( Completed ) Pet play | Axton X handsome Jack

Chapter 16: Coming to terms

Coming to terms

Axton's footsteps echoed through the vast, empty halls. It was early. So damned early. Even too early for the workers to be out and about yet. His eyes were downcast and his heart felt like a ten pound weight. It hung there in his chest, clinging to his ribcage, rattling around when he so much as moved. Nobody gives you a fucking instruction manual for such things as this. Nobody tells you how to deal with this. How to deal with betraying friends, lovers, befriending enemies, becoming the enemy, leaving those you knew in the past behind.

Axton clenched his fists into balls.

Was it worth it? Fighting for Maya and now only having her hate his guts. Having her find out his greatest secret.

Axton scoffed.

It wasn't a secret really. He'd known a long, long time ago that this day would come. The day he would have to face the choices that he made. The choices that really weren't choices. He didn't choose to love Jack. It just...happened. He fell hard and he fell heavy, and everything was easy...until now.

But he knew.

He knew one day the Vault Hunters would catch up to him. He'd avoided it for years, but here it was. He'd come to terms with being the enemy in his own little world, but that look in Maya's eyes was far more haunting than he ever thought it would be. He hadn't prepared himself for that. Nothing could have.

Axton shook his head in dismay.

There he was, standing before a decision that one should never have to make. A decision between allegiances and love. At one time he was loyal to Maya. Protected her like he would his own kin. He'd shared many laughs and many near death experiences with her. She'd saved his ass more times than he would like to count. He'd done the same for her. He was once a leader to her. Someone she looked to for advice, for answers, for direction. Now those big, gray eyes were full of disgust as she looked upon him. Looked upon the ex-vault hunter. Looked upon the commando that once was. Looked upon a man that was now a monster.

Axton felt his breath catch in his throat.

He was no better than Jack in her eyes. In fact...he was Jack to her. An extension of a madman. The right hand of a monster. She was right. He was a monster. He'd killed for Jack, done awful things for Jack, and had never given them a second thought. He had become wrapped up in the power and the strength that Jack had provided for him. Jack had the planet in the palms of his hands, had offered it to Axton

and Axton had willingly taken it.

Memories of all the cities he'd destroyed flashed before his eyes. All the loaders he had commanded move out upon the innocent. All the rocket launcher fire, and all the sprayed bullets, his turret used to take down the ones he once saved. Now Axton had never been a "good" man. As a Vault Hunter he'd killed many a bandits. For loot, for fun, for blood. That surely did not qualify someone as a good man. That was the farthest thing from it. They were all ruthless. Taking bounties for the money. Taking lives for the money. Stealing, drinking, killing. So what was so much worse about him joining with Hyperion?

Somehow...it just was.

He'd made a pact with the vault hunters. A promise. A promise to take down Jack. A promise to stop him from reaching the vault first. A promise to save this planet, no matter how lowly and disgusting it was. It really wasn't even worth saving. It was a hellish place to exist. Full of crime, and killing and blood money. Full of dangerous, spiny creatures that would eat you in a heartbeat. The landscape was rough, and ragged. The nights were hot, the days were hot, and all of the in-between was fucking hot.