All in Blood
Disclaimer: I don't own Borderlands 2 or anything I reference from franchises.
Thanks to those who favorite and followed this story. Just for that; I'm going to upload more. I hope you all enjoy this story as it goes on.
Chapter 3: A Brother's Vendetta
It was a quiet walk to the fast travel station and it was a quiet walk as they made their way into the Tundra Express. They were half way to the train station; exactly five minutes away from Jack's deadline, but they knew they would make it in time.
They were in a circle formation; Brick and Krieg were in the front, Axton, Salvador, Lilith and Maya on the left and right sides, with Gage and Josh in the rear. In the middle of the circle was Jason, his arms down with his wrists cuffed as he walked in the same pace as everyone else. Zero and Mordecai had gone off to find the Hyperion sniper that Jack had left to watch Tina, promising to come back to the main fight as soon as Tina was safe.
The awkward silence was somewhat killing Josh so he decided to break it. "So, Tiny Tina, what's she like?"
"She's one of the weirdest yet, most hilarious thirteen year olds you could ever meet," Gage said, recounting the first time she had meet the girl. "She also has…a way with words."
"Oh, she sounds...Interesting," Josh said as he looked at his SMG. "I guess I can find out later though."
Gage suddenly laughed a little and Josh looked at her questioningly. "Nothing, just thinking what would happen when you meet Claptrap."
"Claptrap…sounds annoying," said Josh as thought about who this 'Claptrap' was.
"You have no idea," said Gage as she laughed a little at Josh's quick perception of Claptrap. "Just to warn you though; he likes to dance."
"Whatever, if I'm lucky I won't be seeing him that much, like seeing you admit when you're wrong," Josh replied and chuckled as he saw the glare Gage give him.
"I am never wrong," Gage said, trying to keep glaring at Josh and not to laugh.
"Oh really," Josh said with a raised eyebrow. "What about that time you said and I quote, 'It's impossible for it to snow, this early in the month.' What happened next? It snowed an hour later, it was a blizzard, and our classes were canceled for two days in a row."
"That doesn't count," Gage said with a huff. "How am I supposed to be able to predict the weather? I'm not a damn weather woman, I'm an inventor."
"Yeah I know," said Josh, the smile sill present on his face. "I remember when you would build those inventions like it was nothing, but fixing a toaster was too complex for you."
Gage sighed, but then smirked at Josh. "You're just upset because the toaster exploded in your face, giving you an early haircut."
"It took two weeks for me to get my hair back to normal," Josh said placing a hand on the top of his hair to make sure it was still there. The explosion from the toaster had burned off most of his hair there and for a while his hair was in a style that he was not comfortable with.
"You were always a little prissy about your hair," Gage said as she took Josh's hand of his hair and ruffled it a bit, before pulling her hand back and giggling at his scowl. "I can't recall how many times I've done that and still, I get a kick out of that expression on your face."
Josh adjusted his hair before looking back at Gage's smiling face. "You sure are one to talk about hair, seeing as though I remember you before the pigtails."
"We never talk about that," Gage snapped.
Before Josh could reply he was interrupted by an amused Brick. "In case you love birds haven't noticed; were here."
Both Gage and Josh looked up to see the entrance to the train station, a light blush on each of their faces.
"Don't worry you two," said Axton with a small smirk on his face. "You can continue that discussion later."
They entered the train station and to their surprise they saw that it was empty. As they walked past the tracks onto the platform, they saw a door open up from inside the station. From the door came Jack, a glare on his face as he saw them.
Immediately they pointed their weapons at them, Brick holding up his fists, while Lilith was glowing purple.
"Uh, uh," said Jack and then blue lights came in front of them, reveling Loaders. From the side of the station came Hyperion soldiers, each with a gun trained on the Vault Hunters. "Did you really expect me to come here alone?"
The only response he got was a growl form Brick who made some of the soldiers take a step back in fear.
