Authors Note: Ok so this chapter is pretty much depressing also. And yes, Zero did leave, but don't worry its all part of the story. I hope ya'll like the twist its going to take. Trust me shits gonna get really fucking weird in these next few chapters to come. All crucial to the story, and these next few chapters are also all about Maya. With Zero's departure the story turns to her and what comes next! Please enjoy!
Empty Spaces
Maya's feet felt heavy. Like they were cement blocks attached to her legs. Each step was more work than it was worth. She just wanted to lie on the ground and not get back up. Sink into the dirt, be buried alive in it.
Well somewhat alive.
If you could even call it that.
She didn't feel alive.
She was...hollow.
Her eyes were open, her heart beating, breath coming to her, lungs expanding with the oxygen.
Breath in.
Breath out.
Repeat.
That was all she could manage.
To keep breathing robotically.
It had been two weeks.
Two damned weeks.
And yet...it still didn't hurt any less.
Zero...was gone.
And he wasn't coming back this time.
This wasn't one of his day long disappearances that he took to "collect his thoughts".
No. This time was different.
Maya clenched her fist tightly and blinked her eyes quickly, trying to ward off another onset of tears.
There had been so many of them.
She thought she would have none left to cry by now, and yet they still came. Any time she thought too much, there they were, sliding down her pale cheeks, racking her body with short breath.
It hurt.
More than any injury she had ever taken, more than any battle she'd ever thrown herself into.
This hurt in other ways.
A pain that the med stations could not heal. Nothing could heal it.
She was one, big open wound.
She felt like a shell of herself.
Not feeling, just going through the motions. Existing. That was all.
Her eyes downcast onto the dirt, her gun swaying at her side, not at he ready like it should be. She didn't care.
Let the bandits shoot her dead, she was sure that would hurt a lot less than this.
This...sadness.
Axton looked back over his shoulder at the lagging siren, his eyebrows furrowed together.
"She aint looking so hot." Axton muttered to the short man at his side.
"She isn't taking the assassin leaving too well amigo." Salvador said sadly looking back at Maya as well.
His frown deepened and he shook his head slowly.
"Yeah well I aint either. Leaving us high and dry, some teammate he was." Axton scoffed angrily.
Salvador sighed.
"I dunno. Somethin don't feel right about him just up and leaving like that..." Salvador mused.
"Well for whatever reason it's still shitty, and we are still one man short." Axton growled.
They had been wandering for weeks, trailing Jack's advances with little to no results of figuring out what happened back at the wildlife preserve.
The evening sun bathed the land in oranges and yellows. It was gorgeous, lining the Pandoran hills in gold.
But Maya payed little attention to it's beauty, nothing in her world seemed to hold any beauty worth paying mind to anymore.
Her eyes were glazed over, mind hazed, body simply following her comrades limply.
Why would he leave?
Where would he go?
How could he leave her...all alone?
Her eyes flicked up to the two men ahead of her...
So not totally alone.
But she had needed him, depended on him for comfort, for company...
She had loved him.
Was that not enough to make him stay?
Did that not matter?
What had she done wrong?
Had she done anything wrong in the first place?
How dare he do this.
How dare he.
He throat clenched in anger.
All because he was afraid...
Afraid of himself.
He was fucking selfish, leaving her like this.
After he claimed to love her, claimed he would always love her, he was a liar. A fucking worthless liar.
Maya's eyes stung with tears.
She wiped them away harshly, wiping dirt across her face in the process.
The anger made her forget the tired nature of her body. The aches, the pains coursing through her legs. The emotions simply took up all feeling from her, making her forget her exhausted state.
The evenings camp was nothing more than a small abandoned home butted up against the side of a cliff. Salvador pushed the flapping door aside and peering in. He nodded the sign of all clear and Axton followed in slowly.
Maya paused at the door, looking back out on the waning light on the landscape. She chose to sit outside instead.
