Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for all the reviews! And feedback, and also wanted to answer some questions too.
As for if I will abandon this story, no I will not. I have a good ending for this one and no matter how long it takes me I want to actually finish it. Also as for how often I put new chapters out, thats kinda sporadic. I update when I can but it's not always regular. But I try to get them out quickly. Anyway this is a chapter I have been looking forward to writing since I started this fic, so without further a due, here it is!
Beast
Days had passed since Zero's incident.
But passing time did not ease his guilt of what he had done. He'd endangered Maya's own safety to please his own disgusting pleasures.
The trek to the wildlife preserve was far, and the way had not been easy.
Hyperion loaders had now become a frequent encounter for the team. The days were beginning to wear on the vault hunters.
Zero lagged behind, bringing up the rear of the team as they marched on, drowning in his own thoughts, going out of his mind trying to control his urges.
He was trying to keep his distance from Maya, it only got worse the closer he got and he had not yet forgiven himself for losing it days before. But it was getting strong again.
The constant battle of bandit camps, loaders and threshers kept it at bay, but it was not enough.
He felt like he was losing himself, an unknown beast had risen within him and he could not bury it again.
It all started after that monster bit him.
Did it infect him somehow? Or let something loose? Poison him?
He was unsure of what it could be but he knew it all started then, that night...when his guard was down, and he failed to kill adequately.
And now he was paying for it.
He needed answers, and until they made it to that preserve, he was left with nothing.
He felt like he was crawling out of his skin, going mad with anxiety.
He felt things differently, heard them differently, all his senses were heightened, coming in stronger than ever before. He was having trouble balancing them. His senses were naturally higher than a humans...but not like this...this was not normal.
He rubbed the back of his neck and tried to shake the thoughts from his mind. He had to keep focused, he couldn't let the need overcome him again.
The evening was hot on their heels as they climbed the rugged landscape.
Salvador climbed to the top of the ridge and looked out on the scenery.
"Hey! I can see the preserve from here! If we make camp here, we can storm the preserve in the morning. We aint got no idea what critters are lurking around in there...better not try it at night." Salvador said putting his hands on his hips and looking at his comrades.
Maya sighed in relief, she wanted nothing more than to have a long soak in a hot shower...but at least getting to rest a while would do.
She trudged over to some large rocks jutting up from the cliffs and took shelter underneath them, letting her tired rump touch the hard rock.
She leaned her back against the stone wall and sighed.
Zero still stood on the foot of the overlook, staring at the preserve, his body unmoving.
Maya frowned.
She wished very much that she could read the dark assassin's mind...and find out what had gotten into him...
He had never been so on edge, so...out of control.
She worried for him...and she also worried for the safety of the others...what if Zero decided to turn on them?
She had never feared the tall man, but earlier...his stance, the way he moved, he intended to kill...and she had feared. Feared like she had not before.
She loved him...but she feared him, feared whatever was happening to him...would consume him.
She could handle his urges, but there was something more to them now.
She just couldn't put her finger on it.
The night fell slowly, and the vault hunters began to settle in.
Maya chose to sleep sitting up against the rocks, while the other two men slept on the ground.
Zero had yet to settle down.
He still stood, still as a statue, looking down on the landscape.
She debated going to him, attempting to comfort him...but his entire aura told her to simply leave him be.
And so she reluctantly did so.
Zero felt the wind wash over his form as he stood on the cliffs edge, he shifted his boot and sent small stones plundering down to the earth.
He couldn't wait until morning to get to that preserve.
He could not risk it.
He looked back over his shoulder, the other three hunters seemed to already be fast asleep.
Their journey had been long and he knew they were exhausted.
But he on the other hand was overflowing with energy.
Sleep was out of the question.
With one final look back at this comrades, and his lover, he leapt over the cliff.
The preserve loomed over the landscape, tall and wild, two pillars guarding the entryway.
