Maya hadn't been entirely honest with Zer0.
They were adamant that she wasn't to bring any attention to their disappearance for a minimum of two days. She accepted this; it seemed sensible enough- at least, if spies were truly an issue, and if the enemy was as well coordinated as Zer0 believed. Honestly, she would have been happy to postpone telling Lilith. The last thing the overworked Commander of the Crimson Raiders needed was to be burdened with the loss of a Vault hunter.
As it turned out, Maya got no choice in the matter. Lilith ECHO'd her before she'd even left the Atlas facility, interrupting breakfast.
"Hey uh… You haven't happened to have heard from Zer0, have you?" she'd asked.
Maya had been mentally rehearsing how to break the news to Lilith since the moment she'd agreed to Zer0's plan.
"Hey, Lilith. You might have noticed Zer0's not been around recently." She'd say. "Now, I'm sure they're alive, but I think someone might have attacked them and pumped them full of poison. Not enough to kill them, just leaving them in a weakened state." That was probably too specific, it was a work in progress, though. She'd continue, "They were probably forced to go into hiding, but again, they're definitely not dead, so you don't need to worry about that. Anyways, I have some leads, but I'm going to need your help."
Or something along those lines. She assumed she'd have gathered a little more information before going to Lilith.
Instead, Maya barely managed to swallow her mouthful of Atlas brand instant oatmeal and force out a "...Huh?" followed by a weak "No…".
It was marginally better than her first impulse, which was to break down and confess everything.
"Crap," Lilith said. "Krieg's with you, right?"
"Y-yeah. He uh, hasn't seen them either." Maya looked at him across the kitchen table, putting a finger over her lip in a silent "Shhh." before adding, "Why do you ask?"
"We might have a problem? Zer0's missing. Can't get them on the ECHO, no one's seen them, and uh. It looks like some serious shit might have gone down?"
"Woah, what?" Maya was able to sound genuinely surprised, partly because she was. Worrying about them was one thing, but it was far too soon for Lilith to know something had actually happened. "O-okay, but, it's Zer0? A few days isn't that long for them. Maybe they're somewhere without good ECHO reception? Or they-they're busy?"
She looked to Athena helplessly. Athena shrugged, mouthing what looked to be "You're fine" to her, and returning to her breakfast.
"Yeah, that's what I wanted to think." Lilith gave a half-hearted laugh. "I still kind of hope that's the case, but you know Harding? Lady in charge of Lynchwood?"
"I know of her, yeah?"
"She hired Zer0 to take out a bandit camp a few days back. They never came back for their payment, so she sends a team out to check out the site. And uh, Zer0 had definitely been there, killed everyone, and then vanished."
"Isn't that norm-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, wouldn't be weird on its own. But they abandoned their outrunner- which again, isn't unheard of. But uh… Well, okay, I didn't think it was anything, but Harding sounded really worried, so I humored her and sent Mordecai to check things out, and he…He says it looks pretty bad."
Maya swallowed. Zer0 was a room over. They were conked out and extremely weak, but completely safe. All it would take to ease Lilith's fears would be to turn on the ECHO's video feed and show her. Zer0 probably wouldn't even wake up, they wouldn't have to know.
Instead, she asked, "Bad...How?"
"It looks like they were attacked. Mordecai found some of their stuff scattered around the camp, blood everywhere. Evidently, they took off into the desert on foot, just before that big storm. They were probably badly hurt, and then they uh, either got captured or uh...Yeah..." Her voice fell as she trailed off.
"Oh."
"So yeah, pretty bad." There was a long pause. When Lilith spoke again, she used her best attempt at a composed-leader voice. "I'm having everyone else searching the area. But I figured you ah, well...Friedman tells me you're the closest thing Sanctuary has to a detective, and I'd be inclined to agree. I have everyone else out searching the nearby area, but I'm sending you the coordinates to the Bandit camp. Maybe you can find something Mordy missed."
"I-I'll do my best." It was what she'd planned to do anyway, just without anyone else knowing about it. "I...I'm sure they're fine. Don't stress yourself out over this too much, it's...It's not the first time one of us has gone missing."
If she couldn't tell the truth, she'd at least try to be reassuring, for whatever that was worth.
"Right. I'm gonna make some other calls. Good luck." With that, Lilith hung up.
Maya slumped back in her chair, groaning. "Zer0's not going to like this."
