Disclaimer, I own nothing. The characters presented by my story belong to Gearbox and 2K. The characters are fictional, any events that occur are purely coincidental. (IE If one day a Siren walks up to you, Phaselocks you, and shoots 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. In the interest of not plagiarizing the entire game, I will find ways to skip unimportant dialogues and go straight to my own work.

*Italicized texts are Maya's thoughts*

Chapter 14

Don't Be a Hero

Alright, time to get this son of a bitch, get to Sanctuary, and call it a damn night. Maya temper was getting really short as of late and she knew it had something to do with her arm. It was bothering her more and more as the day drew on. When Axton grabbed her earlier it burned under his touch, her sudden reaction was from the pain.

Maya needed to get this under control because it was affecting her ability to fight. Lifting her arm sent a shooting pain into her head and every pull of the trigger felt like she was being stabbed by a hot poker. She did her best to ignore it, but it was starting to worry her.

Axton looked up from his belt and saw Maya softly grasping her bandaged arm, he noticed that it started bleeding again. He patted his body to see if there was any left over bandage. Fortunately there was a small roll left, Axton walked over to Maya and gingerly called to her, "Hey sit down."

Maya snapped out of her thoughts and turned to face Axton, "Why?"

"Well in case you haven't noticed-which I'm sure you haven't-your arm is bleeding again."

She looked down and saw that he was right, but tried to shrug it off, "Nah I'm okay I just need to give it a minute. Probably all that running doing me in."

"Hey now, don't you try to be stubborn with me. Just sit down and let's change those bandages."

Reluctantly Maya sat down, Axton unravelled the old bandages and upon seeing her wounds his heart broke. It was healing no doubt, but there seemed to be an infection spreading because the skin was looking rather yellow.

Axton remembered the last time he saw skin look like this, it was on his best friend Jason. They were on a tour of duty when a mortar attack obliterated their camp. Jason's leg was gashed open and many other soldiers were injured, but since all communications were down they couldn't get hold of a chopper.

Axton watched in agony as his friend went from bad to worse. He knew how strong Jason was, still this was bad. Every day that dragged on Jason put on a pained smile to keep Axton happy, but Axton knew better. It hurt to see Jason in so much pain, not being able to do anything about it.

Three days after the attack the choppers finally flew in, but by then Jason was too far gone. The infection had spread too far into his bloodstream and there was no way to save him. Axton held onto his hand, begging him to keep fighting as they neared the chopper. However, Jason knew the truth, he motioned at the medics and told them to leave him, "Please help the others."

The medics hesitated for a moment but knew that Jason was right. They set him down gently and started to move towards other soldiers, Axton flew into a bout of rage and screamed at the medics to save his friend.

Jason quickly grabbed Axton's hand and pulled him down, "Hey, don't go diva on me now. Heh. We've seen this before Axton, I'm done for."

"No, no. Jason you're fine! Don't you say that! They'll patch you up and we'll go out for a drink!"

Jason tried to laugh, but instead coughed profusely, "Man this is pathetic."

"Shut up man, you're gonna be fine. CAN SOMEBODY GET THIS MAN IN THE DAMN CHOPPER!"

Jason squeezed Axton's hand tighter, "Axton, you know the truth, admit it. I'm done for, but there are men here that might survive. To see their family, friends, lovers, children, their...everything. Please just let me be and let these men live."

Axton kneeled over Jason, crying inconsolably, "Why?! Why do you have to die? Why! You've suffered so much already, why can't you just retire and find a nice girl?"

"Suffer? Axton the only suffering I got was from watching you care for me. You, the hardheaded dickwad, actually caring for another human being. You, crying every night in the corner so no one would see. You're the best brother a guy could ask for. But please, don't cry."

"It's not like I want to," Axton replied, tears running along his face.

"You know, the first night of my injuries. I wanted to die? The pain was infuriating. I hate admitting shit hurts but damn did that fuck hurt! It felt like my leg just kept burning and burning, I just wanted it all to end. But of course it didn't, the next night was the same, then the next. And here I am about to be saved, but all I can think of is how nice it would be to just stop all the pain."

