Ohhhh man. Some of you are reaaaaallly not gonna like me for this chapter. I promise, it's all part of the story line and totally necessary. Pinky promise kiddos. Also thank you to all of you for sticking around for this little ride of a story! means a lot to me! :D Enjoy!
In the Rain, In the Mud, In the Dark
Three days felt like an eternity. The hours passed slow and weak, dragging themselves through time and space. Axton laid on his back across the small cot, the lumpy mattress was hard and uncomfortable.
A few more hours and he would be home. Back in Opportunity in a familiar bed where he could actually get a good nights sleep.
He sighed lowly and blinked in the darkness. Hyperion was home, and he'd be damned if he didn't miss it. His time as a Vault Hunter had long passed, he knew that now. He was not like them anymore. All he was, was angry with them. Backstabbing, two faced, bandits...just like the rest of them. He just wanted to be back to work, get back to moving shipments and keeping busy. He actually missed the work day, and damned sure missed going home to Jack's living quarters after. Going home to their living quarters. A space in which they shared and existed. Things had been rocky, things had been rough...but they would heal. He just wanted to patch them. Wanted to talk with Jack, wanted to work through all the horrors they had been through. Axton closed his eyes for a moment. He was ready for Jack's warm arms and soft voice. He was ready for the touch of the other man's lips and the look in his mismatched eyes when he spoke to the commando. He was ready for warm showers and good meals adorned with wine and cheese.
He was ready for hot, after dinner sex with Jack on the grand couch. He was ready to put all the pieces back together. He was just ready to go home. Away from this place that stunk of his past and what he had been. This was no place for him anymore. He had no place amongst the "hero's". That was jus the way it had to be, and he was ok with that. The sooner he was gone from this stinking little cell...the better.
He wanted nothing more to do with these people he had once called friends. Lilith could go fuck herself.
Axton gritted his teeth at the thought of her name.
Axton laced his fingers across his chest and swallowed hard. Just a few more hours. He could make it. It would all be worth it.
The sound of faint footsteps kissed his ears lightly. He sat up on the cot gently as the gunzerker came into view.
Salvador silently grabbed a small folding chair and dragged it over to the cell door.
He plopped himself in the chair and leaned his elbows on his knees peering in at Axton thoughtfully.
He let loose of a long shaky breath and made a contemplating face at the commando.
"You sure you wanna go back amigo?" Salvador questioned suddenly.
Axton swung his legs over the side of the cot and sat facing the shorter man.
Axton rubbed his fingers across his now bearded chin. He'd gone without a shave for over a weak and he was slowly beginning to resemble a lumberjack.
He scratched his jaw and sighed before finally answering.
"Yeah. I am." Axton whispered looking at Salvador.
Salvador chewed his lip and ran his fingers through his hair.
Conversation had always been hard for the gunzerker. He was better at just screaming, and running into battle and killing things. Talking was not one of his strong points. Most days he simply felt grunting noises counted as good conversation, but Axton could tell the short, odd, little man was really trying now.
"Amigo, I gotta ask you why, you know I do. Off record, doesn't have nuthin' to do with what all those idiots upstairs have been pestering you about. I just gotta know. I worry about ya." Salvador breathed fidgeting with his fingers.
Axton let loose of a low, heavy breath.
"God damned Sal...If I told you, you wouldn't ever forgive me...most likely wouldn't believe me either." Axton whispered.
Salvador frowned at him through the iron bars.
"Let's get one thing straight amigo...Roland may not have wanted to save you and wrote you off as a lost cause...but Zero and I and Maya...we wouldn't take that lying down. We tried to save you...how do you think Maya got herself into this situation? Jack's loaders...they were stronger than we bargained for. We tried. The others didn't agree with it...but we knew you were still alive. We had to. Couldn't imagine the commando let those Hyperion fucks do him in. I just wanted you to know that." Salvador whispered sadly.
"So that's...that's why I gotta know. Why do you wanna go back to all that?" Salvador breathed.
Axton's eyes went to the cement before him where his feet rested.
"I didn't know you all went to save me...I thought you'd all just left me to die...I'm glad one half of this little band actually cared enough about me..." Axton mused slowly.
Salvador shrugged.
"We came in on that train together, and from that moment on I considered us all...like a family I guess?" Salvador whispered.