Jack suddenly looked past their circle and saw Jason, his glare vanishing as soon as he saw his brother. "No need for pleasantries, just give me back my brother."
"How do we know you'll leave Tundra Express?" Axton asked as he kept his rifle pointed at Jack.
Jack sighed before snapping his fingers and two soldiers went into the station. "You honestly believe that I wouldn't take 'precautions' before I came here." The two soldiers came back from the station, holding a bound and gagged Tina who was struggling to break free as the soldiers held her on Jack's side. "You know how this works; it could go a few ways but, I don't think you want the blood of your friend here on your hands," Jack said menacingly as he pulled out a pistol and pointed it at Tina's head. "This is the same pistol I used to kill Roland, be a shame the next bullet I use it for is to kill another one of your friends, while you stand there and watch."
'Point your gun at me and threaten me,' hearing Jason's voice in her head nearly caused Maya to jump. 'Point it at me; threaten to shoot me in the head. It's the only way to make Jack take the gun away from your friend, the only way to save her.'
Seeing no other logical option, Maya pointed her SMG at Jason's head, making Jack widen his eyes. Brick and Krieg moved to the side to see Maya with her gun pointed at Jason, who looked at Jack.
"Point that gun away from Tina Jack," Maya said her eyes on the gun instead of Jack. "Or I'll blow your brothers brains out right here and now."
"You wouldn't," Jack said but the gun in his hand was starting to falter. "I'll put a bullet in her brain if you if so much as squeeze the trigger."
"Tell you what," Maya said as she glared at Jack. "We'll move our guns away at the same time. But if you move yours back to Tina, then I'll move mine back to Jason and maybe I'll accidently hit the trigger if I do."
Jack glared but nodded his head.
Slowly they both moved their guns away from their hostages; each gun was now pointed to the ground. Jason knew Jack wouldn't risk him getting hurt, he knew how valuable he was to him, but most likely not as a brother.
"Okay bandits, you hand over my brother and I'll hand tiny brat to you." Jack said as he looked at them for a response.
"No, you hand over Tina and we'll give you your brother," Lilith said with a glare at Jack.
"How about we do this at the same time," Jack said as he motioned for a soldier to pick up Tina, who struggled under his touch.
Brick placed a solid grip on Jason's shoulder and lead him to the front, moving along with the soldier until the two met in the middle. Brick moved Jason forward and the soldier handed Tina to Brick who held her in one hand, by the ropes. The soldier then grabbed Jason by the arm and led him back towards Jack.
As soon as Jason was brought by Jack, Jack gave Jason a hug before letting him go and patting him on the shoulder.
"You okay there Jason?" Jack asked; his eyes filled with concern as he looked at his brother.
"Never better, Jack, never better," Jason said as he smiled at Jack.
Jack then turned his attention back to vault hunters who were untying Tina from her ropes and freeing her from her gag. He gave the motion to a soldier to move Jason away from here and the soldier started escorting Jason away who still looked at Jack.
When they were off the platform Jason saw the soldier nervously glance over his shoulder at Jack and Jason smirked.
"Afraid of your superior soldier?" he asked, getting a jump from the soldier who slowly nodded his head. "It's okay, I take it Jack threatened all of you if you were to risk my 'safety'." The soldier stared before nodding again and Jason gave the soldier a genuine smile while eyeing the assault rifle the in the soldiers hand.
"Well don't be afraid, I'm not in any danger," Jason said as he stared at his cuffs, before looking back to see Jack issuing commands to attack the vault hunters. "In fact, you just ensured my safety by being here."
With that, Jason's eyes shined blue as well as the cuffs, causing them to break in a loud snap. The soldier on instinct grabbed his rifle but Jason was quicker; he grabbed the soldier by the neck and then grabbed his rifle, pulling him forward. The soldier in a panic began to fire his gun, shooting the Hyperion soldiers in front of him who had turned around to see the commotion only to drop down dead by a bullet to the chest.
