Four sorrows

Maya snarls as she yanks a blade out of a bandits ribcage, she assumes him to be looking at her- difficult to tell when they all wear those masks. For it though, she is grateful- its easier to do this when she can't see the life leave their eyes. Warm blood rolls down the rusted blade and slides over her hand, she can feel it cooling on her skin. She pitches the blade off to the side, the tip of it sticks deep into the ground. Her eyes linger on it for a while, its lingering blood pooling in the dirt, much like the body off to the side. All around her tossed and scattered like unwanted toy are bits and pieces of bodies, some perforated with bullet holes, others corroded by the inside of her violet orbs. He has been doing this for many years, how does he do it and feel nothing? There are people under those masks, she knows that but she can push it off to the side when she can't see their faces.

She pauses to think about Mordecai and wonders if he feels guilty at all or if he is numb to it. What is his value of the human life? What are his morals- how does he determine them? He seemed so kind before but he goes back and forth like a caged animal, perfectly calm and fine one moment and the next lunging at the bars of its confines. Maya finds herself staring upward at the lunar satellite and wonders precisely what was it that she was not there for, they all seemed so shaken at the though of that thing turning back on. Hmm. How could she find that out?

As Maya strolled along and kicked at various bodies she thought to herself. The only way to know, is if they tell her what happened. Again she kicked a body too look at the shield it wore, nice. She crouched down and pulled it off the corpse, examining it in her hands. Damn it really outclassed hers by a long shot- but the little stitch on the side was turned off. What an idiot. In the back of her mind she mused that it was not right to treat a body in such a manner as she dug in the mans pockets and looked in his back pack, taking his more valuable guns and ammunition. In the end she decided he was not really a body so much as rakk chow.

Once her bag was full she picked it up and slung it over her shoulder then quickly placed it back down on the floor. A deep throbbing pain was suddenly very clear in her mind, right on her shoulders. With a gentle touch she pulled at the collar of her shirt to try and look at herself. She is shocked to see a deep purple shadow of the hands that had forced her against the wall. With a huff she lets go of the cloth picks up her bag and ignores the pain while she walks the heavy bag sagging on her back.

Mordecai walks through the halls curious as to why the only thing around is various loaders scrubbing and sweeping. Well he supposed it doesn't really matter... he just has to go find the control room and shut the damn thing down again. Apparently this was just a little mission after all, so there was no reason for him to react the way he did when Maya tried to join them.

" you feel bad yet?"

He turns to see Salvador looking up at him inquiringly, he doesn't look like himself. Not the slightest twinkle of amusement there, just irritation and disappointment. Even Axton hasn't said anything, ah but he wont look at Mordecai...that says quite a lot. They continue walking in silence until they come across a strange apparatus built into the wall. A tall tube, with little metal things folded up and pressed against the sides. The door hands open, the inside still glistening with some viscous fluid that drips down the insides.

Not good. Jack watches the scene with almost lewd intensity, he doesn't recognize a single one of them. However when he looks at the tall one up front an alarm in the back of his head rings violently. Who is that? So familiar... Jack leans to the side and reaches down to the bottom drawer on the left of his desk. Files, he remembers putting these together, hard copies for when the screen gave him headaches. As he pulls the thick manilla folder up a puff of dusty air wafts upward, he coughs and waves it away. What? The folder slaps against the open space in front of the security screen, a thick layer of dust on its surface. How did that happen?

"hmmph..."

He zooms in on a still frame of Mordecais face as he flips open the folder. The ink has begun fading and parts are difficult to read. His fingertips slide over the surface of the paper as he wonders how long it was after...whatever destroyed the satellite and his emergence from the old model of new u station. This page is about a female, Lilith... hmmm- a siren, that's not helpful. He flips the page again.. several pages about this Lilith character before he finds several more pages of a soldier. The next collection of pages is more like police report...it is a police report. A large man that refers to himself as "Brick"

Jack sighs as he tosses these pages off to the side and finally locates the wanted poster of a man with a leather mask and goggles hiding most of his face. The image sneers up at him, the upper lip curled so disdainfully as if the photographer was wasting his time. He raises the flier up beside the still frame on his screen...how long has it been? This man has either aged horribly or it really been a good few years. Fuck. Jack flicks the screen returning to real time, he watches the group walk around the laboratory where his cloning tube is located. Mordecai slide his machete behind it and cuts through every connecting wire. Bastard.

No point running in completely blind, Jack continues to read the file, which turns out to a long list of creatures hes posted damage hes left behind and a few blurry photos of him in motion. Little is determined by this aside from the fact that he's a poacher or he was a poacher. How incredibly unhelpful, he settle to turn on the sound and listen to them. They aren't talking much just walking around disconnecting things and being generally irritating. Jack can feel a vein in his forehead throbbing as he waits for them to say something useful. After a good few minutes he spies Axton pausing in place and turning to look directly at the camera.

