C0unting Zer0's

Episode 1 Chapter 4

A/N: Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everybody who reads my story. As my Christmas present to all of you amazing reviewers! ( Cough* athos-aramis Cough*) This chapter is probably my favorite written so far and the second to last in this episode. It focuses mainly on Zer0 and leads up to the finale that's coming sometime next week. Please enjoy.

Blake sat in his office looking at a video feed on his computer. It was a real time broadcast from a godforsaken igloo near Liar's Burg. Inside there was one of the vault hunters he was looking for. It was kind of pathetic really, she was just wandering around yelling for help, she tried to break through the blast doors a few times but soon realized her attempts would be fruitless. As Blake was watching her wander around he realized something, he realized that he didn't care that he had trapped one of the infamous vault hunters, his ambitions and goals had been twisted by this Ten character and he had lost all revenue for this quarter to this. "This is unacceptable" Blake muttered to himself.

"Yes, it is" said a smooth metallic voice from behind him.

Blake stumbled a few steps but didn't fall down, partially used to Ten appearing behind him "Ten we need to have a talk." Blake accused.

"Yes we do" Ten said marching forward and picking up Blake by the neck "You are a fool, you have given me money, weapons, spaceships, and an army. You have made your self irrelevant."

"Ten put me down! You work for me!"

"Do I? You have given me everything I asked for, you were an endless amount of funds to try and catch four people. So tell me honestly, why do you think I want to kill the vault hunters?"

"You want money and power, like any other mercenary. I can supply that."

"Blake do I look like any other mercenary? I am here for one thing and I guarantee that it is not money, nor power. I am here for revenge."

"Against who exactly? Me? Jack? The vault hunters? Revenge isn't a new concept here on Pandora and just because you wear a mask doesn't mean that everyone is intimidated by you. Ten you overestimate yourself" Blake choked out "Now let me go."

Ten relaxed hi grip and dropped Blake onto his feet "I know that the populace of Pandora won't be intimidated by a simple mask, which is why I'm going to do this." Ten said holding his hand out as a huge black battleaxe with glowing blue blades on it.

"You're gonna kill me Ten. After all I gave you? Well go ahead, I can't say I wasn't expecting this. But if you expect me to offer you money or power, or beg for my life... Well best of luck to you because that isn't gonna happen."

"I am not going to kill you Blake." Ten said as Blake let out a huge sigh "My associate Four is." Ten said as he pulled out a digistruct device and pushed a large red button on it. "Blake" Ten said as a tall thin being with four arms and black and white body armor similar to Tens but with two more arms and quite a bit thinner and smaller. "Meet my brother, Four. Four why don't you saw hello to Mr. Blake" As Four advanced on Blake, and Blake began screaming and begging for his life, Ten averted his eyes. Although he thought violence was a necessary tool in his plan he did not relish using it like some of his more primal brothers. Four for example was a master of unarmed combat but was defined as inferior to Ten because of his questionable mental condition. Ten stared out the window of Blakes office as a haze of Blake's blood filled the room "Four, when you are done get rid of the body, we don't need Blake turning up dead just yet." A feral grunting sound came from for which Ten took as confirmation, Four was quite skilled at disposal and before the team they were on was broken up that had been hi job. "And after that I have a special mission for you." Ten said as four turned away from the mangled pile of flesh and designer suit that used to be Blake, "I have a location on our... friend, he is in Lynchwood and I need you to go and track him down and deal with the situation h has created."

Four turned his head and let out a garbled an guttural string of noises to which Ten responded "Yes Four, you do get to kill Zer0."

Maya leaned her head against the wall, she was frustrated, with Axton, with Kain, with Zer0, with goddamn everybody! It was so like the perverted bandits to try and capture a girl to be a damsel in distress, she wasn't even the weakest member of the group! She was an all powerful siren and the bandit hordes should fear her! "But I am still stuck in this cage!" she yelled slumping onto the floor "Damn You Kain!" Maya yelled hurl phase energy at the wall causing several dents in the grate's that fell over the windows but only bounced off the blast shield covering the door.

"Why on earth would you say that about me Maya?" said a heavily sarcastic voice over the walky-talky Maya had stung on her belt

"Kain why are you doing this?"

"Having a civil conversation with you mi hija, well I'm doing it because I like you. I find your conversation stimulating an engaging. Hahahaaha... Oh that was a good one. Oye! Shut up Jenkins! I'm on the telefono, show some respect!"

