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In hindsight, Nisha is fairly certain that she could have avoided all of this nonsense. She has enough cash stogged away to get the fuck of Pandora and never see this side of the galaxy again. She could have left this god forsaken shit hole behind and never looked back. She could have. But she didn't. She was too much of a sucker for punishment. For the pain, and the disappointment.
It isn't hard to find the place-- all she has to do is follow the path of destruction left by the vault hunters. It's a comical term, when she thinks back upon it. Vault hunter. She had been one once. But those years seem so far from where she is now. So very far. She almost misses those days. Before she was sheriff. Before all of this madness had really started.
Ah, but didn't that madness make it more fun?
Speaking of madness this place reminds her of some story her mother use to tell her as a child. Well maybe 'tell' was too kind a noun. It was more screamed at her through punches, but who was counting? Yeah this place was hell. Totally. Her mother had also said she'd be there someday. Who knew. The old bitch was actually right. Here she was.
Although her attention is taken from sightseeing to focus on the enormous hulking creature looming above everyone-- holy shit. She really was late to the party, wasn't she?
It looked fucking sweet.
There was nothing to do for it now, mind you, it was already spewing lava from it's jaws and roaring out it's last few breath's. Horrifying. Yet. Awesome. Then it was down.
Nisha's attention turns, and as she sinks her weight against the rock face she leers towards the center of the group. She can already tell Jack is hopelessly fucked. These odds are bad. Even for him. She's seen him get out of tough places before, and some part of her hopes this will be another one of those.
Then the corpse of big-bad-and-nasty starts glowing, and explodes with a vibrant blast of eridum and light. That's her cue. The shock-wave from it sends debris erupting around the battlefield, dust kicking up in clouds as the light fades and the corpse is but a memory of embers blowing into the wind.
The shield around her dying lover flickers and then vanishes.
Well fuck. Hero time again.
She hauls herself up onto the landing, dual Widow Makers in hand as she squinted into the dust and fixed her aim on the woman closest to Jack. She recognizes her; Lilith. Unfortunately? Nisha had a memory for faces that have tried to kill her. She might have liked the Siren if it wasn't for that moral code that she wore around her neck like a fucking noose. So self-righteous. Pretentious bitch.
It made her sick. They were no better than Bandits the lot of them.
She should know. She was one.
The echo of her shot is quiet in comparison to the beast that had previously occupied the field; and she moves without the flashy introductions. There isn't time and does she fucking care if they know who she is? Not really. The siren crumbles to the ground, and somewhere she can hear curses and the woman's name being screamed. Oh that felt good. It was too quick a death, however. Not nearly as enjoyable as she's been promised it would be. Nisha would have preferred to make her suffer; to torment her. To watch her squirm and writhe in her own gore. What a shame.
Nisha sprinted forward to throw her weight into the motion of jumping the ledge. She lands bellow roughly, with a jacket snapping at her heels and yellow eyes overflowing with hatred behind the brim of her hat. A loathing that makes them twice as deadly. That's right bitches, the Lawbringer was here.
Yet this isn't her fight. She didn't start this massacre. But she's going to finish it or die trying. You just didn't fuck with her boyfriend.
Jack notices her first-- and the look on his face is a mixed expression of awe and fear. How many times has she come to his rescue right before he was about to die? She can count the instances on one hand. Each time he had looked at her as if she was salvation. She knew that look of desperation and longing. He never could understand the lengths she’d go to save him. He would never admit to it, but Nisha has an idea how deep his trust issues ran. These moments only cemented in his paranoid little brain how much she cared for him. Ugh. That was kinda corny.
"Nisha!? WHY ARE YOU HERE." Oh, Jack’s announced her on his own then.
"WHO the fuck is that?" Is heard from someone else. As if they're shocked Jack has anyone that would come to his defense. Hah. The looks on their faces are almost worth it. Seriously though. Their relationship isn’t exactly a secret? Why is this a surprise. She isn’t sure.
