I said I’d get to the Time Travelling Tannis later!
And here we are!
DLC#3 for my Borderlands 3 story - Tannis’s Totally Tenacious Time Twister!
This one i’m going to detail out the bulk of the story itself as i wrote it during my self-ramblings. Enjoy!
The story begins with Patricia Tannis assembling the Vault Hunters for a new mission of the utmost importance: stop Handsome Jack.
This of course makes everyone very confused as Handsome Jack has been dead for sone time now. However; Tannis explains that she means stopping him before he even gets started. Tannis explains that through the vault key; eridian tech; and the fast travel system she has devised a way to send the vault hunters - or atleast conscious copies - backwards through time. She also explains that; as that time has already happened and she is sending signals to that time; you are unable to visit the sake time twice - else the signals get crossed and deteriorate the spacetime continuum. She also explains that while it is easy to bring items forward through time; she has not found a way to permanently send objects backwards; just digistruct copies that deteriorate after the transmission signal ends.
She says the first chance they will have of stopping jack is in Fyrestone, on the day of the first vault opening. If they can stop the vault opebing before it happens; then jack would never gain the money and power needed to become the tyrant.
However; upon sending them arriving in Fyrestone it comes to Tannis’s attention that she has sent them too far back. She tells the vault hunters to be careful and not reveal they are from the future to anyone; but that they have to wait out the next 8 hours while the signal eats itself and they travel forward.
While staying in the early Fyrestone they encounter T.K. Baha and help him take care of a few skags around town; run into a young Ninetoes as he is wandering through town, before becoming a maniac, and are put to work by Scooter to help him set up one of his first Catch-A-Ride stations at Fyrestone.
Once the help for Scooter has finished, Tannis radios the VHs and tells them they can come back forward now, and to get to a place where no one will see them disappear. At the last moment though, Claptrap is seen materializing just enough for his outline/basic shape to be seen.
Upon Arrival at Tannis’s again, she expresses that there is no time to delay; and the Vault Hunters must be sent right back off. However, this time, due to a miscalculation and improperly set decimal point, the VHs are sent eons back in time to Ancient Pandora; where giant skags roam free and the planet is a lush green world. Tannis apologizes profusely and wishes the VHs the best of luck surviving until they are brought back forward. Here they encounter some of the earliest humans to come to Pandora; whom wish they had never tried landing on this godforsaken rock because their ship was not designed to take off again immediately but rather the power cells had to recharge while they settled the new planet - for 6 months. These earliest settlers have degraded into factions of primitive acting tribes who are all fighting to survive both eachother and the world.
At the end of their 8 hour stint in Ancient Pandora; the vault hunters are brought back forward - However not by enough. They end up re-digitizing in Opportunity, just after the assassination of Handsome Jack’s body double.
At this point, Lilith chimes in and says she is coming back to help them out as well, seeing it as a perfect opportunity to tie up some loose ends, such as retrieving a few items from Sanctuary Crater as well as taking out a few extra Hyperion loaders in Opportunity. After teleporting to the Vault hunters and touring them through Opportunity for their clean-up efforts, Lilith teleports the group of them to Sanctuary Crater to retrieve some “lost equipment” which turns out to be pictures and trinkets from Lilith and Roland’s past.
-cutscene-
Once the Vault Hunters themselves disappear - their time having run up - Lilith uses the chance to do something she shouldn’t, and teleports herself to Roland to say one final goodbye, also hoping to convince him not to take on the Bunk3r but he goes anyways; saying that both she and he know that it has to end. Lilith kisses him one last time, and phase-walks away so he cannot see her disappear into the future.
Back in Sanctuary; Lilith is seen crying from what she had just done, and Tannis goes to scold her but is stopped by Gaige, who at this point has become Tannis’s inner but outer voice of reason to help Tannis cope with her insanity.
Tannis says that she’s finally gotten the calculations correct and can send the Vault Hunters to the Day of the Vault, and they are off to complete their missions there. Gaige also has given them a few side quests for this portion, which include finding and bringing home some rare weapons like Atlas gear and an old Jakob’s masher(as all that exist anymore are the Maggie)
In Fyrestone once again; the VHs are instructed by tannis to go to the fast travel station where they’ve had the eridian promontory hacked and added to their list of available places. However as they try to use it they are blocked - the Watcher shows up to delay them. He acts as a miniature boss; saying “what has happened must happen and will always happen” - the first sense of futility in their quest to stop jack. After “defeating” the watcher and his retreat, the new vault hunters fast travel to eridian promontory as quickly as they can to try to stop the vault opening - they are met by a huge gauntlet of guardians still protecting the vault. Halfway up the mountain they are interrupted by a large earthquake - the vault has opened. They were too late. As they continue to fight their way up; the original vault hunters defeat the destroyer. By the time the new team arrives; the old vhs have already left. Tannis instructs them to evacuate and prepare to return. ***If Tate is to be made a canonical character through this DLC; She would join the VHs at the beginning while they are fighting The Watcher, and travel back with them to the future to meet a very ecstatic Claptrap.
