All in Blood
Disclaimer; I don't own Borderlands 1 or 2 or anything related to other franchises.
Hey guys, I'm back again with something different. This is something I came up with while I was playing way to much Borderlands 2 with a friend.
I don't know if it's some unspeakable rule to not publish on April 1 but I'm doing it and I hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 1: A trail of Bread Crumbs
He was right there, bloodied, dying and beaten.
They had him, cornered him and beaten him.
With the defeat of the Warrior, the barrier surrounding Jack and Lilith had faded away and Jack had stumbled to his feet, Lilith doing the same. They were both a few steps away from each other, Lilith glaring at Jack while Jack glared at the Vault Hunters.
Salvador, aiming an assault rifle and a SMG at him, an eager look on his face to pull the trigger on both of his weapons. Zero had come down from the cliff he had been, providing sniper over watch, in his hand was a pistol in his hand as he aimed it at Jack's head. On his side was Axton, his assault rifle aimed at Jack along with Gage who had her SMG aimed at Jack as well and Deathtrap right beside her as it waited for the command to attack.
On the other side was Maya, an electric SMG was in her hands ready to shock Jack to death when given the chance. Next to her was Krieg, whom normally would be unfocused but was surprisingly glaring at Jack, his hands on his axe saw.
For awhile nobody moved.
It was Jack that broke the silence.
"You think your smart don't you?" he asked them all, blood coming down a wound he had received on the side of his stomach. "You think you can come in here and just destroy everything I tried to build, make all of my sacrifices pointless, KILL MY DAUGHTER, and defeat the one thing I could have used to change this planet?!"
Jack paused as he watched his blood leak to the ground, before continuing. "I could care less what you think of yourselves, or what you think of me, your all nothing but a bunch of filthy bandits who deserve nothing but the worst from this world, and that's what I intent to give each and every one of you; THE WORST!"
"If you guys don't kill him, then I will." Lilith said as she painted slightly, a hand on her stomach.
Before a bullet could be shot, Jack had pulled out something. It was a rectangular device, similar to an ECHO but the color was a deep red, either it was the actual color itself or Jack's blood had sprayed all over it.
Jack gave one final smile before pressing a button on the device and he vanished.
It took a few seconds for it to hit; Jack had escaped, they had failed. Even with the Warrior defeated, the face of Hyperion, the monster who had taken countless of lives was still living somewhere.
They may have stopped the monster but they hadn't managed to stop its master, meaning he could try his hardest to find another monster.
3 WEEKS LATER….
"Any sign of them?"
"No, they haven't come back; I'm starting to think that tip was false."
"All the 'persuading' it took to get the truth out of that guy, it had better not be false."
Mordecai kept his eyes trained on the scope of his sniper, watching the entrance to a supposedly empty Hyperion base for signs of anyone coming in or out. He was up on a tall cliff in the Dust, watching over the base from above, while down below hidden behind a couple of rocks was Salvador holding a shotgun in one hand and a mini gun in the other. Next to him was Axton, who held his assault rifle in both hands while looking at the entrance in anticipation.
A day ago, they had managed to find a couple of Hyperion soldiers and after a few minutes they had taken one back to Sanctuary for questioning. It took a few minutes of 'talking' from both Brick and Salvador to get the soldier to reveal that he didn't know where Handsome Jack was, but that he had been ordered to go to the east Hyperion base out in the Dust.
What he had been sent there for, he didn't know, he was just following orders.
It was a clue like this that had led them to go the Hyperion base in the east, any leads they could find on Jack was important. For over a week they had followed nothing but dead ends and false leads that led to them finding nothing on where Jack was or what he was planning.
"This is starting to get boring," said Salvador as he still saw no movement from the base. "Can't we just go in and see what's up?"
"Believe me, I would rather do that than this," said Axton as his eyes were still locked on to the base entrance. "But if we do go in there guns blazing, what if the base is actually empty, we would have wasted our time in coming here. The best solution we came up with was waiting here for any signs of activity."
"You got a point there."
"Guys, the doors are opening," Mordecai said through his ECHO. "Hold your fire until we can address the situation."
