This Is Not My War And Not My World
My first attempt at a Borderlands fanfiction, however AU. English is not my mother tongue, please help me to improve! Somewhat dark but still with humor. The other Borderlands Characters als well als DLC ones will appear, other pairings may follow.
Full Summary
The tribes of Pandora are at a never ending war. The Monks fight a losing battle and are forced to form a bond with the Psychos – the most brutal and ruthless creatures to walk upon the earth. They are known for their cruelty as well as their love for torture and occasional cannibalism. Maya, one of the last Sirens (powerful beings both graced and cursed) is send to them as a sign for their goodwill in exchange for troops.
Whilst the Monks are set to eradicate the Pirates with the help of their new allies, Maya is set to escape. She doesn't know where to go, as long as it's far, far away from all this madness and also far, far away from the King of Madness – Krieg.
First Chapter
Sweat formed on her pale forehead, soaked her brow and tickled her skin before it disappeared in the itchy tunic she wore – no luxuries unless she proved herself worthy. She tried to focus but just couldn't because it was hot and loud and there were what feelt like a million people staring at her.
Maya loathed this. Everything. The Monks, her clothes, the heat, her powers, the gawkers, the planet – everything. Training, as The Monks call it, was the worst.
As one of the last Sirens on Pandora she was incredibly valuable if (and only if) she could control her powers and use them to aid the noble cause of The Monks: warfare. Psychological warfare. They wanted her to go as far as demoralize their enemies' troops until they were sobbing messes on the ground and to control their leaders to surrender or lead their soldiers down a cliff.
It seemed like war was the only thing her powers could be used for. Good for her because the world was a battlefield. The world is split up in nations and tribes, originating for the great clan wars between the Hodunks and Zafords. The latter two had come to a fragile ceasefire after a long feud until some idiot found it funny to play both sides and start the greatest war ever. After splitting most of the smaller regions amongst themselves the quarrel within the territories began and soon it wasn't a clan fight anymore but everyone against everyone with smaller tribes forming.
The Monks were a bunch of crazy guys believing that they were Gods (or whomevers) gift to Pandora but somehow everyone failed to realize their awesomeness and therefore they weren't the single rulers of all parts of the planet, but with Maya they aimed to change that.
Everyday Maya would get up before the sun, wash quickly and take her place in the church (they called it church, but it was just ruins of something old and forgotten) and practice. An unlucky apprentice would sit in front of her and waited to be mind-controlled or something. Really, Sirens hadn't been around in a long time and no one really knew what Mayas powers could exactly do. So they gave her helpful tips such as to focus on the feeling or trying to grasp the connection, what didn't help her focus on anything at all.
So she had taken to dream away the hours in the dusty ruin and even managed to pass it off as a kind of meditation. In reality she planned her escape from the small castle through the city that surrounded the high walls and finally be free. She would travel through land and sea, find friends and have the greatest adventures ever. She didn't really plan on where to go first, but it didn't matter, as long as it was away from the lying bastards The Monks were.
That The Monks were feeding her lies had dawned her pretty soon and the vision of becoming a powerful goddess that had been so appealing to the small girl faded quickly. The respect for her had turned into controlling every step she took and from day to day she felt more caged.
It didn't help that Morton, the person she couldn't stand the most, was her partner for the day. One day, she would make his head explode with her powers she vowed to herself every time she saw the guy. He was maybe her only motivation to finally unlock her powers right now, plus killing people with just your stares sounded pretty cool.
"Maya, dear, you must focus. Find the source of your powers within you and drink from it."
She mentally rolled her eyes and imagined Mortons death a little more vividly – with no success.
"Wait, I think I feel something!" Morton rambled with that terrible voice of his (a mix between a lisp, a broken nose and horrible character). The Monks that supervised her rushed a little closer, faces tight and excited. Maya too snapped her eyes open and studied him, how is facial expression slowly chanced. Was this the look of someone whose head would blow up like a firemelon?
He burped. Long. Loud. And gross.
"Na, false alarm."
The Siren tried not to launch herself at him and beat him to death with his own arm. The Monks were equally unamused.
"We will continue this another day." One of them said. He wore a yellow sash that clashed terribly with the blue robes and was higher ranked than the others. This was the first time the supervisor had a remotely good idea.
Back in her room, that was more of a cell with a bed, three books and an empty chessboard she stared at the ceiling. Sometimes the rough stone would become the soft sand of the desert that lay behind that long river that led to the empty ocean. All those places she wasn't allowed to even hear of waited for her to be discovered.
Maya curled her fists and bit her tongue – one day she'd kill all of them and be free forever.
Maya didn't know much of the world outside, just about the war and that everyone was bad, except for The Monks. Ironically their carefully constructed stories and lies didn't turn her into the mindless puppet they wanted but rather in a critical thinker that didn't trust anyone as far as she could throw them.