Axton nodded.
"You wanna know the truth Sal? I'll give it to you...it's a little hard for me to...explain..." Axton whispered.
Salvador nodded.
"I think after you spend as long as I have on this planet, you kinda begin to think you've seen and heard it all." Salvador chuckled.
Axton frowned a little.
"I doubt you've heard this..." Axton breathed.
Salvador looked at him expectantly, waiting patiently as the commando gathered himself.
"When I first got captured...I spent weeks in that damned Hyperion prison. Starving, broken, lying in my own filth...I watched as the prisoners around me died off. Rotting in their cells. I was pretty sure that was the end for me. But right as I was ready to give in, to give it up and finally let go...just let death take me...something happened. They hauled me up off death row, cleaned me up, patched my wounds. For some reason...I'll never know why, Jack picked me as a... well...I can't really explain it as anything other than a pet...like a plaything...fuck it was hell..." Axton whispered.
Salvador looked on with concerned eyes.
"At first at least. Jack's not an easy man to get used to, he's moody and rough and vicious. He's pushy and arrogant and downright mean spirited. Went on like that for months, this weird pet and master charade. Until...I just... I dunno something clicked and then things were just different. It wasn't all forced anymore, it wasn't all mean and unwanted. Things got...fuzzy...the line of right and wrong got lost along the way. I started seeing a Jack that Pandora has no idea even exists. This weird form of Jack that cared for something other than himself. That shared his bed with me and promoted me to his second in command. A man that gave me a place to stay, a rank, a job, a title. Made me feel...I dunno...important I guess. The first time I saw him without his mask was the first time he said he loved me. I didn't know what to make of it at the time...but after two years, I guess I do now. He's not Handsome Jack to me...he's just...Jack. Jack who is the most ridiculous morning person I have ever met, Jack who likes the blackest coffee possible...Jack who sometimes has these night terrors that wake me up. Sometimes he wakes up crying, sometimes he wakes up so terrified he makes himself sick. To me he's just a person, broken beyond what I ever thought he'd be. He's not a good man. But who on this planet is? He's...he's just home for me..." Axton whispered avoiding Salvador's eyes.
Salvador made an understanding little noise in his throat.
"Figured something like that was going on amigo. Aint never heard Jack talk to another human being the way he talked to you over that echo. Never thought I'd hear Handsome Jack care about another's life so much." Salvador shrugged.
"Yeah. I know it's fucked up. Hell I know it is. Call me what you will, traitor, bastard, sick in the head...go ahead I sure as hell deserve it." Axton sighed.
Salvador shook his head.
"I aint gunna call you none of that. I just wanted to know, I get it amigo. That's your deal, I aint gunna tell you what not to do and what's right and wrong. I aint got no place saying those things to you. I just wanted to make sure you going back was what you really wanted." Salvador said offering Axton a genuine, understanding look.
Axton nodded slowly.
"I'm just ready for a hot shower and to actually eat a meal on a dining room table." Axton breathed chuckling slowly.
Salvador laughed heartily.
"Yeah I bet you got it right fancy up there in Opportunity huh?" Salvador asked smiling.
Axton grinned and nodded.
"Oh like you wouldn't believe. Jack's personal shower has four shower heads, I mean who even needs four shower heads?" Axton laughed.
Salvador shook his head.
"The city is nice too. Real pretty and organized. Everybody seems...happy and protected. Damn sure aint no bandit attacks and raids or people getting shot in the street." Axton sighed.
Salvador looked at him his eyes soft and gentle.
"Whatever makes you happy amigo. That's all that matters. I'll never consider you the enemy. Promise." Salvador said smiling at the commando.
"But I sure am gunna miss you once you go." He finished frowning.
"Maybe I'll come visit once and a while, we can go out to the Holy Spirits for drinks sometime." Axton said grinning.
Salvador returned the smile and nodded cracking his knuckles.
The two men sat in silence then, letting the words spoken fill the empty spaces.
Axton would miss Salvador.
Did he really know if he would ever see the strange gunzerker again?
No. He didn't.
He may never see him again after he left. So he savored the small moment. A moment of friendship and a moment of sadness, for neither knew if they were ever to cross paths again.
A few hours later and the time had come upon them.
