Author's Note: Knowing my luck, we'll find out in Borderlands 3 that Zero is indeed an alien and has teal skin and magenta blood. But until then, I SHALL MAKE STUFF UP.
She was trying to move. There were words, distant, and she struggled as hands clawed at her arms, at her shoulders. There was an impact against the side of her body, a hard shove, and then a pause before the hands grew more insistent now, locking tight around her arms and giving them a sharp jerk. The movement jolted her head against the steel floor and for a moment, she was awash in pain before it drug her back down into the darkness.
Maya became aware again to a steady drip, the sound of liquid splashing against liquid in even intervals. She felt removed from her senses, her eyesight was a blur of light and shadow and her fingertips were numb. There was sound, but it was distant, as if she heard it from deep underwater, and the only thing she could hear clearly was the steady drip, as if it came from somewhere inside her, a rhythm like her own heartbeat. She tried to move and found that it hurt, a searing ache, bone-deep pain that chewed at her body – a dull pain, constant and unyielding. Her back was on the floor, her limbs sprawled out, palms up. She lay there a moment more, blinking her eyes, feeling them fill with moisture, and the shadows and light swam into outlines.
There was a figure above her. She felt a thrill of fear for a moment, helpless as she was, until her gaze focused in and she was able to trace the contours of a lean body, sheathed in a gray and black suit. Zero. She exhaled. He knelt, one knee at her shoulder, the other leg tucked in close to his body, balanced on the toes down by her hip. His hand was pressed flat against the floor beside her right ear and his upper body was twisted, turned to the side, right arm raised. The roaring in her ears was clearing and she heard gunshots now, from some distance away, and also from right above her – the sharp retort of Zero's pistol, a careful and deliberate answer. There was a iridescent blur in the air around them for a moment, the crackle of ozone as a shield absorbed a bullet, and she wondered why there was no notification from her HUD. There was nothing at all, she realized. Her vision was only what her eyes could see; Zero's crouched form, the control room devoid of artificial light around them.
She shifted, slightly. Something warm slid down her collarbone, tickling the side of her neck like a caress, and there was a familiar – sickly sweet – smell in the air. The collar of her shirt was wet. There was a flash of movement and she both felt and heard the drip of liquid this time, the drop joining the puddle in the hollow between her collarbones before continuing down into the stream along the side of her neck. Blood. Not hers.
"Zero," she whispered, and it felt she was trying to talk through a mouth full of cotton.
"Stay still," he replied, his voice low, "Your shield is down and we're pinned."
As if on cue, there was a hail of bullets around them, and Maya flinched despite Zero's warning. Zero maintained his balance, even with her gesture, and his shield danced like an aurora around the two. Zero waited a moment, sighting down his pistol's scope, then fired twice. There was another lull in gunfire as their attackers dove back under cover. Hopefully they'd be scared long enough to allow Zero's shield to recharge.
"Let me up. I can phase-lock someone."
It would be an effort. She wasn't even sure she could stand at this point, but there were few options.
"No," he replied, his voice strained, "Stay down. They have a sniper."
And now there were fewer. She cast her gaze upwards, towards the back of the room. The walls were ringed with windows. The door to her left was open and judging by how heavy the metal appeared, Maya doubted that even the two of them would be able to budge it, not with the power out. Their attackers were off down the hall, where the corridor turned a bend and they could duck back into cover before stepping out to fire at the two of them at their leisure. And the sniper... if the sniper wanted at them, he'd only have to move position and take his pick of which window to fire through. No doubt that was what he was doing now. Maya saw a spray of blood on the other side of the room, close to where she had stood when she short-circuited the system, and she could imagine how it had played out. The feedback had channeled through her and while her shield had kept her alive, it had still left her senseless. Zero had come to her aid – and while he knelt by her side the sniper had punched through both his shield and his body. He'd pulled her away, to a spot where the angle would protect them for a short time, and then gotten pinned by the gunfire from the corridor. Now he knelt here, shielding her with both his own shield and his body, unwilling to relinquish the position for fear of the sniper. If he let Maya up, she'd be unshielded, and easy prey to his bullets.
But this was a waiting game that couldn't last forever. Already, the gunmen in the corridor were firing again, staccato bursts, and Maya couldn't imagine Zero's shield had even begun to recharge yet. Something would have to be done, as time was not on their side. Unless...
"Zero," Maya hissed, rolling carefully onto her side, trying not to disturb Zero's stance, "We need to surrender."
"What?"
For all his indignation – and there was genuinely emotion in his voice this time – he didn't falter in returning fire back down the corridor. Maya pressed on.
"We have – what – a few minutes left before your shield gives out? And that sniper has punched through it once already – hasn't he?"
Zero did not reply. She twisted to look up and saw where the blood was falling free, at his hip, in the soft flesh near the bone. Clean through.
