Chapter 11

Axton couldn't believe it, for once in the past 2 years, he's been able to get a full night's rest. No voices in his head, no nightmares, nothing. Just a beautiful woman lying next him which was fast asleep at this point. Axton could look at Maya sleep forever, just wondering what she was dreaming about. Him perhaps? Sarah would've wanted him to move on, it wasn't her fault, none of this was, it was his. Axton took his hand and moved a strand of her blue hair away from her face. Axton then took his arm and pulled Maya closer to him, hell he wanted this to last as long as he could. Maya let out a little sigh, but settled down after figuring out Axton just wanted her closer. The man who rocked her world properly was holding her close in his large defined body. What more could a girl ask for?

What exactly happened last night? It was a mix between anguish, comfort, and overall expression of feelings, rolled into one sweaty night. It seemed like a blur between the two. If only they could've remembered what happened between them. Heat of the moment?

'Fuck that' Axton thought to himself before falling asleep again.

About an hour passed before Axton opened his eyes again, to see Maya was still close to him. He stroked her face once more, then finally kissing her forehead. She let off a slight grin and fluttered her eyes slowly to see the man who she expressed her true feelings for, something she has never been able to do in her entire lifetime, after all, he DID save her from Mombusha.

"Hey..." Axton said softly to the woman who recently awoke.

"Hey..." Maya said back to him quietly "So how'd you sleep handsome?"

"Jesus..." Axton thought taking a deep breath "It's been a while..."

"No more nightmares?" Maya asked him

"None." Axton said letting off a smile.

"Great.." Maya said before kissing his nose and sitting up from the bed, putting on her attire that was viciously torn off from last nights...well...episode, she thanked God that there were no tears in her clothing.

"To tell you the truth," Maya said "I've never been able to get that much sleep on this planet either. Maybe that's normal, something I'll have to get used to for the moment."

"Probably," Axton said rubbing his eyes and standing up, putting his pants on and getting up from the bed. Screw working out today, it'll have to wait when he doesn't feel amazing.

Axton then saw Maya pull out a small bag from a drawer in her cabinet. Axton let out a groan and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"The fate of Pandora rests in our hands and you're worried about not having makeup on?" Axton asked trivially to Maya, why did she need do this now?

"Axton," Maya began turning around putting on some lip gloss, the same stuff that smeared his neck, chest lips, and cheeks. "Ask any girl out there and they'll tell you. No matter what, it's important to keep up, well.." She smacked her lips "Appearances."

Axton scoffed at this and finally found his shirt crumpled up on the ground. He wiped off the gloss that smeared his body and fixed up his hair a bit.

"Lemme tell you something Axton," Maya said walking up to Axton "You, were, incredible last night." She stressed incredible.

Axton let off a small smirk and lightly laughed to himself before saying to her.

"Yeah, likewise. Jesus, I hope we didn't wake up anybody.." Axton could remember the downright shrieking Maya gave off during all of the intimacy together. It was something about Maya's voice that turned Axton on incredibly, and to hear those shrieks of pure pleasure, he couldn't have asked for more. The only thing that would make it better is if he had a personal robot that dispensed him free joints and liquor at his own command.

"'M headin' upstairs," Axton said with his still disheveled hair.

"Alright, see you in a bit handsome," Maya

'Jeez, first Lilith gives me these weird nicknames, and now Maya's calling me 'handsome'?' Axton thought to himself, but he didn't mind one bit. He then remembered Lilith, how they needed to get her back, and fast. Angel may have died for a good cause, but Jack managed to get a hold of the most powerful Siren on the planet, city-lifter Lilith. This is bad. He then wondered if she should show him his Hyperion recordings, about how he inadvertently saved their lives twice.

Axton walked to to the upper deck and slumped on the nearest table, letting out a sigh, causing Salvador to have a huge grin on his face.

"Oooh hoo hoo hoo," Salvador said slyly "Look what the gato dragged in last night," He then let off a small laugh to himself.

'Goddamnit' Axton thought putting his palm on his forehead 'He knows...'

Axton then slowly made his way over to the chair and plopped himself down to take a seat. He ran his hand through his own hair then let out a heavy sigh before turning his head slowly to face Salvador and asking him.

