Author's Note: Haku: That would be interesting. Krieg and Brick fighting each other, hmm, neat idea. ;-) . Dr. Angel: Yeah, somebody had to gag him. Madgormley: I hope you enjoy this one, also. TravisT013: that review made laugh so hard and i was at work when I read that. You gotta prepare a girl or she ends up looking like a lunatic. Thanks for the laugh and I hope you enjoy this chapter. oh yeah, YAY IMAGINARY POINTS! Isaac aka Reven: I am happy to hear you thought is was fantastic. I hope you enjoy this one also. To everyone: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Borderlands is the sole property of Gearbox Games and 2K.

The Unexpected Back-up

A fire round strikes Maya's Echo device, knocking it out of her hand. The heat burns through her glove and singes her fingers. The Siren ignores the searing pain and is quick to raise her gun and fire some corrosive rounds at approaching robots. Critical hits corrodes the cores and they become metal heaps. The gun clicks for the clip is spent and Maya takes cover behind the boulder, once more. She reloads while looking over to Gaige and Tiny Tina taking sporadic cover behind their own boulder.

"How are you two doing?" Maya shouts.

The question is lost as a loud thunderous clap is heard from Deathtrap. Maya glances behind her to see blood and body parts fly everywhere and a smile graces her face.

"Yeayuh! You show 'em DT." Gaige steps out after switching weapons and kills a few Hyperion soldiers with a spray from her Agresive Slagga.

Tiny Tina follows and blows up some flesh with her deceptively powerful, white and pink machine gun.

Moros and Hypnos remain in the same place. Moros barks orders while observing the slaughter of his men. There is no panic or emotion as the army falls one by one to the three women. With all of the chaos and explosions Maya is having difficulty phase locking Moros, the leader. Just as the Siren is about to look out for her next kill, an Engineer jumps right in front of Maya. Startled at first, the Siren is quick to rebound and unloads half the clip into the opposition. She looks up and sees an opportunity. Her arm glows and she aims for Moros but another engineer crosses her path. The Siren doesn't waste the opportunity and she activates the wormhole. Her rage against Hyperion fuels the intensity of her phaselock and dozen or so men and robots sucked in are slagged, corroded and shocked into oblivion.

"Another round of 'nades!" Tina spouts after seeing Maya's destruction, "SUCK ON MY BADONKADONKS, BIATCH!" She screams as she throws grenades in different areas. The mixture of fire, shock and slag grenades cause more holes in the ranks.

A soldier flanks Maya from the other side of the bolder. Her back is turned and the soldier opens fire. Three bullets eat through her shield and before Maya can react, a fourth bullet hits the side of her leg. The stinging sensation brings the Siren to her knees. She looks up the barrel of the pistol. The soldier isn't granted the chance to pull back the hammer, Dukino intervenes and eats the hand, gun and all. The man wails in agony. Maya's defender ends his suffering by eating his head.

The skagg trots up to Maya and receives a pat on the head. Another soldiers rounds the boulder and Dukino turns and readies to attack with a growl. The siren uses the man's life force to heal her leg, instead.

After a loud and long howl, Dukino runs off to find more prey.

Deathtrap continues to rake away metal and flesh with his large blue claws and closes in on Moros. The man stands firm in his position as the large robot raises his hands for another sonic clap to take out the leader. He hovers closer and swings his hands.

Moros stops the claws from meeting with his bare hands.

"If you aren't Hyperion, you shall be dispatched." The man tightens his grip on Deathtrap.

"RETREAT DT! RETREAT!" Gaige yells desperately as she hears the threat through her collar making her come out from behind cover.

The Mechromancer looks to her prized robot. Her command isn't quick enough and Deathtrap's arms are ripped off by the Hyperion leader. Deathtrap falls to the ground and Gaige can see the evil smile look up to taunt her. The arms are tossed to the side. Moros doesn't skip a beat and grasps Deathtrap's tail to swing him around. The strong man follows through in his hammer throw, sending Deathtrap towards his creator. Luckily for Gaige, the throw was over zealous and her robot flies over her. In a large broken pile, her built friend falls into pieces and Gaige's eyes start to well up.