Axton sat fidgeting on the cot as the sounds of many feet filled the hallway. Handcuffs were slapped onto the commando's wrists and he was taken from the cell.
It all felt like slow motion. Them taking him, Brick leading him down the hallway.
He assumed the large berserker would be the man taking him to the meeting point.
They crossed through headquarters, Axton being shoved along by Brick's stern grasp.
One foot in front of the other Axton did his best to keep pace.
Brick paused just before the open door to Headquarters.
Lilith sat in the back of the room, arms folded across her chest, turned away from the commando.
Her eyes swept the room slowly, finally whisking over his bound form.
"I will never forgive you for what you have done." She snarled softly.
The sentence was weak and strained.
Axton could hear it in her voice that she had been crying. Lilith would never admit to it, Axton knew better than that, but he could hear the strained tone in her words.
She was broken, having lost her own lover and Axton could never imagine what that felt like. It was his fault because he had chosen his lover over hers. Because he had been selfish and he had killed without a second thought, and he would do it over again if given the choice. He'd saved his love at the cost of hers. It wasn't right, but he did not regret it.
He only felt sorry that Lilith was now left to suffer through the loss. Loss was not something anybody dealt with well, especially hardened warriors like themselves. Emotions came hard and strained. Often they had no idea how to handle them and so they hit them harder and with more vengeance.
Axton stared at the floor as the sound of a bandit technical rumbling down the street kissed his ears.
He looked out the open door and to the outside world. The sky was black with the heavy onset of rain. Angry clouds hung thick in the sky threatening storms and wind like a curse.
Axton frowned deeply.
He looked over to the red haired siren that he had once considered a friend such a long time ago. He was sorry. Sorry for leaving her like this, to pick up the pieces, to become the leader of the crimson raiders not by choice.
She wiped at her eyes with the heel of her hand angrily.
"Lilith...I know it doesn't mean a thing now...but I am sorry for putting you through this." Axton whispered.
His words dropped onto the floor like loose marbles, rolling to a stop at her feet.
She did not look at the commando as the words hit her.
She did not say a word.
She simply got up off the chair she was sitting in, and was gone.
Brick shook his head and watched as the technical pulled up to headquarters.
"Let's just get this over with..." He whispered sadly.
Brick prodded Axton out the door and into the daylight.
Axton blinked and looked up at the almost black sky. It looked like the sky could just fall at any second. Brick made an observing sound and pushed Axton toward the gently humming vehicle.
Mordecai climbed out of the cockpit and hit the ground with a little thump, dust whisking up around his boots.
He walked over to Brick and patted the larger man's shoulder.
"How's Lil doin?" Mordecai whispered looking to Brick sadly.
Brick just shook his head.
Mordecai sighed and looked to the commando.
"I'm sorry it all came to this Axton..." Mordecai sighed.
Axton nodded.
"Yeah me too." He breathed.
Brick pushed Axton forward nearly causing the commando to stumble and Axton began heading toward the rumbling technical.
Brick helped him inside and then took his position behind the wheel.
Axton leaned back against the passenger seat silently.
Brick put the beast of a vehicle into drive and in a flurry of dust they were gone, heading down the streets and toward the front gates of Sanctuary.
Axton watched as the town faded into the background until it was but a mere speck on the horizon.
He frowned as he watched it go. All of his past fading into the background like it had never happened at all. He was ready to watch it go. There was nothing there for him in those barren streets. There were more enemies than friends in that place now.
The trip was quiet, Brick seemed to have nothing to say to the captive commando and Axton did not impose conversation. He and Brick had never been close, and frankly there was nothing to say anyway. Axton set his vision to the passing landscape and watched as the storm clouds finally opened up and a steady rain began to fall in sheets across the dusty ground.
The ground seemed to breath a sigh of relief as the quenching liquid hit it, soaking up the rain hungrily, desperately.
It did not rain on Pandora often. Hardly at all. But when it did, it was a monumental happening.
It would rain for days, sometimes weeks, quenching the dry landscape until it could hold no more and the land was left a muddy mess.
The raindrops hit the windshield like bees, steady and rhythmic.
Axton watched the droplets run down the glass like frightened animals, the wipers scattering them every once and a while.
His eyes flicked over to Brick.
He was hunched over the steering wheel a grim look on his hardened face, his knuckles white on the wheel.
