One
Maya always felt different from the other vault hunters and Crimson Raiders. Maybe it was because of what her childhood was like in the abbey, or maybe it was just because she was a siren, but while she got along well enough with everyone, she knew she wasn't really like them. At first she had thought she might find some sort of friendship with Lilith, the only other siren she had ever met, but Maya quickly discovered that it wasn't meant to be, and instead spent her time alone or with Axton, who had proven to be the closest thing to a friend that she had. Well, there was Krieg, but he spent more time spouting nonsense and talking to himself than he did communicating with anyone else, which made companionship difficult at times.
Overall, Maya played it solo.
The siren really didn't care immensely about their "mission." She was on Pandora for her own reasons now, and whatever battle the Raiders wanted her to get involved in wasn't at the top of her list of priorities. Handsome Jack would annoy her over her ECHO, and he was a massive dick, but she tried not to care too much. It wasn't her fight. She would destroy his loaders and kill his men, but it wasn't personal. She got money for it, and money bought food and bullets and motel rooms, and that was enough.
She did her best to stay out of fights, she really did, but sometimes it was hard for Maya. Her temper could get in the way, and while she usually stomped off to a fast travel and went out to the middle of nowhere to cool down, she sometimes couldn't manage to get away and ended up brawling, usually with Lilith. It would take Axton or Roland to break them up, and then afterwards Maya would find a way to leave anyways. She did better on her own, with no one to butt heads with.
On this particular occasion, she found herself sitting at the top of a cliff, looking out over Three Horns Divide. The others had noticed her indifference to their plight and questioned her, leading to a full blown argument. They wanted her to care about something that she just didn't, and tensions were beginning to rise as Roland questioned Maya's loyalty. After the blue haired siren protested any involvement with Hyperion and Handsome Jack, Lilith had even suggested she leave if she was going to be so uninvolved, and honestly, it wasn't feeling like such a bad idea anymore. What did they need her for? They already had a siren, the most powerful siren on Pandora. They didn't need Maya. Lilith had managed to rip the entire city out of the ground and hurl it into the sky, and that...that was something Maya knew she would never be able to do.
Six sirens in the universe, and Lilith was undoubtedly the strongest. That's why she was always Siren One, and Maya was always Siren Two. She was weak. The idiot monks who had thought they could use her as a weapon would have pissed themselves if they had found Lilith and seen her power. Compared to her, Maya was next to useless.
Six sirens in the universe, and Maya was undoubtedly the lamest.
She let out a sigh as she looked at the darkening sky. Maybe it was time to give it all up and go rogue. It wouldn't be the first time she let someone down, if what had happened at the abbey counted. Killing people was comparable, right?
What would she do, though? Become an actual bandit? Live in the middle of the tundra and eat bullymongs to survive? Join a pack of skags?
...Work for Hyperion?
"Hey, vault hunter," Maya jumped as a voice erupted out of her ECHO. "Getting real sick of you blowing up my things. Wanna maybe, oh I don't know, cut that shit out?"
No, no way was she working for this jackass.
She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Jack. Destroying your property pays the bills."
"What are you doing all alone anyways, siren?" he asked, an air of curiosity tinting his otherwise totally irritating voice. "Shouldn't you be with your little bandit buddies, killing my men?"
"What's it matter to you?" Maya asked coolly. He was so fucking annoying, with his constant surveillance. She shuddered at the thought of what all he watched her do every day. "Don't you have other things to worry about?"
"Sweetheart, I'm not worried." he retorted. "Just asking a question. Care to answer, pumpkin?"
"I've got nothing to say to you."
"Ouch, that one just hurt."
"Why don't you just fuck off and stick your dick in a pencil sharpener or something?" she asked viciously.
"Fucking shit, Maya, that one was harsh, even for a bandit like you." he paused for a moment. "I really am curious, though."
"Why would I tell you anything? You're just a big shot asswipe with a space station." she crossed her arms and looked up at the massive chunk of metal that was Hyperion's moon base. "Plus, you've been nothing but a dick to me."
