#I fell like danse and deacon could totally be friends

[gobald]

Danse for fucks sake, calm your tits or we won't go get ice cream

[boarix]

The Living End

Wraith in the Ruins: A Fallout 4 Story Part XXIV

Trigger warnings: canon harsh language, gun use and violence

Thank you so much for reading. Please enjoy!

…..

“Just breathe, soldier. We are standing by to pull you up if you need us to.”

“I’m the world’s heaviest piñata is what I am! I’M NOT DOING OKAY and I’m not a soldier, Danse. GHAAAA WHAT THE FUCK?! No, no, it’s not a fucking mirelurk. No, it’s just my own, stupid arm. Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ!”

“How’s the pressure feel? Your eyeballs staying in place?”

“My what?! Why would my EYEBALLS NOT STAY WHERE THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO, STURGES?! WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WILL HAPPEN TO THEM?! HELLO?! Seriously, can you hear me? This is a bad turn of events.” The pressure indicator on his HUD was only in the yellow, but with silence being the only response from his support team, his panic grew. “How am I supposed to tell you if the pressure is NOT CORRECT IF YOU CAN’T HEAR ME?! I can’t die yet! I never got to see the sunrise from the top of Mount Everest and I’ve never eaten applesauce. HELLO, STURGES?! DANSE?! I’d even settle for HANCOCK!”

There was a sudden upwelling of air bubbles, followed by a deep, reverberating sound that Deacon could only describe as a groan. He flailed ineffectually as the needle of the pressure gauge bounced from yellow to red and the compass – which Danse had insisted they install in the HUD, despite Hancock calling it stupid – spun crazily. In alarm, he sucked in air and held his breath as the headlamp flickered; casting terrible shadow figures to the rough-hewn walls. A moment later it was blasted from him as he came to a crashing halt. Unable to keep his feet, he fell over face first at the bottom of the well. His helmet glanced off a rock, breaking his lamp and sending him into total darkness.

“MY GODDAMN LIGHT WENT OUT! GHAAAAAhurk.” Choking on his own spit, he coughed violently. Mentally exhausted from terror, he lay face down and unmoving with his eyes screwed tightly shut. After a moment he cautiously opened one and glanced around. Encouraged by the fact that it remained in its socket, he opened the other and made an attempt to righten himself. Just as he gained his feet, the floor shook with another groaning quake. “It’s almost as if someone doesn’t want me here…”

Blinking in the gloom, his eyes adjusted enough for him to notice a faint green glow coming from the ground a few feet from where he was standing. “Like a moth to a flame…”

Starved for any light, no matter how faint, he moved forward with purpose only to be violently jerked backward as his friends on the surface tried to haul him to safety.  Grasping the lifeline firmly, he dug in his heals and pulled backward against them until the tension slackened. Then he pulled three more times to tell them that he was at the bottom and on mission.

Turning back toward the light, he wasn’t surprised when he saw its source, “Wraith said something about a glowing mushroom… wha…” Deacon cut himself off as he felt a strange, percussive sensation that seemed to be coming from the fungus. It passed back and forth through his chest almost as if he was trapped in the heartbeat of an enormous creature. Forcing himself forward, he could see a small lockbox lying next to the green-glowing fungus, “That’s gotta be it.”

As soon as his gauntlet touched the box a flash of covetous emotion coursed through him, “Mine. This is mine.” But oddly, even though the words came from his lips, he knew that rather than him claiming ownership over the contents, the contents were claiming ownership over him.

“No.” It felt important to say it out loud, “I don’t belong to you.”

“Yeeeesssss. We belong, all of us, together.”

“Nope. I’m not ready to go steady with… all… how many of you are there?” He crouched and scooped up the mushroom, “No back seat bingo for you.”

“You are ours.”

He felt a stab of shame at how alluring the artifact was, “I’m Wraith’s, if anybody’s.” As soon as he said her name he felt the artifact’s distress. An audible hiss issued from the box and a newfound confidence filled Deacon’s mind, “Oh, what’s that? Don’t much care for the boss, huh? Ain’t that a bite?” He clipped the now-silent lockbox onto the power armor and wedged the mushroom onto the small shelf-like space of the gorget.  

Following the lifeline back to where it ascended he reached forward to send the signal for extraction up to his friends. Before he could close his hands, the armored rope was ripped away from him, and the floor pitched and twisted almost as if the world had warped askew. Struggling mightily, he finally was able to grab the line and pull it twice. Almost immediately there was a rush of bubbles and a deep, guttural roaring sound that added to the chaos and made him feel like the whole world was coming apart.

“GAAAAH! PULL ME UP! PULL ME UP!” The roar was deafening and now he could imagine that he saw a huge humanoid shape reaching for him from out of the inky darkness. “HANCOCK!” There was no relief from the terror when he finally felt the pull from above, now that he was racing the outstretched hand up the shaft of the well. “FASTER, PLEASE!”

Screaming incoherently and struggling with an invisible opponent, it took all three of his companions to pull him out of the well and dump him unceremoniously onto the ground. Even though he was free, he still kicked his feet and wouldn’t stop yelling until Hancock punched him, none to gently, on the side of his helmet.

“Stop it, you spaz!” The ghoul helped Deacon remove his helmet and searched his face with his eyes, “What’s the problem? You get the thing, or what?”

Deacon gapped like a fish out of water for a few seconds, “Oh, I’ll say.” Rolling over, he staggered to his feet, grabbed the lockbox off his clip and threw it to Danse, “Be careful; that thing bites.” He noticed that his mushroom was gone and stomped back over to the well to look for it. It floated, unharmed at the surface just out of reach. “Hancock, gimme your gun for a second.”

“Oookaay…”

Using the barrel of the shotgun, Deacon poked the fungus over to him and snatched it out of the water. As he pulled away an image of a large, angry, bearded face glared at him from the surface of the well. After gently returning the mushroom to its place of honor, he unloaded a full drum of buckshot into the murky depths. Hancock laughed but Danse and Sturges both flinched and glanced around in alarm.

“Just what the hell are you doing, soldier?!” Danse rushed forward as if he was going to try and stop the other man, “That’s a gratuitous waste of ammunition!”

Deacon calmly returned the gun to Hancock, but grabbed Danse roughly and pulled him so that their faces were almost touching, “Piñata. Not. Soldier.” Pushing him away he searched around until he found an empty can to plant his mushroom in. “Surprised you boys aren’t a little trigger happy too, considering all that’s been going on here.”

After exchanging worried glances with the other two men, Sturges came and lay a gentle hand on Deacon’s shoulder, “You alright, man?”

“No, I’m definitely not alright with yelling earthquakes and giant, underwater monster people.”

“Giant…”

“Yelling…”

Hancock laughed again, “Heh, it’s a wonder your teeth are still white; all the shit that comes outta yer mouth. Was all quiet and boring up here, brother. Sounds to me like you got cross-roughed by the artifact and the resident ghosts, ya feel me?”

“What’s with the mushroom?”

“It’s a souvenir, Sturges. Don’t want to forget my special time here at Death Mine. Can we go home now, please?”

…..

“No offence, Mayor, but between the two of us, who’s the engineer?”

The ghoul held up his hands in surrender, “Alright, brother. I meant no disrespect.”

Sturges sighed and washed his face with his hands, “No, I’m sorry. It’s this stupid thing; it keeps telling me I need to swallow it and rule the world, or something.”

“But, first it wants to be united with its other portions…”

“And stomp Wraith into oblivion.”

“Am I the only one it hasn’t tried to flirt with? I’d be lyin’ if I said I’m not a little bit envious.”

“Trust me, Hancock. Its words are poison.”

It had been a couple of weeks since the trip to Dunwich, and a meeting had been called for the Minutemen and their allies. There was a mix of alarm and relief when Wraith told them they would have time to plan while Radiance gathered a new army. Broadcasted on a secure frequency via Radio Freedom, all settlements of the Commonwealth, both great and small, were represented.

Sturges had made many attempts to attach the artifact pieces to the beautiful circlet he had made, only to find them detached and back in the lockbox the following day.

“I don’t know if I’m doing it, or what.”

“Perhaps it is subconsciously? You do not wish Madame to fight?”

Sturges tapped his temple, “How should I know? I’m an engineer, not a doctor.”

Preston’s voice sounded tired over the radio as he gave his report, “… and we have an additional ten Dragoons, fully trained, and almost as many new medics, but… we won’t have all the armor necessary to equip them for the front. Also, there is the problem with the food caravans; we still don’t have enough ballistic weave for the brahmin.”

“Not to sink an already low morale, but how could we even begin to fight her?” Jack Cabot was holding the gun he had made for Wraith, “She is surely amassing a great host out there in the Glowing Sea. We would be lost by numbers alone.”

“Careful, Cabot, yer cowardice is showing.”

Jack matched Hancock’s glare with one of his own, “I assure you, Mayor, I am no coward. I speak openly of practical concern.”

“Begging your pardon, Master Cabot, but I don’t believe it’s as simple as all that.” Codsworth had traveled to Diamond City, at the behest of Shawn and had decided he wanted to be part of the Grand Council along with Piper, “Radiance as you call her, although I’d be more apt to call her something less flattery… The Loony Lurgy is more like… is actually quite alone.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call being surrounded by every glowing Tom, Dick and Harry from the Wasteland alone.”

“I assure you, detective Valentine, one can be surrounded by… er… people, and yet still be alone. She has no true subordinates. There is no one she trusts to delegate tasks to.” As he spoke, Codsworth’s momentum grew and his pleasant voice rang out over the radio and held the Commonwealth’s listeners in rapt attention. “Radiance has no sounding board, or indeed a board of committee. As much as an army may be bogged down by bureaucracy, so too will it loose functionality to chaos. There is no organization and she has no officers, nor indeed would she suffer anyone’s opinion in contrast with her own. She has many moving parts to her force of arms, but she will have to turn all the gears individually herself. And once more, she is an invading army with shallow motive. We, however, will be defending our homes and families; be they found or of one’s own blood! She has no great machine turning on well-oiled pistons! She is alone.”

There was a momentary silence followed by an excited overlapping of voices as the council, hope renewed, set their crisis management plan. It was agreed that Radiance would most likely push forward with an all-out frontal assault. She would have over confidence in numbers and little care for her individual soldiers. A Fodder War as Hancock called it.

“If she has any presence of mind she’ll be singing like a siren to the ghouls, feral or not, from as far away as she can reach. She’ll try to flank us with our own citizenry. We need a shield for them, you feel me?”

“I keep telling you how much I’d like to. Ha-ha haaa.” Infamy leered at Hancock, “Leave the shielding to me and the Harbinger. By Atom I will see that fungus-ridden demon reduced to ash, and send her to stand and be judged before Him.”

“Who’s what now?”

“I told you, you can only be up here if you’re quiet!” MacCready pushed the glowing one out of the room toward the basement stairs while calling over his shoulder to the radio, “Don’t worry about it, Piper. They are literally nobody worth mentioning.”

Atom’s Assassin was pouty as they walked to Wraith’s cage, “Only trying to help. It’s almost like no one wants me here. Ha ha.”