She heard Athena laugh. "Probably not. But look on the bright side, you survived."
"Miraculously. That was thoroughly unpleasant."
"I could tell," Athena said. "At least you have a lead."
"You mean Harding?"
"Yes. I can't say I know more about this woman than what I heard now, but even then, I find her actions...Questionable. What's her story? She doesn't owe Sanctuary any loyalty, does she?"
She shook her head. "No. At least, not to my understanding. She and a small group of former Hyperions reestablished Lynchwood and its Eridium mines on their own? They outright refused help when Lilith offered it. They'll hire one of us on occasion, but they've avoided directly aligning themself with the Raiders. Still, maybe she's more compassionate than I took her for?"
"No decent town administrator is that compassionate. Who's going to lift a finger to help a missing mercenary? Especially one they owe money?" Athena countered. "She was risking sending her men to their deaths, not knowing whether the job had been completed or not."
Maya nodded, closing her eyes. It might be nothing, maybe they were overthinking it. Maybe Harding legitimately cared for Zer0's well being, for whatever reason that may be.
"I'll have to pay a visit to Lynchwood," she decided. "I have to wonder what she'd have to gain, though. It seems unlikely that-"
A door slid open and she went silent.
Zer0 walked into the room without acknowledging any of them, making a beeline for the pantry. Maybe it was the lack of armor and the unusually loose clothes, but they seemed to be slouching, and their movements lacked the usual effortlessness.
For a moment she just watched as they dug, one-armed, through the pantry.
"Uh, hey, Zer0."
They only grunted in response.
"So uh...You…" Maya found herself fumbling for words. "Nice cardigan."
They froze in the middle of pulling canned skag from the cupboard, looking down at their shirt.
"It's Rhys's." They said, setting the can on the counter and beginning to dig through drawers. Finding a fork, they wordlessly retreated with their meal.
Both Maya and Athena stared for a long moment after the door shut behind them.
Krieg broke the silence with loud laughter. "Ah, you're EXACTLY right! This accursed wasp has no sting, after all! Alas, Missus Inclement Weather, we should move our picnic out of that ol' rot nest! There will be NO spiderants in MY pie! Slice and men, after all!" He gestured as if reciting a classic soliloquy, on stage.
"Good point," Maya said, defeated.
Athena's baffled stare settled on her, now. "Pardon?"
"Zer0 might not stick to our plan, we'll need to be...Delicate."
"So, you're not telling them, then?"
"I…Started to." she said. "But they seem tired, I should at least let them eat first, maybe they'll be in a better mood afterwards?"
Athena rose an eyebrow, doubt plain on her face. "I have no stake in this, but if you don't want to tell them, I wouldn't blame you. Speaking as a former assassin- albeit, under different circumstances- I expect that might be the right decision."
"What, really?"
"Overestimating your enemy is generally safer than underestimating them. A good assassin knows better than to get cocky. A really good assassin is bound to get cocky anyways. Zer0 did, and they paid for it, so now they're going to overcompensate in the opposite direction. An unexpected change in plans is going to make them flighty, and if former Hyperions are possibly involved in the attack, why should they trust Rhys to not be involved?" she said. "In their place, I'd work under the suspicion of a revenge scheme against the Raiders, or something of the sort."
"...Huh. Now that you mention it, you don't think Rhys is involved?" She'd heard about him taking down Helios, but an enemy of Hyperion wasn't necessarily their friend.
Athena shook her head, smiling. "He's corporate scum, a bit of a jackass, and probably not above scheming, but he's hardly a sadist. Really, more than anything? He's a moron with a surprisingly strong loyal streak. And he genuinely likes Zer0. I've been on an annoyingly long road trip with him, I'd know."
"Yeah, I guess that whole scene with their sword couldn't have been an act…" Maya would have laughed at the thought of it, were it not for the more pressing matter. "So, you think if I tell them they'll run off?"
"It's a risk, there was a time I might have done so in their shoes. Sitting tight and waiting for someone else to deal with the problem would have been hard enough. Doing so when I had a lead would have been intolerable. Add to that the possibility that my allies are being manipulated into assisting my foes with their pursuit? If nothing else, it'll put Zer0 on edge." She stood, taking her bowl to the sink to rinse it. "If it helps, look at it this way: what do either of you have to gain from them knowing?"
