The Dead Sands seemed to reaffirm its title overnight, the life that had flourished so briefly had already begun to shrivel up and become buried under dust. Maya might have been sad to see it go- if it weren't for all the itchy welts she'd developed trekking to and from that bandit camp. Still, it would have been nice to at least have a scenic view while they waited for the Lynchwood train.
The three of them arrived at the train station an hour and a half ago. Neither Fiona nor Krieg actually needed to come along, but both insisted. Maya couldn't complain about Krieg, his natural ability to intimidate could come in handy. Fiona though… She was perceptive, maybe too perceptive. It gave her an obvious knack for detective work, but how long before she realized she was being lied to?
Hopefully Lynchwood's suspicious-as-hell administrator, Miss Harding, would direct Fiona's focus elsewhere. Hopefully, Harding would actually be worth questioning. She was the only lead Maya could justify following at this point. The dart, as promising as it was, was worthless until they could connect it to Achlys.
"How far is it to Lynchwood? I thought these Hyperion trains ran pretty fast," Fiona complained, dragging Maya out of her thoughts.
"Lynchwood isn't that far. They just don't send trains out as frequently as they did in Hyperion's day. There should be one in the next hour or two, but Lynchwood hasn't been kind enough to make their schedule public." The town had become insular to the point of taking their fast travel station off the network. It seemed lucky they even sent trains out, but no town could survive being completely cut-off. That didn't stop them from making entry as annoying as possible.
"What about Harding?" Fiona suggested. "She's helpful up until we need to catch a train?"
"She actually stopped responding to ECHOs after the ones she sent Lilith yesterday."
"That's…" Fiona hesitated, "Weird? I'd call it suspicious, but that seems pretty stupid for a guilty person to do."
"Yeah. It might be a political thing, though. These people already hate outsiders, I can't imagine they were overjoyed when their administrator hired a Vault hunter. That said, yup, it's really goddamn weird."
"So, Lynchwood's just a bunch of Hyperion stooges holing up in their super exclusive little utopia?" Fiona rolled her eyes.
"Former Hyperion stooges," Maya corrected. "But yeah, basically. Keep on your toes when we're there. Even if they're not involved in this, there's bound to be some hard feelings. Krieg and I alone probably killed hundreds of their coworkers."
"One raised in blood!" Krieg put in as if he'd struck a sudden realization. Both women gave him blank looks, and he grunted in frustration, smacking himself in the head.
"What was that, Krieg?" Maya gently prompted, recognizing that whatever filtered his thoughts into words was, as per usual, giving him difficulty.
He blankly stared off towards Lynchwood, then laughed. "And they fell in a puddle!" He smacked himself in the head again, before letting out another grunt and stomping off to the opposite side of the tracks.
"Should we go after him?" Fiona asked, watching as he paced and talked to himself, his voice too low for them to hear.
"Better we don't. I think he needs to focus, seems like he's got something important to say? Though, it's tough to know with him." Sometimes Maya simply lacked the context to understand Krieg, but other times he seemed to just vocalize whatever was on his mind, regardless of whether it was relevant.
The conversation died out after that. Fiona began to doze off with her hat pushed over her eyes, while Krieg continued his private argument across the tracks.
When her ECHOcomm's beeping broke the silence, Maya expected it to be Lilith with more anxious questions regarding yesterday's expedition or Mordecai with some updates.
Instead, it was Rhys. She felt a pang of worry go through her.
"What's up?" Her voice was flat.
"Hey, Maya!" Rhys wore the confident smile of someone desperately trying to appear calm and casual. This act was offset by two black eyes and a swollen nose.
Fiona sat up at his voice. "Wait, is that..?" She was standing over Maya's shoulder in an instant.
Maya stared at Rhys for a moment before she mustered the simple question of "What the hell happened to your face?"
"Does it look that bad?" Rhys's forced smile shrank and he put a hand to his nose, wincing when he touched it. "I'm totally- erm- mostly fine. I broke my nose. Prototype gone wrong, I got hit in the face, you know. Actually, it's kind of embarrassing." His gaze rose. "Oh, hi Fiona."
"Okay, two things. First off: You guys know each other? And second," Fiona's voice sharpened, "Hey, asshole, what's the deal? I haven't heard from you in weeks."
Rhys seemed to shrink at her reproach. "I had them here the other night to discuss a sponsorship deal. And I'm sorry, I've been kind of busy. Sorry." Before Fiona could respond, he added, "But, uh, Maya, I'm having a little problem with the... Thing."