"I'm sensing a loooooot of hostility here, kiddo." Jack hissed. "And it's just making me want to know even more. Your pals are all back in Sanctuary, and you're out in the middle of ass fuck nowhere, all alone? You're either a lot stupider than I thought, or something interesting is happening."
"Again, why would I tell you?"
"Have you got anything better to do? Come on, sweetheart."
She snarled in frustration and shut her ECHO off. He was such an asshole. He constantly chimed in just when she was either trying to fall asleep, meditating, or extremely busy with something important, and he never failed to make every single second of her life more difficult than it needed to be. He was vain, selfish, snobby, demeaning...he was just...a dick. What was he even trying to do on Pandora, anyways? Trying to open a vault and control the planet, right? Cleansing it of bandits or something? Well...wasn't Maya there to learn about herself, and her powers, and what it meant to be a siren, and…
The vault?
She wanted to know its secrets; she had a feeling that if she did, she could control herself. She was drawn to it. Whatever was in this vault that was so highly sought after could teach her more than 27 years of listening to the monks had. If she was on her own now, then she might as well do what she set out to do in the first place, and that was find herself and hunt the vault and whatever weird aliens might be inside.
But not tonight. Tonight, she would sleep under the dark Pandoran sky, wrapped up in a bullymong hide to keep out the chill and chase off any curious skags that might want to eat her. As she lit a small fire and cooked herself some meat provided by the same creature whose hide she wore, she could see the outlines of snow skags in the distance, jaws dripping at the scent of the sizzling bullymong.
"Get out of here!" she yelled at them. They didn't listen, of course, and only crept closer. "Seriously, fuck off!"
Maya went back to staring at her frying pan, refusing to look up at the beggars until her dinner was ready. When it was, she began scarfing it down, hardly caring that it burned her tongue. She was starving, having left Sanctuary several hours prior on an empty stomach. She should have brought more provisions, she knew that, but she had been in a rage and a rush and was lucky she had even brought her shield and guns. She didn't need someone trying to come after her because she had left her weapons behind.
At the thought of someone caring enough to follow, her stomach churned. She lowered the bullymong steak and looked at it. Roland had tried to contact her, and even Axton had left a message on her ECHO before she had shut it off to avoid Jack, but she hadn't answered either. She was still miffed, and now that she had left like she said she would, there was no turning back...at least, not for the next few days, or weeks. She had to prove her point: that she was on Pandora for herself, and not for anybody else. Besides, she didn't want them to think she was soft. Going back immediately, just because she felt sick to her stomach and cold, would be stupid. She wasn't going to just run up to Sanctuary with her tail between her legs and beg to be welcomed back with open arms.
Besides, Lilith had pissed her off way too much for her to want to see her in the immediate future. She was just so...so...irritating sometimes. Maya tried hard not to let her emotions take over, she really did, but with Lilith, it was just so hard. The Firehawk got on Maya's nerves, and apparently that last argument had been the one to finally tip the scales and send Maya over the edge. Maybe it was because they were both sirens, and Maya was jealous of Lilith's power and reputation. Maybe it was because of the way Lilith and Roland always acted like they knew everything.
Maybe it was because they had been around for so long, having fought Jack before and stuck together with Mordecai and Brick and Moxxi. Maybe it was because they had actually lived in the real world and actually had friends and actually knew things. Whatever the case, it pissed her off.
And now, instead of sleeping in a warm bed in Sanctuary, she was sleeping on the ground, in the snow, in Three Horns. She had slept alone, yes; she had slept outside, of course; but she had never felt so utterly alone before. Her only company were the skags trying to get her food, and when she had finished a few mouthfuls and decided her stomach wasn't up to eating the rest, she tossed it over to them and ignored them as they fought.
She had always liked skags, in a weird way.
