Mordecai paced back and forth as he looked out across the rocky landscape, occasionally picking up his rifle to look through the scope whenever he noticed movement. A single spiderant walked around it's nest. If he pulled the trigger he could hit its abdomen, killing it in a single shot. Though, he'd opted not to start shooting anything, unless it got too close. Taking a shot would only alarm the other spiderants, and there was no point in pointlessly waking up his friends.

He lowered his rifle then sat in a chair at the table, which Erin had freshly cleared for a working space. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as the girl piled a bunch of broken shields she had picked from the dead bandits. Erin quickly busied herself by dismantling them, breaking them down to their most basic components, her head bent down in concentration. She mentioned something about building a new shield or upgrading an old one. Bloodwing in the meantime had perched on a nearby tree, combing out the feathers on his chest with his beak.

He turned his attention back to looking out over the ridge, standing again, pacing, glancing through the scope to check for enemies, then lowering the rifle when he found none. Mordecai sat back down after a little while, watched Erin work from the corner of his eye, then got up to repeat the process.

The whole situation felt pointlessly awkward, and he had no idea why. He'd figured that it had to do with Erin's presence. This wasn't the first time he'd kept watch with someone he barely knew, or someone he didn't truly trust. He'd taken watch with the others as well, though the ice was usually broken by a conversation started by someone asking about what they planned on doing after they found the vault. Roland planed on offering his share to the "people of pandora", so he supposed he might plan on helping New Haven with different odds and ends; the others, well, they weren't really sure since they didn't really know what was inside, but he knew Brick was definitely put it toward something violent. Lilith said it depended on what they found.

He'd considered asking Erin what she planned on doing after finding- or rather opening- the Vault. Since she pretty much muscled her way into their group he wanted to know what was so important. He knew it had something to do with the clinic, she said that there were a lot of broken equipment that needed to be fixed or replaced. Hell, the times when he was in the clinic he could see that they needed help. He wondered how much the clinic needed. That being said, he still felt uncomfortable around her, and he wondered if getting to know her better would help.

About the 5th time he'd sat down and glanced over, he saw Erin lift her head from about the seventh shield she'd taken apart and began to stare at something, her expression was thoughtful. Mordecai followed her gaze to look at Bloodwing, using his foot to comb the feathers on the back of his neck, still preening.

"When did you pick up the Deatheater?" She asked.

Mordecai turned his head to Erin, to Bloodwing, and back to her, "you mean Bloodwing?"

"Yes…" She blinked, processing "Bloodwing is his name?"

"Yes…?"

She was acting weird.

"Bloodwing huh?" Erin rested her chin on the back of her wrist, "when did you pick him up? From how comfortable he is around humans you must have found him when he was very young."

"Comfortable?" Mordecai asked, scoffing, "he don't really like meeting new people. You're lucky he didn't take a bite out of you back in New Haven. He's already bitten the others at least five times, each. I don't call that comfortable."

She lifted her head and rested her arm, "well, no. I guess comfortable isn't the best word…" she began tapping her fingers on the table, "what I mean is that he's not just chasing people around like most other Deatheaters do. Most species of wings usually keep to their own. They're very aggressive and territorial - even by Pandora standards. Oftentimes they'll chase down different wild animals to the point of exhaustion and kill them just for fun, even kill their owners. We used to think that- "

"We? You mean you and your teacher?"

Erin was frowning, "if you're going to interrupt me, answer my question first, please."

"Sorry. Go on?"

She nodded, "right… shit." she smacked the bottom of her head against her head, "where was I?"

"Deatheaters being territorial," Was this girl senile or something?

"ok, ok" she murmured to herself for a moment, then clasped her hands under her chin, leaning her elbows on the table. "We used to think that they were trashfeeders - another kind of Wing, on account of how similar their young look. Except their behavior is even more anti-social than their relatives. They're usually alone even when they hunt, and the only time they seek the company of another wing is during mating season. They're even known to abandon their young shortly before hatching."

Erin glanced at Bloodwing again, "It's very strange to see one so cozy with people."

Mordecai considered what she told him, then leaned back in the chair and crossed his ankle over his knee, "you're not just spouting bullshit are you?"

Her attention returned to him, "what do you mean?"

"It just feels like everything you know is too convenient. I still feel like we're being used and you're going to trick us at some point."

She cocked her head, "well you can believe whatever you want, it still doesn't change the fact that out of the five of us, I know the most about how this planet works, and it isn't as though you have much else to go off of at the moment."

He frowned. Erin wasn't wrong. How Mordecai lost his duel with her was more than enough evidence to show that it was a fact.

Erin straightened, putting her hands down and picked up her screwdriver, "Look, I've spent the better part of my life cramming as much information as I could into my skull, so I assure you it's all legitimate. I have nothing to gain by killing or tricking any of you either. "

"For now."