"Something happened with the cat?" Maya surprised herself with how quickly the lie came.
"Cat?" Fiona asked, her anger abandoned in bewilderment.
"Rhys found a cat before we got to Old Haven. I ended up giving him some advice on it while I was there. Right, Rhys?" She looked at him expectantly.
"Yeah! So, it ran off somewhere a few hours after you left- and I can't find it," Rhys lied with surprising competence. Must have been part of the businessman thing. "So uh, what should I do? Is...Is that a normal...cat…thing? It was acting kind of weird."
"Weird how?"
"I'm not sure. I guess it seemed kind of...slightly freaked out? I think?" Clearly there was more to it, but the "cat" lie must have made it difficult for him to explain.
"I'm sure it'll make an appearance if it gets hungry or bored," Maya said, hoping she was gauging the situation right. "If you don't see it again by tomorrow morning, maybe start worrying then."
In retrospect, she should have warned Rhys about Zer0's habit of vanishing. But then again, Zer0 should really know better by now.
"Oh, okay. I guess it's a pretty tough cat so, yeah. I just was kinda worried, y'know? So uh, thanks." He smiled sheepishly, rubbing his neck. "...Soooo, what are you two up to?"
Why was he dragging this out? Maya shot him the briefest of dirty looks. Rhys returned it with one of innocent confusion.
"Vault hunter business," she tried to sound as grim as the situation would entail. "Zer0's missing, probably wounded, we're looking for them."
"Oh, wow. Damn." To Rhys's credit, he pulled off the appropriate somber tone.
"Right, damn," Fiona agreed pointedly. "You haven't heard anything out of the ordinary, have you? Or are you still pulling the weird social recluse thing?"
"Smashing your reverberating skull under a mountain?! A splendid idea!" Krieg had apparently finished his argument and returned to the platform while both women were focused on Rhys.
"It's not a weird recluse thing, I've just been super busy!" Rhys argued, a slight pout crossing his lips. "But no, I haven't heard anything. Sorry, if there's anything I can do, I uh, I have all this Atlas stuff? I don't know how any of it will help, but, you know… Oh! I'll send over those guns, of course. For Maya, and-and Krieg, I mean. I'll throw something in for you too? That technically isn't me helping, but… Yeah, let me know."
"Rhys-" Fiona started, her voice stern.
"Sorry but I-I've got to get back to work here!" he interrupted, all in one breath. "Talked too long already- Bye!"
"Wait, Rhys-!" Maya started, but he'd already hung up. "...What?"
Fiona sighed. "Honestly? The leading theory right now is that he's taken up snorting Eridium."
"He seemed relatively normal when we saw him. That is, normal by Pandoran standards."
"Adjusted for multiplicity!" Krieg let out a barking laugh. "Another two for one deal on our classic face pizza!"
Maya touched Krieg's arm, a silent signal for him to shut up. Lying was difficult enough without him alluding to their deception.
"Oh, but you see, the babyman's sundry eyes-" Krieg cut off his own words by squishing his mask against his face, muffling the rest of the sentence.
Fiona stared blankly, and for a moment Maya feared she understood him better than she'd realized- until a small smile found its way to Fiona's face. "Sounds like Krieg has him pinned- I think? I mean, not to say he'll rip you off with this sponsorship deal or anything. He's a decent-ish guy, as far as dishonest corporate scum goes, but he's the kind of guy who hides stuff that could get him killed. Like, he's definitely lying about his nose."
Maya found herself feeling suddenly guilty. Much to her relief, it was then that the train finally appeared from behind the jagged rock formations that spotted the landscape, putting an end to conversation with a squeal of brakes and a cloud of dust.
The Lynchwood station of Maya's memory was made up of crumbling concrete and rust eaten metal, lit primarily by the holes in its ceiling.
She'd heard that the town changed drastically since Jack's downfall, but she wasn't prepared for just how different even the station looked. The stairs were brand new, every inch of graffiti scrubbed away or painted over, the floor swept of trash, and a proper lighting system had been installed. The jaded part of Maya wondered how long anyone could maintain something like this on Pandora.
A pair of yellow-armored guards were posted at the station's exit, blocking their way out.
"What's your business in Lynchwood?" One demanded when they approached.
"We're here to speak with Miss Harding," Maya answered, "About the Vault hunter she hired."
The guards exchanged a look, made unreadable by their helmets.
"We're their friends," she explained, "From Sanctuary, and-"
The second guard spoke up. "We know all about that, ma'am. Sorry, but I'm afraid Harding's dead."
