Chapter 4

'This is the start of something incredible'...'We show them our true strength'...

'...A Siren..."

Axton shot up from his sleep, gasping for air once again. It has been too long since he has gotten a proper sleep. He rubbed his face from the the cold sweat triggered by the dream. He quietly sat up from his mattress. Salvador was snoring lightly, which was unusual, but Zer0 always looked the same. A slightly dimmed 'Z' was hologrammed on his helmet showing that he was asleep.

He lifted his head and stared at that animal that was perched up on top of his shelf. Too many memories came from that collection of stuffed cotton and sewed fabric.

'I...I will kill him..' Axton thought while laying down on his bed again. He laid awake for about half an hour just thinking to himself.

"I wish I could tell you Maya..." Axton whispered quietly.

He could feel Maya's pain emanating from her emotions and expressions. She truly lost a lot. Atlas corporation was supposedly responsible for the tragedy on the planet of Athenas, Maya's home planet. Their motives were truly unknown, it was speculated however that they did that to ensure intergalactic dominion over the planet, to show Hyperion they aren't messing around city of Helios was wiped off the face of the map due to an atomic blast that detonated in the city. Shortly after the incident, Atlas was issued an indefinite suspension of business decree so another incident couldn't occur again. The mighty and feared Crimson Lance began to whittle away, before Atlas became nonexistent.

'90,000 people' Axton thought '90,000 fucking people...dead in the blink of an eye'

Then it was supposedly Hyperion's turn to throw their hat into the ring. A small army led by Handsome Jack himself orchestrated a massacre in the city of Mombusha, killing roughly 600 people while doing so. Nearly as mysterious as Atlas, Hyperions motives, were truly unknown, and no one could intervene because no organization would dare trifle with the might of Hyperion. Handsome Jack had (and still does have) the galaxy in his back pocket.

Gunfire was constantly heard in the back of Axton's mind while he thought about this. No matter what he did, he couldn't fight it. The voices wouldn't stop.

'The voices...these goddamn voices...' Axton thought clenching his fists. He could never get proper sleep, yet he still tries.

-4 YEARS AGO-

Death.

That was what surrounded Maya whilst running through the streets of Mombusha, hundreds of souls dead from the might of Hyperion. Why they were doing this, was completely shrouded in mystery.

As she was running through the streets, she came face to face with a man who knocked her down to the ground and pointed and assault rifle at here face.

"What's this?" Mr. Blake said "A Siren caught off her guard?"

Maya couldn't react, she was to shocked by these turn of events to fight back, all she wanted was to run away. Forget this ever happened.

"Just close your eyes, dear," Mr. Blake said "This won't hurt a bit."

He then aimed his gun at Maya's face, about to pull the trigger, when all of the sudden, Mr. Blake was shot in the head from a distance, by a man who was badly injured and wearing a tuxedo of some sort. Maya couldn't tell who this man was because he was covered in shadow, perhaps to not give chase to anybody. After staring at the man who saved her life, he moved towards the massacre that was going on in the center of town.

'Who is that man?' Maya thought 'And why did he save me?'

She decided not to think most of it,quickly stood up and head for the evacuation that was going on south of the town lead by the Dahl corporation.

-PRESENT TIME-

After thinking to himself for a bit, he slowly closed his eyes then drifted off into his half-assed sleep where he kept hearing voices...

Just like old habits, Axton and Roland were the first to get up. Axton did his morning routine, 100 push-ups, 30 pull ups, and 100 inverted situps. But this time it was different, because he didn't need to wake up Maya, she was up when Axton was doing his pull-ups. Maya walked in to little exercise room Axton built to see a shirtless Axton doing many pull ups, causing her to blush and widen her eyes a bit.

"Oh...Morning," Axton said finalizing his pull up routine then jumping down from the bar.

"M-m-morning," Maya said staggering

'Jesus, he has a nice body...' She thought to herself

Axton then walked up to Maya wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Hey, can you toss me that cloth hanging over there?" Axton said pointing to the rage hanging on the bar right next to Maya.

"Oh' Maya said looking down at the cloth "Sure, here you go," Handing him the cloth.

"Thanks" Axton said wiping his face off before continuing with his conversation with her.

"So what's the reason you're up so early?" He said

Maya then said snapping out of her trance "Oh! Well, I don't really know, I guess it just sorta happened..." She began to slowly trail off, her eyes shifting downward.

"Hey" Axton said snapping his fingers "My eyes are up here," He said pointing to his eyes.

Maya then said something he didn't expect.

"Yeah well your pecs are down here," She said before covering her mouth in embarrassment, which caused Axton to laugh lightly.

'How could have I said that?! What's wrong with me?!' Maya thought while mentally slapping herself for letting that slip out of her mouth.

"Well I guess women can be as equally perverted as guys can," Axton said walking past her to go find his shirt and backpack.

'Goddammit Maya' She thought to herself.

After Axton washed off his face he walked up to Roland, who was up and about a little before Axton.

"Well what's on the agenda today Roland?" Axton asked putting his backpack on.

"We're getting closer and closer to the Vault key, all we need is enough firepower to be able to punch through the second gate," Roland said

"One problem, I have no clue how the hell we're gonna get through the third gate." Roland admitted in defeat

"Eh, we'll figure it out," Axton said patting his back, then turning his head to face the screen to see the liknesses of someone they trusted, but ended up working for Hyperion all this time.

"If I may...," A voice said from the command computer Roland built.

"What do you want, Angel?" Roland said annoyed that the person who guided them to the vault in the first place was actually working for Jack. "I told you to never contact us again!"