Gaige doesn't speak. Instead, she swaps for her corrosive shotgun, again, and starts blowing away any of the Hyperion army that stands in her way. Her sights are set one goal; kill Moros.

She is so close, but her tunnel vision prevents her from the seeing Hypnos charging at her. The dwarf tackles the Mechromancer and pins her to the ground.

The man snorts in laughter as Gaige struggles beneath the small but very strong man, "I think I want to keep you alive for . . ." Hypnos looks at Gaige with a grin, "Sleep studies."

"GAIGE!" Maya yells as the teenager's situation comes into view.

The Siren's attention is diverted as wild laughter enters the cave, "I'M COMING PRETTY LADY!" Maya recognizes and is relieved to hear her back-up has arrived.

"KRIEG! KILL THE MIDGET ATTACKING GAIGE!" Maya shouts at the top of her lungs hoping the rampaging Psycho can understand her plea over all the active guns.

Maya continues her own attack on the dwindling Hyperion army while trying to obtain a visual on Moros or Krieg. The Siren clears away more of the army with another attack from her phaselock. The men's dyeing screams echo throughout the cavern.

A high pitched girly scream irradiates from behind Maya, making her whip around. Tina's back is flat on the boulder from the Hyperion soldier pointing his shot gun at her head.

"TINA!" Maya calls as she raises her gun.

Before she can squeeze off a round, Krieg drops in shielding Tina. The Psycho's shield absorbs the impact of the shot gun pellets.

His head ticks to the side as he looks down at the impact. Then ticks again as he looks to the man who shot him. The soldier is frozen in place as the helmet visor, slowly, shifts upward. The man is shaking as he attempts to reload his weapon.

"MEAT DOESN'T SCREAM AT ME! (Let's tear him apart.)" Krieg's victim jumps from the outburst before the buzz axe is wedge into his head through the helmet.

Blood splatters everywhere as Krieig rips the blade out of the man's skull and turns to hit his next victim who runs in with a small squad of men and robots.

"AAAAAHAHAHAHA! MORE BLOOD! MORE MEAT!" Krieg yells as he directs his blood thirst at the group of men.

Tiny Tina stares in amazement at the carnage Krieg unleashes: ripping out throats and cores, disembowelment, detaching limbs, cracking skulls open. Krieg ignores the sting of the bullets as they fly everywhere and through his depleted shield. The Psycho stands victorious in a bloody pool of ground flesh, limbs, bones, decapitated heads and robot parts.

The blonde jumps up with her arms in the air, "That was so . . . AWESOME! Best CAR-NAGE EVA!" Tina is practically drooling from the gruesome show. "I is definitely teaming up with dis badass MO-FOE!"

Maya sees the bullet wounds on Krieg and is impressed how he is still standing. Her next phaselock is directed at Krieg to heal his wounds.

"(Thank her!)" His inner voice commands. "LIFE! IS! PAIN!" Krieg turns to kill more Hyperion with Tiny Tina behind him.

Maya exhales in relief.

Then, a blood curdling squeal snaps Maya's attention towards Gaige's situation.

Lilith's and Axton's sights fall upon Moxxi's bar. They stand in the doorway closest to Crazy Earl's Black Market. Axton is flabbergasted at the devastation inside the building. From the outside the building appears unharmed but the inside is charred from the behind where the bar used to be. The divider wall that separates the seating area from the stereo room is blown away and into the booths.

Axton looks up as Lilith rushes in calling for Mordecai and Brick, "Well, I guess all that work is gone." The Commando whispers to himself as he remembers the arduous labor he invested, to repair the bar.

The twang of moving sheet metal draws Axton's thoughts. He hoists the debris off the person underneath. The moan is definitely feminine and is coming from Moxxi.

Her top hat is missing, clothes are burnt, bloody scrapes, bruises and burns litter her arms and legs and she has a few burn marks on her exposed torso. The purple fabric covering her chest is ripped wide open revealing her still intact black bra. The commando notices her quivering and realizes she's in shock. Within seconds his jacket is off to wrap around Moxxi. Hopefully, the warmth of the jacket will help with circulation.

"My bar . . . my bar . . ." Moxxi mumbles until the heat from the jacket brings her to her senses and she opens the eye that isn't swelled from bruising. "Am I in need of mouth-to-mouth, sugar?" The woman cracks a weak smile towards the man helping her.