He looked unnerved and troubled but Axton didn't dare ask what was wrong.
There was a ninety-nine percent chance that whatever was wrong, was most likely caused by Axton's doings.
So Axton just stayed silent and sucked in a sharp little breath.
Thunder cracked across the landscape and seemed to shake the very ground beneath them. Axton jumped a little in his seat and looked out the window.
Lightening jolted across the sky, illuminating the dark word harshly.
Hours passed before they entered the borders of the Highlands.
Axton had nodded off into a weak sleep only to be jolted awake as the vehicle bounced over a particularly large boulder.
Axton's eyes snapped open and he looked around frantically.
Still exactly where he was when he'd nodded off.
He slumped back into the seat and sighed out roughly.
Suddenly Brick was letting on the breaks of the vehicle, coming to a stop in a little clearing of hills.
He pulled the emergency break and turned the technical off completely.
Brick just sat there now, still as a statue, looking out over the clearing with hard, unmoving eyes.
Axton chewed his bottom lip and listened to the rain pelt the vehicle harshly.
The thunder and the rain all mixed together in this violent symphony that rattled across the land like a wild animal.
Axton looked out over the clearing too, his eyes trailing where Brick's vision fell.
Suddenly headlights cut through the darkness, streaming across the hills like pale ghosts.
The vehicle stopped on the opposite side of the clearing, its headlights bathing across the flat land and illuminating their technical.
Brick flicked on their own headlights to match.
A signal that they were here, and that they were ready.
Axton felt his heart in his throat.
He wasn't sure why he felt so anxious, so nervous.
It was ok, this would all be over soon.
Brick looked over to Axton and opened the drivers door with a loud creak.
Brick rounded through the headlights, his shadow cutting the light in half for a moment.
He opened Axton's door and pushed him into the side of the vehicle, then began undoing his handcuffs.
The rain washed down over him, soaking through his clothing instantly.
His hair slicked to his face, beads of water running over his temples.
Axton rubbed his wrists slowly and looked up at Brick's stone like face.
He was frowning, deep and dark.
"Go." He growled to Axton without looking at the commando.
Axton wiped the rain out of his eyes and began walking.
He followed the pale light of the headlights, the brightness blurring his vision.
He could hear footsteps approaching and he squinted his eyes in the rain straining to make sense of the figure coming toward him.
The siren.
Maya's eyes were downcast as she walked.
Her body looked tired and worn, she looked exhausted.
Her footsteps were slow and weak.
She looked up at Axton as they passed each other but she said nothing to him. Axton just watched as they crossed paths with each other, and looked back over his shoulder as she disappeared into the other vehicles headlights.
It was a bittersweet moment.
She was safe now with the other vault hunters, but she would never forgive Axton for what he had done. He guessed it was better that way.
Axton's pace picked up as he jogged to the other vehicle.
His boots slapped the slick earth, splashing through the rain collected on patchy ground.
The rain stung his eyes and pelted his skin as the wind whipped it, it felt like wasps as it hit him mercilessly.
His pace turned into a sprint, his legs pumping as fast as possible.
He could just barely make out the other vehicle and a figure standing next to it.
Axton pushed harder, his pants caked with mud, his eyes burning with rain.
Closer and closer and closer.
Until finally he stood there before him, both men soaked to the bone, standing out in the stormy night.
Jack's hair was disheveled and wet, his dress shirt soaked all the way through, his green and blue eyes shimmering in the headlights.
"Jack..." Axton breathed and then he was running to him.
Axton wrapped his arms around the other man and Jack rested his chin on Axton's shoulder.
"Hey kiddo." Jack whispered to the commando gently.
"Hey." Axton whispered back.
On a far away hill Mordecai laid in the mud, the rain falling upon him, flooding over him without refrain.
He leaned into the scope of his sniper rifle.
The night was dark, and the rain was heavy.
It was hard to see, but he managed.
He breathed in deep and hovered his finger on the trigger.
He closed one eye slowly, his lips but a thin line across his slender face.
"I'm sorry Axton..." He whispered into the night.
Then he took the shot.
Axton heard the distant sound of a gunshot, his eyes snapping open wildly.
He heard the bullet whizz by his ear, and suddenly Jack made a pained noise against him.
