Authors note: Soooo originally I had this chapter done up a whole lot differently. But after letting these chapters sit for a while I realized I really did not like this part in the story. It didn't flow the way I wanted it to. So for those of you who may have read the original chapter and are wondering what happened, yes I changed it! And I like this version a thousand times better. Went a more different route with the whole torture thing :) And for those of you just reading ignore the above!
Prisoner
Maya's eyes flickered, slowly opening into small, strained slits. She groaned loudly and tried to sit up, but found she couldn't. Her eyes opened fully. She pulled on her arm, but found it to be restrained.
She looked down.
Her wrists were bound to a metal table, as were her feet.
She had on little more than a hospital gown to keep her modest.
Maya's eyes flicked from side to side in fear.
What was this? Where was she?
She craned her neck backward and found it to be hard to move.
She was wearing a collar.
A fucking collar.
Maya thrashed her feet and pulled at her leather arm restraints. She screamed ruthlessly, voice echoing off the walls around her like some kind of wild animal.
The walls were white tile, as was the floor.
Hospital immediately came to her brain.
She thrashed to the side trying her hardest to get free.
Her bare feet scrambled against the smooth, cold, surface of the table she was strapped to.
This couldn't be happening.
Not now...not after everything else...
Maya felt tears spring to her amber eyes.
They stained her cheeks with little trails of wetness. It was stupid to cry, but it was also stupid not to.
She had little clue where she was, or what was in store for her.
She bucked up as much as possible, arching her back off the table only slightly.
And then, there was the sound of an opening door.
The hinges squealed as it yawned open and Maya ceased her thrashing, frozen with a cold, unrelenting fear.
It crawled up her spine like large slow spiders, spreading over her, chilling her right down to her bones.
She could feel her heartbeat in her throat. Her pulse rising uncontrollably.
"Easy easy kiddo, I'm not gunna hurt ya." Came a calm, collected voice to her left.
Maya's head snapped to the direction the voice came from.
She was met by a gaze that seemed to pierce right through her very soul.
Mismatched green and blue eyes, mean, intense, frightening...staring her down like a dog.
A thin smile spread slowly across his sharp face, all his pearly white teeth on display for Maya's viewing.
"Well...I mean I'm not going to hurt you now. Though I can't for see the future...so no promises on that aspect." He tacked on to the previous comment wryly.
The mask on his perfect face moved as he did, like part of his skin...but not. The hinges where it attached gave it away..as did the slightly lighter tone than his face beneath it.
Maya stared at him wild eyed.
Maya knew who he was now, knew that face, knew that voice.
Handsome Jack.
Maya felt her stomach drop.
"Well, Well kiddo that was quite the firework display you put on back there. Do you know how much that fucking cost me in damages?" Jack taunted waving a finger at her as if scolding a child.
"But I mean...not much skin off my teeth...because oh yeah I'm fucking rich. But that's beside the point kitten." Jack chuckled lightly crossing his arms over his thin chest.
Maya said nothing, just still continued to stare in fear and confusion.
Jack slowly leaned over her body, hands placed on either side of her shoulders.
Maya drew in a sharp breath.
"Like I said, I'm not gunna hurt you cupcake." Jack cooed sweetly.
Jack gently brushed a lock of Maya's blue hair out of her face, smile cutting across his lips menacingly.
He smelled thick and sweet like cinnamon. Maya swallowed hard.
"No...I've got much bigger plans in store." He whispered to her soothingly his voice like dripping honey over her ears.
"W-where am I..." Maya whispered finally finding her meager voice.
It came out small and cracked, much weaker than she would have liked.
"Opportunity sweetie. Hyperion headquarters." Jack answered quickly, unmoving from his hovering position over her.
She felt trapped.
Like he was caging her in.
She had never felt so alone, here beneath Jack's wrath with nobody to save her. She had given her freedom so Axton and Salvador could live. And Zero had abandoned her.
She felt a pang of anger wash through her as he crossed her mind.
If he had been there today she wouldn't be here. She wouldn't have been captured. But he wasn't.
He wasn't there.
He left her.
He fucking left her.
Maya felt the tears coming again, gently rocking her body as they did so.
"Oh no, no siren no need for tears... I promise I won't hurt a pretty little hair on your head. You have my word." Jack whispered smoothly.
Maya gritted her teeth and tried to face away from him.
