Dying Stars.

(PROLOGUE)

[Authors Note: This part is very rough and will most likely be edited later on. TW for: mentions of blood, pain, emetophobia and slight self-harm.]

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Pain. Blinding pain that shot through your veins, setting fire to your skin and causing aches to spread throughout your arms and legs.
Like a pulling sensation at your very nerves, twisting and tearing them apart from the inside. It was torture, ripping your cells and skin apart, just to mangle and piece it together again. The sensations felt endless.

The pain only spreads, pumping to your heart and head, clouding your mind and thoughts with nothing but the pleads of forgiveness for whatever you could have done to experience this kind of suffering.

You didn't even remember why you were here.

The skin began to swell, and your mind grew foggy and blurred from the excruciating sensation that pumped through your very blood. Suffocating your lungs as the tears that pricked at your eyes began to fall, lips parting to scream from the agonizing pain that boiled through your very being.

You thought you were going to die, you always did. Right before your vision blacked out and they'd have to start all over again.

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You couldn't really remember anything. Your mind was like a cracked mirror where one could only see things split in different directions, small hints of memories and thoughts but never seeing the full picture.

People, places, events, all of them in different parts and times, never in the right order and never clearly. You were like a broken clock or a fogged window. You just couldn't understand and it scared you; you didn't even know who you were or used to be.

The least you knew was that you were somewhere on the planet Pandora...or was it Prometha? But you knew you had friends, kind of? Again it was all just so unclear.

The only thing you did know for certain was a man by the name of Jack, Handsome Jack.

More demon than man, he poisoned your body with Eridium. He said how you were "only getting what you filthy bandits deserved" as he gave you another dose and watched in sick sadistic joy as your body twitched and jerked violently in the chair you were bound to, screaming cries of pain.

His face plagued your mind and haunted the very night terrors that kept you from sleeping every night; waking to find yourself in a cold sweat from the threat of him finding you there.

And Eridium, or "Slag" as he called it, sucked the very life from you and sent bolts of lightning flying across the inside of your flesh like a broken circuit, leaving bruises in the places of injection. It stained your veins and parts of your body, more visibly the ends of your hands and feet, a dark purple color, like your blood had been mixed in with the horrific element.

The pain was unbearable yes, but the only thing worse than that was the aftermath.

Clots of Slag and blood poured from your mouth and gathered under your skin, having to either ask a doctor to cut them out or to do it yourself. The feeling of Eridium being ejected into your nerves felt like hell, but the taste wasn't pleasant either. It burned your throat and numbed your taste buds. And it had a very sour flavor, like spoiled milk.
The very first time it slipped past your throat you threw it all up until nothing was left but bile, but now it was just normal and better if you just spit it out quickly rather than keep it in.

But even from your broken memory, and beatdown body, it was very clear you were not who you used to be; even if you couldn't remember who that was.

And he reviled in it.

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He loved how you were not the strong and independent Vault Hunter you once were. How you had been reduced to merely a good little test subject he could use and toy with for his own gain. It's what all of you filthy bandits deserved.

And it was so pathetic, how his men had to practically drag you into the medical room everyday, your skin bruised, veins visible, your hair greased and your eyes darkened around the edges like a corpse. It was honestly a little sad how desperate you looked...so of course Jack had to watch the show.

Taunting you, teasing you, berating you for everything you've done to him that you could no longer remember, until your mind went black and your body began to move without thought.

You'd kill and demolish whatever he threw at you, purely from some animalistic instinct. Better yet? You wouldn't even remember any of it. He could build an army with what strength someone possessed when overloaded with the element.

It was so ironic, first it was your little boyfriend's pet bird, Blood-skull or something he couldn't remember, and now you. Honestly, how dumb were you Vault Hunters? Leaving your best men on their own to fight his army? It was honestly a very unfair fight.

Then again, he never said he played fair.

And neither did Vault Hunters.

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