It's been awhile on this story, I'll admit. But I've been working on my other story "Inside a Spider's Web." Which you should check out if you haven't, either way, enjoy this chapter.
Prosperity Junction.
When Ryder rode into Prosperity Junction, it looked a lot more run down and broken than it's earlier days. Still, he was taking Nisha to get a drink, and he only knew one bar that was a good enough replacement for Moxxi's.
"The Purple Skag?" Nisha asked.
"It sounds weird, I know. But they don't hold back on the liquor." Ryder said.
"Now I'm interested."
"Anything with alcohol always interest you Nis."
Nisha rolled her eyes. "You know me so well." Ryder parked in front of the bar and made sure the bag of money Torgue gave him was on him at all times. He didn't want to risk the midget psychos trying to kill him while they burnt his money in front of him. Ryder and Nisha walked to the door when they were stopped by the bouncer, who was a fat guy.
"Ehhh, you two. Hold it right there."
"Drunk again Tector?" Ryder asked.
"No. August caught on. I'ma need to see some ID." Tector said.
"You know we're on Pandora right? Only people that carry ID are people who work for Hyperion or used to work for Atlas. Besides, I come here all the time."
"Don't matter. I read in a book you gotta check for ID if you's a bouncer."
"You can read?" Nisha asked.
"You know something lady? I don't like your attitude." Tector said, getting upset.
"Oh yeah? You're really not gonna like me when I got my foot up your-"
"O.K everyone. Let's all relax." Ryder said, putting himself in between Tector and Nisha. "Look Tector, we just came in for some drinks, that's it."
"Like I said, I.D." Tector said. Ryder sighed as he tried to find a way inside. Tector has always been a problem, always stopping half of the locals from coming into the bar. Ryder looked around and had seen a wanted poster from Hyperion for the arrest or death of a certain ex-vault hunter. That person being Nisha.
"Why would Nisha be wanted by Hyperion when she was banging the damn owner?" Ryder thought. While he was gonna ask Nisha about it later, he knew it was enough to outsmart Tector.
"Well, my friend right here is on that sign right there." Nisha and Tector both looked to what Ryder meant and both saw the sign.
"Damnit Ryder." Nisha said to herself.
"It says bounty..."
"It's just another fancy way of saying VIP. Like how I should be..." Ryder said while trailing off at the end. Tector looked back at the both of them and smiled.
"Well why didn't y'all just say y'all was VIP? Come right on in." Tector said. Ryder gestured with his hands for Nisha to walk in first.
"After you m'lady." Ryder said sarcastically. His response from Nisha was her middle finger as they both walked in. The inside of the bar wasn't anything special. No slots like in Moxxi's bar. Instead there was poker, which was played either for money, erdium, or guns. Although all the players Ryder has ever seen play, they've mostly betted their weapons and died immediately after they leave the bar. He thought about joining multiple times, but didn't want to risk it in case his DNA was no longer in any of the Hyperion reconstruction points.
"Well Ryder, you bought us out here, you can buy us the drinks." Nisha said.
"How thoughtful of you." Ryder said sarcastically as him and Nisha took a seat at the bar. August was behind the bar today, and was sorta happy to see Ryder, and also confused.
"Ryder?" August said. Ryder looked up at him.
"Holy shit, it is you. How you been?" August asked calmly. "Nobody's seen you since you took up that offer on the moon."
"Yeah well I've been doing jobs outside of Prosperity Junction. Occasional bounty hunting, kill a few bandits for a family, stole some guns..."
"You didn't mention any of that on the way here." Nisha said. August turned his attention away from Peter, to Nisha. She noticed this and started staring back at him while slowly moving her hand towards her gun.
"Who's your friend Ry? She looks familiar. Poster familiar." August asked as he reached for his gun.
"I would appreciate if both of you didn't start a shoot out in a town that has bandits living in it." Ryder said. "This is my old friend Niiiiiiiitasha. Nitasha." Ryder remembered that Nisha still had a bounty on her head, courtesy of Hyperion, although Ryder still didn't know why she had a bounty.