“Has Sturges figured out the headband situation yet?” Wraith had been pacing, but stopped to lean against bars of her cage.

“The ‘situation’ is it’s apparently terrified or disgusted by you. It wants no part of your machinations.”

Wraith sighed and looked up at the ceiling, “Did I hear Codsworth?”

Infamy shrugged and waved a dismissive hand, “I don’t know who that is. Why don’t they just give the pieces to Hancock and have him glue them to your tiara? Those twisted bits seem to have no care for him.”

“That’s… odd.”

“For that matter, they don’t sing to me either.”

Wraith pressed her forehead onto the bars and closed her eyes for a moment. “I can’t figure out if that will be helpful or not. I’m hoping to put it on then have you and me wrestle it to submission.”

“Oooo a ménage à trois.”

“Ugh, why are you...” She gestured vaguely.

“So incredible at inter-personal interactions?”  They clapped their fist into their palm, “I know! You were going to ask ‘why are you a rocket scientist of wordsmith?’”

“You promised me that when this is over that you’ll go back to the Capital Wasteland, right? You promised?!”

After the meeting adjourned for the evening, Hancock and MacCready came down the stairs to give Wraith an update. Hancock was especially impressed with Codsworth’s speech and made a great show of reenacting it for her. MacCready outlined suggested battle formations and the two got into a deep discussion of tactics.

After a few minutes Hancock looked around into the darker corners of the basement, “Where is the sneaker gone to?”

“You mean Deacon? He hasn’t been down here. I haven’t seen him for a few days. Wasn’t he up in the radio room for the meeting?”

MacCready frowned at Hancock, “Who cares where he is?”

“Ouch, Hatty MacCheekbones! So mean. So cruel.” Deacon loudly clunked down the stairs, “And just when I thought that we were all finally bonding; living together in domestic bliss.”

MacCready turned his frown to him, “You won’t even do laundry.”

“You know? I was surprised, given your normally crusty appearance, how well you tend house.”

“Crusty?!”

“After all this time I thought I would finally achieve my lifelong dream of changing my underwear daily.”

“CRUSTY?!”

“Don’t get used to it, brother. Can’t hardly stand sharing a roof with ya.”

“Ouch again! Now, c’mon, Hancock, don’t be like that. You know I’ve grown on you a little.”

Wraith smiled at their banter, “Like one of those mushrooms… a bog beacon… Bog Deacon!”

Hancock put up his hands placatingly, “Now, don’t misunderstand; I can’t stand to share space with such an oxygen waste…”

MacCready grinned at him, “Heh, that rhymed.”

Wraith frowned, “Do ‘space’ and ‘waste’ rhyme?”

“… but I’d be mournful if anything happens to you. I’d be vengeful and dare I say, hurt?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they rhyme if you say ‘em fast.” MacCready turned back to Hancock, “Yeah, you’d be mad it wasn’t you that gutted him.”

Hancock lost his train of thought, turning to smile at his lovers as they amused themselves by loudly chanting “space waste” over and over.

Deacon, smiling as well, waved his hands above his head in mock distress, “Oh, no, my dream!”

“Seriously though; it was an important, tactical meeting. Where were ya?”

Deacon winked at the ghoul, “Sneakin’.” When Hancock’s grin turned to a glower the spy put his hands up placatingly, “I’ve been down to the edge of the Sea, well, as close as I can to the edge, to see if I can get eyes on the Crater. There is activity, but, are we absolutely sure that’s where the attack will come from?”

“I feel the greatest volume of light from there. And I know that Isolde’s group has fallen.” The glowing one almost sounded regretful.

“I still have no idea what that sh… crap means.”

“It means the Crater of Atom is about to spew forth an attack force like a volcano vomiting green-glowing monsters and will cover the land of the Commonwealth in a blanket of radioactive ash.”

“Oh.”

“Now that that’s settled,” Wraith waved them to her, “bring on the artifact bits. We’ll head on down to Somerville and meet her head on. Let’s fire this shit up!”

“Sorry, sunshine, but I think we need to wait for that.” Now it was Hancock’s turn to put his hands up, “If we glue ‘em to ya now, Radiance will make a bee-line for ya, and we aren’t ready yet.”

“Every moment we spend building our strength lends her time to do the same.”

…..

Wraith was more right then she knew. Radiance had subjugated Isolde and was using her to push the Children to gather arms and armor so that her horde was less a mob of berserkers, and more like an army of soldiers. Knowing full well that the Commonwealth’s defense force was going to primarily be human, gamma guns would be extremely effective.

Radiance hated how much mental ground Wraith had gained, but it was unavoidable, due to how thin her own powers were spread. She was keeping an enormous volume of minds bent to her whim, and so it was only natural her grip had lessoned, but she was only holding on by her fingertips at this point.

Even as Radiance whispered to her army, the artifact fragment embedded in her skull whispered encouragement and confidence to her and it never even occurred to her that Wraith would use the artifact against her.

Just as it never occurred to the Commonwealth’s defenders that Radiance would attack them from someplace other than the Crater of Atom.

…..

“You’re gonna be short on time once I crown you, sunshine.”

With the main force – consisting of the Dragoons and Spear Hounds – in position along the hills, cliffs and swamp west and south of Somerville, and all support troops arranged on dry land north of the swamp along the river, hidden to the best of their abilities, the Commonwealth Defense Force stood, ready for battle. The only thing missing was their beloved hero, and operational spearpoint, Wraith.

The anticipation of the citizenry had caused the general rumor mill to generate some truly spectacular versions of Wraith’s return to the public eye. Not the least of which included a scenario where she had somehow been mutated by the powers of the Children of Atom to be a feral ghoul with the ability to shoot lasers from her eyes.

“The faster she and I get together, the sooner this is done.” Wraith’s mouth was set in a determined line and she held her head high.

“I’m digging the confidence.” Hancock gave her a huge smile, but it crashed into a frown when he turned his head to the glowing one sitting cross-legged at his feet, “You gonna be useful today, or what?”

“You wound me daily, commander… or is it captain? Or is it ‘Ghoul Of No Rank Worth Mentioning’? Ha! Hahahahaa!”

“Oh, shut yer glow-hole.” He looked over to Deacon, “No disappearing today, you feel me?”

“Oh, I’ll be around; even if you can’t see me.”

Shaking his head in irritation he turned back to Wraith. He stared deep in her eyes as he lowered the circlet that Sturges had fashioned to her freshly-buzzed head, “I love you, sunshine.”

“I love you too, Hancock. And you, MacCready.” She tried to meet Deacon’s eye, but he was staring at a spot on the ceiling.

As soon as the metal strip touched her, she felt her mind pulled and twisted in every direction at once. Closing her eyes, she moved to her mental dungeon. It was vastly changed. Rather than the normal pale green sky over a sea of white nothingness, there was a torrent of colors in turmoil, and the noise was terrific: like every voice and meaningless sound from every memory she’d ever had banging around in her ears.

But not just from her memory.

There were things so bizarre and alien that they had to be just that: extraterrestrial. There were machines and creatures beyond description all bidding access to her mind, and body.

Infamy watched, fascinated, as Wraith seized and babbled like a greatly sped up holotape. They snapped to though, because as interesting as it was to watch a smooth skin, non-believer have a meltdown, The Mother of Fog clearly had named her a favorite and therefore Wraith had to succeed at her Appointed Holy Task…

They viciously slapped Wraith across the face, “Pull it together, you nut-bag!”

“HOW DARE YOU STRIKE US?!” Wraith’s image grew faint when struck, then burned bright as a glowing one in the middle of a radioactive pulse as she shrieked at the ghoul.

“Oh, I dare!” Despite their bravado, they quickly stepped backward out of reach, “Come now, Wraith. I know your scary self is still in there. If you can’t fight off these tiny, weak fragments, what hope have you to fight of that feral-stealing bitch and her big fragment?”

“Weak?” Wraith flickered like a florescent light on the verge of burning out as she rose into the air, “We shall show you how weak we are.” Pulling herself into a fetal position, she began to glow steadily brighter and the air around her shimmered with growing heat. Then, with a roar like an inferno she cast out her limbs and sent a shockwave of kinetic energy at the ghoul.

Infamy was ready. They too had gathered themselves for a pulse, and when the two opposing forces came together there was a massive explosion that sent Infamy out from Wraith’s mind.

Barely conscious, Infamy’s speech was slurred as they lay on the basement floor, “Wraith, you fucking bitch! Fight! Be the brightest light! Don’t lose yourself to them. You are the Lighthouse! Find your LIGHT!”

“This one is yours…”

That’s Deacon’s voice…

“Pippa…”

In a snap the kaleidoscope of memory stopped and only two remained: a dream from the past and, more recently, when Deacon had returned from Dunwich. In both he offered her a glowing mushroom.

“This one is yours…”

Wraith opened her eyes and blinked rapidly. Slowly she reached toward her temples as if she was going to grasp the artifact.

MacCready trained the syringer rifle at Wraith’s torso, “Boss? Are you…”

“I’m fine, Mac. Better than fine,” She lowered her hands and smiled, “I’m… me. Unlock the cage.”

Hancock didn’t even hesitate.

…..

Radiance felt the moment Wraith opened her mind to the fragments of the alien artifact. She saw the clash of power between she and Infamy. She exalted at Wraith’s strength as she cast the ghoul out of her mind. Like the song of sirens she heard the fragments call to the greater piece in her own crown, and a surge of triumph coursed through her. Her elation turned sour, however, when a second later all input was cut off and a wall went up in Wraith’s mind.

It doesn’t matter, love. We know everything we want is in one place. We know where that place is, and any barrier you’ve built will be no match for us.

…..

The moment Wraith was set free a public call went out over Radio Freedom that the “retired” General was back to support General Garvey, and that all should remain calm and hunker down in the “safe” Minutemen settlements awaiting the all clear which should be “very soon, we are all sure”.

As Wraith’s group made their way to Somerville, Infamy pestered her about her refusal to call ferals, “…trained by The Sun of Atom!”

“Whose death was a direct result of my failure to deal properly with Marie and The Children of Atom.”

They scoffed, “His death is nothing; he is with Atom and is infinitely better off…”

She spun on them, “His death was not nothing. He was a sweet, kindhearted ghoul who deserved better.”

“You knew him for a heartbeat. That is to say, not at all.” Their mouth angled in a hideous smile, “He was a Necromancer. He murdered smooth skin non-believers, just as the rest of us did. How? With feral ghouls that he called, and herded. Just as he trained you to do.”

Cait spotted the group almost before Lloyd did in the settlement watchtower and all but leaped off of Gracie to throw herself into Wraith’s arms, “Ya daft, shirty seanbhean! Took you long ‘nough!”

Wraith could see the tears in her eyes and didn’t take the ribbing to heart. She held the other woman gently before carefully pressing their foreheads together, “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“Well, you’re here now. So, let’s get to this fight!”