Zero flickered out of sight and slunk into the building. His heart was racing, every nerve on end, his pulse spiraling wildly out of control.
On each side of him the hallway was lined with barred cages, lurking within them were animals he had not seen before.
Some resembled Skags, or stalkers, but they seemed to be a mere shadow of the animals they once were.
Some glowed purple and orange, dripping the vibrant colors as they moved...
Zero stopped and stared at the creature.
That purple glow, it was the same glow that the monster that had attacked him had carried.
That pulsing energy surrounding it, leaking from it.
The poor beast lumbered across the enclosure, slow and aimlessly, its large body hulking against the shadows.
What was Jack doing here, torturing these poor animals...what was he gaining from this?
Zero pushed on quickly, leaving behind the caged animal.
Zero wandered down the hallway slowly, sword a the ready, his cloak allowing him to be undetectable to eyes and ears.
He rounded the corner and came to what looked like a lab of some sort.
He peered inside.
Movement...there was somebody in there.
A stumpy man in a white coat wandered around the facility, a vile of unknown substance in his hand.
In the middle of the room, a small skag was chained to a lifted table, strapped down so that it could not so much as lift its head.
Zero crouched beside the window and watched.
The man took a large syringe and filled it with the glowing substance.
He then shoved the needle into the animal's shoulder.
I howled in anguish, writhing under the pain of the insertion, its moans echoing through the preserve.
This awakened the other animals, their answering cries began to rise up from the depths of the hallways, as if to comfort the pained creature.
Zero suddenly felt a twinge of blind anger rush through him. He suddenly felt very...connected to the poor beast on the table.
As if he could understand its pleas for mercy.
It was begging, begging for it to stop.
The others we attempting to comfort it from their far away cages.
Don't fight it they say.
Stay still they say.
Like hundreds of voices ringing in his ears.
Zero shook his head wildly, he was hearing things.
Or was he just going insane.
Either way he could no longer stand it.
Zero burst through the heavy glass window, shattering it into thousands of pieces. The glass shards clinked to the tile floor, tinkling like wind chimes.
The stumpy man dropped the vile, and it crashed to the floor breaking apart on contact, spilling its solution.
The skag on the table's eyes were wide with fear, its tethered limbs pulling at its confinement, trying hard to get away from the new danger that had burst into the room.
Zero looked at the skag, and then to the man who was attempting to retreat through the back door. Zero flung his sword toward the man, it stabbed through his shoulder and pinned him to the wall.
The man screamed in pain and writhed underneath the blade.
Zero proceeded to walk toward him...as he passed the tethered skag, its eyes still darting around in terror, he stopped for a moment.
The poor, poor creature...
Zero ran a gloved hand down the beasts back, not to threaten it, but in a small offering of comfort.
The animal stilled under his hand.
Zero then looked up to the man still pinned to the wall.
He walked casually toward the trapped man.
Like a rat in a cage.
He clawed at the sword desperately.
This man was nothing but a rodent, curled up in Zero's path.
He figured if he left him long enough he might just chew his own arm off to get free.
Zero stood before the man, now just as trapped as his test subject on the table.
"Look who is helpless now. I would very much like to slaughter you right here you fat little man, but I need answers." Zero mused darkly.
The man squirmed and furrowed his eyebrows.
"Fuck you!" He barked.
Zero sighed and rolled his eyes beneath his helmet.
He grabbed his pistol off his hip and firmed it up against the cubby little humans forehead.
"Now, we can do this the hard way, or you can cooperate. I suggest the latter. Unless you are willing to part with your brains." Zero said unamused.
The man squirmed under the barrel of the gun and shut his eyes tight.
"Ok! Ok!" He pleaded helplessly.
Zero pushed took the gun barrel away from his skull, but still held it in hand, just in case it were to be needed.
"What kinds of test have been going on here, who are you working for, and why." Zero barked the questions fiercely.
The man swallowed hard and winced as Zero pushed slightly on the hilt of the sword, digging it farther into his shoulder.