When the soldier realized who he was firing at he took his finger off the trigger and Jason let go of his arm before placing both hands on his neck. There was a loud SNAP as Jason twisted the soldiers head and as the body was falling, Jason grabbed the assault rifle.
"Nothing beats safe than carrying a gun with you," Jason said as he looked at dead soldier's body, searching him for a few extra magazines which he shoved in his pockets before walking back up to the platform and looking at Jack's widened eyes as well as the bodies of the human soldiers. "They sure don't train soldiers like they used to, huh John?" he then looked at the loaders who were pointing their guns at the Vault hunters and some had their guns pointed at Jason. "But I see you're trying to make your own soldiers."
"Jason," Jack started as he looked at Jason and the rifle. "Put the gun down, your safe from them. In a few seconds their going to die."
Jason held up the assault rifle and pointed it at Jack's head who still didn't look worried. "No, John-Jack, I'm not safe. I'm not safe now and I wasn't safe following your orders those years ago, the same orders that got my unit killed, that cost me Rachel… the only thing in this world I saw that could give me a future." Jason was glaring at Jack now who still looked at Jason with no fear in his eyes.
"I did those things to protect you brother," Jack said as he stared at the rifle in Jason's hands. "I did what I did to keep us both alive. If it weren't for me, then you wouldn't be standing here right now."
"If it weren't for you I wouldn't look like this," Jason said as he lowered the assault rifle. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be able to do this!"
Jason then looked at a loader whose gun was pointed at him and then his eyes glowed blue. The robot glowed blue before being crumbled up, like a wade of tissue paper, it was on the ground, static coming from it as it was wrapped into a small ball.
"That's pretty…impressive," Jack said as he stared at the crumpled up robot.
"Yeah it is," said Jason as he looked at Jack before sighing. "So is the Hyperion tech, I find it very life like." Jason then brought up his rifle and fired it at Jack, the bullets hitting him dead in the face, causing his mask to fly off.
When the mask flew off, Jack glowed a few times before his body switched to that of a soldier.
"You may have dressed him up like you Jack, even gotten the voice done right," Jason said out load to a loader. "But his thoughts were screaming 'not to kill me' and besides; you don't call me brother."
A loud cackling was heard from the ECHO net, Jack soon stopped laughing as he cleared his throat. "Okay, you got me there bro. I guess this means I'm taking you back the hard way then; LOADERS, kill those bandits and bring my brother back to me ALIVE."
The loaders then started firing on the vault hunters who jumped off the platform. Brick took Tina away from the platform, while Axton and Salvador covered him. Maya and Lilith were using their powers to take out a crowd of Loaders, while Krieg was smashing as many as he could with his axe saw. Josh and Gage were shouting at ones that were trying to hit Krieg, while Gage summoned Deathtrap who went out to help Krieg by smashing a few Loaders.
Jason was firing at a few Loaders who tried to grab him, shooting them directly in the eye as they got close. He then jumped off the platform and fired at a few more Loaders before having to reload and look up to see the Constructor come from the sky.
"Last chance to come peacefully Jason," Jack's voice rang out from the Constructor getting everyone's attention. "This is just like when we were kids in a way; you refusing to give up even though I clearly had the upper hand."
"No, but I remember you crying to mom every time I always found a way to counteract those strategies you made," Jason replied with a smirk. "Except this time; there's no one to go crying to."
"Same to you," Jack said as the Constructor suddenly released blue roped from its top.
Jason saw the ropes coming straight for him but he didn't move, only letting his eyes go blue. The ropes suddenly stopped, before retracting back to the Constructor whose eye suddenly changed to blue.
"Just like before John, I'm taking your toys," Jason said as the Constructor lowered itself to the ground in front of him. Jason jumped on top of the Constructor and steadied himself on it as it raised itself higher into the air. He then looked down to the Loaders before his eyes glowed blue again and the Loaders suddenly started shooting each other, taking each other out until the last one self destructed.
