Chapter Text
"Ty. Tyreen." Normally, Troy does not intervene. But there's something almost perverse, and not in the way he usually likes in his frankly colorful ECHO net history, about seeing another siren flat on her back. He can pass it off as needing to rejuice. His twin is so used to needing to feed energy over to him. Sometimes being a parasite has its uses.
"Ugh. Fine." Tyreen steps away from her target, leaving the redhead stunned on her back as she swoops upon the vault key. With her free hand, she seizes Troy's outstretched flesh hand. Red and blue tattoos glow in sync.
"I'm gonna go check this thing out." The shorter twin says, "don't take too long."
In a flash of blue, she's gone. Troy watches the spot she disappeared from for a moment before turning back to the now former Firehawk.
"You gonna at least make it quick?" The redhead spits blood onto the ground. Without her powers, Lilith has definitely been in better shape. Cut off from her friends and allies, faced with a much more powerful enemy... saying that, the weakest bandit could probably take her out at the moment.
Troy surveys her for a moment. Honestly, it would probably be a lot less trouble if he DID just kill her. Something about it just feels wrong, though. When he was cut from Tyreen at birth, he got what was left. He supposes the now ordinary, injured woman on the ground is another leftover. Been there, done that.
"Fuck sake." As he approached her, he checked his arm, ensuring CH47 was secured and, more importantly, deactivated. Satisfied with his surveillance, he knelt down to the former siren.
"What, you want to spit on me before you kill me? Torture me? Go ahead. You have what you came for."
"Jeez. Shut up for one second, will you?" In one of the pockets of his coat, there's a health pack, containing several emergency health kits. Upon locating it, he popped the cap. "And hold still."
Neither party really believing what he was doing, he slammed the needle of the emergency health kit into her thigh and pressed the button. His supply is somewhat limited, but Tyreen keeps him pretty well juiced so long as he doesn't piss her off. What's one emergency kit? Besides, the former Firehawk sure as hell looks like she needs it more.
"Don't make me regret this." He seizes one of her shaking hands and clasps it round the slowly deploying syringe. "Hold this in place til it's empty. Wait five seconds before you pull the needle out."
Swiftly stepping away from her, he crosses the launchpad a good ten feet then vanishes in a burst of red light, leaving a stunned Lilith staring after him.
She's never been good at taking orders; she's used to giving the instructions herself, after all. Saying that, she's never really had to use an emergency health kit before, so following his instructions seems like a good idea.
Briefly it crosses her mind that it could be a trick, but she's also pretty sure that if Troy Calypso had wanted to kill her, he wouldn't have done it with a health kit. Or... Something disguised as a health kit.
She's still clutching the empty syringe when her friends reach her.
"Lil! You okay, there?" Ellie, larger than life in voice, personality, and physical size, reached her first.
"Where are her tattoos?" Moze next, the youngest of the new vault hunters. It was the new recruit who helped her to her feet, onto the ship.
"Tyreen must have taken her powers." Tannis concluded grimly as they crowded into the bridge together.
"Lil? Say somethin' will you? Startin' to scare me."
"Troy Calypso just saved my life." Her voice was hoarse as she spoke, and disbelief colored her tone as the words fell. She held the empty kit out to Tannis, who took it gingerly.
"It's custom. How fascinating. The technology in this... It could heal almost anything." Tannis could barely contain her curiosity. "I'll further examine this in the lab. I might be able to replicate it."
"Hang on. If that thing is so damn valuable, why would he just hand it over?" Ellie demanded.
"It's not valuable like money," Tannis explained, "more like a scientific advancement I am eager to explore."
"But he just gave it to you?" Moze interjected over the pair, staring at Lilith, "why?"
The former Firehawk gave a defeated shrug.
"I have... No idea."
"There some sort of code against killing other sirens?" Zane asked, eyeing Amara. She shook her head.
"Tyreen was about ready to fry her." Amara shrugged, "whatever his reason, it was personal."
Lilith's head was starting to hurt, and the bickering sure as hell wasn't helping.
"You guys got this for now? Cool. I'm gonna just... go lie down." She wasn't used to feeling weak, and needed to recover. Her friends needed her to lead them. She couldn't let a little thing like losing her powers stand in the way.
Besides, she had other matters to puzzle over. The health kit had been custom? That made Troy parting with it even stranger. As she reached her room and flopped onto her bunk, she sighed.
A deep sense of unease settled over her. She now owed Troy Calypso a favor, something she hated at the best of times. The fact that he was supposedly an enemy should have made it moot, but he had saved her life. Favor owed or not, she was determined to find out why.