Axton and Salvador trained their guns on the door, waiting for the sign to fire. When the large doors were fully opened, five Hyperion soldiers came out looking over the area. Behind them was a Constructer but what was odd about it was the large capsule that it had strapped on its top. Behind the Constructor was a Loader, who moved in unison with the Constructor.
"The area is clear, let's get this job done," a Hyperion soldier said as he moved forward with the rest of his troop, followed by the Constructor and the Loader.
"What do you think is in the capsule?" Salvador whispered to Axton.
"I don't know, but I get the feeling that it might be important to Jack," said Axton as his eyes stared at the capsule, unable to see anything behind it due to its black tainted window.
"Whatever it is, it could lead us to Jack," said Mordecai as he aligned his sniper to the head of a soldier. "I'll take care of the soldiers; you guys take care of the Loader and the Constructor. But don't damage the capsule, on my mark."
A split second later a shot rang out. The shot hitting a Hyperion soldier dead in the head, making him drop to the ground. The others raised their guns only to meet a similar fate, unable to find the shooter in time. The Loader immediately moved in front of the Constructor who was starting to make gun loaders from its bright red eye.
With a load yell Salvador sprang from behind the rock and before the Loader could process his movements it was hit several times in the center, making it fall to the ground with a thud. The Constructor was almost done making the gun loaders when Axton fired his assault rifle clip into its eye, causing it to short circuit, halting its attempts to make loaders.
The Constructor tried to flee but it was stopped by a sniper bullet to its eye, along with a barrage of bullets from Salvador and Axton after he finished reloading. The Constructor fell to the ground, its red eye shutting off as it lay still.
Dropping down from the cliff by sliding down the rocks, Mordecai joined Axton and Salvador as they walked towards the Constructor. They still had their weapons pointed at it, weary that it would spring to life at any moment. They were then looking at the large capsule at the top it, fastened by nothing but chains.
"What do you thinks inside it?" Salvador asked while squinting at the black tainted window.
"No idea amigo, but if Jack wanted it, then it must be important," said Mordecai as he moved towards the chains. "Give me a hand with this."
With a simple pull from his hand, Salvador was able to break the chains strapping the capsule on top of the Constructer.
"So," Axton began as he looked at the capsule and then at Mordecai and Salvador, "Do we open it up, or do we just take it back to Sanctuary?"
"It doesn't feel right opening it up without knowing what's inside it," Mordecai said while putting a hand on his chin. "It could be a trap for all we know, that thing inside being a creature Jack made to kill us if we opened it."
"But if it was trap, then Jack would've made more of an effort to make this thing harder to reach." Salvador said reloading his weapons but his eyes drifting back to the black tainted windows of the capsule.
The thought of what had happened when the group encountered Wilhelm, flashed in their minds.
"Tell you what, we take it by Sanctuary and open it there," Mordecai said while looking out into the horizon. "That way if it is a trap, then at least it won't be happening in Sanctuary."
"Sounds like a plan to me," said Axton as he reached for his ECHO. "I'll tell the others to meet us by the old bridge in Three Horns, just in case."
Blink.
The noise caused them to turn their attention to the Constructor's eye, which was now blinking blue.
"It must be calling for back-up," said Salvador as he moved to the capsule. "Axton, help me carry this thing to the car."
Axton moved over to the other side of the capsule and he and Salvador lifted it up. The capsule wasn't as heavy as it looked and they were able to follow Mordecai back to the car, parked a mile away from the base. The Constructor's blinking still heard in their ears as they put the capsule on to the back of the Bandit Technical, the capsule nearly taking up all of the room. Mordecai got into the driver's seat, while Axton got onto the launcher seat in case they were being chased, and Salvador got in the back with the capsule.
Mordecai drove them away from the base, just as they heard the sounds of troops being deployed in the Constructors location. They drove in silence for a few minutes, Axton haven't informed the others of where to meet, saying that they had found something they had to see.
It was only as they reached the fast travel point did Axton's ECHO come to life again.
"You dirty bastards. Don't think you can just take away everything from." It was Jack, the man they were looking for, the one who had been silent for about three weeks, talking to them now by an ECHO.
"This can be resolved right away; just give me back the capsule." Jack said, but they could hear the desperation in his voice, the same one they heard when they entered Angel's chambers. "You have no idea what's in there, you have no hope of comprehending what lays in it. Please, you already took away my daughter; don't take away what I have left."
