Rhys's shaky businessman countenance seemed to fall away the moment the other three Vault hunters left. Replacing it was the expression of one who'd hit the wrong button on a fast travel, to find themself in the middle of a heated game of bandit headball. If that person also suffered from a profound preoccupation with their hair.
The silence had actually become intolerable to Zer0, master of awkward silences, by the time Rhys finally spoke.
"Soooo...Guess it's just us again, huh?"
"Is that not the point?"
"Ye-yeah. Of course." Rhys managed a wavering smile. "I just, uh... Make yourself at home, I guess. It's a big place, obviously- so uh. If you want a tour...But, I mean, I guess you'll need to rest because-"
"눈_눈"
Zer0 felt like weights were attached to their remaining limbs, and their senses seemed to be dimming by the minute, but they were so, so sick of sleeping. Sleeping was admitting that they'd been bested by a chemical, crude and foul.
"-Or-or not? Just uh..." His smile fell. "I have books, ECHOsims? Whatever you need, I can probably get."
"I need my arm fixed / You said you would repair it. / Sooner is better." They'd barely managed to get dressed without being forced to ask Maya for help. That, they could have beared, she'd never put them on a pedestal. But now Maya was gone, and Rhys didn't need to know just how far they'd fallen.
"Oh! I did say I'd do that, didn't I?" Rhys seemed relieved, perhaps because he'd been freed from the social obligation to entertain them.
"Yes. You did." Zer0's voice was monotone as ever. They hadn't intended to sound so curt, so they added a ":)".
"Right, sorry, I totally forgot. But yeah, I uh, I can do that. At least, I can give it a look. I have a repair kit in my workshop, and I uh-I managed to fix my own arm, so if it's anything like that, no problem."
Their smiley was replaced by a hopeful ":D".
Then things got awkward again.
The elevator ride to the fourth floor was approximately thirty seconds long. It was another fifty seconds of walking to Rhys's workshop. A total of seventy seconds where Zer0 was painfully aware of their lack of conversational talent, while Rhys, not much better, anxiously preened. He combed a hand through his hair, adjusted and readjusted his sleeves, checked his fingernails, checked the joints of his metal fingers, smoothed out his shirt, rubbed at a scuff on his arm, and combed a hand through his hair a second time. All the while he would periodically steal glances at Zer0, only for his eyes to dart away when he saw them returning his gaze.
In the last ten seconds, as the elevator door opened, they decided to comment on it.
"You are well-groomed, Rhys," they said. "A rare trait, on Pandora. / You need not worry."
They were entirely unsurprised when Rhys's face turned pink. He sputtered out something that might have been a "Thanks."
"Uh, sorry about the mes,." he spoke again when they reached a door labeled with the word "CONFERENCE ROOM A2" in blocky, vertical letters. Rhys typed a series of numbers on a keypad, and the door slid open.
Its label was accurate - even calling Rhys's workshop a "repurposed boardroom" would have been generous. It was more like someone took a boardroom and a workshop and haphazardly smashed the two together. There was even a large portion of the concrete wall that had been knocked open, exposing pipes. Rhys had apparently made some alterations so that the pipes supplied a DIY sink.
A long metal conference table sat in the middle of the room, sleek except for a large spot where the sheen had been worn away. It was covered in a variety of clutter, mainly tools and what looked to be unfinished projects, as well as some miscellaneous trash.
Only a single metal stool sat beside it - one that had been obviously taken from another room. The actual conference room chairs sat in a cluster, pushed up against the far wall. Rhys dragged one of those next to the stool.
"Okay, sit here, I-I guess," he said. "I need to uh, get some tools together."
"Odd choice of workspace / Surely this facility / Has a real workshop." They sunk into the chair, letting themself enjoy the comfort for only a few seconds before sitting up straight. It wouldn't do to show just how exhausted they felt.
"Yeah, but this room is only a floor below my suite. The actual workshop is over in another building. Not-Not that I'm lazy, but this is pretty convenient and uh, it was pretty bad there…" He plucked a few tools out of the mess.