She gaped. "Wait, what? Lilith just talked to her yesterday, what happened?"
"I'm not quite sure on the details, but they're saying she got stabbed by- well, stabbed by your Vault hunter pal is the theory."
"I heard they'd beheaded her," the first guard said, earning herself a glare from her partner. "Sorry."
The other shook his head, sighing. "We can let you in, as long as you're not here to cause trouble, but I can't guarantee anyone will be particularly happy to see Vault hunters right now."
"I didn't expect a warm welcome either way," Maya said. "This seems relevant to our own case, though. Is there someone we can talk to?"
Obviously, it was impossible that Zer0 did this, but one of their attackers had used a sword, and it seemed too convenient that someone would stab and/or decapitate Harding now. Not without it being connected.
"You'd have to go to the Sheriff."
The new Lynchwood looked like someone's attempt to merge the former wild west town with the high-tech city of Opportunity. Someone who hadn't accounted for the fact that Lynchwood was built over a nearly century-old Dahl settlement, using most of the original buildings. Instead of Opportunity's sleek architecture and immaculate streets, the buildings were square and utilitarian, and a fine layer of dirt covered every surface. Even so, there was no trace of the town's former bandit inhabitants. Every structure seemed freshly painted or covered in shiny metal plating, the roads had repaved, they'd even made shriveled attempts at hedgerows.
It was as pristine as a Pandoran town could get without someone like Handsome Jack throwing billions of dollars at it. No one would guess that a little over a year ago a group of six Vault hunters were gallivanting through the streets, spraying bullets into just about everything. The thought made Maya a little nostalgic.
The Sheriff's office was one of the few parts of Lynchwood that hadn't changed much, still marked by the same oversized, badge-shaped sign. Nextdoor sat a smaller building, barricaded with rope and a hand-painted "DO NOT CROSS" sign. The murder scene, most likely. Outside stood another pair of guards, talking to a third man, large and broadly built, dressed in Hyperion body armor. And a cowboy hat.
"I never perforated the law-bird!" Krieg exclaimed upon noticing the man.
"Huh! I'm pretty sure we know that guy, don't we?" Maya asked.
"The one who got away!" He confirmed, nodding enthusiastically.
Fiona followed their gazes. "Wait, is that a good thing?"
"No clue," she admitted, remembering their last run-in. "Depends if he holds grudges."
"Pretty lady canceled the FEAST!"
She grappled for the man's name as they approached, but she could only greet him with a "Hello, Deputy..?"
He turned, looking at the three of them with surprise. "Sheriff, now," he corrected, quick to recover. Now that she was closer, Maya was able to read the nametag on his shirt: "F. Winger."
"Y'all gave me an impromptu promotion after your friend stabbed me and you killed my superior, remember?" It didn't sound accusatory so much as a simple statement of fact.
"Yeah." She silently cursed Zer0 for the hundredth time in the past two days. "I'm really sorry about that."
"Don't be. I certainly wouldn't have lived this long if she was around, or if you hadn't been there."
"Guess not, huh? Still, sorry on Zer0's behalf." Prior to fighting the sheriff, Brick had requested they not kill Winger, as he was "a decent enough dude". All six Vault hunters agreed, only for Zer0 to abandon that as soon as the shooting started. Maya phaselocked them before they could finish him off, then patched the guy up. It had been a whole thing, and Zer0 was pissy for weeks afterward.
Honestly, they probably still weren't sorry.
"So, what exactly happened there?" She pointed at the blocked off door.
Winger sighed and shook his head. "Real nightmare, that. Don't suppose you lot would have any idea what tall, mysterious figure would cut someone in half with one blow?"
"Wait, you seriously think it was Zer0?" Fiona asked.
Krieg groaned. "It was the twig that snapped, it's not the snapper!"
"Now, I honestly don't mean to offend, but I've seen their work firsthand, and they clearly ain't the honorable sort. I told Miss Harding that if she had to hire a Vault hunter, at least make it one of them more trustworthy, but she insisted it had to be the assassin."
Maya frowned. "I see where you're coming from, and I won't argue that it's not a reasonable conclusion to make." She could argue it. For all their bad reputation, Zer0 had grown a lot since she'd met them. Maybe they weren't a good person, but they valued loyalty, and these days they liked to play the hero. "But Zer0's gone missing and everything points to someone ambushing them. I think whoever killed Harding might have something to do with it."
