Chapter 14: Terra

Goddamn bandits! I knew that wasn't going to be the last of them, I just knew it! But I'll be damned if this is where my story ends! Hell no! Terra's story isn't over till she says it's over!

"YOU GOT MY EYE NOW, PUNKS! IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?!" Now, this bandit, however... was different. I mean the whole plot twist about him being on the good guys' side was surprising enough.

But now here we have him going all "Berserk Mode" on those Bloodshots. It was kinda hard to follow, to say the least. Especially considering I had just killed a guy that was dressed like him not two minutes ago.

"Hey, Gearhead! Be careful!" Apparently, his "name" was Gearhead... well according to that girl anyway. I'm just gonna assume that's what he was going by at least that wasn't his actual name. You'd be surprised with these bandits if I'm being totally honest here.

"HEY! TAKE COVER!" And then there was this guy. Reiss, he called himself. I was fortunate enough to happen upon his broadcasting while out on my own time. Needless to say, I couldn't just leave him there. Hell, he was even part of the Crimson Raiders...! If my gratuitous and chivalrous act won't get me into Sanctuary then I'm not entirely sure what else will.

"Damn it!" Redhead over there - that's probably a fitting name for her until I find out her actual name - took cover behind the main junk fence at the entrance of the camp. She looked distressed. Well, I mean more distressed than one would be if they were being shot at by Bloodshots. "ON YOUR RIGHT, GEAR!" Oh, that explains it.

She was incredibly concerned about that guy. The... I wanna say "bandit that's not really a bandit"? They did both show up around the same time if I recall. Possible lovers? I wasn't too sure. She screamed at him as if she cared for him but... perhaps I'm being too presumptuous here.

The way this "Gearhead" moved amongst the chaos, however...

The dude was concerning.

How do I explain... It was as if he knew exactly what was happening at all times, sorta like he had a third eye or something. The way he blindly fired his revolver whilst eyeballing a different target. I'm almost positive he hadn't missed a target yet...!

And if that was the case, I must be careful here...

Better to sit back and observe him rather than openly provoke him.

"I want everything you got!" Oh great... Nomads. These shield-loving savages always were a pain in my ass...

"Watch your left, vault hunter!" The Crimson Raider seemed to think the same thing about Nomads as he immediately focused his fire on them. It was all for naught, however. Almost nothing could penetrate those metal, door-sized shields they almost always carried with them.

So it was a good thing I had this rocket launcher or we all would've been in some deep shit.

"WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT!" Though one of the nomads clearly warned his comrades of my presence, it mattered not as the rocket-propelled grenade made its way towards the group of them.

"GODDAMN!" Both the redhead and Reiss exclaimed.

"Yes. Goddamn, indeed." I smirked. Perhaps I was showing off a bit but... it was well-deserved, wouldn't you say?

Am I coming off as confident? Perhaps even arrogant? Yes. Yes, I was. There's a reason for that, however.

"Come on out, BITCH!" CLANG!

A round had struck just in front of my eyes but I did not flinch. Bloodshots did not faze me...

Almost nothing did.

"To our right, dude!" Redhead must've been referring to me. I gazed nonchalantly - and I do mean nonchalantly - to my right flank. Sure enough, a marauder had made his way towards me flicking out his knife in a menacing manner.

"Cute knife." I blinked. Nothing he did faze me.

"It'd look even better in your gu-"

SPLAT!

I will admit, I did shriek. It wasn't because I was scared of the marauder, dear god no. It was due that I hadn't anticipated his head exploding all over my face. Does anyone really expect such a thing to happen?

And of course, the culprit stood behind the now falling corpse of said Marauder.

"You're welcome." This Gearhead spoke in such a cold tone, though I didn't understand why... I wasn't the one that had hit his eye...

"Ah." I wanted to retort to his obvious sneer but I found myself at a loss for words...

...

Was I fazed?

No. I didn't fear him in a sense but something within me held me back from responding... In a way, my gut was forewarning me about this particular bandit.

Something was wrong with this dude...

"Holy hell..." Reiss breathed. Redhead's jaw seemed to drop as well to the aftermath laid before us. The entire Bloodshot camp decimated, to say the least. It looked as though each one of them had a well-sized bullet hole where their heads should be.

Some didn't even have their heads.

"Here." Gearhead sulked by all of us, tossing Reiss what I believed to be the power core he was trying to hold onto. "Can we go now?"

"Uh..." Reiss glanced at both me and Redhead. His helmet blocked his expression but... I could take a guess at the face he was making.

The dude was disturbed.

"Yeah uh... we head back to Sanctuary. Yeah, my technic- Aw, goddamn it! My Technical! The Bloodshots wrecked it when they chased me here."

"We've got an Outrunner sitting a few ways down," Redhead said. I wiped the brain matter of my face. Kinda gross. "But it's uh... two seats..."

"Well, I trust you to take the power core back, Vault Hunter..." Huh... His voice trailed off as he turned to look at Gearhead. I was honestly thinking the same thing...

"I don't trust that dude." Luckily, he wasn't within earshot when that was said.

"Listen, guys... He's not what you think. Give him a chance." Redhead tried to smile.

