Authors Note: This chapter has also been redone to match my update I did in the chapter before :) I wanted a meaner, more torturous Jack and therefore I changed it! Enjoy!
Jack's Siren, and a New Pandora
One Year Later:
The year had brought change to the land. Change that could have been considered good or bad depending on what side of the war you were on. From Maya's end...it was all neutral. She cared not what the outcome of the war had been. She was still alive and that was all that mattered.
Pandora had fallen.
Those who had once risen against Jack's power, the crimson raiders...they were but a whisper of legend now.
Most never spoke of them anymore. Maya was sure some of the towns still clung to the hope that the Crimson Raiders would somehow flicker back to life, and start a new. But she knew that wouldn't happen. There were too few left with the will to fight.
And plus...not many bandits were willing to start another war with a man that had a warrior.
Jack had awoken the warrior, and since then the face of Pandora had drastically changed. Towns were all Hyperion regulated now, minus a few scummy underground cities that were breeding grounds for black markets and crime. Those came a went. Jack would get wind of one, destroy it, and in a matter of weeks a new one would breed. Pandora was disgusting like that. Always birthing new trouble. Like maggots, drawn to dead flesh.
In a matter of weeks Pandora had burned.
Leaving nothing but ash and dust in the places where settlements once stood. Pandora had always been a hellish place, but now more than ever before.
Maya's boots echoed off the walls of the long hallway. She left a trail of slick mud and other other unknown substances in her wake.
Her rocket launcher clung to her back, barrel black from battle, it swayed slightly with her quick, irritated pace.
Anger roamed through her like a wild animal. Anger that the battle had not gone as planned, anger that she was back within Hyperion walls.
When she was sent out to battle, she was able to leave this place behind.
But like a loyal dog...she always came back.
Always.
Maya's hand instinctively went to her neck, touching the collar there. Her pulse beating against the metal device. A device that only made a better pet out of her. Specially molded to keep a siren under control. A device of Jack's own creation as he often bragged.
The only thing that could make a tamed animal out of a siren.
He liked that.
Having her as an ornament.
A thing for display.
A year had not changed the awful taste it brought to Maya's mouth when she thought to much on the subject.
She shook her head and willed the buzzing thoughts away irritably.
Her bangs had come loose from their tucked position behind her ear and they now dangled in her face.
She looked like she had walked straight off the battlefield...and in a sense she had.
Her uniform was splattered with blood, bits of bone and slime, clinging to her like medals of honor.
She walked with a certain darkness to her.
Her eyes were empty in her sockets.
Void of all sparkle of life.
Of joy.
Of happiness.
There was nothing.
Nothing but a warrior.
Her aura was hard and frightening.
Her lips were but a thin blue line on her face and she was as cold as steel.
A year in this place had changed her.
Molded her.
Created a monster of otherworldly proportions.
She was hard, and merciless. You had to be here.
Everything that had ever been soft about her was gone, vanished back to the deep depths of herself.
A sack hung lazily from her clenched fist, swinging back and forth with her every movement.
Red liquid had began to seep through the material of the cloth and was dripping down onto the white tile.
Hyperion workers nearly jumped out of her way as she passed, eyes dark, fists clenched. She was used to this treatment.
Not a one of them dared get in her way, especially when she came back looking like this.
That was the way it damn well better be.
She was known for setting workers on fire if they crossed her.
She wasn't even sorry for it either.
She came to the heavy double doors at the end of the hall and kicked them open with a loud bang that seemed to echo through the entire building.
The two doors opened into a massive computer screening room.
Every head turned toward her, and for a moment all work seemed to pause in her presence.
Maya stood there for a second, grim look on her face, then sneered and continued in.
She wound through the mess of computers, like a missile headed for it's target.
The dark haired girl stood at the largest computer in the room, many different images on the massive screens in front of her.
Maya grimaced as she approached her.
There wasn't anyone in the world that she wanted see less...than her.
"Maya..." The younger, dark haired girl growled turning slightly.
"Angel..." Maya retorted with just as much venom in her tone.
Maya stood a few feet from the younger siren and shifted her weight to one hip.
The tension between the two females could have been cut with a knife.
They stood there, sizing each other up with fierce, flaming eyes.
