C0unting Zer0s Episode 2

Ris1ng Num8ers

Chapter 1

A/N: Hello everyone! I am very glad that most of you wanted me to continue my story. I do have plans for a 5 chapter episode two and a 6-8 chapter episode three, I just wanted to make sure that people wanted to read my story. I wont ask that again either and as long as one person is willing to read this then I will continue writing it, Huzzah!

awesome9462: I will be continuing my story so now I forbid you to eat my babies, take that!

MonsterJunkie: Muchas Gracicas! You really saved me with my chapter five misprint, I sincerely apologize and it will never happen again. I just wanted to give you a formal pat on the back, I wrote several endings and posted the wrong draft. Thank you!

Ruff1298: Thank you for the in depth reviews, I am going to try to go back and re-edit my early chapters but right know I am full steam ahead on adding more content. If you are willing to beta read that would be very much appreciated.

Three drifted in and out of consciousness, he had been in this dungeon for days... It had been about a week or maybe two. He didn't care. He just wanted this damn ordeal to be over, Ten had tortured him for hours on end in the most grotesque and brutal ways that it made him shudder when he thought about them. The worst part of this entire ordeal was that Ten had yet to ask him any questions!

"Hello Three, are you ready for your treatment?" said an all to familiar voice.

"Listen Ten what do you want? I can give you whatever information you want. I can give you locations of my money stashes, weapon caches, all of my contacts, anything you want!"

Ten slowly walked to the opposite wall of the dingy room where Three was shackled to the wall. He slowly picked up a fire poker and studied the red hot part. "Is that all Three?"

"Please Ten... I will do anything!" Three said with panic in his voice as he started to pull against the shackles holding him to the wall. "You haven't even asked me any questions yet!"

"This is not a matter of asking questions or interrogation." said Ten calmly lifting the fire poker onto his shoulder and resting it on his shoulder. "This is not a matter of interrogation." he said smashing the iron fire poker into Three's left kneecap "This is a matter of revenge." Ten again slammed the fire poker into Three again this time making a delicious cracking sound come from his rib area. "You and Zer0 have cost me more than you can ever imagine."

"Listen Ten" Three said coughing up blood "Why are you putting me and Zer0 in the same boat... We worked together a long time ago I could help you now."

Ten looked at Three questioningly "You are so quick to turn on those you used to stand with." Ten raised the fire poker and hit Three across the face with it knocking out a tooth "You have less honor than Zer0, Three. Do not so readily abandon your allies." Ten tossed the poker back into the pit where it had lay, "I do not need any help with apprehending the other traitors Three. I always have a plan." Ten said as he walked to the heavy metal door that led out of the dungeon. As Ten opened it and began to walk through it Three yelled after him "You need me Ten! You need me! Nobody knows Zer0 like me! You will never catch him without my help! Do you hear me Ten! You can't just leave me here!" Three's pleas were only met by a slamming door. Three hung his head and sobbed, the only words running through his head were "I'll never get out of here.

"That is not the man I hired." said a worried voice after watching Three's interrogation on a TV monitor, when I hired Ten he was a professional, what has turned him into this?"

"He was always like this sir." said a tall muscular Navajo man in a black suit and tie "He is very dangerous I wish you had contacted us sooner about this."

"He seemed like any other corporate assassin when I first gave him a job."

"Then sir you were sadly mistaken. He is no assassin but a failed experiment of ours that we wish to, uh... re-appropriate"

"Do you think I don't know that!" The man sitting in the shadows said slamming his fist on a desk "That monster killed me! He had one of his cronies rip me apart and eat my flesh! That, thing, whatever it is a monster. And now he has stolen my company, my city, my money, and now he has uploaded a virus that shut down my New-U stations... I am going to kill him."

"Calm down Mr. Blake, this is the reason you contacted us, and the association I work for is willing to help you on one condition."

"What is it?"

"All of the tech and DNA recovered from this group of experiments, on and off Pandora is the sole property of the Atlas Corporation. Even the one referred to as Zer0, I understand you have a bounty on him but we require you to rescind that."

"Why are you so interested in these "experiments", you said they were failed?"

"They are Mr. Blake but we at the Atlas corporation have learned from our time on Pandora and are not interested in leaving any loose ends here."