"No Kain, why are you attacking us? What did we ever do to you?"

"Maya mi amiga I am simply here to kill you and all your friends, there is no grudge here it's just how I make my living. However I have always wanted to cut open a siren, this does seem like an ample opportunity. How do you feel about this Maya?"

"You are a sick man Kain I hope you know that?

Kain stated laughing over the walky-talky "I know that Maya, but nobody on Pandora can help me, I realized a long time ago that I was beyond help and my best course of action was to wallow in my insanity and make the most of it."

"Kain if you expect me to have pity on you for that..."

"Pity Maya? I thought you knew me better. I pity you, you live your life trying to be the hero and win the admiration of the masses. The people of this universe are rotten and fickle Maya as your compadre Zer0 knows all to well. You could have been a savior of all of the known universe but as soon as you mes up once... Well you turn out like Zer0."

"What do you mean? What do you know about Zer0?"

"Maya, as much as I am bursting at the seams to spoil his secrets to you, I can't. Even though I was hired to brutally murder him and all his friends, I respect him to much to sell out his secrets. See once upon a time me and Zer0 were on a, uh, task force together and we were close friends, close enough to be brothers and he saved my life several times so I think I owe him not spoiling his secrets."

"He saved your life didn't he? So why try to kill him now, you said yourself you owe him?"

"Maya I fully expect to lose if it comes to a fight between me and Zer0. I am hoping that he abandons you and leaves this planet so I don't have to fight him."

"What the hell! Let me get this straight, you don't want to fight the man want to murder?"

"I do not want to murder Zer0, Maya. I may be crazy but I am not insane. I am forced to do this by an old debt I owe. Honestly I don't even want to kill you, and it's hard to want to kill Salvador being a fellow Truxican. That Axton fellow is a bit annoying but he is a smart one and I don't think he deserves to die either, yet. Zer0 however... he is of a different breed than all of you, you are not children but you are all innocent compared to him he his a murderer beyond all murderers. You've killed legions of bandits and loaders but he has done things far worse... Maya you should get out well you can Zer0 is a dangerous person to be around, I mean look what he already got you into!"

"Kain why are you trying to kill Zer0 and the rest of us if you two used to be friends, or brother, or whatever?"

"Because times change."

Zer0 cautiously approached the wooden shack he had just cleared, he was confused as to why bandits were surrounding it, his brother was never one to be bullied and if bandits were harassing him he would have either killed them or gotten himself killed. "Three! Three! Are you here?" Zer0 yelled as he entered the wooden shanty "Your new home is a, bit less, than expected Three.

"The neighborhood is little rougher than expected Zer0" Said a small stocky man getting up from a pile of broken chairs he wore a suit similar to Zer0's but the helmet and faceplate were missing revealing a round Caucasian fave with sandy blond hair, the gauntlets on the suit were also very bulky and had various skeletal robotic arms and tools embedded in it "I had a bit of a run in with bandits recently and they got me pretty good." he said gesturing at a bullet hole in his leg that was slowly draining away crimson blood, "But what prompted you to visit me after all these years? I've been on Pandora for two and a half years now but you never checked up on me.'

"We agreed to not meet because it would attract to much attention."

"So the only question that remains Zer0,is why are you here now?"

"I was exposed to, a dangerous amount of, raw eridium. I have been showing strange symptoms for many days, diagnose me Three."

"All you need to do is ask Zer0, and stop talking in those freakin' Haiku's. It makes it hard to communicate and it's not like I've never heard you talk normal before."

"Fine Three"

"Alright Zer0 so what symptoms have you noticed?"

"Increased energy and muscle mass as well as no consumption of food or water and no sleep for extended periods of time has no impact on my performance."

"Any pre-existing medical conditions I should know about?"

My body has continued to stay at sub-zero temperature's and my organs begin to fail with even limited exposure to warmer temperature's."

"Even after all this time?"

"The condition has persisted even after we escaped captivity and all power to secondary functions had to be diverted to keep my suit's interior sub-zero."

"Well Zer0 I am gonna have to open up your suit to see if any physical damage was done."

