Summary: The Cult of the Impending Storm are obsessive, and won't let Maya walk away from them so easily. How will the team get her back? A May0 fic.
This takes place after Borderlands 2 so… spoilers.
Chapter 1
Salvador's dual shotguns rang out and filled the air with bullets, many of them finding a new home in some unfortunate bandit. A crazy smile was plastered to his face as he shouted and whooped, the excitement of battle coursing through him. Across the large courtyard, his mission partner Maya was feeling the same sensation. Adrenaline was a fantastic thing. Not only did it make gunfights like this one so much more fun, it also prevented Maya from having to think about that slice in her arm from a rogue psycho with a battle ax. She'd deal with that later. Right now there was a boss to kill and a bandit town to wipe clean.
Salvador's maniacal laughter boomed from the other side of the courtyard. "BIENVENIDOS A LA FIESTA, AMIGOS!" While Maya couldn't understand the weird language the native Pandoran spoke, she was pretty sure it meant that a lot of people were about to die.
Maya lobbed an elemental grenade behind the scrap metal the boss was using for cover. A few seconds later she heard the pleasing sound of screams as the large man was set on fire. He hadn't made any attempt to move when her grenade landed. Maybe he thought his shield could handle a normal explosion. Maya smirked at the idea; she was anything but normal.
Taking a deep breath, she came out from behind her own cover and walked confidently towards the still flailing bandit leader. His eyes looked crazy, angry, and now they were fully focused on her. He raised his gun just as she lifted her tattooed, and now glowing, left hand.
"Phaselock," she muttered, closing her glowing blue fist. The boss froze, his eyes now filled with confusion. He was suddenly suspended in a dark blue ball of energy a few feet above the ground. Static bounced over the edge of the ball. Try as he might, the guy couldn't move even a finger; his hand frozen on the trigger of his oversized gun. While he tried to figure out what was going on, Maya wasted no time in emptying her pistol clip into the man's face. When her phaselock power ran out, the ball of energy evaporated and only the man's deadweight was left.
Yelling from behind alerted her to an incoming psycho. She dropped her weight and elbowed the guy right in the gut, forcing him to drop the grenade he was holding. Catching it, Maya tossed it over and into the face of another bandit, blowing him to smithereens. The psycho below her was still conscious though, and he wasn't about to give up without a fight. He brought his fist up and clipped her chin, making her adjust her balance and clear her head. The psycho moved fast, grabbing for a gun tucked in his belt. Maya wiped blood from her lip and punched the psycho as hard as she could in the jaw, her strength amplified by her power. One punch, then two and the psycho was down.
Looking over, she checked on Salvador's progress and was glad to see he had just finished off a goliath sized man. Good, she hated dealing with those freakishly strong guys.
"All okay over there, Salvador?" she called. The short man was laughing his head off and still unloading into the dead man's body. She took that as a sign that they were done and could start "resupplying". She knelt down by the leader's body and began going through his pockets.
CRACK!
Maya's head shot up to see a bandit standing 2 feet from her, his gun raised, ready to shoot. Her eyes widened as he made a gurgling sound and fell forward, the back of his head blown out. Standing, she used the scope on one of her other guns to look in the direction the shot had come from. It was too late, though; there wasn't anyone around that she could see.
"Hey, amiga! You done over there or what?" Salvador yelled over his armful of guns and ammo.
"Uh… yeah. Sure," Maya answered. She shot another suspicious glance over yonder, a thought occurring. She turned on her ECHO and opened a private channel with her fellow Vault Hunter, Zer0. With a smirk, she sang "Thaaannnkks!" into the mic and waited a minute to see if he would reply. He didn't, and she figured she had guessed correctly. Smart-ass.
Satisfied, Maya turned back to looting. This time she was more cautious about her surroundings.
"Hey Salvador, does it seem weird to you that Zer0 shadows other people's missions sometimes, even after he's said he's not going?" Maya asked loudly into her ECHO. Her voice would have never been heard otherwise, as the hot desert wind rushed by them at breakneck speed. Salvador liked to drive fast. Really fast. Normally Maya didn't mind as long as he didn't roll the vehicle with her still inside it, but it sure limited communication.
"No idea, seniorita. I didn't know he was shadowing no missions! Never seen him show up on any of mine," Salvador yelled back.
"He was here today. At the bandit camp," Maya pressed.
