Disclaimer: Borderlands and all of Pandora's residents are the intellectual property of Gearbox Software. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter 14

Moxxi knew this would happen.

Well, of course she did. Moxxi always knew that the Vault Hunters would eventually come along and make nice with Maya. They'd come crawling back, like God-knows how many of Moxxi's ex-boyfriends, begging her for one last chance.

And naive, forgiving Maya would welcome them back with open arms.

It didn't bother Moxxi though.

So Maya and Lilith and Mordecai and Brick and all those other jackasses were friends again. No biggie. Nothing to lose beauty sleep over.

Moxxi knew that Maya was hers. All hers. Maya was Moxxi's girl, now and forever.

Maya couldn't live without Moxxi. Moxxi made sure of that several months ago.

Hey, in this universe, a girl's always gotta be ten steps ahead...

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A few days after Lilith and her friends threatened Moxxi in her bar, Maya and Moxxi had packed their bags and hauled ass out of Pandora forever. Maya bundled her personal library into a bunch of containers, Moxxi locked her doors and boarded up her windows, and then Siren and manager hopped on a transport and left Pandora in the dust.

In the weeks and months that followed, did any of the Vault Hunters ever suspect that Maya was obsessively, feverishly stalking them?

Maya was no longer physically present – but she was there in digital spirit.

Maya visited the Vault Hunter's social media pages over and over, several times a day each. She entered each of the Vault Hunters' names into every search engine there was, and devoured every morsel of news that she could find. She gobbled up every single echo cast that Gaige put out. She lurked in every forum that Tina and Lilith hung out in. Maya couldn't bear to miss a single word. Maya couldn't tolerate the thought of missing a single entry.

Maya had left her friends a million miles away. What was she THINKING? Well, Maya, you didn't think this through, did you? She couldn't hang out with her buddies any more. She couldn't talk to them any more. She couldn't joke with them any more. There would be no more Vault Hunting. There would be no more climbing onto vehicles and racing after bandits. There would be no more awesome loot, no more triumphing against Badasses, no more beer as the sun went down on Sanctuary. There was nothing left for Maya to do but haunt her former friends on the echo net.

Maya did her best to conceal her presence. She signed on under proxies and pseudonyms. She enabled 'Stealth' mode. She had an inkling that Angel knew she was there, but...that would probably be just another thing that Angel kept to herself, wouldn't it?

This the was the first time Maya had ever felt lonely. She wasn't ready for it. Nothing could prepare her. This was the first time the universe had seemed too big, too solitary.

When she destroyed the Order of the Impending Storm and left Athenas, it seemed to Maya that the universe was full of adventures and discoveries and challenges and experiences. When Maya left her homeworld, and set off into the galaxy, she promised herself that she would make up for the twenty-seven years that she had wasted in the monastery. She would taste a thousand different dishes. She would drink a thousand different beverages. She would read ten thousand books, and watch ten thousand different movies, and play ten thousand echo sims. She would visit a thousand cultures, and stand before a thousand vistas, and share her bed with a thousand fricking lovers!

When Maya abandoned Athenas, the galaxy didn't scare her. It excited her. It intrigued her. It beckoned her forward, out into the stars.

Now? Now the universe was nothing but an endless succession of anonymous, sterile hotel rooms. Now the universe was nothing but a constant sequence of identical spaceships, carrying her from one spaceport to another. Now, the universe was comprised entirely of check-in desks, and room service, and suitcases full of clothes.

Now, the universe was a pair of headphones. There was a certain song that reminded Maya of the Three Horns. There was another song that reminded her of the Dust, and another that brought to mind the Highlands, and another Wurnwater, and another the Southern Shelf...

Maya seemed to listen to a heck of a lot of music, when she left Pandora.

And you know what? Yeah, Maya was angry. Maya was hurt. Maya was pissed off. Maya hadn't abandoned her friends – they'd abandoned her. For weeks and weeks, Maya checked her mail every single hour, just to see if one of them had reached out to her. For weeks and weeks, Maya waited on edge, counting the seconds until she might receive a single message. Maya had survived fire, and bullets, and blades, and monsters, but all of a sudden something as simple as Inbox(1) could send her heart ratcheting away at a thousand beats a minute.

When Maya left Pandora, she was left with nothing but Moxxi.