Maya tossed the oozing bag onto the floor and it rolled to Angel's feet.
Angel stepped back disgusted.
"Another false alarm. It'd be nice if you'd quit giving me cold trails." Maya snarled folding her arms across her chest.
Angel shot her a dark look.
"Maybe they aren't cold trails, maybe your just an incapable tramp." Angel spat.
Maya felt her blood boil.
"If all there is left, is the poor souls he's bitten its a fucking cold trail you little brat. When I find creatures like this poor bastard-" Maya paused to gesture down at the bag, red liquid now pooling around the fabric. "That means he's already long gone."
Maya finished looking over Angel, her distaste painted across her thin face.
"And was bringing the bastard's head back really necessary?" Angel growled.
Maya let out a hearty chuckle.
"Oh you actually won the little 'guess what's in the bag' game. Aren't you a smart little shit." Maya cooed.
Angel rolled her eyes at her.
"So he isn't out in Three Horns Valley i'm guessing..." Angel sighed as she motioned for one of the workers around her to take the leaking bag away.
"Take it down to the labs." She commanded him, and then she looked back to Maya.
"I think the answer to that is pretty clear genius." Maya snapped shortly.
Angel snorted and went back to the large screens.
"Another failed mission Maya. Just like always. I guess I will never understand why Jack keeps entrusting you with this." Angel sneered looking darkly at the older siren.
Maya bit her lip angrily.
God she couldn't stand the juvenile siren.
Every word she uttered just made Maya's stomach turn.
"You know eventually...He will tire of your failures, and he will dispose of you just like the trash that you are." Angel cooed teasingly.
Maya's eyes flicked to the floor and then back up at the other siren.
Her throat clenched harshly.
Maya stepped closer to the young girl.
Close enough for a sort of electric tension to form between the two women.
"You think just because you're the bosses daughter you're immune to his wrath don't you?" Maya whispered in Angel's ear.
"But you are wrong. You're no better than me. No more important than me. You are just a commodity, just a trophy. It doesn't matter that you're his blood. He still snapped that pretty little collar around your neck didn't he?" Maya said darkly, her fingers coming up to flick the collar softly.
"See... Don't we match so perfectly? You think you aren't disposable, you think you are higher than me, you think that you are safe...but you are so fucking wrong. You're blinded by false truths Angel...and deep down... I think you know that." Maya hissed.
Angel thrust her arm out, shoving it into Maya's chest harshly.
A little too harshly.
Maya felt her anger flare.
Her fists glowed blue suddenly, illuminating Angel's face.
Angel stepped backward warily, eyes narrowed as massive purple wings of energy flickered from her back.
"Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!" Angel bellowed, her voice rising in distressed anger.
She knew Maya was right.
But she refused to admit it.
In her eyes everything her father did was out of love for her.
Her father loved her more than anything.
The collar was for her own protection.
For her own good.
Maya had felt sorry for the younger siren in the beginning, and sometimes she still did. Angel was hurt, broken and confused. She'd spent all her life in confinement, forced to charge the Vault key. Forced to be a secret. Forced to obey a father that was not a father.
He was a monster.
And she could not accept that.
She could not admit that.
She loved her father, therefore loved a wicked creature.
She was a lost and confused soul.
But Maya would fight, if fighting is what it came to.
She would rip the smaller, weaker siren limb from limb. Angel may have charged the Vault Key, but it had been Maya that had awoken and controlled the warrior for Jack. Only her power could control the beast. Because she...was the most powerful siren on the face of this planet.
A queen in her own right.
Energy whirled around her, growing and swaying like a living creature.
"Don't make me do this angel." Maya snarled through her teeth.
Angel's face was contorted in anger and sadness, not wanting to accept the comments Maya had forced down her throat.
Even if they were truths.
She couldn't handle the truth.
She didn't want to.
She wanted to be Jack's little girl.
The little girl he loved.
"What's this ruckus?" Came a low, dark voice from behind Maya's right shoulder.
Maya tensed at the sound.
That slick, nasty voice that she knew all too well.
That she obeyed all too well.
The energy flowing around Maya dissipated at the sound, flickering away like frightened birds.
She felt the touch of a slender hand on her shoulder and her whole body went numb.
She felt his breath on the side of her face.
