A New Leader

Part Seventeen : Fast Forward

My alarm blared through my small, dark, and quiet room. I slammed my fist down on it, jamming the button once again. I had twenty minutes to get ready but all I wanted to do was cuddle with my tear stained pillow, I had been crying myself to sleep for the past three days. I imagined Jack sleeping next to me, holding me throughout the night and keeping my tears at bay.

I heard buzzing come from my pad on my desk, another annoying reminder that I was going to be late if I didn't get up now. I got out of bed quickly and put my clothes on, pinning the watch back onto the hem of my skirt and straightening my hair back in place. I slipped on my shoes, grabbed my ECHO pad, leaving my room quickly to begin walking to my office.

I grabbed a coffee from the cafeteria very quickly, waking up my body with the hot liquid that only took three days to win me over. People stared at me, looking me up and down, I glared back at them as I picked up on their judgmental words.

"She's a filthy siren, I don't know why we haven't killed her yet."

"She was a bandit too, what a disgrace to have her here, and this close to the president no less."

"It wouldn't surprise me if she killed Handsome Jack, she's wearing his pocket watch for Petes sake."

I gripped onto the styrofoam cup and felt it crack under my heated hands, the burning liquid leaving me unfazed as I was already angry. They laughed at me as I spilled coffee all over the floor, I only now just realized that I had in fact done that. I rolled my eyes and got another one, leaving the area and making my way towards my office angrily.

I set everything down and sat down in my chair, a notification flashing across my screen. I opened the tab quickly as the flashing subsided, the sinking feeling in my gut only growing.

"Tonight at 5:30 you all are reporting the the foyer for Handsome Jacks reception, don't be late."

I took in a deep breath and clicked the notification off of my screen and sat back in my chair. My heart beating rapidly as I came back to the fact that he was really gone, I grabbed a pad from my desk and looked through it for bugs, trying to take my mind off of my late lover.

I had gotten through three pads before my phone rang, I put the one I was previously working on down to the desk and picked up the phone.

"Hello, this is Birde secretary for the new president of Hyperion." I spoke in a cheery tone.

"Hi, this is the mortician, I just need to know what I'm doing with Jacks body after the reception." The man spoke, my eyes widened as his words sent chills through my body. "Is everything alright?" He asked.

"Y-Yes, everything is fine," I laughed a bit, "the president would like to have him cryogenically frozen, if that's doable."

"Usually is, I'll prepare his chamber, have a nice day."

"You too, sir."

I hung up the phone, looking out into the hall to make sure no one had picked up on that conversation that I had sabotaged. I felt my heart nearly flutter at the idea of him still being on the base, I smiled as I continued to work on the broken pads.

----------------------------------------------

"You were there for Jacks reception?" Rhys asked as he lazily pointed his finger at me.

"Yes, why?"

"I was there, I had really shaggy hair and tried my best to slick it back, do you remember me at all?" He asked.

"No, I remember going to the reception and sitting in front with the president, crying my eyes out and then leaving."

"Plenty of people were crying."

"I spent most of my time in my living quarters or in my office anyways so there was no way I'd really see you, I didn't do much until a few months after."

"Well what happened?"

"I killed the president, shooting him right between the eyes and taking the place of the president."

"Y-You killed him?"

"Is it really that much of a plot twist?"

"Seeing your position now, no I guess not." He laughed.

"Right, after that I announced that I was the new president of Hyperion and began disguising my voice," I smiled, thinking of how I've fooled people, "then I left the space station and started my campaign around Pandora, promoting bringing it back to its pristine beauty."

"As far as beauty goes." He scoffed.

"I know, right?" We laughed, "But I wanted people to know that I was good and wanted to help Pandora go back to normal."

"You did a very good job of that, but you're known as the Big Bad Wolf, where does the killing come in?" He asked.

"I killed whoever got in my way, from officials to bandits and people who found out about my identity without my knowing. I did good for the planet but people who wanted to stop that were stopped with the barrel of my gun." I replied sternly.

"What about when Helios crashed?"

"I felt like everything I worked for towards getting Jack back came tumbling down... then I pulled another campaign."

"The clean planet campaign?"

"2.0." I smiled.