The fight to Control Core Angel had been their most difficult fight yet. Even with the help of the Slabs, each of them were nearing their limits. Ammo was steadily dwindling, their stockpile of medkits vanishing even faster. Even the resident psycho, Krieg, stood bloodier and more rugged than usual. Despite this, a sense of determination had kept them going, being so close to getting their hands on the vault key and nearing the beginning of the end. As the door to the elevator closed and they began to descend, the Vault Hunters paused to catch their breath.
"Hold still," Maya scolded.
"It hurt less going in than with you poking around with it," Salvador grunted as the taller woman tended to the wound on his neck. "Ow! Gentler, woman!"
"Don't be a baby."
"Don't be a butcher!"
Watching them fuss, Axton shook his head before turning to his companion.
"You ready for this, darlin'?"
"Hell yeah," Gaige answered with a grin.
"How's the leg?"
"Still attached."
"Gaige..."
"I'm fine," She assured him, cocksure as ever. "Really."
Giving an unsatisfied grunt, Axton decided to let it slide, suffering from a few of his own scrapes and bruises. Taking a glance at Zer0, he was surprised to see a small but noticeable crack in the assassin's helmet. As if sensing the commando's gaze he cocked his head towards him quizzically, a red '?' briefly flashing on his faceplate.
"You alright?" Axton asked him.
The man's only reply was a simple nod.
Shortly after the elevator reached its destination, and before long they found themselves in the Guardian Angel's chambers. The revelation of Angel's identity shocked them, but they had little time to give it much thought before additional loaders appeared to stop them. Oddly, whereas before Handsome Jack belittled them every step of the way up the hill, he had gone oddly quiet. All for the better, as it allowed Angel to explain her plans of stopping him without interruption. While questionable, there was no time to try and find another way even as Roland arrived to lend an extra hand as the loaders continued their assault.
And then, as the last loader fell dead, the room seemingly lost all power, the only suggestion for otherwise being the quiet hum and glow of Angel's shield.
At first faint and soft, a familiar voice chuckled with ever increasing amusement, seemingly echoing from everywhere at once.
"You know, I've really gotta hand it to you bandits; for all the grief you give my board of directors, I'm willing to see a silver lining. Thanks to you I've doubled the number of people Hyperion's put to work in the past few months. Granted it's because you keep kill all the current people in the position, but that's besides the point."
The giant monitors activated to show the man himself, casting an eerie orange glow to the dim room. Without a word the Vault Hunters formed a loose circle, their backs to one another as they awaited for whatever was coming. Undeterred, Jack continued.
"I've done some thinking, soul-searching if you will. You remember Wilhelm, right? Big guy, fetish for metal, threw a train car at you? Yeah, you remember him. Well, I've managed to replace just about everyone you've killed so far. Engineers, soldiers, scientists. But Wilhelm was my enforcer. My right hand man. Not an easy hole to fill, and none of the drones I've got with me now have the right stuff. So I finally asked myself: what's better than an enforcer? The answer, it turns out, was easy."
The grenade detonated with the sound and force of a thunder clap, sending the Vault Hunters stumbling as most of their shields died to negate the blow. All at once power was restored as the lights in the room came back to life. When they did, and the Vault Hunters turned to face the new threat, what they saw stopped them cold.
Sabre Turret activating, cascading a shield around it and him, Axton faced the others with a hostage in hand. Still reeling, Gaige made to struggle before she felt the barrel of a revolver press against the side of her head.
"A commando!" Jack answered gleefully.
"Drop'em," Axton barked. "Drop your weapons!"
On the catwalk above, watching the standoff unfold, Roland tracked the commando's head and waited for the shield to drop. However, a series of beeps from the nearby console grabbed his attention, looking to see a countdown reach zero. The resulting explosion absorbed the commando and a good portion of the catwalk.
Torn, dazed, and confused, the Vault Hunters hesitated.
Axton didn't.
With a flash the revolver in his hand moved, releasing it's characteristic roar as it fired. Zer0's helmet shattered, a bloody geyser spewing forth as the assassin's head snapped back from the force of the impact. As he collapsed, the others finally acted. As one they opened fire, but in reply so did Axton's turret. Roaring defiance, Krieg charged toward him with the force of a freight train, buzzaxe raised high. Even as bullets tore into the psycho he only seemed to speed up. Then, as he reached the failing bubble shield, a rocket slammed into his side and sent him flying.
All at once more loaders, accompanied by Hyperion soldiers, flooded into the room.
"Axton!" Gaige screamed, thrashing against his hold. "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Savin' our asses," He muttered quietly. "Just look away and it'll all be o-"
A mechanical arm able to break concrete slammed into the commando's ribs, immediately vacating the air from his lungs. Losing his grip, the Mechromancer tore herself free.
"Gaige, wait!" Axton begged, falling to a knee as he clutched his ribs, his other hand reaching out to stop her.