"AH! I-I...I work for Jack! He set up this wildlife preserve so we could test the effects of eridium on different species!" He cried out his voice thick with anguish.
"Go on." Zero commanded.
"We found that injecting different species with Eridium came up with different results, gave them extraordinary powers, altered their DNA, sometimes changed their outer appearance, made them stronger, faster, bigger..." The man wheezed.
"As head scientist I am in charge of finding new ways to alter the creatures, make them into killing machines that Jack could use to fight for him...But then...I discovered something beyond what I ever thought possible..." He said pausing for a moment.
Zero pushed on the sword again.
The man yelled out weakly.
"I-I found that if you mixed the creatures DNA, and the components of the eridium, and injected it into...humans...it made something even more powerful. When mixed with human DNA, the concoction turned them into something...fantastic..." He whispered.
Zero clenched his teeth.
"The first few tests were a failure. The test subjects transformed into beasts unlike anything I had seen, but they were unable to change back to a human, nor could they control the beast they had become. They were rabid killers, without any use to Jack. They would turn on us just as easily as they would turn on our enemies. Loose cannons do not make for good weapons of war. But, I began perfecting it, molding it, running test after test...until I created a serum that could allow a human to transform from man, to beast and then back again. The early subjects to this new serum were rough around the edges, due to the nature of the eridium the moons were the only thing that swayed their transformation. When they grew full, they would transform, and when the sun rose they would be human again. But these were still very risky, they killed wildly, the power of a wild animal and the eridium made them lose what human aspects they had when the moons rose. We had an incident where some got loose, we tracked most of them down and disposed of them...I am still researching the matter...it is still in the early stages...b-but could you imagine? A man, that could turn to beast on his own will? Control the beast...he would be more powerful than any Hyperion machine, than any bandit, or raider, he would harness power only comparable to that...of the warrior!" The man bellowed laughing wildly.
Zero felt his throat go dry.
"And what if you did not kill them all, the subjects that escaped. What if one were to bite another being. What of that?" Zero hissed.
The man snickered.
"Well our first test subjects...were highly contagious. When one bit a fellow scientist, he too gained the wild power to transform. He went mad. His body simply could not handle the heightened senses, the ability to hear the creatures we worked on, the power coursing through his veins willed him to lose his sanity. We had to put him down. Any bite from a creature would have the same outcome on a human..." The man looked into the blackness of Zero's helmet.
"So traveler..." The man whispered smiling.
"Which one of your comrades got bitten...or...perhaps...was it...you?" He snarled his lips pulling up in a wicked grin.
Zero grabbed the man by his throat, his strength choking the breath out of the squat little human.
"Oh...how...very unlucky...for you..." The man sputtered.
"What if the one bitten is not human." Zero said bluntly.
The little mans eyes grew wide.
"I-I have never seen the effects on someone who is not human...there are hundreds of possible outcomes..." The man said squirming.
"If you are not human...and you are...Alien...cyborg...humanoid...the effects could be very different. Possibly...you would have more control than a human, since the senses of humanoids are naturally heightened...maybe even sway the transformation on your own will!" The man looked as if he were a small child on christmas morning.
"That tells me nothing! How do I stop it! How is it cured!?" Zero yelled at the man.
The little man cowered against Zero's wrath.
"Th-there is no cure! I have not yet been able to reverse the effects of it! Once effected the subjects were unable to be cured!" The man said breathlessly.
Zero slammed his first against the metal wall, successfully denting it under his power.
"You are useless you little fucking worm! Meddling with nature like a child with matches! And now I suffer because of your need to fuck with the natural way of things!" Zero bellowed his anger bubbling out of him like lava from the earths core.
"I-i was just following Jack's orders! I swear!"
Zero but the barrel into the mans mouth.
"Do not push fault off on him! You are both human scum! Drunk with power that you do not deserve!" Zero snarled.
