but deep down, I knew I was using her. I resented her for what happened to Emma and for what she was."
I looked at HJ, horrified. How could so much happen to one man? I was disgusted by what he had done to his daughter, who had only wanted to protect him.
"Yeah, yeah, I deserve that look," Jack said, his voice softer. "But that was just the beginning. My story gets much wilder." His smile returned somewhat as he began recounting his crazy adventures. He told me how he fooled a group of Vault Hunters with Angel's help to gain ownership of Atlas, how he repurposed an ancient monster's eye as a superweapon, how he gained control over the Helios station before it was attacked. He spoke of how, with the help of six people—one of them being Wilhelm's original self—he saved Pandora's moon from total annihilation. He recounted how he was betrayed again and again, slowly losing trust in even his closest allies, growing colder and crueler as his paranoia took hold. He told me how he was eventually disfigured by a relic of a Vault, thanks to his former ally, Lilith, a Siren. He told me how he killed his boss to take over Hyperion, and how Wilhelm became his right-hand man.
"Look, kid," he said, a bit more serious now, "this was the beginning of my downfall. I should have listened to Athena when she tried to talk me down. I'm a monster from almost every perspective. Yeah, I had my head scrambled by the relic, I was betrayed by almost all my allies and even my lover, and I had severe mental illnesses—but that doesn't excuse my sins. The only thing I truly regret is losing the people close to me because of my selfishness and pride. But I still believe I was morally in the right. Pandora is a wasteland full of crime and bandits. It needed someone to oversee it and cleanse the rot. But in my half-blind rampage, I did more harm than good, which will become even more apparent as I tell the rest of my story. You may think of me—and to some degree yourself—as an irredeemable monster, which may or may not be true. But you should always stick to your beliefs. Being indecisive will only cause more pain and suffering, both for you and others."
Jack did have a point about drastic times needing drastic measures, and I couldn't see everything as black and white anymore. The whole fiasco with the traitorous heroes was enough of a wake-up call for me.
Jack then began to tell me how he was ultimately defeated. He didn't want Vault Hunters gaining access to superweapons behind the Vaults, so he tried to assassinate them on a train. He made fun of them throughout their journey, poisoned Wilhelm, and used him as a sacrificial lamb to mislead the Vault Hunters. He used his daughter to act as a double agent. I punched him in the face, anger coursing through me. I wanted to keep hitting him, but he easily overpowered me, pinning me to the ground. "Oi, kiddo, I deserved that first hit—that's why I let you do it. But we don't have all day, so I'd like to continue the story." I huffed in anger but didn't try anything else, at least for now.
Jack then grew somber. He told me how, after he failed to take down Sanctuary, he focused all his energy on his personal research and charging the Vault Key. He lightened the mood with a morbidly humorous story about how someone tried to attack him with a spoon, so in response, Jack scooped out the guy's eyes with it. The story was so bizarre that I couldn't help but chuckle. But then the atmosphere turned somber again. Jack explained how his daughter betrayed him, leading to her death at the hands of the Vault Hunters. He told me how he killed the leader of the resistance, Roland, his former ally, and how he kidnapped Lilith, the Siren who had scarred him, to force her to charge the Vault Key. Finally, he recounted how he released the monster known as the Warrior from the Vault, and how, despite everything, he still lost in the end.
"Well, that's almost my full story," Jack continued. "The last part is a bit hazy, but I think you should know about it. My research on Sirens, the testing of different elements on the flora and fauna, and finally, the human experimentation on both myself and my prisoners… it allowed me to preserve my soul in the end. In the nothingness between the infinite universes and parallel worlds, I 'ran into' someone. His name was Adam, and he was one of the countless people whose universe came to an end. But he was too strong to just disappear into the void as energy.
"When we met, he helped me through a lot of my problems and even gave me a second chance by fusing with me and sacrificing himself. From what I learned, he was the first human created in the image of the gods in his world. He fought for his family and had a strong conviction about saving humanity. He was a truly great guy, and I wish to continue preserving humanity in his honor.
"When I escaped the void, I was almost entirely powerless. Unfortunately, some sort of automated system in the world caught my soul and began wiping it clean to reuse later. My saving grace was that, thanks to Adam's power, being an almost pseudo-Siren, and the lingering energy from the void, my soul was too strong. It couldn't be erased permanently. I'll be honest—I regained my senses when you were about five years old. I had planned to take over your body once I regained enough strength, but I changed my mind when I saw you save Mei. I got curious and started watching your every action, judging you. I have to say, you passed with flying colors in my book."
These earth-shattering revelations made me dizzy, so I had to sit down.
"Look, pumpkin, I'm not going to take over your body—now or ever. Even if I wanted to, those doors closed on me when I let you override and take control of this place. To be honest, I'm tired. I don't want to deal with the burden of this whole thing anymore, so I'm letting you handle it. I don't want to repeat my selfish mistakes. You'll remain the main personality, but I'll always be here for us. I'll serve as a morally grey voice of reason. For example, you're trying to be too nice to everyone—being a bit more demanding from time to time won't hurt you."
Jack's voice softened as he offered his advice. "My first suggestion? Ask Principal Nezu for some compensation for your help today. Maybe just a little of their blood—I think you know where I'm heading with this, don't you? Also, I ran some deeper tests out of boredom on our personal vault. We're now basically personified by this place. Thanks to our mixed essences, we've become something like a Proto Angel—a superior new Siren, representing life itself as a concept. I would've named it Phasemake back in my universe.
"It's an interesting finding. Each Siren's power represents one of the universal concepts. Phasewalk controls the concept of Acceleration, Phaselock over Deceleration, and Angel's Phaseshift governs the concept of Order. I'm sure the others are tied to similar fundamental concepts. With Adam's perfect body and the infinite energy of the void, we were reborn."
I was both excited and frightened. What did this mean for my future? Did this really change anything? I now knew why I had such strong powers, but did it truly change things?
"Of course, it changes everything!" Jack said, reading my thoughts. "Now you know you're a badass Siren with almost unlimited potential. I advise you to experiment with your powers. I know you're planning to focus on other things to prepare for UA, but don't neglect your abilities. No one can do what you do. And the most important reason I appeared before you is this: Don't go down the path of vengeance or radicalism like I did. You now understand where it led me and my loved ones."
I nodded, acknowledging his words, and waved goodbye to my other self.
When I woke up in the real world, I realized that not even five seconds had passed since I entered the vault to talk to him. Somehow, I was flying, with Mei clinging to my leg in desperation. Mirko stood nearby, in a fighting stance, clearly ready to take me down if necessary. I immediately ceased my flight and hugged Mei to console her. My family's death still weighed on me, but I would stay strong—for myself and for Mei's sake.
When I finally let her go, I simply said, "I'm back!" completely confusing the two women in front of me.