After meeting with Danse – which involved another teary eyed reunion  ̶  and the rest of the officers, communication equipment was distributed and the teams split into their various positions. Wraith, wearing new armor courtesy of Bear, and wielding Kremvh’s Tooth and a newly modded western revolver, climbed the rocky ridges surrounding the settlement to pick a spot favorable to her fighting style. Strong, strangely enough, disappeared into the swamp muttering something about “friend” and she hadn’t felt Deacon’s presence in hours. On the other hand, Hancock and MacCready were practically glued to her hips.

“You boys are going to actually let me fight, right?”

“Heh, we’ll see, sunshine.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome to any that can get past us.”

“Well, we shouldn’t have to wait long.”

Wraith couldn’t have been more wrong. The minutes ticked by and not a single feral appeared. The weather held in spite of the low ceiling of slate-gray clouds and so all was quiet apart from the various cow noises coming from the supply teams’ brahmin.

“Hey, Capt’n Danse?”

“Yes, Gen… er… uh. Forgive me ma’am; I’m not sure what your current rank is. I know you haven’t been reinstated…”

She shook her head even though he couldn’t see her, “No. The General offered, but I told him I’d rather kick rocks. I’ve been busted down to captain. Mostly cause I didn’t want any of it, but that sounds official without… Anyway, I don’t like where the pack brahmin are. If we need to cut north for any reason, we’re going to have to run right through our supply. That’s bad.”

“I agree, however space for optimal positioning is sparse. We can’t move them into the swamp or the river, and the settlement’s buildings block maneuverability.”  

“Yeah… do we need that many?”

He chuckled, “Yes, ma’am. It takes a lot of food and fresh water to feed an army. Even one of our size.”

“Well, that’s definitely something she has on us…” Wraith waved Hancock and MacCready to her, “I feel stood up.”

MacCready nodded, “And here I thought we would be too late.” He tapped his temple, “Maybe she didn’t hear you… or feel… whatever.”

“Can you tell where she’s at, sister?”

Wraith blinked at Hancock, “What do you mean?”

“What do you mean by what do I mean?”

She raised her hands up to either side of her head, “Shields up, captain! I’ve completely kicked her out. I’m a novice with this whole telepathy mind-control thing. I’m not sure what my limitations are, and I don’t want to accidently invite her back in. I’m enjoying being an empty nester!”

“Well… shoot.”

Hancock whipped about, “Where th’ hell that damn glow bug go? Infamy!”

They popped up out of the rocks like a gopher, “You rang?”

“Don’t get cute with me; status report.”

“Hmm, S.N.A.F.U.?”

“I swear I’m going to ring you out and wear your hide…”

They waved their finger back and forth, “Tsk, tsk. No need to be so grouchy. The lights are all still in the holy crater. Not a soul has moved.”

“Something…”

“Is…”

“Wrong…”

“…WRONG! YOU’RE IN THE WRONG SPOT!” As if the three of them were chanting a spell of summoning, Deacon phased into visibility as he scrambled recklessly down to them from the northwest, “SHE’S GONE NORTH FROM THE SUPPLY CACHE…” his chest heaved as he fought for air, “LAKE  COCH… CROCHET… how the fuck… COCHITUATE!”

“Captain Wraith, who is that shouting?”

Wraith’s mind spun and she fumbled with her receiver, “She’s tricked us, Danse. We need to change positions, right now.”

The mad rush northwest was terrifying for Wraith as she imagined all the horrors that Radiance’s army could inflict on her friends and settlers of the Commonwealth. Valentine and Piper were in Diamond City as part of the Minutemen reserves in place at all the major settlements, and most of the smaller ones had been evacuated, but those facts did little to quiet her anxious mind.

Not even ten minutes into the quick march, Infamy’s very vocal self-admonishment surprised them, “How?! How could she have tricked me? ME! I saw them! Felt them!”

“We didn’t plan this whole operation around your ability, Infamy.” Wraith wasn’t sure why she felt the need to make the glowing one feel better, “We had reconnaissance. Minutemen saw a huge herd at the Crater of Atom.”

They reached out and grabbed Wraith’s arm, “Stop! They are there… they are moving now!”

“She’s… oh fuck.”

…..

On an armored palanquin made from the chassis of a Highwayman, hoisted aloft by eight reavers, looking every inch a queen, rode Radiance. She lacked the lips for it, but her self-congratulatory smirk would have been unmistakable were there anyone around her with enough self-awareness to see it.

She had defeated the Minutemen. She was sure of it. With the ferals coming from the Crater and her horde of mixed masked Children of Atom and ferals falling on them from the north, there could be no other outcome.

They will never survive fighting on two fronts. Not with their meager metal.  

She chuckled to herself at the pun; a gross, gurgle-cough sound.

Once Wraith’s moral was broken by the utter loss of the Commonwealth’s defenses, her shield would surly crack and Radiance will have everything she wanted.

You, Hancock, my crown and all the power it will provide… everything.  

…..

Wraith couldn’t convince MacCready to join Lloyd in the tower, “You will be the most help…”

“NO!” Weaving throughout the chaos, he was using his sidearm and bayonet far more than his rifle, “I’m NOT LEAVING YOU, WRAITH!”

Hancock shrugged at her after dispatching his 14 feral, “Don’t look at me, sunshine. Though…,” He paused as number 15 attempted to brain him with wicked right hook. Using his opponent’s over-enthusiastic follow-through, he pushed them off the ridge with minimal effort, “… damn, I hate the way they just fling themselves at ya! As I was saying, we are expecting a whole other party – of unknowable size, mind you – from the north. It sure would be swell if we had two of the best snipers in the wasteland up there diminishin’ their numbers, you feel me?”

Looking as tortured as he’d ever been, his voice wavered on the edge of a sob, “If I leave you two and you die, what then?”

“I gave you all th’ kids in my Will. Though, Fahrenheit will probably object to calling you ‘pa’.”

The sniper sputtered helplessly before pulling the other two to him in a tight hug. In a merciful lull in the fighting, he touched their three foreheads together, “We are going to live. This won’t be the end for us.”

Wraith held Hancock’s hand as they watched MacCready scramble to the watchtower, “The living end…”

…..

“Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…” The sight of Radiance’s army and their equipment baffled Danse.

Radiance was also confused as she had not expected to see the Dragoons that far north. She knew that halting her horde’s momentum to adjust tactics could be catastrophic to her, so she allowed the two armies to join at full force.

Like two weather fronts colliding, the resulting storm was violence incarnate. The sound from the impact was terrific with the screams of the ferals mingling with the war cries of their opponents, and the nails-on-chalkboard shriek of protest from the metal suits as their hook-like hands scrabbled at the armor.

A great spray of ichor-like blood flashed through the air as the Minutemen ground down the front line. It seemed that it might be over as soon as it began, but there are only so many rounds of ammo an individual soldier can carry, and there seemed to be no end to Radiance’s horde.

“CONSERVE YOUR SHOTS!” Danse knew the supply chain had been left almost an hour behind them, “HAND-TO-HAND!”

Even with such a sound tactic, there is a limit to human and non-feral ghoul endurance. Much as there is a limit to the power of a fusion core. If Danse’s team could have remained in a firing line that slowly advanced, they would have gotten more from their cores. As it was they were doing a lot of jumping, sprinting and shaking. The last was to prevent being bogged down by bloated and chard ferals, of which Radiance seemed to have an inexhaustible supply.

Danse whispered to himself as he fought, “This is not sustainable. We need to fall back or we will perish. How, damn it?! With no one to cover our flank...” His sigh was deep, “A few will have to remain… I will…”

…..

…..

“These things she thinks she wants, they aren’t from her own heart or mind.”

Days ago, on the night of the meeting, Jack Cabot sat on the floor next to Wraith’s cage. Up until that moment he had been quietly watching her pace while he continued to spin the gun he had made for her, over and over in his hands, “I saw it with my father and now I see it in my sister. It’s entirely my fault.”

“Yours wasn’t the original sin, Jack.” Edward Deegan came down the stairs holding an AMR.

Jack steeled his nerves, “None the less, I am prepared to aid in the rectification of my family’s wrongdoing!”

Wraith glanced between the two of them, “I don’t know, boys, Infamy’s promise of shielding the non-ferals is a little watery to me. And I know you’re capable with a gun, Jack, but…” she waved Jack to silence, “I don’t want you seeking martyrdom as a means of justice. I share in blame for this as well.”

“Maybe there’s still a chance to reach her.”

“I don’t think there’s much of Emogene left.”

Deegan was grim, “If you can’t reach your sister, Jack, you can bet my rifle will reach Radiance.”

…..

…..

“Captain Danse, are you ordering us to abandon you!?” The armored soldier was incredulous.

Danse could barely hear her over the din of battle, “THAT’S LIS, RIGHT?”

“YES, SIR! LIEUTENANT ZOSIA LIS.” She moved closer, “Sir, I advise a different course of action; the number it would take to efficiently protect a retreating…”

“FAUGH A BALLAGH!”

A familiar voice rang true through a bullhorn, strapped to a saddle of a super mutant hound. Astride their enormous, green mounts, 20 Spear Hounds, in wedge formation cut a bloody swath through the feral army.

Rotating away from the tip of the spearhead, Cait rode straight for Danse yelling at him the whole way, “OI, YE DAFT CUNT! RETREAT ALREADY!”

He winced, trying to remind himself that her sharp tongue was indiscriminant amongst all their friends, even Wraith. “GOOD TIMING; THANK YOU HOUNDS!”

She rode a circuit around him to see if there was evidence that he might be hurt, “Ye alright then? Good.” She made a face, “Are these ferals really wearin’…”

“Yes; I found that odd myself.”

She shook her head. As she rode away her voice floated back to him.

“Now, I’ve seen everything.”

…..

Deacon had been briefly in the tower, but found it crowded with Lloyd, Deegan, Jack and MacCready. Trying to find a way to be helpful, he had been hauling ammo up to them on a pulley until MacCready had yelled at him.

“Aren’t you a good shot? Get the heck up here and shoot something! Somebody else can do that!”

Just before he left them he gripped MacCready on the shoulder, “I’m going to bodyguard Wraith for a bit; there’re too many elbows up here for my poor, old kidneys. Don’t die, she’ll be sad.”

“Take them ammo. And… same to you. Be… be safe out there.”

“Should we kiss… or…”

“WOULD YOU JUMP OFF?!”

“Nope.”

He found Wraith yelling back and forth with Infamy as the two fought and converted ferals respectively. Hancock thanked him for the shells and Deacon covered him while he reloaded. Popping his chin at the other two, the spy wondered aloud what their current problem with each other was.

“Wraith won’t herd ‘em. Says Sunny would be sad… not sure who that was.”

It was only then that Deacon noticed that some of the ferals were fighting their brethren, courtesy of Atom’s Assassin, “That would be pretty helpful...”

He was interrupted by a particularly loud closing argument from the glowing one.

“YOU ARE A NECROMANCER! NECRO-MANCE!”

Hancock shook his head at them, “Yeah, I agree, brother, but she’s also afraid to open her mind. Can’t say I blame her. But, seeing as how Danse is bringing the rest of the merry makers, they’ll be here in ten, and we’re already losing ground, her hand might be forced.”

When Infamy saw the ferals coming down from the north their already large eyes bulged nearly from their sockets, “TINFOIL HATS!? HA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!”