Axton stared up meekly, he opened his mouth to speak but was shushed immediately.

"I'm sorry that I'm being selfish, but Axton I really can't do this anymore," Jason begged, "My leg, my stomach, my head, it all hurts. I know whatever it is, is already too far gone to save me. I...I'm sorry Axton. Forgive me, but I'm done. I'll see you, when I see you...brother."

Jason's breathing slowed down until he stopped altogether. Axton cried out in anguish, his screams shaking even the most hardened veteran. Jason was later given an honorary medal for his sacrifice to the platoon, his actions saved another Private by opening room in the chopper..

As Axton sat there staring at Maya's wounds his eyes welled up again. She was taken back, but tried to calm him, "Hey, woah there. I'm not that hideous am I?"

"Does it hurt?"

"What?"

"You heard me, does it hurt?"

"Well of course n-" Maya was about to lie, but Axton's gaze trapped her mid-sentence. She squeezed her arm a little tighter. All her life she wanted to be strong, powerful, better so that she may drown out that little girl inside her that always screamed for help. Maya didn't want to admit any pain because it hurt more to admit pain than to feel it. However, Axton's eyes broke something in her, "Yes...yes it does."

Axton stood up quickly, took a deep breath and wiped away his tears. He walked over to Zer0, handing him the bandages, "Please, fix her up. I need to grab a smoke."

Zer0 was taken off guard by the emotional soldier, a man he thought was only ever capable of being Mister Macho, but he snapped out of his daze and took the bandages. Salvador glanced over at Zer0, nodded his head and followed Axton. Maya was still sitting there, dumbfounded by what just happened.

"He is sad to see you hurt," Zer0 said, can this guy seriously read minds?

"It's just a cut, nothing serious," Maya countered.

"He knows you're lying. I know you're lying. Hell I think even Salvador knows you're lying. No one can get a rod in their arm and just be fine," Zer0 pulled on the old bandages to reveal the wounds and was shocked by Maya's condition. "Dammit woman how are you still shooting?"

"You guys act like I've never been hurt before."

"That's not the damn point, the injury is severely infected," Zer0 digistructed a container and slathered some ointment on Maya's arm.

"Ahh! What the hell man! That shit hurts!"

"Just stay still, it'll burn for a while, but it will kill the bacteria. This is a family recipe"

Maya looked away, wincing at the new pain in her arm. This asshole, he can shove this family recipe right up his ass. Oh my GOD IT HURTS!

Zer0 gently rebandaged Maya's arm and injected another Hypo, "This should hold you over until we can get better medical attention."

A few minutes later Axton and Salvador came back, laughing along the way. The heat in Maya's arm was fading away so she stood up to join them, "Hey what's so funny?"

"He was telling me about the time he-" Salvador was getting into the story when Axton punched his stomach.

"Hey! Bro-code here!"

"OH Right! Sorry Maya, only man talk here!"

Maya smiled, "Alright alright, you boys go about your day then."

It never failed to amuse her at how guys seemed to get over themselves so quickly, yet here she was moping about a cut arm. Albeit it was technically a gaping hole in her arm, but that was beside the point. Zer0 called over to them, "Come here. Claptrap just fell over onto the ship!"

Maya face-palmed, this robot is never going to learn is he? Hmph, he's kinda funny though. Ah, whatever, let's see what trouble he's getting us into this time.

She immediately regretted thinking that because lo and behold, on the other side of the boat was Captain Flynt.

"I can never catch a fucking break," Maya grumbled.

Axton quipped, "Well you are teaming up with a loose cannon soldier, a crazy Dwarf man, a Haiku speaking assassin, and a loudmouth robot. What were you expecting?"

That bastard never stops with the jokes does he?

Maya tilted her head at Axton and raised an eyebrow, "You're right, what can I possibly expect from such a ragtag team of misfits?"

**I know my story is mainly Maya, but every now and then I think it's nice to develop other characters as well. To keep the story fresh and such. Do tell me if you guys like that though, if not I'll try to stay Maya orientated. As usual, review, favorite, and follow**