The rest of the Vault Hunter's don't get much much of her attention. Aside from the fact she's already springing forward to unleash lead into their shields. Her element of surprise is gone, and the bullets raining towards her sing against her own shield harshly. It's Hyperion grade; the best Jack could have commissioned. A gift at some point during the early days of their relationship. When they had been young. Foolish, and the universe had looked like a sandbox for their games.
Oh, but the game was over now, Handsome.
She dodges to the side; grinding her teeth into the rain of bullets from some kind of mechanical loader bot-- but the sacrifice takes her out of range of a sword she is certain had a date for her liver. The assassin is spared a lash of her whip; and the flash of red over his visor is all the satisfaction she needs when she rips the sword from his hands and whips it towards the robot-o-doom. Fucking technology.
Two more feet and she's dropping into a roll to avoid the purple haze that snap's into the air in front of her. It takes the breath from her and a glance is spared to catch sight of rocks crushing into powder mid-air in a bubble where she had been. Oh. Siren. Right. There was another one. She catches sight of the blue hair-- but Maya doesn’t earn her full attention. Her eyes are set on the computer console where Jack has thrown himself, and, a wicked idea blooms within her mind.
It was worth a shot.
Nisha pushes off the ground, boots grinding into the earth to sprint the last few feet. There is dust kicked up around her as she slides into a defensive stance in front of Jack; ignoring the way he's rasping out some idle threat at the nearest vault hunter. His last fucking breath could be spent in vain.
"Hey, babe. Think you could have all the fun on your own?" She voices over the rattling of bullets. He's laughing while the hand on her knee is shaking. As if he was trying to hold himself together. The blood from his fingers is soaking into her jeans; and Nisha doesn't need to turn to see the blood dripping from his lips. She can hear it in the wet rasp of his voice.
"Should have known you'd follow me to my grave." Jack remarked instead of everything he wants to say. She's learned to read between the lines, and even if those emotions aren't uttered? She knows. He didn’t invite her because this is the end; his end. Perhaps he wanted her to live on in his memory or something else shitty. Right.
He watches the shells rain down around them as she empties bullets to protect him. What has he done to deserve this loyalty? He knows this is suicide.
"Kinky. Coffin for two?" She drawls, cocking her dual pistols to drive off the advancing psycho screaming 'salt the wound'. Uh. When did Vault Hunters befriend Psychos. That was new. "Could use a little assistance here, Handsome. Helios. Eye. Don't die on me yet." His affirmative is the sound of fingers hammering over key's.
"I love it when you're bossy." Is the sardonic remark she earns as he overrides the coordinates.
"You love it when I save your ass." Is her retort as she drops to her knees to avoid the snap of a laser aiming for her head. It leaves the brim of her hat smoldering. She can do this. She has to do it-- and if she can't?
At least she's found somebody to die for.
Out of ammo for her pistols, she drops her twin Widow Makers into their holsters, and hauls out her machine gun. It's obnoxious yellow colors look too bright against the battlefield. Another Hyperion gift; another story of their past. Another reason she's here when all she wants to do is move. All of her instincts are telling her to keep moving; to roll out of the way of the hail of bullets and recharge her shield. To survive.
She doesn't move.
Her shield falls with an explosion of Cryo that has a very interesting looking tank of a man frozen solid all but feet from them. Cheerio, Kiddo. She fires and he shatters into ice-shards that rain down upon the ground to melt in the heat of the lava. His dual guns clatter to the ground after him. Too bad. He looked as if he would have been fun. Poor Bastard.
They've figured out who she is now, the vault hunters that is. She can hear them shouting to one another other their Echos. Although being addressed as 'Jack's Bitch' couldn't be farther from the truth. More like he was her bitch. Sadly? She doesn't have time to correct them.
The bullets keep coming; sinking into flesh and leaving red to bloom from the wounds she's collecting. It hurt's so good. Her breath is a hiss along her tongue and the pain only drives her further. Like a drug. An addiction.
"Hold on, Pumpkin." His voice is unexpectedly close and the hand that lands on her shoulder is strong. Yet she can't tell if he's trying to reassure her or himself. Regardless? He levels the blaster on his other wrist to provide extra cover for her and she's thankful. "Get ready to run."