"Nitasha?" August asked.
"Nitasha." Ryder replied back.
"Alright, I'll believe you. But you better not be lying about who she is Ryder. The bar doesn't pay itself."
Ryder pulled out some of the money in his bag and dropped it on the table. "Well I am tonight. Shots for all three of us, whatdda say?"
August smirked a bit as he prepared the shots. "I say you're a smart man." He laid the shots out on the bar. "To your return to Prosperity!" August almost shouted.
Ryder went with it, as he did kinda miss his hometown. "To my return to Prosperity!"
"To my free shot!" Nisha said as she downed her shot before either August or Ryder got the glass close to their mouths. They shrugged it off as they downed their shots. Ryder winced a bit from the taste of the alcohol, but didn't complain about it.
"Another round of shots August." Ryder said. August complied, and laid out more shots for Ryder and Nisha.
10 Rounds of shots later.
Ryder and Nisha were completely hammered. Neither one of them was close to being sober, and August knew this. He made it clear this was their last round, as he feared what they would do if they had more.
"Last shots. Make'em count." August said. Ryder and Nisha both grabbed their shots and struggled to cling their glasses together. They swallowed the last of the alcohol in their glasses and looked at each other.
"You're...drunk..." Ryder said.
"No, you're drunk..." Nisha said. They both got up and immediately all the liquor went to Ryder's head. He stumbled for a bit, until he fell onto of his bag of money and passed out.
Helios Space Station. (Past)
"Hellllllloooo? Are you guys not dead?" Ryder woke up with a ringing sound in his ears, and a headache. Courtesy of the assholes who shot down the Spaceship him and the other Vault Hunters were riding in. In front of him was a Claptrap unit that had a blue paint job, different from the one that was with them, if it was still alive.
"Well, it feels like I died." Ryder said as he got up from the ground.
"I think you dropped these, if I'm correct." The Claptrap unit held out both of Ryder's pistols, which were dual Dahl Repeaters, modded to be burst fire without aiming down sights, as it made it so Ryder could, well, dual wield them. He took the pistols in his hands and checked to see if they took any damage.
"Slight scratches, that's about it." Ryder said to himself. "And what happened to the rest of my friends scrap bucket?"
"I believe they went this way." The Claptrap pointed towards piles of dead bodies that had different causes of death. Gun shot wounds, slashes, shattered ice, ashes. All thanks to his fellow Vault Hunters. "Follow me."
Ryder listened to the robot and followed guns as he was led to a door that had a destroyed Loader Bot right next to it.
"We could've gotten a Loader Bot as one of the Vault Hunters, but we got a Claptrap unit instead? Wondering about this Jack guy." Ryder thought to himself. He turned his attention back to the Claptrap, who was rambling on about something.
"People think robots don't feel pain, but we actually feel pain in slow motion, and in great intensity. This robot died in extreme agony." The door flew open and bullets started to fly out of it. Ryder rolled out the way and took cover behind the wall next to the door. He looked at the Claptrap unit, which was getting ripped to shreds by the barrage of bullets.
"AAAAAHHHHHHH" The Claptrap unit screamed as it died. Ryder felt bad that it died, as it was doing it's job. Whatever that job was. But at the same time, that voice...
"Don't suppose you bunch of friendly faces are the people I came with?" Ryder asked.
"Did it seem like it?!?" One of the unknown shooters yelled.
"You're right." Ryder said as he threw a blind grenade in the hallway the shooters were in. They all scrambled towards the door, but Ryder closed it as the grenade went off, killing everyone inside. He opened it back up to see the remains of 3 Lost Legion soldiers, dead and dismembered from the grenade. He took one of their assault rifles and strapped it to his back as he continued, when he got a in coming call on his Echo-device.
"Hey, now that was brutal. Are you the Vault Hunters I hired?" It was Jack. No doubt about it, mostly because their was a portrait of him when the call was accepted.
"Ryder here, alone, in space, no idea where any one else is." Ryder said sarcastically.
"Ryder! The daredevil extremist/Mercenary. Hope you'll stick around to impress." Jack said.