Zer0 cocked their head at him with a "?".
"Oh, so Athena's uh, murder rampage. I-I think she ran out of ammo around there and switched to using grenades and...power tools." He paused, shuddering. "I've seen some gruesome shit out there but uh. You'd uh. You'd think most belt sanders would stop working after going through that much...face. But yeah, it-it's fine…" He shook his head as if he were shaking off the thought of it. "Okay, if you could take off your glove and roll up your sleeve. Let's see what I'm working with, here."
Zer0 hesitated. Rhys had probably seen a little blood-covered skin already, considering how tattered their suit had become. And their arm was simple robotics. Still, it was way more of them than most people would ever see.
"Rhys, I…" Zer0 began, intending to warn him of the consequences of sharing anything he saw. They thought better of it. After all, they were making a point of not scaring him, little as that seemed to be working.
"I'm grateful / You've proven dependable / Surprisingly so," they finished, peeling off their glove.
"Oh! Uh." He got that vaguely lost, startled look again."It's no problem. I-I mean, if it weren't for you, I would have definitely gotten eaten by a skag like two different times. I mean, I guess the second time you didn't save me on purpose, you just dropped your sword in a convenient spot, but still, you being there during that whole death rally thing meant the rest of us didn't get made into skin pizza, And then you helped out with the Traveler? ...N-Not to say that I'm only doing this because I owe you- I mean, I definitely owe you but, I just, y'know, we uh..." He stopped, noticing Zer0 pulling up their sleeve to reveal blue-black metal. "Right! Your arm, yeah. Fixing it now."
"Do you really think / That you will be capable / Of this repair, Rhys?" Zer0 asked, in a tone that might have been gentle.
Rhys gaped at the arm, swallowing down the urge to grab their hand for a closer look. He never had much desire for the fancy, streamlined cybernetics, his arm served its purposes just fine. But the level of craftmanship that went into that kind of arm… It would have to cost at least a lifetime of Hyperion loyalty.
"Wow… I think I can, depends what's broken," he answered. "But... You- You're sure you're okay with that? I mean, I'm not gonna break it. Probably. But I uh… I'm not sure I can guarantee that it'll be up to par with uh, how it should be…"
"A subpar repair, / Better than a useless arm. / I'm sure you get it." They shrugged their good shoulder.
"Heh, true. Well, it looks like some of your joints didn't completely lock up, at least. What still moves?"
"A shoulder joint's loose / It moves straight - forwards and back." They demonstrated for him with some jerky movement. "My elbow's limp too." On cue, their forearm started to fall in towards them as they held it out. They lowered it before it could smack their visor.
"Huh. In that case it's probably an electrical issue. Depending on how it's wired, at least? Some joints got stuck in the locked position, and other stuff probably went out mid-motion and ended up limp. That, or, uh, you broke all those joint actuators. Which, probably not, right? That's...A lot. A lot of actuators to break. Or at least, it looks like it's pretty actuator'd out." God, he must have sounded like an idiot.
"Sensation is gone / Disconnections in wiring / Seem the likely cause," they said, courteous enough to ignore his stumbling.
Rhys reached out, hesitating midway. "May I?"
Zer0 blankly stared at him before loudly scooting their chair closer. They spun the chair to face away from the table, then lifted their arm up and plopped it on the table in front of Rhys. Their shoulder's inability to bend outwards forced them to twist awkwardly towards Rhys. It looked uncomfortable, but if it bothered them, they didn't show it.
"You kind of have to," they said. "That is, if you're to fix it / Don't be so scared, Rhys."
Rhys felt his face heating up. "Y-yeah. I'm uh, not scared, I just..."
That was a lie. Actually touching them again, now that they weren't bleeding heavily and possibly dying was absolutely terrifying. It was a completely irrational fear, of course. Zer0 wasn't an untouchable god, they were just unbelievably cool and a total badass and oh my god they were actually trusting him to fix their fancy probably-extremely-expensive cybernetics.
Rhys realized he'd froze with both hands grasping their arm.