Wraith couldn’t believe what she was seeing, “What the fuck is…”

“What is the shiny stuff on the enemies’ heads?”

“Mac, it’s…”

“I COULDN’T SEE THEM BECAUSE OF FOIL?!”

Yes indeed; Radiance’s great army to the north had been shielded from Infamy by the use of foil hats.

The fighting along the ridges was brutal. Danse had lost quite a few Dragoons in the retreat and all teams felt their absence. Pushed ever closer to the settlement wall, the Minutemen were rapidly losing all high ground save for the marksmen’s tower.

Even the Hounds were less effective due to losses. They stopped their penetrative wedge formations and instead kept to strafing runs along the edges.

On the opposing side, the Children of Atom and a few of the reavers were equipped with gamma guns, and were testing both the limits of Rad-X, RadAway, and the medics who were supplying them.

Infamy had accumulated quite a few ferals and was attempting to use them to pull off foil hats, as well as hold some of his people down so they couldn’t attack or get hurt, “Dying in Radiance’s service is not their path to Atom, I’m sure.”

“Wraith, I don’t see Radiance. Does anyone have eyes on the opposing commander?” MacCready was hopeful that he could end the madness quickly with a well-aimed shot. The sun was rapidly declining and he knew a night battle would lean heavily in the opposing army’s favor. “We’re gonna lose our light soon.”

Wraith was fighting several bloated and a charred, so it took her time to respond. Her strength allowed her to chop through their legs in one stroke, but the numerous glowing ones in the area meant these hits weren’t fatal and there were a great many grotesque torsos dragging themselves around, snarling. In the span of dead air, MacCready called out to her from his walkie three more times; each with increasing panic. “MAC! I’m okay, but no. I don’t see her at all.”

A strange calm settled over her when she came to a decision, and when she made eye contact with Hancock the look on her face unnerved him enough that he quickly snapped the neck of the ghoul the spy had been fighting and all but dragged Deacon with him to her.

“I don’t think I like that look, sunshine. Don’t you be giving up on me. We haven’t lost yet! Tell her, Deacon.”

“Uhh, yeah. We still got… uhhh…” He waved vaguely behind him, “The wall.”

Wraith shook her head, denying their assumptions but any response from her was interrupted by a commotion from the tower. Her voice rose in octave when she radioed in, “What?! Who’s yelling? What’s happening?!”

“Wraith, you aren’t going to believe this…”

She snorted and pinwheeled her arms at the bedlam all around her, “Try me!”

“There’s a behemoth coming up from the swamp, and… Strong is riding on its shoulder.”

Wraith exchanged a series of rapid blinking with Hancock and Deacon, “You said… who what now?”

“ALPHA! STRONG BROUGHT FRIEND! STRONG BROUGHT OMEGA! ALPHA, COME SEE STRONG’S NEW BROTHER!”

Wraith’s trio made their way to the super mutants as quickly as their foes allowed. Deacon hung back a bit and for some reason Hancock was laughing.

“Heh, what’s the story here, brother?”

“No story, friend Hancock. We fight. Strong SMASH. Omega and Strong are brothers now.”

“Does Omega speak?”

A quizzical look passed over his brutish face, “Strong…” He turned to look up at the creature, who in turn, gazed back at Strong with a look that somehow combined undying loyalty and a complete lack of self-awareness, “OMEGA, SPEAK!”

“Does ‘Omega’ know his name is ‘Omega’?” Deacon kept edging further and further away from them.

Apparently, Omega did know their name, though the guttural sound the great mutant made was outside that of discernable speech, “GHAAAARRRGGGHH!”

“Good enough for me.” Wraith pointed at the ridge that the Minutemen had lost, “Strong, take him – carefully – up to the high ground and let him smash ferals away from the Hounds and Dragoons. Don’t smash ghouls like Hancock, okay?”

“Strong smash Infamy?” His tone was hopeful.

“No, Strong. But if you see Radiance, smash away!”

Strong’s new playmate was quickly turning the tide, and Cait and the Hounds recruited them to be the new spear point; their captain calling their battle cry over and over through her bullhorn. But, not everyone was pleased with the super mutants’ almost indiscriminant violence. Jack was yelling to Wraith to let him have a chance to talk his sister back to sanity, and Infamy was in a panic over the loss of Children of Atom.

They fell on their knees at her feet, “Please. Please, Harbinger. Chosen of the Mother of the Fog. Please reach out and save my people.”

“They’re fanatics, sure. But, Isolde and you… she isn’t your enemy by her choice, you feel me?”

“Infamy, have you seen the Crater’s elder?”

“No. I imagine Radiance has her on a short leash. If I could but find her…” They turned and puffed out their narrow chest, “If I can chip my way past that foul bitch’s barrier to save you I should be able to get past a retched piece of tinfoil!”

Deacon shrugged, “Maybe it’s aluminum foil.”

The look Infamy gave him could well have melted steel before turning back to Wraith, “I have never begged for anything… well I suppose that’s not strictly true. Ha!” They turned their luminous face away at the very human scream that marked the end of yet another of his brethren’s lives. When they turned back, all trace of their usual madness had left them, “Help me. Please.”

“Very well, but, let’s try to have a plan, okay?”

Hancock snorted, “Yeah, sunshine, cause those almost never go sideways…”

She smirked at him, “Cait, bring Omega to me, if you would.”

…..

The second she felt Wraith’s shield go down, Radiance launched a mental attack like an RPG. She could feel her agony as her attacks struck true, but after a brief moment of celebration she felt the white-hot knife of Wraith’s retaliation. A rage-ignited flame assaulted her from the artifact fragment, and for a moment she had to fight against the urge to kill her.

No. She will be mine again. I will have what I want. We will have what we want. Soon.

…..

Wraith had been driven to her knees by Radiance’s vicious assault, but had held on through the wave of pain to gather her own strength for a return volley. “Got her!” Afterward, there came a dizzying rush of painfully oppressive thoughts that pushed her flat to the ground. She could vaguely hear Hancock and Deacon calling her name, but it was Infamy who cut through the haze to shore up her resolve.

“Push ‘em back, push ‘em back, push ‘em waaaaaay back!”

Realizing that the attack came from her own pieces of the alien artifact, she brought forth images of her own to combat them. She bound them in chains made from the snapshots of happy memories she had made with her beloved companions in the Commonwealth over the course of her adventures. And although she could feel blood dripping down her face to run off her chin, she knew that she had bested them.

“That’s the power of mother-fucking positive thinking! Woooooo!”

Infamy’s look was inscrutable as they watched Hancock help her to her feet and wipe the blood from her eyes, “You… you bond to people quickly…” They had seen Sun of Atom in her memories and felt the feelings the image carried within them, and though they had come from someone else, they couldn’t be dismissed. Their voice was almost a whisper, “You are a very strange sort of human, Harbinger.”

“Alright,” Wraith clapped her hands together, “we are going to go up in the tower and start stealing glowing ones from her while you,” she pointed up to Omega, “You gently – does he know that word? – pick up the Children and put them in your basket.”

“Strong will help his brother.”

“That’s good, Strong. Don’t let them swarm you; I bet even he can be bogged down.” Wraith waved Cait back to her, “Help the mutants by herding the ferals away from them, please. Oh, can I borrow your bullhorn?”

“Like fuckin’ Border Collies now, are we?” Despite her rolling eyes she passed Wraith what she asked for and set about mustering her fellow riders with the enthusiastic high-pitched whistles that a sheep herder might make.

“Alright, Danse, put out the call for a full retreat; bring everyone inside the walls.”

Danse shook his head but smiled at her, “Not the General, huh? Old habits die hard.”      

Once in the tower, Wraith and Infamy sat cross-legged across from each other much the same way she and Sun had. The similarities of that training session over a year ago weren’t lost on her and she felt a wave of sadness wash over her.

“Though we are not The Sun of Atom, we will do our best to help you, Wraith. Our people must go to Atom on their own terms, and not by the whims of a mad creature.”

Over and over Wraith and Infamy sought the lights of the glowing feral ghouls and compelled them to motionlessness where they were dispatched by the Minutemen. Without the regenerative radioactive pulses the other ferals were easier to put down and the previously overwhelming horde began to diminish.

As for the Children of Atom, Omega took three trips to gather all that remained and MacCready put them all to sleep with the syringer. Isolde was still unaccounted for.

Radiance had no choice. She needed proximity to her foes to try and regain control and so compelling her personal guard to move, the palanquin came into view of the tower. To the horror of all that could see, Isolde was tied down, spread eagle and nude to the hood of the Highwayman. Burned and bloody it was unclear if she was alive.

Frantically both Wraith and her glowing one ally reached out to see if the light of the Children’s elder yet shone.

No you don’t.

Now that she was closer and controlling far less minds, Radiance’s mental intrusions on Wraith and Infamy were far more intense and she was merciless in her attacks. She easily blocked them and sent them wave after wave of pain.

Infamy had never felt such agony! Even the pain of becoming a glowing one had been dull in comparison. For that metamorphosis had been almost purely physical, whereas now it felt as if their entire being would be burned away. On the verge of breaking, their breath came in ragged gasps.

“I’ve got you.”

They felt a presence that was undeniably protective and positive wrap itself around their pain, and when they opened their eyes, Wraith’s left hand was on their forehead.

“I can help, but I don’t have the experience to fight her this way. I had to put the wall back up or she’d take me out.” Wraith touched MacCready’s leg with her other hand, “Shoot the reavers, Mac. Trap her in there.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

“Can you see in? Can you shoot her?”

“No, Wraith, the car’s windows are shielded. I’ll bet the whole thing is reinforced. Though I’ve no doubt the AMR could still make it through, we’d have to get lucky to hit and we run the risk of shooting her hostage.” Deegan had at last fully separated his feelings of Emogene from the creature hiding in the car.

“Send Omega up there to smash her.”

“I won’t abandon Isolde.”

“Let me try!” Desperation was clear in Jack Cabot’s voice, “Let me try to save my sister!”

“Okay, Jack.” Wraith’s tone was grim, “I told you that you could. So try.”

“Emogene! This is Jack…” His voice cracked and he cleared his throat before bringing the bullhorn back to his lips, “It’s your brother. It’s not too late…” He shot MacCready a dagger-filled look when the sniper snorted, “We can help you! It’s not your fault. We know it was the artifact. The things it promises you are lies. We saw it with our father. Imagine the joy on mother’s face when she sees you alive.” He took a deep breath and tried a new angle, “We’ll leave. We will leave the Commonwealth and travel west…”

When Deegan had previously shot her, the speech center of her brain had sustained irreparable damaged, however, Radiance was still able to make sure that her answer was perfectly clear. Every feral that remained under her control turned simultaneously and – if they still possessed the necessary equipment – gave Jack the One Finger Salute.

“Well, that answers that, right, Wraith? Wraith?” MacCready looked around surprised as both she and Infamy were no longer in the tower.

As soon as Jack had started to speak, Wraith had slung Infamy over her shoulder and left. She made quick progress to the ridge just below Radiance before plopping her glowing companion down in a sheltered hollow in the rock. Pressing her finger to her lips to indicate stealth, she pantomimed her intentions to Atom’s Assassin and then disappeared once satisfied they understood.

