Erin lingered behind the others as the five- or rather six if she counted the Death eater- of them left the ruins. She walked close to the glow of the ruin wall, feeling as though she had to hold her hands behind her back to avoid touching it. The shovel she had grabbed dragged on the ground behind her.

She thought back to the last time she had been to some Eridian ruins, a few months ago. She had fallen down into a ravine and wound up having to navigate a set of underground tunnels that eventually led her to an abandoned Dahl mining site. One of many. Maybe too many.

Erin paused in her path when an Eridian glyph caught her eye.

"What are you looking at?" Roland, the soldier asked, walking over. From the agitated look in his eye she supposed he'd started getting nervous when she started lagging behind.

"Some Eridian writing etched in stone."

"What does it say?"

Erin shrugged, "I don't know."

The soldier looked surprised, "I thought- "

"I've had to translate this stuff before, but I need my teacher's notes in order to do it. I can't just read Eridian writing."

"It looks like that stuff in that journal you kept in your desk. Do you need to go back and grab it to read it?"

Dreads had walked up as well, Deatheater on his shoulder, tugging on a rope of his hair. Erin glared at him, remembering that he'd laid his hands on her teacher's journal. Like hell she was going to tell him—She sighed. He'd already looked through her room and she didn't know if the others had done the same. Little point in keeping it to herself.

Erin shifted her weight to lean away from the wall, "not really, I don't think it's important to figure out what this says right now."

Roland glanced at the glyph and folded his arms, "your teacher's notes?"

Erin shifted her weight again, straightening her posture to seem taller. She could sense she was about to interrogated, which is what she didn't want. She'd have to be the one to start, he shouldn't ask too many questions if she did, and hopefully she'd knock him off balance enough to answer her own questions.

She thought back to what felt like an eternity ago, to the days she spent underground with her teacher trying to decipher the Eridian writings etched into iridium stone ruins. The dark illuminated by stone, crystal, lamp light, and the tiny flame from a match when he lit a cigarette. He'd tried quitting when they met, but the environment wasn't very helpful, so he lit up every so often to help him focus on work. She remembered his dark brows furrowed in concentration, scratching at an unkempt graying beard, a cigarette hanging from his mouth as he studied the etched writing in stone.

"Could I have one?" Erin would ask, pointing to the pack of cigarettes in his pocket, and he'd shake his head, laughing.

'Take it from me kiddo, you don't want this habit.'

He'd laugh so easily it'd piss her off, and she hated being treated like a child. Then he'd ruffle her hair, as he would so many times when he was proud of her, and she'd bite back the sarcastic remark she'd spent weeks formulating. Just so she didn't have to ruin his gesture of affection, as she had so many times before.

"My teacher was a vault hunter that came to Pandora to study Eridian technology."

"Your teacher was another Vault Hunter?" Roland rose an eyebrow, then began to narrow his eyes, "is he- "

"He's dead. Been dead for years," she jerked her head backwards, trying to gesture at the area at large, "he was killed in some underground ruins like this."

"How?"

She remembered that day too clearly. The smell of acid and burning flesh filling her nose and lungs; the gunfire, low hum of insect wings beating in the air, muffled screams of pain, and high-pitched ringing in her ears; the throbbing pain all over her body from having fallen down from a bridge; and the flash blood filling her vision.

Erin waved a hand, "It was a freak accident."

Roland studied her for a second than looked up at the sky again.

"We're running out of time; I'll need you to ride the runner with me and Mordecai. I've got a few questions to ask you."

He turned to walk away then stopped, "It won't be any more questions about your teacher, since it seems like a touchy subject."

She dug her nails into her arm, frustrated. She gave up too much information, and it left her at a disadvantage.

[…]

Erin gripped onto the ladder on the side of the Runner, tensing the muscles in her arm and shoulder to ensure she didn't fall off when Roland ran over a spiderant soldier. He shouted something, but she couldn't hear anything over the gunfire from the machine turret Dreads was operating. Erin glanced at a gyro spiderant attacking the runner and swung her shovel at it, only to almost lose her grip on both the shovel and ladder when Roland took a sharp turn.

A hand clasped onto her arm and Dreads yanked her into the gunner seat just in time for Roland to hit the boost.