Axton shut off his ECHO, unable to hear anything else from Jack. But what he did know was that whatever was in that capsule meant a lot to Jack.
"Whatever we find this capsule, must be something important to Jack," said Mordecai as he set the coordinates in the fast travel point.
In the blink of an eye they were gone.
They drove for another few minutes, meeting in the original place where Sanctuary was once held, just outside the gate to the bridge.
As they stepped out of the car, memories of how they had to bring the town of Sanctuary into the sky, Lilith teleporting it away to escape Jack's onslaught of attacks. The truth about Angel working for Jack and her betrayal towards the Vault Hunters, only later on would she ultimately betray Jack and help them in the end.
There they meet the others, Brick, Lilith, Zero, Maya, Gage and Krieg each looking at them as they pulled out the capsule from the back of the car.
"GIANT SHINY THING!" yelled Krieg as he raised his hand.
"What the hell did you guys bring back?" asked Lilith as she looked at the black tainted window on the capsule.
Getting closer to it, Gage put a hand to her chin and inspected it. "It looks some kind of human sized storage device."
"So there's a person in that thing?" Maya asked as she looked at Gage.
"Hard to tell," said Gage as she ran a hand in her hair with her right hand. "I can't see past that black window, and if it is from Jack then it could be anything."
"Then there's only one way to find out," said Brick as he moved to rip the lid of the capsule.
"Whoa, wait a minute there Brick," said Mordecai as he motioned for Brick to stop with his hand. "We don't even know if what's inside is hostile or not."
"If whatever's in that thing decides to be hostile then I'll make it wish it had stayed in that capsule." Brick said while cracking his knuckles.
"SHINY THINK, HOLD MANY SECRETS!" shouted Krieg as if making a point.
"Krieg might... be right," said Axton as he looked at the capsule. "The only way to see of what importance it has to Jack is to open it."
"If it's hostile, be ready to shoot," said Zero as he pulled out his pistol. As if in silent agreement, everybody readied their weapons as Brick and Krieg moved over to the capsule. In one swift movement they were able to rip open the top half of the capsule.
Inside the capsule they saw-the unexpected.
It was a man, a sleeping man, with his arms folded over his chest and his eyes closed. The man had a muscular build, nearing Bricks height but looked about as muscular as Krieg. He was wearing a red and black long sleeved shirt, blue jeans and black boots. What was strange was that he had some kind of mask on his head. The mask completely covered his face, making it look like it was his face. The mask was dark grey, with red lines on the middle of the forehead, and above the eyes.
"Is...he another psycho?" asked Zero as he looked at the mask.
"NO, NO OTHER BROTHER HERE, ME FEEL NOT THE JOY OF MEAT IN HIM," Yelled Krieg as he looked at the man asleep in the capsule.
"I take that has a no then," said Maya as she lowered her SMG.
"Why would Jack care about this guy?" asked Gage as she could see nothing special about him.
A loud beeping sound was heard and they all turned around to see a Constructor, accompanied by a few dozen Loaders.
"Back away from the capsule and this will be simple," Jacks voice was heard from the Constructor. "You shouldn't have tried to take him. Now hand him over and this never happened."
"Not a chance Jack," said Mordecai as he raised his pistol.
"You have no idea what he can do," said Jack as the Constructor seemed to turn its attention to the man in the capsule. "You have no idea what he…you've already taken nearly everything from me; I won't let you take him away."
The Loaders started firing at the group who fired back, Krieg and Brick already charging at the robots, destroying a handful of them. But the Constructor started making more of them with each one destroyed.
"FIRE ON THAT CONSTRUCTOR!" shouted Salvador as he fired both of his guns at the Constructors red eye.
Before the bullets could hit a Loader came in between them, damaging it but protecting the Constructor, another Loader starting firing at Salvador forcing him to move out of the way and fire at the Loader.
The Loaders proceeded to defend the Constructor by jumping in front of the bullets, and with each Loader down the Constructor would make more.
"At this rate we'll never be able to defeat that robot," said Brick as he punched a Loader in the eye, his fist going right through it.