If Radiance was surprised when some of her own allies untied Isolde and started walking off with her, Wraith wasn’t able to see. However, she could feel a massive, angry buildup of energy from within the car and so ducked behind a rock just as the pulse detonated. Several of the seemingly lifeless ferals in the immediate area sprang to their feet afterward, and Wraith had to fight and dodge them as she advanced on the Highwayman. Alarmingly she heard a rifle bullet wiz past her ear, but assumed that the snipers in the tower were trying to aid her. At least she hopped it wasn’t Jack trying to kill her.

Knowing she only had a few seconds before Radiance built up another charge, Wraith hooked her fingers in a gap of the warped car roof and pulled back with all her might. The metal shrieked in protest as she struggled. Just when she thought she was making progress, a searing tendril of mental intrusion lanced through her skull. Falling backward onto the roof, she clawed at her temples in an attempt to rid herself of the pain.

I’ve won.

Then Radiance made an error: trying to see Wraith in the moment of her defeat, the glowing one put her face too close to the gap Wraith had made in the roof of the car. With herculean effort, Wraith gained enough control to reach in and grasp Radiance’s forehead. Alarmed, the glowing one gathered kinetic energy as well and in an act of self-preservation, prepared to utterly destroy Wraith.  

“Emogene… if there is any part of you… I… I’m sorry.”

Wraith closed her fist just as Radiance discharged her pulse and the resulting shockwave flung her away – car roof and all – like she was riding a leaf in a hurricane.

“I’ve got to hand it to ya.” Infamy found her several feet away and seemed genuinely please that she survived, “Get it? Hand?”

Wraith stared owlishly down at the twisted stump that had been her left arm before erupting in hysterical laughter, “HA HAAAHAHAH! You’ll forgive me if I don’t applaud your wit.”

.....

Thank you so much for reading! Like what you read? Looking for more? Please see my Wraith in the Ruins link tree. As always, if you have any questions/comments/concerns, please send me an ask. Anons too! =^..^=

[concussed-to-pieces]

The Mettle Of A Man; Part Twenty

Fandom: Fallout (4)

Pairing: Paladin Danse/Female Sole Survivor

Rating: Holy shit M.

AN: Welcome to the end of our tale, everyone! Thank you so much for reading and enjoying over the years. I love you so much and appreciate you more than words can say. Here's to 2021, my friends! Ad Victoriam, and stay safe! Tagging @anonymouscosmos​, @culturalrebel, @wrestlingfae​, @toxiicpop​,  @mercy-and-malice, @deepkittycollecto, @nelba, @mechanicalism, @commandershepardshtole, @valkyriejack and @kovu-the-mythical-being. Enjoy!

Part One: ArcJet

Part Two: The Prydwen

Part Three: Orders

Part Four: Finding Brandis

Part Five: Weston Water And Oberland

Part Six: Meeting Preston And Matthew

Part Seven: Radstag And Radstorm

Part Eight: The Return To Sanctuary Hills

Part Nine: Domestic Ruminations

Part Ten: Institutionalized

Part Eleven: Two Weeks, Three Days

Part Twelve: Haylen’s Warning And The Glowing Sea

Part Thirteen: Under Fire

Part Fourteen: Dichotomy

Part Fifteen: The Litany Trial

Part Sixteen: Nice Try

Part Seventeen: Preparations

Part Eighteen: Divide And Conquer

Part Nineteen: Lucky

[!TRIGGER WARNING!: This installment contains holiday celebrations, brief emotional distress and unprotected sex. Stay safe!]

Time seemed to pass both too fast and not fast enough. 

  Synths were accommodated, reprogrammed at their wishes or helped to adjust to their new lives. Doctor Amari and the rest of the Railroad had no shortage of work, and Desdemona eventually tapped MacCready and Cait to oversee their caravan logistics back to the Capital Wasteland. 

  "And the people of the Commonwealth slept soundly, for the greatest monster was gone." Nick had remarked, touching the brim of his fedora in a half-salute. The old detective quickly appointed himself as head of first impressions in Diamond City, making certain that no trouble befell any wayward synth that accidentally wandered in. There was still a lot of work to be done to repair the Broken Mask incident, after all.

  New settlements sprang up overnight and while there may not have been total harmony, there was the sensation of the whole Commonwealth heaving a sigh of relief. Recruits flocked to the Minutemen and Brotherhood in droves as Piper's Publick Occurrences spread the word of their successful campaign against the Institute. 

  Commonwealth boogeyman decimated by combination effort: Brotherhood Of Steel and Minutemen join forces to save Boston from bodysnatchers!

  Deacon had effortlessly deflected Piper every time she asked for an interview, the mysterious man more than content to keep the Railroad shadowy. The less everyone knew, the less they could tell, and that suited him just fine. "You did real good, Icebox. Helped a lot of people."

  Elder Brandis sought approval to establish a permanent outpost at the Boston airport ruins, the former paladin keen to send the Prydwen back to the Capital Wasteland. "Oh the Prydwen's a fine ship, but put me in the field any day!" The airship, once a proud symbol of the Maxson reign, now served little purpose aside from blocking the sun on occasion. Scribes laughed and played in the massive shadow, kicking up dust until the circle where the litany trial had taken place was nothing but a memory.

  X6-88 had floundered for several weeks, the courser falling into a depressive slump that not even Curie could rouse him from. Oddly enough, it was Preston who ended up being able to haul him out of the darkness, the lieutenant making a point to visit the courser to drag him from his room for target practice and other low-effort patrol duties. "Sometimes all folks need is a hand, General." 

  The courser went on to reluctantly take the role of defective defector, working as a consultant to the Minutemen to help ward off any future attacks by desperate coursers or Institute scientists. Preston found his input invaluable, and the duo could often be found in the lieutenant's quarters poring over threadbare maps and trading tactical information. Preston also seemed to have a calming effect on the synth hunter, helping to blunt some of the cold steel edge that X6 had honed his entire life. Add on to that the constant caring presence of Curie, and they made a strange but surprisingly effective trio. 

  With the new supply line firmly established between the verdant utopia of Starlight Drive-In and Oberland Station, the strain of the prior lean months finally eased a bit. Faces grew less pinched even with the increased burden of the synths, and many settlers began to tentatively plan for a small celebration in the beginning of the winter. 

  "'The Holidays' is what they been callin' it, real simple and succinct. Some freaky hodgepodge of everyone's traditions. I guess a lot of folks on that fancy director's board also celebrated around this time of year. Not that the synths would know, naturally." Hancock had muttered, his expression sour. "Poor bastards always workin', and they ain't got fuckall to show for it. Seems like a shit deal."

  Elder Brandis granted Danse an extended leave of absence after the toppling of the Institute without the paladin even requesting it, the large man dumbfounded for a moment upon receiving the news.

  "If you're up for it, I could use a hand back at Sanctuary." Vega had grinned up at him, her eyes squinting a little under the force of her smile. "A lot of prep work goes into a holiday, after all."

  ...

  Danse had taken it upon himself to retreat from Shaun's previous bedroom when he accompanied Vega and her son back to Sanctuary. He debated heavily on returning to the airport; after all, there was no real reason for him to stay in Sanctuary Hills, at least none that he dared to dwell upon. The few small projects that Vega had to manage were easily accomplished and he was left a bit lost in the wake of the excess of his leave.

  Vega, however, had begun framing in what was once the carpark for her house. Sturges helped of course, and once Danse caught on he was touched by the gesture. 

  "I don't want you to feel like there isn't room for you just because Shaun is back." Elizabeth had said, lugging a chunk of scrap metal from the wreckage of her car. 

  The paladin had to take a moment, claiming sawdust in his eye as the culprit.

  Now Danse lived in the area she had partitioned off for him, uncertain if he still believed he was intruding. Those thoughts were troubling, because if he could get comfortable…

  What if Vega eventually decided that Shaun needed a father and what if...what if she chose a real man? Really real, not a sham like Danse was. And if she did, what man would permit Danse to stay? What real man would permit a synth that was currently entangled by these...human emotions to remain on their property, even if Danse proved he wasn't a threat?

  What man would believe him if he claimed to have no interest in Vega? Hell, Danse didn't even believe himself. 

  But he didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay. He wanted to tell Elizabeth...well, there were a lot of things he wanted to tell her.

  His silence was more of a burden each day, and Danse knew he must seem sullen. It gnawed at him; it felt like lying every time he choked the words back down because it wasn't the right time or he just didn't know what to say, and he didn't trust himself not to say something foolish.

  He decided he would wait until after the holiday gathering. Whatever the verdict was, it shouldn't take away from the joy she was clearly feeling over the festivities. So Danse threw himself into helping Sturges, Mama Murphy and the Longs around Sanctuary.

  Secretly making a toy truck for Shaun had been a painstaking process fraught with peril. Mainly because Danse was somewhat indelicate and carving tiny wheels had never been his area of expertise. Oh certainly, he could build a survival camp with nothing but a combat knife and time, but a toy...

  The paladin had spent countless hours creating prototypes in his cobbled-together room as he pondered the path he should take, sometimes working into the wan light of the morning. He eventually showed the truck to Jun, immensely fearful that Shaun might not enjoy the toy. Danse couldn't recall his own interests when he had been Shaun's age, and thus fell back on the other man's expertise. 

  "It looks good! Sand the wheels a little more, maybe give it a coat or two of paint." Jun praised the pensive paladin, turning the vehicle over in his hands to examine it. "Kyle loved these kinds of things y'know, trucks and trains and little toy boats." His gaze grew distant for a moment, the rough plaything stilling in his grasp. "Marcy thinks she's pregnant." He said abruptly.

  "Pregnant?" Danse repeated without meaning to, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline.

  Jun nodded jerkily. "It's been three months now. She's scared, Mr. Danse, real scared. Thinks something bad will happen."

  "What can we do?" The paladin asked sharply. 

  Jun gawked up at him, seeming confused. "We?"

  "I am unfamiliar with this process. What needs to be done?"

  "I...I don't follow, Mr. Danse."

  "To simplify the duration! What precautions can I-"

  "Whoa, hang on." Jun protested. "We aren't sure if the general will even let us stay here with an extra mouth to feed. I've been trying to figure out how to bring up the subject." He admitted. 

  "You haven't even told General Vega yet?!" Danse squawked. 

  "W-Well, no! I figured maybe we would...we'd see how the winter went and play it by ear." Jun mumbled, seeming defensive. 

  Danse seized the other man's arm, heedless of his protests as he hauled him across the front lawn to Vega's abode. Today was the day that Vega had planned to sort through decorations; there were many left over from the fall holiday the Commonwealth had been preparing to celebrate before...well, time had stopped for most when the bombs fell, it was understandable that faded pumpkins and skeletons would still grace crumbling walls with their orangey-cream presence.

  Vega looked up from the veritable pile of brittle, salvaged decor in confusion when Danse barged into their...her home, the paladin immediately halting and offering a sharp salute. "Danse! I...uh, what's wrong?"