She hated that he smelled like cinnamon.
A scent that had once brought her delight now just made her sick to her stomach.
"Now Maya...is there a problem here pumpkin?" Came Jack's honeyed voice.
Her ear was hot with his word.
She swallowed hard, lowering her eyes.
"No sir." Maya whispered obediently.
"Really now? Well then do you want to explain to me what all this commotion is about?" Jack asked smoothly, his fingers tightening on Maya's thin shoulder.
Too tight.
Tight enough to let her know he was not pleased.
Angel looked on her face pained and unnerved.
"She failed to capture the target. Again." Angel hissed, her eyes fierce as they bore into Maya.
Jack looked to Angel and then to Maya.
He ran one slender finger over Maya's collar, his lips downturned in a displeased frown.
There was no arguing to be had here.
Maya simply said nothing.
Angel was good at this.
Turning the blame all on Maya, making sure that the older siren got the punishment she deserved.
Angel hated that Maya even existed.
She was competition.
In her eyes every second that Maya had her father's attention, she became more of a threat.
Maya hadn't wanted this.
She hadn't asked for it.
Yet Angel only labeled her as threat.
Maya looked at the other siren with sad, pleading eyes.
She knew what Jack did when he was not pleased with his pet's performances. She knew. She did...and yet here she was setting Maya up.
Maya could have sworn she saw Angel sneer.
It was moment's like this that she resembled her father most.
"Is that right Maya?" Jack snarled to Maya.
Maya swallowed down her pride and tucked her tail.
That was all she could do.
"Yes sir." Maya whispered.
Jack made a small "hmmph" type of noise and leaned away from Maya.
"Come with me Maya." Jack said to her turning his back on his daughter and starting down the hallway.
Maya felt dead.
Her whole body curled in on itself as she followed. One foot after the other her movements were all mechanical.
She knew what was coming.
She knew.
The hallways twisted and turned. Like a maze of walls and hallways. A mess of white, plain walls adorned with Hyperion yellow. Nothing inflicted disgust in her more than that awful color. A sickening, diseased color.
The room was located deep in the gut of the building. Down in the depths where nobody talked about. As far as the workers were concerned, this room didn't exist.
It's metal door with no window was all too familiar to her.
She wanted to run.
To turn on her heel and flee.
Flee far away from here.
But she couldn't.
Survive, she told herself.
Survive.
It's just another go round.
You can make it.
You will be ok.
The door yawned open at Jack's hands and Maya followed him inside.
She could feel all the color draining from her face as she stood, face to face with it.
Here she was again.
To anybody else, it was just a drain on the floor. Just a nasty, dulled, silver little drain. But to her...it was a symbol of a years worth of torture.
There was a table just to her right. Old and wooden and stained with dark crimson.
The tools were already laid out and ready.
Four syringes full of liquid eridium...and one bullwhip. Just like always.
Jack strode to the table, his pace relaxed and lethargic.
Like a demon, so slow and calculated.
So taunting and wicked.
"Kneel siren." Jack commanded to her.
Maya drew in a deep breath and walked to the middle of the room. She lowered to her knees, right next to the nasty drain.
The floor was slick. Still wet with water.
Water used to wash away the remnants of the last torture session the room had been witness to.
They could try to wash it away.
They could scrub every crack in this room, and still the remnants would cling. It held a wicked smell. A wicked aura.
It held wicked memories.
Those could not be washed away with soap and water.
The ragged stone floor bit into Maya's knees harshly.
Jack looked at her with curious, venomous eyes.
"Com now siren, don't make this harder on me than it has to be. Let's make it quick shall we?" Jack said faking a pitiful look.
His attempt at looking guilty only made rage bubble up from her core.
How dare he taunt her.
How dare he tease.
He obviously had things to accomplish today.
Wanting the session to be quick was out of the norm. Normally Jack liked to take his time in his torture.
Maya pulled her uniform armor up over her head and held it to her chest, trying to keep her front modest as she exposed her back, shame crawling over her demeanor.
Jack sneered wickedly at the sight before him.
"Tsk Tsk Siren, you know very well I do not like waiting...and the longer you take to capture my little assassin, the longer I have to wait to get my hands on him. You really should know...better." Jack snapped off the last word as his hand clenched around the leather woven handle of the whip.