"Shit," Erin rubbed at an ache on her arm when the runner's boost ran out. She must have hit the back support when she was dragged in the gunner seat.

"Are you still here Erin?" Roland called over his shoulder.

"I'm still here," she glanced at Dreads, "thanks."

"Don't mention it, ever."

No danger of her doing that.

Dreads leaned back in the seat so he could give her some space, "Where the hell is your gun and why aren't you using it?"

"I lost it." She lied. Instead she had conveniently forgotten both of them back in New Haven in Dr. Zed's desk drawer. The fact that she couldn't even put a bullet in this asshole's head told her she was better off without them.

"That's convenient… And your bike?" Dreads snarled in discomfort, shifting his legs so her weight wasn't completely on his thighs. "What happened to it? Don't tell me you crashed into the gate the moment Pierce said you could leave."

Erin scowled at the question, "No…" she growled and tried to readjust herself. The belt on his holster was digging into her rear-end like nobody's business.

"Unfortunately, Lady had some objections about a Spiderant corrupter I accidentally ran over on the way to meet you guys and had to walk her back to New Haven."

Dreads began laughing.

"It's not funny."

"Yes it is."

She shook her head, groaning, "weren't we talking about something before we hit that badass spiderant? Because if I remember correctly, there was a reason why I had to ride with you two."

Dreads did a nod, "Roland was asking you about Crazy Earl."

"Right…" Erin looked around, thinking about how she was going to get out of the gunner seat, "and the Echo's still on?"

Lilith's voice came though on the Echo, "it's still on. What's the hold up?"

"Just…" Erin leaned forward, grabbing onto the bar of the gunner seat and pulled herself up, "making sure-"

The vehicle hit a rock, shaking it, causing her to lose her balance and fall back down into the seat. Both she and Dreads swore. Fuck it. She was staying right where she was. She'd come this far, and she was not about to become a pancake in the middle of Spiderant territory at sundown. Even if she was stuck in this asshole's lap. From the frown on his face, he didn't seem too pleased about it either.

She folded her arms, turning her head towards the front of the vehicle and leaned away from Dreads, "what did you want to know about the old hermit?"

"You know him?"

Erin cringed at her first memory of him, "unfortunately, yes, and as his name implies, he's crazy."

"What kind of crazy are we talking? Is he like a psycho?"

She did a shrug and waved a hand, "kinda? Think crotchety, anti-social, old man with dementia and a shitty temper. He's mostly harmless."

"Mostly harmless?" Roland asked.

"He ate one of my brother's runners and stuffed a proxy grenade into to the autoclave after surgery the moment anesthesia wore off."

Dreads stared at her, "you're kidding."

Erin turned back to him, "I had to help Dr. Zed and remove parts from his stomach and gastrointestinal tract, then spent a week trying to figure out how to fix an autoclave before I was forced to give up because the damage was too extensive." She felt herself growing angry and threw her hands in the air, "Now there's a broken-down autoclave in the clinic, and Zed refuses to let me-"

"Why is an autoclave so important?"

"It's used to sterilize medical equipment. There's a high demand for medical help on Pandora, but those who can administer care and sterile equipment are in low supply. A lot of people die from infection out here."

"Is that how Zed lost his license?"

Erin folded her arms and cocked her head, "no, I actually think it was the alcohol."

"I'll be sure to never get into the medical field," Roland said, "I thought you said he was harmless?"

"Oh… well he is. For the most part. I mean, he might not have broken the autoclave if I hadn't dragged him to the clinic in the first place. He doesn't appreciate being dragged to the clinic for medical treatment against his will too well."

Lilith's voice came up on Echo, "Erin, that's kidnapping."

"It was for the sake of medicine."

"That's not a good reason to- well, actually I guess it is. Nevermind."

The runner eventually slowed to a stop as they reached the underpass. Erin quickly got out of the gunner seat and walked to the vending machines. Mordecai got out soon after, stretching his legs. He did not expect to have Erin stuck in his lap for the last half hour of the drive to the underpass. It might have been one of the most uncomfortable thirty minutes of his life. She kept fidgeting and squirming in the seat, which made the shield on her hip dig into his. Then if she wasn't jiggling her leg or foot, she was tapping her hands on her knees. It took Bloodwing hopping down from his shoulder to her knees to get her to sit still. Mordecai decided to keep it in mind that Erin seemed to unnerved by the bird's presence.