His remark earned a brief smirk from her, and she lifted her chin, "I promise you I won't attempt anything underhanded against you or your friends until after the Vault is open."

"So you admit to using us."

"Only as much as you're using me. You and I still have an agreement."

Mordecai leaned forward to get up, "Right, the temporary truce from the previous dim cycle."

"Alright, your turn."

He stopped. "What?"

Erin folded her arms, "answer my question."

"What question?"

She glared at him then he remembered, "you wanted to know about Bloodwing… When I found him?"

"That, and why you're here."

"On Pandora?"

She nodded.

Mordecai glanced over to Bloodwing, "I guess I'll start from the beginning, when I found Blood. I found him back in… damn…" he scratched his beard, trying to think back. If he remembered correctly, he was drunk… and he was doing a job on… fuck, what planet was it again? "I think it was… Hestias. Some Themis suit had hired me to infiltrate the interstellar port there to look into some illegal imports. Something about some shuttle smuggling unauthorized goods"

Erin's eyebrows raised slightly. It looked like he'd caught her interest.

"So, you were an investigator?"

Mordecai snorted and shook his head, "No. The job itself was illegal too. There's an ordinance in Sector Delta-39-I saying that there can't be any investigation in any business by government officials without notifying the business first, which makes it difficult to catch them in the act of a crime. So, they hire 'independent third-party workers'- " he made air quotes, "like me, to avoid getting their hands dirty. The people that hired me were also sure to pay me in cash before and after the job so it couldn't be traced back to them."

"Huh."

Mordecai decided to ignore the disappointed look on her face.

He looked over at Bloodwing, who'd finished preening and flew over. The bird landed on the table, looking at Mordecai, cocking his head, then pecked at the table, then looked back up.

"You hungry?"

Bloodwing pecked at the table again and sat, staring back up at Mordecai.

"You just ate a bandit liver, heart, half a lung, and part of what I think is a Spiderant brain."

He turned to Erin, and after a beat she did a shrug, "I think I did see your bird eating a spiderant brain earlier, but I can't say for sure."

Mordecai turned back to Bloodwing, "You can't be hungry."

Bloodwing did a screech, opening his wings and straightening his back to appear bigger.

"Don't use that attitude with me."

He did another screech and flicked his wings in annoyance.

"If that's how you're going to be then fine." Mordecai folded his arms and turned his head away from the bird.

Bloodwing began to click his tongue against his beak as he hopped into the hunters' line of vision. Mordecai turned his head again.

"No, you were being bad," he pointed to the end of the table, "now go sit down."

There was a soft squawk and rustle of feathers as Bloodwing hopped to the end of the table and sat down, making dejected bird noises. When Mordecai looked back at Erin, her hand was over her mouth, holding back a laugh. Bloodwing looked back over his shoulder at Mordecai and the laugh escaped Erin's lips.

"He's so cute!"

It was probably the brightest he'd ever seen her face light up, and Mordecai found himself grinning at her reaction. It was a split second before she turned back to him that he remembered who he was dealing with.

Erin looked sheepish for a second, steeping her fingers and shifting as she tucked her foot under her thigh, "er, sorry, he reminded me of Luka back when he was a little pup. He used to always beg for more food after I fed him and when I told him 'no' he'd throw a fit. I mean he still does, but…" she shook her head, "a-anyway, you were saying?"

"I was saying…" he looked at Bloodwing, still sitting and occasionally looking over, and shifted to lean his elbow on the table.

"Apparently there was an exotic creature smuggling route going though Hestias. I managed to get inside some old Dahl mining ship some creatures to some research facility on Tantalus."

"Dahl?"

He looked back at her, the light and warmth in her eyes rapidly replaced with a focused anger.

"If memory serves correctly, yes. That's what I just said."

She leaned forward, standing out of her seat, "Do you know where they were coming from?"

Mordecai lifted his hands, "I'm getting to that. Sit down."

Her face became flushed, and she sat back, "sorry."

"Alright…" he scratched his beard as he watched her pick at the worn plastic of her screwdriver.

"The Dahl ship was on its way back from Pandora - I'm guessing that's what you wanted to know?"

She made a noncommittal noise and he continued. He'd ask later why she asked.

"The ship had a lot of different creatures on it. Skags, rakk, crabworms, wings, and some other creatures I figure are from this planet." He glanced back at Bloodwing, smiling fondly, "that's when I found Blood. He was an egg inside of an incubator. I think he just started hatching when I walked up to it. First thing he did after he hatched was peck the incubator glass door so hard it cracked. I had to pick him up."

Erin glanced at Bloodwing, "I see… and that was how long ago?"

Mordecai put his hands on the back of his head and leaned back in his chair, "I think about… four… maybe five months ago? I came to pandora shortly after getting paid. Someone mentioned some legend about some Alien treasure, and I figured I'd come here for the game and loot."

A moment of silence passed.

