Every Beast Has its Weakness
The man's face was painted blue and white in the reflection of the echo screen before him, glittering eyes throwing the menacing glow off his dark pupils in the shadow of the room. Only half of his face was illuminated, chin resting in his palm, slender fingers tapping the side of his sharp cheek in an absent minded fashion. The motion was slow, rhythmic, menacing. Fingernails all cut to uniform length, all the same, all stupidly perfect. Walnut locks sagged over a tired expression. He needed sleep, the dark circles clinging around his sockets like unwanted guests only reminded him of that fact. His eyes did not waver from the screen flickering before him. He watched a single security camera, the screen hacked into its feed, and its feed alone. So he sat, and he watched. He watched the small, silent room, dark for the most part except for the red exit sign illuminating through the windows.
The red light bathed across the tiny room, reflecting off the large clear cage. The dark figure sat idle against the back wall. He hadn't moved in hours.
Jack knew, because he'd watched. Too angry to sleep, too intrigued to leave his office. To frustrated that the stupid assassin was so fucking stubborn. He was supposed to be a mindless beast according to Jack's scientists. He was supposed to be triggered by the slightest of threats to his wellbeing. That was the way it was supposed to work. Yet, even as Jack had tortured the lanky Vault hunter to the near brink of death, nothing had happened. Nothing.
Jack's fingers that weren't propping up his chin curled angrily around the leather of his oversized office chair, nails digging little divots into the material. He growled out lowly, the sound coming through his teeth as a thick rumble that reverberated off his ribs. He brushed an irritated hand through his coiffed locks, the normally pristine hair having come loose hours ago from worrying it with those same fingers one too many times.
It wasn't supposed to be this difficult to get what he wanted. He had the source, he had the power, yet he still didn't have it all. He wanted to see it. For himself.
The change. He wanted to witness it all. The shifting, the morphing, the raw source of power that he himself had actually created. His Eridium testing had been the birth of this thing. This gorgeous, dangerous, vicious thing. This beautiful thing. He had made this, he had seen the very first test subjects. Watched as they turned into frothing, biting, lunging creatures that had lost every shred of their own humanities. That was not what Jack wanted. That was pure horror to witness. He'd watched with disapproving eyes as every one of those subjects had been put down. Failures in his eyes. Imperfect little test subjects that had not been willing hosts.
Jack had wanted something more.
He had wanted a beast with the power to change, and keep their human nature. He wanted a beast that could return to the state in which they first changed from. He wanted a perfect harmony of creature and human. That was what he wanted.
A perfect change.
A perfect killing machine. Something that could dance back and forth between beast and being. Something that could harness all the power Eridium had to offer.
What would it be like to have power like that? To not have to depend on anything to do your bidding for you. To be able to strike fear into the hearts of man, in a way that was beyond anything he could ever imagine. To become a monster beyond anything this planet had ever seen. That was why he'd started those experiments. To have soldiers that could morph from animal to human then back again in the heat of battle, they would have been unstoppable. The warrior was the ultimate prize in this little game of chess to win over Pandora, and Jack had indeed won…but that didn't stop him from wanting more. He wanted to taste that power. Feel what it was like. To not be a spectator. To experience it.
For himself.
Jack's lip curled up into a wicked snarl, displeased grimace painting across his thin features wickedly.
It disgusted him that such a power had been bestowed on such an unworthy piece of bandit scum. Zero did not know what kind of gift he'd tumbled into. He chose to run from his power, hiding like some sulking animal in the shadows of Pandora, trying to control his power, trying to will it into submission. Something so great, so untamed, so raw…and what did he do with it? He pissed it away. He tried to bury it.
Jack wanted to be fucking insulted by it. It damned sure felt like an insult. It was absolutely disgusting the way the Vault Hunter had basically spat on such a fucking gift. Such a fucking wonderful, powerful, gift. Acting like it was some embarrassment, some curse.
Jack slammed his fist on the arm of his chair.
It wasn't fucking right for such an undeserving little worm was now flowing with the power that Jack had created. It was supposed to be his. He was the one who was supposed to possess that power.
He sat forward a little in his desk chair, feet planted firmly on the floor beneath him, sneering into the echo screen, all his pearly teeth glinting wet and white in the sparkling light of the device.
"You disgusting little bandit…I will have what's mine. I will GET what's mine. Even if I have to tear it from your dirty little bones." Jack snarled to the echo screen.
His voice echoed off into the silence of his office, creeping into every small space and crevice.
He knew the vault hunter couldn't hear him. He knew that, but lack of sleep and anger with the entire situation was causing the madder side of the masked man to dribble out of him like tar. Every hair on his arms stood on end as he watched the assassin with blown, wild, pupils.
"You will give it back to me." Jack hissed running a thin finger over the screen, over the black mass that was Zero.
