Author's Note: I wanted to say this quickly before getting into the story. To anyone having trouble with this or any of my other stories using intermission lines, as I call them: when I upload chapters, the intermission lines don't carry over, so it can get confusing to the reader how paragraphs simply end and a completely new topic sprouts up out of nowhere. I've tried to remedy this multiple times, but it doesn't work. I apologize to all of you who have been confused by this. I will be trying something else to serve its purpose from now on. That said, enjoy the new chapter.
Pandoran Nights Chapter 5
Chilling isn't it? Having just a memory to cling to for happiness? What about looking back at that memory and seeing that you're the reason that memory isn't a reality anymore? You feel it yet –that stinging, burning, gnawing pain in your chest and the growing desire to weep at its loss? If you do, then you know what I feel at this exact moment. When you close your eyes, do you see the smile of the one you hold dear and feel that it's gone forever? When you see that smile, do you feel an emptiness inside that you can't fill no matter how much murder and blood and gore you try to cram into it? No? Is it just me then? Right, I'm the weird one. Anyway, that emptiness has been plaguing me for as long as I can remember. All I have left of what used to fill the void are just old echo recordings of her and faded, chopped up memories of a time when I was trusted and even befriended.
Though it's not like you can hear me; I'm sitting here, chained up like a rabid dog, dangling off the side of a floating city, and talking inside the head of a raving psychopath. But, right now, raving isn't the right word. He's completely silent, just staring out into the distance. Impressive enough, he hasn't even blinked in the last half hour. I'm surprised the both of us can even still see out of that eye at this point.
External Perspective.
Krieg dangled in complete and utter silence over the edge of the city, his gaze transfixed to the horizon and his mind far clearer than it ever had been. During the entirety of his time hanging and bound, a freely flowing stream of painful tears has rolled down his mask from his left eye, functioning as the only thing keeping his exposed eye from drying out in the unforgiving winds of the high altitude.
(Hey, you alright there, pal? Usually, you don't let me get soliloquies like that until you're in a daze after beating the crud out of some sort of monster.) Krieg's sanity said, addressing its dominant portion as he continued silently staring out at the precipice of land and sky. (...Uh... Hello? You out there?) Again, the disembodied consciousness was met with no response. (Well, I can already tell this is going to be a fun time...) it replied, returning to silence and joining him in appreciating the skies and shifting earth below.
"Hey, I'm here to take next shift." Gaige said, walking up behind Salvador.
"¡Por fin! Un momento mas and I would have perdido la cabeza!" he shouted with relief. "He's been quieter and stiffer than mi gran abuela muerta. Kind of scary if you ask me." He continued, pointing down at the motionless psychopath as he dangled below.
"Really? I can see why. Well, anyway, I got'cha from here." Gaige replied, patting him on the shoulder as he stood up from his seated position. Sal nodded, gave her a grin and a thumb's up and headed to the HQ. As Salvador left, Gaige sat down in his previous spot. "Hey, big guy... I've got some food if you're hungry." She said, looking down at him. She was only greeted with silence as the hulking man continued his motionless stare out into the distance. "...Hello... Krieg?" she asked after receiving no response.
(Come on, pal, if you don't give her something, she's going to feel alone. Would you really be that cold to the little lady? She was one of the first to accept us, after all.) Krieg's inner voice said, but it too was given only silence as a response. (Just give her something, a grunt, a scream, a gurgle, anything.)
Krieg grumbled softly, finally acknowledging reality. Gaige heard it enough to be visibly perked up after receiving his reply.