"I don't believe we've been properly introduced sweetie, my where are my damned manners. I am Handsome Jack." Jack mused venomously.
His words were so thick and sweet and dangerous.
His voice made her stomach turn.
"I know who you fucking are." Maya snarled finally finding her confidence.
Jack snickered eyeing her fondly.
"Oh of course you do. Who doesn't know who I am." Jack retorted amused.
"What's your name siren." Jack hissed his lips inches from her face.
She could feel his breath pour over her neck.
She closed her eyes as he got nearer, feeling her body shaking in fear and anger mixed together.
"M-Maya." She stuttered.
Jack raised his eyebrows.
"Maya...Maya.." He tested the name on his tongue.
It was sickening how pleasing her name sounded rolling off his lips.
"What a pretty name, for such a gorgeous little siren. You know, I had actually been looking for another member of your merry little Vault hunter misfit gang...but I think I am even more pleased to have gotten you instead." Jack cooed to her.
Maya clenched her teeth.
"Fuck you." Maya spat viciously, pulling suddenly against her wrist restraints.
Jack was more amused with the phrase than he should have been.
"Maybe another time Siren. Wouldn't mind having you all for myself...but...thats a venture for another day." Jack whispered smiling, his big palm coming to run down Maya's thin neck.
Maya's eyes widened in fear.
He wouldn't...would he?
"For now...I need your help siren. I want to make you...a deal per say." Jack said leaning up from his hovering position over Maya.
Maya slowly breathed out now that there was a little distance between her and Jack.
"Why would you want a Vault Hunter's help?" Maya hissed.
Jack shrugged his shoulders and rubbed his square chin.
"Because of course you have knowledge that I don't...power that I don't..." Jack narrowed his eyes at Maya.
"I wan't to know where the other Vault hunter is." Jack said his tone dipping to a dark place.
"Which one...theres four of us. I thought CEO's could at least count." Maya snarled.
Jack let out a hearty laugh at her little attempted sarcasm.
"The Assassin. I wan't the Assassin, Maya. And you...you are going to help me get him." Jack snapped darkly.
Maya felt her throat clench with anger and disgust. She never wanted to see that bastard again.
She hated him with all the bile in her stomach...but she didn't want to...hunt him.
Nobody deserved that.
What Jack had in store for him if he ever got his powerful hands on him could only be what nightmares were made of.
"I-I...I won't help you hunt him." Maya growled lowly.
Jack raised his eyebrows amused.
"Interesting answer there kiddo. You see here's the ultimatum...you don't help me hunt him down...I kill you. Don't make me do that sweetie. I've got a real soft spot for sirens and I want to put you to good use." Jack hissed.
Maya chose not to say anything.
"But that aside...I wan't him. You might be better at tracking him than my men have been." Jack explained waving his hand.
"They are incompetent. And you...oh after seeing what you did to those loaders...you are an astounding force of nature. Let me make you stronger. I have ways of amplifying a sirens powers beyond your wildest dreams." Jack said to Maya, gently running one of his blunt fingers across her plump bottom lip.
Maya stared up at him wide eyed.
Power?
Beyond her wildest dreams.
"Why do you want him?" She asked weakly.
"Well because Maya...he...has something I want. Something that was mine to begin with...and somehow he stumbled across it. Now I want it back. I want him because he is a loose canon. As long as he is not controlled...Pandora cannot be safe." Jack whispered to her.
"He's destroyed my wildlife preserve and my warehouse. He need's to be contained. Studied. I need him." Jack continued his voice harsh and unforgiving.
Something stirred in Maya.
The warehouse? The wildlife preserve...? That was Zero's doing?
Maybe he was the monster he claimed to be all along.
If Jack felt he was a danger to Pandora...he had to be.
If he had the attention of Jack, there was something very much so wrong.
Maya twisted her wrists in their restraints.
She had no choice.
She was not ready to die, especially not at the hands of Handsome Jack.
If Zero had been here to protect her none of this would have happened.
It was his fault...and therefore his downfall.
He had always worried he'd be the one to kill her, and now...she would be the one to kill him. She'd hunt him, like a good slave. She'd listen, like a good pet. All in the name of survival...what else could she do?
This was it.
Pandora was all about survival.
If there was one thing she had learned from this godforsaken planet it was that. You had to survive. Above all else.
Survive.