"Sorry. This is just- I've just never seen an arm shaped so realistically. A-a cybernetic arm, I mean. You uh- It's really cool, you know that?"
"Yes." A ":)" lit up.
Rhys halfway returned the smile, felt awkward about it, and shifted his attention back to the arm.
Its plating fit together almost seamlessly, none of the inner machinery was exposed. The places where most cybernetics would have open space to allow for joint movement were covered by a synthetic material that perfectly mimicked the elasticity of skin, better to disguise the limb under their suit. The palm side of the hand was covered in the same material, most likely with simulated nerve endings worked in, allowing for complete control over grip strength. An arm suited for the most delicate of tasks, but also undoubtedly sturdy. It had clearly seen as much battle as Zer0's scratched and chipped helmet. The worst damage was a number of shallow divots where bullets had struck, yet even that was completely superficial.
"Okay, so there's no major dents or anything, my guess is something inside got knocked loose or broken? Hopefully something in the arm, 'cause I'm way less good at brain surgery."
Zer0 looked at him, not responding.
"B-because uh, if your brain implant got damaged...Controlling your arm would be...Y-you know? I-. That uh. That was a joke."
"I know," they said, toneless.
Rhys let out a weak chuckle. Yep, they definitely thought he was an idiot, and honestly, it was hard to blame them. "Okay. I'm...going to remove the shell because uh- I- To fix it."
"Naturally."
"Y-yeah. Naturally." By now Rhys's face was probably Atlas red. He was a CEO. He'd literally taken courses on charisma - not that he needed to be taught it. At least, he'd thought he was pretty charismatic. Being around Zer0 was turning him into a highschool aged Vaughn, all fidgets and stammers and sweaty hands. Or, sweaty hand, in Rhys's case.
Actually, that was uncharitable to Vaughn, he generally didn't struggle to communicate the most basic of ideas.
The arm was precise down to the tiniest of tritanium screws holding it together, perfectly aligned with the surrounding metal as to be almost invisible from a short distance. It took a few tries to find the right sized screwdriver to begin disassembly. Further complicating matters was the arm's limited range of motion. Rhys found himself repeatedly repositioning both it and himself to get full access. Zer0 apparently noticed his trouble once Rhys attempted to access a screw on the bottom of their upper arm, holding the limb awkwardly above his head. From then on they proved to be an attentive assistant, offering the aid of a third hand whenever Rhys needed it, without him even needing to ask.
With Zer0's help he made good time on removing the outer plating, even feeling a little less terrified by the end of it.
The inner arm was almost macabre, like flayed flesh. Veins of wire intertwined with a complex muscular system of motors and pneumatics, supported by a skeleton of xenocarbon fiber. Much like the outside, it had been refined to near-perfection, likely able to perfectly match an actual arm's flexibility, speed, and precision.
At least, it would, if not for the huge crack in its power core's poly-asrite casing, which spilled out most of its corrosive contents, leaving a crusty blue deposit throughout a large section of the upper arm.
He almost laughed at how simple it was.
"Well, there's your problem!" he lifted the arm to give Zer0 a clear view.
"I see. Ew." They projected a ":(".
"Hold on. I definitely have cleaner for this."
It took some more digging around to retrieve everything he needed. Back when he was setting up the workshop he'd wheeled over a few of the less blood-soaked sets of metal drawers from the actual workshop, with intentions to organize his supplies. Instead the drawers ended up a jumble of everything from flattened tubes of epoxy to old Oz kits. Luckily, included in the mess was the can of cleaner, a wire brush, a box of nitrile gloves, and a crushed cardboard box filled with heavy duty trash bags.
"My own arm's core burst after uh... Pandora...stuff," he explained, leaving out the small detail of how he purposely impaled the arm on a metal spike. It happened on Pandora, so it counted as Pandora stuff. Zer0 didn't need to know the specifics. "Luckily I found a box of this in the basement before burning myself too bad. It smells weird, though. Just warning you, if you uh, can smell through your helmet." He put on the gloves, struggling to pull the second one over his blocky cybernetic hand - he'd prefer not to damage his chrome finish.
