A/N: The next few chapters should come pretty quickly. I've finished the whole thing by now and all we're waiting on is for my lazy ass to cut it up and edit it. ^^; Anyway, enjoy!

They walked out together and she helped her lover get dressed, as per her stubborn insistence that she needed to at least check on the bar if she couldn't stay down there. Moxxi also insisted on applying her own makeup and did it surprisingly well, given the circumstances. Nisha then took her hand and walked over to the door with her. "Ready? I can carry you if you feel like you can't make it."

"I'll be fine." Moxxi smiled, and kept hold of her hand and she slowly began descending the stairs. Her balance was a bit off in her heels, but otherwise she made it with only a few stumbles. She pushed open the door with her other hand and saw there were already a few patrons, though the girl was absent from behind the counter. Moxxi looked around and saw her sitting at a booth with a man, lying against him, fast asleep. She then peaked over behind the counter and saw someone back there, digging through the bottles with a couple of broken ones on the floor. Her previously serene face contorted to a scowl. "CHRISTINA!"

The girl suddenly popped awake and looked over at her. "Oh shit…."

Moxxi let go of Nisha's hand to instead hold onto the counter, still managing to focus enough to hide her accent. "Oh shit is right, you lazy ass! Get over here!"

"Y-yes, Miss Moxxi!"

The girl's choice of words so soon after what had happened only served to further aggravate the usually much calmer bar owner. Once the girl was in front of her, she flicked her head toward the counter. "Have you looked back there for a while? Been keeping track of anything at all?"

The girl leaned over a bit and saw the guy behind it, now trying to hide after hearing her shout. "Uh….no?"

"This is why I've never left you here for more than an hour. You have the attention span of a raklet." Moxxi, now running on adrenaline, leaned over the counter to pull out a gun she always kept hidden underneath and aimed it at the man. "Get out of my bar now before I blow your balls off, skaglick." The man quickly scrambled back over the counter and out the door. Moxxi put the gun back, then turned her attention back to her employee. "Now then. I have inventory of everything here and have a record of any sales made. I still can't be out here yet, but I better not be missing more than $20 worth of product by the time I do, including anything he took. If I am….well, you better hope I'm not or you're fire from EVERYTHING, even your main job. There's plenty of other pretty little women to replace you. You got me?"

Christina nodded. "Y-yes, Moxxi."

"Good. I'll be down again in two hours or less and you better get your shit together." When he girl nodded in understanding, she narrowed her gaze towards her one more time, then went to turn back to Nisha, but was caught off guard by none other than the leader of the Crimson Raiders himself walking through the door.

"Damn, Mox, what happened to you?"

While most of her wounds were now hidden by clothes, there were a few still exposed that he could clearly see, despite her attempts to cover them up with makeup. "Long story. I can explain later. Did you need something, sugar? She smiled.

"Yeah. I need to talk to your girlfriend."

"In private, I assume?"

"Yep."

"Then follow me, soldier boy." Moxxi took Nisha's hand again and they led Roland up to the loft for complete privacy, though she cast a last sideways glare at the bartender before they completely disappeared. "Sorry, I can't be without Nisha right now."

"So I see. I'm guessing this wasn't just fun gone wrong since you wouldn't say."

"Oh no. No no no no no." Moxxi took a seat on the couch, Nisha following along after to sit next to her. "Jack sent Motor Momma after me. She's in charge of a motorcycle gang and uh….a cannibal."

"Ah." He had questions, but left it at that since he didn't want to make her relive it. "Jack is actually the reason I'm here. We were running through plans using your intel all night." He turned his attention to the informant. "We need your help to enact one that we think will put a huge damper on his operation."

Nisha folded her arms and laid back into the cushions. "And what is that?"

"You said you threatened him with his life if he tried to take Lynchwood. If he kept his word, you can get into the inner workings of the mine and everything with it."

"Why yes I can. I take it you want to screw with his eridium supply?"

"Exactly. Tannis has apparently been tinkering with its chemistry in her spare time and has managed to figure out a way to taint it."

"And what exactly does it do? I really hope you don't plan on blowing my town sky high with all that eridium beneath it."