As the sky darkened, Maya found that she was unable to sleep. She didn't really know why; maybe it was just the loneliness, or the fact that she was still angry, but she just felt unsettled, on edge, and generally unhappy with her predicament. She wasn't worried about surviving-she was as tough as Pandora itself-but she was worried about her differences, her future, and what was going to happen over the next few weeks. Add to that the loneliness, and everything stirred together in one stupid cocktail of nerves.
She was getting low on cash. Axton and the others seemed to be hogging most of the missions that needed completing, and since she wasn't much of a team player, Maya usually let them go without her. Unfortunately, that meant hunting for her own food and stealing ammo from dead bandits and sleeping outside instead of in motels, and she needed something to change. She needed money. She needed real food.
She needed something more.
She was a siren-if that even meant anything with Lilith running around moving entire cities-and dammit, Maya wanted to feel like one. There were only six in the entire universe. She had powers that no one understood, not her, not the monks, not Lilith. She was ancient. She was a goddess.
She wanted to feel like one. But how was she supposed to? Kill and maim until she could take the money of every bandit on Pandora and then...what? She didn't even know what to do with money past the basics. She had grown up without it. The monks didn't have any reason to pay her anything, and it wasn't until she had left the abbey that she had encountered the need to buy things. Then she realized just how much she needed for the things she wanted, and just how little she got for the things she did.
The more she thought, the more miserable she became. As she laid there on the ground, wrapped up in what used to be a bullymong, head on her arms while she started out over the dark landscape, she started getting the feeling that nothing mattered. At least, not when it came to loyalties or money. Not when she was stuck like this.
Against her better judgement, Maya turned her ECHO back on to find a plethora of annoying messages. A few were from Roland, apologizing and asking her to check in; one was from Axton, with Krieg screaming nonsense in the background; and all the rest (12 total) were from Handsome Jack.
"Hey, you know, I should be the one to hang up, not you."
"Hey, vault hunter. I know you're real busy, sitting around and being alone, but if you could just, oh, I don't know, stop being an asshole bandit and hold a civil conversation with someone for once, I'd appreciate-"
"Come on, pumpkin. I'm dying here."
"Look, I can see you ignoring me. You're not doing anything. There is nothing more important than me right now."
"Vault hunter. Siren. Maya? Come on. Talk to me. This is getting old."
Why did he care so much? None of the messages showed any hints of him actually caring about her, but the fact that he had tried to bother her so many times confused her. They were enemies. They were at war. As she listened and heard him repeatedly asking, with various amounts of snark, why she wasn't answering him and if he should just send some loaders to retrieve her, she wondered if this wasn't some kind of weird, messed up booty call.
It wouldn't be the first.
She hadn't slept with him, of course; he just made lots of passes and left open invitations that she could never figure out. Maybe she should have accepted one of them. Maybe that would have given her an outlet and helped her avoid fights with Lilith. But was he being genuine, or just luring her into a trap? She was a member of the Crimson Raiders. Or at least, she had been. She didn't really know where she stood now. But didn't that make her some kind of target? Wouldn't he want to kill her? She had never had the guts, or the patience, to find out if his version of a one night stand ended in death. But...she had heard a lot of things about him, and it made her just a tiny bit curious.
She sighed. Maybe if she explained that she wasn't with the Raiders, he would leave her alive. It would at least get her out of Three Horns.
Once again, against her best judgement, Maya decided to talk. "Hey, asshole. You still feel like bugging me, or are you all out for the night?"
He answered immediately, and she wondered if he had been waiting. The thought creeped her out, but it was also...flattering? "Well, well, well. Look who finally came around. You know, part of me was actually getting afraid you wouldn't call back."
"What do you want so badly?"
"Pandora, mostly. Revenge." He answered nonchalantly. "Oh, you meant with you? Well, I wanted to extend an olive branch, kitten! An offer you can't and shouldn't refuse."
"I'm listening."
"Wow, wasn't expecting that. You leave your bandit buddies for good or something?"
"We had...a disagreement. I'm taking a break."