Maya considered this. There was the chance Zer0 would be able to provide some insight, but they'd given her all the details they had on their attackers. It seemed unlikely they'd suddenly recover some vital memory if she told them about Harding.
Sure, it felt morally questionable to leave them in the dark, but they were doing the same thing to all their friends in Sanctuary, and on a much larger scale. Besides, they didn't need to be stressing out about a mystery when they were supposed to be recovering.
In the end, she didn't tell them.
By the time she departed, leaving Zer0 with only Rhys, she felt she had made the right choice. At least, they were cooperating. Maybe they weren't being entirely honest with their promise to wait until their recovery before trying anything, and she'd rather they didn't put so much weight on personally getting revenge- she hoped to have the problem dealt with long before they got the chance to step back into the ring- but still. It was something.
It also helped ease her mind that Rhys seemed to hold a surprising amount of sway over them- maybe even more than her in certain regards, seeing as Zer0 was even actively trying to learn how to be considerate of him. And Rhys seemed to genuinely want to help.
It was probably best she could get out of this situation.
The sun still hung high in the sky when Maya and Krieg fast-traveled into the Dead Sands, which were rendered nearly unrecognizable by the recent storm.
"Bullets piercing the ground! The garden party broke out!" Krieg announced before Maya had the chance to process what she was looking at.
Zer0 had mentioned a storm, so a little bit of greenery spotting the wasteland wouldn't have surprised her. But she didn't expect the usually desolate landscape to fill up with a thick, almost knee-high layer of colorful plant-life, practically overnight. Krieg was right, it did resemble a garden. It might even have been pleasant if they weren't trekking two miles through it, under the scorching afternoon sun. Pandoran plant life was diverse, but unified in the fact that it all managed to be either pointy, or itchy, or straight up deadly.
They found Mordecai waiting for them next to Zer0's abandoned outrunner, left on the side of a hill. Talon was perched on the barrel of the mounted turret, preening. Upon sensing their approach the bird looked up, letting out a loud squawk in greeting, and Mordecai clambered to his feet.
"Hey!" Maya waved, carefully weaving a path through a thick patch of newly sprouted cesium plants. Behind her she heard the gooey sound of Krieg purposely stomping on each one.
"I was starting to think you'd gotten lost," Mordecai said, half-yawning. "Or just admiring the scenery?"
"No, we just got a little held up, sorry about that." Once she reached the runner she turned to look outwards. She couldn't remember another time she'd seen so much life in one place. "It is pretty, though."
"Eh. Makes it a bitch to find much of anything. As if the rain wasn't bad enough on its own. Lilith's filled you in, right?"
Maya nodded. "More or less. You really think it looks as bad as she says?"
"Depends. I told Lilith not to freak out about it. Gonna go out on a limb and guess that didn't do much good?"
"I mean, wouldn't say 'freaked out', but 'completely stressing out' would be accurate."
"Right." Mordecai rubbed his neck. "If I'm being honest, that might be the right reaction. It's hard to say how much they were bleeding after this rain- enough that Talon could still pick out its scent, though. Got a trail heading west into the desert for about two miles." He pointed his thumb in the direction. "We found their ECHO, completely trashed near some empty insta-health syringes, and that's about where Talon started to lose the trail."
"Because of the storm?"
"Probably. If I had to guess, I'd say they had to have been bleeding pretty bad for us to get a trail at all. Once they got themselves patched up there wasn't much for Talon to follow. He caught traces of them a few times further out, but not much to go off of."
"The twig snapped into blood!" Krieg had plopped down in a clump of bladeflowers, methodically pulling apart every stem in his reach.
"Yeah, that sounds about right. It's not looking good," Mordecai said.
"Oh… You uh, you don't think they're dead, do you?"
"Eh. Can't really say one way or the other. They apparently managed to heal up, but they were being chased. They'd be better off letting themself get captured, the desert would probably kill them otherwise." He paused, seeming to scan the horizon. "That said, I personally doubt they'd surrender, but they also wouldn't die in such a mediocre way. Not if they could help it. But I guess that's wishful thinking."
Maya found herself impressed by Mordecai's accurate read on the situation. Without the rain, he probably would have tracked them all the way to Old Haven. She almost wished that were the case, then she could wash her hands of all responsibility.
"No, I think you're right. They're not the type to die without making a spectacle of it. Besides, if they were able to treat their wounds? That seems pretty promising." She offered a reassuring smile. "So, where's the crime scene?"