"Jack would love to have us alive," she continued, "Those Hyperion brutes know it. So, we surrender, and buy us enough time for Mordecai and Tasha to show up."
"They'll be holding a gun to the back of your head." His words were hissed and Maya could not tell if it was from pain or from anger that she'd suggest such a thing.
"Yeah." She paused. "Most likely. But we'll have Mordecai to handle that. Besides, we're not going to have a choice here-"
There was the crack of snapping glass. Zero was pitched back across Maya, falling away from her onto this back, his legs tangling with her body and she pulled herself clear, slamming her back against the wall and instinctively raising her hands to cover her head. The gunfire went over her head and then paused. She heard the sound of footsteps approaching at a run and she risked a glance – the Hyperion soldiers were moving in, rifles trained on her, and she kept her hands up near her head. Zero was struggling to roll to his side, his hand reaching out for his fallen pistol.
"For fuck's sake, stay down!" Maya hissed at him.
There was a dark red well at his shoulder and his right arm was pulled in close to his body, useless now. He could have handled this, she realized, he could have moved into the hallway where there was cover from the sniper and taken all those men out. He could have left her defenseless and saved himself.
Well. He'd come to Pandora looking for a challenge. Apparently having teammates was proving to be his greatest yet.
The soldiers were yelling orders, for Maya to get on her knees, hands on the back of her head. She complied and then one of the soldiers was grabbing at her waist, pulling her gun free, taking her grenades and useless shield. Someone else pressed the barrel of a pistol to the back of her head. She stared straight ahead, watching Zero out of her peripheral vision. He was trying to get up again, she saw, and one of the soldiers stood over him and raised his gun, the stock pointing down. It slammed against the back of his head and while Zero was thrown back to the ground, Maya knew his helmet would have shielded him from the blow. Hopefully he'd have the good sense to play unconscious – no.
He flipped to his side, his left hand closing on the short sword and whipping it free, bringing it in a downwards arc towards the man that stood over him. It bit at the lower part of his stomach, slipping further downwards, bisecting him at the groin. Maya flinched away. It was... messier... than a gunshot wound.
"Zero," she called to him evenly, "I kind of have a gun to my head."
She was astonished at her own calm. There was a moment of relative silence – as silent as it could get with someone screaming through their death throes, heels kicking against the floor. The room was rife with blood and the stench of it was almost choking her. Zero was poised in a low-crouch, almost on one knee, his sword in his hand.
"I blame you entirely for this," Zero replied and Maya couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief as she saw the assassin lay his blade on the ground, a space before him, then settled down on his knees, hands against his thighs, not quite ready to completely acquiesce. The soldiers moved in warily, one on each side, guns ready and trained on his still form. One of them ordered him to get up. Another was doing the same for Maya and she unfolded herself from the floor, slowly, carefully. Gauging where the clearest position would be and angling herself so that she did not stand between the front windows and her nearest captor.
There was a crack, like ice snapping – only magnified – and everyone in the room flinched instinctively. The inhabitants of Pandora knew what sniper fire sounded like. There was a pause of confusion and Maya's breath felt stopped in her throat, for she knew in another second the shouting would start and it would take only one frayed nerve to put a bullet in her skull. Then there was a second crack, and the man at her back was gone. She heard him impact against the floor and Maya was moving before the body had a chance to settle. Her phase-lock snapped out, catching up the soldier that had managed to remain focused on keeping his rifle trained on Zero, trapping him in place. The assassin surged upwards, forgoing even his sword. He launched himself from the balls of his feet, his right shoulder catching his second guard in the chest and throwing him off his feet – then Zero was on him, throwing his good arm around the man's head, hand closing on his chin. The assassin wrenched and the man dropped, his head lolling at an impossible angle. Maya, for her part, was dropping to the ground, casting about for a weapon, on her toes and one hand flat against the floor for balance.
Then glass shattered overhead. It was like a grenade had gone off, but there was no roar of fire and expanding air – just a shrill screech like metal on metal. And in that shower of glass was a skag and there was a woman on the skag's back, belly against his spine.
Bunny hit the nearest soldier full-on, his serrated face clamping on the man's skull and lifting him into the air. The skag shook, like a dog with a new toy, and the man's body whipped back and forth, his limbs striking his companions and throwing them aside. Then Bunny let go and the body went flying into a wall, dropping to the floor in a wet heap, the face and neck shredded into ribbons. The skag was already latching onto the next soldier. Tasha was darting out towards the door, where the soldiers were attempting to back out, and she ran low-slung, her knives in her hands. She simply ran past the first, giving her wrist a sharp snap, and the man went down – hamstrung. The second she slammed into at waist level, both blades angled up to punch through his chest and into the lungs. Their escape suddenly barricaded by two bodies, the soldiers turned to the skag in the room, but it was too close of quarters, and the skag was too big and moving too fast. They could not get their rifles up and the skag fell in among them, lashing out indiscriminately. Maya was shrinking away from the melee, crowding against the far wall, finding herself huddled up close to Zero. The middle of the room had dissolved into a frenzy of violence, the skag ripping limbs off and bodies open with flashes of white bone snapping free before being washed slick with blood. Then it was done. They were all dead, all those Hyperion men, and Maya could hear Tasha praising Bunny, telling the skag he was such a good boy and could settle down and enjoy his meal now. The words seemed to come across a great distance.