"Hey...What's happenin in the CLEAN world?"

"Welp." Salvador said walking over to Axton "Mordecai picked up some intel about a Hyperion info blockade that we gotta take down if we ever hope to get Lilith back,"

"Yeah," Mordecai said walking to Salvador "And Axton? About last night... I didn't mean to flip my shit and all. I know now you'd never betray us, after all the shit Jack's put you through, anybody would be out for his blood, so Sorry."

"No, Mordecai it's fine." Axton said standing up, patting Mordecai's back "Trust me, If I figured out the man I worked was part of an oppressive corporation, I would've had my suspicions."

"Don't' worry," He continued "We'll get Lilith back. We can't let Roland down."

Mordecai laughed a bit to himself. He seriously thought that the man who saved Roland's life 7 years ago and eventually their own would backstab all of them. He must've been really pissed off yesterday.

Maya finalized putting on her makeup and closed the box. She began to look at her at several different angles to make sure that she got every aspect down correctly. She then heard a faint knock on the front door.

'It's probably Tannis' She thought to herself 'Back from some quest for the 'Holy Nachos' or something'

She walked over to the door to see that she was completely wrong. In front of her stood a teenage girl, looking like she was barely 18 or 19 years old. She had red hair that was tied up into two disheveled pigtails on each side. She looked like something out a punk rock band, with all of the clothes torn from left and right (intentionally), wearing grunge shoes and a skull t-shirt with a short skirt to match that. But the most definable feature about her was the lack of a flesh-and-blood left arm. Instead it was a cybernetic prosthetic arm that was shaped as a real one, except this one had claw like fingers on it. They both played a staring game for a while before Maya asked her,

"Uhhh, can I help you?"

The girl snapped out of her trance, blinking rapidly before looking at Maya.

"Oh! Uh...Hi...Uh..." She said stuttering "Is this where the uhhh," She then pulled out a little PDA and squinted at the text that showed up on the screen and said slowly.

"Crrrrimmmsonnnn-" She tried to say before being interrupted by Maya

"Crimson Raiders?" Maya asked the girl trivially

"Oh Yeah Right! Cool! So...uhhhhh...I just moved here...so...I have no idea what's going on...And I figured I should come here and see a dude named 'Roland', is he around?" she said looking on both sides of Maya to see if the man was anywhere in sight.

"Well, I hate to tell ya," Maya said letting out a sigh "Roland's dead, a man named Mordecai is the new head of the Raiders"

"Oh..." The girl said looking down on the ground "Isss there anyone else I can talk to?" Asking Maya raising the pitch of her voice.

"Maya!" Axton said walking down the stairs wiping his face "Who's at the door? Is it Tannis?" Axton looked to see that is was a teenage girl.

"Oh, Hello." Axton said waving his hand at the girl.

The girl blushed a bit and stuttered out "Hi...uhmmm...Hi..."

Maya looked at the girl and asked her "What's your name?"

"Gaige," She responded. "What about you?"

"I'm Maya. That's Axton," She said pointing to the Commando who was washing his face. "Come on in, we need all the help we can get. But first, don't mind me asking but, how'd you get that?" Maya said pointing to Gaige's cybernetic arm.

"Oh this?" Gaige said holding out her arm and looking at it. She scoffed at said "It's a really long story. Like, REALLY long" She said holding out her arms and extending them to build up a picture how long the story was.

"Well," Axton said "Welcome to the Crimson Raiders." He then extended out his arm, which Gaige grabbed and shook it.

"Uhhh.. Thanks" She said bashfully

"We better show you around," Maya said leading her upstairs.

Gaige was greeted by Salvador, Zer0 with open Handshakes and bows of honour.

"Nice to have more people," Mordecai said walking up to Gaige "Names Mordecai,"

"Gaige.." She said holding out her cybernetic hand for him to shake, which he did. He stared at the arm before telling her,

"Wow, now that is cool." he said pointing to the prosthetic.

"Well, thanks..." Gaige said bringing her arm back.

"Names Brick, or known by most people as the 'Slab King'," Brick said walking up to Gaige.

