The Siren's Call (Maya X Lilith - Borderlands 2)

Chapter 1: The Dust

The Light Runner's engine furiously vibrated as the tattered car tumbled over the rocks and cracks of The Dust, Rakks soaring and shrieking through the air. As the vehicle's wheels tumbled over the long forgotten debris of previous battles, it passed into the metal scrapyard of Ellie's workshop, dust floating about through the air as the wheels kicked it up inside the area, coming to a stop as the car continued to rumble about.

"Well hoooowwwwdy! Nice to see some cutie-patootie faces 'round these parts again! Say, what is it y'all are doin' over here, anyways?" Ellie asked, her body rippling and shaking as it always had, walking towards the heavily damaged Light Runner. The car's engine had finally stopped, locking itself in place. Two sets of feet plopped onto the ground at nearly the same time.

"We're here to get the car repaired. We're trying to get to Thousand Cuts, but on the way here some bandits felt it was necessary to stop us. With bullets." Maya said, placing her left hand on her hip as she spoke to Ellie, neon blue tattoos splotched elegantly about her arm as the opposite hand was used to brush some dust off of her body. Her head tilted slightly, raising her ear a bit, footsteps emitting from the other side of the Light Runner had caught her attention.

"What else would they stop us with, stuffed animals? No shit they'd stop us with bullets." Lilith said abruptly, a devilish grin plastered on her face. As she walked around to the opposite side of the car to stand beside Maya, Lilith did the same, brushing some dust off of herself, though she didn't do it as much, not really caring how much she got off, as long as she looked decent enough.

"Oh, that's all 'ya had to say! Lemme get right on that for 'ya, fast 'n quick 'n right on out!" Ellie said, wobbling over to the Light Runner's driver side as she looked at it for a moment, placing her hand on the back of the driver's seat. She looked it up and down, as she looked at Lilith, then back to the seat. She immediately made her way to the back of the entire vehicle, wobbling some more as she muttered under her breath, "... Know good 'n well I ain't about to make that fit..."

As Ellie pushed the car into the workshop to begin working, Maya and Lilith stood and watched Ellie work from afar. Lilith tilted her head as she let out a sigh of frustration. Maya turned to Lilith asking, "What's wrong, Lil?", her eyes clearly ready to serve some sort of sympathy. Lilith turned her head to Maya, saying, "I forgot what we're doing again. Remind me, remind me." Lilith said as yet another smirk dawned onto her face, though in turn, Maya was the one to release a sigh of frustration. "Alright, but this is the last time I'm telling you. We're on our way to Thousand Cuts because Tannis told us that she built a seismograph out of-... Erhm, rusty metal, or something, and detected that there was some sort of gargantuan Thresher, that's a threat to the world, or the place that it's in, or something like that. We've already got the Eridium needed to get into its lair, though. At least, from what Tannis said, was enough to get into its lair."

Lilith began to pick at her nails as Maya spoke, flicking her hair off as she gazed back at the opposite Siren. "So, basically, Tannis told you that there was a second Destroyer?" Maya began to shake her head as a somewhat frustrated expression coated her face. "No, no, not a second Destroyer, just some sort of, uh... Mutated, maybe? I really don't know, it's just a really big Thresher that Tannis had said was some sort of major threat to the world, or something like that." Lilith chuckled and began to slowly walk backwards to the huge trash compactor, saying, "Sometime, I'm willing to bet that we're all not going to believe a word Tannis says. Agreed?" Maya remained silent as she pushed herself up from a pile of scrap that she was relaxing on, walking to follow Lilith.

Time passed and conversations were through, insults were thrown, and Light Runners were nearly repaired. Rakks soared and screeched in the air, and the occasional Spiderant skittered across the Dust's cracked canvas. Bandit Technicals could be heard revving in the distance, though they were ignored for the moment. Both Maya and Lilith made their way to Ellie's workshop, cranking and metal clanking against the ground would reverberate through the area. Ellie emerged from below the ruined Light Runner, walking up a set of stairs as she looked at the two Sirens. "Y'all comin' along to check out the progress? I think I'm doin' pretty good, if I do say so m'self..." Three of the four wheels of the Light Runner were missing, the mounted turret at the top was replaced with one of the iconic statues of Ellie, and chipping paint was now colored a vibrant pink. Maya eyed the car up and down, as did Lilith. Maya uttered, "I... Love it..." in a fairly monotone sounding voice. Lilith placed a sneer in her tone, saying, "Frankly, it looks like shit. Why the hell'd you replace a fully operational rocket-launching turret, with a statue of yourself? Not only did you make it less appealing to the eye, but you've literally made it nearly in disrepair." Both Maya and Ellie gawked at Lilith as she spoke out rather violently, Ellie catching a slight tear in her eye, though both became glazed with tears. "W-Well... I-... I mean, y-yeah, I can replace it, and- and... Fix it... -Er..." Ellie began to stutter and trip over her words as Lilith stood, stern-faced. "Lilith," Maya said, "I don't think the functionality is that big of a problem, it's still got two fully automatic machine guns on the front, and pink-... Well, pink is your favorite color, isn't it?" Maya looked longingly at Lilith, waiting for an answer, as Lilith's eyes continued to dart back and forth, from the ground to Maya. "... It's red..." she spoke, lowly. Maya scoffed, walking over to Ellie and patting her on the shoulder and turning her head to Lilith, saying, "Close enough." Ellie began to walk off, her head slumped between her shoulders, though not a tear on her cheeks, she began to work once again on the Light Runner the two Siren's rode in with.