"Then that would be first I heard of it. Sure it ain't just you?" He could have meant that Maya was imagining things, or he could have meant that Zer0 only showed up unexpectedly on her missions. Both of those ideas had implications Maya found herself uncomfortable with.
"If you're so curious, ask the demon yourself. That's what a real man would do!" Salvador said.
Maya let the conversation end there and choose not to inform her partner that she was not, in fact, a man. Settling back in her gunner's chair, she thought about Salvador's suggestion as they made their way to the closest Fast Travel location.
Ice clinked in Maya's drink and the glass left a wet ring on the bar when she finally brought it to her lips. Thinking better of it, she ended up putting the glass back down, still untouched, and sighed. Moxxi, the buxom barmaid and owner of Moxxi's Tavern, sauntered over to the siren from the other side of the bar.
"Something wrong, sugar? You don't look so hot," Moxxi said.
"No, nothing's wrong. I guess I'm just… thinking," Maya answered. Moxxi frowned at the noncommittal response.
"Hun I've run this bar since Sanctuary was still a baby, I know when someone is up, down or sideways. You ma'am," Moxxi took a moment to assess the siren, "are sideways."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Maya asked, suddenly aware of Moxxi's roaming eyes.
"Darling, you're thinking about a man. I can tell."
Moxxi smiled devilishly as Maya tried to mask a blush with haughty indifference. "Wha- I am not!"
"Well you ought to be!" the older woman pushed a colorful piece of paper and a pen toward Maya. "I'm taking a little survey, ya see."
Taking up the paper, Maya's eyes widened when she read the title:
PANDORA'S SEXIEST VAULT HUNTER
"Wait, seriously?"
"Serious as the sun, gorgeous," Moxxie said with a wink. "Don't look so surprised, there's one for the girls too! You came in second place, right behind Lilith actually. Don't be too down about it though. She's already got an established fan club. I'm sure you'll catch up to her in time!"
Maya gave the woman an incredulous look before continuing to read the card. As Moxxi said, the list was made up mostly of her male companions:
AXTON
MORDECAI
BRICK
SALVADOR
KRIEG
ZERO
SIR HAMMERLOCK
"Why is Sir Hammerlock on here?"
"Don't judge! Some women like older men. Now go ahead and vote – it's anonymous," she winked again and looked down the bar, giving Maya the guise of privacy.
The siren glared at Moxxi suspiciously for a moment before grabbing the offered pen. Looking down the list again, she couldn't help but blush thinking about any of these men as "sexy". She'd fought alongside them for almost a year now, through the best of times and the worst of times. They had partied together and lost friends together. She respected her teammates, but found it hard to think of them as "sexy".
Well, I guess Axton counts as sexy. He's got the mix of blond-haired-blue-eyed soldier thing going on. I guess that works for lots of women, he's got a big enough fan club anyway. All those dashing tales of blood and glory told in crowded bars helps a lot, I'm sure. And Mordecai has that sort of Rasta-sniper look. Not really my thing though… I wonder if he has a fan club like Axton does.
She immediately crossed Sir Hammerlock off her mental list with a side look at Moxxi, who was pretending not to notice her.
Krieg can be adorable, until he opens his mouth anyway. Salvador, nope. Brick, nope. Zer0…
Zer0 was one of the first people Maya had met on Pandora, on that fateful, hellish train ride. Since that event he had operated with the team towards their goals, although somewhat detached from the group. He started off as a very distant, enigmatic character. None of them had ever seen what he looked like under his body suit and helmet, and no one knew what his voice sounded like other than the clearly mechanized voice he used on the few occasions that he did speak. Each of them had things about their past they didn't want others to know, sure, but Zer0's was particularly mysterious. She knew he was an assassin for hire. She knew that he, for whatever reason, primarily spoke in haiku. He preferred to take his kills either by sniping, or with his digistruct sword, and he had an odd, morbid sense of humor. Not like the more violent members of their group did... no one really got Zer0's sense of humor.
Despite his shady past, he had never given any of them a reason to mistrust him. He was strong, efficient, graceful, and he never appeared to leave anything unfinished. He might keep his secrets to himself, and he rarely spoke, but he was sincere.
Hastily, Maya scratched an X down on the sheet, folded it up and threw it into the bowl Moxxi was suddenly offering. Had the woman been watching her vote? She hoped not. If anyone found out which name her X was next to, she might just die.