Jack eased back into his chair, the furniture creaking with the weight pressed back into it once more, his shoes shuffling over the floor into a more relaxed fashion. The CEO interlaced his fingers across his thin chest, shifting the chain of his pocket watch aside as he did so. He wanted it so badly. To know what it was like to have something so beautiful, dwelling within him. To be graced with such jaws, such teeth, such claws, such muscle, such raw, untamed, absolutely wild supremacy. He had everything he'd ever wanted right in the palm of his hand. He had a billion dollar company, he had Pandora under his complete control, he had the warrior bowing to his feet…but he did not have that. He did not have that wonderful, vicious ability to transform into something so much greater than a mere man. He did not have that power…and he wanted it. He wanted it more than anything. To feel that venom pumping through his veins like fire. To feel everything in such rich detail as he became something so dangerous, so monstrous. He would taste it. He would have it.
It WOULD be his.
If only his incompetent scientists could figure out a way of extracting the virus from the Vault Hunter. But it wasn't possible they said. They couldn't make a serum that would correctly duplicate the strand of disease properly. It wouldn't pass to a new host correctly that way. They couldn't just make it into an inject-able virus. It had to come straight from the source.
In other words he had to be bitten…and in order for that to happen he needed the damned vault hunter to transform. He needed something to make him snap. He needed something to trigger it.
Jack groaned out loudly, angrily, fingers messing through his already wild hair.
Suddenly slight movement on the screen caught his mismatched gaze and his eyes flickered up to the echo device curiously. His worrying hands fell to his lap in utter confusion as he watched the screen with wide, disbelieving eyes.
The door on the screen yawned open, a slender figure filling the doorway hauntingly, having come forth from the dark hallway like some ghostly thing. Even in the dark of the room Jack would know that silhouette anywhere. Slender shoulders, short cropped hair, thin hips and a stance that could shake fear down into the very bones of men. Powerful and dangerous, poisonous in the very sense of the word.
Maya.
Jack crooned closer to the screen, elbows leaning on thin knees, eyebrows drawing together darkly, the false flesh of his ask moving with him gently. What on earth was the siren doing there?
Jack's lips downturned into a displeased frown. He had not given her clearance to go anywhere near the prisoner. He couldn't risk such a strong thing as herself going anywhere near that thing. Who knew what could happen if a Siren was bitten. It could have been an utter, dripping disaster. He wouldn't risk his most prized asset. He needed Maya to control the warrior, to control the planet. He'd risk her for absolutely nothing. Not his favorite pet, he'd never put her in any real danger. Jack snorted out angrily. How dare she go behind his back? Jack wouldn't stand for such shady business.
His finger hovered to the small device on his wrist, the device that was directly connected to Maya's collar. He could drop her where she stood. Scold her of this wrongdoing….but something deep within his gut told him to wait, and so he did. His fingers curled back against his palm as his glare darted across the screen, watching the siren's form with intensity.
For a long while, she merely stood there in the door frame, unmoving and still, like a shadow having come to life right off the walls. The whites of her eyes glittered on the screen, the light of the Exit sign reflecting slightly over her thin form.
"What are you doing siren…?" Jack whispered to darkness around him, tilting his head ever so slowly to the side.
Then finally she was in motion, sauntering toward the large cage, slowly, one foot in front of the other. She approached the containment unit painfully slowly. With stopped just before the cage, mouth moving, hands stiff at her sides.
She was angry. Livid, mouth moving quick and short. The audio-less tape left Jack only wondering what could have been coming from her mouth. What was the cause of such anger risen from her like bile? The assassin was standing, taking the brunt of the Siren's anger unmoving and steady on strong, slender legs. She was yelling, screaming even. Jack could tell that much.
She paused a moment, the echo tape flickering slightly as Jack watched it intently.
The Siren seemed to let her shoulders fall then she was sliding down the glass of the containment unit, eyes fluttering a little as she seemed to say something in a much calmer fashion. The assassin joined her on the floor, and Jack was only left to wonder what, if anything, he was saying to her. What was the assassin saying to his siren?
Conversation seemed to dwindle into a gentle thing, Maya's eyes much softer, her lips moving slower, even curling into a small smile every so often. Then in a sudden turn of events, the siren was lifting…and much to Jack's horror, she was opening the cage.
Jack sat up straight, rage washing over him in one thick, vast wave. He could stop her, whatever she was up to, but something continued to scream within him not to. Was she letting the prisoner loose? Was she going to destroy him? If she destroyed him now everything Jack had worked for would be lost in one fleeting second. Jack waited, eyes frantic and breath baited as the woman entered the cage, and into the assassin's embrace.
The scene that played out had Jack's eyes flickering with absolute understanding. Love. Between the his siren and the assassin. Something old from the looks of it. Something that was there before he'd ever laid hands on the siren. Secret, untold to anyone. Something wicked formed between the two of them. Lost in each other's needs and frantic touches, unaware of the prying eyes settling on them.
Jack's lip twitched up wickedly.
There.
There it was. The very weakness he had been looking for. The greatest weakness the universe had ever so stupidly created. The need, the compassion, the love for another being. The assassin would not crumble to torture, to harsh words, to physical beatings. No he would not fall to those. But what about something else? What if something he loved were to be put in danger? Then would he fall to pieces? Then would he kneel to Jack's wishes?
Jack's laughter filled the small room as he leaned back and crossed his arms up over his head, grinning like a child on Christmas morning.
Everything had a weakness. It was just all about finding it.
Then once found….it could bring even the greatest of beasts…to its knees.