"Just over the hill." He gestured behind him. "Fiona's already there, getting a head start."
"Wait, Fiona?"
"Yeah, she offered to help. Said she was supposed to be shadowing you today?" He shrugged. "I sent her ahead to look around before you got here. Hope that's not a problem, but I figured it might save you some time. And I'm not exactly in the mood for…That." He gestured vaguely.
"Oh, no, it's no problem," Maya lied. "I could use the extra set of eyes."
The first corpse lay at the edge of the camp. Aside from being literally in two pieces, cut in half through the abdomen, it was remarkably intact, though some parts were turning a pale green shade. While decomposition went slow on Pandora, as the planet lacked most of the microorganisms traditionally involved in it, its assortment of large scavengers more than made up for it. A body, left in the open, would usually be picked clean in a matter of days. Or it would be swallowed whole the moment a large enough skag found it. Usually.
As Maya got closer, she realized why it had been left untouched. The innards spilling from the two halves of the body weren't green from putrefaction, but were covered with tiny, green tendrils, each with a little bulb at the top. The tendrils began to sway and pulsate as she neared.
"Huh, that's...Pretty weird. Is… Is that what I think it is?" she asked, kneeling down a few feet from the body. She couldn't see a speck of red on it- where she'd expect blood, there was just green.
"Baby necrophage? Yeah. Made the mistake of trying to touch it when I got here. Nasty stuff." Mordecai held up a hand, showing where the fingertips of his glove have corroded away, the fingers beneath blistered. "It's all over the place, at this size it'll grow out of every speck of blood."
"I've never even seen necrophage growing in this part." Maya experimented with reaching one hand closer. The sprouts began to vibrate rapidly, threatening to spew a mist of corrosive chemicals if she touched them.
"Yeah, the sandstorms usually kill it when it's out in the open desert. Some of those bandits must have come out of the old Friendship Gulag, they'd bring spores with 'em. The rain would give it the chance to grow."
"Might be a lead. Who's controlling the Gulag now, anyways?"
"Skullgrinders, last time I checked. Unless the Skin-shredders got it back in the last few days, but they got beat pretty badly last time."
Maya looked back at the corpse. Zer0 had said these guys were unaffiliated, far as they could tell, and she saw no evidence that they were wrong.
"Who's to say that a bandit brought the spores? They might have come from somewhere else, right?"
"Sure, necrophage has a pretty wide range," he conceded. "Could have come from anywhere. The Gulag's just the most obvious spot, but even going over the mountains might leave you carrying spores. It isn't a great lead."
"Good point." She guessed it could at least be a fallback.
"On the bright side, the 'phage is probably the only reason it's possible to tell what happened here. After nearly two days and a storm, the scene shouldn't be so intact. You can even see where all the blood was."
"And there was a lot of blood." It was Fiona's voice. Maya looked up to see her standing at the edge of the camp. "It's basically the Caustic goddamn Caverns in there. What took you so long?"
It seemed that she'd also fallen victim to the necrophage, her coattails singed and shortened.
Maya smiled apologetically. "We had a mission out in the Rust Commons, there's only one working fast travel out there." That part, at least, was partially true. Old Haven was only a half-hour away from the fast travel station, but there weren't any others for miles around. After Hyperion abandoned the planet, most had fallen into disrepair, save for the strategic few that the Crimson Raiders took charge of. "I hope you weren't waiting on me too long?"
"Eh. I took the chance to get a look around the place," Fiona said. Her voice chilled when she addressed Mordecai, "I can give them the tour, if you want to get back to...Whatever you were doing with the bird."
Mordecai sighed. "...Right. Thanks." He turned away, stopping to add, "Good luck. If you need me just shoot me an ECHO."
Fiona scowled as he left.
"Still? I thought you'd forgiven them."
"I forgave Brick," Fiona clarified. "He earned it. "
"I see..." Maya decided against questioning that, there were more important matters than Fiona and Mordecai's ongoing feud. "So, you find anything interesting?"
"Depends on what you call interesting. A bunch of dead guys, some bullet casings, and a used flashbang...Zer0 doesn't use flashbangs, do they?"
"Not last I was with them, no. Wouldn't expect bandits to use them either." The moment Fiona's back was turned she slipped the Achlys dart to Krieg. He took it without a word, perhaps understanding the urgency in the look she gave him. "Where'd you find it?"