In reply, a familiar, and for once unwelcome, behemoth of metal digistructed before him. In the next moment his turret began to retract back into its deck.
Watching Deathtrap approach, Axton decided being eviscerated wasn't that bad. Not for him, at least. However, before the bot could tear him apart its shields flared from a barrage of fire, pausing to fire off a lance of energy from its optic at an unseen attacker. Behind him, a hand grabbed Axton by the scruff of his neck and pulled. Falling firmly on his ass, he found himself surrounded by Hyperion troops. However, this time they appeared keen on keeping him alive.
"We got you, sir!" The one that had pulled him away said.
A pair of BUL loaders kept Deathtrap's attention while an ION loader stood nearby, cascading a new, larger shield over Axton and the soldiers. Quickly picking himself up, the commando found the control core to be in complete chaos. Even with a resurgence of Hyperion troops, the Vault Hunters were proving no easy quarry. Even Zer0, helmet now in pieces, had somehow returned to his feet and was now slicing through the enemy. No, not the enemy. Not anymore.
"Aim for it's propulsion system!" Axton ordered, assault rifle in hand. "Bring it down!"
Sending the upper half of a BUL loader flying, Deathtrap howled in pain as a mixture of corrosive and shock weapons ate through its shield and pelted its armor. Turning to face Axton and his men, it took the head off an unfortunate engineer and departed one soldier with his intestines. The bot had never been so terrifying until now. However, with a dozen rifles firing on it, it was not long before the bot released a pitiful whimper before collapsing to the ground, sparking and groaning mechanically. Sprinting forward, the commando placed a boot on the thing's chest and tore off a strip of armor. He could almost feel its optic watching him as he leveled his rifle at the thing's digistruct device.
"NO!"
As Axton emptied his clip into the bot his shields flared and began to die. Stumbling backwards, he saw Gaige staring him down with a look that would gladly kill him, given the chance. Beside Axton, a soldier raised his rifle to fire but the commando shoved his gun down.
"We take her alive!" He growled.
Before he could answer, a hole was punched through the soldier's chest.
Goddamnit, darlin'!
As she departed with all the rounds in her current magazine, Axton and his men approached, forming a half-circle around her.
"It's over, Gaige," He said. "Ain't no way Jack's letting any of the others walk outta here alive. But you drop your gun now, and he'll let you live."
"You fucking traitor!" Gaige screamed, seething as she stared the commando down.
"You're running out of time, darlin'," Axton urged her. "Just...please...put the gun down."
"We trusted you."
"I know."
"I trusted you!"
The commando's heart leapt to his throat.
"I know."
She made to speak further, but a gun fired and shattered the world. Gaige's expression changed, going from anger to confusion, looking down and holding a hand against her stomach and coming away red. Before she even began to teeter Axton was moving, dropping his rifle to catch her in his arms. As gently as he could, he lowered her onto the ground.
"No," Axton quietly begged. "No, no, nononono...darlin', darlin' look at me. Gaige, look at me!"
As the young woman's face contorted in pain a hand came to rest on Axton's shoulder.
"This is real touching and all, but you're meal ticket's still on the line."
Even as bullets continued to fly and men and machines died and exploded, respectively, Handsome Jack stood with the confidence of a man ten feet tall. Putting a hand to his mouth, he whistled. Within seconds, a trio of soldiers whose armor bore a white trimming on their armor appeared.
"Hand her over, Sergeant," Jack encouraged with a surprising tinge of compassion. "She'll get the best meds money can buy and then some."
Jaw clenched, Axton allowed the medics to take her. Straightening, he turned to face his new employer.
"Sounds like some of your friends are still breathing," Jack mused. "How about you go see to that while I talk with Angel?"
A number of responses jumped to mind. Most of them involving profanity. Instead, Axton gave the answer drilled into him for years.
"Yes, sir."
"Good man. Run along, now."
In ten years of Dahl military service, Axton had seen and done plenty of things he later questioned. But in the moment, without the time to stop and think, he locked himself down to the basics. Do the job, walk away alive. That was what he did then, and that was what he did now.
After what felt like an eternity of blood, smoke, and fire, the fighting ended. The bodies of Hyperion soldiers and loaders littered the ground. Giant craters from heavy weapons covered the walls and floor, some still smoldering. Among the bodies were four figures; an escaped experiment turned psycho, a mysterious assassin, a stocky gunzerker, and the leader of the Crimson Raiders. Carried out in worse shape than Gaige was Maya, under heavy restraint and heavier guard.
By then Axton was dead on his feet, for many reasons. Most of what followed was a blur, but before he departed for his new home on Helios, Jack's parting words rung loud and clear.
"You and me, kid? We're going places. For starters? Straight to the top."
A/N: Things can only go up from here, right guys?
...right?
I'm all for Handsome Jack getting his just desserts in the end, but I've yet to run into a fic with the idea of Jack trying a different approach to dealing with the Vault Hunters. Interested in seeing what happens next to our conflicted commando? Leave a review and let me know!