"Fine... But if you can't take care of this I sure as hell will!"

"You have no need to worry Mr. Blake, everything will be under control."

Maya sat down in the HQ's meeting room her head in her hands, her elbows on the table. She felt terrible. She felt guilty. And she had no idea why! It was baffling! She felt so ashamed about what she had done to Zer0, that she had driven him to kill a defenseless Kain in cold blood. For anybody else it would be in a normal days work to execute a dangerous prisoner but Zer0 held himself to a sort of, code of honor. He would kill people obviously, and Zer0 was not a white knight like anyone on Pandora, but he had never killed an unarmed opponent. Maya had changed that, Maya had pushed and pulled Zer0 until for some reason he broke. He slew Kain while he was laying on the ground bleeding. Zer0 has essentially executed him. And it was her fault. What had been going through her head? She had called out to him, tried to calm him down, and as soon as he looked back at her and began to come back to his senses, she began to kiss Axton. There had to be something wrong with her! She didn't even like Axton that much... He was nice and all but he needed a serious reality check, he had expected Maya to sleep with him after one kiss. One kiss! Now Maya obviously isn't amazing in the whole personal interaction area of knowledge but after exchanging one kiss with a girl she isn't exactly expected to jump right into your bed, right? She wanted to be with Zer0! But she had pretty much ruined that chance. Zer0 hated her now too, Zer0 had come back to try and help them, to help her, but she had returned the favor by sucking face with Axton. Zer0 had to have felt something to stop and turn to her when he was in his hunt and kill mode, and she had dragged him through the mud by her blatantly slutty behavior.

She had been running through the situation for the two weeks since the incident and she kept asking herself what she could do to make it up to Zer0 but she didn't see any way. Her only hope of ever being with him would be to stick with this plan she had came up with, she couldn't even believe that she thought this was a good idea at one time. She wanted to be with Zer0 so she should act like a goddamn slut and try to get with Axton. Great idea Maya! This was strategy was on par with a high school student! And now thanks to her genius goddamn plan Axton kept hitting on her. Not like "Hey you wanna go out" hitting on no that would be to simple... He kept making advances on her with innuendos that were on par with Moxxi's. "Moxxi!" Maya suddenly yelled aloud "She is good with men... stuff" Maya immediately got up and began to power walk to the bar, Zer0 probably wasn't the most normal man to try to get but if anybody on Pandora could help her it was definitely Moxxi.

Salvador sat at the bar gently stirring his drink of tequila, it was three o' clock and had usually pounded three or four glasses of this stuff by this time. He didn't understand why he was so, unattractive to his liquor today. After the incident with Kain he had felt odd, he was calmer, drinking less, being reasonable, and hadn't craved human flesh for a little while now. Basically he wasn't Salvador anymore. And he was utterly confused as to what had happened in the final battle with Kain, he was at gunpoint in his final seconds he had always fantasied that he would go out in a super bad ass way like a giant explosion or while murdering a thousand bandits. How did he go out? Reciting a prayer. Like a damn idiot. Religion was a thing he had lost a long time ago, being on Pandora he was conditioned to be hard and bloodthirsty, not anything usually preached by religions. His mother, god bless her soul, would have hated to see him like this a bloodthirsty maniac, she always preached about love and peace and that because Pandora brought out the worst in people I had to be one of the very best. Then she was murdered by psycho bandits and helped create the Salvador everyone knows today.

Salvador was so wrapped up in his thoughts he barely noticed when Maya strolled into the bar. She was on a mission to talk to Moxxi but when she noticed Salvador with alcohol in front of him that was not already on its way down his throat.

"Sal whats up with you? This alcohol in front of you isn't being drunken... That is not something Salvador would do. Are you sure you aren't an alien or something?"

"Hardy har har." said Salvador "I've just been thinking about our fight with Kain and what went down there."

"Me too" Maya said sitting next to Salvador at the bar "I've been feeling pretty guilty about what I did to Zer0."

"What? What did you do to him?"
"I don't want to talk about it, sorry. Whats going on with you?"