Initially, Gaige was utterly terrified of Brick (which was normal). She stared at his Giant stature with widened eyes and a slightly open mouth, which cause Brick to chuckle and say to her,

"No need to worry, little girl, I ain't gonna hurt ya." Waving his hand.

"Oh...Good," Gaige said sighing in relief.

"So what brings a person like you to Pandora eh?" Salvador asked

"Oh..Well...Uh I kinda got in a little accident on my home planet." Gaige said trailing off

"Like what?" Axton asked cocking an eyebrow.

"Well, I entered in an anti-bullying apparatus that would immediately deal with kids who picked on minorities," She explained "Then my bitch-of-a-classmate Marcie decided to rip-off my invention and enter the science fair." She clenched her fists when she said 'Marcie'

"And waddya know? She wins. Because shes just a spoiled, rotten, no good, two timing, heartless bitch!" Gaige said getting angrier

"Whoa whoa!" Mordecai said holding his hands out "Cool your jets there hotshot, were all friends here."

Gaige took a deep breath and went on.

"I ended up only getting 3rd place in the science fair, 3rd! And guess what? Marcie decides to rub it in my face and push me around. My science fair project detected it as 'bullying' so it acted. It grabbed her throat, placed tannerite in her system with a charge and activated it and she, well, blew up..." She finalized

"Damn!" Brick said laughing "I like this girl already!"

"So I got sent into the principal's office where he tells me I'm expelled for a year and that I could be arrested for second-degree murder!" She said

"So my Dad buys me ticket to a place where they wouldn't find me...here." Gaige said finishing off her story before taking another breath.

"Well," Axton said standing up "Sounds like you had a helluva ride! You wouldn't happen to have this, 'project' would you?"

Gaige scoffed and said to Axton "Of course I do!"

Gaige the pressed a button on her arm which digi structed a floating robot that could be described in one word as 'Death'. It was painted black and had a blade as an arm. How this thing didn't win 1st prize is beyond Axton.

"I call it 'D34TH TR4P'." Gaige said boasting about her built robot.

"Wow." Axton said admiring the construction "You are just full of surprises aren't you?"

Gaige laughed and said to Axton "Yeah, I guess so."

"Well I guess I'll show ya where you'll be staying," Maya explained.

Maya led Gaige to the downstairs and showed her a bed that was next to all of the washing machines that Tannis kept for no explanatory reason whatsoever.

"Well," Maya said letting out a sigh "Welcome home, don't worry, Pandora'll grow to you, in time." She then walked away to let Gaige settle herself in. She layed on her new bed and pulled out a PDA and began typing in the journal section.

Hey Journal,

Sorry it's been awhile I've just been busy running away from the cops and what not.

So I've finally made it to Pandora, this place smells like Hemorrhoids wrapped in bacon...

The Crimson Raiders were hospitable enough to let me stay with them, they're pretty nice people overall. There's this girl named Maya, with awesome tattoos on her left shoulder, I can TOTALLY tell we'll be like BFF's or something. Theres this ninja dude who calls himself 'Zer0'. Move over Luke, there's a new badass in town! There's a little guy named Salvador, who looked really funny, but I didn't want to say anything, after all, they are nice enough to let me stay with them, and plus he looked strong, God's way for compensating I guess. Then there's Mordecai, ughh, I could smell the booze on him from a mile away. Drinking his sorrows away? IDK. There's this guy named Brick, Jesus, he's scary. It's like he got in a wrestling match with fourteen bears and the bears lost! But he seems nice to his friends so that's cool. Then there's Axton, he's SUPER dreamy, but I think he's been taken already... Oh well, there's bound to be more fish in the sea or something. Well I've been on Pandora for 7 hours now, and I can tell you, this place ain't so bad.

-Gaige

O Hai guise!

Sheesh, never think my story would attract some 'relative' attention! Release the confetti! Anyway, please review these chapters and let me know what you guys think! It's you guys who motivated me to so this!. Without you guys, I would'nt be able to the strength to press on, this would just become another shelved thing I would never get back to any time soon! Spread the word and please review!

Thanks!

-LT