  "Mr. Long has something he needs to discuss with you immediately." Danse informed her, tugging the other man forward. 

  "I-I...er, General, you…" Jun struggled to speak, twiddling his fingers wildly. "M-Marcy--"

  "What's wrong, Jun? Is she okay?" Vega asked, getting to her feet and shooting Danse a worried look. "Did something happen?"

  "B-Baby." Jun squeaked. "Pregnant."Backhand went still, her freckles stark against the fresh pallor of her face. "I'm sorry, General, I know we haven't discussed it beforehand a-and I know food's been better as of late...I-I guess she got enough nutrients and got healthy enough for...er, well, you know." Mr. Long looked like he wanted to disappear into the ground. "We should have spoke to you sooner; I don't know if she can leave with the weather being--"

  "Wh-Where are you going? Why leave, what?" Vega stammered, "Jun, you can't travel now, if something goes wrong-!"

  "We weren't sure if you'd let us stay!" The thin man interrupted her frantically. "This is your base, after all, and you didn't sign on for an extra person to worry about."

  Vega inhaled deeply. "Danse, could you give me a minute with Mr. Long?" She requested, her voice suspiciously even.

  Danse obeyed, closing the front door gently and meandering a pointed distance down the main thoroughfare so as not to eavesdrop. He had a relatively good idea of how the conversation would go, despite Jun's misgivings. So he wandered down to the huge tree at the end of the cul-de-sac, fiddling with the truck in his pocket absently as he stared upwards at the barren branches. 

  "Y'know kid," Mama Murphy piped up from her customary chair on her porch and the paladin turned to face her, giving the elderly woman his full attention. "When I had the Sight, I saw this place. Sanctuary." She nodded in the direction of the river, then gestured upwards. "The bridge, and this tree. Massive and old, worn out from all those years." She cocked her head, giving Danse an appraising look. "The tree though, it was...covered in lights. Like what you see in the pre-war mags. The Holidays, shinin' like a beacon of hope at the end of the tunnel." 

  Danse hummed, the vaguest beginnings of an idea taking root in his mind. He couldn't bring Vega's old life back, but maybe...maybe he could bring something from it back to her. Like what you see in the pre-war mags.

  "I think you're pickin' up what I'm puttin' down, kid." Mama Murphy's smile was knowing, the old woman reaching over to pet Dogmeat. The dog seemed to materialize out of thin air sometimes! "Now get to it."

  ...

  Backhand was already scurrying around the kitchen when Danse rose on the morning of the Holiday celebration, the paladin pausing only momentarily to yawn in the doorway before sleepily offering his assistance. "Is there something I can help with, Vega?"

  "Uh, Sturges, he said something about you and stuff from Goodneighbor, I think?" Elizabeth replied, obviously preoccupied with whatever she had in the semi-functional oven. Danse nodded, trudging across the kitchen to tug on his boots by the door. 

  Shaun bounded out of the bathroom, his face still damp from his morning wash. "Oh, can I help too? Please Mom, let me help Mister Danse and Mister Sturges!" He begged.

  "You'd better stay right where Danse and Sturges can see you." Backhand instructed him sternly, one oven-mitted hand gesturing to indicate the gravity of the situation. "Otherwise you're coming straight back inside. Go put on your warm coat."

  Shaun cheered in delight, racing back to his room.

  "It's okay that he's with you two, right? I know he's not your responsibility." Backhand continued in an undertone to the paladin.

  Danse's throat tightened and it took him a moment to respond, "I don't mind at all. He's a very well-behaved child." 

  "Let me know if he's an issue and I'll bring him back inside. I just need to get this done and the oven is being all-" 

  Danse stood up and placed his hands on her shoulders, deliberately schooling his expression into something more stern. "General, you're doing a fine job. Stop worrying."

  "Am I? Shit, I really hope so." Elizabeth mumbled, tipping her forehead until it rested against his chest. Danse prayed she couldn't hear his heart, hammering merely from her proximity. God, his body was nothing but an embarrassment waiting to happen. "I've never really done this crap. Not sure if I'm cut out for it."

  The momentary respite was broken when Shaun reappeared in his oversized flannel and oilcloth jacket, the child bolting past the two adults to put on his boots. Danse reluctantly released Backhand, noting how flushed her face was but not really daring to dwell on it. "I'll...I'll watch him." The paladin said, his voice a bit stilted. "I promise."

  "Thank you." Backhand mumbled, wiping her eyes and then returning to coddle…whatever it was in the oven.

  "Ready, Shaun?" Danse asked the boy, who nodded rapidly and extended a hand. 

  The snow outside was still fresh from the night before and Danse took a moment to appreciate the view of the Commonwealth covered in a thin layer of white. Off in the distance, the towering crimson insignia of the Red Rocket gasoline station stood stark against the backdrop of the gray sky. Even further down the road slumbered the empty shell of Concord, the tallest of the town's dilapidated buildings only just visible from the paladin's position. 

  Shaun tugged at his hand, pulling his attention back to the present. "Mister Danse, Mister Sturges is waiting for us!" The child announced, waving up at the engineer who was currently settled into a crook of the brittle branches that graced the tree on the cul-de-sac island. "Hi Mister Sturges!"

  "Howdy fellas! Come to give me a helpin' hand?" Sturges called, grinning down at the two of them. 

  "What assistance can we offer?" Danse queried, wary that the other man might suggest Shaun climb up to him. His fears were quickly allayed when Sturges instead asked Shaun and Danse to begin untangling the long strands of old lights. 

  Hancock and his ilk had arrived from Goodneighbor, bearing the gifts of dubious treats and many, many mangled strings of lights. Goodneighbor had always been drenched in neon, after all, so Danse had assumed the ghoul mayor would be the best person to call upon for aid. It would appear that Hancock had delivered in spectacular fashion.

  "With your help, we'll have this place lookin' pretty as a picture in no time!"

  …

  Maybe she had bitten off slightly more than she could chew, trying to cook a traditional dinner. Backhand sighed, glumly poking at the cold poultry with a wooden spoon. Her cooking skills had never been much to write home about in the first place, and this only served to solidify that fact. 

  "Oh Mum, I'm so sorry. The old oven just isn't how it used to be." Codsworth commented, his mechanical voice tinged with melancholy. 

  "It's not a big deal, Codsworth. I hate to waste the food, that's all." Backhand muttered, assuring herself that she wasn't fighting back frustrated tears, her eyes were just tired. "Damn thing didn't even get to the warm phase."

  "Mum, if I might suggest…?" The robot started hesitantly, carrying on when she nodded. "Perhaps it can be salvaged. After all, we make bread in that same pan by tucking it beneath the hot coals out front. What do you say, shall we give it a go?"

  "Got nothing to lose, right?" 

  "It will be just fine, Mum! You're an adaptive sort." Codsworth remarked, drifting out the front door to stoke the usual cooking fire to life once more. "Indeed, just fine!" He called. 

  Vega shook her head ruefully. "Oh I'm sure." The woman grumbled. "Can't cook and comes with baggage. What a catch ol' Vega is." At least the bread had come out well, in spite of the brisk weather. She could thank whoever for that small favor.

  Once Codsworth had coaxed the embers to life in the fire pit, Elizabeth bundled up and brought the still-cold cast-iron pot outside. Maybe it had been wishful thinking to believe that the oven portion of her stove would still work. Or even heat at all. It had been promising earlier in the week, but this might be a blessing in disguise. If the whole house had gone up due to a cooking malfunction...well, the holidays wouldn't be too happy then, would they?

  "Please cook." She begged under her breath, troweling hot coals onto the battered dutch oven lid. "I need this, y'know? Just a little victory, that's all I'm asking for here." 

  "Shall I get started on the tatoes, Miss Vega?" 

  Elizabeth nodded, only half-listening to Codsworth. She knew she would have a good forty five minutes to an hour to wait, and it wasn't as if it was colder outside than it was inside. The joys of semi-functional heating! 

  Vega shook her head at herself after a second, since when did she dwell on everything that Sanctuary wasn't? At the end of the day, it was her home. She wouldn't trade it for the world, and she knew she had much more than most people.

  At that thought, her gaze wandered to where Danse and Shaun were. The larger man had Shaun on his shoulders while he patiently unwound a massive bundle of flickering string lights. Shaun, for his part, was passing the untangled lights up to Sturges. The engineer slid down the ladder so he could reach the child, looping the lights over his arm before climbing back up and painstakingly placing them in the gnarled grasp of the tree's limbs.

  The manufactured cheer that the lights had given off pre-war was still somewhat there, though the radiant colors were washed out to pastel and the warm whites had gone dingy gray. Instead of it being a melancholy reminder that her life had changed irreparably, Backhand was overcome with gratitude. For her son's safe return, regardless of his synthetic makeup, and for the man who was currently carrying Shaun on his shoulders. For her home, for her family.

  A family. 

  Perhaps she was getting a little ahead of herself. After all, Danse was still adjusting to life in ordinary time. It would be selfish of her to voice her feelings to him while he was coming to terms with everything that had happened. For better or for worse, their lives were different now. 

  It ought to be enough that he was in her life at all. She should be content. His presence alone was a miracle; for all intents and purposes he should be dead. Yet there he was, mere feet away, helping to brighten up the holiday celebration.

  Tonight there would be a multitude of visitors. God only knew how many would arrive from settlements near and far, to say nothing of Goodneighbor, Diamond City, the Prydwen and the Castle! It would be an incredibly busy evening for certain. Hancock had arrived early with a posse of ragtag drifters from Goodneighbor, all of them offering gifts of food or scavenged ornaments to decorate. Hence the massive mound of lights that was currently being diligently sorted through.

  The aforementioned ghoul appeared to have delegated the task of quality checking the lights, as his form currently leaned against the faded blue siding of her house. With cigarette smoke wafting from his mouth and nasal cavity in equal amounts, he seemed content to just watch the chaos unfold. 

  "Aren't you a little chilly?" Backhand queried, raising an eyebrow. The mayor was still clad in his usual garb of...for lack of a better term, repurposed period dress. Granted it wasn't seasonably cold out, at least not like how she remembered it being before the bombs dropped.

  "Nah, we ghouls run pretty warm. Ham's like a portable space heater." Hancock answered, giving her a lazy grin. "Cute of you to worry, though. I must be growin' on ya'."

  "Whoa there, let's not get too crazy."

  "Whatcha' think, General?" Sturges shouted from his perch, waving to get her attention.

  Danse turned in place, appearing to realize that she was watching as his hands flew up and grabbed Shaun's legs, stabilizing the small boy on his shoulders. 

  Backhand couldn't keep from smiling when she called back, "it looks wonderful! Keep up the great work!"

  "That ain't the only thing that looks wonderful, right Sunshine?" Hancock snickered, rolling his eyes at the now-sputtering woman. "You better give the Brave Little Toaster the ride of his life, that's all I gotta' say."

  "Hancock!" Vega hissed, making a half-hearted swipe at the mayor. "You fuckin'--"

  "Ah ah, little pitchers!" Hancock scolded, tilting his head to the side to draw Vega's attention to the rapidly-approaching form of Duncan, MacCready's son. "Gotta' watch that mouth of yours, Sunshine."