Salvador shot Maya a look and downed the glass of tequila, "I was at gunpoint with a madman trying to kill me and I started praying. Praying. I am the scourge of Pandora and I'm not supposed to go out like that. It was supposed to be a blaze of glory or a final vengeance against somebody. I went out accepting the end."

"The end? We have New-U stations for a reason."

"I don't know Maya, Kain was so sure we would die there, I think something might be up with the New-U stations. I mean why would Kain go through so much trouble to kill us if we would re spawn at the nearest station?"

"No... Don't say things like that. That would be devastating to us, one life... What would that make us?"

"Normal people. Would it be that bad Maya? I have lived so long and done many horrible things, maybe this is His way of making me pay for all I have done."

Maya worriedly looked at Salvador and got up from her seat "This is messed up Salvador! Don't accept death! You are Salvador the Gunzerker! You. Don't. Give. Up. And why are you religious all of a sudden? You eat dead people!"

"I know, I know, I am the horrible murdering manaic in the group. That is why I am concerned with my soul, the fact that I am still considered a psychopath among our group of mass murderers is a little troubling."

"Just don't go soft on me Sal... Everyone around is changing, please stay like the crazy homicidal midget we know and love." Maya said moving behind the bar towards the back room.

"I'll think about it chica" Salvador said sliding his glass of the edge of the table and swaggering out of the bar.

Maya looked concernedly after Salvador, he still had his tough guy attitude sure, but he seemed very distraught and tired. "Oh I hope he doesn't do anything dumb..." Maya debated going after him he did seem like he needed some moral support... "My problems aren't that bad." Maya finally caved saying, "Sal wait up!" following him out of the bar.

Zer0 sat alone in the dark, he was sitting on a rotted wooden stool grinding his sword on a whetstone. It had obtained several nicks and scratches from its fight against Kain's tantos. The only other blades on Pandora that could stand against the unwavering metal of his katana. Exactly what metal it was Zer0 didn't know but it was the same material used to make all of his brothers weapons, and probably his sister too. "Kain, Four, Three, and Ten were here... Who else?" sad Zer0 introspectively. His entire family was not made of murdering psychopaths but the majority were. He didn't think that a family reunion along two sirens would be a great idea. The two groups generally didn't get along... so why did he used to feel such an attraction to Maya? The two were about as compatible as fire and ice, Maya who was extroverted, determined, and, still retained her innocence. Himself on the other hand, introverted, deceiving, and he bore no more innocence than the monsters inside the Vaults that he was hunting. All those Vaults,why was it that feral monsters bent on killing people were trapped inside them but not him. He had killed many more men than Destroyer and Warrior combined but since he did it with a conscious intent of doing it he wasn't considered a monster. What hypocrites! They assumed because he was of able body and mind that he was able to control these urges, well he wasn't! He was like a shark, when he smelled blood he went to kill mode and couldn't control himself any more than the man mountain Brick could. The killing was like a drug! Once somebody started it they couldn't stop, and nobody else understood that! No one else wanted to stop the violence! They all reveled in it and thought it made them hero's. It doesn't! Hero's spare the lives of their enemies or kill them in fair combat not kill them in cold blood!

"Like I did to Kain..." Zer0 suddenly realized "I am as bad as all those I condemn. I was weak and emotional, the two things I must never be. Maya has panted a seed of weakness in me, one that Ten will surely exploit, he must die before I am destroyed by this." Zer0 decided suddenly getting up and making his way to exit of his cave.

"But where am I hiding Zer0?" said a presumptuous staticy voice "A dilemma indeed Zer0. I know where you are but you have no idea of my location. And don't even think of tracing my echo I had a technical wizard whip up a signal cloaker for me."

" Only Kain or Gaige could have developed that kind of technology Ten and as far as I know Kain is dead and Gaige is in Sanctuary."

"What about Three?" Ten said chuckling

"Ten, I will find and kill you, Three has no means to defend himself other than running and hiding, he will be the far easier of the two of us to catch. By the end of the week you will be lying in a pool of blood praying to whatever dark god you believe in to save you. Prepare yourself Ten, a storm is coming." Zer0 said closing the Echo call.

