"Truth is everybody is
going to hurt you: you just
gotta find the ones worth
suffering for." -Bob Marley

Before:
Terra opened two swollen black eyes and felt her entire body ache. The sun beat down on her and she could already feel her skin burn at the slightest movement. How long had she been out? From what she could remember, it was morning when she came out here. The sun said it was around noon, which meant she'd been baking in the sand for hours. Piece by piece she reformed her memories and remembered what happened. This was the aftermath of Vaas' "training" sessions.
Vaas, a man twice her size in muscle alone, beat down on her until she found a way to fight back or escape. But she couldn't. She was too small and too weak and too slow, and so she paid the price. She dreamed about that bullet on the reject stage.

"Ay! Awake, I see. Ready for round two?" Vaas said, and she turned her head to see him criss-cross in the sand, making a sand castle with childish interest. Her throat was too dry to even speak, but he waited for a reply.

He placed a small shell on the top of his work, wiped the sand off his hands and looked at her with an insulted glance,"What? Was it something I said? Why won't you answer me, hermana, huh?"

He waited a few more seconds before he really got pissed. Slamming his fist against the castle, the sand sprayed over her and for a moment she thought she saw a human head in its place. He grabbed her shirt, slightly lifting her up.

With all her strength she managed to get a few words out,"-enough... enough, please."

He chuckled, "No... don't fucking beg. You have to learn, or you will never survive here. You have to learn, hermana, or you go back to the start... a worthless, American bitch who no one gave a shit about... I want to help you, Terra. Let me help you become something great," he said.

That was the moment she began to admire the darkness despite her deepest urges not to. Perhaps this really was her chance to start over. Perhaps all the pain in the world was better than than wanting that bullet.

"Okay." She said. He seemed surprised.

"Okay?" He confirmed.

"Okay." She said again and forced herself to sit up.

"That's my girl. Here," he handed her water and a fruit. "Enjoy." He smirked as she chugged it down and then stuffed the split open pomegranate into her face like it was cake.

Now: They arrived at the camp with the new shipments. Terra hopped out and kept close to Vaas as they entered a shack filled
with the hostages. In total there were ten people. Seven belonged together, and the other three were alone. Their wrists were all tied up above their heads, and many were sniffling or whining with fear. Vaas took a gun from one of the men and handed it to Terra. She awkwardly adjusted to the weight and threw the strap over her shoulder. Another man gave Vaas an update. While screening the hostages Terra half heard something about skydivers. Who the fuck would sky dive onto Rook Islands?

"Terra?" A weak voice asked. It was one of the hostages, at the very end of the line up. And he recognized her. Her heart raced and stared at the man. Dark, brown hair - rich blue eyes... this was her boyfriend. Memories flashed back of them racing through the jungle as gunshots fired behind them. A hound had grabbed her ankle and she fell while he kept going, not even looking back.

With more confidence he spoke to her, "You gotta help me Terra, I came back for you." Panicked hope shook his voice, as if he had a shot out of this. She stood frozen as Vaas figured out what was happening.

"Wait - wait, wait, wait. You know him?"

She gulped nervously, "yeah...should I, can I talk to him?"

"Anything you wanna say to him you can say to all of us."

"Fine..." She approached the broken man and clenched her rifle like a safety blanket. "Zed, what are you doing here?"

"I came back for you, baby. What's going on, are - are you one of them?" He took a closer look at her. She was so different. Her eyes were sullen, her muscles were tone, and there were large discolored bruises and scabbed cuts wherever her skin showed. It was like she just walked out of a post-apocalyptic movie.
She answered with a short nod and his head tilted.

"But - but why? You have to go home, everyone's worried sick."

"SHUT UP!" She swung her gun into his stomach and he lost his breath. The complete shock of the situation fell over him and disbelieving tears began to linger in his eyes. His Terra was a monster.

"It's too late! You're too fucking late!" She roared and did everything she could to prevent Vaas and others from seeing hot tears that threatened to flood over. Her voice became choked, "No one came for me, no one fucking cared! You all left me here to rot! I thought... I thought my life was worth something... but this island has opened my eyes. I - I see right through you, Zed. I see everything so fucking clear now."

"Terra," Vaas put his hand on her shoulder. She flipped around, almost about to hit him, but his relaxed presence restored her to a mild state, "you have to kill him."

She blinked and felt a fear creep into her throat.

"Don't be a pussy, you can do it." Vaas helped her position her hands around the rifle and aimed it at Zed. He whispered into her ear, sending a shiver down her back, "all you have to do ... is pull the fucking trigger. This fucker didn't even come for you, he's lying through his teeth. All he wants is to save his skin. Just pull the trigger."

It was like Vaas was a snake charmer, seducing her into a dark trance. He doesn't care about me... he never did. He's a liar. she told herself and started to move her finger over the trigger.

"That's it." Vaas said, a sly smirk aimed at Zed as if to assert what was his now. "Shoot him."

It all happened at once. Gunshots rang out and Zed went limp after gurgling blood for a moment, and then Terra fell to her knees, a high ring in her ear drowning out the world around her.

"Nice, chica! That wasn't so hard, was it! Terra?"

She stared at Zed with the same blank expression she had when Vaas first met her. One shot to the throat, two shots in the gut. Three shots he deserved.

Vaas crouched in front of her and waved his hand over her glazed eyes.

"If he wasn't here for me, why did he come back?" She asked abruptly, still staring at the bleeding body. Cautiously, one of Vaas' men reached in his pockets, pulling out a map of Rook Islands. There were specific 'x's marked across it, a treasure map of some sort...

"This was on him when we caught him. He must've found this on his way out and thought he could make a buck off a few relics."
Money... it was always about money with that fucker.

Her fists tightened and she felt nothing but resentment slowly burn in the center of her chest.

"Hey! Look at me!" Vaas yelled, tipping her chin up to look him in the eyes, "Fuck him. You're one of us now. I take care of you. Not him. "

Vaas had a twisted definition of "care" . He was sadistic and murderous and insane. Yet... she was drawn toward him and his dark kingdom. She liked the way it felt to be strong, to have gone through real shit and come out on top. Here, she had grown into a dangerous weapon, and Vaas controlled the trigger.

Without thinking, she leaned forward and brought their lips together. For once Vaas was caught off guard, but he didn't resist.
Her lips felt right on his, like water hitting the tongue on a hot day. Refreshing. She pulled away, shocked at what she had just done. How would he react? She feared the worst and shrank, but nothing happened.

"Fuck." Vaas sighed and stared at her."You're fucking crazy, Terra." He said after a long pause. She rose, cheeks burning, and felt the urge to run away forever. She had just made an idiot out of herself and now the pirates would go back to not taking her seriously. What the fuck was she thinking?

"I'll wait outside." She said with her back turned and slammed the rotted wood door behind her. But instead of waiting she threw her rifle on the ground and pulled out a wad of cash. She was going to get her sniper, and maybe some weed. Anything to distract her from all this shit.

sorry if the phrasing is a little strange or blocky, I was sick while writing this:P Let me know what you think and thanks for reading! :) On a side note, have you noticed the small hints towards a certain Greek myth? ;) -Maggie