Time seemed to stop, freeze in place, the rain falling in slow sheets.
Axton leaned back, hands still on Jack's shoulders.
Jack looked down at his chest, shaking hand coming up to his shirt as dark red liquid began to seep through the material.
He looked to Axton his eyes wide and his pupils blown.
Axton felt all the breath leave him.
Jack's fingers crinkled in Axton's uniform and suddenly he crumpled to the ground.
Axton could hear himself screaming, but it felt otherworldly. It didn't feel real. It did not sound like it could come from his own lips. It was not his voice as it rung through his ears.
Axton grasped Jack desperately, leaning down in the mud.
He ripped Jack's shirt open revealing the perfect little bullet wound in his chest. His blood ran red, so vibrantly red, mixing in with the muddy rainwater beneath him.
Axton couldn't stop screaming, like everything was instinct.
Screaming Jack's name over and over again.
Jack made a pained, gurgling, gasping noise against the commando, his body shaking, fingers frantic.
Tears ran down Axton's face, ugly sobs that racked through his body like thunder.
Then...another shot rang out through the night.
Axton felt the impact to his back.
He'd been shot plenty of times, but this one hurt more. This one dug into him like electricity.
Axton screamed out frantically.
He grabbed Jack's limp body and laid him down in the cab of the vehicle.
He had to go, he had to leave, he had to do something.
Axton pushed himself into the drivers side and pushed the vehicle into drive, bringing it's motor alive with a great rumble.
The tires skidded across the mud as he took off frantically, leaving deep treads in the earth behind him.
He turned through the hills desperately, he had to get to a doctor and he had to get to one now. He pushed the vehicle as hard as it would go, the cab lurching over the muddy terrain.
Axton gripped the wheel with one hand and Jack's palm with the other.
His grip was weakening quickly, his fingers slowly loosening around Axton's.
"No, no, no, no Jack you gotta hold on! Stay with me!" Axton screamed yanking the wheel and taking a corner roughly.
Jack did not answer, there was only the sounds of his ragged breathing, wet with blood in his throat.
Axton could feel his own blood running down his back and staining the seat behind him, but he didn't care.
All that mattered was Jack and keeping him alive.
Axton could see the flickering of a small town just ahead, over the near hills.
He pressed the gas harder, as hard as possible, panic settling over him desperately.
The lights became closer, the vehicle bounding over rocks and terrain rocking and swaying with the impact.
Axton rushed into the wet streets of the town, tires eating at the mud.
He slammed on the breaks as he saw the bright red cross illuminated atop one of the old decrepit buildings.
Axton yanked his door open and sprinted across the headlights, sliding in the muck clumsily.
He dragged Jack out of the bench seat.
He was limp as a rag doll in Axton's strong arms.
Axton ran across the street desperately.
He kicked the small door open only to be met by the very surprised face of an older looking gray haired man.
"He's been shot! You've gotta help him! Please!" Axton cried through heavy sobs.
The man stood up from behind his little desk frantically, his white apron crinkling as he did so.
"Lay him down on that table! Now!" The man barked at Axton.
Axton obeyed, laying Jack down gingerly, still gripping his hand desperately.
The man began opening drawers and tables, scrambling for supplies.
He ran over to the table and his eyes went wide with fear.
"Is...is that...Handsome Jack?" He breathed pausing the medical supplies still in hand.
"PLEASE JUST HELP HIM!" Axton screamed at the man.
The man looked hesitantly at Axton and then to the bleeding and muddy Hyperion president.
"You have to get back!" The man yelled at Axton.
"NO! I'M NOT LEAVING HIM!" Axton bellowed.
The man shoved Axton away hard.
"Son you have to get back!" He bellowed.
With that Axton backed up slowly, his hands shaking as the man ripped Jack's shirt off and began pressing on his chest.
Axton scrambled outside the door, stumbling out onto the street and falling into the mud on his knees.
He screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing off into the night.
The rain pelted around his slumped body, crying around him like waves of shed tears.
He looked down at his hands, watching as the rain washed Jack's blood from his palms.
He couldn't stop the sobs from shaking his body, he just couldn't. They rattled him down to his core as he sat there in the wet street.
Mud streaked up his face, his eyes red from crying he sat there uselessly.
Alone in rain, in the mud, in the dark.