"Eh. I dunno, Vault Hunter. Your friend, here, has got a bad look to him." Reiss began to walk but paused to finish his sentence. "Don't get me wrong. I am grateful that he came to help but..." I watched both the Crimson Raider and Vault Hunter lock eyes. "There's something definitely wrong with him... on the inside..." Hey, I said that too. "You oughta be careful."

"You have no idea..." I don't know if Reiss heard her as he walked away. She kinda mumbled it. "And you?"

"Huh?"

"You got something more to say about him?"

"Uh." Her tone. Serious? Hostile? Shoot. I wasn't that great at reading faces. "Walk with me uh... girl."

"Gaige."

"What?"

"The name's Gaige."

"Oh. Uh. Terra. Nice to meet you."

"Thanks. I know it wasn't the best of impressions... but..."

"Heh. Don't worry about it, dude. I always greet new people by shooting at them."

"Heh heh. Man... That's not even the worst "hello" he's ever gotten either."

"Oh yeah? Shoot. I believe it."

"Yessiree. That award probably goes to yours truly." Little light-hearted conversations to diffuse the tension.

"Jeez. What'd you do, actually shoot him?"

"Yeeeaahhhh..." She answered. Sheepishly, I might add. "And he fell out of a tower because of it."

"Oh!" Well... I will admit. I was kidding about that. "Nice."

"Yeah, then he got me back for it... Punk ass."

I couldn't help but narrow my eyes... The way she said "punk ass". There was some anger in that... I think. Annoyance, at least? "Got you back?"

Gaige sighed. "Long story."

"That long, huh?" Meh. Curiosity killed the kitty. "Is he...?" There wasn't really a way to properly ask that though.

"Huh?" Okay, so maybe they weren't in some sort of weird abusive relationship like I had first thought. "No...! No. Nothing like that. I met him like a week ago and... like you guys said... dude's got some demons." The way she paused in between sentences like that... Concern? Worry? Why am I so bad at this?

"Don't we all?" Was that a good response? Shoot... I think it was.

"What about you? How long do you and Reiss go?"

I actually almost tripped. "Wha-? Oh, I just showed up, dude...!" That was true.

"Wait, really?"

"Oh, yeah...! I was... sorta just in the neighborhood when I heard his broadcast. Thought I'd come help." That was partially true. I've been trying to get into Sanctuary for quite some time now. This... would help.

"We're trying to get into Sanctuary. Roland wanted us to save Reiss before he let us into Sanctuary though. Here's hoping we can finally get in." I didn't know she had a cybernetic arm. I'd just noticed as she crossed her fingers. Then again, I hadn't been paying much attention to her either.

"Nice arm."

"Thanks...! I did it myself. It's probably my second greatest invention yet."

"What's the first?" I smirked.

But she seemed to frown at the question. "My robot..."

Wait... "You... you made him?" I nodded towards Gearhead. I mean... he was a robot as far as I could tell... A round ricocheted off his eye like it was nothing.

"Oh nonono... God no. Please." She rolled her eyes. "He's actually human. More or less anyway..." She could say that again.

"Human. Right."

"Nah. I made this pretty amazing bot waaaayyy back before him. I call him, "Deathtrap"." She seemed incredibly proud at the mere mentioning of him, yet I hadn't seen any other robots...

"Wait. Then where is it?" I probably shouldn't have asked that based on her reactions. God, I suck.

"Well... I've got a problem here." She said, raising her right, cybernetic arm. "The relay system in my arm seems to be damaged. Or the data in it must be corrupted because I can't seem to get my bad boy out."

"Aw, that sucks dude. Your robot would've helped us quite a bit back there." Oh god, I am absolutely horrible at keeping the mood light..! The way she grimaced...!

"Nah, it's fine. We had Gearhead... hmm..." I was having a hard time trying to establish the relationship between her and this bandit. During that shootout, she showed genuine care for him but right now...

Right now she kinda looked like she hated his guts.

...

I noticed the way she stared him down as she spoke about her robot too... I wonder if Gearhead had anything to do with her damaged arm... Perhaps when she had shot him, his retaliation had been to destroy her arm...

Oh god. That was horrible to think about.

Just what kind of friendship did they have?!

"Here's hoping they've got someone who knows something about digistructing in Sanctuary. It was a pain in my ass to make all this..."

"I've heard of a dude... Scooter, I think it was?"

"Heyyy, I know that name...! He's the guy responsible for all the Catch-a-Ride stations around...!" She seemed to beam at this thought. "Hell, if he can make cars digistruct out of thin air then maybe he can help me!" She then turned towards me. "Thanks, Terra! You're a pretty nice girl!"

Oh! Well... I mean... I had no idea what she was going on about half the time - I'm not what you call "tech savvy" - but I was glad to have helped.

"Hey, no problem, dude." Up ahead, the boys had taken position by the Outrunner they had parked...

I'm not sure why they were just standing there though.

"Guys, what's wrong?" Gaige stood next to Gearhead... There it was again... That same look, she was worried... and annoyed at him... Was I reading that right?

"Besides the fact that your Runner only has two seats? We've got another problem..." Reiss looked very aggravated. Maybe he was arguing with Gearhead the whole time?

"Well, what's the problem?"

"Roland's been kidnapped."

End of Chapter

Author's Note: I am not dead.

Also Reiss lived.