"IF I don't get thrown out into space by these assholes shooting at me." Ryder said.
"Well the rest of our friends are here, helping keep the Lost Legion off me. Care to help? Not like I'm paying you or anything!" Jack said as he fired a few lasers out of his gauntlets. Ryder heard it, but not through the Echo device. He ran towards the sound and saw Jack shooting a couple of the Lost Legion soldiers advancing on him. He took out one of his pistols and shot two of the soldiers, but the third one got close enough to Jack to punch him square in the Jaw.
"Oooo, that's gotta hurt." Ryder quipped as he shoot the third guy. He holstered his gun and saw the rest of his crew walking into the room from a hallway behind Jack.
"Look! The poorest one of all of you isn't dead!" Aurelia said with a smile. Ryder was half tempted to shoot her, but knew Jack wasn't going to be happy with it.
"Yeah, fuck all of you, by the way. You know, for leaving me there." Ryder responded.
"We all have the same mission to complete. We can't wait for you to catch up." Athena replied back. "Now, can we please get on with it?" Ryder decided to drop it for the time being and ran over to Jack.
"Ugh. You couldn't have shot him before he punched me in my money maker?" Jack asked.
"Whoa Jack. I knew you had a way with words, but if you're mouth is your money maker..." Everyone expect Athena and Jack laughed at Ryder's joke.
"Haha, very funny." Jack said monotone. "Now, if you're all done fucking around, we got a job to do people. Let's get to it-" Jack said before stopping abruptly.
"What? Someone we didn't kill?" Wilhelm asked. As if on cue, a robot crashed down from the ceiling with a woman with a purple light coursing through her body in it. She looked at everyone before her, all of who had their guns pointed.
"Is this your army of Vault Hunters Jack? A bunch of Pandorans?" The woman said.
"One generic villain monologue, coming right up." Ryder quipped. The lady immediately hit Ryder with the robot's arm and threw him threw a door that led to the outside of the station, which had no oxygen field around it. Ryder immediately started gasping for air.
"Son of a bitch!" Jack said.
"I'll get him. You all cover me." Nisha said. Everyone agreed as they started shooting the robot, trying to get the woman to retreat. The last thing Ryder saw before he passed out was Nisha throwing her whip in an attempt to get Ryder.
Caravan (Present.)
Ryder woke up to a splitting headache and a poorly stitched blanket over him. He leaned up and noticed he was laying down on a couch. He also panicked when he realized he didn't have his bag of money, his guns, and a lack of Nisha. A voice then arose from across him.
"Missed us Ryder?" Ryder looked up to see his former friends/con crew. Felix, Sasha, and Fiona, who looked conflicted about him being here.
"You know I was gonna come visit, right? You didn't have to kidnap me."
"We didn't kidnap you." Felix said. "We…lent a helping hand."
"By kidnapping me…Where's my stuff?" Ryder asked as he got up. Felix gave him a bit of a smirk.
"It's safe."
"Felix…"
"Alright, alright. Just pulling your leg." Felix threw Ryder his holster with his guns still in them. He put the holster back on as Fiona started to speak up.
"So you were the winner of the Torque Death Race?" Fiona asked.
"I'm not dead, and I'm assuming I still have my bag of money." Ryder said, noticing silence from Felix. "Righhht? Because I would be really, really, really upset if something happened to my money and my friend."
"Your money is safe. Don't worry about that. As for your friend, well that's more complicated."
"What. Happened?"
"Me and Fiona both heard you were at the bar, so we went to say hi to you and we saw a girl with a cowboy hat being chased by some Hyperion scumbags." Sasha said. Ryder smacked himself in the face as he connected the dots, bit by bit.
"She was running from Hyperion. She must've did something to Jack."
"We'll help you find her, but we could use your help with this con we're working on..."
"I told you already Felix, I'm not gonna get caught up in some con that has three different factions gunning for us. Remember the Hodunks and the Zafords?"
"He has a point there Felix. We should've never got involved in that feud." Fiona said in agreement.
"It was a fun two weeks on the run though." Sasha added. Felix rubbed his temples and continued.