He gathered it in his palms and slowly let the long end slip from his fingers and unravel onto the floor.
His movement's were slow as he stalked toward her.
Painfully slow.
Maya could hear her heartbeat in her ears, he pulse thrumming against the collar around her neck.
"Do you do it on purpose Maya? Make me wait on purpose?" Jack pouted as he rounded behind her, letting the whip drag behind him.
"No sir." Maya answered quietly.
"Can't hear you pumpkin, gotta speak up." Jack taunted sliding the whip through his fingers thoughtfully.
"No sir." Maya said a little louder.
"There...that's better." Jack whispered dangerously.
Maya closed her eyes and waited.
Waited for what felt like an eternity.
It was the waiting that was the worst.
The waiting for that fated, first blow.
Finally, Jack reared the whip back and sent it across Maya's bare back with all his strength.
Maya clenched her teeth together and closed her eyes.
Don't scream, she commanded herself.
Don't give him that pleasure.
There was a zip as the whip cut through the air once more and made contact with Maya's lower back, opening up the flesh like a christmas gift.
Jack swung the whip like a ring master at a circus.
Punishing a disobedient animal.
Maya drew in a sharp breath as the whip slapped across her naked flesh, sending up a mist of crimson in it's wake.
The blood collected around her knees, pooling and drizzling down the grizzled drain.
Again and again and again the whip came down on her.
Maya's face contorted into silent sobs, face twisted in agony.
But she made no sound.
She held it all in.
Wound over wound, deep gashes painted across her flesh like a canvas.
Her vision was blurry with the pain, tears sliding down her cheeks. The edges of her sight were becoming fuzzy and she sagged in her kneeling position. Like a rag doll, the life fading from it. A doll tossed aside and unwanted.
The whip slid over the now red tinted floor and Jack smiled widely at the scene, please with the dripping end of the torture weapon.
Jack sashayed over to the table and grabbed a syringe. He tested it, squirting the purple liquid from the needle tip.
Then he was jabbing it into Maya's shoulder, emptying the dosage into her blood stream.
Maya cried harder as the eridium seared through her veins.
The wounds splayed across her back began to seal shut, new flesh growing at a rapid pace to cover the lacerations.
Jack let the vile drop to the floor with a little clatter of glass and metal.
His fingers ghosted over her newly healed skin, causing her to flinch. The new skin was fresh and sensitive, Jack's touch felt like flames pressed upon her.
"Not even a scar...god that's gorgeous...isn't it siren?" Jack cooed his voice husky and ragged.
"What do you say we go another round huh? My treat..." Jack whispered bringing the weapon down on her once more.
The whip against the new skin hurt more.
It always did.
Maya dug her fingers into her thighs, trying desperately not to scream.
Trying to bite back all the wicked sobs spilling from her.
Every silent, ugly sob as the whip made contact.
One after the other.
Over her left shoulder.
Over her right.
Slapping over the side of her neck.
Crisscrossing down her spine.
Slicing, opening...bleeding.
This time it was too many. It was too much.
Maya crumbled forward onto her hands and knees, he palms sloshing in the pooled blood beneath her.
Her lips pulled back over her teeth as she finally let loose a pained, anguished cry.
Jack's haunting laughter filled the space behind her.
"That's it pumpkin. Lemme here you scream." Jack snarled.
Maya pressed her hand over her mouth, smearing blood down her chin.
No...don't let him hear you fall. Don't let him hear you crumble.
There was the sting of the needle again, and the feeling of her skin crawling back together, moving like maggots.
Jack crouched down beside her, resting his elbows on his knees.
"Now Maya...this time...how about you bring me back my assassin. I know you try...but try a little harder next time. Unless you want to go all five rounds with me...you know...I've never seen what five doses will do to a siren...maybe I'd like to find out..." Jack whispered grasping Maya's chin harshly, crushing his thumb over her chapped, bloody lips.
"You understand I only do it because I have to...don't you pumpkin?" Jack cooed leaning Maya's head to the side.
Maya nodded weakly.
"That's a good girl. Now clean up, and try again." Jack said throwing her chin aside and standing.
Just as quickly as he had come, he was gone.
Maya was left there, kneeling in her own shed blood, filthy and ragged.