Unsurprisingly, Zer0 didn't give him an answer. Rhys decided against questioning whether or not they had a nose. Or a sense of smell, for that matter.
He took extra care to avoid exacerbating the power core's cracks as he wriggled it out of its terminal. Once freed, he placed it in the bag and set it aside.
"Don't let me forget to throw that out, heh. Wouldn't wanna burn the place down."
Zer0 nodded, still silent.
With the wire brush he started to scrub away the worst of the deposits, blue flakes piling up on the table. "Good thing your casing is so watertight, this is some strong stuff."
Rhys had wondered if he was just talking to himself now, but this time they answered, "Corrosive bullets / Use a similar compound. / I'm used to such burns."
"Still, it… It can't be pleasant, right? And you were already in really bad sha-." He didn't finish that sentence, catching a ":|" out of the corner of his eye. Right, that was probably a sore spot. Any big-time Vault hunter's pride would have been wounded after a defeat like that. Rhys hadn't even been around Zer0 for a full span of twenty- four hours, but he was already getting the sense that they were largely driven by pride. Not that they hadn't earned it.
The next few minutes were filled with silence save for the scratching of the wire brush. He almost wished he could see Zer0's face, it would probably make the quiet more comfortable if he could at least get some idea on how they felt. Were they annoyed, or angry, or feeling just as awkward as Rhys was? Though for all he knew, their face would be just as unreadable as their featureless black visor. As it was, they seemed tense. They sat up as straight as they could while maintaining the awkward angle that kept their arm on the table, motionless save for one fidgeting leg.
Rhys felt like he should say something, but nothing was coming to him. Instead he broke the silence with the rattling of the aerosol can as he shook it. The spray foamed up on contact with their arm, turning red wherever it encountered acid.
"It'll need a few minutes to soak." The excuse to speak came as a relief. "After rinsing it off I can figure out what's actually wrong but uh, it did look like you have some cracks in the chassis, and I can patch them, if you want. I mean, they probably should get patched, anyways, and I have an old digi-repair tool I can calibrate for it, but it's kind of slow, and it's not urgent, so uh..."
Zer0 looked at him with a "?".
"If you're asking me / For payment, it will have to wait. / Don't carry much cash," they said.
"What? N-no! I just thought you might get bored sitting around while I work? This already looks like it might be a kind of long job."
"I can do little / But sit around, in this state." Pausing, they cocked their head. "...You can amuse me."
"...What?" Rhys swallowed. Was that meant to sound flirtatious, or threatening?
They shed their rigid posture and a ":)" appeared. "You can talk to me. / Not quite so fun as bloodshed. / Less dull than quiet."
"Oh." Rhys felt his face rapidly warming up again. "Right. Heh, you made that sound kind of sinister. I-I mean, it's probably just me having spent waaay too much time on Pandora...And Helios, too, I guess."
"No, it did sound bad. / Sinister, second nature. / I apologize."
Honestly, Rhys was overjoyed to learn that Zer0 wanted to talk to him, even if it came with a qualifier. He looked back down at their arm to hide his grin. "Don't worry about it. I mean, your pal Krieg threatened to uh, pull my lungs out through my throat, so whatever freaky implications 'amuse me' have seem pretty tame in comparison."
Okay. He had this. He knew how to talk like an actual human being in a casual conversation. All he needed to do was keep the "sinister second nature" thing in mind and not get awkward the next time they said something weird. Hell, maybe "vaguely flirtatious" was their third nature. More likely they were totally oblivious to the way they sounded. And of the many different ways an emoticon could be taken. He was reading too much into it. Still, this was a good development, in his book.
"Sorry about Krieg," Zer0 said. "I should have guessed he'd come with / And given warning."
"You-" Rhys almost began to remind them that they'd passed out mere minutes after asking him to contact Athena. But that was just asking for another awkward stretch of silence.
