Author's Note:

Hello again, my faithful readers. It's been a while since I've written something of note to all you Borderlands fans out there. That's changing today with this first chapter of my newest story, "Pandoran Nights". Those of you returning to my work after reading the bonus chapter at the end of "Monstrous Occurrences" know that this story is rather special. I hope you all enjoy it and that I can write it like it's playing out in my head.

Pandoran Nights: Chapter 1.

"Well, I guess we better dig in then!" Brick said, rubbing his massive hands together and looking down at the plate before him, completely full with a Skag steak that was only lightly charred and seasoned to perfection. His mouth began to salivate as he stared down the marvelous hunk of delicious meat that lay steaming just mere inches from his mouth.

"Just don't forget your table manners, Brick. You know how you..." Mordecai began, stopping as soon as Brick cracked a dangerous smile and gripped the steak in both hands, taking a bite out of it like it were a colossal meat cookie, chewing much like a cow, a contented look in his eyes as he did so. "...Uh... Never mind then..." Mordecai said, his eye twitching visibly as his goggles were pushed up on his forehead. The others all laughed as they prepared their plates with high stacks of foods of all kinds.

Looking slightly shy in a way that Maya saw as one of the cutest things she'd ever seen, Krieg slumped in his chair slightly, glancing over to her before slowly lifting his mask and revealing his unnervingly white and somewhat spiked teeth, beginning to nervously gnaw at a hunk of thresher meat. Maya's soft, tattooed hand tightened its grip of his bandaged one to calm him as she smiled gently. "It's okay, Big Guy, they're our friends, you can trust them." She whispered to him, her thumb stroking back and forth on the top of his hand. He looked back to her after swallowing and nodded slowly, a soft smile on his insane lips that were now momentarily hidden behind his mask again. Angel and Zero were the only two to notice the tender moment from their perch above the others, but both smiled and looked to one another. Zero projected a "˂3" as he looked over to Angel and she snuggled up to him in happy silence.

However, their romantic silence was rapidly ruined as Krieg had noticed the two of them watching him as he ate and interacted with his siren, shouting angrily and immediately reaching down and, strangely enough, removing his boot and throwing it at the pair. "My banana figs will remain my own, Darkman!" he shouted, whipping his boot. The furred boot impacted with Zero's faceplate, causing him to recoil violently mere moments before he and Angel were to share a soft hug and she was about to kiss his faceplate. He turned and looked down at Krieg, projecting a question mark and holding his arms out in a questioning manner, Krieg simply ignoring the perturbed assassin as the others again burst out into unison laughter, even Angel giggling softly with a hand over her mouth. Zero sighed, defeated and simply projected an ellipsis from his visor, a large grey streak across it from where the rubber had bounced off.

Krieg shot up from his long awaited slumber covered in a thick, clinging sweat and his chest heaving rapidly as his heart pounded in his chest.

(Goddamn it, another memory... I'm sorry, pal, it doesn't seem like we're getting much sleep tonight. Let's head on then.) Krieg's inner voice commented in its usual echoing whisper inside the insane man's cranium. Krieg nodded, shedding a single tear from the sweet memory as he got up from the rock he'd slept on and readied his Buzz Axe. He looked down at the weapon, the blade being his Class Mod due to an afternoon of boredom and a lack of beasts to kill.

"The squinty eyed menace stands beside me and I can only swallow the impeccable gorillas and sodden the sands..." Krieg said in a soft tone, using one finger to twirl the blade of his oldest weapon.

(Yeah, I know, you want to do more than just wander and murder for once, but that's what we've got to do. We have to kill everything and anything that takes a shot at us to leave a trail for our friends. They know what our unique breed of carnage looks like and they'll pick up on this soon enough.) His inner voice replied. (So let's keep moving. Hey, maybe we'll find something nice for Maya while we're out here, eh? Come on, let's look around.) Krieg nodded, his demeanor pepping up at that last part and he raced off towards several bushes, picking a single bladeflower for Maya and tucking it into his storage deck to give to her on the day she'd find him.

"For my Meat Maiden..." he said in a tone so soft it sounded like his inner voice had spoken through his mouth. His grip on his axe tightened and loosened rhythmically as his thoughts trailed back and forth between memories and the present. He then began walking on, scanning the horizon for anything familiar. Finding nothing that he remembered, be simply continued wandering, his eye scanning about carefully for activity. The puffing noises beneath his boots stopped and the soil beneath his feet became sturdier, moister and noticeably harder.