"At this rate we'll run out of ammo before we make a scratch on the Constructor." Axton said shooting at a passing Loader.
"I'll say this again; just give up," Jack's voice rang out through the Constructor. "It's hopeless, stop now before I kill you and take back the capsule. Then again I'm probably going to kill you anyway."
When it looked like he was about to say something else, the Constructor was suddenly on the ground, acid eating at it sides. The Loaders turned around to the Constructor and were taken out by the Vault Hunters as well as the same mysterious shooter who took out the Constructor.
"Nice shot," said Mordecai as he lowered his pistol.
"Wasn't me," said Zero as he looked over the area.
"It was me," said voice coming from behind the now destroyed Constructor. From behind came a boy, a foot taller than Gage. He had brown hair, blue eyes, wearing a brown hoodie with a purple shirt underneath and blue jeans with black combat boots. "I heard that Sanctuary was where people went to go fight Hyperion and I saw the robots and I thought you could use some help."
"Well thanks," said Lilith as she looked at the new comer. "But Sanctuary isn't located here anymore; it's up in the sky."
The new comer stared at Lilith in disbelief. "Wow…can you tell I just came to this planet?"
"In a way yes," said Salvador as he was putting away his guns.
Gage was staring at the guy, positive she had seen him from somewhere.
"Well, buddy thanks for the help and all, I guess Sanctuary has room for one more," said Axton as he folded his arms. "What's your name anyway?"
"Thanks, my name is-"
"JOSH!"
Before Josh knew it, Gage had tackled him to the ground. The sight of someone the size of Gage tackling someone taller than her was enough to make a few chuckles ring out from everyone.
"ROBOT GIRL TAKE DOWN NEW GUY, EFFECTIVE TOUCHDOWN," Yelled Krieg with his arms in the air.
Josh looked down to see Gage, who was smiling up at him, despite the position they were in. Josh's face looked about as red as a fire Skag, despite that he still managed to find the will to speak.
"H-hello Gage, I didn't expect to run into you so soon," said Josh trying no to look to embarrassed.
"And I didn't expect to see you here!" Gage replied as she looked Josh in the eye. "I thought you weren't allowed to go anywhere off planet last time I checked."
Josh's eyes gave a sudden spark of fury as he felt the memories that drove him here flooding back. But for now, he didn't want to think about them now, later on he might tell her but not now.
"I just needed to get away and I heard Pandora was a great place to get a fresh start," said Josh as he smiled at Gage. "Before I answer anymore questions, do you mind getting of me?"
Gage then gave Josh a sly look. "What's wrong Josh, not strong enough to hold me?
"No, it's just we're both on the ground and-"
"Oh, so you would prefer if I did this to you somewhere else then."
"Gage people are watching. Do you really have to do this now?" Josh asked with a pleading look.
Gage suddenly started giggling. "Don't worry Josh; I'm just messing with you." She soon got off Josh and he got off the ground, picking up his SMG as he did.
"Now that we've gotten that little scene done, welcome aboard Josh." Mordecai said holding back a laugh. "Let's get this capsule guy back to Sanctuary before Jack decides to send reinforcements."
With a couple of chuckles, Brick and Krieg moved the capsule where the guy was still asleep, despite the battle beforehand.
After going through a fast travel point they were in Sanctuary, were they took the capsule guy to Tannis, thinking she could figure out what to do, once inside the main headquarters of Sanctuary, Maya when to go get Tannis who was surprisingly not in the lab and the others stood and looked at the still form of the capsule guy.
"So…what do you think his connection to Jack is?" asked Lilith as she stared at the guys mask.
"It could be anything, but this guy could be another experiment," said Brick as he scratched his head.
"Don't you think after Krieg they would have learned to put better security for their experiments? Besides this guy was being delivered to Jack, he couldn't have anticipated him to get up and walk away, with that kind of security." Mordecai said while keeping his hand on his pistol in case this guy did get up.
"Errrrrrr," the noise made nearly everyone jump.
"Did that guy just, moan?" asked Josh as hands instinctively went to his SMG.
They then saw that his fists were clenching and unclenching as his head started to move.
"I think he's waking up," said Axton as he saw the guy move a little more.