"Finally! Welcome back to reality, big guy! Damn, after three days of complete silence, you finally said something!" she shouted, overjoyed. "Now how about having a little food to go with your water today? It's been days and you haven't been eating." She said, summoning Deathtrap and handing him a bowl of skag-roast stuffing with some meat on top. Deathtrap then grumbled in his regular deep tone before hovering out towards the dangling psycho. Krieg looked at the machine before him, taking a whiff of the food in its hand. "It's okay, big guy, he won't look at you while you eat and I can't see you. He'll just lift up your mask and you can dig in." Gaige said in a soothing voice. Krieg looked up at her for a moment, finally feeling exactly how exhausted he'd become after the days of fasting out of determination. His steely resolve crumbled and he became jittery, nodding readily to be fed. "It's good to see you've gotten your appetite back, big guy. Maya's going to want to see you in tippy-top shape when she gets back. Don't disappoint her!" she said, smiling as Deathtrap slowly lifted the psycho's mask and held the bowl up to him.
Despite the altitude, the winds were slower today, making the process far less arduous than it could have been otherwise. Krieg ate the entire bowl greedily, only slowing when Gaige would snap her fingers, causing Deathtrap to retract the bowl and hold out a bottle of water with a straw for him to sip from to keep from getting himself sick.
"Holy crap, man, did you even taste that?" Gaige asked as Deathtrap now covered Krieg's face once more. Krieg merely grunted and nodded as affirmation. "Glad to hear it. We're all searching for Maya as best we can, so don't fret, big guy. You'll have your "Meat Maiden" back real soon." Gaige said with a smile, looking down at her large companion.
Krieg nodded and then said his first words in nearly three days. "The circulating train stations trample gently at the kazoo factory!"
"Uh... I'm just going to assume that that meant you're feeling better. After everything that's happened, I just want to kick back, relax, and OBLITERATE THE PIECE OF SCRAP THAT FUCKED WITH MY FRIENDS!" Gaige replied, seemingly calm before bursting into a fit of rage, releasing all her frustrations in a rant that all but brought a prideful tear to Krieg's eye. "Guaaah! I'm going to upgrade DT so much he's going to liquefy his enemies without even touching them! And if this FUCKER thinks that he can get away with what he did to you, he's got another thing coming! Oh, noOOOoooo... I'm going to show you how to control your anger and bloodlust like I had to for years! And you're going to show him what you can do all hopped up on mutagens! BY CHOKING HIM WITH HIS OWN SPLEEN! Are you with me, Krieg?!" she hollered, looking down at her psycho friend with a crazy look in her eye that even he had to respect.
Krieg broke out into a fit of approving laughter as he replied. "My Salisbury hula-hoop shall deck the halls with bloody mary and spread the love like a rapture of binary chocolate bumps! YOU HAVE MY AXE!" he shouted with deranged glee, ending his ranting response with fitful laughter in practical unison with Gaige's.
"Now that's what I like to hear! But wait... Stay right here. I need to clear this with the team first. We can smash the system all we want, as long as no one but our damn, dirty enemies get hurt." Gaige said, stopping mid-maniacal laugh to sprint off and tell the others. Krieg also stopped laughing by this point, looking about in mild confusion when he realized she was gone.
(Well, now we wait and see what happens. If the rest of the guys rule that we're staying put, that works too, but I'll admit, even I'm getting more than a little stir crazy out here.) Krieg's sanity commented.
"Then I shall dangle. Dangle with spiteful reprieve! LIKE ALL SHALL SWALLOW!" Krieg shouted, grinning ominously beneath his mask as thoughts of rending the flesh of the one that had ruined his happy existence played through his head repeatedly.
(I don't know whether to say "That's the spirit" or "Seek help" at this moment, there, pal.) Krieg's inner voice commented, causing him to begin to laugh insanely.
Gaige now stood before Roland and various others in the Crimson Raiders HQ, slightly panting from her full sprint to the building.
"Gaige. What are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching Krieg." Roland said, looking at her quizzically.
"I know, I know, I know, but I've got an idea! Now hear me out completely, and I think Angel will back me up on this one here, but I have a plan to train Krieg's immune system to reject the mutagen that sent him into all "Hulk Smash" mode before!" Gaige exasperated.
"Uh... Wow. How would we do that, exactly? Without, well, "Hulk Smash" mode?" Roland asked, curiously.