" did that move?"

Mordecai had noticed that awhile ago, it had worried him for a moment until he saw that every loader paused to look at him before returning to their tasks.

" yea, their probably automated though."

Axton doesn't seem convinced.

"that's not our kinda luck."

True enough. Mordecai turns to look at the camera, his glare remaining unseen aside from a slight frown.

" he's watching us."

Axton looks at the zooming lens then back at Mordecai, he probably right but it would be nice if he was wrong. Instead of turning around like thinks they should Axton watches as Mordecai flips off the camera and says in a projecting voice.

" you there cabron? You just sitting there watching us, don't worry pendejo it's gonna get interesting real soon."

With that he whips out a large revolver that had been hanging on his hip and shoots the camera, he shoots every camera ahead of them before they enter its line of sight. While jack can no longer watch what they're doing he snorts and grins to himself as his fingers fly over the keyboard. They're going to want to leave eventually, so this will be fun. Now what he wants to do is harass them over the intercom, but that sort of loses its charm when he cant see their faces twist up like angry little monkeys.

Eventually they find their way up to the control room, which is locked tightly. Axton snorts and bashes the butt of his gun against the palm scanner, to his surprise the doors don't just fly open. They can hear zero snort- was he laughing? Mordecai steps out of the way so zero can wedge his blade under the broken plastic and peel it off the wall. The device dangles there connected by several colorful wires, and wide ribbons. Salvador can't see what it is the assassin is doing but whatever it was he did it fast. The doors hiss before jerking open, the air that rushes at them smells entirely of rotten bodies. It happens so fast Axton whips around and away trying not gag. Salvador doesn't seem bothered by it, Mordecai lifts part of his scarf up over his nose and mouth while Zero is still breathing fresh clean air through the gas mask built into his helmet.

Sure enough sitting in the various chairs around the room are long dead bodies that have rotten away still hunched over keyboards and screens. Security screens. All of which show static images since Mordecai shot all the cameras. Axton stays out of the room trying to keep his stomach from ejecting its contents while Mordecai leans down and peels up part of on of the computers. Zero watches curiously as Mordecai pulls out a small narrow green board and tossing it to the side. He keeps fishing til he finds a specific piece of metal plastic and several connecting wires. After he separates it from the rest of the set up he hands it to Zero who then shuts down everything but the fast travel station.

Feeling a mix of relief and disappointment the four of them walk down the long path back to the fast travel station that will take them home. This time they natter on about what they had expected and how bad it could have been. More importantly how bad its going to be when Mordecai gets back, surely hes going to go back and walk right into the lions den.

In sanctuary the first one to arrive back is Zero then Salvador and then Axton, the three of them stand around idly waiting for Mordecai to touch down. Minutes roll by at snail speed, eventually Salvador grumbles and steps out of the station not willing to wait any longer.

"FUCK!"

Axton quickly turns and looks at Salvador who is staring angrily upward.

"what?!"

" come and see for yourself amigo"

Axton and zero quickly walk out to look up and see the Hyperion satellites lights all flicking back on. Zero reaches into one of the pouches attached to his suit and pulls out the small chunk of metal that he had been handed earlier. Axton turns around to rush back in, only to find that the destination is locked up.

"FUCK!"

Zero bolts away with the device in hand, he jumps up onto a lower rooftop running along the rest until he leaps into the balcony of headquarters. Lilith jumps in place when she spots him, a moment later Axton and Salvador come rushing in. she whips around to look at their panicked faces.

"what happened? WHERES MORDECAI!?"

" I don't know! He was fine the whole time but he didn't come back and the damn satellite turned back on-"

"what"

Lilith feels cold terror drop into her stomach, she cant stop the way her her face immediately shows her mix of horror and confusion. The way her voice warbles when she attempts to speak, her hands are clapped over her mouth as she shuts her eyes tightly.

" Lil? What... what do we do?"

She shakes her head at them while tears spill down her face, she can't handle another loss. It's too much!

" I don't know- I just I can't-"

Is he dead? What reason is there for him to not come back? Has he been captured, why? What reason would that bastard have to keep Mordecai alive if he had managed to keep hold of him. Maya Listens to this conversation as she leans against the yellow couch in the hallway, she had come back to ask for more useful work than just running a muck in bandit camps. Well she found it. Maya quietly left the woman in the other room crying while the other fumble about clueless as to what they ought to do.

Maya stands at the open door for a moment looking up at the satellite, she rubs her hand over her bruised shoulder and debates on what to do. With a heavy sigh she strolls out toward the fast travel station and makes sure her ammo belts are all full. That her shield is fully charged, yep all good. The station displays a the name of the station, in white letters instead of the usual orange. Her lips pull into a frown she taps the name and password box pops up. Well fuck. The only password she knows kind of bothers her, she types it anyway. I love you. Wrong. There's gotta be someone who can get rid of it... who knows that stuff? Maya walks out and thinks to herself who will know who it is that can fix the station- there really only one person outside headquarters that knows absolutely everyone of use.

