For those who want more Timothy: A story (FINALE!)

Turns out I had to put this in another topic entirely... The original topic post actually got too long. Wasn't allowed to post it. Wow.

So it goes without saying, here's the last part and it went much longer than I expected. FINALLY.

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They WERE making good progress... up until twenty minutes ago. Whereas Timothy and Aurelia were quite sure they were closing in on a Vault, so did two other people. Bullets had been flying everywhere, random incomprehensible screams and orders echoing all around the little maze they'd got themselves lost inside. And considering just how confusing and winding these halls were? The claustrophobic, barely-lit space they had to work with from wall to wall, twist and turn, door to door? Every single time they ALMOST caught a glimpse of someone, it was gone in the shadows already... Timothy was breathing rather heavy in a panic. Labs just weren't his thing. Actually, he was downright afraid of them. The only thing that shocked him with more irrational fear than that, was masks. Any mask. Halloween, surgery, ceremonial, regal... All of them made him shake to his bones. For obvious reasons.

Thankfully he had Aurelia here to keep him stable in more ways than one. She had his back when he was shaking and couldn't think straight about the last bullet that whipped past his head, and with her there for him to try and protect in kind, he had SOMETHING to focus on. Just a single thread for him to grasp onto for sanity sake.

The both of them were running towards the turn of another corner. Aurelia in front of him, with Timothy running up behind her just a few feet away. Handguns in his fingers - in such close proximity, he preferred something small and versatile - and a constant heavy pant on his breath... Aurelia herself took a sudden turn of her head to peer behind Timothy. There was nothing behind them. She just jerked her head around from hearing the sound of footsteps echoing all around them. Even SHE was panicking now. The amount of times she'd seen her shield shatter, and felt the repercussions of bullets barely whipping by her bare skin as a result. It was fair as to why they were shaking... But with the turn of her head, she didn't see what Tim saw. The business end of a shotgun lurching around the corner in front of them. Four, thin barrels wrapped inside of a flawless casing of chrome and wood. A Jakobs, a quad-barrelled mess... And this particular gun had a NASTY trick up its sleeve. One that had Timothy reacting in an instant.

Without a word, he charged himself forward to tackle into the side of his Madam the moment that shotgun fired. The explosive sound ringing and echoing loud enough in the halls to hurt their ears. Timothy barreling the Hammerlock queen right up against the wall as bullets splattered off in almost every single direction. Riveting deep holes into the concrete and metal all around them. The few pellets that DID hit them were enough to only tickle both of their sheilds... But that wasn't what Tim was worried about. The moment all those bullets hit something, they ricocheted back towards their targets with near PINPOINT accuracy. If it weren't for Tim's quick reaction, Aurelia might have been filled with holes from that fancy dance of projectiles... But his save wasn't perfect. One single, thick bullet had pierced through their wily dodges and rippled right into Aurelia's leg. Spilling a deep pool of red that began to stain down her leg, and causing the woman to SCREAM out into the air, dropping down to the ground in an instant.

"GHGNHHUuUAAh!!"

"Madam!" He nearly fell right down with the woman, dropping to one knee next to her and his hands clutched over the wound. He didn't even know what to do now. Everything had gone far too wrong for them to have any proper escape now! He didn't even have time to help either. The moment he turned his head up, both of his eyes went wide open... And he froze still in place. Only now could he feel the sweat of exhaustion and fear rolling from his brow. He was glaring right down all four barrels of the shotgun that had floored his lady. It took him a few moments to peer past the gun itself to see its wielder... First, the metallic arm that jutted out from her left shoulder. Following right into the black, open sleeveless jacket that she wore on her upper body. A skirt and stockings... God, was this some kind of schoolgirl? But beyond all of that, the most memorable detail about her was that smirking face. Hidden just underneath a bright red plume of pigtails. Goggles atop of her head keeping her locks in place. Was Timothy just beat out by a teenager?

Aurelia wasn't fully out of commission yet though. The instant she saw her servant staring death down the face, she forced her jaw-shaking pain away from herself just long enough to regrab the gun that had fallen to the floor out of her hands... the same Skullmasher that Timothy gave to her. Bracing its stock against her own hip, turning herself over entirely onto her back. To keep its barrel pointed straight up to the young, anarchist of a hunter. Shouting out to their enemy in a... surprisingly furious tone. "Don't you DARE!"