Nisha isn't even sure he can run, but, there isn't time to question
Helios unleashes it's last attack; and it might just be the last command Jack ever programs. The last one she'll ever get to witness. Fancy that it's the very same one that she had risked her neck so many times in the past to stop.
A fountain of purple erupts along the battlefield; a stream of energy torn from the very depths of space. It leaves the ground shaking and the blast throws her back into the man who's orchestrated this entire nightmare. He doesn't have the strength to catch her. But the console they land on is enough to keep them from being flung further.
Nisha fumbles through the blinding light to catch Jack's hand in her own, adrenaline pumping in the sound of her heartbeat. There is no thinking. No second guessing. She trusts him to have the technical side of this down-- he was the brains. She was always the brawn. They're a duet, and he likes to think he stands alone too often. The man is hauled after her when she moves and it seems his own desperation to survive is enough to keep him moving with her.
It isn't a graceful escape. There is no honour in what they've done. Countless will be dead, more injured, and this area flattened. Yet there has never been any valour in this obsession of Jack's-- this road she has willingly walked down beside him. His thirst for power, for domination? It would be his downfall. Her loyalty to him would be her own.
They tripped, staggered, and dragged themselves forward; over terrain that was cracking apart in their wake. With lava splashing upward to hiss along the stones like the tongues of devil's licking at their feet. Her boots will be burned beyond belief, and the blast has suffocated the oxygen from the field. It gives her flashbacks to Elpis; but the taste of ash in her mouth is an unpleasant reminder that this is no memory. This is real. She tightens her hold on Jack, hauling him after her roughly. If he complains, she can't hear it. Her ears are ringing from the blast.
Her vision is blurring and blackening around the edges; but through the smoke she can see the hulking frames of loaders. She's never been more happy to see their obnoxious yellow and white frames in her life. When had he sent those? Nisha doesn't even care. One of the bot stomps forward, briskly reaching out with both mechanical arms to pluck both humans from the ground. She feels like nothing more than a rag doll at this point and only half aware that Jack is still conscious beside her. She catches his eye as the loader jets the rest of the distance to a hanger, and his tired expression manages a grim smile.
A hatch slams shut somewhere behind them, and their loader friend thrills something about "success" as it releases them to the floor unceremoniously.
Nisha only has the strength to crawl to his side. The movement paints the floor with a smear of red from her wounds. They survived. They fucking survived. Her hands are shaking as she fists them into Jack's collar to haul him into an abrupt kiss. The action is filled with desperation, a hint of relief, and of course desire. She can taste the blood on his tongue as he responds to her aggression.
"Fuck," Is all that Jack can articulate when they part for air, rasping for a breath against her lips. His hand is fumbling at her hair, matting it with drying blood-- and it's a fleeting thought that her hat is missing.
"While I appreciate your stamina," Nisha panted against him, fingers smearing their blood together against his cheeks. "I need a breather first." Her sarcastic joke is meet with laughter, and Jack closes his eyes as he relaxes into the floor. She grins a bloody smile, and for now? Everything is alright.
"Then I'll give you amazing we almost died sex later, Miss Kadam." He retorts breathlessly as she tilts her head to rest it to his shoulder. He's still dying, really. And he's pretty sure she is too. But a moment to lay here won't matter. Not after that. He's been defeated; that isn't a first. But he hasn't lost everything. Not yet. He wraps an arm around Nisha. Which is really more of a 'tossing my numb lifeless arm over your body' kind of hold. He hasn't dominated Pandora. He's lost another Vault. He's lost Angel. He's pretty sure the Hyperion board members will be down his throat. But he has Nisha, and she'd made quite the show of herself back there to prove it.
"Great." Nisha mumbled into his jacket, eyes lulling as she listens to the rhythm of his heart. The adrenaline is wearing off. It hurt to breath and her head is pounding. She knows she’s probably going in shock right now. “Can we do the whole almost died thing again later too? That was fucking hot."
"Whatever you want, Pumpkin."
I could drag you from the ocean,
I could pull you from the fire
And when you're standing in the shadows
I could open up the sky
And I could give you my devotion
Until the end of time
And you will never be forgotten
With me by your side
And I don't need this life
I just need somebody to die for.