"Yes, that wasn't our finest moment. But this con could set us up for life. Way more than your temporary money prizes." Part of Ryder wanted to hear Felix out, but the other part of him wanted nothing to do with this con. He rather spend his time looking for Nisha and then moving on to the next death race.
"I don't know Felix. Kinda grown used to the death races."
"Hard to participate without a bike, now is it?" Felix said smugly.
"You sold my bike?!?"
"Relax. Even a grizzled con man like me wouldn't stoop that low. Your friend took it." Felix said. "Look, even if you don't want to be a part of the con, at least go with Sasha and Fiona and make sure nothing happens to them."
"Of course he would use Sasha and Fiona to try and get me involved." Ryder thought to himself. He paced back and forth in the caravan until he made up his mind. "Alright, alright. Fine, I'll help." Ryder said as he caved in to Felix's pleads. He noticed Fiona smile a bit, while Sasha had a huge grin on her face.
"Excellent. We'll go over the plan tomorrow. As for the rest of Today, you might wanna stay in the caravan. Hyperion might be looking for you too." Felix said as he picked up his toolbox.
"When are they not?" Ryder joked. Felix left the caravan, and Sasha followed behind him until it was just Ryder and Fiona in the caravan. Without missing a beat, Fiona ran up to Ryder and held him in a tight embrace. Ryder held her close in return, as he expected it sooner or later.
"You don't know how long I've been waiting to see you again, you jackass." Fiona said.
"Yeah, sorry about that. It's been a long few weeks on the road." Ryder said. Fiona moved her head back to face Ryder's face. They stared at each other for a bit until they both locked each other's lips in a kiss. Even though it was a short one, they still both enjoyed it.
"I'm guessing that means we're still going out?" Ryder asked sarcastically. Fiona rolled her eyes as she broke their embrace.
"You're the worst."
"You love it." Ryder said. "So, what's the big plan Felix's setting up?"
"Sasha found out that August is planning to make a deal with a Hyperion executive for a Vault Key in exchange for $10 million dollars. So our plan is to "provide" August with a Vault Key."
"Meaning Felix forged the Key. Does it look like an exact replica of an actual Vault Key?"
"Well you would be the expert on that front." Fiona said with some bitterness in her voice.
"So you are still mad about that trip to the moon…"
"Its just..." Fiona started. "You left abruptly. No final talk, no letter, not even a voice recording. You could've died up there and I wouldn't have even known."
"Well I didn't die. And I don't plan on dying any time soon." Ryder said. "You don't have to worry about that."
"Why is it that I get the feeling that you're lying?"
"Because you're a insecure con-woman?" Ryder said. Fiona smiled a bit while Ryder chuckled. "Relax. I'm not gonna die from a con deal."
"It's not the deal I'm worried about. It's the woman you where with. And how Hyperion is trying to catch her." Fiona said.
"Yeah, I still gotta figure that out." Ryder said. He knew that questions related to Nisha was gonna to come with a lot of second guessing so he quickly changed the subject. "Well, guess I'm sleeping in the caravan again, huh?"
"With someone to cuddle with." Fiona added.
"Nah, you might kick me while I'm sleeping."
"You're a asshole."
Ryder smiled as he laid back down on the couch and lifted the blanket so Fiona could lay down next to him. He put the blanket back down as he put one arm over her, holding her close to him. As he dosed off to sleep, he heard Fiona speak up again.
"Ryder?"
"Yes Fiona?"
"I love you." Fiona said.
"I love you too, Fiona. I love you too."
So you guys probably didn't expect a chapter like this, and you probably didn't expect a pairing this early either. But I thought it would be a good try. This is my first story with a OC so I'm really just trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. ALSO, I made an Instagram account for my Fanfics. Yes, I know it would've made more sense to make a Twitter or Facebook, but I didn't. So we all gotta deal with it. If you want to follow me to see posts of fan art that fits with my stories, and suggests ideas for current or new stories, or want a way to interact with me more, my Instagram is genericwriter_1. Hopefully I'll see a few of you guys and gals on there, and until next time.