Winger gave her a long look before responding, "I don't buy it, but I reckon I still owe you one. If you've got questions, I can do my best to answer."
"Great! Can you start with the bandit attacks?"
"There wasn't much to 'em." He rubbed at his jaw as he thought. "The bandits should have never gotten in in the first place. There ain't any easy route in over the rocks, and everywhere else is covered by turrets. Well, seems some of the turrets out by the grinders stopped running, and somehow these fellas found out about it- while none of us were any the wiser. We were able to drive 'em off all three times we got raided, but not without casualties. Miss Harding reckoned we needed to bring in a professional. She sent an ECHO to Zer0, and, well, this happened."
"Zer0 met with her beforehand, right? Did you happen to see them?" Fiona asked before Maya got the chance to speak. "Maybe they were acting weird?"
"I kept an eye on 'em, yeah. Didn't notice anything that struck me as odd. At least, not odd going by my last encounter with them."
"Again, sorry about that," Maya said. "The part where they stabbed you, that is."
"Not your fault, ma'am."
"So, Harding sent men after them when they didn't come back?" Fiona pressed on. "Was that kind of thing normal for her?"
"It was unexpected of her, I'll admit. For all she insisted on hiring them, she made it clear she didn't like them. Now, she was all manners when Zer0 was here, but after they were gone she told me it would be just as well they died instead. She didn't much like Vault hunters. Sorry to say, I never got her reasoning for sending men out when they didn't come back."
"Wow, uh…" Maya looked to Fiona, who only could shrug. That hardly matched up with the impression of the concerned, caring woman they'd gotten from Lilith. "I know you suspect Zer0 of killing her, but there isn't any chance she'd try to have them taken out, is there?"
Winger paused for a moment before answering. "I'd like to say no, but now that you mention it, that woman was Hyperion to the core- even after they abandoned her. Most of 'em ain't too fond of your ilk. Dunno how she'd think to pull it off, though."
"And when did you say she died?"
"This mornin', quarter till eight. Her secretary bot started screaming out an alarm from the front desk in there, stopped after ten seconds or so. Me and some boys were there next door," he nodded at the Sheriff's office, "We got here fast as we could, must have been a second too late."
Maya nodded. Harding's death was a complication, but she could still be of help.
"Would it be okay for us to see the scene? There's no way this is just a coincidence."
"Hmm…" He looked between the three Vault hunters and the building. "There ain't much there aside from the body, doesn't look like there's much we can do with it. Not on Pandora, at least. Go on ahead, just try not to disturb anything, we'll be wanting to give her a proper burial."
The last part seemed directed at Krieg.
After a cursory sweep of the small building, Maya saw why Winger would blame Zer0, even without his (honestly justified) personal biases.
At the reception desk sat the "secretary bot"- a legless loader bot painted the Hyperion-approved shade of sky blue. A clean diagonal slice had taken most of its "head" off, killing it.
"Hm. I admit, I know very little about robotics," Maya said, peering into the robot's head. Its eye had been split apart, along with the attached AI core. "But I'm pretty sure it's completely trashed."
Fiona leaned in to look closer. "Is that blood?"
She pointed, her finger following the path of small, dark red spots. They ran along the cut, cast off of a bloodied blade.
"Yeah, looks like they killed Harding first."
Harding's office was in the next room. It seemed she'd been standing at her desk when someone cut her down- or, more precisely, when someone cut her in two. Her top half lay on the desk, the lower half on the ground. Gruesome, but not unusual for Pandora.
Krieg tensed upon entering. "The spectating queen! She welcomed us to the bleeding factory and stole our names!"
"You recognize her?" Maya frowned.
"Don't ask me to do the math!" he replied, which Maya took as a yes. Figures a town of Hyperions would elect a former Preserve employee to lead it.
"If you want to wait out there, Krieg, we shouldn't be too long."
"Not when the game is a dismembered extremity!" He stepped away from the body, turning to face the wall.
"I'll give the sheriff credit, this all seems pretty Zer0," Fiona observed, once it was clear Krieg had finished.
"It seems like Zer0, but this isn't their work," Maya said, a little bit too vehemently. She would have assumed Zer0's guilt too, if she'd gone into this blind. Swords weren't a common choice of weapon, and Zer0 rarely left a body in one piece.
"I like Zer0 and all, but shouldn't we keep an open mind? They've built their career on sneakily killing people. And not a lot of people use blades capable of cutting through metal."
You're right. But this isn't their style."