Another pair of speeding footsteps skidded to a stop behind Timothy. Yet another gun joined the mess... An assault rifle with a rather thick barrel, and a slathering of red paint across it. Decorated almost personally with a decal of sharp shark teeth painted across its entire body... That seemed familiar. It was pointed straight for Aurelia now. Timothy couldn't dare turn his head to see WHOM wielded it. He was till staring at a shotgun. Aurelia though, she could turn her head down to see who had her pinned now... He was handsome. But the usual, normal kind. A little bit manly looking, rugged, clad in the outfit of a soldier from his neck to his toes... In fact, nothing about him seemed very exceptional from the outside. Even his short-cut hair was a particularly bland shade of brown. Except for his brow... To one side of his forehead, there seemed to be a marking imprinted on him. Aurelia was no expert, but it seemed to be military... Sergeant maybe? If she had to guess, the marking seemed to be made of some type of flesh-friendly, silvery rubber.

But looks was for later... For now, they seemed pinned and doomed. But Timothy always had one trump card up his sleeve. His fingers moved very slyly. Almost without being seen. Thank god these two people had chosen to come so close to them. Because they were in PERFECT proximity for his clones... Bright, blue light shone through the entire hall in an instant. Two more digitized versions of Timothy himself rising up from the ground behind their assailants. Pointing wrist cannons at the backs of both the schoolgirl, and the soldiers heads... He wouldn't order them to fire just yet though. Any sudden move, or even a bullet to the brain might cause anyones hand to clench. Then he'd be dead anyway...

A few seconds of dead silence seemed to go on for hours until someone finally broke it... The man with his rank stamped into his forehead. A somewhat cheery, and grainy voice speaking out into the air. "... Now listen. We're aaaall after the same thing here, right?... And none of us here want to end up dead. In fact, we don't want to have to kill you if we don't have to."

Where he was being serious, the redhead across from him seemed to fit her punkish looks very well. With a careless attitude. Even complete with a roll of her eyes. A shrug even! Did she care? "Apparently we gotta try and keep you guys alive and bring you with us. Some kinda bullcrap like 'war is coming'. EEuuuh-"

The man across from her was quick to speak again. "Gaige, can you just... be quiet for a moment? Please, I'm begging you." Gaige. The schoolgirl had a name, alright. Gaige. Now all that Timothy needed was the mans name, and maybe he'd stop shaking in his boots for a moment. Aurelia?... She was interested in talking. But after what spouted from the redheads mouth, she was MORE than curious. Sounded almost like they were about to be recruited back to be just plain old armed grunts. That wasn't for her! "What does she mean?" Aurelia's voice was stern. She meant business, and for good reason.

The man who held her down at gunpoint just sighed to himself. "... We need all the Vault Hunters we can get, so we heard. Look... There's a lot of talking to be done here. So how about we all just put down the guns for a second, and do THAT?"

... It took a long few minutes of each of them being very cautious. None of them wanted to give up the advantage that they had. But eventually, Timothy was the first to give in. He didn't even want to... his digital selves had finally run out of juice, and were put back on recharge. Both clones dissapearing out of thin air. Aurelia followed suit soon after. Just her having a gun wouldn't do anything in the slightest. So she finally put it down. Begrudgingly, but she did so. Gradually swivelling herself up to sit against the wall, still holding her leg. It wasn't a mortal wound, but it hurt. The soldier lowered his rifle too. A satisfied sigh on his breath... Then Timothy stood. And he was shocked to see a barrel still pointed right for his face. Gaige wasn't giving in.

"... Gaige, put it down."

She didn't. Leaning herself over to one side to see past Timothy, to the man who dared to give her orders. "Have you seen how familiar he looks?"

"... What do you mean?"

Gaige just turned her eyes back to Tim, only for the doppelganger to keep staring right back into her own. Just frozen in place. IT took a quick jab in the nose from her gun to break his focus. Shaking his head after that. Cautiously turning himself around on his heels to face the man who hadn't yet seen him... The instant that they came face to face, the still-unknown male had his eyes almost burst out of his skull. Stepping back right onto his bad feet and shouting out in pure surprise. "WHOAH whoah whoah! How in the hell-"

Before anything became nastier, Aurelia instantly tried to calm the situation. Her voice snapping at the backpedalling commando from below. "Before you try to accuse him of being who you think he is, he is just a body double. And a retired one at that. So calm yourself!"

That only got more confused looks from the other male. Lifting a single finger to point up to the man who still looked like Handsome Jack down to every last detail. "Well tell him to take off the disguise at least, why's he still wearing it?!"

"He's not a product of digistruction, he was transformed surgically."

"... So, why hasn't he had it reversed?"

On and on, they just kept talking. Questioning and snapping back at eachother going absolutely nowhere. To the point where Timothy didn't even want to listen anymore... But he was paying attention to something else. He was taking a closer look at the other mans assault rifle... Such a massive belt of ammo pouring out of the side of it, with teeth painted across every detail?... It looked familiar. Uniquely so. Til finally it hit him. The only company known for such massive magazine sizes were S&S Munitions. But they were pushed out of Pandora a long time ago when the bandits who lived there decided they could do the same thing even better. That was the kind of rifle this man was holding. A Pandoran-made rifle! To break their squandering, Timothy finally spoke up again. His eyes turned down to the lady Hammerlock. "Madam?... I'd like to talk to them myself if I may."