"If you just listen to me, I know how you can get through the third gate," Angel said trying to win back Roland's trust.

Roland then let out a huge sigh before saying "Alright...What is it?"

"Well, Jack has a double stationed at the city of Opportunity to confuse Assassins and, well, admire himself," Angel said.

"If you can kill his double, I can digistruct one of you into an identical clone of Jack, but the gate is also password protected and can be only said in his voice, so you'll have to go to kiosks to collect samples of his tone and voice." Angel said explaining his plan.

Every time Angel mentioned Jack's name it only made Axton angrier, he was edging to finally off with the bastard.

"John..." Axton muttered

"What was that?" Roland asked confused

"Uh...I mean Jack, sorry." Axton said correcting himself.

"Oh, well you better go wake up your team and head to Opportunity," Roland said reiterating on the situation

"Alright, I'll skip the hilarious wake-up for Salvador," Axton said to Roland, causing him to laugh.

"Alright, but one is too many," Roland said cracking a smile.

Axton walked into the room where Zer0 and Salvador were sleeping, giving them both a little tap on the shoulder. Salvador woke up and stood, scratching his head and yawning before saying.

"What? Couldn't tink of a way to wake me up rudely?" Sal said to Axton.

"Naw...Just giving you a break, that's all," Axton said reassuring him that he is FAR from running out of ideas.

Zer0 stood up, shaking his shoulders a bit, and cracking his neck.

"Alright guys, were heading to Opportunity to kill a double of Jack, so we can get past the final door, grab the vault key, then put a bullet through Jack's head" Axton said explaining the game plan to everybody, including Maya who was standing by the doorway.

"Well what we waiting for? Salvador said amping up himself and loading his weapons.

"Welcome to the city of Opportunity!" An overly-friendly automated voice said "We hope you enjoy your stay here in this wonder-"

BANG! The greeter was shot by Salvador, who was getting annoyed by it.

"Alright, find Jack's double, shouldn't be too hard," Axton said to his companions.

'If only this was the real one...' Axton thought to himself.

They found Jack's double strolling around Opportunity, looking very boastful and douchebaggy, a perfect Handsome Jack imitation that they've seen yet.

Axton was quick to react, charging at him with his hatchet, and striking him where the shoulder meets the neck, instant kill.

"Well, that's one way to kill a double," Maya said

"Oh I can think of more, this was just the fastest." Axton then said.

"Okay," Angel said to them "You need to steal the pocketwatch from his back pocket, then collect data from each of the kiosks posted around town. i need about five sound files to be able to get an accurate voice module,"

"You heard the lady," Axton said "We'll spread out and collect files on the kiosks, just put them on your ECHO device, that should work."

As Axton instructed, the four of them collected voices from the douchebagallow named Handsome Jack, hearing him spew more and more bullshit was getting to Axton's head.

'Can't wait to kill you Jack...' Axton thought to himself.

"Alright Angel, we got five sound files, now what?" Axton asked through his ECHO.

"Go to the main control room, and upload the files, I'll process them and they should become a compiled sound wave so you can sound like Handsome Jack, now I know you don't want to sound like a douche-bag,uh I mean uh... baggage. I'll just put them on a device that you can use when you're at the door, you can attach it to your neck and your voice should sound like Jack's." Angel explained.

"Alright, lets go" Zer0 buzzed in.

As per instructions from Angel, they uploaded the files to the main computer, waiting for the files to be transferred, before a green light was emitted, showing the file transfer was done.

"Alright take the device and keep it with you when you get to the door, I'll tell you the password to get in so just trust me on this one-AHHHHH!" She screamed in pain at the end, causing the hunters to be shocked.

"You and me are going to have a talk, Angel," Handsome Jack ECHOed to Angel, with a slight frustrated tone.

"Jack...," Axton muttered "Well, there's nothing we can do for her yet, we best get to Sanctuary and prepare for the attack,"

"Alright," Maya agreed.

Back at Sanctuary, Roland, Lilith and Mordecai were prepared for the next assault on Jack, to try and steal his one and only ticket to the Vault. The Vault hunters returned to Sanctuary and showed Roland the voice changing device and the pocket watch.

"Both of these items can turn somebody into an identical clone oh Jack," Axton explained.

"Perfect, great job guys on retrieving this." Roland said commending them "How was that Lilith?"

"Pretty good, it was a little forced," Lilith said, once again acting as his 'courtesy coach'.

"Well, better get some rest and relaxation, cuz tomorrows gonna be a big day!" Mordecai said before laughing "Those motherfuckers are gonna pay for what they did to Bloodwing,"

"And they will," Roland said assuring him.

Axton then went into his room with the voice modulator in his hands, he sat on his bed and began to press the button on the modulator, playing phrases said by Handsome Jack

"Love your parents kids! But love me more..." Axton pressed it again

"Opportunity is the future of Pandora!" and again

"Hyperion is on your side!" and again

"Opportunity can guarantee your safety and well-being," and again

"How long do you think you'll survive, Axton?"

This startled Axton causing him to drop it on the floor (thankfully not breaking it). He stared at it for a few seconds, taking huge breaths. He slowly picked up the modulator and placed it right next to the stuffed animal on his shelf. He stared at it again before thinking to himself.

'Jack...I should have killed you when I had the chance...'

He then darted out of the room to head outside, not noticing Maya was watching him the whole time. Maya then walked over to both the modulator and stuffed animal on his shelf then saying to herself softly.

"Axton...I want to help you..."