"You do as he pleases, listen to orders like a good little slut, suck his dick if he asks!" Zero yelled at him.
Zero could feel his skin boiling, he was so hot underneath his armor. His insides felt like fire, rising like bile from his gut.
And suddenly there was pain.
So much pain.
Zero nearly doubled over, clutching his ribs where the pain had spiked.
He gasped for breath, the overwhelming pain knocking the wind from his lungs.
The man stared wide eyed, crazed grin still clinging to his lips like a spiders web.
"You...poor, poor beast...you have no idea the hell you will suffer for the rest of your days..." The man coughed weakly his beady eyes wavering in his skull.
Zero looked up at him, gasping for the oxygen that was not there.
Zero stumbled backward crashing into the nearest medical table, knocking glass beakers to the floor.
Zero felt as if his skin were splitting, his bones breaking, cracking, expanding moving.
He fell to his knees, his knee caps biting the hard floor harshly. The pain of the fall was nothing compared to the pain searing out of his body.
He clutched his chest wildly.
What was happening to him!?
Then suddenly the door that Zero had failed to use flung off its hinges.
The sounds of machinery coming to life filled the room.
Loaders.
"Stop! Intruder!" The mechanical voice commanded.
Zero whipped around, pain still searing through his body.
Run.
He had to run.
The loader unleashed a spray of bullets across the room, Zero ducked and rolled across the floor, taking shelter behind a counter.
The loader entered the room, it's top scraping the ceiling smashing into the florescent lighting overhead, sending sparks scattering to the floor like fireworks.
Then suddenly, there was the snap of straps giving way.
The Skag on the table broke free of it's restraints, rearing it's now seemingly more massive head wildly.
It's jaws gaped wide, purple liquid running over it's teeth.
It sprung for the loader claws extended and hit the machine hard knocking it to the ground. It grabbed one of it's mechanical arms in its fangs and ripped it clean off, showering itself and the helpless loader in more multicolored sparks.
The beast smashed its front limbs into the loader's midsection and broke it clean in half.
It threw its head back and roared loudly, announcing it's war on those who had kept it hostage.
It wanted him to run.
It commanded Zero to run.
Zero leapt up nimbly despite the racking pain consuming him. He grabbed his sword from the mans shoulder and let him fall to the ground.
Zero looked back at the Skag, then down at the man.
Zero brought his sword down, successfully chopping the man's leg in two.
The stumpy little human screamed in anguish, blood spurting from the stump that was now his leg.
Zero sneered down at him.
"I'll let the creature finish you off. Let him have his revenge. I hope he makes it slow and painful." Zero mused as he made his leave through the back door of the lab.
Zero stumbled into the wide hallway, slamming into the wall as he did so, another wave of pain searing through him causing him to cry out. His heart was racing, pumping hard and fast as if in danger of exploding. He clutched his chest and pushed his crumbling body onward.
He forced himself onward, stumbling down the hall, he could hear the commotion behind him. It would not be long before those Loaders came for him. Loaders never come alone, and there would be more coming soon. Zero looked around frantically, to his left he caught a glimpse of something that looked like a control panel. He ran over to it and lifted the protective cover. Under each switch was a label, stating the species that the cage held. Zero quickly pulled every switch downward, changing the cages state to "release". Immediately sirens began to sound throughout the preserve. The loud wailing screaming through the vast hallways. There were the sounds of metal doors opening, and the sound of beasts awakening. The vicious cries of monstrous creatures filled Zero's ears. He needed to get out of here...now.
Zero forced his legs to move, forced his body to run. Every time his foot hit the floor it felt like a shock reverberating up through him, shooting pain through his leg. He gritted his teeth harshly and pushed himself harder. He had to get out of this place even if it nearly killed him, because the shit storm now forming behind him certainly would if he didn't. Zero came to the end of the hallway and pushed the heavy door open, he tumbled out onto the cold ground, his shoulder hitting the dirt hard. He cursed and lifted up on his elbow. He dragged himself to his feet, his body failing him miserably. Zero managed to get a few yards away from the wildlife preserve before his body simply could not go on. He fell to the hard ground, gasping for oxygen that did not exist, he felt like his lungs were shutting down, failing him. Suddenly there was a sick pop and Zero writhed to his back screaming in pain, his ribs, did they just...break?