  "This ain't over, ya' raisin-lookin' bastard." Backhand snarled under her breath, pasting on a friendly smile for Duncan while Hancock wheezed with laughter. "Hey bud, how's things?" She greeted the child, who grimaced. 

  "Dad's kissin' Miss Cait again. S'gross." The little boy announced, wrinkling his nose in disgust. 

  "That does sound pretty gross." Hancock piped up before Backhand could reply. "But you like seein' your old man happy, right? The lady makes him happy. Simple as that."

  "Yeah, I guess. Can I play with Shaun?" Duncan asked Vega, eyes wide as he seemed to take in the tree covered with lights. 

  "Go ahead, kiddo! Just be careful and stay away from Sturges' ladder." Elizabeth warned, grinning when the little boy took off with a whoop. 

  Cait and MacCready strode up after a moment, both of them red-faced. MacCready bent double, his hands on his knees. "I'm not built for these bullsh--awful conditions." He panted. "I don't know how the kid does it. He was nearly dead a few months ago and now he's out here kicking the snow in the a--er, butt."

  Backhand glanced around, and then snorted. "You call this snow? It's a dusting. Back before-"

  "Ah ah, easy now Mumsicle, we ain't got time for yer trip down memory lane." Cait teased. "Work to be done, aye? C'mon then, General, shape up. What you doin' on the ground anyway, all crouched like a mother hen broodin'?"

  "I'm cooking." Vega replied tersely. 

  "Oh aye? Looks like yer shirkin' t' me, love. Codsy can manage that mess, c'mon." Cait seized her elbow, levering her up out of the snowy grass. "Now, what needs doin'?"

  ...

  The day was a whirlwind of arrivals, preparations and well wishers. Elder Brandis even stopped by briefly, taking precious time away from his all-consuming duties to distribute some useful supplies and catch up on the gossip. 

  The Diamond City trio graced Sanctuary with their presence shortly before noon, Nat scurrying off to play with Duncan and Shaun while Piper made a beeline for Hancock's merry band. Nick was more keen to meander around the outskirts of the groups forming, amber eyes taking in his surroundings.

  Preston appeared midafternoon with X6, Curie and the entire O'Brian clan in tow, later than expected but apparently they had stopped to help out a settlement along the way. 

  The cul-de-sac soon rang with the laughter of the rambunctious children; even little Siusan was permitted to briefly toddle about in the trampled snow under the watchful gaze of Eamon. The weather was chilly but the sun had broken through the clouds throughout the day, sending momentary waves of brilliance across the Commonwealth. 

  Every table and chair that could be salvaged had been assembled on the old foundation at the end of the cul-de-sac, and it was there that the adults began to gather as the sun set. Metal drums loaded with wood were lit, providing heat and illumination to the many guests of the Commonwealth's first official potluck dinner. 

  "Or rather," Piper amended, clearing her throat with a touch of self-importance as she tapped her notepad, "the first documented official potluck dinner."

  The large tree twinkled and shone in the fast-approaching darkness, the occasional flicker or broken bulb doing little to diminish the cheer it provided. The food was distributed, Backhand's roast chicken disappearing without a hitch. The young woman couldn't help doing a mental dance of victory, delighted that Codsworth's quick thinking had saved that particular endeavor.

  Vega found a place to sit somewhere in the middle of one of the many long tables, red from the praise of her companions and the persistent chill in the air. She got even redder when Preston loudly proclaimed a toast, to the General!, her lieutenant tipping his bottle and everyone else following suit. 

  "I remember when I first met the general, she was half-dead on her feet." Preston began the story, his smile fond. "Sturges couldn't even believe our luck. Hell, none of us could. When freedom called, our general answered!"

  Backhand, who had lived the story and knew all the ins and outs, found her attention wandering to Danse while Preston regaled the crowd with his tale. The paladin seemed to be listening closely, his meal forgotten. Deacon even began to thieve bits of chicken and tato out from beneath his nose, the Railroad agent shooting Vega a sly wink over his sunglasses. 

  Backhand shook her head at the other man's antics, then focused her attention on Preston. "...'Lurk queen, a huge, mean seabug, taken out by landmines! The Castle was ours once again, and we all had General Vega to thank for it." The lieutenant stated firmly. "The one who can get things done in the Commonwealth, the one who gave folks hope when it was in mighty short supply. We uh, we owe you a lot, ma'am." He raised his bottle once more. "To General Vega, leader of the Minutemen!"

  "To Elizabeth!" Hancock yelled, echoed by half the damn populace as Vega tried to wave it off, the young woman laughing awkwardly. "To our Sunshine, the hero of the Commonwealth!" 

  "Synth savior, a regular knight in shining armor." Deacon teased.

  "Well done, General Vega." Danse said warmly, "I can't know for certain whether the Brotherhood itself would be proud, but I certainly am." His praise for whatever reason made Vega's blush feel like it would scorch her skin. 

  Oh she knew damn well why, she was just being willfully oblivious at this point.

  "Speech! Speech! Is that not zee norm for zis sort of occasion?" Curie called, the diminutive synth currently sharing X6-88's coat as well as his plate of food. X6 didn't seem to have any reservations about the matter, his arm slung around her shoulders without a care in the world.

  Much to Vega's chagrin, the majority appeared to be in favor of such a vocal endeavor. She attempted to laugh off the suggestion to no avail, and finally got to her feet. "Alright, alright, settle down. I'll say a few words if it'll get you all off my damn back." She grumbled, her body thoroughly warm now with a combination of embarrassment and gratitude. "I uh…" 

  Vega trailed off as she looked out over the ragtag gang of expectant faces staring back at her. So many friends and neighbors, finally getting the chance to breathe. The chance to celebrate the fruits of their labor...it was sobering.

  "I can't thank you all enough for...well, for everything that you've done. You all sacrificed so much for this peace, stuff I could never imagine doing even before the bombs dropped." She cleared her throat. "My mentor, Sergeant Shaun Cathan, was a great man, and he often had some very succinct or choice words which I'm not about to repeat in polite company."

  "Aw c'mon-!" Zeke began to protest loudly, his voice fading as he noticed the small gaggle of children still gawking at his power armor.

  Backhand continued, her jaw set firmly, "but one thing I can say that he told me is this: a leader who permits their pride to impede their decisions is doomed to failure. Pride built the Institute, and that same pride rotted it to the core. Pride built the Brotherhood of Steel, the Minutemen, and we've seen the both of them nearly toppled." Vega clenched her fist. "Pride brought nuclear fire down on Boston, but people hauled themselves outta' the ashes of that fire. Good people, tough people. Folks I knew. Folks I cared for, even if some of 'em did spend a little too much time on the Cape. If pride can do so much effin' harm, I expect simple compassion and decency to do just as much good. Hell, more than that. Humanity's built itself back up after the cluster that was armageddon, and we ain't through yet." 

  She tipped the jar she had been drinking out of towards the crowd, sternly studying the collection of scavengers, families both new and familiar.

  ...

  "So here's to you, my friends. To all that you've done, and to all that you will do." 

  Vega's salute was rigid, pre-war. Like her helmet on the table beside her, scraped and covered in faded sigils. The mixture of candlelight and the lights on the tree reflected off the worn lenses of her glasses, shielding her eyes from view. Danse wished desperately that he could see her eyes; more than anything he wished to stand up and flat-out state what she had done for him to every soul there, display his...admiration. 

  Was that even the right word? Admiration, adoration, affection--

  His face was strangely warm all of a sudden. Danse flinched, staring down at his mug of coffee with single-minded intent as the buzz of conversation around him picked back up. His mind raced, pieces falling into place in a nigh-unstoppable rush.

  Affection. Like...what he had felt for Cutler? Almost. A little to the left of that. Brighter. 

  Happier. 

  Not perfect, nothing could ever be perfect. But...

  "Elizabeth Vega?" A male ghoul's voice barely penetrated the paladin's consciousness, his words not really registering until, "Beth, it really is you!" The ghoul exclaimed. "I thought I was crazy! It's me, Beth. It's Nate."

  "...Nate?" 

  Danse's head whipped up so fast his neck popped in warning, the paladin having been only tangentially aware of the conversation happening mere feet away from his position. But at that particular nickname his entire being snapped to attention, eyes darting sidelong from where he had been intently studying his mug of coffee. 

  The ghoul man that Vega was currently speaking to was an inch or two taller than her, with a single tuft of dark hair that still remained over his left ear. He appeared absolutely delighted, but Vega seemed...wary.

  "Beth," Danse heard him say once more, and he watched Backhand visibly tense. "I never thought I would see you again! After the bombs dropped--I mean how the hell did...is that Shaun? God, he got so big!"

  "Nate, is there something I can do for you?"

  Nate. 

  Danse's breath caught in his throat and his mouth went dry. Nate? Nate her ex-husband from before the war? Nate, the man who had divorced her once he found out she was pregnant with his child? 

  Somehow he had managed to survive? 

  Oh, what an incredibly bitter thing to think! Danse was somewhat startled by his own dark path of reasoning. But it wasn't untrue; his mind railed at the unfairness of it all. 

  The paladin stood up, his mug of coffee forgotten. He wasn't exactly certain what he was about to do, but he also wasn't going to do nothing. He cast around wildly for a plan as he approached Elizabeth from behind around the table, and Danse latched onto what was probably the least intelligent course of action that he could have conjured up.

  "Elizabeth," the paladin called, loud enough to be heard over the general hubbub. She turned and Danse briefly spied a look of intense relief on her face before he enveloped her in his arms. "You appeared cold, figured I could warm you up a bit." He reasoned aloud, smiling benignly over her head at Nate. "Who's this?"

  Vega began to introduce him even with her face still comically buried in Danse's chest, "Nate, I'd like you to meet-"

  "Paladin Logan Danse, Northeastern chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel." Danse interrupted her smoothly, extending a hand to Nate. "I've heard a great deal about you, Nate. It's a privilege to meet you, and a welcome surprise to see that you endured the radiation."

  "Uh, is it? Well I-I guess it is." Nate looked flummoxed and crestfallen all at once, glumly shaking Danse's hand. "I suppose you two are, er..."

  "Vega is my partner, yes. For over a year now." Danse replied once the other man had trailed off, his tone saccharine-sweet. He heard Vega gasp against his chest. "She is a truly incredible woman. I'm immensely lucky."

  "Yeah, I...yeah. Uh, I have to go...talk to--I'll see you later, Beth." Nate squeaked, sidestepping away from the two of them and making a beeline for the road.

  "I can't even believe it." Backhand's voice grated with tangible irritation. "I cannot even fuckin' fathom--I...dammit, why him?!" She seethed into Danse's jacket, clenching her fists on his hips. "Phew, boy, I sort of thought I'd already dealt with all that resentment." The woman admitted unhappily.

  "You do things in your own time." Danse replied quietly. "Are you alright?"

  Vega went still for a second. Danse felt her unclench her fists, hands going slack on his body. Had he misspoken-?

  "In my own time, huh?" Vega muttered, almost like she was thinking out loud. "I...I'll be back in a little while, Danse."