Nothing else mattered but the well being of yourself. Vault hunters do not love. They do not make friends. All for one, thats the way she started out and that was the way she would be again.
She had to forget Axton and Salvador, they were alive because of her but there would be no more favors their way from her hands.
And Zero...Zero would fall before her.
For all the wrong he had done.
All the lies he had told.
Now he had to stand judgement in front of one of the most powerful forces in the universe. A siren, controlled and ordered by Handsome Jack.
She would pass judgement on him, make him answer to his wickedness.
Make him pay.
Her eyes flicked up to Jack's.
His gaze was watching her intently, watching the wheels turning behind her amber eyes, waiting for a response from his little captive siren.
"I-I'll do whatever you want Jack..." She whispered closing her eyes.
She never would have thought she'd have to utter those words. That she would fall to this. That she would bow before the very force they had been fighting to snuff out. Now he scales were tipped...and she was involuntarily thrust onto the enemy's side.
Jack's grin widened profusely.
He reached down and grabbed Maya by the chin, squeezing a little harder than what could be considered gentle.
"That's what I like to here my little slave." He snarled deviously.
There was a fire lighting behind his bright eyes, dancing and wavering dangerously.
Maya felt chills run down her spin once again.
"I'm going to make you into the most powerful siren on this fucking planet. And you will be mine. All mine." Jack whispered maniacally.
Maya cringed at his words.
What had she done...what would he do to her...?
It was all in the air now.
For the sake of survival, she told herself, for the sake of survival.
Maya was quickly unbound by Hyperion workers and hauled away by her arms.
They took her to a shower room, and stripped her naked.
Maya felt her clothes go, and she closed her eyes ashamed. She stood there bare for all of them to see and she felt so hollow.
She wanted to cry, but she didn't have tears left for the deed. She had nothing left.
They hosed her down, the freezing water hitting her like a thousand stinging bees. It pelted her skin rapidly. She stood there firmly, taking it, never flinching away from it.
Sirens didn't flinch.
She wouldn't shy away from the steady stream of piercing water.
The hose ceased and she stood there unmoving, the sounds of dripping water kissing her tender ears.
Her hair slicked to her face and neck, water slid down the small of her back. All dignity she had was now gone. Standing here, naked, cold and wet.
She was prodded to a large room where she was chained to a lead jutting from the middle of the flooring.
The Hyperion workers left her, leaving the room silent and empty.
All there was to keep her company was a small cot to her left and a long medical looking table to her right.
Maya fell onto her knees and just sat there.
Unsure of what to do next.
There was nothing to do.
Only to accept her fate, whatever that was to be.
The chain scraped across the floor as she settled her hands in her naked lap.
They had not even offered her the comfort of clothing, or a blanket. Not even a towel. They had just left her to shiver on the cold tile floor.
She had no emotion.
Not sadness, not anger.
Just nothing.
She sat there for what felt like an eternity.
Eventually, the workers returned.
This time they brought equipment and medical supplies. They were all dressed in heavy clad armor, she assumed this was to protect them...from her.
They needed no protection. She had no fight left in her. She had no will to do harm.
They unloaded the spread of supplies on the long metal table, scattering them out quickly.
Maya hung her head, unmoving, uncaring.
They filled a vile full of purple liquid and the worker tested it carefully, making sure it was in working order.
He grabbed Maya by her hair and whipped her neck to the side, before she could protest he stabbed the needle into the side of her throat.
Maya let loose a blood curdling scream that echoed off the small walls.
The other workers held her down as he emptied the vile into her flesh. Maya thrashed wildly as it flooded through her. She felt like she was on fire.
Her tattoos glowed brightly as she fell to the ground in a useless heap. She shook uncontrollably as the fluid overtook her. Her heart pounded in her ears, she could hear her blood rushing, her body crashing down around her. Blue flames licked around her naked form and the workers stepped back cautiously.
And then they left her there once more.
Maya clenched her fists tightly, her skin was crawling, her body falling to pieces. She was pretty sure she was dying. Caving in on herself.
She let out another pitiful yell as it burned through her.
Her cheek laid on the cold tile, feet scrambling over the smooth surface as she squirmed under the power bestowed upon her.
It took hours for the feeling to wane.
She was left tired and worn, no will to move, and so she just laid on the floor silently.
She was breathing, and that was all that mattered.