"Oh no, not at all. It doesn't make the eridium explode. It'll taint it. You said he's got it all being pumped to a central area that is the center of his operation. If we taint it, it'll not only stop working but possibly destroy whatever is in there."

Nisha was suddenly hit by a small surge of guilt. She had let loose with everything she knew besides one small detail, namely what the eridium was powering, or more specifically, who. Running the tainted eridium in there would likely kill her on the spot. She then thought to herself, wondering why she suddenly cared. It seemed being with Moxxi had softened her heart more than she expected. Still, she reasoned with herself, it was a brilliant tactic. It would take away his most important asset. "Oh it'll destroy it alright. It's….very sensitive."

"Great. Come see me in an hour and I'll give you what you need."

Moxxi cleared her throat to catch his attention. "Excuse me, Roland, dear, but is she going to be leaving to do it then as well?"

"Yes."

Nisha placed her hand on her thigh and smiled. "We can get you some more vials by then. You'll be fine."

Moxxi locked her gaze with Nisha's for a moment, then turned her attention back to Roland. "If those get me back to normal like she thinks they will, I want to go with her."

"What?" It was Nisha who interjected before Roland could even speak. "No, you need to stay here. Even if they do heal you up, you still shouldn't be going out into Lynchwood. It's called that for a reason."

"I'll be with you. I'll be fine."

"No, you may not be as recovered as you think you are. It's not worth the risk."

Moxxi folded her arms and humphed. "You can't tell me what I can and can't do. If I'm well enough, I want to go, and I will."

Nisha stared for a moment, a little taken aback by the forceful stubbornness in her tone. The submissiveness she always showed, and that essentially made their affair real in the first place, seemed to have gone straight out the window. "Why do you even want to go so badly anyway?"

"I want to go with you. The bar is safer here at the mercy of the booze hounds than you are out where Jack and his goons have full and easy access to swarming you. You haven't been to Lynchwood in a while and Jack has made it clear how far he'll go to try to get you back. You don't know what's waiting for you there." Despite the care and worry glistening in her bright green eyes, her expression and posture remained stoic and strong. Normally she would happily give into her lover's requests, especially since even a fool could see the obvious trap likely brewing, but that very same reason was why she couldn't bear to let her go alone. They'd fought apart thus far. For once, they would fight together and really show Jack what he was messing with.

Nisha sighed, but before she could actually speak, was cut off by a ringing from the direction of their guest.

Roland dug into his pocket and pulled out his ECHO device. It was immediately followed by the voice of a certain Eridian obsessed archeologist. "Roland! Hi! I regret to inform you that you may need to postpone the mission of your highly suspicious friend. I've run into some unexpected setbacks, namely that the metal I tried to use for her smoke bomb had a negative reaction to the chemicals and exploded. I have figured out a non-exploding alternative, but I'll need another day to prepare it again to make sure I get everything just right. I'm sorry. Good day." And with that, she was gone.

Roland sighed and shook his head. "Well it looks like it's your lucky day. You two discuss and I'll ECHO you when it's ready tomorrow."

Nisha nodded. "Alright. I will."

"I'll leave you two alone then. See you tomorrow." Roland was more than happy to head down the stairs and back out after all the tension in that room towards the end.

Nisha leaned back into the couch as she let out an audible sigh. "Moxxi, I won't-"

Moxxi turned quickly to look at her, then instantly grabbed her side after the searing pain shot through her. "YOU don't get to decide! I control what I do and what I choose!"

Nisha couldn't do much but stare as her usually sweet and quiet lover barked at her. The only break in her sudden strength was the droplets forming in the corners of her eyes. She wasn't even sure what to say or how to react.

After a few moments, Moxxi was forced to sit normally again, still gripping her abdomen as the whole thing now throbbed and burned. Her strength finally waned as the droplets in her eyes began to trickle down her cheeks. "Please, can you go get the vials now? I won't get up while you're gone."

"Yeah." Nisha was still speechless as she sat up and looked over at the other woman. She reached over and wiped away the wet streak on the cheek closest to her, but received no reaction. "I'll be back in a few minutes." That garnered a small nod of acknowledgement, which she figured was the best she would get with it. With another small sigh, she stood and walked down the stairs to head out for a vending machine.