Jack roared with laughter. "Shi-i-it! Maya the siren is going rogue? Oh, that is too good. Tell me you're not joking. You're not, are you? Man, that is rich! Anyways pumpkin, why don't you come up here and visit old Jack for the night?"
Yep. Definitely booty call.
"Not interested in sex with you." Maya lied. She definitely was, a little bit; it had been ages since she had done anything to relieve all of her frustration, and the offer was...tempting, to say the least. A childish part of her wanted to act out against the Raiders, and sleeping with Jack was probably a good way to do that.
"Saw that one coming." Jack mumbled and sighed dramatically. "Hottest siren on Pandora, and you won't take the best offer you've ever received. Typical bandit. You know, it makes me just a little upset to think about missing out on your pretty face when I have to wipe you off the planet with the rest of your pals. Or...ex-pals."
Hottest siren on Pandora? He was really trying to butter her up now...
"This isn't the first time you've tried this." She snorted coolly, trying not to sound like he was having any effect on her. "Don't know why you thought it would work. Are you really that hard up for a lay?"
"Maya, Maya, Maya." he snarled, his voice growing colder and colder with every repetition.
She gulped as he repeated her name with such a vicious lilt in his voice. It sounded like he wanted to destroy her.
"You should be flattered. You're the one thing I can't have, pumpkin, and I hate when I don't get what I want. Now why don't you just come. Up. Here?"
She had to collect herself before she managed to say anything without her voice cracking. "See, I'll visit Helios, but not for sex."
He was quiet for a second. "Oh?"
"Let me work for you."
"Shit, you serious?" he actually sounded surprised.
"You've got money. I need money. I've got power. You need power. I'm currently unemployed, and...you've got some other things that I want. Why don't we help each other?" she was trying to sound seductive, mysterious, whatever, but it didn't really sound as convincing as it had in her head.
"And what exactly is it that you want, siren?" Jack asked. Yeah, definitely not convincing. "Info to send back to your little raider buddies?"
"You can check me over for any surveillance devices or bugs if you're that insecure. Take my ECHO away. Do whatever you want. Just let me up there and off this planet."
"Wow, you're serious about this." Jack said. He almost sounded impressed. "Hold tight, pumpkin. I'm sending some loaders your way."
"What do you-" before Maya had a chance to finish, she heard a huge crash, and five GUN loaders landed next to her. The skags all ran off, leaving the siren alone to deal with the robots as they surrounded her. Smart.
She reached for her gun instinctively. Maybe Jack was trying to catch her when her guard was down, when she was tired and upset and desperate, and the loaders were there to kill her. He wasn't trustworthy, after all. It only made sense that he would try to pull some asshole shit like that.
But the loaders weren't shooting, only standing there, sputtering out commands in their metallic voices, almost as if they were...waiting for her? She hesitantly let her gun go and waited, unsure of what exactly she was supposed to be doing. She had never been in a situation like this before. Loaders had never just suddenly decided not to attack her.
As soon as she seemed to be standing normally, both hands safe distances from her weapons, one of the robots reached out and grabbed her, clamping its huge metal fingers around her waist and pulling her up.
"What the fuck!" she shouted, more as a reaction than anything. She turned over awkwardly in the loader's arms, precariously laying on her back with nothing but those harsh metal claws keeping her in place. This was a mistake. This was all a huge mistake, and she was about to regret ever talking to Jack in the first place. She was about to give him the satisfaction of killing her, wasn't she? She would be outnumbered on the station, surrounded by loaders, without a good way to get back down unless she could make it to a fast travel, and she was guessing they were pretty well guarded.
Fuck. What had she done?
-0-
"Well, well. You actually came without a fight?" Jack was standing in front of her, suave, sophisticated, and dickish, as usual. "I'm impressed, Maya. Is that...are you...is that a fucking bullymong on you?"
She grimaced as the GUN loader put her down. "Yeah, yeah. Let's talk."
"Yes, let's." he grinned and reached out toward her. "Your ECHO first, pumpkin."