"Mmm, those jackasses could have burned down a million of my bars and it wouldn't have meant a thing," Moxxi told her, once. "But it breaks my heart what they've done to my girl."

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One evening, Moxxi found Maya staring unhappily at nothing.

She was sitting on some luxurious sofa in some luxurious hotel room that was sure to vanish from her memory the moment she checked out. Moxxi gave a weary sigh. She knew that Maya's glumness of late was affecting her fighting abilities. When Maya hit the gym, it was obvious that her heart wasn't in it. When Maya went to train, it was clear to everyone that her mind was elsewhere.

Well, nothing to worry about. Moxxi knew she just had to feed Maya a few tomato cans until her mental state improved.

Maya's head was down. Her shoulders were sagging. Her eyes were glazed.

Well, Moxxi thought. Strike when the iron's hhhhawt!

Moxxi made her way over to Maya, heels tapping on the marble floor. Thumb and forefinger vanished into her cleavage, and then a small, cylindrical object was drawn out. "Take a look at this, honey," she said, offering the object to her.

Maya emerged from her reverie with a blink. She reached out, and took the object in her fingers. It was a short glass vial, with a cork at the end. There was some substance inside it – powder. Tiny little crystals. "What is it?" she said, looking at Moxxi.

Moxxi extended her hand, and Maya returned the vial to her. "This?" Moxxi gave the vial a little shake, the powder within jostling about with the motion. "Honey, this is known by a lot of different names. Velvet Dreams. Sweet Suicide. Crystal Bliss. Thyboruclearbiomonoclorine, but that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it?"

Maya furrowed her brow. "Why does it need so many names?"

"Well, I guess people find it just that inspiring, don't they?" Moxxi sat herself on the edge of an armchair, directly facing Maya. "It's a drug, sweetie. One of the most addictive in the galaxy. Every single little crystal in this vial holds a tiny little chunk of paradise. One little sniff, and you're in heaven."

Maya's eyes widened. "Why is it in our room?" she asked.

Moxxi gazed directly into Maya's eyes. There was more than a hint of challenge in her expression. "Because I'm going to take it, baby," she said. "Right now. I'm going to take a hit of this stuff, and I'm going to get higher than I've ever been, and you get to watch the entire show."

Well, at least Maya wasn't sad and despondent any more. She was appalled and apoplectic, instead. "Excuse me?" she said, streaks of lightning in her voice.

"A good showwoman never asks the talent to do something that she herself isn't willing to do," Moxxi declared. "I'm tired of you not trusting me, babe. Maya."

"Whoa, whoa," Maya said, hands waving in the air. "I just abandoned my entire friggin' life to go touring with you, Moxxi! When did I ever say I didn't trust you?"

"It's in your eyes, sweetie," Moxxi replied. Quivers of distress began to find their way into Moxxi's voice. Her make-up was perfect. The lipstick accentuated her pouts and her frowns just right. The eye shadow brought out the torment and misery exquisitely. "Let's face facts, kitten. You don't think I do my fair share, do you? You don't think I pull my weight. You knock back all that eridium, and I just pick up the paychecks. Well, tonight that changes. From now on, we're equals, honey. From now on, we're both junkies."

Maya sprang to her feet. Arms straight, fists clenched, eyes deadly; her body language was screamingly, screechingly obvious. Give me that stupid powder stuff – I don't care what it's called – right now and if you're lucky, I'll forget we ever had this conversation.

Moxxi rose from her chair. Back straight, eyelids low, mouth grim, vial gripped in her hand; her body language was pretty easy to read, too. You're not gonna threaten me, hon. When I decide on something, I never back down.

Maya reached out, palm upturned, eyes stern. "Give it to me," she said. She had every intention of flinging it off the balcony.

The eye shadow did a really great job of accentuating intractable defiance, also. "I'm taking the hit, baby," Moxxi said, "and there's nothing you can do about it."

Over the course of that day, Maya had checked her messages forty-five times.

Forty-five times, Maya had logged into her mailbox, silently praying for that Inbox(1).

Forty-five times, she had been disappointed.

As Moxxi watched, Maya's composure cracked and shattered.

Maya shut her eyes, tight as she could.

Maya growled and groaned.

Maya ground her teeth.

Maya raked her nails through her hair.

Maya screamed.