The guy moaned again, moving his hands, and then in one false swop he moved his arms and hopped of the capsule on to the floor. His hands moved over to his face and his eyes opened, revealing a shade of red. He looked around at everyone before looking down at himself and then turned around to the capsule.
"It's okay, you were in that capsule, we got you out," Said Lilith her eyes on the guy, charging up her powers just in case.
The man looked around before focusing back on them. "Where-where-am I?" he asked as his mask opened up along with his mouth.
"You're in a place called Sanctuary on the planet Pandora," said Axton his eyes on him but his hands at his sides ready to pull out his assault rifle.
"Pandora," the masked man said as he looked around him. His eyes seemingly scanning everything in the room and then he looked at himself. He stared at his hands for a while before looking over at everyone. His red eyes stared at them, unblinking as he looked like he was analyzing them.
Brick was clenching his fists tight, the guys eyes reminded him of the Hyperion robots, looking at you with an uncaring glance ready to fire on sight.
The man's eyes finally left them and he turned towards the remaining piece of the capsule. "Did I come from that?" he asked as he ran a hand over the side of it.
"MASK MAN COME FROM SHINY CONTAINER, ROBOT PEOPLE TRIED TO TAKE HIM," Krieg said as he lowered his axe saw.
The man didn't turn around to the psycho, not even giving the slightest indication that he heard Krieg.
Instead he stared at the capsule a second longer before turning around to face them. "Hyperion…they put me in there, it's been…years, if you let me out then you're not one of them I take it?" he said his eyes once again looking as if they were scanning them.
"No, do you have a problem with that," said Salvador as he clenched both his shotgun and mini gun in his hands.
The man's mask curved a little upwards, like he smiled. "I don't have a problem. Well there would be a problem if you were with Hyperion." He then looked around the room again, taking in every detail he could get, his smile fading. "My name, in case you were wondering is Jason."
"Well Jason," said Mordecai as he lowered his pistol, but held on to it just in case. "If it's not too much trouble, do you mind telling us why you were in that capsule?"
Jason looked at Mordecai for a second before craning his neck to look at the capsule again and then he looked back at Mordecai. "Depends, can you tell me where John is?"
"John?" said Zero, his mind immediately remembering the ECHOS they heard of Jack's past and how he was originally named John.
Jason's eyes looked at Zero, even though Zero's eyes couldn't be seen through his mask he saw Jason was staring right at them.
"Yes, John. Is he still alive or have you killed him already?" Jason asked as he looked at every one of them before looking at Lilith and then replying; "My mistake, Jack. Have you gotten close enough to be able to try to kill him again?"
"No we haven't yet killed Jack- wait, what do you mean by again?" asked Axton as he pulled out his assault rifle but kept it lowered. How did this guy know that they failed to kill Jack at the vault of the Warrior, assuming he was in that capsule for years?
Red eyes stared at the assault rifle in Axton's hands before looking him in the eyes. "What else could again mean? Did you get you get another chance at killing him?"
For a second time seemed to slow down as his red eyes looked at each and every one of them, then when he stopped and stared at the ceiling before sighing deeply and running a hand on the top of his mask.
"No, I guess Jack decided to start playing smart and go into hiding," Jason said as he looked from the ceiling at everyone again. "But that still doesn't stop you from trying to find him, I understand that."
The atmosphere in the room seemed to darken as Jason continued to stare. His eyes drifting from everyone one of them before looking at Josh, who stared back at him, blue staring at red.
"Except for you, you must be new," said Jason his accusation confirmed when Josh nodded his head. Jason then turned his to look at Mordecai, cracking his neck as he did. "Sorry I seemed to have forgotten to answer your previous question of, why I was in that capsule. To make a long story simple I was put in there on his orders."
His fists clenched as he seemed to glare at the wall before he opened his hand as he seemed to relax a little.
Mordecai looked at Jason curiously before clearing his throat and gaining Jason's attention. "Just who did give the order to put you in that capsule?"
"While you answer that you could also tell us what your connection to Hyperion is," Brick said as he cracked his knuckles.
Jason blinked, his eyes looking at both Mordecai and Brick, before looking at everyone in the room again, he took a breath before speaking. "The one who put me in the capsule was the same person you want to kill. The same person I once called 'brother'."