The 0ne in search of zer0

Chapter 3

Zero looks at his little hanging mirror in his deroom. 

Maya still hidden in the darkness, watching him, waiting to see what he does. her mind still wondering what the Echo voice meant when it talked about handsome jack and him knowing something. 

Zero stares at himself. through the faceplate he notices all the small scratches in his helmet. they bring back memories of his past. all the things hidden that have never been spoken of before. then a bright red 0 appears holographically infront of his helmet, almost as if it were reminding him. reminding him that his past is better hidden. to forget his old name, and to accept his new identity. 

He closes his fist tightly and looks away. he dematerializes all his helmets into his storage and picks up his sword. he takes none of his guns. he drops all of them. all his long aquired legendaries and rares. he just dumps them on the ground. only holding his sword. then, right in front of Maya's eyes, he goes into deception mode, but instead of a hologram of him popping up, nothing else happens. he just... dissapears. right before her eyes, he is gone, and she is left alone in the now silent room.

Maya runs outside and bust into Moxxi's bar and looks around. everyone looks at her breathing heavily and Lilith asks her whats wrong. "Lilith, is Tannis still in her office?" shouts Maya. Lilith looks around awkwardly and says "y..yeah, shes always there."

Maya runs out and heads for the Crimson Raiders HQ, and everyone runs out after to see whats going on.  

"Tannis!! Tannis" Maya runs in shouting. she grabs Dr.Tannis's shoulders and and staring at her for a second before Tannis abruptly removes Maya's hands from her in discust of human contact. "What! what is it, may it be so important that you had to come in here, interupting my studies and possibly make me weak to illness with your touchy touchy" Tannis says in an upset tone. Maya can hear everyone standing outside listening in to her, and she grabs Tannis making direct eye contact with her and asks...

                                                    I know you know something about Zer0. its time you 

                                                               confessed to your informationg

Maya can her murmuring and whispers coming from outside. Tannis shakes her head and states "i know nothing of this Zer0, never heard of him. goodbye" Maya becomes a bit infuriated and grabs her arm before she can fully turn around and leave. "spill it!! its time i knew atleast one thing about him, we all do" Maya shouts and everyone outside walks in, circling Tannis. Mordicai steps up and says "come on Tannis, theres no use in keeping us in the dark anymore. we know you know something. i remember your old Pandoran Gazette article on zero. i distinctivly rememeber someone asking you about him, you said you knew hem and he wasnt a (Human) and what he really was, was lost because the next page was lost. we know you know. so spill it, Zero is my buddy, hell, if there was anyone closer to him, that would be me. "  Tannis had enough, she walked back and sat on her chair. to where she took a deep breath amd started to talk "see, i dont really know what he is, i asked him once if he would like to remove his helmet for me, for scientifical purposes of course. yet, he refused me no matter how many times i asked him. though i studied him. some would call it stalking, but i preffer the term (sciantific observation),  and so far, ive only concluded with 2 undenible facts about him.

One, Zer0 is not human, he is humanoid in nature and not a robot of any kind, i found this out by sneaking into his quarters one night and.." Moxxi interupts "girl, thats plain creepy." tannis hushes Moxxi and continues. "as i was saying, i found a strand of long white hair on the ground. it did not belong to anyone in sanctuary so it was his.

And Two, Zer0's powers are very strange and act strange when around any eridian artifacts or even worse when around or in direct contact with Eridium.

Once while conducting a test on maliwan weapons, i happened to run into Zero during the middle of the night behind sanctuary (before handsome jack attacked and forced sanctuary to decend in the sky) and saw him holding a chunk of eridim, then it began glowing and suddenlyZero entered deception mode but yet he remained visible, but  hundreds of holograms stared to appear and all circled him, all of his holograms began rushing in on hima nd attacking him. he fought all of them, taking down 6 or 7 at a time with a single swing of his sword, never missing a stride of his blade. then when he defeted the last one he would just sit on the ground and stare at his sword for a while."

Lilith speaks out and breaks the silence. "so what are you saying Tannis? what do you think Zero is?" 

Tannis continues "i dont know, its too soon to make assumptions, ill need further data on him to be sure. "

Maya walks forward and says "well good luck with that, Zero leff." everyone gasps and brick yells out, "wadda ya mean he left" "i mean he just vanished,he even dropped all his weapons, even his favorite "pitchfork and sloth". 

Mordecai gasps under his breath, then he speaks "thsi might be more important than i thought." 

Lilith asks "what do you mean mordecai?" Mordecai responds "back a few months, me and Zero went on sniping trips together, everytime we would set up on an area, he would always bring out the sloth, he never didnt use it. when i asked why he used it, even though the bullet goes so slow, i thought he'd use another" but he told me he liked it, he said "i preffer this that any other. it travels slow, giving my enemies tiem to escape, but like the bullet, death catches up to all of us." he always said that, even when one time he dropped it in a bandit camp, he went back in, and killed all of psycos and bandits in his way to get it back, it was like an unwritten pact between me and him. we never spoke of why it was so important again, we just knew that it meant something." 

Brick whipes his thick finger through his cheek and cleans a tear, "wow mordy, that was deep man, i didnt know Zer0 was the type to hold anything special." 

Mordecai looked down. "yeah, you just gotta get to know him is all, whatever hes foing through, it must be something really important for him to have gone off withought the sloth. 

Maya interupts, "well i think i know where he may be going" maya stopped and rand out, telling everyone to follow her.

they all huddle down in Zer0's room. Maya took the Echo recorder that was thrown on the ground and plays it, evept this time a hologram pops up, its a man dressed a suit that looks identical to Zer0s, exept this one bares a 6 on the breast where Zer0s 0 would be. the tape plays.

Oh Zero, if you are listening to this recording i assume you have broken your ties with that precious group of vaulthunters of yours. i assume you havent told any of them of what you really are, just keep hiding your identity Zero, no one will ever trust you, just accept that. when you are ready for your challange, meet me atop the bunker hill in thousand cuts.  you are the key Zero, if only handsome Jack knew, ahahaha,  and... uh. you better come alone. wouldnt want any of your little friends getting hurt now.. would we."  

the tape recording continues " also one more thing, if you tell any of your vault hunter buddies who you really are, consider them dead, you gave up your old life as soon as you joined the brotherhood, theres no quiting, only death, and any secrets spilled will be cleand up with blood. you did this to yourself Zer0. ha... why do i still call you that, i guess ive gotten so used to refering to you by your mask that i sometimes forget your real name, if you are still listening to this, ill be waiting for you, see you soon Ne..." 

the echo recording ends... they almost heard what could have been his name. they all stand and withought even speaking a word, they grab  their weapons and head for the bunker hill. 

Maya, Axton, Salvador, Brick, Mordecai, Lilith, Gaige, and krieg spawn at thousand cuts and as they all walk through the path up to bunker hill, they see all of the hyperion guards dead, blood and oil flow down the roads and the smell of death catches the vaulthunters noses, and a red mist lingers around making the hill seem almost haunted from the deaths. for once the vaulthunters felt sorry for all the dead bodies around them. 

Maya says under her breath " Oh Zer0, what is going on with you"...