Instead he found himself staring at Zer0 stupidly, his mouth partly open until he found better words. "It's fine. I uh, I don't think I've ever met anyone on this planet who didn't make me fear for my life at first, so uh… I mean, no offense- you uh, you actually get bonus points for clearing that up pretty quickly when we met. And more points for never threatening to kill me."
"If I make a threat / I follow it through." They paused for a long moment, before speaking again with what sounded to be genuine concern, "Sorry. / Was that sinister?"
"I uh... Maybe? I mean, you didn't threaten me, as far as I can remember. If you had, yeah, I guess that would be a pretty sinister thing to say. Or if you're planning on threatening me." He smiled to assure them he knew that wasn't the case.
"I hadn't planned to / But if you ruin my arm / I may change my mind." They projected a ":)".
"Right. I'll try not do that, then." Rhys chuckled nervously. Less because he thought Zer0 would kill him, and more because he was now forced to consider the possibility of messing things up.
"That was a joke," they said, echoing his words from earlier.
"I know." Now would normally be the time for a confident smirk, but Rhys couldn't manage that. Instead he looked away from them, watching the softly bubbling foam on their arm. It would still need another minute to soak. Suppressing a sigh, Rhys began to rearrange the tools around him as he tried to think of something clever, or at least amiable, to say.
He was unsuccessful.
It was a long, painful minute.
"Okay, you can wash that out in the sink now." It felt like he'd been holding his breath. "And uh. Then I'll see what needs fixing." Zer0 began to push themselves to their feet, but Rhys was up first, adding, "Or actually, it's probably better I do it. So you don't get soaked."
They looked at him, flashed an enigmatic "嘆く", and nodded.
Afterwards Zer0 let their still-wet arm fall back in front of Rhys's chair. "It looks to have worked," they said. "I hope you have replacements / For the damaged parts.
"I uh, I might. I can improvise if I have to." He carefully dried the machinery, mentally listing off which parts looked salvageable, and what needed replacing. The motors that caught his eye first. Not only were a few obviously damaged, but none of them seemed to have data tags or any other identifying markings. Looking over the rest of their arm, he realized the same was true for nearly all of the components. The corrosion could have taken off the tags closer to the power core, but it looked more like the information had been carefully filed off, then polished until there was no sign left. Even an entirely custom job would usually include a sticker with things like the voltage and RPM.
He hesitated. It was difficult to imagine why they'd hide such basic data, but they probably had a good reason. Still, if they wanted it fixed, Rhys would need to know what he was working with.
"Hey uh, mind if I use my ECHOeye?" he asked. "I'm probably going to need to replace at least one of these, so I'll need their specs."
Initially, Rhys took the long look they gave him as one of mistrust, but they said, "Yes, you can use it. / But tell me: You used my sword. / Your eye hacked it?"
Rhys activated his ECHOeye, giving it the moment to do preliminary scans.
"...Maya told you about tha-? Shit!" His vision was filled with static and glitched characters as he looked up at their helm.
"AN LJ̴̄̒̉SwS X̵̟͛0MP̸͆̽LeTE
'c ഭ0ᛐh0 ̵̝̞̞̺̲̥͚͗͗͘ ̷u̵s̴y̶i̷o̶̡̞̲͚̻͌͒̉͒̎̄̾h̸̙͚̰̘̻͔̓̊͝͝͝ ̸̨̭̅t̶̨̃0 cf nfb̵̪͆0 ̷̻͘c̴̬͛v̵̢͐ǔ̷̟ ̵̋ͅj̴̝͠u̷̗͌'̵̡̔t̴͔͌ ̴̯̍t̴̤͌p̷̎͜pp̶̝͋p̶̦̊ ̶̟̈́ c̷̹̏0n̷͎̾f̷̯̃vt1ñ̶̹͍̹̑͝h̷̝̺̾̊͆
̴̰̝͂X̵̟͛if0 ̷͚̖͔̗̔̑̈́̀x̴͌ŝ̴̟͕͖j̸̧͙̱̠̜̿̽ṳ̶̚f̶̜̜̘̈́s̵̘̪͇̭͓͛͊̒͗t̶̖͓͎̃̿͌ v̶t̸f: "̶̞̾͜t̷͍̉͘h̸̼̉0ḛ̵̻͆͝ỷ̶̯"̷̫̲̍ s b̸̨̟́̈́ ̵͓̂̒̋tt̴̘̭̝̋î͕ƌ0wks̷͇͑̈́̿ͅs̷ ̷p̸e̶r̸t̸pn."
