Songs: Temples - Shelter Song; ACDC - Girls Got Rhythm

When I opened my eyes again, I saw Mordecai, Lilith and Brick looking at me. I yawned and blinked quickly, before carefully sitting up. I was in one of the bunk beds in Sanctuary and I had no idea how I got here.

"The fuck happened?" I asked.

"You guys exploded." Lilith answered with a deadpan expression.

"Did we actually?"

"Not really. The grenade exploded right in front of you, so you got lucky. You were, however, pushed off the road and landed upside down." Mordecai explained. Huh. That's why everything hurt (except my new leg).

"Fuck. Did we win?" I wanted to know. There was a slim chance enough cars exploded before we did and we managed to get something.

"You came in third." Lilith told me.

"It was awesome!" Brick added with a grin. I grinned back at him and held my hand up for a high five.

"It probably was, Brick. It probably was." I said.

"It WAS awesome. TOTALLY awesome! We got third thanks to me blowin' up them other cars." I heard a voice from a little further away. It was Tina. I could see her sitting in front of the monitors in HQ, as I moved to the side a little.

"Damn, good job, Tina! You okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine. Damn fine."

"Of course you are."

"The real question is, are you okay?" Mordecai wanted to know, looking more worried than ever.

"I dunno, I think so? My... everything hurts, but apart from that I'm fine. How long was I out?" I replied.

"About a day."

"Oh shit. What happened? Any news? Anything on Athena or Aurelia? Where the hell is Scooter? Is he okay?"

"Don't worry, you didn't miss much." Brick answered.

"I heard nothing from Gaige or Axton yet, except that they're alright. Scooter was fine, except for a few scratches. He headed off to see some other race today and then he's going to hand over one of his workshops to someone else or something. Didn't really ask too much about it." Lilith said.

"Cool, cool. He said something about how it's getting a bit much handling all of his little workshops. What race is he off to?"

"I dunno, something Death something?" Lilith answered.

"Bossanova's Death Rally." Brick said.

"Damn. Okay, I'm jealous. Anyways, I'm really, really hungry, do we have breakfast or something? What time is it?" I wanted to know and sat up more.

"Be careful. You only just woke up, after being knocked out for a whole day from a grenade blast. You probably can't even stomach much food right now." Mordecai said, carefully holding my arm, so I wouldn't fall.

"Pfft, watch me." I replied, almost tripping over my own feet. Mordecai just sighed and rolled his eyes. Sometimes, I was surprised that he was still putting up with me. I mean, let's face it: I was a complete mess. I was dying half the time, I could barely walk and my most valuable contribution to the Raiders was sitting around and eating all their food. Hanging with Lilith. Watching Tina sometimes. I had no idea why I was even still here. With nothing much happening, it was like we were all pretty much obsolete and me most out of all the Raiders. We even got fairly regular supplies now.

"Yeah, let's not try that, chica. Come on. Sit down. I'll get you a glass of water and then we'll see how you feel." he said and carefully sat me down, making sure I wouldn't just fall off the side.

"We were scared you had finally managed to die, you know?" Lilith said as she pulled up a chair beside me.

"Yeah, well, guess I can't even manage to kill myself." I answered with a shrug. I was always hoping Lilith would give me something to do, but these days it usually wasn't the case. There was nothing to do, but wait and see.

"Well, I'm glad you didn't. Looks like Athena's been out and about in Hollowpoint lately. Looks like things are moving over there." Lilith told me. I looked up at her. Was she actually going to give me work?

"Okay... what are you trying to tell me?" I asked.

"She wants you to do stuff, but not yet, but maybe later." Brick answered with an eye roll. He seemed to be tired of doing nothing just as much as I was.

"That right, Lil?" I wanted to know.

"Yeah. Sort of."

"What do you want me to do, but not yet, but maybe later?"

"Okay, so you remember that thing about the Vault Key being fake and all that? Well, it looks like some of the people involved in this have found clues about the Gortys project and are on their way to Old Haven. There's been whispers that Athena is involved with them. Vallory wants to get to them and take the Gortys Project off them, once they got it." Lilith explained. I raised an eyebrow.