To the bar. Moxxi's bar... she has seen it she has assisted in the cleaning but does not recall having ever met the woman called Moxxi. Its more likely that she already met this person but was not properly introduced. The bar is full of patrons trying to get a good buzz going before they have to clear out so those damn kids can eat.

Moxxi looks up to greet whoever has walked in, only to find herself staring right at Mordecai's wife. Inwardly Moxxi is glaring venomous daggers however outside she wears a lazy smile.

"welcome sugar, whats your poison?"

Maya blinks still unaccustomed to such strange phrases. Not wanting to say anything stupid she simply asks.

" poison? You are referring to alcohol?"

Moxxi has gotten very good at not letting her eye twitch anymore, despie however annoyed she might be and currently is.

" yes sugar, you want a drink?"

" no thank you-"

Moxxi looks at her curiously as she replaces a beer bottle back under the counter.

" well than I'm not sure how I can help you."

" do you know who it is that maintains the fast travel stations?"

Maya watches as Moxxie pretends to wipe down the bar top, not really doing anything.

" whats the problem? Can't figure out how to work it?"

Wait, did she just call Maya stupid? Maya pretends to have noticed the snide undertone in that little quip.

" password has been placed on one of the destinations, I need to go there."

" people lock things for a reason sugar."

" I must retrieve my husband, so I need to go there."

Moxxi smirks, green eyes suddenly twinkling with amusement. She tosses the rag into the sink behind her and places her hands on her hips as she responds.

" honey men need their space. If you ran him off you can just wait for him to come on back on his own time. Don't worry I'm sure you two can work whatever it is out-"

The sarcasm in her voice piles on Mayas shoulders like lead weights, what the hell is wrong with woman? Why is she being such a bitch? Every one has a limit, and Moxxi just strolled right past Maya's. Maya's eyes narrow at Moxxi.

" Mordecai is trapped on the Hyperion satellite. I need to get him back."

That shut her up, Moxxi stares in shock and horror at Maya. Whats with with that? What did that stupid satellite do from way out there floating in space.

" scooter can get you there- you tell him I sent you okay."

Maya nods without a word and walks away, pausing for a moment. There on the wall is a collection of photos. All photos of the underdome champions, four of which are Mordecai. In the last picture of him, Moxxi has pulled him down to her and presses a kiss to him. She looks around a moment longer and spots a second image of the couple together, this time however he has an arm over her shoulder as they both smile at the camera. Apparently there are a lot of things Maya has remained uninformed of.

When she arrives at the garage Scooters skinny little grasshopper legs stick out from the bottom of a lifted car. The sound of him muttering and clanking tools against various things blots out the sound of Maya's foot steps.

" excuse me-"

Scooter wriggle his way out and looks at her, he's seen her before. He got to see her all gussied up for her wedding, shes pretty now that she doesn't look so sad.

" yea?"

Maya bends down to hold out a hand for him to shake.

"you are the one that repairs the fast travel stations?"

"well shit you guys broke another one?"

He raises his black greasy hand to show her before he grabs a rag and starts trying to wipe the oil away. After a moment he huffs and pushes himself into a standing position.

"nothing is broken but there is a password preventing me from getting where I need to go and Moxxi told me you could help me."

Scooter looks at her curiously, a password? Those are in place for a reason... but Moxxi already seem to think whatever it is is important enough. He sighs wanting to ask what the hell, but if he was supposed to know someone would have told him by now.

" gimme a minute ok."

"alright."

He rummages around looking for that orange bottle with the special soap so his oil covered hands don't fuck up the stations circuits. Maya didn't expect to see the man so thoroughly cleaning his hands before grabbing a little black card and motioning for her to follow. They stroll along, Moxxi stands for a little while at her own door watching then walk by. Okay shes gonna go get him and bring him back. Everything is gonna be fine. Right?

A/N: im so sorry that this short little thing has taken so long!

Please forgive my tardiness- I haven't forgotten it or anything but as Halloween is coming up I have been rather busy sewing up my daughters costume( shes a vampire tooth fairy!) I am also sewing up my nephews costume along with making new menus for a local restaurant. I have in fact been busy I'm so sorry I know every body used the 'real life is happening' excuse but gee it does happen. Christ I'm such a slacker- if you all know my tumblr thingy you can at least take look at the art I've continued to post. Hey did you guys know I have a few illustrations for this story up on deviant art? Also WHERE DID MY BETA GO!

I love you guys and hope this is at least a decent read for all you babes, FEEDBACK PLEASE