Axton smiles back, "Nope . . . sorry."

"Damn." The bar matron mouths weakly before passing out. Axton lifts the limp women and carries her out of the building and out of harm's way.

He rushes back inside. His green eyes squint into the debris. An arm comes into view and Axton leaps into the pile to help whoever is underneath. He rummages around the arm throwing everything out of the way. All of his hard work recovers a body of a civilian, nonresponsive and a shard of metal embedded into her neck. Axton notices a protective arm over her torso. Out of the need to find someone else alive in the chaos, Axton uncovers a severed arm and not too far away is the Raider's body that once belonged to the appendage. A ruby red piece of glass, from Moxxi's sign, is embedded halfway through his torso. The Commando exhales, discouraged at the discovery.

Axton can hear Lilith struggling. He abandons his search and rushes to the back of the bar where he helps Lilith move a large piece of wall. Maybe, the ceiling? It's hard to tell.

Running footsteps approach their location, "I heard explo-Whoa, wha- tha hell?" Scooter slows down and his jaw slacks as he looks around at the damage. His eyes fall on Axton and Lilith, "Where's my mama?" The mechanic latches onto Axton's shirt with the question.

Axton swipes away Scooter's oily hands and points toward the other entrance, "She's ok, wrapped up in my jacket and out of the building." Scooter runs to check up on his mother. "TAKE HER ZED'S!" He yells after the mechanic.

Some pained grunting and moaning directs the scrambling. More rubble is thrown and moved to open areas to access the location of the sounds. Axton notices how frantic Lilith is as she digs through the charred and broken metal, wood and glass. Her fingerless gloves are torn up and bloody from the small cuts and splinters imbedded into her skin but she continues to move the debris.

The Commando places a hand on Lilith's shoulder, "Your hands." He whispers.

Lilith pauses and looks down at her torn up fingers, "I can't lose them too." The Siren growls sternly.

Axton opens his mouth to respond but the movement of wood and a pane of metal interrupts him. Lilith is first to step forth and lifts the metal with her bloody hands. Axton steps in and assists by taking all the weight. The heavy piece of metal is hoisted out of the way allowing Brick the ability to stand. Brick shoves some of the remaining rubbish away and reveals an unconscious Mordecai.

Brick stumbles away bringing his meaty hand up to his shaking head. The Berserker's rear meets a bare section of floor. Brick continues to rub his head, transferring blood to his face while Axton kneels bringing himself to eye level.

The Commando pats Brick, firmly on the shoulder and notices some fresh gouges in his back, "You ok?"

"I'm fine. Heard the explosion, tried to protect Mordy. Second explosion," Brick gestures towards to what used to be the wall. He looks down in thought, "I saw everything, my first dog, my sister . . . my son." Brick whispers exhales with longing with the thoughts.

"So your life flashed?" The Commando asks with a slight chuckle to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, you can say that." Brick looks to Axton with a half-assed smile on his face, before, looking over to Lilith hovering over Mordecai.

The Hunter's head is rested on Lilith's bent legs. She is stroking his cheek tenderly. His goggles are missing, revealing his closed eyes. Above his eyebrow is a nasty scrape. His clothes are more tattered than usual, ripped, and charred.

"Common Mordy," Lilith whispers, "Wake up . . . please." The Siren strokes his cheek again, this time with her arm band to wipe away the blood she accidentally smeared on his face. She exhales and hangs her head but keeping firm. Her hands clench into fists on Mordecai's chest, "Don't follow him . . . don't . . . D-don't let Hyperion take you too."

In a desperate attempt to wake up Mordecai, Lilith swipes a firm hand across his face.

After a few minutes with no response, Lilith exhales, closes her eyes and bows her head. Her golden eyes open to find soft, up-side down, dark brown eyes staring back.

His gloved hand is raised up to his face, "Geez Lil . . . must've done somethin' naughty to deserve that." The Hunter lifts his hand up to the crown of her head and Lilith willing leans down for a kiss.

Axton turns his head towards Brick and the men share a sideways smirk and a childish chuckle.

