A/N: This chapter took a long time to write because I kept second-guessing myself on the fight scene; it originally was going to resolve completely differently, and even after I rewrote it I kept adding and removing stuff. Still not sure I'm totally happy with it.


5 – Life and Death

"…expect it won't take them long. Let me know as soon as anyone arrives, but stay hidden and don't fire on them unless I say so."

The words floated into Maya's brain through a heavy haze. Her head was pounding; everything felt wrong. There was a cold metal collar around her neck, which she slowly realised was the same device Jack had used to suppress and control Lilith's powers. She became dimly aware of the fact that her hands had been restrained above her head. It took a few more seconds before she realised exactly what all this meant, and finally mustered the energy to open her eyes.

The room she was in wasn't very well lit, but she was able to make out two figures standing a small distance from her: one female, one male. As she watched, the male nodded, then turned and left the room. The female sat down at a small table and began examining a document. Maya blinked several times, and the room slowly came into focus. With a jolt of horror she recognised it as one of the old holding cells near the entrance of the old Wildlife Exploitation Preserve. She didn't recognise the woman sitting at the table, but her appearance, dressed in a white shirt, modest skirt and heeled combat boots, with dark shoulder-length hair set in neat curls, was not Pandoran at all. On the table, Maya could see her own storage deck and communicator, plus a few other items, including a roll of heavy electrical tape, a pair of scissors, two med hypos and a few sheets of paper. Maya licked her lips and opened her mouth.

"Who…" Still struggling to speak, she swallowed painfully. The woman glanced around and smiled.

"Ah, she's come to her senses. Good timing."

"Who… are you?" Maya said, her voice getting stronger as the tranquiliser left her system.

"Elizabeth McHale, Vice President of External Affairs for Hyperion," replied Elizabeth. "And you would be Maya, Siren Caerulea, who that idiotic psycho is hopelessly infatuated with. I'd like to say it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but I'm sure you'll agree it isn't."

"What do you want with me? All I'm trying to do is find out who this woman was and see if she can help him."

"I haven't a clue what woman you're talking about —"

"You do —"

"But I don't really care, to be honest. I'm interested in the psycho. You're little more than bait."

"Well then, what do you want with him?"

"He and the others like him pose an unacceptable risk to the company. Given that it falls in my department, I've taken it upon myself to mitigate the risk."

"You know full well we have an agreement with Hyperion to not —"

"I'm well aware of the terms of the agreement. I just don't care. The agreement was Blake's brainchild. I fought tooth and nail against it, but the board backed him."

"Oh yeah? And you think that's gonna change once you kick the hornet's nest on their behalf?"

"I'm not the one who's doing the kicking here, sweetheart," said Elizabeth airily, wearing a smirk that made the siren's blood run cold. "After all, won't it be terrible when the board finds out that you and your pet monster turned up here while the captain was showing me the old research facility and ambushed us? A shocking tragedy, you know, because he bore the brunt of the ambush. He fought valiantly, even managing to take the psycho with him, but really stood no chance. Fortunately for me, you were too busy concentrating on the captain to consider me any real threat, so I was able to subdue you without a great deal of difficulty. Unfortunately I was too late to save the captain, but I escaped with only minor injuries, and what good fortune for the board that I did, because now they had incontrovertible evidence that the agreement with you criminals was a bad idea. So you see," finished Elizabeth, basking in the growing look of understanding on Maya's face, "this way, either my old friend Jeff sees his error in trusting you, or the board sees it for him. And either way, I suddenly have a great deal of credit with the board."

"You're a fucking maniac. Picked up a few tricks from Jack, did you?"

Elizabeth's face hardened. "Handsome Jack was a fool, blinded by his ego and lust for power. He signed his own death warrant by taking the company and the planet by force, and countersigned it with his obstinate insistence that all his plans would work out exactly as he expected them to. Any aspiring Caesar must learn to fear the knives of their fellows. Jack failed to learn the lessons of history, and he paid the price. I am not so easy a mark; I know how to work by stealth, and I know how to plan contingencies."

The small two-way radio clipped to her lapel crackled. "Psycho inbound from fast travel; waylaid by stalkers."

"Thank you, captain. Hold position and update when he moves into the facility." Elizabeth picked up the scissors and tape from the table. "Well, it was nice chatting, Maya, but I have a psycho to kill and I can't have you singing out a warning to him, can I? After all, stealth is really my only option here; I couldn't take him on in single combat, and I'm not stupid enough to try." Crossing the room quickly, she cut a strip of tape off the roll and fastened it firmly over Maya's mouth. She pulled a slender syringe bolt filled with a sickly red liquid from her belt and loaded her crossbow carefully. "Not sure how long this'll take to kill him, given his size, actually. Hmm. That could be a problem… might need to hit him with the tranquiliser as well."

"Psycho entering the facility, ma'am."

"Thank you. If any others approach, follow and engage them when they approach my position." Elizabeth crossed the room, opened the door, then crouched down in the corner of the room behind the door, shrouding herself in the shadows of the room and completely concealing herself from the window.

