Songs: The Josephines - Fireball; The Kills - Pull A U

"So yeah. That's how we met. I got locked up because I was being stupid and Mordecai broke me out by accident." I finished telling my story to Yolanda. Mordecai was still not here and his mum had been firing questions at me. Of course, she wanted to know the whole story. What had Mordy done before he came to Pandora, how did we meet, what happened after, every little detail.

I mean, I couldn't even tell her that much. I had only met Mordecai after he had been on Pandora for a while and he never told me much about what he had done before that. Even know, after knowing him for about 6 years I barely knew anything about what his life was like before Pandora.

"And then? I mean, you got out, what happened then?" she asked. Camila's baby came crawling over to me. Yolanda and I were watching her while she was gone to work, and since Yolanda was pretty busy with house work I had to entertain the little guy. I held out my arms, so I could pick him up from the ground.

"Well, I ran off and hid behind some crates to catch some breath and then Mordy holds a gun to my head and asks why he shouldn't kill me. So I was panicking and babbling, until he's happy. So we go and loot the place, but since his car blew up, I gave him a lift and let him stay at my place for the night. And the next morning I dropped him off at the Fast Travel station after Bloodwing almost ate me for breakfast." I explained quickly. Yolanda shook her head.

"God, sometimes I wonder who raised that boy. I mean, yeah, I did. But... well... only until we had to leave. And his father wasn't a good person. I wish I could have left, but I had no money and no family or friends here on Artemis to go to." she answered. I lifted Camila's boy into the air, which made him giggle. I mostly did it, because I had no idea how to respond to any of that.

"But anyways. That's all over now. You said you were with the Crimson Raiders on Pandora?" Yolanda said next. I smiled at her and nodded, secretly relieved she changed the topic.

"Yeah, we were. Well, we still are. Mordecai's friends actually first established the Raiders and I just joined pretty soon." I explained. Yolanda looked like I had told her a bad joke just there.

"Mordecai has friends?" she asked, sounding like she didn't believe a single word I had just said.

"He does. There's actually... quite a lot of them." I answered. I mean, yeah, Mordecai was always kind of the loner type, but it wasn't like he was a terrible person who never talked to anyone.

"Sorry, it's just... he never had any friends. Not like... long term friends. I was really worried he'd end up with no friends at all when he grew up, but I guess... I guess he's going well for himself."

"Yeah, I mean... there's Brick and Brick and Mordy are just like... best friends. It's really cute. They get each other little gifts and there's this kid we took in and Mordy and Brick are just like her parents. It's really sweet, you should see them. And there's Lilith, she's my best friend at this point. The two of them are always bickering like siblings, but Mordy helped her a lot when her boyfriend got killed. That was a rough time. There's Talon, of course. There is Tina, the kid we all took in. She's crazy and Mordecai always says how annoying she is, but he really just loves her to bits."

"Woah, woah, woah. Mordecai took in a child?"

"Yeah." I said, a little confused why that seemed to be such a big deal for her. I knew he wasn't exactly the type for this sort of thing, but still.

"God, I remember when he had to take care of his younger brother. He'd hate it. He'd hate it so much, he'd complain about it for ages. Of course, he's all grown up now, but all I can remember is what he was like when he was 14. And now he's 39. It's just difficult to come to terms with, you know?" she said with a melancholic smile.

"I think I know exactly what you mean." I replied. And I did. It was the same for me and Anouk. The last time I'd seen her she was a month old. And now she was 18 and all grown up and her own person. It was the weirdest thing in the world.

"So what about you? How did you get to Pandora?" Yolanda asked with a smile. I sighed and got ready to tell the story again.

"I was born on Aquator, kind of lower middle class. My parents were working in the resorts and I turned out to be the kind of kid that was out partying all night, drinking, smoking, taking drugs, you name it, I probably did it. Got pregnant when I was 15, had the baby at 16. My parents were obviously furious and made me give her up for adoption. So yeah, that was pretty traumatizing for me. Plus, I was always at odds with my parents over everything. So yeah. I moved out when I was 18 and stripped for about 3 months until I had enough cash to get off the planet. My options were Promethea or Pandora, so I chose Pandora. One hell of a mistake, but I'm glad I went there."

"Damn. That's one hell of a story. So you got to Pandora and then what? How did you not die?" Yolanda asked.

"I was lucky. Some people found me. Took me in. Took good care of me and taught me how to shoot guns and what I could and couldn't eat. After a while I separated from them and went to a place called the Middle of Nowhere. Opened up a diner and hostel kind of thing. At the time, there were loads of transports coming through, so it worked out fine for me. When everyone left the planet, I did contract kills, repairs and explosives. And that's how I ended up with your son."

It was only then that I realized how bad all of that sounded. And I was telling that to my (basically) mother-in-law.

"Just for the record, I'm not proud of it. Well, a little maybe. But not too proud." I added, hoping that would make it sound a little better.

"Don't worry, we all sometimes gotta do things we're not proud of. That's life. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do." she replied.

"Shit, that's what I always say." I said, a big grin on my face. That's when we heard a knock on the door. That was Mordecai. We were planning to meet up at the house, so Yolanda could run some errands with us.