A painful, high pitched buzzing rose to accompany the text. He cringed, throwing a hand to his port.
The buzzing's volume increased rapidly until Zer0 reached over and shielded his eye.
"I should have warned you / My helmet is protected / Against ECHO eyes." They gave Rhys a moment to recover and deactivate his eye before removing their hand. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah." His heart was pounding. "Yeah, I-I'm fine." He let his hand fall from his temple, only now realizing he'd been prepared to dig the port out of his head again. Zer0 must have not noticed - or if they did, they were polite enough not to say anything. He wondered what would they have done if he'd actually tried? Impulsive self mutilation wasn't out of place on Pandora, but it was still completely messed up by any moderately sane person's standards. Swallowing, he pretended to find a wet spot he'd missed with the rag.
"So the uh, glitched text is part of it?" he asked. "P-part of the security, I mean." The sensation of a sound that only existed in his head was bad enough, but at least there'd been no voice. That combined with the glitched text, though…
Of course it had to simply be part of their security's counter-attack.
"Yes. Your eye is fine / But are you sure you're okay? / You look somewhat pale."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He held a smile for about a second before it fell. "So uh...The sword thing, right? What was it you wanted to know?"
Zer0 regarded him for a moment before speaking, making Rhys fear they'd press the subject. Instead, they answered, "Maya did tell me. / She said you defended me / I'd like to hear more."
"...Really?" Rhys hesitated, still aimlessly dabbing their arm with the rag. The story was embarrassing, but he could use the distraction. "Okay, but in retrospect, I feel pretty dumb about the whole thing. Just uh, keep that in mind."
"I will."
"So I erm… I completely panicked and it was the only weapon around and I uh- I figured I'd have better chances with a sword than in a fistfight, heh…"
"Go on," Zer0 prompted. They sounded genuinely curious - or at least, Rhys thought they did.
"Okay, so I fell asleep while I waited for them - Maya and Athena - to show up. Sorry, I know that uh, that could have gone bad. If you- or if it had been...Yeah."
Rhys set the rag down and reactivated his ECHOeye, only to be met with another message: "ERROR: Malicious activity detected. Your security might have been compromised. Scan needed before boot. Scan Progress: 1%". He resisted the urge to ask Zer0 if there was any chance their helmet had given them a virus. They'd told him his eye was okay. If he pushed the subject, they might start to wonder.
Sighing, he continued his story, "I woke up to Krieg yelling about meat and knives, and I guess I kind of freaked out? I mean, I tried to wake you up first, but then, well, yeah. Your sword's handle-thingy was on your belt. I hacked it to make it digistruct. Erm, sorry if that was overstepping any lines. I swear, I wouldn't have touched it if I hadn't been absolutely convinced we were both about to be murdered. I-I mean, it was stupid as hell, I'd just set my security to let Athena in, and she would have been able to give Krieg and Maya access, and there's no way an actual bandit would ever get in. And the guys after you probably wouldn't of been yelling about face steaks…"
Zer0 chuckled, and Rhys looked back up at them. They were projecting a "(ง •̀_•́)ง".
He blinked. "...Is that supposed to be me? ...Okay, b-but in my defense, you wouldn't let me take you to a doctor because of 'surveillance' and you made me turn my security cameras off. So yeah, I didn't think those guys somehow following us seemed that far fetched." Normally he'd be indignant about being teased, but he needed some levity. Besides, with someone as distant as Zer0, gentle ribbing felt like a victory.
"Still doesn't explain / Your exact strategy, there / You could have escaped," they said.