In the silence that followed, fear gripped Maya's mind and she struggled to calm herself, trying to come up with a plan. She pulled vainly at her restraints, and attempted to move her face muscles to dislodge the tape over her mouth, with no success. She tried desperately to summon the energy to burn the ropes, but the collar around her neck sapped her energy as quickly as she summoned it.

"PRETTY LADY?"

Krieg's voice echoed around the Preserve, and panic started to grip Maya, mixed with a horrible feeling of guilt. She had only been trying to help Krieg, she told herself, and now she was leading him to his death at the hands of this sadistic woman, and she could do nothing but watch.


Krieg shuffled around the corner, muttering to himself, and finally saw Maya through the window of the cell. The siren's wrists were secured to an iron ring in the wall; there was a piece of heavy tape over her mouth and a steel collar with blue glowing lights around her neck.

"Pretty lady!" growled Krieg. The siren shook her head, desperation in her eyes, muffled sounds coming from beneath the tape over her mouth.

She's shaking her head. We should —

"Untie her!"

No, that's not —

Krieg was paying no attention to his inner self, or to Maya's increasingly desperate motions. He wandered into the room and towards Maya.

"Pretty lady is okay?" Krieg reached out with hands far more delicate than they seemed and pulled the tape from Maya's mouth. The siren gasped with pain.

"Krieg, she's —"

The door swung closed, and there was a dull click from the shadows behind the door. The psycho shouted in pain and swung around to face his assailant, who was already reaching for a second bolt. Krieg barely noticed the bolt protruding from his back, but he did notice the effects of the poison, and growled with pain.

"PAIN IS POWER!" he bellowed, brandishing his axe and charging at Elizabeth. She dodged, sliding off to the side and kicking the psycho square in the back, sending him stumbling forward into the wall.

Elizabeth pulled a tranquiliser bolt from her belt and loaded her crossbow. Before she could raise it to fire at Krieg, however, the psycho had turned around and hurled his buzz axe at her. Caught off-guard by his quick recovery, she dodged again, but not quite fast enough. The axe slashed across her shoulder, its deceptively sharp blade searing her skin. Pain shot through her arm, and she felt warm blood starting to seep into her shirt.

"Ah! Fucking —"

The psycho charged her again, this time intent on tackling her; with no time to dodge, Elizabeth raised her hands in defence and he caught her head on. Even with the poison working its way through his system, the psycho's strength was tremendous, and Elizabeth knew she couldn't grapple with him for long — her injured shoulder was already burning furiously with the exertion of holding him back. She allowed herself to be pushed back a little, then suddenly released her grip and ducked. Krieg, caught off guard, fell forwards, tripping over Elizabeth's crouched form and falling flat on his face.

"Keep fighting, you brute," growled Elizabeth, "the faster your heart rate, the faster you die…"

She examined the wound in her shoulder, discovering to her relief that the long painful gash was only shallow — tendon damage would have required medical attention. She seized one of the med hypos from the table and pulled the plastic cap from the needle. Gritting her teeth, she jammed the needle into her shoulder; the pain vanished quickly and the wound started to stitch itself back together.

Maya, watching helplessly, heard the sound of gunfire echoing outside, and felt a surge of hope. Throwing caution to the wind, she summoned what little energy she had and shouted as loudly as possible.

"In here! Help —"

Maya was cut off with a slight shriek as Elizabeth swung around and fired the crossbow at her. Still recovering from the last tranquiliser, unconsciousness overwhelmed Maya almost immediately this time.


"Vault hunters, boss," came the voice of the captain through the radio, "two of them! The assassin has me pinned, and the —" There was the crack of a sniper rifle, then the sound of the captain's SMG as he returned fire. "— the robot girl is headed your way!"

"Hold position, captain, and stall the assassin as long as possible!"

"I'll do my best, ma'am."

Krieg had staggered back to his feet and turned to face Elizabeth, who met him with a swift spinning kick to the chin. The exertion of fighting the poison was dulling Krieg's reactions, and he stumbled backwards towards the wall; Elizabeth sprang forward, seized him by the neck and slammed his head into the wall, knocking him senseless.

Thinking fast, not knowing how long she had until Gaige arrived, Elizabeth crouched down to conceal herself from the window. Shrouding herself in the shadows of the room and moving as close to the door as she dared, she drew another tranquiliser bolt and loaded her crossbow, silently hoping that the girl was as hasty as the intelligence report had suggested. She was lucky that it was her coming and not the assassin — he would be much harder to deal with.

Running footsteps approached from outside, and the door burst open, striking the wall with a ringing crash. Gaige entered the room, shotgun half raised, looking around frantically.

"Maya! Are you —"

Elizabeth fired, and at virtually point-blank range, her aim was never in question. Gaige let out a slight gasp as the bolt hit her, before she slid clumsily to the ground, the shotgun slipping from her hand onto the floor.