He felt his bones seem to shift, popping and cracking without his control. He held up his arm and watched in horror as it seemed to grow, to conform into some new shape, stretching his armor to its max.
Zero stripped the armor off frantically, it was either take the armor off or lose it completely. His armor was form fitting, and as his body changed he was sure to ruin it. Zero scrambled out of his armor and fell to his hands and knees wheezing in pain, clutching his bare chest, feeling his muscles shifting, growing, swelling...
As his fingers dug into his chest, they met against something unfamiliar to the touch.
It was rough and hard, not like his skin at all. He looked down slowly...only to find in horror that his skin was splitting, giving way to sleek, wet, scale like armor. Zero dug his fingers into the earth as another shock of searing pain overtook him.
Dear god just let me die!
He pleaded weakly, tears stinging his eyes.
There was a ripping sound that would make the strongest of men cringe, and long jagged spikes sprouted like weeds from his back and arms. They jutted from him menacingly, sharp as blades and wicked as evil itself.
Long black claws slowly grew from his fingertips, breaking right through the skin causing blood to run down his palms. Zero grew sick with the pain and vomited onto the dirt, his stomach wrenching as it emptied its contents.
Zero's vision grew blurry, his body fading as the shift took the energy from him, stealing it like a well trained thief.
Paws replaced his thin hands and feet, his legs expanding and growing, muscles swelling to monstrous size. Zero could feel his jaw pop and crack as it extended into a large canine muzzle.
There was no more Zero.
Instead, where Zero had lain only moments before his body was now replaced by something otherworldly.
The beast laid on the ground in a heap, breathing shallow, massive jaws gaping exposing rows and rows of knife-like fangs as it gasped for breath.
It's hulking back rose and fell with each breath, it's eyes were wide and wild, staring at it's surroundings unsure of what this was, who it was, why it was here.
Zero felt like a ghost within his own body, his thoughts were faint, his senses muddied with these new feelings he was overcome with.
The beast was Zero...and Zero was the beast.
He rose slowly, power surging through his form.
His massive clawed paws shifting beneath him to hold his hulking weight. His long spikes swayed with the movement. His shoulders rotated back lazily, testing these new muscles, his head foggy. As he raised his massive head he felt dizzy. He slowly looked at his surroundings, on two legs he stood at least nine feet at the shoulder, looming over the rocks, the trees, his shadow casting across the landscape like a cape. A faint blue glow shimmered from this new body, seeping through the crack's in his new skin. Like a ghostly light, eery and frightening. The thing that he had become stood there, unmoving, gathering itself testing it's new form. Zero felt like a puppet, he was still there...somewhat...still present...but there was a wave of new urges, new impulses, that seemed to hit him all at once.
The beast shook its head and then its body as if shaking away the horrific transformation.
Zero felt his new body come alive, he had no control of it, and he didn't want control. Let this new beast have him, let it take him...let it kill.
The monster reared back it's massive head and let lose a bone chilling howl that rose up into the night like fire. The sound could have curdled blood and left the most courageous cowering in fear. It was rich and powerful, a battle cry on the night.
The beast was alive...and it needed to hunt.
Zero lowered his head and in a burst of new, fresh energy this new thing he had become was gone into the night. His legs pushed him faster than he had ever run, paws pounding the earth like thunder, switching from two legs to four and back again. He had never before felt so free, to let go was utter bliss. The beast roared loudly, the thunderous sound shaking the quite night before it.
And the beast that he had become disappeared into the night.
Swallowed up by the blackness.
An evil let lose on the land that could not be tamed, could not be reasoned with, could not be controlled.