"Consider that my way of saying; thanks," Jason said as the Constructor moved away from the train station, flying out of sight.
"We just….we just going to let him go?" asked Axton as he looked in the spot where Jason was last seen.
"Unless you learned how to fly in the last twenty seconds, then yes," Salvador said as he looked down from the sky at Axton.
"I will say this; he deserved to be called a commander," said Brick before looking down at Tiny Tina. "You okay Tina?"
"Shawty you know it's going to take more than a few metal tin cans to take me down," said Tina as she looked up at Brick. "But thanks for saving me none the less bugaboo."
Brick laughed as the others came over, soon accompanied by Mordecai running from the entrance and Zero who appeared right beside Salvador.
Mordecai looked around and shook his head. "We found the sniper, only there was more than one and no Tina." He then looked down at Tina who looked at him and waved. "Figures it was one of Jack's traps."
Zero looked at the group before a red question mark appeared on his mask. "Where's Jason?" he asked as he looked at Axton.
Axton rubbed the back of his head before replying; "He kind of got away."
"How did he get away?" asked Mordecai as he looked around expecting to see some sort of hint as to where he could have gone. "Did Jack take him?"
"No, he left on his own." Lilith said as she folded her arms.
"You should have seen it," Tina said as he waved her arms. "Shawty was like, BANG, then he was like BOOM and he took off on one those big robot thingies. He killed that poser Jack too, made the girl sweat in her pants."
"Thank you Tina…. I guess," said Mordecai somehow understanding what Tina had said. "Any ideas as to where Jason could have gone to?"
"If he's smart, which I think he is, he went to the fast travel network," said Brick as he looked at Mordecai. "Also, if what he said is true; then he's off to kill Jack on his own."
"So, what do we do, go after him or Jack?" asked Josh as he was reloading his SMG. "Chances are; if we find one we could find the other."
"Kids got a point." Salvador said as he nodded his head.
"For now there's nothing we can do," Mordecai said as he put a hand on his chin. "We can't really make a move until either Jason or Jack makes theirs. If Jason is hell bent on going after Jack then he will try to lure Jack out, the same with Jack wanting to get Jason back."
"But what exactly could Jack want with Jason?" Lilith asked as she looked at everyone. "From what we saw, Jason isn't going to exactly follow Jack's orders, yet Jack is willing to go through great lengths to get him back."
"We won't know for sure for awhile though," Axton said as the ECHO went off.
"Get back to Sanctuary post haste," Tannis's voice rang out from the ECHO. "I have finished my tests on Jason's DNA and I have discovered something more important than your meaningless chatter."
Axton shrugged his shoulders. "Well it's not like none of us have ever been wrong before."
Gage looked like she was about to say something but Josh cut her off and said; "You and I both know you have no right to talk Gage."
Gage hit Josh on the shoulder for that remark.
After a going through the fast travel network, our heroes, along with Tiny Tina whom everyone had agreed should come along in case Jack decided to pull something like that again, went straight to headquarters to talk with Tannis.
When they got there, they found Tannis sitting in her chair, going over a few notes. She looked up as she saw the door open and immediately stood up.
"Good, you came at a sufficient time," Tannis said as pulled out a few of her notes. "After much time going over the strands of Jason's DNA, which I found also changes to green whenever mixed with urine, I came to the conclusion that his claims were true; he is in fact some sort of siren hybrid."
"A hybrid?" Maya asked as she and the others looked at Tannis confused.
"Yes a 'hybrid'," Tannis said as she looked over a few notes. "His DNA is somewhat similar to both that of yours and Lilith's but it doesn't react to Eridum as yours does. When I went over his blood samples I found that they were Eridum, they were also merged with other substances of Slag as well."
Josh scratched his head before saying; "So basically he's-"
"None of your business," Jack's voice came from the ECHO. "You slap-jawed bandits have done enough as it is. You have no idea what you've unleashed onto this planet, with me I could have controlled him and if I felt like it; delay the destruction of you and your mindless friends. Besides you don't know my bro, he's not in… the 'right mind'."