"I'm following, but where do any of us come in?" I wanted to know. Mordecai just came back upstairs with a glass of water and some tins. I don't think I was ever as happy to see food in my entire life. (That was a lie, I was definitely happier to see food when I came out of the Gulag.)

"Is this about your plan, Lil?" Mordecai asked.

"It is. I know you don't like it-"

"It's not that I don't like it, it's just very... vague."

"Yeah, anyway, it's just a theory. We really don't have much to go on here and it's one of the only good ideas I've had that could get us closer to getting Athena. So anyway, I've been in contact with Vallory and so far she hasn't had any run-ins with Athena, but-" Lilith said before I interrupted her.

"Hold up, so you're really just guessing here? Sounds risky to do that, especially since Vallory could easily be working with Athena. Or she could warn her." I replied. I mean, it sounded like a good idea in theory, but not like a good idea on Pandora. We all knew we couldn't trust anyone.

"I doubt she would. If Athena was with Vallory, they'd already have the Gortys Project. Anyways, she said if she should have any trouble from anyone she'll let us know. Once we get a message from her, you, Brick and Mordy go out and get Athena. That's the plan." Lilith said.

"That is a very vague plan." I replied and took a sip from my glass of water. I was not too surprised that Lilith's plan would be somewhat vague, though. She was great at being a leader for the Crimson Raiders (even though she didn't call herself that), but she wasn't great at thinking her decisions through. None of us were. Roland was, but we didn't have Roland anymore, so we were all just doing stuff and hoping for the best. It really wasn't a wise approach.

"I know it is." Lilith said with a sigh.

"But hell. Let's do it. If it's our best bet, there's hopefully not too much that can go wrong." I added.

"Good. That's the spirit, girl. Now you go back to bed and heal up and all and I'll see if I can get anything out of Zero. He's at that race, too, as far as I know. I have a gut feeling about that." Lilith replied with a smile.

"Sure thing." I said and gave her a thumbs up, as she left the room, probably to talk to Tannis or something.

"You're not gonna go back to bed, are you?" Brick asked with a smug grin on his face, after Lilith had left and was out of ear shot.

"Hell nah." I answered with an equally smug grin. Mordecai was shaking his head.

"Don't encourage her, Brick!" he said.

"Ah, come on, Mordy. She promised not to die and she didn't die. What else do you want?" Brick replied. I opened one of the tins and started snacking away on its contents, while watching this exchange between Brick and Mordecai.

"She could have died, she almost did."

"She's fine. Look, she's eating and talking and walking and all. Doesn't look like she's almost dead to me."

"That's after she was blacked out for a whole day!"

"Yeah, but she's fine again. Aren't you, Nova?" Brick asked me. I blinked, kind of surprised they hadn't forgotten I was in the room.

"I'm perfectly fine, Brick." I replied.

"See? She's fine." Brick agreed. I looked over at Tina and gestured towards the can I was holding.

"Want some of that?" I asked her.

"What's that? Good stuff?" she wanted to know. I glanced down at the label, realizing that I had no idea what I was eating.

"Uh... it's pickles." I said.

"Get that stuff outta my face, young lady!" she told me and went back to whatever she was doing on her screens.

"Aight then. More for me." I mumbled and took a bite off another pickle. Seeing any sort of green food on Pandora was a rare thing (that is food that is SUPPOSED to be green), so a can of pickles was pretty amazing.

"Anyway, Brick, I think we should cut Mordecai some slack for putting up with me and my antics for that long and actually being reasonable and taking care of me. Because I'm truly not very capable at doing it myself." I said.

"You did alright before we turned up." Brick mumbled.

"Barely." Mordecai and I answered at the same time. We looked at each other and started laughing. Some things just never seemed to change.

"So, any plans for the rest of the day or are you actually going to take it easy for now?" Mordecai asked.

"Nah, I'm gonna head out and do some running in a minute. I missed a whole day of it, can't let that happen!"