"You can't be considering this! We'd be giving him the same crap that set him off and killed half the damn town!" Lilith shouted, her eyes widening.
"I know! That's why we'd be giving him exponentially smaller doses and upping them by teensy-weensy amounts while keeping him heavily sedated! His body just needs to build immunity to the junk, I never said he needed to be conscious for it!" Gaige fired back, furiously defending her plan, even against the Firehawk herself.
"Both of you, calm down. Angel. You've observed the guy almost as much as Maya at this point, what do you think?" Roland said, lifting his hand to quell the argument before it even began.
"I don't know about it being foolproof, but with us, nothing ever is. Aside from that, it sounds much more promising than just keeping him chained under the city and hoping nothing bad happens." She said after taking several moments to think.
"Right. Gaige, how long would it take to get his tolerance high enough for him to be useful in a fight?" Roland asked, turning back to the Mechromancer, rubbing his chin in thought.
"Depends. With some help and some gene therapy, I could make him immune to the stuff completely, but that'd take months. Not to mention, that might adversely affect how useful he is in a fight. I still need to learn how his transformation works before I have anything concrete. Earliest, a week from now, we start testing after learning more about him and what makes him tick." She replied, starting to ramble as she thought.
"I can offer my not inconsiderable talents as well. I too am very curious as to how the ex-experiment functions." Tannis said, walking up the stairs, having heard the conversation from downstairs.
"With her help, it should be much easier to run the tests we'd need, but it's still going to take time." Gaige said in response to Tannis' interjection.
"I'll allow you to run the tests, but he's staying under for the entirety of it. And I mean with enough tranquilizing agents to drop a Rakk Hive. Understood? There's no room for risks." Roland said, looking at the two.
"Got'cha!"
"Most certainly. We'll begin concocting the necessary restraining agents immediately. I shall retrieve Mordecai from his surveillance so he can assist." Tannis replied. The two then headed out of the room, Tannis using the stairs and Gaige running and sprinting off of the balcony to go tell Krieg the good and not as good news.
"Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod! Krieg! Roland said yes! We're going to start testing right away! But... there's a problem... We have to keep you heavily sedated the entire time... SooOOOoooo... you're going to be out cold for maybe weeks... Sorry, big guy." Gaige said, leaning over Sanctuary's edge to make eye-contact with him.
(Can't say we weren't expecting this. It's our best shot. Let's go with it.) Krieg's sanity said.
"Mmmmm... May the grinding banana pollywogs commence in my bacon! The vigilant quasar of villainous virtue and visceral virtual realities shall rise! VICTORIOUS!" Krieg shouted gleefully.
"That's what I'm talkin' about! Alright, let's get you up here and sawing logs!" Gaige said, pulling out her Echo and calling up the others. "Krieg's onboard! Let's get this rolling, suckas!" she said, her smile practically audible.
"Ready on this end, chica! Hoist 'em up, cabrones!" Salvador shouted, as he, Zero, Brick, and Axton all pulled the psycho up back onto Sanctuary's surface.
Krieg's last conscious moment on Sanctuary that day was of him once again facing all his allies, hands bound with a stern look of determination in his eye. "The pain poncho will be colorful once again." He said staring out at them all before Mordecai pulled back the bolt of his rifle, loading the tranquilizer round and pulling the trigger, dropping the monster of a man in seconds.
"I'm sorry, soldier. Sleep well for now." Roland said as Krieg was on the verge of consciousness. The psycho nodded weakly, his eye closing and his muscles relaxing visibly.
"Not to ruin the moment here, but, you think he's got to talk to that voice in his head when he's sleeping?" Axton asked, causing some of the others to chuckle while Brick and Salvador carried the unconscious Vault Hunter into Scooter's Garage.
(Well. Welcome to uh... This... apparently...)
End Pandoran Nights Chapter 5: Empty Nightmares.
And that's chapter 5, everyone. As always, read, review, and feel free to PM me if you've got stuff to say! Stay frosty.