She knew the others had to have been tiring of her moping by now. She felt it best to put some space between her and the others, to mourn her loss alone.
She wiped angrily at her face as more tears slipped out.
She just wanted the feelings to dissipate. She tired of feeling so weak, so helpless.
She was a warrior...she should have known better than to dabble with dangerous feelings of love.
She should have never opened herself up to him.
She had been so damn stupid.
She was angry with herself, angry that she had been reduced to some blubbering idiot all over a man.
She needed no man.
She needed no lover.
She didn't need him.
The assassin.
She hated him.
She gritted her teeth together hard, screwing her eyes shut.
She had been so vulnerable to him, throwing all caution into the wind.
She scoffed at herself. She was pathetic.
Never again.
Never fucking again would she let a man in.
Let a man seduce her.
Let herself fall so hard.
Suddenly there was the sound of someone clearing their throat beside her.
Maya turned slowly to see Salvador standing in the doorframe looking down on her with soft, worrying eyes.
"Hey there chica...how you doing?" Salvador pressed softly.
Maya shrugged half heartedly.
"Thats what I thought." He said gruffly.
Salvador slid down slowly to sit beside her.
"Why would he leave...?" Maya whispered softly her forehead pressed against her folded arms.
Salvador shook his head slowly.
"I don't know chica...maybe...maybe he'll come around." Salvador mused quietly.
Maya's head snapped up.
"I don't want him to come around. He left. That's it. I wouldn't take him back if he did. He promised me...he promised...and he left. He's dead to me." Maya snapped.
Salvador grunted.
Maya felt the sobs coming.
She felt them bubbling up, boiling her insides, until they spilled out.
She doubled over in heavy sobs before she could possibly hope to stop them.
Salvador wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, running his thick fingers through her hair in comfort, muttering little phrases in spanish.
His touch was soft, and comforting, friendly. Salvador was a good friend. He was rough around the edges...really rough around the edges but he had a good heart. Such a good heart.
"I'm sorry I'm being so weak." Maya managed through whimpering sobs.
"No, no, chica don't apologize. You don't gotta apologize for anything." Salvador whispered soothingly.
Maya looked out over the hills through teary eyes, the darkness was overtaking, shadows swallowing the hills like a living thing.
Maya turned to Salvador with thankful eyes.
"Thank you...for just being here for me..." Maya whispered softly.
Salvador nodded.
"When you're ready, come on in and we'll work on getting some supper into ya." Salvador said standing with a grunt.
Maya nodded slowly.
Salvador left her with a soft pat and then he was gone.
Maya sniffed and brushed her hair out of her face.
This was just like any other wound. She needed to heal.
Give it time to mend...for the skin to pull back together and become whole again.
This was no different.
She drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out.
And that was when she heard it.
That deep, mechanical sound that she knew all too well.
The hollow groan of a constructor.
Maya was on her feet in seconds, all the thoughts of sadness dissipated at the very real threat of danger.
The sound was close...too close.
Before Maya could scream for the others its shadow splayed out over the hill, covering her with all its massiveness.
A badass loader, its huge guns at the ready, it's mechanics groaning, echoing into the distance.
"BADASS LOADER!" Maya screamed hauling her rocket launcher off her back and unloading it into the mechanical monster.
Axton and Salvador exploded from the hut, guns ready, just in the knick of time as one of the loaders feet crashed down into the flimsy structure.
Maya turned to run, trying to find cover, sliding around a cluster of large boulders.
She snapped a grenade off her belt and slung it over her shoulder.
It exploded on impact taking out one of the loader's legs.
I crumpled to the ground, it's massive bulk slamming into the dirt throwing clouds of dusk into the air like a smoke screen.
Within seconds Axton slid around the same rock, boots biting the ground harshly. He slammed his back up agains the rock beside Maya.
"Are you ok?" He bellowed over the sounds of more loaders coming.
Gunfire pelted over the ground like rain, some ricocheting off the stone with ear piercing whirls.