She collected her trembling self and managed to stand.
The small bathroom outside of the torture room was used to seeing this bloody, savaged, Maya.
The mirror had bore this reflection so many times due to her defiance or her failure to please Jack. Maya cupped her hands under the old dirty faucet and let the water collect in her palms.
She splashed it up over her face, scrubbing away the blood viciously.
She redid her armor, careful over the new flesh.
Her eyes met with the Maya that stood in the mirror.
She did not even recognize herself.
Her eyes were sunken in from lack of sleep and dark rings clung to the sockets.
Her lips were tattered and broken, split in places and threatening to bleed.
Her hair was too long and needed to be trimmed.
Maya turned away from the reflection in disgust.
Her feet carried her swiftly.
Away from the mirror and the Maya that she no longer knew.
Through the hallways, through the corridors.
All the way to the vehicle bays.
She found she spent a lot of time in the vehicle and loader bays. There was always commotion there, always things being built.
Maya grabbed the handle to a large garage bay and threw it open with a loud clatter.
Inside sat Maya's personal vehicle.
She'd had it built to mimic a bandit technical.
She hated the look of the new Hyperion vehicles anyway.
She walked up to the large machine.
Besides...the old bandit Technicals brought fond memories to her.
Maya sighed as she laid her hand on the hood of the vehicle. She paused for a moment.
Fond memories cooped up in those technicals with her comrades...back when she actually had...friends. Back when she fought for the good...and not the evil.
Back when...she'd been in love.
The thought brought bile to her mouth.
Love was stupid.
She had been stupid back then.
So fucking stupid.
Maya climbed into the drivers seat and buckled in irritably.
It had been a year.
She thought those memories, those feelings...would have dissipated. And yet...sometimes...every once and a while...they crept back into her brain.
Maya leaned her head against the back of the drivers seat and let out a long sigh.
She closed her eyes for a moment.
It was days like this...that she hated herself...
What had she become?
Jack's stupid pet, a disgrace to sirens, a traitor...
Maya's breath caught in her throat.
Nobody could see her here.
This was one of the only places that it was safe...to break down.
She had to keep up the strong facade. She couldn't let Jack know how weak she truly was...he might kill her.
Maybe at this point...it would be for the better.
Maya buried her head in her hands, and just let the tears come.
They spilled over her palms, dripping lazily onto her lap.
A year had healed nothing.
She was just as broken as she had been so many months ago. She was alone, so utterly alone.
She had nobody in this world anymore.
Maya sobbed hard, she just let all the buildup come out.
Her body racked with the shakes of sadness.
She was a monster.
Trapped in this fucked up place.
Trapped here to cater to Jack's every whim, to pretend to be strong, pretend to be mean.
She wasn't strong.
This place had broken her. The way a whip master breaks a wild horse. She had no fight left, had no will. She wished she had the courage to run...but then again where would she go? To a dying planet struggling to repopulate. A dying planet that she had, had a hand in killing. This was her fault...
She was nothing more than a play thing for Jack. A subject of his disgusting torture. And she let it happen. Allowed her body...to be a play thing for him.
She was trash.
She was ashamed.
She was...hollow.
Maya moaned out pitifully, hate washing over her like a great river.
She didn't even recognize herself.
This wasn't her...
This thing...it wasn't her.
Her true self got left back in the dusts of Pandora a year ago.
Her true self that had been kind, and gentle. Hardheaded, but loyal to those she cared about. Her true self who would have never allowed Jack to let her become a fuck toy. Her true self...who had loved so hard her heart still hurt from it.
Her true self who loved...Zero.
Maya tried to keep him out of her thoughts.
She tried to will that memory away with all her might.
Most days she could...but not today...
She clenched her teeth at the thought of him, and her stomach seemed to twist in a combination of love and utter hatred.
Zero.
She could picture him like it was yesterday. Black orbs staring at her, observing her. His tall form reaching for her, protecting her, holding her. Those hands that touched her hair so softly. Brushed it out of her face while she slept. Those hands that tucked her in at night, making sure her body was safe from the cold.
Maya gripped the steering wheel hard.
"Zero...why didn't you save me!? I need you...please...please I need you..." She sobbed uncontrollably.
"Zero..."