Moxxi, meanwhile, pulled up a decorative pillow and laid down. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She wanted to be in control of her life again. She wanted to go there so she had some say over how things went rather than sitting here helplessly as god knows what happened to Nisha. She went out on her own and Motor Momma was waiting for her. There's no saying what or who might be waiting for Nisha in Lynchwood. She wouldn't leave her alone like she herself had been. She couldn't.

After a short while, Nisha came in with a few vials in hand. "Ready for them?"

"Yes." Moxxi's voice sounded a bit cracky and weak and she failed to sit up when she tried.

"No, no, stay lying down. It'll be easier that way anyways. Just lie on your back." When the other woman did so, she pulled up a nearby chair, grabbed a nearby pair of scissors, and sat next to the couch. She carefully undid and helped take off her coat and pulled down her stockings to fully expose all of the wounds. "Sorry about this. It'll probably hurt a lot." She cut off the bandages, then snipped each string on the stitched ones as necessary to pull them out. (Moxxi groaned and bit her lip during the latter.) "Okay. Here we go." She tried to repeat how Zed had done it the previous day in terms of where she injected her with the red liquid. As expected, the cells began to multiply quickly and the wounds closed up almost completely. The lesser ones were now gone and the worst were small, insignificant cuts and nothing more. "There. Feel better?"

"Yes." Moxxi turned her head to look at her. "Thank you." She then looked away. "I'm….sorry for snapping at you earlier."

Nisha smiled and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Don't worry about it. You were clearly upset."

Moxxi was able to sit up without a problem this time and began buttoning up her coat again once she had. "I just….I don't want you to be alone when there could be an army waiting for you there. I don't want to sit here able to do nothing as you're potentially overwhelmed. I want to help you. Unlike when he sent Motor Momma after me, I can have a little control over this one."

Nisha smiled and reached over to stroke her cheek. "Your heart is too big for your own good sometimes." It then faded. "But it's dangerous, and you've already barely survived one encounter."

"I don't care. I don't want you going alone." Though she still sounded just as stubborn and adamant in her words and her choice, rather than sounding angry, her tone reflected the care and worry behind it, as did her expression. "I'm going with you."

Nisha sighed and pulled her hand back to rest it on her own lap. "Alright, fine. But you better be careful. Don't do anything reckless or stupid."

Moxxi finally smiled and leaned forward to wrap her arms around her neck, happy to have finally gotten her way. "Don't worry, sugar. I'll be fine. Just give me today to get any disobedience out of my system and I'll be a good girl in Lynchwood, I promise.

Nisha got a small half smile, then stood an scooped the other woman up into her arms. "For now, what do you say we get you a little more rest before the big day then? I'm sure you'll need it."

Moxxi cuddled up to her and bounced her leg a little bit, her smile growing. "As long as you stay with me."

Nisha giggled as she turned and headed for the bedroom. "Feeling a bit clingy, are we?"

"Just a bit. I've always been yours," she lifted her head and gently ran her fingers under her chin to guide her into a kiss, "but I want more."

"What do you mean by that?"

Moxxi giggled as Nisha laid her down on the bed, then patted the empty spot next to her. "Come lie down with me."

Nisha thought she could see where this was going, but was still a bit confused, given her reaction the previous night as well as her vague wording. She smiled nonetheless and walked around to climb in next to her, immediately being met by a fist suddenly holding her shirt tight and pulling her in for a surprisingly forceful kiss.

Moxxi ended it with a gentle bite on her lip. "I don't want to just belong to you. I also want you to belong to me." Her lips curved into a mischievous smirk before she bit her own lip in anticipation. She then let go of her shirt and caressed her cheek gently with the now free hand. "Would you like that, sugar? Letting me claim you in the same way you've claimed me."

Nisha was in a stunned silence for a few moments, merely staring in confusion at what was happening. How in the world did she end up in a mood like this? "You….want to claim me?"

The older woman nodded her head. "Yes. I've given you all of myself and given you complete control so many times...now I want you to give it to me." She gave her another, gentler kiss. "But I will only do it if you would like me to."

Nisha held her gaze for a few moments, then smiled. "Do it."