"Ah, that must be Mordy. Do you wanna take the little boy?" she asked me. I nodded and put him down on the ground, so I could get the baby sling. I quickly wrapped it, so I could carry him around with me easily. Then I opened the door for Mordecai, while Yolanda gathered up all her things.

"Hey, Mordy. How'd you do?" I asked. He gave me a kinda weak looking smile. He looked pretty exhausted.

"Second. Pretty good money in it, still. How are you, querida?" he asked me.

"I'm good. I just told your mum both our life stories. She couldn't believe you weren't a 14 year old anymore." I told him. He rolled his eyes and shook his head smiling, before he gave me a small kiss.

"She's probably gonna interrogate me again, once we leave the house." Mordecai said and laughed.

"I'm ready!" Yolanda shouted from another room and came walking to the main room quickly. She had a small bag slung over her shoulder and was wearing some sandals that looked like they'd fall apart any second.

"Alright, let's go then, mamá." Mordecai said and held the door open for her. She quickly slipped out and locked the door behind her.

"So, I hear the two of you are friends with Jael, as well?" Yolanda said while she was locking the door.

"Who's Jael?" Mordecai asked.

"The girl from the market." I answered.

"How do you know her name?"

"I asked her."

"And she told you?"

"Well, obviously."

"Jeez, what's the deal with her and the two of you? She seemed really nervous when she told me about you. And now you act like you barely even know her?" Yolanda interrupted. I looked at Mordecai, a little confused. Did... did Yolanda not know how Jael paid the rent? Didn't she know she sold information?

"We only met her at the market one time. We... we had an interesting conversation." Mordecai answered.

"Yeah, Jael can be quite the character. I met her again at the competition and had a little chat with her, that's how I know her name." I answered. It seemed like Yolanda was completely oblivious. Or maybe she did know and was in on the inconspicuous appearance thing.

To be honest, from talking to her, I would almost suspect that she knew exactly what was going on and was in on everything. Maybe Jael mentioned us to her and she said something about Mordecai being her son? Maybe that's why Jael was being so helpful? Who knew. Maybe she just didn't know what was going on at all.

And it didn't really matter much, because the next thing that happened was that there was a bunch of guys surrounding us, firing their guns at us. I was lucky that neither I nor the baby got hit, because I was standing just behind some small box, probably for electricity or something, so I could hide quickly.

After the initial shots were fired, everything was quiet for a while. I carefully looked up, gun in my hands and ready to fire. Everyone was standing around, pointing their guns at each other. Yolanda had her hands up in the air, I had my gun pointed at the guy directly in front of me, and Mordecai had his gun pointed at the guy in front of him. There were two more guys aiming at Yolanda and Mordecai. No one was talking and it was a pretty weird situation, but we were pretty clearly outnumbered.

"Okay, what the fuck is going on?" I shouted.

"Camila still owes us that money. She hasn't paid up this month." one of the guys answered us. I raised an eyebrow and looked at Yolanda.

"Look, she probably just forgot that there was a payment due. No point killing anyone over this. Please." she said.

"Well, you pay or we take the money off you. If we have to kill all of you for that, then so be it." the same guy said. Seemed to be their leader.

"Listen up, you little shit. You leave my mother alone. And you leave anyone who lives in her house alone. Understand?" Mordecai growled at them. They exchanged looks, then their leader grinned widely.

"So you're Mordecai, huh? Legendary sniper? Guy who had a bounty on his head for 25 years? At least that's who you're claiming to be." he said.

"That's me." Mordecai answered.

"Oh yeah? Prove it. I don't believe you."

"I wouldn't do it, if I were you." I interrupted them. I really just didn't want this to end in a shoot-out. I knew Mordecai could handle himself, but I was still scared he'd get hurt or die in this.

"And who are you, huh? 'Nother one of Yolanda's girls?" their leader asked me. I shook my head.

"Oh wait. I know you. You're the newbie. Mordecai's little girlfriend. From Pandora. You won bronze a few days ago, but you really screwed up yesterday." another guy said. I held up my arms quickly and gave them a smug smile.

"That's me, alright. You know what I learned on Pandora? I do better with moving targets." I replied.

"Well, I don't care who you are. You either pay up or we solve this problem right here, right now. What's it gonna be?" the leader asked. I looked over to Mordecai. He nodded at me slightly.

I smiled and quickly pulled my trigger on the guy in front of me. I aimed at the guy aiming at Yolanda next and took him out before he even knew what was happening. Then I turned to Mordecai. The leader of the group and the other guy aiming at him were down at the ground, coughing up blood. He had managed to take both of them out quickly enough. They were barely alive at that stage. Mordecai bent down to the leader and pulled his head up by his hair.

"Next time, you don't doubt me." he said and let his head fall to the ground. He got up and looked back at Yolanda. She seemed pretty badly shaken.

"Come on, mum. Let's get out of here." Mordecai said to her. She nodded and followed the two of us, as we stepped over the corpses we had left behind.

"God, I thought we'd all die. I had some money with me, I could have paid." she kept mumbling.

"Who were these guys, Mordy?" I asked, as I put away my gun.

"Some gang, Camila's husband probably got in trouble with them and that's why they killed him. They're little pests, that's all they are. Almost like the damn bandit clans back on Pandora." he said.