"Very well."Zer0 said opening a port on the side of his helmet "Put me under"

"Good night Zer0"

Zer0's suit came back online before the anesthesia had wore off and delivered a small electric shock to Zer0's temple waking him up. As his eyes fluttered open he was not bound or surrounded the way he usually was when waking up from unconsciousness and it felt nice. "This must be what normal surgeries feel like." Zer0 reasoned. He sat up from his lying position and felt a slight pain in his chest, a robotic voice in his helmet beeped and said "Auto-Doc initiated, delivering painkillers to abdominal region." Zer0 felt a slight sting into his abdomen and the pain faded away. "Three! What the hell did you do to my suit!" Zer0 yelled swearing for the first time in many many years. Normally Zer0 was very great full to somebody who had just given him free surgery but when that person also messed with the suit that had kept him alive for his whole life... There would be hell to pay! "Three! I am gonna-"

"Calm down Zer0, I did you a favor, I managed to engage your suits secondary functions."

"That was a mistake Three" Zer0 said standing up "My cooling system doesn't have enough power now and I will overheat and die."

"Aha Zer0 but this is my trump card! Your body is now producing vast amounts of power. Enough to power all of your suits functions for an undefined amount of time, it could be infinite! You became supercharged by that blast and became saturated with eridium. Being, well, what you are you absorbed that shit like a siren and well, tada! You have access to everything even your secondary weapon."

"Secondary weapon?"

"Ya you have a secondary digistruct weapon built into the suit, judging by the software files I found it's a highly sophisticated reflex bow. You can activate it by grabbing the air with your left hand."

Zer0 cautiously reached forward with his left hand and grasped the air, surprisingly a smooth curve bow materialized with a blue string of energy where the draw sting on a normal bow would be. "Badass" said Zer0 inspecting the weapon "But it will be inefficient to use I have no training with this weapon and its primitive firing mechanism will hinder my range and force."

"Fortunately for you Zer0 someone who worked for Atlas had half a brain. The range and force are less so than a high end gun but the kinetic energy barrier makes sure that it can out shoot most sniper rifles, the bow also came with built in targeting assist so it should help you out until you feel confident enough to turn it off. The best part of the bow is that each shot is completely silent and you can digistruct arrows by reaching back to grasp them, I really don't know what types of arrows you can create so have fun experimenting with them."

"Three... Why would you do all this for me?"

"This makes us even." said Three turning away from Zer0 guilt in his eyes.

"We are even for what Three" accused Zer0 standing up and storing his bow.

"I may have had the c0rruption stolen from me" said Three wincing.

"I already knew that, Kain stole them, correct?"

"No, Zer0 I'm so sorry but one of our brothers came by... Ten is on Pandora Zer0, and he has c0rruption."

Axton was freaking out. Kain wanted central access... whatever and he had no idea where to find it! Tannis was locked in her workshop Lilith wouldn't give them to him Zed was preforming some sort of surgery. "I need a drink." decided Axton after running around sanctuary for the past couple hours like a chicken with his head cut off. Axton walked into the looking around and noticed that even at three in the afternoon Moxxi's bar was still full of customers. "Moxxi!" Axton yelled sitting down at the bar "Get me a rakk ale!"

"At three in the afternoon sugar?" Moxxi said waltzing her way up to the bar "Whats got you down?"

"Nothing Moxxi just get me the drink."

"Hombre, don't lie to us!" said Salvador said walking up to the bar and jumping onto a seat "If something went down in Lair's Burg the you've gotta tell us."

"Fine Sal, I was checking out Claptrap's igloo and Kain sprung a trap on us, he caught Maya but I managed to escape, he wanted some sort of access code and he'd let her go, but I can't find it anywhere."

Salvador turned and looked at Axton in the eyes said "Screw you!" and delivered a swift right hook to knock him off the chair "You never make a deal with a bandit! And you never leave someone behind! What were you freaking thinking?"

"I was thinking I couldn't kill three bandits who were flanking me all on my own!"

"Grab your gun Axton we're going back."

"What?"

"Well since Zer0 isn't here anymore to pull our asses out of the fire so I'm gonna take charge and go rescue Maya! Go get Brick while I get some ammo."

Zer0 stood up and was running diagnostics on his suit, on top of all the things that Three rebooted small performance enhancers had also been activated.

"Okay Zer0 I found a shuttle to get us out of here. It's going to Eden-5, we simply need to leave Pandora and find Two."

"I think I'll miss this place, Pandora was good to me."

"Ya well, not so much to me Zer0, I think Promethia might be a good place to go next. Ten would have a hard time tracking us there."