(Wait... Feel that? The dirt's less sandy here... You know what that means...) Krieg's inner voice said softly as to not distract his psychotic partner in mass murder. Just then, the sand rumbled as trails of dirt were kicked up in writhing patterns all around him. (Threshers.) His inner voice commented, Krieg's grip on his Buzz Axe tightening instinctively, a familiar smile slithered across Krieg's deranged lips.

A Badass Pyre Thresher lurched from the ground, combusting the vicinity around Krieg, catching him on fire as it screeched and lifted its front pair of tendrils. Its screeching of dominance was cut short by the creature looking down to see a maniacally laughing Krieg, his Buzz Axe above his head and the flames licking his skin only slightly, creating a sight that significantly surprised the creature as normally, most creatures would be dead after such an onslaught. It gurgled in fury, flailing at Krieg repeatedly, but failing to hit as he hopped and hollered, firing his Corrosive Infinity Pistol he kept around for only such occasions, the bloody craze in his eyes growing gradually with each passing moment. Pretty soon, he stopped, pointing a single thick finger at the colossal beast before him and shouted at the top of his lungs:

"None shall stand aboard my blood trolley without a ticket!" He said, immediately being slammed in the stomach by a large tendril. He was pushed back several feet, his grip on the vine-like muscly structure like iron as he looked slowly back up with murderous intent in his eye and blood dripping from the side of his ear. "How kind of you... to... pay the TOLL!" he shouted as he transformed into his bestial state and immediately tore the tendril loose from the Thresher's form with the sheer power of his hold alone. "NOW ALL STAND IN A GENERATION'S HAMMOCK WHILE I BREACH YOUR HARPSICHORD!" he now bellowed, his monstrous voice echoing through the landscape as he cleaved through several tendrils, causing the thresher to groan loudly and submerge. Krieg got in one last swipe across the creature's eyes as it burrowed back into its domain. It quickly resurfaced, knocking Krieg back a few feet. Other tendrils surfaced around the rear of the beast, flicking fire at Krieg with each writhing motion made. He took it all, burying his blade into one with a satisfying, fleshy thud, blood spurting rhythmically from the now severed tendril. The removed appendage wilted and boiled, the force of the swing combined with substances on Krieg's bloody and sullen axe blade rapidly resulting in an explosive reaction, destroying the next tendril and then the next and the next until none remained and the final explosion killed the thresher outright. Krieg stood in place for several moments, peering around himself for other beings to slaughter while his infuriation lasted, seeing none; he merely inspected himself, even if devoid of some of his higher functioning. His shrunken, wilted hand twitched when he willed it to move.

(We really are a mess, huh, pal?) Krieg's inner voice asked, the monster of a man slowly nodding in agreement. (Well, at least we can control ourselves. You know, you made Maya proud when you did that. Her and me, pal. It really has been a pleasure, all self-beatings aside.) it continued.

"SHUT UP!" Krieg shouted, using his fist to hit himself, doing no considerable amount of harm to himself. It was now more of a strange running form of endearment that the psycho had with his sanity more than it was a deranged attempt to get the buzzing words in his head to fall silent.

(Heh, come on, pal, let's set up a shelter for the night. That's the third one of them we've taken down in two days, someone'll take notice soon.) it stated as Krieg shifted back to his normal form. He nodded, searching about for some random assorted objects to put over his head for the night and settling upon several large rocks, a few pipes, and a piece of sheet metal he'd found building a canopy for the night. He slowly drifted off to sleep, attempting to refurbish more of his energy since the night before.

Maya looked up at the distraught assassin and his shy and level-headed, if a bit innocent, love before laughing at the large white and grey streak going up his helmet from Krieg's boot. Krieg looked to her, smiling softly beneath his mask. (It's a nice sound isn't it, pal? Hearing her laugh?) Krieg's inner voice asked.

Her colloquium fills my vengeful piranhas with yellow antennae and my fruit bat with polka dots! Krieg replied inside his head to the voice within. Maya was still laughing, covering her face with both hands and leaning down against the table, periodically taking in breath and holding for a moment before falling into a new fit of laughter.

"I just... I'm sorry... Just... Look at his face!" she said, pointing to Zero in between bouts of uncontrolled laughter. Zero looked at her, projecting a question mark, seeing the streak against his visor at that moment and pointing at Krieg, obviously annoyed.

"You will pay for that!/ Making a fool out of me/ Sealed your fate, Psycho!" he said, hopping agilely off the building and rising to stand beside Krieg. "I challenge you." He continued, drawing his blade.

"Zero!" Angel said, surprised by his outburst.

