Disclaimer, I own nothing. The characters presented by my story belong to Gearbox and 2K and whoever else also had their hands in the game. The characters are fictional, any events that occur which might coincide with real life is purely coincidental. (IE If one day a Siren walks up to you, Phaselocks you, and proceeds to shoot you, please don't sue me)

Also, this story is based on Maya. She is my favorite character and I will be writing this story in relation to how I believe she is thinking. I have no actual insider information that proves I am correct in my assumptions, these are merely fan-inspired thoughts on paper. I will include spoiler alerts if I am going to write about a side mission or DLC. In the interest of not plagiarizing the entire game, I will find ways to skip unimportant dialogues and go to my own work. Mission names will be available for those interested in NPC talk.

*Italicized texts are Maya's thoughts*

-Blindside-

Chapter 6

That's…Different

Woah, okay that thing is definitely bigger than I remembered. Maya quickly bounded over an icicle and took cover while everyone instinctively got into a combat position. Zer0 immediately went into overwatch, although the crappy pistol he had wasn't great it had to make do. Axton got behind another icicle and was assessing the situation when out of nowhere a hoard of Bullymongs appeared.

Being the reckless man that he always was Salvador charged straight into the fray, punching and shooting at anything he could see. Man that guy is crazy, but I gotta give him points for-is he flipping them off?! Maya had to suppress her laughter as she looked on with amusement at her crazy Dwarf friend.

"Look out! Badass!" Zer0 exclaimed.

Axton barked back, "Yeah we can see that genius! Now while Leroy Jenkins there is distracting them, can we start doing some damage please?"

"If damage is what you wish then stop looking at me and start shooting."

Everything was happening so fast that Maya's head was turning. They all just did their best to wail on the enemies until eventually all the little Monglets were gone. Now all their attention was focused on the weakened Knuckle Dragger. All four looked at each other for one moment and they were off.

Salvador charged at the beast, shooting at its legs then jumping on it to keep it from getting away. Zer0 trained all his shots into the beast's head, gaining critical after critical. Axton and Maya focused fire on Knuckle Dragger as they try to aim anywhere but at Salvador.

The boss was now bleeding profusely and near death, in one sure motion Salvador grabbed its head and pulled. There was a loud crack and the beast fell down.

Maya smiled at Salvador, "Good job."

For the first time ever he seemed speechless and merely nodded at her display of gratitude.

Axton walked over and pulled Claptrap's eye from Knuckle Dragger's unmoving neck.

"Got my eye? Great! Now we just gotta find someone to put it back into me...", Claptrap was rambling on again and Maya really didn't want to hear it.

"That's what she SAID!" Axton and Salvador said in unison.

Maya face-palmed, men. She is definitely going to figure out what that joke means some day.

"Yo, are you coming or are you just gonna stand there all day?" Axton shouted down to her.

Maya looked up to see that all the guys, along with Claptrap were already next to the barge. She quickly walked up the path to rejoin the guys. When she got to the top she saw an angry Salvador slamming at the door.

"What happened?" Maya inquired.

Zer0 replied, "Our little friend here managed to not only, fail to open the door, but also locked it even more."

"Well isn't that lovely."

Axton bitterly walked towards Claptrap, "Listen you little piece of crap, fix this damn thing or I will blow your face into the next DAMN-"

"Lemme get that for ya", the voice from earlier rang in their ears.

"Will people PLEASE. STOP. INTERRUPTING!"

"Executing phase shift."

Finally the doors opened. Maya carefully walked to Axton and softly grabbed his shoulder, "Hey, calm down. We're in."

"You're welcome! Perks of being an Artificial Intelligence. I'm networked into almost everything on this planet."

Wow, score one for Zero. Got it right on the first try.

"Well that will come in handy, what was your name again?" Zero questioned.

"My name is Angel. It's a long way to Sanctuary - please take whatever you need for the journey ahead."

She gets straight to the point too, I like that. Maya cautiously entered the room but stopped dead in her tracks.

The middle of the room began to shake as the floor retreated; it revealed a gun case underneath. When the case opened Salvador yelled out with joy, "SHOTGUNS!" He passed one gun to each person, their gun holsters were busted up bad after the crash so they could only equip two weapons at a time. Maya relished in the heft of the shotgun she was holding. Now all I need are targets.

They all spread out and looked around the room thoroughly for any loot they could help themselves to. Maya took this chance to find Axton and talk to him about his breakdown earlier. She didn't know what, but something about this man got to her. Maybe it was his wit, his skills, or his hair, she really didn't know. Something about Axton made her want to care for him, a sadness behind his eyes that she understood.

Maya scoured the room for Axton, but he was nowhere to be seen, "Hey did anyone see soldier boy?"

"Oh yeah, he went outside. Said he needed a smoke. Damn asshole wouldn't share with ME!" Salvador was clearly upset about missing out on a cigarette, but the loot in the room kept him satisfied.

Maya stepped outside and saw Axton sitting on the edge of the barge, she climbed up and took a seat next to him.

"Hey there soldier boy. You know smoking is bad for you right?"

"Yeah? Well it hasn't killed me yet", Axton retorted.

Maya tried to lighten the mood and begins to speak in a haughty news reporter tone, "Well you do realize that smoking takes years to show its effects right? First you'll notice you can't run as fast or as far, then you start coughing all the time, and you may even get a raspy voice. If that isn't bad enough when you're old and grey you might have to breathe out of a tube and you really don't want that now do-"

"What if I do?! HUH?! Ever think of that? Ever think that maybe I really don't give a rat's ass if I die or not? Ever think that MAYBE, just MAYBE going out for a smoke means you just want to be alone? Or that you just don't know what to do with your life and you just hope to die peacefully so that you can forget how useless you are? Do you ever think of anything but yourself?"

Maya stared at him in disbelief. Every second that passed by brought about even more pressure, but what pressure? Why did I even come up here? Why am I trying to console him? What's going on? What is this? Why are you looking at me so dejected? Why am I so sad when I look at your face? Maya's own head was filled with so many questions, but the only one she could muster out was, "Do you?"

At this comment Axton looked down into the crevasse, "I want to."

"Axton, look at me", Maya pleaded. She has only known this man for a few hours and yet his pain made her feel so hurt. With her uninjured hand she touched his chin and pulled him up so that their eyes meet. The sadness in his eyes were overwhelming, this was the witty asshole that she annoyed her so. Yet here she was, wanting nothing but to make him smile again.

"Axton. Please. Tell me what's wrong", Maya begged as tears welled up in her eyes, "You nearly kill Claptrap for a simple mistake and sulk up here, what happened to the asshole soldier?"

Axton cracked a slight smile, as if he wanted to smile but was holding himself back. Axton stared right through Maya into the distance, and then just let himself drown in his thoughts.

**The support from everyone is so amazing! I'm definitely working on fixing my grammar so that I stick to only past tense, but I might slip from time to time so please forgive me if I do. As always, keep pumping those reviews (I am always open to suggestions), favorite, and follow =)**