She was still alive.
She could make it through this.
She would live.
No matter what.
The injections became a regular thing.
Three times a day the workers came, and she was flooded with the purple fluids. It had to be eridium she finally decided. There was no other substance on this planet that could inflict such pain...and such change...
Her body had began to rapidly mold, into something else. Something...more powerful.
Jack was keeping his promise of making her into the most powerful siren on the planet.
Maya laid in the middle of the room, tethered by her chain made of unknown material that she could not break, even with her growing powers.
She was beginning to lose control of just how powerful she was becoming. The day pervious she had accidentally thrown a worker into the wall with just the flick of her wrist.
That had earned her more chains. Heavier chains this time. They weighed on her arms and ankles.
She felt so heavy as she laid there. Weary and nodding in and out of consciousness with the wear on her body from the injections. She was in a drug like state, lying there and staring into the wall dazedly.
She heard the heavy door open, but she did not turn to look. She simply continued to stare. Sprawled on the floor on her side like a doll thrown out by a child that no longer had a use for her.
Footsteps echoed through the small room, coming closer painfully slowly.
Maya did not move.
She may as well have been a corpse lying there.
The company in the room was now beside her.
She can feel their presence.
She assumes it to be a worker, checking to see if she is indeed still alive.
The company kneels down slowly, and Maya can feel a hand stroking through her hair.
The hand is not armor clad.
This is no worker.
Maya's eyes roll in her head, body unwilling to respond to her willing it to rise from the floor.
She just...can't.
"Oh siren..." Comes a cool, soothing voice.
Maya does not respond.
She doesn't care.
She knows that voice...and she doesn't care.
"I promise it will all be worth it. You will be so strong. So powerful." The voice lulls venomously.
Fingers splay through her blue locks, slow and explorative.
The fingers are long, and blunt.
She knows the feeling of those fingers.
Jack.
But even as her captor sits next to her she pays no mind. Her mind is utter slush under the influence of heavy eridium dosage.
"Just a few more weeks of injections and the eridium will fuse with your body...and you will be able to control endless power." Jack explained slowly, fingers still exploring Maya's neck.
Then down to her shoulders, where his fingertips ghosted across her shoulder blades and spine.
Maya made a small murmur, but that was all she could manage.
Jack leaned further down to face her.
She could make out some of his features but he was very blurry.
Her eyes flickered and nearly closed.
"You make such a beautiful little pet siren...so fucking beautiful...you just need one, final little touch..." Jack sneered wickedly his voice dipping to a low, dangerous place.
Suddenly he stood and snapped his fingers.
There were the sounds of more hurried footsteps all around her. They echoed through her ears. She wanted so badly to move, to will her body to do something...anything. But she just...couldn't.
"Bring it here." Jack snarled through his teeth, flicking his fingers.
The workers suddenly hauled in a large, rounded machine.
They set it down near Maya's feet and the workers set about bringing it to life. Small legs unfolded out of it's sides and it raised up on itself, it's inner workings whirling into motion. The machine rattled and cranked, glowing with a bright orange glitter as it's hollow inside began to heat itself.
Maya could barely feel the heat rising in the room.
Her body knew the temperature was rising to an uncomfortable point. Her mind knew she should be concerned about the looming machine, but she just couldn't react. She just didn't have it in her pale, useless body.
She was too weak.
Too broken.
Too beaten.
Maya's eyes closed heavily, wanting to shut it all out. Close out all the world around her. She just wanted to shut down...and not come back to life. The machine that she was, was fading fast. She was no longer strong, her engine working and growling with determination and want. Her inner gears were falling off their hinges. Her wires were coming lose.
What a sight she must have been.
Something so powerful, something so wild...reduced to this.
Reduced to nothing more than a heap of unmoving flesh and bone.
Muscles wasting away, brain slipping into darkness.
The workers opened the small door to the machine's potbelly front, revealing glowing coals and licking flames.
One worker approached Jack timidly, the way a kicked dog might approach it's master.
Maya watched through blurred eyesight as the worker handed off some type of tool to Jack's awaiting hands.
It was some sort of long metal rod.
But her eyes could not focus enough to make out any more than that.
Jack fondled the object in his lithe hands, turning it over in his grasp, seeming to be testing it's weight and shape. He was becoming familiar with it, smiling down at it fondly, the way someone would an old, dear friend.