Mick Zaford sat in the behind the bar at Holy Spirits, more bored than he had been in a long time. Since the Vault hunters had helped him clean up the Hodunk's gang there had been nothing to do around here but make money of the people of Overlook. About a week ago some robots had attacked that looked like those old Hyperion ones but the Zaford's had shown them a few things about fighting an Irish family. Although they didn't have as many members as those inbred half-wit Hodunk's each and every one of them were willing to fight to the death to protect the one thing that was the most important in the entire universe, their bar. Three brave souls had died in that fight, Jimmy, Paul, and Angus. They were all good boys who's families were mourning them. Although he tried not to be cold hearted Mick could barely even care about it, he had seen so many of his family die. Brave men and women who gladly gave their lives to protect the family.

Mick was tired, tired of the death, he had saved up enough money to buy shuttle fair back to his home on earth, he reasoned some of his family was still hanging around in Boston, the Zaford's couldn't have all died out. Mick looked down to the inside of his wrist and looked at the tattoo he had there. It was a black rose with the name "Katherine" under it, Mick had gotten it soon after he had immigrated to Pandora. It was the name of hos beautiful wife who had... "Stop thinkin' 'bout those dark times Mick, mournin' and gon' do nothin'" Mick said to himself, his thick Irish brouge making his speech patterns hard to understand. He wanted to leave this godforsaken plane but for some reason couldn't leave this damn place without a form of final revenge. Against the planet as whole, the skags the bandits,the robots, the whole damn place.

The only people who had ever helped him with no strings attached were those vault hunters, the helped him protect his home and family for a few bucks or a shiny gun. Why? That was the same question he asked himself every day. He owed them a debt that couldn't be repaid by money or favor, it was a life debt. Mick Zaford would forever be in debt to a group of immoral mass murdering psychopaths. "Well in all fairness my family isn't much better either." Mick said to himself laughing while filling a pint glass. Mick planted himself in a chair and put his feet up on the bar.

"Here's to getting some revenge on this arsehole of a planet!" Mick said as he started to chug the pint of beer. As soon as the first of Mick's home brew beer touched his lips the door to the now vacant Holy Spirits burst open and a shadowy figure stood there wielding a katana in his right hand. Mick fell out of his chair, spilling his ale all over himself, and began to stutter and cough "Zer0, what in 'ell are you doin' 'ere?"

"I have arrived to, exact a debt from you Mick, stand up and face me."

"I new havin' friends like you was to good to be true." Mick said drawing a pistol "Have at me then! I can't say I won't go down withou' a fight!" Mick jumped up and rushed Zer0 yelling an intelligible cry and raining slugs from his magnum on Zer0's chest. Each slug passed through Zer0 and hit the wall behind him and when Mick drew close Zer0 disappeared and and re-appeared next to him striking his throat with the blunt side of his katana, knocking him to the floor.

"Mick I have not come, for a debt of blood, I need your help now."

"Wha' could you possibly need 'elp from me for?"

"Information is, what I need Mick, no one else can help"

"I'm listenin'."

Zer0 dropped to one knee and looked at Mick eye to... mask, and said "I need to find and kill Ten the assassin, and you are one of the few people I think I can trust."

"Why can't you trust that Vault hunter team you have up in Sanctuary?"

"I suspect we have a traitor in our organization, Ten knows thing he shouldn't. You are not a part of our group and owe me a debt. I feel I can trust you, don't let me down."

"You think you can walk in my bar and demand my help Zer0! Do you honestly think that is how it works!" Mick yelled a he jumped to his feet and started yelling in Zer0's face "I only got one goddamn thing to say to you!" Mick said spraying spit all over Zer0's visor while Zer0 stood there as still as a statue "Let me go get my figh'in hurl." Mick said slyly as he whipped out his Echo device "Seamus! We're gon' need guns! Lotsa guns..."

A/N: Woohooo! The first chapter of Episode 2! Than you to each and every person who wanted me to keep writing but unfortunate now you'll never be rid of me! I hope you all aren't to thrown off by Mick's accent because he will be a recurring character. I have been waiting for a long time to bring him into the story and his personality is being heavily influenced by the Dropkick Murphy's new album "Signed and Sealed in Blood". Also if you don't know what a hurl is google it, you should know, if you do know what a hurl is good for you you get Irish kudos. They are the best kind of kudos.

Please R&R

Adios Mustachios!