"Oh really Jack, I'm crazy now," came a voice from the ECHO.
"Jason!" said Mordecai as he recognized his voice.
"Yeah," said Jason as he paused for a split second and a crunching noise was heard. "Thanks for the Constructor by the way, it is without a doubt the best birthday present you have ever given me. Which is sad considering the fact that I had to actually steal it to get it but, it's the thought that counts."
"Jason," Jack said, the frustration in his voice being replaced with one of concern. "Tell me where you are right now, so I can come get you."
"Yeah, how about no," Jason replied with an edge in his voice. "I guess that means that I did disconnect the tracking system on the Constructor. Good thing to; he really comes in handy, especially when your mission is to kill your own brother. But let me ask you this; why did you decide to come to Pandora anyway?"
"I'm surprised you haven't figured that out yet," Jack said with smugness in his tone. "I came to this back water planet to revolutionize it, bring order to the savage locals and make this planet better than it was before."
"Wow, you really are full of crap," Jason said as the sound of spitting could be heard from him. "This planet was not meant to be put under the rule of one man. Especially if that man decides to rule by doing basically the exact same thing as he's going against. Jack, from what I've seen you've killed countless of people, ruined the lives of the ones who actually stand for something on this planet."
"Shut-up," Jack growled from the ECHO. "You don't know what I've gone through to get where I am. You don't know what I've done to try to bring order to this planet, to make sure that no innocent people have to die from any savage bandits."
"Savage bandits," Jason said, the words rolling right of his tongue. "What you do on this planet won't change the past; you can't avenge mom's death-"
"YOU SHUT-UP ABOUT MOM!" Jack yelled as a loud banging sound was heard from his end. "Now look what you made me do, I smashed my laptop. I'll give you one day Jason; one day to turn yourself into me, or I'll spend as long as it takes turning this planet inside out just to get you back."
"I'd like to see you try Jack," Jason said, humor in his voice. "You know; dad would tear both our hides if he found out what kind of men we've become. I'd tell you to tell him; 'I'm sorry', but you're not going to the same place he went."
A beep went off; signaling that Jason had ended his transmission.
"This is another warning, no, THREAT, to you idiots in the clouds," Jack said with a snarl. "I'm going to kill any one of you the second I get wind that any of you are out of your stupid city. If catch any one of you trying to find Jason, I won't make the same mistake I made with Angel… I'm going to rip you open slowly and as painfully as I can. Think about that the next time you set foot on solid ground."
Jack then ended his transmission, leaving silence amongst the vault hunters.
"So what's the plan?" Salvador asked as he folded his arms.
"Easy," Brick said as he cracked his knuckles. "We either find Jason, convince him to help us find Jack or break his legs until he agrees. Then we find Jack and KILL HIM UNTIL HE CAN'T BE RECOGNIZED!"
"MUST FIND MASK MAN," Krieg shouted as he stomped his foot on the ground. "VOICE IN HEAD MISSES OTHER VOICE, OTHER VOICE ASKING TOO MANY QUESTIONS THAT DON'T INVOLVE THE POOP TRAIN! POOP TRAIN MUST BE COMPLETED WITH MASK MAN!"
"To put it in terms for us non-psychos," Maya said as she placed her hands on her hips. "We have a better chance of killing Jack with Jason's help. At least I think that's what Krieg said, I'm not a psycho translator."
Axton scratched the back of his head before speaking. "Regardless of whether or not Jason agrees to help us, at least we don't have to worry about him trying to kill us….for now."
"Yeah, the odds of him trying to kill is still; unknown," Zero said with a red frown on his face.
"Does that sort of thing happen to you guys a lot?" Josh asked everyone.
"You have no idea," Lilith said as she looked at Josh with humor in her eyes. "It's pretty much expected at this point."