It was over. The armory, Knoxx and pretty much all of the Lance forces on Pandora were no more.
She was free.
Athena watched as the smoke bloomed up from the explosion, dissipating and mix with the darkening sky. All her anger, all her rage and hatred that had been driving her to this point seem to leave her for a moment and she was left with a strange sense of emptiness.
What now?
She spent so long trying to find Jess, figuring out what they would do so the Lance would never find her and hopefully live a possible normal life. But that plan died along with her sister, so what was she supposed to do now?
There was nothing left for her.
She had greeted the Vault Hunters once they made their way back to T-Bone Junction, thanking them. Roland hovered near the doorway of the room she was occupying, seemed like he wanted to say something but changes his mind when Lilith called him over.
That was fine, she just wanted to be left alone.
As night finally descended onto Pandora, Athena looked up at the sky from the top of Scooter's garage.
There were very few lights at T-Bone Junction, all inhabitants of the area seemed to be at the bar as evident by the noise and crowd surrounding it. She gazed at twinkling lights the stars and Elpis gave off, even at night the colors of space seem to glow.
It was odd to not have to think about having any orders to fulfill or return back to HQ or to report in.
She wasn't sure how it would've felt once she was free of Atlas, it was a little intimidating. What was she supposed to do?
The loud clunks on the stars off the side of the building drew her out of her thoughts and while normally she would immediately draw her weapon, Athena knew who it was as evident by Scooter timidly poking his head around the corner.
"Oh hey, Athena! Was looking for you, Moxxi wanted me to let you know that you should echo her."
Athena narrowed her eyes at him, "Why?"
Scooter nervously cleared his throat at the harshness of her voice, "Oh uh I don't know, just said I should tell ya that. Okay well, gotta go lock up, bye!"
Athena could listen to hurried clunks on the metal stairs, making sure Scooter was gone. She didn't understand what Moxxi could possibly want with her, while she was more tolerable to be around compared to the mechanic, it still unnerved her.
Figured she would rather get this over with, Athena echo Moxxi who picked up right away.
"Athena, how are you, sugar?"
Trying hard to not roll her eyes, she really didn't understand how Moxxi could be so upbeat, "I am fine, Scooter informed me that you wish to speak to me."
"Ah right to business, well I wanted to extend a bit of a offer to you. It's not secret about how Atlas obtained and treated their assassins. It may be presumptuous of me, but if you have no where else to go, you can stay with me."
Uh, what? This was not what Athena had been expecting.
"I.. don't understand."
"It's simple, sugar. I'm giving you a place to stay, you can go wonder around and do your business killing bandits, but if you ever need some R&R or just a bit of a breather. Well my door is always open."
Athena was still unsure, but considering how all her future plans were nonexistent, this wasn't such a bad deal. It didn't sound like Moxxi was trying to tie her down or force her to work for room and board.
"I'll… think about it."
Moxxi hummed, "Well alright, remember Athena, I'm only giving you an option, you don't have to say yes. You won't hurt my feelings if you say no, but I'll let you go then. Bye, sugar."
The call disconnected and Athena let put the breathe she had been holding, the noisy crowd drinking at the bar and dwindles to a few stragglers. The noises from Scooter roaming around his garage ended somewhere in the middle of the call, Athena was left alone and unsure.
She had plan on just leaving, she was sure making money as a hired gun would be the only way she survived on Pandora, but Moxxi's offer threw her thoughts into disarray.
She wanted to be alone, but the thought of at least having a moderately safe place to return and rest was tempting. She needed to think about this.
After a week, Athena returned to Moxxi's Red Light District on the edges of closing time, if the other woman was surprised she didn't show it.
Athena stood in front of where Moxxi was at the counter, laying her hood down, "I'll take you up on your offer."
A/N: I've had this idea of Moxxi sort of adopting Athena ever since I learned of the General Knoxx dlc but I wanted to wait until I played through it so I knew enough to get started and well here we are. I'm super excited to write the rest of this.