The laughter reaches the redhead's ears and she withdraws, "Shut up, Mordy." Lilith whispers and look back at her audience before rolling her eyes, then, turns back to the man in her lap, "Looks like our secret's out."

"Don't care." The Hunter grunts as he sits up and slicks back his unruly hair with his glove, "I never get hangovers." Mordecai's eyes scour the wreckage of the bar. "Holy shit! Is this Moxxi's?" The sobering thought brings him to his feet.

He stumbles from a dizzy spell but Lilith prevents Mordecai from falling, "You need checked out." Lilith guides the lanky man towards the door.

"Did you guys see Zero or Salvador?" Axton prepares himself to dive back into the rubble.

Both men shake their heads, "Didn't see Sal this morning." Brick answers as he slowly stands.

"Zero left early with Hammerlock before the blast." Mordecai finishes.

"Hypnos!" Moros addresses his subordinate as he walks towards him, "There's only one prisoner allowed."

The short man slumps and grunts in irritation, "But, I this one is so cute, "Hypnos strokes Gaige's cheek as she squirms under her capture's strength, "So young." A lustful gaze grazes over the teenager's skin making the Mechromancer gags in disgust. "I need a new sleep subject." Hypnos pleas to his boss.

"You can find a different subject. This mission has no exceptions." Moros stares at Hypnos with intensity. He breaks eye contact with a blink before turning to walk away, "Unless, you want to answer to Mother Nyx why you defied her orders."

Fear slacks his face and he gulps whatever fluids were salivated from his lust. He watches Moros stride off into the dwindling chaos still prevalent in the cave.

Hypnos shakes his head back and forth and mumbling to himself. He is debating the pros and cons of which action to take. "Maybe, mother will be ok with me bringing her back. She could be a valuable bargaining tool." He strokes Gaige's face.

"Fuck off, Creep!" The feisty red head bucks her body and punches with her mechanical arm as the man absently releases it in his mumbling.

Hypnos and Gaige wrestle until the mechanical arm is pinned to the ground once again.

He rubs his quickly bruising jaw. "I think you aren't worth torture." Hypnos pulls the rocket launcher from his back holster and points it at Gaige's head.

Her eyes grow wide and watery, "I'll go peacefully, Mr. Hypnos . . ." Her eyes clamp shut waiting for the end, "I'll go peacefully, I promise . . . I'm too cute to die." She clenches her whole body in fear causing her to quiver.

She feels the rocket launcher hit the ground and his muscles slack. Slowly, she opens her eyes and looks up. A sword has been stabbed in his right shoulder and is protruding from his left side. The blood flows off the blue plasma sword's point and Zero's gloved hand is firmly grasping the hilt.

"I'm stronger than you/Time for your permanent sleep/ . . ." Zero pulls his sword out and flicks the blood off. "Sayonara, Creep." His sword slides right through Hypnos' thick neck. Before it can fall off, Zero punts the head away and the body follows the flow of the motion.

Gaige looks over to the headless body and smiles as she jumps to her feet. She looks up to Zero, "O . . . M . . . G!" She flings her arms around Zero's slender waist and squeezes tight to show her gratitude, "You are my freaking HERO."

The Mechromancer releases her embrace, only, to jump up and land a kiss on Zero's helmet. The Assassin is taken back by the young woman's action and a smiley emoticon appears on his visor.

"Right, good stabbing, eh, Zero?" Sir. Hammerlock strolls up. He looks to the body and then the head, "You made him lose his head, hahaha!" Hammerlock is the only one laughing at his joke as he shoves Zero in the shoulder. "Let's take care of the rest of this rift-raft, shall we?"

The gentleman raises his Elephant Gun and scoops the head off a Hyperion soldier. He is quick to reload and fires another shot. His speed and accuracy are something to behold as he takes off one head after another.

"Good practice for our hunting expedition, eh chap?" Sire Hammerlock looks over his shoulder but Zero and Gaige are already head long into the fight, once again.

"THIS IS FOR DT, ASSHOLES!" Gaiges screams and she fires her Machine gun everywhere in a fit of rage.

"I'll kill you all." Zero runs in a zig-zag pattern running his sword through any robots or any person wearing a Hyperion uniform.