"What is their style, then? I mean, aside from the whole headshot and dismemberment thing." Fiona knelt by the bottom half of the corpse, just outside the drying pool of blood.
"They have a massive ego, and they prefer targets who can fight back." She circled the desk as she spoke, eyes scanning the scene. "They'll gladly backstab some unsuspecting bandit and blame them for being inattentive, but I don't see them going after an unarmed bureaucrat, no matter what her past was. Even if they did kill her, they definitely wouldn't make an effort to hide their guilt."
Maya made it her business to know her teammates, it was part of being an effective leader, and Zer0 was the most straightforward out of any of them, despite how many secrets they kept.
"I guess that lines up with what I've seen of them. I still think we should keep them in mind. Vault hunter is already a pretty suspicious job title, without the 'assassin' part tacked on." Fiona leaned closer to the body, trying to retrieve something trapped underneath it- attached to Harding's belt.
"Says the Vault hunter- con artist."
"Hey, I never said I was better. Hell, it probably makes me more qualified to judge, I feel like assassins are at least as untrustworthy as con artists." Fiona grinned victoriously, finally wriggling the object free. She handed the blood-spattered ECHOcomm up to Maya. "This might be important."
Maya turned it over in her hands before switching it on. "You think Winger'll notice if we take it?"
"Winger's Pandoran, right? Can you imagine anyone on Pandora launching an actual murder investigation? Not that we should tell him, I'm just saying, if we don't take it, someone else gets a free ECHOcomm. Anything good on it?"
"She's got some unread messages…"
Harding didn't seem to have actively used the messenger function, there was only one conversation listed, with someone by the name of Reduvius. The first few messages were from the evening before. "Shit, Fiona, look at this." She held out a hand to help Fiona to her feet.
Reduvius
Yesterday 7:20 PM
Really, now, Harding? You actually sold the assassin out?
That's kind of shitty, you know? Stupid, too.
Lol, I mean, considering the Preserve, it's just like you.
Beatrix Harding
Who is this?
Are you trying to blackmail me?
Reduvius
Blackmail? Boring.
In any other situation, I'd probably kill you for this. As it stands I think you're more useful to me if you're alive. But for the people you got yourself involved in? You're just a loose end.
If you want to live, I'd advise you to leave town TONIGHT.
I can help you. :)
Not that you deserve it, but you're my only lead. 3
The final three messages were from that morning:
Reduvius
Today 9:05 AM
Aaaand…
You didn't listen to me. -.-
F
"So...Uh...Has Zer0 mentioned a Reduvius?" Fiona asked after a long moment.
"Zer0 hardly mentions anything." She scanned back over the messages. "That said, they certainly seem like someone Zer0 would know."
Krieg had begun to hover over her shoulder. Given the current environment, Maya would have assumed he'd struggle to maintain enough focus to read. Looking back at him, though his eye seemed fixed on the ECHO. "Do you have any thoughts, Krieg?"
She did value his input, even if it did tend towards incomprehensible.
"A riveting game of tug of war in the hall of mirrors! I'm all torn up! My brain is covered in meat hooks!" he replied before turning away, walking to the opposite side of the room.
"I guess this is obvious, but maybe we should message them back?" Fiona suggested.
"You're right." The ECHO seemed way too convenient, but it was far more than she'd walked into the office expecting to find.
She typed a simple message: "Who is this? How do you know Zer0?"
The response came in with little delay:
Reduvius
Doesn't it show my name? :P
JK, I know what you mean.
But, you first. Seeing as you obviously aren't poor Miss Harding.
You aren't the one who killed her, are you? :o
Maya chose her words carefully, remembering Zer0's extreme caution. "No, I didn't kill her. I'm a friend of Zer0's, I'm trying to figure out what exactly happened to them."
Reduvius
Oh! Me too! :D
To both parts.
Zer0 and I go way back.
I'm worried about them. :(
Maya waited for a moment, hoping for more of an explanation.
"I don't think they're gonna tell you anything else," Fiona said after a couple of minutes. "They might be hoping that you'll show your hand, first."
"Right…" Well, she wouldn't offer up any solid information. Instead it was more questions: "You accused Harding of setting Zer0 up. How do you know that? And who are the people you said she'd involved herself with?"
There was another long stretch without a reply, almost enough for Maya to wonder if she'd have no choice but to offer up something more. Then, the ECHO beeped.
Reduvius
I can't tell you that over the ECHO. It's not secure.
Meet me? Tomorrow at dawn. Coordinates to follow.