As she'd promised, Fiona gave them the full tour of the camp, before they slowed down for a proper investigation. It was tedious work, made worse by the clumps of aggressive, caustic plant life covering most of what could be considered evidence. She didn't see why Zer0 felt the need to dismember, decapitate, and bisect so goddamn many of them, when a simple stab would suffice.
Regardless, Zer0's description proved to be accurate enough that Maya was able to reconstruct their story after a few hours of work. Whoever had attacked them didn't make any attempt at hiding their hand. Aside from the flashbang they'd left bullet casings, bits of Zer0's armor, and a small crater where one had thrown a grenade after Zer0.
The suspects hadn't left anything else, though. Not that she expected an ECHO with their names, motive, and location, but even a bloody shoeprint would be nice. At least, she assumed that sort of information could come in handy down the line.
The sun was going down, and there was one last corner of the camp, with one last headless corpse.
Krieg was trying to plunge his hand into its neck. "Punctuated!"
"Krieg, no!" Maya grabbed Krieg's hand just in time.
The necrophage shook violently at the disturbance, and Krieg made a displeased grumbling sound.
"Do you really want necrophage burns?" she scolded.
"Yes! Eat the death away! A caustic baptism!"
Maya frowned. "I know you're bored, but I'd really rather you didn't."
"But that's how it all happened!" he argued. "Boring into the skull! The cure for nothingness: PURE BURNING AGONY! "
"Is...Is he gonna be alright?" Fiona asked from a good ten feet away.
"He's fine. Right, Krieg?"
The tension on his arm let up as he stopped reaching towards the body, and Maya released him. She turned to face Fiona. "Guess this is the last of them. Sword wound again."
"Of course." Fiona's eyes followed the trail of necrophage that traveled from head to neck, eyebrows knit. "So...Definitely no shock bullets used on any of them?" They'd stumbled upon the shock bullet casings, scattered alongside casings from Zer0's own rifle, on the ledge above the camp. It seemed Zer0's attacker fired more shots than had actually hit them- she wondered if that fact would make them feel better or worse.
"That must have been from whoever attacked Zer0. Or one of them, I think it was a group- three or four would make sense. Much more than that leaves too many variables- if you want to covertly take out a target, you need a small, highly trained group. Plus, it seems as if there were a few different weapons used."
"Couldn't there have just been like, two guys? Switching out weapons?"
"True, but then why did Zer0 run off the cliff instead of making an easier escape? Look at this place- there's way too many escape routes for just two people to cover. If Zer0 was already wounded, with their shield down, they'd want cover from the sniper. The best cover is to the east. Even north would be a better option if they'd cloaked. But instead, they went west, towards open land. Not to mention they obviously hurt themself more on the way down. So either Zer0 panicked, or those routes were blocked, and they aren't the sort to panic."
"That's...a good point. I think? Or, you're totally bullshitting me and making it sound pretty smart."
Maya laughed, maybe a little too nervously, judging by the skeptical look Fiona was giving her. "You-you're right. I'm making some educated guesses here. I mean, it could have only been two. Heck, it might have been one extremely fast person, or Zer0 could have really messed up. But honestly? I have trouble seeing them getting taken down by any less than three without there being more evidence of a fight. I guess that's putting a lot of faith in Ze-"
"The ANGUISH in my hands! The stabbing purple venom!" Krieg interrupted, rescuing Maya from her clumsy attempt to justify herself. He thrust his fist between the two, opening it to reveal the feathered dart. The final thing she needed from this investigation. She'd have to thank him later.
"What...Is that?" Fiona stared down at it, bewildered.
"Looks like a tranquilizer dart," Maya said, carefully taking it from Krieg. She hoped her reaction seemed natural. Maybe she should have acted more surprised?
"Where'd you find that, Krieg?" Fiona asked.
"It STABBED into our missing void and now our insides are just like TWINS! All dressed in purple! And so the lying eyes were blood and then mismatch and then storm clouds and now one's GONE! But the stormcloud wins her violet-violent prize back!" he confessed, being completely, yet incomprehensibly, honest.
"Right. So uh, I might actually be a little rusty on my psycho, you got a translation?"
"Something about Zer0 getting shot with it? Don't know where Krieg could have gotten that, though. Or found the dart, for that matter."
She gave Krieg a look that she hoped translated to "Please don't say anything else".
Krieg nodded rapidly. "DING! I'm clocking out! No more perjury!"