"Three" Zer0 said looking out a window at the hot Pandoran sun "Have you ever contemplated fighting Ten, I think with with the Crimson Raiders at our back we might stand a chance."

"We also might die horribly and have Four eat our corpses. Not a chance I am willing to take. You also have Two to think about, if we die he is all alone against and even more powerful Ten." Said Three stuffing handfuls of tools into a suitcase.

Zer0 was preparing another argument for staying on Pandora when he heard a strange beeping noise from the north wall of Three's shanty "Three, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Three packing up almost all of the tools and computers strewn around his room.

"It's like a strange beeping noise, it's coming from over here." Said Zer0 pressing his helmet against the wall. At the exact same moment his helmet touched the wall s huge explosion blasted the wall down and threw Zer0 like a rag doll across the room and right through the wall on the opposite side of the room.

"Hello Zer0" said a cold metallic voice "I'm sorry I couldn't be there to kill you personally but our brother Four wanted to do it so badly, and I hate to disappoint"said the voice as a figure emerged emerged from the dust caused by the explosion, the shadowy figured moved out of the dust and appeared to be wearing a suit of black and white body armor with the same design as the one Zer0 and Three were wearing, the only differences were that the suit had four arms and numeral four printed on the upper left chest where the Zer0 was on Zer0's chest. The shadowy figure slid open a piece of his faceplate to reveal a gray mouth full of pointed teeth with two huge mandibles, the mouth opened and the mandibles extended as it let out an extremely loud and vicious "Screeeeeeeee!" Four then charged at Three, picked him up with one hand jumped thirty feet and slammed him into the ground.

"Please Four don't do this!" Three yelled obviously terrified

"You sided with Zer0 and Two when this all began, you should have expected that there would be consequences." said Ten through a speaker on Four's helmet "No you must pay the price for betraying us Three" Ten said as Four lifted up his hand, claws began to digistruct on Four's hand and just as Four was about to deliver his killing blow to Three an arrow sprouted from his neck. A red blinking light on the arrow flashed rapidly a few times and after about two and a half seconds the arrow exploded sending Four careening off of Three's prone body. Four crashed into the ground five yards away immediately got up with no apparent physical damage. "Good shot Zer0, but will have no time to revel in that small victory. Four, sic 'em!" Ten said as Four sprinted at Zer0 and knocked him to the ground, Zer0's bow was knocked from his hand and disappeared as it hit the ground. "You know I never really appreciated how vicious for was until now. He has just informed me that as soon he is finished killing you he will kill Three, that little robot hiding in your runner and all your little vault hunter friends, Kain already has Maya trapped, I thought killing the infamous "Patient Zer0" and his band of merry vault hunters would be much more of a challenge than this." Ten bragged as Four lifted up his left hands again and digistructed huge claws around them. As Four was about to deliver the killing blow he heard a strange and unfamiliar war cry coming from Zer0's parked runner, a high pitched and irritating noise was screaming "Viva el Robolution!" Four's head exploded showering Zer0 with gray goo and sent the remainder of his body flying off to the left. Zer0 turned to look where the rocket had came from and saw Claptrap standing there with a now empty rocket launcher Claptrap yelled again, "Viva el Robolution!"

Three stood up and ran over to Zer0 "Come we have to go, now!" Three yelled helping Zer0 to his feet "The shuttle to Promethia leaves in two hours!"

"Three I'm staying."

"What! Zer0 if you stay here you are gonna die."

"And if I leave now the woman I love will die."

Three stared at Zer0 as if he had just committed sacrilege "You said yourself Zer0 that on Pandora we were not supposed to make any emotional connections or interact wit any Sirens. How did you let yourself fall in love with someone?"

"She is also a Siren."

Three's eyes looked like they were about to burst out of his head "You fell in love with a Siren! You know that you cannot have her Zer0 so why try! On that note Zer0 how many other Sirens have you been hanging out with? You have a goddamn pool party with them?"

"I met two others."

Three simply started to walk away at this statement "Zer0 I am leaving this planet, with or without you."

"Best of luck to you Three."

Best of luck to saving your girlfriend Zer0"

"My girlfriend, is it bad that I like that idea." Thought Zer0 heading back to his runner.

A/N: So the Tin Man had a heart after all! Awwwww! I even got claptrap to do something cool.

Thanks for reading it and stay tuned for the huge finale next week (Probably)

Please R&R

Adios mustachios!