"Yes, fucking throw your turret! Where's Salvador?" Maya screamed.
"He's to the right taking cover behind another boulder!" Axton yelled as he tossed his turret out.
The machine unfolded mechanically and opened fire on the incoming loaders.
Maya could hear Salvador yelling in spanish, unloading round after round into a hot loader that had slammed down onto the boulder he was behind crushing it to pieces.
Maya leapt up over the rock, blue ball forming around her fist, coursing with power as it enlarged. Maya phase-locked a large loader as it came forward and the smaller ones were drawn into the massive ball of energy.
Maya closed her fist with a loud scream of power and the machines exploded into thousands of pieces.
The fiery burst blew Maya's hair back, sparks and ashes flying bast her, burning her skin.
Maya's eyes grew wide as she assessed the situation.
There were too many.
The constructor was not in site and it was producing machine after machine. They were outnumbered and out gunned.
Suddenly there was a bellowing yell from her right.
Salvador.
Maya turned her head just in time to see a loader blast a round into Salvador when his back was down taking another machine down.
His knees collapsed and he fell forward into the dirt loaders encroaching quickly.
"SALVADOR!" Maya screamed.
Axton was in motion before she knew was was happening.
Axton ran to Salvador's aid, unloading a full magazine into the loader.
It fell backward sparking and twitching.
Maya locked another and slung it into the cliff shattering it.
Axton dragged Salvador behind another rock.
"MAYA HE'S HURT BAD!" Axton screamed over the gunfire.
They would never make it out with a hurt comrade.
Not all of them at least.
Maya's eyes glistened powerfully, blue ribbons pulsating around her body as her tattoos glowered brightly.
"TAKE HIM! GET OUT OF HERE! I'LL HOLD THEM OFF!" Maya yelled her eyes flaming with power.
"NO WE AREN'T LEAVING YOU!" Axton screamed back.
"YOU HAVE TO! GO NOW!" Maya yelled.
She looked back at Axton who had Salvador slung over his shoulders a look of clear distress across his face.
Maya shot him a very clear look.
She would take one for the team.
She would sacrifice herself for her friends to escape.
"NOW AXTON!" She screamed her voice cracking, power swirling around her, kicking up dust around her like a blue tornado.
Axton nodded, face twisted in anguish and fear.
"GIVE EM HELL SIREN! I'LL SEE YOU SOON!" Axton bellowed.
Maya nodded as she watched them go.
A loader tried to follow but she locked it before it could, and it went up in blue flames.
Maya let out a primal yell as her powers exploded around her in a wave, washing over all the loaders, lighting up the night a ghostly blue explosion.
Her mouth glowed, her eyes glowed, she seemed to be glowing from the inside out, pushing her powers to their absolute max.
She floated off the ground several feet, body lifting into the air like a phantom. Loaders exploded around her, the flames licking at her feet, hot and burning, whirling around her.
And then like a match that had been used up, she felt herself waning.
Her eyes rolled back into her head, her body went limp in the air, and she fell to the ground hard.
She could taste blood in her mouth, feel pain in her ribs.
She pushed too hard.
She knew she had.
But she had saved them.
She had made sure her comrades escaped.
This was but a small price to pay.
The popping sounds of flames surrounded her, black smoke billowing up into the air from the fallen mechanical monsters.
Her vision was blurry, her head was pounding.
Her breath came to her in small, short pants.
And then she heard the telltale crunch of boots upon the ground. Not machine...but man.
Maya tried to raise herself, but it was no good, she couldn't move...couldn't fight back.
A pair of brown shoes came into her fading line of vision.
Her fingers scraped the dirt as she tried in vain to move.
"Well, well, well...look what I found...a siren!?" A sweet voice kissed at Maya's throbbing ears.
She'd heard that voice.
She knew that voice.
Why couldn't she place it though?
"Ooo Bad luck kiddo." The voice whispered slyly.
And with that Maya lost consciousness.