At this point Tannis says that she has found a way to bring them back immediately rather than waiting; and sends them straight back out to try to stop Jack and his crew from reaching the vault in Eleseer - taking the team through the caverns and cave system (this way OzKits are not needed)
However again the Watcher arrives and says “you cannot change what you did not do in the first place. Everything that was shall be” and he becomes another boss fight. After delaying them enough; he leaves again and the vaulthunters begin the gauntlet through eleseer. However this was enough time delay for Jack and his crew to finish and get to the Vault; proving their attempt this time around futile once again.
Upon returning to Sanctuary, Lilith is waiting and tells them it is time to stop being subtle and to stop messing around: They’re going to head straight to Helios to attack Jack head-on
Lillith says she’s had enough of him skirting by and there being obstacles; that they’d go straight or the source of the problem right in its own home.
The Vault Hunters and Lilith materialize in Helios’s right arm; among the Veins of Helios. Still infested with Rats; they immediately begin the fight through. Tannis warns them; however; because they’ve been using the key so often that they might not have the full time allotted to get to Jack and take him down. Fighting through Rats and a few Loaderbots that were beginning to clean up the rats, they find their way into the Hub of Heroism; and are not met with any resistance as they enter Jack’s office. Jack even allows them in; eager for a chance to have at against Lilith once more and finally wipe her out.
Upon Entering Jack’s office, he notes that Lilith is looking rather ragged… Like she’s had a lot of battle inbetween having seen him just a few short weeks ago.
Lilith unfortunately tells Jack that she’s not the same Lilith, that she’s come back to stop him before he gets any worse.
Jack however, connects the dots. “You… You’re from the future?” he questions her, not beleiving it for a moment while the vault hunters sit there in silence as he thinks it through, laughing. “But… If you’re from the future and you are here to stop me… Then I’ve already won. You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t succeed!” he begins to laugh maniacally. “Then there’s no way for you to win today! I beat you! I win!” he laughs and exclaims “Bring it on!” a he summons his digi-jacks and the final Battle begins.
After taking his digi-jacks and him down, Lilith decides she wants to take the final blow herself. To finally be rid of Jack, once and for all. He’s bewildered, saying “but this can’t happen! I won! you can’t beat me now because I won in your past, but my future! I won!”
Just as Lilith is about to take the final blow, though, the Vault Hunters and Lilith spring back forward in time, a split second away from having finally defeated Jack. Lilith breaks down, yelling “NO! NO SEND ME BACK! I HAD HIM!” but Tannis is unable to send Lilith back to that point, as she was already there and it would break the timeline.
Meanwhile; in cutscene; we see Jack completely caught off guard by the fact that he is still alive, and then begins to laugh as he pulls himself up. He looks around his wrecked office as his security guard finally break through the door and he explains that he is fine. Out of the corner of his eye, he also sees a piece of technology left - the signal apparatus from Tannis’s time travel device. with a final glint of evil in his eye he begins to devise a plan.
Back in the future; the end of the story has come. Lilith has given up and gone back to her room to hide for the time being, angry that she had not been able to change anything. The vault hunters speak with Tannis, that explains that time is written and unable to be changed… Something that she should have noted before but just had not had the time to figure out. She states “And the irony of that is not lost on me”
She also gives a final after quest, a video-log to be given to Lilith. It’ a message from Roland. He had given it to Tannis with the instructions to give it to Lilith after she did something really, really stupid. Roland had recognized that she was not the same Lilith he knew - She had a scar on her neck (from Jack’s collar) that was not there when he had seen her just a few hours before hand. He figured that eventually she learned how to time travel with her siren powers - not too far off from the truth - and explained that because of her being there he knew he wasn’t going to be around for very long. A second part to why he instructed Lilith not to show up at the Bunk3r; so she wouldn’t have to see him die.
After the credits; there is one last scene - it shows Jack assembling Claptrap, very pissed off about it, an including the time-tech in his build so that Jack could send Claptrap back in time to off-handedly tell Jack about the Eridium in the first Vault, and to start his rise to power.
I hope you enjoyed this!