Maya suddenly felt the heel of Jack's shoe in her spine. He dug it into her flesh mercilessly.
Maya managed a muffled, little, cry of pain through her slack lips.
"That hurt kiddo? I'm sorry...but this...this is gunna hurt a lot more baby girl." Jack teased meanly putting more pressure onto Maya's back.
Jack kicked her hard, rolling her onto her naked stomach. The floor was a cold shock to the skin now pressed against it. A gasp somehow crept up from Maya's lungs, coming out rasped and jagged through parted lips.
Jack chuckled at the sound, a low, rumbling that was like nails scraping down a chalkboard.
It made her skin crawl.
Jack flipped the long rod in his fingers and suddenly jutted it's end into the burning machine.
He left it there for a moment, watching...waiting.
Maya's eyes strained to stay open, strained to watch Jack's every move. But it was like looking through fogged windows. All she could make out were shapes, and colors, random tidbits of form.
Jack's grin cracked wide across his sharp featured face as he retracted the long tool.
Such a tool that had no business with good. A tool that only dealt in the evil that it was used for.
The end of it scorched red hot, the metal glowing wickedly.
Smoke strung from the hot end in ghostly wisps as Jack pulled it from the coals of the machine.
It was ready.
This tool of his.
A tool.
A brand.
A brand meant to mark those who belonged to him.
Belonged to Handsome Jack.
Belonged to this place.
Belonged to Hyperion.
His boot found it's target in Maya's back once more, this time the motion had purpose. He wanted her right there, unable to move under his weight. He wanted her trapped. He wanted her to know, that she was under his control. The movement was dominating, dark, merciless.
Jack's eyes observed the hot metal full of admiration and wonder. He smiled at the white hot tool.
"You're mine siren. My fucking property." Jack growled his voice full of playful, dark, malice.
With that Jack pressed the hot end of the brand into Maya's right shoulder blade.
The shock of the searing metal against her skin sent Maya's body whirling to life.
She screamed out, her mouth wide as the panicked sound let loose.
Her fingernails scraped the tile frantically, over and over again until they were left bleeding on the pearly linoleum.
The brand seared into her soft flesh, sizzling as it burned through the layers. Hissing smoke swirled up from the effected area.
Jack was consumed by wild laughter as he pushed the metal into her harder.
Tears streamed down Maya's cheeks as she took it. Unable to move, unable to run, unable to defend herself.
The sobs were hard and ugly and pained as the racked through her. She howled woefully, the sound echoing through the small room.
The smell of burning flesh consumed her senses.
It was sharp, and hard and awful.
Maya's gut wrenched at the smell.
It was everywhere, seeping through her every pore, invading her nostrils with a vengeance.
Maya gagged harshly, heaving dryly until what was left of her meal came back up.
She vomited onto the tile, the bile burning her throat and nose.
Her body lurched as her stomach emptied itself. She spit profusely, trying in vain to rid herself of the taste of stomach contents on her tongue. A string of saliva and bile dripped from her bottom lip and puddled on the floor.
After what seemed like an eternity, Jack pulled the iron away from the screaming siren, coming away with melted flesh, some still clinging to the metal.
Jack grinned at his work, a smile so haunting it could bring even the strongest to their knees.
He removed his shoe from Maya's back, leaving her heaving on the floor, shaking and sputtering weakly.
In bold, block letters across her shoulder the word "Hyperion" was now etched into her pale skin.
The blistered, inflamed skin kissed around the new brand.
Her new label.
Her new title.
Property of Hyperion.
Owned by Jack.
Jack's siren.
Another worker stepped forward, his face full of pity for the trembling woman on the floor.
He handed Jack another object, this time it was circular and small.
Jack bent over the crippled siren and ripped her head up by her hair, forcing her neck to snap backward.
He snapped the circular object around her neck and tightened it. A collar.
Like a dog.
Branded and collared.
Shamed.
Taunted.
Jack's lips pressed against the shell of the siren's ear.
"There now. Don't you just make the perfect pet." He whispered through barred teeth.
There was no more vault hunter.
The was no more siren.
The was no more Maya.
There was but a pet.
Lying there on the floor, crumpled and sobbing...was a pet.
A mangey stray now forced into captivity.
Forced to her doom.
Maya squeezed her eyes shut.
What a shameful pet she was.