"I couldn't get us out of there fast enough, so I figured that the sword was the next best plan." He shrugged. "I kind of hoped if I sounded confident enough about knowing how to use the sword he'd leave, so I yelled a lot of threats. And tried to have the sort of stance you'd use - so I'd look like I knew what I was doing?"
"Adorable."
"Hey, I managed to be convincing enough that when Maya came in she thought I'd murdered you. So I must have looked kind of badass" he protested. "Which, sure, it went bad for me in the end, but if they were bandits..."
"Bandits are quite stupid / They'd buy it, but will still shoot / That's their first instinct."
"Oh, I-I guess that's a good point. They do still shoot at you, huh?" He'd seen them effortlessly kill hundreds of bandits in the death rally alone, and yet he couldn't remember seeing a single one of them retreat.
"Yes, most of them do. / Please go on. I wish to know / How you survived this."
"Honestly, I just got lucky - Athena had really, really good timing. I mean, I feel like I had things under control, but then Maya showed up and used her freaky...floaty orb power? On me. So I couldn't move, Krieg charged me, and Athena showed up right before I uh...Got decapitated and- Oh, hey! There we go!" The security scan had completed, detecting no malware, much to Rhys's relief. It was nice to have some reassurance.
"There we go?"
"Oh uh, my eye is working again... It finished- did a- it was doing a virus scan…Your security counterattack. So, yeah, I'm going to scan your arm now..." Careful to not look at their Zer0's helm again, he targeted one of the motors. A red text box appeared:
"WARNING: DAMAGED OR DEGRADED TARGET OBJECT
UNABLE TO AUTHENTICATE ANALYSIS
UNABLE TO VERIFY SOURCE
INFORMATION INCOMPLETE OR DAMAGED
ATTEMPT ANYWAYS?
[OK] [CANCEL]"
Sighing, he selected "OK". Maybe he could do with toning down his security system, just a little. It wasn't like a sketchy motor would install an evil AI in his brain. At least, he thought he could trust that Zer0 wouldn't knowingly let that happen.
"ANALYSIS COMP̸͆̽LETE
Telam̸̳̫̱̆̚͜͠͠on Electr̫͕̗͗͠͞ì̥͎̞̞̭͐̿̚͡c Motor
M᷊ܩ݂del: #L12C48CST-3313
Manufactw: Hypḛ̵̻͆͝rion
Desĭgner: Hyperion R&D CL4P-TR P A1*
Max RPM: 1000
Status: Unpowered
Durable and powerful, yet lĭghtweight and energy efficient, the Telamon otor is the fin͐ȅ͕̘͌s̓͌t on the market for all your robot͙̕ìc̣͚͌̓s needs! Accept no substitutes!**
*Since deactivated.
**Hyperion cyb͓̿ó̲̳́r̠̈́g personnel found employing non-Hyperion motors may be subౡect to disasљembly and termination."
Rhys's breath hitched when he saw the glitched characters, but it had to be the damaged code. Just to be sure, he took a moment to scan the first random object his eye targeted, a wrench. The results were normal. It was stupid to worry in the first place, really. Seeing a few glitches wouldn't reactivate some lingering code in his brain, magically rebuilding the Jack AI. And if Zer0's helmet had any sort of virus in it, it would probably be something instantly debilitating.
He was fine. His brain was fine.
He let himself crack a smile before scanning the arm's other components. Each part yielded similarly glitchy - but not completely unreadable - results. Not quite data tags, but they gave him all the information he needed.
"Huh." Rhys deactivated his eye again so he could look at Zer0. "So, is your entire arm stolen Hyperion tech?"
Zer0's looked first to Rhys and then to their arm, flashing a "...".
"Yes," they said. "I suppose so."
Zer0 watched silently as Rhys got up to rummage around in the drawers again.
"This actually might work out really well," he said. "I'm pretty sure Hyperion appropriated most of those designs when Jack bought Atlas, so I should have replacements for everything right here." He pulled out a few lengths of cables, tucking them under his arm and kneeling to look through the bottom drawer. "They might be dated, but they should work just as good."