She looked up at him rather quizically after that. But they were going nowhere fast. She'd bite. "... You are allowed."

With a nod of thanks, he turned his head back to the soldier in front of them. Asking the first and most obvious question. "What's YOUR name?"

"Axton." He responded without hesitation. He had no problem disclosing his name. In fact, he expected it at this point.

"You're Pandoran, aren't you?"

The commando almost jerked his head back when that was spoken... How this Handsome Jack clone deduced such a thing just by looking at him, he was dumbfounded about for now. All he could do was respond. ".. Uuhhyeeeaah. Good... good eye."

With just a simple nod, Timothy wanted to get one detail out of his way. He was relaxing bit by bit. Even Gaige was staring to cool down as well. Thank god that shotgun was pulling away from his head. Now he could speak in ease. "... I'm sorry that Jack must not have been very nice to the both of you. What with being Pandoran and Vault Hunters. As for me, there's some medically dangerous reasons why I can't get rid of my looks the way I am. I left his employment long before his death however. Believe me. I didn't endorse anything he did."

That alone had Axton pouting out his bottom lip, joining a nod of his head. He understood! "Aah that's alright. Not like we were nice to him anyway. Killed him pretty well."

Both Aurelia and Tim snapped their focus the instant they heard that. They both wanted to say something. To express incredible disbelief that such a thing even happened. The doppelganger was the first person to do so, though. He was on the ball today! "... You must understand, I don't believe you. Jack wasn't a person you could just walk up to and shoot."

Axton rolled his eyes after that. "Well alright, I didn't actually do the KILLING part, but I helped take him down."

"So who did kill him?"

"Don't think you'd know her. If you didn't know who I was, the-"

"Who?" He was getting a bit snappy suddenly... All Tim wanted was facts to make him believe he was standing in front of the defeaters of his nightmare. And god, did he want to believe!

"... Lilith? That ring a bell? Red hair, attitude. Special powers?"

It did. Timothy had met that very same Lilith. As did Aurelia... She tried to kill Jack once already. It would make sense that she'd be the one to finish the job later. If not only for her own sake. "Who else was there?"

"Eehuh... I dunno. Brick?"

He was lost again. No point in chasing around names until he got one, he wanted to cut the chase. "Just keep talking. Give me names. Lots of them."

Once again Axton rolled his eyes. But he did as he was told. Counting rather lazily on his fingers as he listed off name after name. "Krieg, Salvador, Maya, Mordecai, a Claptrap, Ze-"

"What was that last one?"

"... A Claptrap?"

"Impossible. All of them were killed when Jack was rising to power. You have to give me something better than that." Tim's trust was suddenly starting to waver. He'd been given a piece of information that didn't make sense anymore. Was this Axton character just... very well informed?

"I don't know, this one was fine!... Apparentely he wasfound out in the tundra. Guy named Hammerlock fixed him up when he found him." Again. Right back around to plausibility. Even Aurelia's curiosity rose up a little bit higher when that name itself was spoken. Timothy decided to disect that answer a little further.

"What was his first name?"

Axton had nothing for that. He was about to mumble off his ignorance to that knowledge... Before Gaige finally entered the conversation with a name. "Alister!" That alone got her strange looks from both their hostages and Axton as well. The latter one especially looked at her strange. That wiped away the redheads smile in an instant, to make room for a more embarassed expression. Hues of red falling into her cheeks. And her voice nearly going entirely quiet. "... I... May have been digging around in his personal information in a not creepy way."

Alright. At least he had an answer. But one thing was still eating at Tim. It was impossible, but... then again. Everything that had already happened to him so far was impossible. So why not send out a fishing reel? See if this one bites? "...What... color was that Claptrap?"

"Yellow?"

It matched. Was that unthinkable? Timothy was verging on believing them both now. In fact, he did! All the perfect information lined up far too well for him to just ignore it. But he wasn't the one with the final say. The doppelganger finally pulled his focus down to his lady still sitting on the floor. His manners returned to him in an instant. "Madam, does that sound plausible?"

She nodded her head in agreement. Even she was starting to waver over to their story being true. Even if a little farfetched. "Alister is particularily gifted with electronics repair. And that Claptrap WAS the only one given a different and unique demise to him. If any of them were to surface from their genocide, he would be the exception."

Timothy nodded one more time. Putting himself at ease. That scarred face turning back up to stare Axton down once more. All his tension and stoic attitude was buried now. He wanted now more than ever to ask questions. To hear a story. To maybe just get closure on the biggest chapter of his life.

"You have me interested. Go on."

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