song: Neil Young - My My, Hey Hey

Funnily enough, Mordecai hadn't really started drinking straight away and had instead decided to take a nap, while Axton, Maya and Krieg ran off to do some errands for someone. Salvador had decided to hang out at Moxxi's bar and Zero and Gaige were looking at some new offers Marcus had in store for them.

I was tired enough myself and had a short nap, but since then I was up and was waiting for everyone to get back. It was getting dark and I figured sitting on the roof of HQ and getting drunk seemed like a fairly pleasant activity, all things considered. I had been skipping through some ECHO shows for a while, when Mordecai finally woke up.

"Hey." was all he said. I looked at him with a sad smile.

"Hey. You sleep okay?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Had nightmares. She... she's still dead, isn't she?" he wanted to know, probably hoping that Bloodwing dying was just another one of his nightmares. I wished it was just a nightmare. Unfortunately it wasn't.

"Yeah." I answered. Mordecai buried his face in his hands.

"We still got those kegs?" he asked in a muffled voice.

"Yup. You wanna sit outside on the roof and get drunk? Because I'm all up for it and so is Gaige once she comes back." I answered. He looked up, a few tears glistening in his eyes. It hurt to see him like this.

"That sounds good. I'd like that." he said with a weak voice.

"Let's go, then. I got one of the kegs up on the roof already." I replied. He got up from the bed slowly and together we made our way to the balcony, so we could climb up onto the roof from there.

"You're not gonna start without me, are you?" I suddenly heard a voice from the other end of the room. I turned around and saw Gaige standing there.

"Uh... of course not. Come on up." I replied. She gave me a knowing smile and followed us quickly.

"Got anything good from Marcus?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"Zero got some fancy rifle, I think, but I didn't find anything I liked." she answered. After that we silently made our way up onto the roof and started drinking. We were probably sitting on the edge of the roof for half an hour in silence, sipping our rakk ale in silence, before anyone said anything.

"I keep expecting her to come flying through the sky and landing right next to me, demanding some treats or demanding to be pet. I can't believe my girl is gone just like that. I didn't even get to say goodbye." Mordecai burst out.

"She was such a badass bird." Gaige commented.

"I miss her. Like, I even miss her biting and scratching my hands and arms on a regular basis." I said.

"She was the best bird." Gaige agreed. Mordecai smiled a little, and this time it was an honest, genuine smile.

"She was. She was my best friend. I found her way back on Artemis, when I was younger. Was hiding away from some assholes trying to beat me up and found her all alone and almost starving, so I brought her home and raised her. She saved my life so many times since then." he said.

"I feel like shit, because we couldn't save her." Gaige admitted. I nodded.

"Yeah, same. Out of everyone, why did it have to be Blood? She looked so damn scared in that stupid Preserve, it killed me."

"Hey. I... I actually wanted to tell you earlier... don't feel bad about Bloodwing. You did everything you could. None of it was... none of that was your fault." Mordecai said. His voice sounded agitated and he kept looking down, probably because he was crying again and didn't want us to see. I rested my head on his shoulder and wrapped my arm around his waist.

"It also wasn't your fault, Mordy. I know you think it was, but it's not, okay?" I said. He shook his head.

"She was buying me time, so I could get away. That's the only reason they got her. If it wasn't for me walking into that stupid trap... if I hadn't been so ridiculously fucking stupid..." he replied and trailed off, some tears rolling down his cheek. I wiped them away quickly, but all it achieved was that I started crying as well.

"No, no, no. It was Jack's fault. You couldn't have known it was a trap. Please don't think it's your fault." I said.

"Shit. All I can think of is that she must have spent her last days in terrible, terrible pain. Those fucking bastards did slag experiments with her. It's... it's just cruel. They shouldn't get to be alive, whoever did this to her." Mordecai replied.

"I'd actually love to kill those assholes." Gaige commented. Mordecai looked at her and then turned on his ECHO, messaging the new Vault Hunters.