"Maya," Tasha called, "Zero. C'mon now, follow me. Try not to get too close to Bunny and don't make any quick movements."
As tame as the skag was, it was still an animal, and it was still in the throes of bloodshed. The massive beast was settling down now, on its belly in the pool of blood and torn innards, catching up a spare arm in its mouth. Maya carefully eased past, her back against the wall, and Zero followed, his steps hindered by a severe limp. When they reached the hall, Maya attempted to put an arm under his shoulders, but he shrugged it off, keeping one hand on the wall instead for balance.
"Where's Mordecai?" Maya asked.
"Outside the complex, on a ridge. When your communication went dead we figured the worst, so we went on ahead and he got the high ground. Saw you being taken prisoner and then saw a sniper on the far wall, so he took out the sniper and then took out the person holding you. Then Bunny and I moved in."
"Through the gate?"
"No, up and over the wall. My skag is awesome."
Maya could hear gunfire now, down in the courtyard below. She gave Tasha an inquiring look and the woman shrugged indifferently.
"Mordecai must've given the order for the rest to move in. I'm going to go help."
She peered at Maya and the siren reluctantly shook her head. She'd had enough for one day. Without a shield, she couldn't risk it.
"Zero is hurt and that short-circuit trick fried my shield," she said, "We'll just hang out here in the hallway."
"Alright. Suit yourself."
The woman turned and walked back to the control room, whistling at her skag. There was a heavy grunt and through the doorway, Maya could see Bunny reluctantly climb to his feet and stand there, muscles trembling, while Tasha climbed on his back once more, her hands tight on his collar and her knees at his ribs. Then she gave a terse command and the skag leapt, through the opposite windows and out into the courtyard beyond. It may have been Maya's imagination, but the cadence of gunfire grew distinctly more erratic after that.
"Well," Maya sighed awkwardly, sliding down along the wall to crouch beside Zero, "Told you surrendering was the right choice."
The assassin had apparently decided that since he and Maya were sitting this out, he could finally collapse. Even then, he still had a strange sort of grace to him. His legs were out, one knee bent, one hand against his hip, the other at his side.
"I don't surrender," Zero replied.
"And look what that got you." She paused, gently pulling his hand away from his hip. "I – uh – thanks for protecting me."
Zero didn't reply. Maya peered at the injury to distract herself from his silence, then stood to go recover her weapon and see if any of the dead soldiers in the control room had med-kits. Two of them did, one containing one of Dr. Zed's all-purpose shots of... something. Adrenaline, most likely, and a good dose of some magic 'don't-bleed-to-death' medication. She gave this to Zero, through the fabric of his suit, then took him by the shoulder and drew him away from the wall, guiding him down to the floor so that he lay on his back. There were bandages in the other med-kit, the kind that would bond partially with the skin.
"Zero," Maya said uncertainly. Salvador had always done this. "I need to cut away some of your suit to get the bullet holes covered."
Still no reply. If it weren't for a sort of tenseness to his muscle, she'd think him unconscious. Maya licked her lips and slipped a thin knife free from the inside of her boot – the blade not even the length of her hand, and eased it into where the fabric had been punched through by the sniper's bullets. It resisted and she put a bit more muscled into the blade, and finally it yielded. Underneath, Zero's skin was slick with blood, stained bright red, and Maya cut a thin slit wide enough to allow her to slip the patch of synthetic skin through. His flesh felt cold beneath her fingers and Maya could see that his skin was white, not in the sense that her own was, but so colorless that it was like dead flesh. She pressed the bandage fast, Zero hissed, and then she drew back, shivering. It took four cuts to his suit, four bandages to cover his injuries. The sniper's bullet had gone through in both places it had hit. When Maya was done, her hands were stained red and Zero had gone still, his head turned to the side. Outside, the gunfire had died down.
"Zero?" Maya asked, sudden fear seizing her. The assassin stirred, slightly, and that was the only answer. She gave a soft sigh.
"Alright," she whispered, "You just rest. I'll stay right here."
He'd protected her and she was still surprised by that. Now it was her turn to protect him. So she sat there, back against the wall, Zero laying still opposite her on his back, with a blood-stained pistol in her hands.