She knew about the tribes and the nations. The nations were Hyperion and the Crimson Raiders, both too big to actually care about the quarrels going on between the tribes and both claiming that the other one is a terribly traitor. They have more important things to do than raiding each others camps (like the tribes did on an almost daily basis): they did politics and negotiations where they would talk a lot and try to eradicate each other with huge flying warships and cannons larger than a house.
The tribes rarely saw them (only some mercenaries passing through or explosions in the sky) except when they broadcasted their propaganda trying to make the tribes their allies, but both sides knew that this would never happen. The nations didn't have a problem with resources. They were wealthy enough to import them from other planets where they had colonies. And what they didn't want fell to the rest of Pandora. You can bet your worn out boots that everything you possess was either ripped from dead body or stolen from a train that belonged to one of the nations.
The tribes however had nothing but their cruelty and black humour. Ironically, each tribe lacked something other tribes had and possessed something others desperately needed. Mayas question, why they all didn't just collaborate and finally make peace was left unanswered, mainly because she was told to shut up and not to worry about things she didn't understand.
But even Maya knew that The Monks lacked an army. They lived in lush green fields of grass, many farmers lived there but no warriors to protect them. Maya seemed to be their only long term line of defence because the Grad Master said that an own army was way too expensive and they lacked recruits anyways.
Until now.
There had been another raid, poor souls running for their life to seek shelter in the city. Bandits from the Rustyyards were behind it and took everything the people had.
Maya knew no details but she caught onto the whispers of her guards. Apparently they had been more than cruel and a lot of people seemed to consider moving away or submit to the power of other tribes. This seemed to upset The Monks a lot and they spend more time than ever talking and her training sessions were cut short or cancelled completely.
The first few days Maya was glad because she could actually sleep in, but it became boring pretty soon. She lost track of time and was interrupted in her self-pity and drowsiness after what felt like ages.
The main conference hall was too, a ruin, but in a little better shape than the rest of the buildings and decorated with everything blue they could find. She never knew if they chose blue because of her hair or if blue hat been their significant colour before she was brought to them. Their most prized possession (after Maya herself) was a blue power core from a Hyperion loader, thought it lost its glow after they beat it with rocks. A monk who had touched it activated some secret power button – and was shocked to death.
Maya was confused, not only because she slept too much but also because of the amount of people who were there. That meant whatever they had decided was important. She took a seat between one of her guards (the one who smelled like dead feet) and Morton (who was worse than dead feet) and prayed it would be over soon.
"My brothers! Rise for the council!"
The blue haired girl stood up and rolled her eyes. Did they always have to be so dramatic? The six eldest made their way into the middle of the hall and took a moment to feel important before everyone could sit down again.
"The great council has decided!" One of them began. "We cannot leave the last attacks unanswered. The burned our houses, killed our men, robbed our goods and raped our woman." He made an art pause that Maya used to cringe. "My brothers, the time to fight back has come!"
A murmur waved through the hall and Mayas stomach twisted. Was this one of their latest lies? Announce that Maya was ready? Feed the unhappy crowd more promises of a better tomorrow but with her to blame? It was surely much easier to say the Siren had lost her powers than to admit that The Monks were a bunch of Fuck Ups.
"We will rise from the ashes of our past like a mighty phoenix!" He continued. That worried her even more. It wouldn't be the first time she thought about her future if she couldn't to the magic everyone counted on. Would they sacrifice her? In fire?
"And strike back with tenfold cruelty!" Her stomach was in knots. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to be stoned to death by disappointed villagers that thought the blue haired girl could protect them. She wanted to live.
"Today, my brothers, is the last day of our suffering! We will never be looked upon again! With our new allies we shall rule the Badlands!" His voice echoed through the hall and was drowned by the rumble of voiced. Allies. He said allies. Plural. There was a chance for her. Or they only sacrificed her and Morton, because she failed and he was a douche, that would make to situation remotely better.
"The Psychos…" He had to calm the crowd that started talking again when the name of one of the worst tribes was mentioned, before he could speak again. "The Psychos have accepted our offer and will smash our enemies!" Shouts filled the hall and Maya wanted them to shut up. The feeling that she had something to do with this was overwhelming and she was torn between running away and scream at the Monk to tell her the details.
"Maya my child, step forward." He held a hand a hand out to her. Everything after that she did on auto pilot. She did her best not to look surprised. She smiled. She nodded. She accepted the makeshift crown on her head. She let herself be ushered out of the hall and into another building.
Suddenly she wished that she had never longed for freedom. She was sure that this was the punishment of the god The Monks prayed to, because she wanted to flee and leave The Monks and the city to rot.
She was given to The Psychos. Given like a present. A present to make them like you. And she was sure, that she would meet her death. If she wasn't tortured or raped she surely would be eaten alive. Because Psychos did that on occasion.
"We can be glad you haven't found your powers yet. That means The Psychos won't use you against us and only with us you can complete your training. You will remain safe there. They know not to touch you. Krieg has assured your safety." One of her chaperones said.
She couldn't care less about how valuable she was or Krieg.
Maya wanted to live.
Please let me know what you think! 3