She rolled her eyes and handed the device to him. "Here. You gonna pat me down, too?"
"Oh, sweetheart, don't tempt me. Not this soon, at least." he took the ECHO and viciously threw it against the wall.
"What the hell, Jack?" Maya asked.
"Eh, I'll buy you a new, less shitty one." he extended his arm toward her again. "Now, kitten, let's talk in my office."
She cautiously accepted his outstretched hand and allowed him to pull her along down the hallway, stopping only after they had gone through a set of sliding frosted glass doors and into a room with a massive desk in the middle. There was an entire wall of windows and another covered in monitors showing images from all over Pandora and even some on Elpis, including the hole that used to be Sanctuary before Lilith flexed her almighty powers and teleported the entire city.
"You seriously watch all these screens?" Maya asked.
"I use them to keep tabs on all you bandits. It's a lot easier than waiting for you to look at your ECHOs. Plus, I can do it without you knowing, so...you know."
"I'm betting you don't have the decency to give us privacy, either."
"If you're asking whether or not I've watched you shower and change, the answer is yes. Yes I have. Especially when you stay in those seedy motels. Why do you have to be a bandit, Maya? You make wanting you that much more frustrating." he looked down at her, and she noticed his mismatched eyes. One blue, one green, both mesmerizing.
"Oh, cry me a river. You've got plenty of other booty calls who I'm sure are falling over each other to get to you." she said, finally letting go of his hand as she realized she was still holding it.
"Well...yeah, I do, but you know, the problem with that is...how do I say this lightly?" He paused. "They're fucking idiots. Or they're Moxxi, and that ship sailed a long time ago, kiddo." He grinned darkly at her. "But you, Maya, you're something else. You're a siren. And you're right. I do want your power, but I also want you."
"I thought I was here discussing employment." She said coldly.
"Ugh, always business with you vault hunters." he threw his hands up in defeat and walked to the wall of windows. "Don't you ever let yourself have fun, Maya?"
"Business first, Jack."
He sighed. "Fine. I'll play your little game." he turned to look at her. "But not until you tell me why you're all on your lonesome now."
Maya walked forward and sat on the edge of the desk. "You'll probably just laugh at me, and I'm not exactly in the mood for that."
"Maya, please." he chuckled, sneering as he did so. "Trash talking those bandits has got to be my favorite pastime. Enlighten me, kitten."
"Okay, fine." not like she had anything to lose, anyways. "I was never on Pandora to help them. I just...got caught up in all of it."
"Oh?" he raised an eyebrow. "Funny. You always seemed so...committed."
"It's hard not to be when you're being shot at." she said with an air of irritation. "But...I came here on my own. I came to find the vault, not fight a war. Then you decided to try and kill us on the train, and I got swept up with the Crimson Raiders and Lilith." she hissed the other siren's name.
"Ooh, do I sense some hostility there, pumpkin? Not a fan of the Firehawk?"
"You mean the most powerful siren on Pandora?" Maya snarled. "She's so loyal to them. She'll do anything for Roland, as long as she can keep up with her eridium addiction."
"She's an eridium junkie now?" Jack cackled. "That's rich."
"I tried to be friendly. I really did." Maya said. "I thought finding another siren would be good. I thought it could be fun. But you know what? It doesn't fucking matter. I'm still different. And compared to her, I'm next to useless."
Jack furrowed his brows. "Useless?" he walked to the desk and put a hand on either side of her, standing before the siren. "You've destroyed dozens of badass Hyperion loaders. You have turned my robots into scrap metal. You're worried about some stupid Raiders junkie?" he snarled and grabbed her chin, holding tightly so that she couldn't look away from those eyes. "Lilith is nothing. She's just a tiny, dirty speck running around on Pandora, flapping her mouth and betraying people."
He narrowed his eyes, staring her down. "You're my siren now, Maya. You belong to Hyperion." he tilted her chin up and she squared her jaw. "And you are going to be the most powerful siren this universe has ever seen."