She rested her chin back on her wrist, a frown on her face "so, just a way for you to kill time, huh?" Then she shook her head, "five months you say? That's how long you've been on Pandora?"

He gave a shrug, "It's a rough guess... the planet's day-night cycle is too slow to get a good feel for time."

She nodded, "A lot of off-worlders say that, although the ones who live on satellites have an easier time transitioning than those that live on the central planets of neighboring solar systems. I've met a few wannabe Vault hunters that died because their sleep schedule was so far thrown off it affected their heart. You'll even see a few bandits drop dead from exhaustion since they also can't get used to the flow of time here."

"Shit."

"Yep," Erin turned her head away again, not seeming to be looking at anything in particular, but thinking, "Five months… all four of you 've managed to survive for some time…" she did a derisive snort and frowned. She looked at him, annoyed "and found a piece of the vault key in such a short amount of time."

He studied her for a moment, saw the bitter anger in her dark eyes, and watched the knuckles on her other hand grow pale as she gripped her screwdriver tightly.

"I guess that pisses you off?"

"I spent years looking for the Vault. And you just waltz off a bus and find a piece of the key in less than a fraction of that time. You're damn right it pisses me off. And what's worse," he watched her grip tighten on the plastic handle to the point of making her hand tremble, "it's just a way for you to 'kill time'"

She huffed, "Its like all my hard work is a fucking joke."

Now that he looked at her, he noticed the multitude of tiny little scars on her fingers, and from what he could see on her forearm, where her sleeve had fallen half way down her forearm, he saw a familiar looking scar. Something that looked like what was once a bite mark from a wild animal. He couldn't tell what though, it didn't seem like a skag bite, was it something he and the others hadn't come across yet?

Mordecai thought for a moment. Back when she opened her jacket to prove she wasn't carrying a gun when they'd first met, he'd caught a glimpse of the small cluster of bullet scars above her collar bone. The graze scars were still visible on her neck, but they were hidden somewhat by her long hair and the safety goggles she wore around her neck. Then he remembered after she had fallen off the runner, he'd seen a scar on her head, starting at the top of her eyebrow and went back to her ear, almost like someone or something had struck her in the head with something sharp. He couldn't see it now though, since she'd hidden it well underneath her hair. Then the ear on the opposite side of her head, the most recent offense on her body, inflicted by him, the bandage was still there.

He'd gotten his own share of injuries over the years, scars too, that eventually faded away into nothing more than a fun memory to embellish and share with friends when he was drunk. He'd even managed to get a few new ones, courtesy of Bonehead, a few badass alpha skags, and Sledge. Injuries that he'd numbed through pain meds, alcohol, and a few chests of loot. He wasn't too concerned about them. Mordecai was certain the others had them too. Hell, Lilith and Brick tended to show them off as a display of strength and a source of pride. Roland didn't really seem to care about the ones that he'd gotten, just another wound in a long list of wounds he'd received both in and out of military service.

Still, looking at her, he winced. It was almost jarring to look at, especially because her body looked so small. Her hands and wrists looked small and delicate, like someone could easily break them if they just squeezed hard enough. He couldn't tell if the rest of her body was of the same quality as her hands thanks to the bagginess of her clothes, but from her petite frame it was easy to imagine.

Her pale hair, small shoulders, a thin, delicate frame. As delicate as a bird. Something easily broken if just enough pressure was placed on it.

"I'm sorry."

Erin stared at him for a second, then squeezed her eyes shut and huffed a sigh, "No, don't be. My failures are a result of my own incompetence.

A moment later, when it seemed the conversation had stopped, her head dipped back downward as she returned her attention back to the shield she was taking apart.

Mordecai watched her for a second then opened his mouth.

"Why is finding the Vault so important to you?"

Erin leaned closer to the shield, narrowing her eyes in concentration, "I already told you, the clinic-"

"No. I want the real reason."

Erin's head jerked up and she looked at him, startled, then looked away.

Mordecai leaned forward in his chair, "the reason you told Roland is convincing, and I don't imagine you were lying. But, that's something he's happy to help with, there's no point in you putting yourself in danger if that's the only reason. It's obvious that there's more going on."

"That's my business and my business alone."

He leaned back, "Keep in mind that we're allowing you to come with us because you happen to know where the vault is. I still don't mind dumping you in the middle of nowhere or putting a bullet in your head. Besides, you wear it on your face."

Her gaze met his, a frustrated expression on her face, "look, it's a long story."

"So just give me the highlights, you don't have to go in depth." Mordecai looked up at the still dark- almost unchanging sky, "We've got an entire Dim cycle."

She huffed a sigh, and put down the screwdriver, "fine. Do you smoke, Mordecai?"

He felt his eyebrows raise and he sat forward again, "Yes… are you changing the subject?"

"No," she began to rummage around in her pockets and brought out a pack of cigarettes, "If I'm gonna' talk about this I may as well smoke and pretend that I'm talking to a friend."