"Hey, amigos. The engineers working in the Hyperion Preserve are still alive. You're gonna fix that. When I was doin' recon out there I heard them experimenting on three badass creatures. Get out there and free 'em. I wanna see a bloodbath for what they did to my bird." he echoed them, his voice sounding bitter and scarily determined.

"Holy fuck, I just got goosebumps." Gaige replied, taking a big sip of rakk ale.

"Yeah, me too. You can be really scary, man." I said.

"Goddamn! I just want every single person belonging to Hyperion to die a slow and painful death. I'm going all in from now on. No more being careful, no more barely getting involved. Not after Blood." Mordecai said.

"I feel like we should do this sort of thing more often." I replied.

"Yeah." Gaige agreed and stared into the distance. She seemed really sad, and I was sure it wasn't because of Bloodwing.

"Something on your mind, chica?" Mordecai asked her.

"I... I miss home. I mean, being here is pretty neat and adventuring is amazing, but... it's just... I miss doing normal things. Like hanging out with my dad or being annoyed at my classmates or doing my ECHO casting, even though it's kind of stupid... And I sometimes just get so scared, I mean... the amount of times I almost died on this planet, all the bad things that can happen here and Hyperion on top of that? It's just... a lot." she answered, shaking her head.

"Yeah. How old are you?" I asked her. She shrugged.

"No clue, the year here works differently than back home. 17 or 18, I think, but I never did the maths." she answered.

"Fuck. You shouldn't have seen as much shit as you have seen on Pandora already, chica." Mordecai said.

"Agreed. Hell, when I stumbled into New Haven while it was being burned to the ground by Hyperion I just panicked. I had nightmares for months, I still get them sometimes. I also get panic attacks. It's normal, don't beat yourself up about it." I added. Gaige sniffed and wiped away some tears, as she laughed a little. The poor kid.

"You two ever thought of having children? Cause you're doing a pretty good job here right now." she replied and mustered up a crooked grin. Mordecai and I exchanged an awkward look and I shook my head quickly.

"Nah. I do have a daughter somewhere out there. If she's still alive. I dunno." I answered. Gaige gave me a surprised look.

"I was never settled enough for kids. Never thought about it at all." Mordecai added to that. It was a weird situation, because Mordecai and I had basically never ever talked about what the hell we were doing. And no one else had ever asked. I was wondering if everyone just assumed that we were a thing.

"I didn't know you had a kid. What happened?" Gaige asked. I sighed.

"Got pregnant with 15, got her with 16 and gave her up for adoption. My parents put pressure on me to give her away and I was young and really fucking stupid and didn't think twice about my options. I probably wouldn't have been able to properly support her anyways. All I got is her name, so that's that." I summarised.

"Damn. That sounds terrible." Gaige answered.

"Didn't Lilith offer to find some information on her?" Mordecai asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, but I don't even know if I want to know. She might not even know she's adopted. This could just turn out to be a terrible mistake." I said defensively. I really wasn't in the mood to talk about it. Mordecai sighed.

"Look, you should try and find her. I wish I had known more about Bloodwing. I thought I had time, but turns out, I didn't. I didn't even know what species she was or anything. But... I wish I had known." he said, looking sad.

"Well, if Lilith finds anything, fine. I might think about it." I replied.

"Hey, this stuff is pretty strong, isn't it?" Gaige suddenly asked.

"Yeah, why?", Mordecai responded, looking at her with a worried expression.

"Oh, nothing, just... I just... feel a little funny..." she said and fell backwards. I looked at her, frozen in place for a second.

"Oh, fuck, Gaige, you okay?", I asked and quickly moved over to her to check if she was breathing. She mumbled something and then just passed out drunk. I sighed with relief. At least she wasn't dead.

"I guess, Gaige is gonna have quite the head on her tomorrow.", I told Mordecai. He laughed a little.

"Gonna be a rough morning." he replied.

"Shit, how will we get her down from the roof?" I asked. Mordecai just shrugged, sipping on his drink.