At the very least, now he had an idea why she was looking for the vault. It made it easier for him to let go of his frustration in not accepting the pay from Pierce. But it wasn't as though he wanted to have her in his lap every time someone hit the boost on the runner.

Mordecai rubbed where her shield had dug into him and walked over to her, "When is your bike getting repaired?"

Erin glanced up at him, "hopefully by the end of the dim cycle, or a little after."

"So, by the time we get back on the road?"

"Hopefully," she sighed then made a show of rubbing her butt, "If not, I'll insist upon sitting with someone else. Your bony ass legs hurt to sit on. Not to mention you smell like skag shit."

He was about to retort then he noticed that she had opened some panel on the back of the Marcus Munitions machine, exposing a tangled mess of insulated wire.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

She looked back to the inside of the panel, "the interface was glitching out like crazy, so I thought I'd take a look at what was going on, I think someone tried to tamper with it recently."

"Tried to hack the machine?"

"Yeah, but they're either not very good or they broke it on purpose," she poked at a few of the worn frayed wires with a screwdriver.

Mordecai tilted his head to get a better look at what she was doing, "so what now?"

Erin blew a bit of hair out of her face as she continued to poke around the machine's back panel, "I'll see if I can do a temporary fix on this so it's at least usable and notify Marcus of some broken equipment."

"Have you done this before?"

"Let's just say there's enough gun fights in New Haven that I have to fix the med vendor frequently."

Mordecai thought for a second, "Is it possible for you to get us a discount?"

She did a slight snort, "like I want to give Marcus any more reasons to want me dead. The only reason he hasn't hired anyone to kill me yet is because I learned some things while I worked for him, and, I know his ex-wife whom he really wants to get back together with."

"You have dirt on him?"

Erin smirked up at him, "you know it."

He folded his arms, smirking as he imagined Marcus squirm for once, "information really is valuable isn't it?"

The statement earned a smile from her before she looked back at the panel, "Would you do me a favor and unplug the power coupling from the machine? Just take the red wire out of the cylinder with Marcus's face on it."

Mordecai walked around to the front of the machine, feeling that he had just scored a few points with the young woman. Then he mentally kicked himself. He didn't need to score points or become friends with her. He wasn't about to be pulled in by that pretty face.

He looked up at the power coupling with another, albeit smaller, tangle of wires on it. He shifted uncomfortably as he tried to untangle the wires, unable to find the wire she asked him to pull out.

"The… red wire?" he asked moving to the side of the machine so he could see her still crouched down in front of the exposed wires.

She didn't even look up at him as she continued poking around at the back of the machine, "yep."

Well that wasn't any help. He looked back up at the coupling and pulled a wire, not certain if it was the one she told him to pull. Well, it shouldn't cause any problems right?

A loud pop and fizzle accompanied by a string of curses told him he had pulled the wrong wire, and that it did, in fact cause a problem. He looked back behind the machine to see that she had fallen backwards and rolled close to the edge of the rock. Erin's head jerked up, and he saw the same wide-eyed angry expression from when he had first met her.

She scrambled to her feet, her legs a little shaky as she marched up to him, "DREADS. WHAT THE FUCK?"

Now it was him putting his hands up as she approached, "I'm sorry. That was an accident. I didn't mean to-"he glanced at the fire in the back of the machine and watched it spread to the other machine. Another loud pop and fizzle and both machines burst into flames.

Erin cursed and grabbed Mordecai's arm as she began to run away from the platform. They ran to the rest of the group, who had just noticed the fire. Roland stared at the fire slack jawed. Mordecai glanced over his shoulder when he heard the loud boom and grimaced.

Erin crouched down, put her hands over her ears, and kept her back to the destruction, there was a piercing screech as the machines fell in on themselves. "please tell me that was just my tinnitus acting up. Please?"

"Both machines exploded… and now the catch-a-ride and fast travel station is caught on fire."

She whimpered, "No."

Mordecai winced, as the fast travel station light popped and went out, "Yes."

A pitiful squeak and pop came from the catch-a-ride. A tiny puff of smoke came out of the top of it as the light and interface went out.

Brick snorted, "now that's just sad."

Roland pinched the bridge of his nose, "well, at least this can't get any worse..."