Maya phaselocked a lamp in the corner; it exploded in a shower of sparks and pottery and flickering, smouldering flame. She kicked a footrest and sent it crashing into a distant wall, a dent left in the plaster. With a roar, she batted the sofa, and shot it tumbling across the room.

Moxxi's mouth widened into the cliched 'O' of horror. "Wrecking hotel rooms, now, sugar?" she said. "But that's for musicians! You're supposed to save your aggression for the arena."

Maya paced around the room, hands on hips, eyes cast to the ceiling. "I'm so sick of this," she stuttered, shaking her head. "I'm so sick of this."

Moxxi wilted a little. "Oh, baby..."

Moxxi minced forward. Her hands went to Maya's waist, and she held her in place. Siren and manager stood there in the middle of the debris, Maya fuming, Moxxi peering at her, seemingly waiting for Maya's anger to drain away into her palms. "What have those hoodlums done to my girl?" she said.

Maya's lips were pressed tightly together. All the colour was gone from her skin. Her eyes were narrowed, and watery. Her head tilted and swivelled about; she looked at a mirror on a wall, and a bowl of fruit in an alcove, and the doors to the balcony, and the viewing screen across the room, and anywhere but Moxxi's face.

Moxxi gazed serenely at Maya. She couldn't keep the smile from her mouth. She couldn't keep the fondness from her eyes. It was as though Maya's rage might simply dissipate if Moxxi merely immersed her in affection.

"This is why I have to do this, kitten," Moxxi said, her voice as soft and soothing and velvety as she could make it. "We're a team, babe. I can't have you thinking that you've got the whole universe on your shoulders. You've got me, beautiful. I'll always be in your corner."

Maya glared at a curtain, and then glowered at a cushion, and then her eyes flicked to Moxxi. It was working. The frustration was seeping from her body, a brief fury rising from skin like steam from a hot surface.

Moxxi gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head, as if she couldn't quite believe how intoxicated she was with this woman. "You've given me so damn much," Moxxi whispered. "I just wish I could make you understand that I'm here for you."

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Moxxi placed the mirror on the table, and then arranged the powder on the glass, straightening the stuff with a razor blade. She had torn a scrap from a book, and then rolled it up so that it could serve as an improvised straw.

Maya was leaning against a nearby wall. Never before had she seemed so uncomfortable in her own skin. "Look, Moxxi," she said. "I really appreciate the gesture. I truly do. But you don't have to do this..."

Moxxi bent over the mirror, and then she lifted her head, and gave Maya a saucy smile. She was making damn sure that Maya got a good view of her cleavage. "I'm already hooked on you, sugar," she said. "What's one more addiction?"

Moxxi gave Maya a wink. Then she placed her nostril upon the straw, and the straw against the powder.

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Moxxi likes to get high when Maya is around.

What's the point of setting every synapse in your brain on fire, making every neuron sizzle, if there's nothing beautiful, nothing sublime, to focus your mind upon?

Fuck sunsets.

Fuck the stars, twinkling in the night.

Moxxi wants to dwell upon her Siren. She wants to stare at her, gaze upon her. Moxxi wants to fill her head with flames, and then drift over every inch of skin.

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Maya devours about five chunks of eridium a day, now, give or take.

It used to be that when Maya phaselocked her enemies, they would briefly be suspended in the air. Not any more. The eridium has changed her.

Now, when Maya phaselocks her enemies, they get dragged, kicking and screaming, into that strange world that Sirens partly inhabit. When Maya initiates phaselock, her enemies blink out of existence...and then they reappear a few moments later, babbling and ranting about the things they saw.

There are creatures in that world, Maya's victims say. Apparently. It's difficult to make sense of the words coming out of their mouths.

Maya doesn't use phaselock much these days. She's not about to become universally known as the woman who drives her opponents insane, thanks. That's not her schtick, okay?

Maya can do fine without phaselock, thank you. The more eridium she absorbs, the stronger she becomes, the faster, the hardier. She's more formidable now than Lilith ever was.

Maya consumes five chunks of eridium each day. When it's just herself and Moxxi, Maya feels at ease just openly ingesting the stuff. For her part, Moxxi is happy to snort Crystal Bliss around Maya whenever she wants. They're comfortable around each other like that.

It's nice, Maya supposes, not being judged.