Krieg and Tiny Tina can be heard in another part of the cave having the times of their lives, exterminating the yellow ants.

Moros is running towards his target; the Siren. Maya turns to the sounds of the speeding footsteps. Her face meets with, what feels like a metal rod and her feet are kicked out from underneath. In a flash, her back hits the dirt with such force the air is pushed out of her lungs. Moros places a knee on her sternum and leans down. Maya tries to inhale but her compressed rib cage prevents her. Her failing strength prevents her from lifting the knee. Her arm starts to light up in a desperate attempt to breathe but the man overpowering her, grabs her arms and crosses them on her chest above his knee.

He leans in further adding the pressure and Maya struggles to breathe. His dark eyes looks over the Siren's bluing skin, "I would love to serve a Siren, so lovely, her doom . . ." He runs a hand down her face and wraps it around her neck. He blows a powder into her face from his band on his forearm. He pushes on her neck but eases up on her sternum allowing his victim to drawl in a breath and the powder, "Unfortunately, the doom is not for me to administer."

Maya struggles to breathe, once again, from the knee compressing her chest cavity, again. Moros takes a syringe out of his belt satchel and prepares to inject its contents into her skin. "I can deliver you, though." He cracks a smile revealing perfectly straight and white teeth.

The smiling face and syringe disappear and the weight lifts from Dukino crashing into Moros. Maya inhales deep causing a cough from the dryness of the air expanding her lungs. She feels the strength return to her once, oxygen deprived muscles. Maya sits up and looks over, Dukino is guarding Maya.

His claws dig into the dirt to hurl himself towards his prey. Moros stands at the ready. The syringe is packed safely away in his pouch and he unsheathes a yellow handled, black, serrated knife with Hyperion clearly printed on the flat of the standard issue blade.

The young skagg pounces and flicks his tongue. The sharpness of the organ cuts into the commander's leg but there is no finch of pain. Moros catches the attacking animal with his knife, plunging it into his soft underbelly. He yips from the pain and Moros throws Dukino, no problem. Maya's beloved pet hits his head on a rock and rendered unconscious and bleeding from the large hole in his side .

"Filthy animals." Moros straightens his clothes and sets his sights on Maya. "Now . . . to collect the beauty." He whispers to himself with a wrinkle in his nose.

Maya raises her arm and tries to phaselock but nothing happens. "What the fuck?"

Moros latches onto her right wrist, "No need for Hyperion property to have powers, unless used for Hyperion." He pulls out the syringe again.

"I'M NOT PROPERTY!" Maya shouts and slugs the man in the nose.

Blood spurs and water forms in his eyes from the nasal bridge being broken. He retaliates and punches back. Moros's fist connects with Maya's collarbone. A crack of the bone leaves Maya in excruciating pain. She screams and cradles her left shoulder, now hanging limp. Another blow connects with her stomach and she is left with no choice but to lean into Moros' arm.

"Just come quietly, Siren." Moros whispers from his strong jaw, "Injuring you like this is . . . fun, but I'd rather not, not with such a beautiful warrior woman. But, orders are orders."

"Fuck you, jackass." Maya groans weakly unable to move from the pain racking her body.

"Aww . . . Maya . . . if you'd let me, I could treat you better than that schmuck you shack up with." Moros stabs the needle into Maya's arm.

A quarter of the substance is injected and she starts to feel groggy.

Then, the needle twists and Maya's winces and she lands in the dirt.

"NOBODY HURTS THE PRETTY LADY!" Psychotic laughter follows as Krieg rips Moros' grip off Maya.

Her eyes grow heavy but Maya manages to open them wide enough to see Moros and Krieg battling. Krieg swings his Buzz Axe, aimed at his skull but Moros dodges and grabs the handle. The brunet rips the weapon out of the Psycho's hands and buries it in his torso. Krieg's head ticks as he steps back from the devastating blow.

Krieg rips his weapon out of his torso and raises it above his head, "I'LL SLICE YOUR EYELIDS OPEN SO YOU CAN WATCH THE END!"

Maya manages to pull the bloody needle out of her arm before succumbing to the effects of the sedative.

Author's Note: There you go, the new chapter. Let me know what you think, whether by PM or review. I like feedback.