Lilith lifted her head when a bandit appeared at the top of the hill, shooting at them with a smg. She began to laugh spitefully, "and now, bandits."

"Goddammit."

Roland sat down heavily in a chair and wiped the blood off of his knife, scowling at the destroyed catch-a-ride and vending machines.

"What. The hell. Did you two do?"

"Erin was trying to fix it- "

"Oh, good. Put it on me why don't you? If you had just pulled the correct wire it wouldn't have blown up in my face!"

Mordecai turned to her, "Look, if you hadn't started messing with it we'd still have a vending machine."

"Not that you would have been able to use it because it was- "

Roland put up a hand, "stop. Nevermind. I don't even want to hear it. Lucky for us the Bandits had a decent amount of supplies stashed away so we could re-stock."

"And I found this sweet fire Maliwan repeater pistol in the chest at the top of the hill, and Brick found an explosive revolver," Lilith offered.

Brick in the meantime struggled to put his massive finger on the trigger of the gun, frowning as he realized he couldn't fit his finger in the guard.

"I can't use this thing, it's too small. You want it Erin? You don't have a gun."

Mordecai hadn't really paid attention to her during the fight but did catch a few glimpses of her fighting next to Brick. It seemed that she could hold her own in a gun fight without a weapon and managed to get away with only a few cuts and bruises. Though, he was certain she would need one for more difficult fights.

Erin made a face before taking the gun from Brick.

Mordecai leaned over to look at it, an Mal313 Blast Revolver specifically. Not a bad looking weapon. "If you don't want it I'll take it."

She shot her eyes to him and shifted her weight to put it in her storage deck, which was attached to her belt on the small of her back.

Roland was looking back at the charred remains of the vending machines, "so, what should we do about that?"

Erin folded her arms, "well, I guess I'll contact Zed and Marcus about the broken vending machines. I don't think they can be repaired. They might be able to get someone to replace them, or something…"

"And the catch-a-ride and fast travel station?"

She cleared her throat, "I'll talk to Scooter about the catch-a-ride and fast travel station. Someone might have to drive him out here though…"

Roland gave her a pointed look, which prompted the girl to grab her Echo and tap in Scooter's information.

"H-hi Scooter," she took a step away from the fire pit and turned to walk down the hill, "so… Let me just say: It's not my fault."

"Hoh boy… What did you do?"

"I didn't- "she sighed, and took a deep breath, "Some bandits broke the vending machines and they blew up and the catch-a-ride and the fast travel station caught fire then stopped working." Her words came out in a jumble.

Mordecai could hear Scooter taking a deep breath on the other side of the Echo.

"Bandits?"

"Bandits."

"Where?"

"The underpass."

A groan and yawn from Scooter, "well, E, I'll see about coming down there during the next light cycle, but till then, you'll just haveta' deal with it."

Erin let out a sigh as she shoved her Echo back in her pocket and marched towards the broken-down catch-a ride and fast travel station.

Roland put his knife away, "I guess there's nothing we can do."

Mordecai folded his arms, watching Erin pick through the wreckage, "I guess not."

"So, should I keep watch or should I? I don't imagine you slept that well back in New Haven."

He hadn't, not well enough, but he doubted Roland had it much better.

The hunter turned to Roland, "I'll keep watch. You look like hell, Lilith keeping you up at night?"

Roland dropped his head, making a slight cough, "shut up."

He stood from the chair, shaking his head.

"I'm going to sleep, wake me if you need to switch."

"Just so long as you plan on actually sleeping."

Roland flipped him off. The hunter started laughing.

Mordecai waited a few moments before walking further up the hill to find a high up place to keep watch. May as well take his time while everyone was still awake. He spotted a few chairs and a table littered with empty beer cans and beer bottles. Bloodwing hopped from his shoulder down to the table and knocked over a few bottles.

"Not even a drop left behind," he sighed after looking for an unopened bottle, "oh well… maybe the next bandit camp."

Mordecai ambled over to a chair and dragged it to the metal platform that jutted out of the rock. It felt like a decent place to sit down and relax. Bloodwing flew over and perched on the metal pole that was being used to hang the corpse of a dead man. The bird was looking intently at something below.