"Oh, let them have their duel, Ange, boys will be boys and they've had this silly little feud going long enough. Let them settle it like Vault Hunters so we can get back to eating." Lilith replied. Angel slowly nodded, watching worriedly. Krieg drew his Buzz Axe and the two walked towards an open space in the town where they could do combat without endangering the citizens or their Vault Hunter allies.

As the commander of the Crimson Raiders, Roland walked over to the two as they stared each other down, Krieg's visible eye full of anger and Zero's stance precise and calm.

"Okay. 3..." Roland began, looking to Zero. "...2..." he continued, now turning towards Krieg, neither of the two acting like he was even there. The air was full of intensity and Roland found it unnerving, even to his experienced and cool demeanor. "...1..." he continued, looking back at the table, still backing away from the two. "...GO!" he shouted, standing in the center of town, under the generator that was responsible for Sanctuary's flight.

With a start, Krieg and Zero rushed one another, Zero holding his blade at his side and Krieg holding his above his head. The two stood as two sides of the same coin that was combat. The absolute voice of precision and deftness: Zero, versus the standing champion of all that was insanity, unpredictability, and a lust for carnage and destruction: Krieg. Their blades crossed for one moment, Zero's energy Katana leaving only a miniscule nick in the marred and tattered blade on Krieg's demented weapon, much to the surprise of all the others. The sheer brute force of Krieg's lash pushed Zero back several feet, allowing him to activate his stealth and bide his time, Krieg just smart enough to realize that Zero was using his decoy and not rushing up after it. Precious seconds ticked away as Zero waited patiently, readying his deadly strike. He lunged toward Krieg, swinging with all his might at the psychopath. However, at the last crucial instant, Krieg dived out of the way of the lethal swing, escaping with his life, if severely wounded.

"Dahahahahaha! Your soilent children and penny arcades... can... NOT... STOP ME!" Krieg shouted, stumbling and rapidly beginning his transformation into the form Zero was hoping to avoid at all costs. Krieg's arm expanded and his other cracked and twisted, shortening rapidly. He immediately looked at the assassin and hurled one of his dynamite bound Buzz Axes, the blade colliding with the ground mere inches from Zero' foot as he avoided it at the last moment. The explosion was enough to shatter Zero's shield, a direct hit from one of those would end him. He looked up to see Krieg charging full bore at him, his massive arm and substantial Buzz Axe above his head. Zero looked at the sight, slightly surprised, that is until his Decepti0n reactivated and he sidestepped Krieg's lunging strike. Krieg spun around, swinging once more before tossing his axes at the ground all around him, a stray explosion revealing Zero as he grunted in pain from the shock and shuffled loudly to regain balance, but he again disappeared into silence, moving from the spot quickly. Krieg shouted in frustration, turning back and forth, this time not attempting to avoid Zero's blade. Zero's swing was precise and devastating, but not enough to fell the hulking man. Krieg spun around and slammed his axe-bearing arm down upon Zero's shoulder, the sheer force of the blow pushing Zero to his knees with a heavy thud. Krieg lifted his immense, mutated arm above his head for the finishing blow when Zero dropped the hilt of his now destructed blade, lifting a three fingered hand to his opponent.

"I... I yield." He said softly, breathing heavily. Krieg acknowledged Zero's surrender, shifting back a moment later. The spectacle stunned everyone, no one more so than Maya.

(Good job, pal! You didn't just defeat him, you stopped when we'd won! Look at Maya! She's so happy!) Krieg's sanity said happily inside the deranged man's head calling Krieg's attention to Maya who was standing at the side of her chair, smiling warmly with soft tears running down her cheeks. Angel rushed to Zero's side and helped him up.

"You have bested me/ And did so honorably/ You are my equal." Zero said, walking with Angel up to Krieg and held out a hand. "Friend." He said smoothly as he awaited a handshake as a sign of sportsmanship.

Krieg looked at his hand for a moment before grabbing Zero's outstretched hand and shook it violently. Angel laughed lightly and Maya ran up to Krieg, hugging him softly around the waist, getting his attention. When he looked down at her, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled his mask up above his head with the back of his head now turned towards the onlookers as she kissed him in a soft and passionate kiss.

(This... This is heaven, eh, pal?) Krieg's inner voice said as the two stared into Maya's silvery eyes. Krieg nodded and Maya laughed softly, having heard what his inner voice said.

End Pandoran Nights Chapter 1.

I hope you all enjoyed this continuation and don't worry, it'll all make sense as the story progresses. As always, read, review, PM me if you have more expansive feedback and see you all again in next chapter.