"Good," they murmured, not paying much attention. Their mind was still occupied with Rhys's story. Nothing he said explained why he'd stand his ground against Krieg. What did he think he would gain from that? Amusing as they found the mental image of a terrified Rhys wielding their sword with shaking hands while Krieg yelled nonsensical threats, the image of waking up to Rhys's dismembered corpse and their friends covered in his blood? That was distinctly less amusing. Absurdly, the thought of it went so far as to make their skin crawl, though they couldn't say why. Maybe it was just the Achlys. Or embarrassment - the feeling of being protected bothered them, and the last thing they wanted was someone to die for them.
"Rhys, you could have died," they finally said.
"I...What?" Rhys looked at them blankly, then at the glowing blue power core he held, then back at Zer0 again. "I was just- It's only- What?"
"You are not skilled in combat. / Your actions, futile."
"Oh! You mean with- Yeah. Yeah. That's... Definitely true." Rhys sat back down, laying out the parts. "I guess I almost did, Athena got there like right in time to stop a uh, buzzaxe to the spine, but it all worked out, right? Like I said before, I'm used to having my life threatened. I've started getting over it pretty fast at this point." He grinned in a way that could be called charming. Zer0 imagined that was the kind of smile one perfected as part of their business strategy, a means of inspiring confidence.
"Hm." They didn't buy it. Maybe he was gambling with his life. A high risk, low reward gamble, where at best he would prove his loyalty to them in hopes of being repaid. A business opportunity with the Raiders, perhaps? But no, they couldn't see him taking such a pointless risk without something more solid as a reward. Though, he had been on Pandora for awhile now, there could be more to him than a strategic businessman. Or less, depending on how one looked on Pandora's tendency to twist the minds of its inhabitants.
"Such self disregard. / Suicidal intentions? / Or a damaged brain?" they asked.
"What?!" Rhys's hand jerked, ripping out three corroded cords at once. "N-n-no! To both things! I-I just… I'm trying to be a good person, is all." He looked at the stubs of the cords, still attached to their arm, and cursed under his breath.
"Good? By getting killed?"
"By, you know, trying to pro...tect you. Yeah, heh, I uh, guess that wouldn't work out if I'd gotten killed, but I couldn't just leave you, I'd uh, I'd feel pretty bad about that. If you'd died, I mean. I guess it's hard to believe coming from the guy who used to work for Hyperion, but I'd like to think I at least have a shred of honor."
Zer0 looked at him for a long moment. Rhys didn't return their gaze, instead focused on carefully extracting the broken cords from their ports with a pair of pliers.
He didn't seem to be lying. Something seemed off about him, though. Maybe they were just imagining things. They were starting to feel that certain dizziness that came with exhaustion. It was hard to think too much about it.
"Honor works better / When you don't end up dying / No point to it, then," they said.
Rhys nodded, still not looking up. "To be honest, I didn't really consider that dying was a possibility at the time? I uh, I know that sounds pretty dumb, seeing as Krieg has that huge buzzaxe, probably at least thirty guns, and he's built like a truck on steroids."
"Yes, that does sound dumb," Zer0 agreed, chuckling softly. It occurred to them that talking to Rhys was all that was keeping them from dozing off. Any lull and they might lose their grip on consciousness.
"Hey, it worked out, right?"
They shrugged their good shoulder. "Rhys, protecting me / May not be what you desire / In terms of ethics." It was the first thing that came to mind, and they regretted it instantly. Reminding someone you were an objectively bad person was always a good conversation killer.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I kill for money / And for fun…" They trailed off, grasping for words to finish the haiku. "Without mercy. / Didn't you know that?" And there they went, reminding him even more.
"Well, yeah, you're an assassin. But you obviously aren't a complete monster? I- actually... I uh. You. You've done a lot of good stuff...Out there."
Zer0 didn't know how to respond to that. Worse yet, Rhys was looking at them with that smile again, and they were starting to think it might actually be genuine. They spat out a delayed "Thanks." and it went quiet again.