Heyo!

This is the Zer0 and Gaige fic that I've been promising/working on for the last goodness knows how long.

The whole thing is sort of a spinoff from a couple of oneshots out of my Borderlands collection (Zer0 and Gaige: Fast Travel and Zer0's Secret Identity). I cannot stress enough, however, that this takes place in a completely different universe from those two fics. In other words, this is a different Zer0.

But enough about that.

A quick thank you to thewhitepatch for helping me with this fic, I took a lot of ideas from them.

And another thank you to JujuFei on Deviantart for allowing me to use one of her pictures as a cover image for the fic.

That's all we got, I'm going to try to cut down on authors notes for this so don't expect to see much more than a disclaimer from now on.

I don't own Borderlands.

Enjoy!

Mysterious Ways

Zer0 was a mystery.

A mystery within a puzzle, wrapped an in enigma, all taken and placed in the deepest, darkest depth of the largest ocean on the most remote planet in the six galaxies.

It seemed that nobody knew who Zer0 was. Not the people who passed the assassin on the street, not the Vault Hunters, not Jack, not even the all seeing Guardian Angel had any idea who the mysterious assassin was. For that matter they didn't even know what Zer0 was.

A common man or woman with a vengeance and a lust for the kill? An alien from a distant system looking to hunt men for sport? A robot that had become too advanced to take orders from its creator? The manifestation of death itself brought to release the souls of the damned from the mortal plane?

Zer0 very well could have been any of those things. In the minds of the assassin's victims, the shrouded face was death incarnate. In the hearts of allies Zer0 was a mysterious but kind hearted stranger. In the eyes of employers the assassin was a tool of destruction.

But truth be told, Zer0 didn't see their self as any of those things.

Zer0 was not from a far flung system on the edge of known space. Not the harbinger of death in mortal form. Not a soulless assassin of metal and wires. Not a mortal with a vengeance against life.

Zer0 was simply; Zer0.

Once, before the assassin came to Pandora, before Zer0 even was an assassin, before Zer0 was even known by that name, they had been a warrior. A modern warrior, a soldier of fortune, fighting for the highest bidder in galaxy wide conflict. Zer0 had been a part of something great, but that had been some time ago.

After years of service, Zer0 was reassigned. Given a different job and a new designation. Told to wear the mask of an assassin, to live in shadow, to kill silently with the blade and swiftly with the rifle.

After that it didn't matter to the assassin anymore who they had been. Who Zer0 had been no longer mattered, what mattered was what the assassin was now.

A mystery, of which the answer was known only to Zer0.

But some mysteries unravel.

As Zer0 and the Vault Hunters will find out soon enough...