He followed his bird's gaze and spotted Erin, still awake and walking towards the broken-down catch-a-ride. Picking up his rifle, he glanced through the scope, watching her pace around it, stopping on occasion to scratch the back of her head or chew on her finger. After a few more circles around the broken machine, she crouched down and put her head in her hands.

Mordecai aimed away from her, leaned back in the chair, and scratched the skin under the seam of his mask. Great, now he was starting to feel bad. He stood and trotted down the hill, Bloodwing following.

He cleared his throat when he approached her, and when she didn't move he scratched the back of his neck again.

"Uh, hey. You…" he began, mentally calling himself a moron for what he was doing and wondering what the hell he was doing in the first place.

Erin picked up her head to look at him, waiting for him to keep talking.

"You…" he started again, not being able to figure out what he should say while he was under her gaze. Mordecai looked at the catch-a-ride and tapped his finger on the side of it.

"It doesn't look too bad… you could probably—" he started, then Bloodwing flew up to perch on it.

The machine fell over and hit Erin on the head and knocked her down on the ground.

Bloodwing did a screech and flew up into the air as the girl yelled another string of colorful phrases. Some of which he was certain she invented. Erin kicked the machine off of her as she rubbed the top of her head.

He couldn't laugh. He wanted to, but he couldn't.

Erin rolled from her back to her hands and knees, then quickly got to her feet. Mordecai took a step back as she picked up the machine, visibly struggling to lift the damn thing, and threw it a short distance away from her. Then she ran towards it and kicked it. Or at least she tried to. She hit it with her shin, which caused her to hiss and bend down to grab her shin. After a few moments she straightened and lifted her foot to stomp on it.

Mordecai had to stop her before she hurt herself again.

He hooked his arms under hers and pulled her away from the machine. Erin began to kick her legs wildly as he lifted her up, cursing loudly. She jerked her head backwards, as though she were trying to hit him with the back of her head, and he dropped her before she could connect with his face.

Erin fell down flat on her back, her arms and legs spread out, panting. Mordecai crouched down to look her in the eye.

"Are you done?"

She glared at him, then huffed out a sigh, "yes."

Mordecai stood while she sat up then slumped her body forward. Erin looked at the broken machine then put her head back in her head. Mordecai cringed when he followed her gaze. The machine was bent at a slight angle and broken glass littered the ground from where she had thrown it.

"Well, you did a number on it."

Erin groaned and threw her hands in up in the air, "way to go 'E'! Maybe you should go back to working for Marcus since yer so good at wrecking shit!"

Her head dropped back into her hands, "Scooter's gonna kill me…"

"It's not… that bad…"

"Yes it is."

Mordecai stared at the broken machine and scratched the back of his neck, "yeah… it's bad."

Erin pulled her hood over her head and let out a breath. After a moment she pulled her hood off again and looked up at him with a dead-pan expression, "what do you want?"

Honestly, he had no clue what he wanted, if he wanted anything from her right now. Hell, why did he even come down here in the first place? She cocked her head when he didn't answer. Erin drew her legs into herself to get to her feet. She folded her arms and shifted her weight. He noted that she kept her weight off of the leg she hit the machine with.

"Your leg ok?"

She shifted her weight to her other leg, "I'm fine," then she shifted back, still careful, "What do you care?"

He glanced down at her leg, "I don't."

"Then what do you want?"

Mordecai lifted his head and glanced over to the tent where he noticed Lilith watching them from behind a rock. He waved a hand, and she went back into the tent.

Turning back to Erin, he considered the situation. From the uncomfortable look on the girl's face he could tell she had noticed Lilith. Somehow he doubted she'd want to join the others, especially after her outburst. Though, why not have her go up there an answer a bunch of uncomfortable questions? Then he remembered that he was partially to blame for the destruction of the machines and decided not to subject her to his friend's interrogation.

"If you're not tired, do you want to keep watch with me?"

Her eyebrows raised for a second, then lowered as she glanced at the tent. Her hands dropped to her sides, "uh, sure, Dreads."

"Mordecai." He said simply.

"What?"

"My name?" He was starting to get tired of being called 'Dreads', and if there was something he really wanted from her, it was to be called by his actual name.

She looked away for a second, appearing guilty, then looked back up at him, "could you say it again?"

"Mordecai."

"Mordecai," she looked him up and down, then did a nod, smiling, "got it."

He had to turn away quickly, because he wanted to smile back.