  …

  I'm not panicking. Definitely not panicking. One hundred percent not panicking, totally fine.

  Backhand scurried away from the paladin, trying to hide the tell-tale redness of her face. She needed to find either Mrs. O'Brian or MacCready, fast. 

  As luck would have it, MacCready found her. The former merc tapped on her shoulder as she bounced up on her tiptoes to search for Mrs. O'Brian. "Hey boss, Shaun wanted me to ask you if he could sleep over with Duncan tonight." The man began after she whirled around to face him.

  "Yes." Vega replied, perhaps a little too quick and definitely too enthusiastic. "Mac you're a lifesaver, I was just about to ask-"

  "-for me and Cait to watch your kid so you and the tin can can get some alone time?" MacCready smirked, giving her a wink. "Dang General, I don't think I've ever seen you so red! Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

  "Shut up, Mac, you're so exasperating." Backhand jabbed a teasing finger into the center of his chest. "You talk, Mayor, and I'll know." The threat was toothless; the both of them grinned at each other after their fierce staring contest. "Thanks for everything."

  "Don't mention it. I figure getting you some Brotherhood...uh, Steel, heh, is a pretty decent way to make up for the fact that I didn't bring you a present." Mac shrugged, fiddling with the bill of his hat. "I have beef with the Capital Brotherhood, but these guys...I mean, they don't seem all bad." He allowed grudgingly, giving Vega a gentle nudge with his shoulder. "Go on."

  A bracing shot of whiskey shored up her tenuous spark of confidence and Vega marched back to Danse, the large man now engaged in conversation with X6 while Shaun, Duncan, Bridget, Nat and Matthew swirled around their ankles. 

  Danse was saying, "--collateral ramifications would be inadvisable, I suggest a soft breach. With adequate preparation-" 

  "Adequate preparation on your part borders on over-caution." X6 interrupted him dismissively. "However, I will take it into account and speak with Preston on the matter. He seems to share your morality. A pity."

  "Play at the unfeeling machine all you want, X6." Danse retorted. "It does you no favors. You have people who care about you now, and you would not have asked for my input if you believed the endeavour would be futile."

  "True enough, Paladin." The vaguest hint of a smile tugged at X6's mouth. "You are capable."

  "I suppose that is the best that I can hope for."

  "Hey, Danse? Can I uh, have a little chat?" Backhand asked, stifling a hysterical giggle when Danse immediately looked guilty. The paladin nodded, bidding X6 farewell and attempting to sidestep around the children who were currently playing tag in an ever-tightening circle. "Not um, here though. Let's go to my house, okay? Shaun, you're all set to stay overnight with Duncan, Mac and Cait, right?"

  "Yeah!" Shaun replied breathlessly, pausing in his chase to give his mother a massive grin. "Already brought my blankets over and everything. Mister MacCready said Duncan and I could sleep in their wagon, and that he'd tell us Grognak stories!"

  Danse's brow furrowed. "We are leaving the gathering, then?" He asked, looking a bit distressed when Elizabeth nodded. "A moment, please." He turned back to the children, calling for Shaun. 

  The boy bolted away from the group, skidding in the muddy slush. "Yeah, Mister Danse?" He asked, his impatience plain.

  "I, er. I...happy holidays." The paladin mumbled, extracting a small bundle from his jacket pocket and giving it to the child. 

  "Whoa, for me?!" Shaun practically crowed, tearing through the old newspaper to reveal the gift.

  It was a sturdy carved vehicle, its edges sleek and smooth. The wood was coated in shiny green paint, giving the little truck a distinct air of newness in this post-apocalyptic world. Danse swallowed audibly as Shaun stared down at the toy without saying a word. 

  Backhand closed her eyes, hoping and praying that the kid remembered his manners. She hadn't even known Danse had planned on giving him something. Did he make the truck himself? It was wood, not the usual plastic or aluminum of pre-war children's toys. When had he found the time to make a toy? She suddenly remembered his uncharacteristically wide yawn that morning and her eyes flew open, darting to look at Danse. He had been staying up, hadn't he?

  "I love it, Mister Danse!" Shaun interrupted her mental panic with his enthusiastic eruption, smiling wide and bolting forward to hug Danse around the waist. Danse's own relief was evident, the large man patting the child on the back with an awkward chuckle.

  Oh Jesus, I'm not going to cry, Vega insisted, taking a deep breath. Nope, won't do it.

  "Mom look, look what Mister Danse gave me!" Shaun exclaimed, as if she hadn't been standing right there the whole time. 

  "It's really cool, right?" Backhand grinned, rumpling his hair and then giving him a kiss on the forehead. "Make sure you wash your face and brush your teeth before bed, okay? I hope you and Duncan have fun. I love you." 

  "I love you too, Mom, I will. Thank you again, Mister Danse!" Shaun rushed to say, clearly eager to return to his friends. 

  "Alright, go on." Vega tapped the end of his nose, "go have fun." She watched him scramble through the slush, nearly tripping again. "Jesus, he's a bull in a china shop," she sighed, making Danse snort. "Shall we, Paladin?"

  He fell into step beside her, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket and his back ramrod straight. He was silent until they were actually in Elizabeth's living room, the young woman barely able to shut the front door before he started babbling, "if I offended you earlier, if I-I overstepped my bounds, I apologize. I just recalled what you had said about the name he used for you and I'm afraid I started moving before I could reconsider-"

  "Danse, do you remember how we started all of this?" Vega cut off what promised to be a downright incredible justification, cocking her head to the side. "How we met, and what happened?"

  "You came to our aid at the Cambridge police station. Then you carried on assisting me with our mission. You helped acquire the deep range transmitter. You greased my armor." Danse paused, fidgeting. "You...said it was alright if I wanted to kiss you."

  “It’s alright if you want to kiss me, you know.” Her smile was gentle. “I wouldn’t mind.”

  Vega nodded, smiling once more. "The offer still stands, naturally."

  "I...things are different now. I'm different. You still...even now, after everything that you know about me?"

  "Of course."

  "I didn't want to believe you felt that strongly about our...about us." Danse was smiling, actually smiling! "I'd given up hope a long time ago that I would ever be enough for anyone. I was never...enough. Smart enough, or strong enough or...well, just enough, I suppose." He shrugged, his smile fading. "With what happened between Maxson and I, and previously with Cutler…" The large man trailed off.

  Vega took a deep breath, nodding furiously. "I do feel strongly for you. Danse, I know that this is a lot, b-but I...uh, I think I love you." She gestured up and down at the speechless paladin, feeling the heat that bloomed fresh on her cheeks. "Not just the wrapping, y'know, but uh. The whole package. You."

  His look of shock and confusion slowly dissolved into something unreadable, and he broke eye contact for a moment to stare down at his boots. 

  "Uh, it's okay if you don't reciprocate! O-Or even if you can't reciprocate, I'm not going to be offended!" Elizabeth rushed to add, waving her hands nervously. "I know that this is a lot to dump on you all at once, I-I'm sorry. I don't want you feeling pressured to give me an affirmative answer just because you don't want to hurt my feelings or whatever."

  "I...I can't say that I haven't thought about it." He admitted softly. "But Shaun, he needs--Vega, I'm not really human." 

  "Neither is Shaun, but I don't love him any less." Elizabeth replied. "Shaun is my son. For all intents and purposes, he is my real son, Danse."

  "It's one thing to overlook it for a child, Vega. But I'm...what if something goes wrong with me? What if there's some sort of fault in my programming, and that's why I'm like this? What if-"

  "It's alright if you don't want me, or even if this is too much right now. I know, it's a lot." Vega interrupted him, her heart sinking but determined to make damn sure he didn't feel pressured.

  "Christ, that's not what I meant. I just want to make certain you know exactly what it is that you're agreeing to." Danse cut her off, his shoulders rigid like he was bracing for impact. 

  "I understand, Danse. I've understood for a while now." Elizabeth dared to rest her hand on his arm. "I want to be with you. I know that nothing in this shitshow of a future is guaranteed and I want to have something good in my life before my inevitable demise at the hands of some overconfident mole rat."

  Danse nodded stiffly, and then grabbed her by the lapels of her canvas coat. Vega found herself abruptly pinned against the wall, Danse's mouth hungrily seeking her own. "You mean that?" He panted.

  The brush of the stubble on his face reminded her of their first kiss in the Cambridge station and drove home the differences between he and Nate for the hundredth time. Nate was always clean-shaven, favored pecks on the cheek and lived saturated with cologne. But Danse was grizzled, earnest, reeking of the outdoors and power armor grease. Nate had been eloquent, while Danse was taciturn or tripped over his words. Nate was cold and calculating, and Danse…

  Danse was fiery and raw, more vulnerable now than she could ever recall him being before. His knee nudged against her thigh and without conscious input, Elizabeth parted her legs for it and threw her arms around his neck to try to urge him even closer. "Yes, Danse," she gasped. "Oh, Jesus, yes, fuck-ing shit--"

  She ground herself down against his leg, relieved that everything seemed to be functioning normally and somewhat impressed by her body's ability to mount such a rapid response after a two hundred-plus year dry spell! 

  "Language," Danse rumbled in reply, his hands tugging her heavy coat off of her shoulders. "Too fast?"

  "No, hell no!" Backhand protested, "not fast enough."

  "Shh," Danse rested his hands on her hips, shoving up her shirt slightly so he could touch bare skin. "I have you, Vega." Vega pushed herself excitedly into his grip, grinding on his thigh and arching her back. The way his breath hitched sent shockwaves to her core; the way he watched her...

  "Danse we should...we should-" Vega's voice wavered as Danse laved her throat with tender kisses. "-should--bedroom, bed."

  "Yes." The paladin growled, making no move to actually follow the direction. That is, until he hoisted her up to rest on his hips. 

  Backhand yelped, her thighs gripping his sides tightly. "H-Hey!"

  Danse pressed his forehead to her own, brown eyes attempting to read her soul. "Elizabeth…" he sighed, his expression gone hopelessly soft. "I should warn you, if we...if you do this, I...listen, I can be a little--a little wordy, sometimes. If I am speaking too much-"

  "Hey, no, you talk as much as you'd like, okay? Doesn't bug me at all." Vega assured him, slightly curious about what this might mean. Wordy? 

  "Elizabeth, you are everything that I never knew I was looking for." Danse murmured. "When I lost Cutler, I didn't think I deserved to be happy again. I assumed that my failure would continue to darken any future triumph, and when the majority of Gladius was...I feared that I was unfit for my rank. How could anyone have faith in my skills after such a catastrophic loss of life?"

  "It's hard being the one making the choices. You have to be able to bear the burden of responsibility and also the burden of guilt." Vega reasoned, sympathizing with his plight.

  "You had faith in me, though. You didn't even know me, but you didn't judge me for my inadequacy and you allowed me some damn peace. I'm just sorry you had to go through that abuse at Maxson's whim for my sake." Danse cupped her hand in his own, pressing kisses to her scarred knuckles. "You've already done so much for me, Vega. Let me undo you?" He offered seriously, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

  "Well, I uh, I-I can't say I've ever been propositioned quite like that!" Backhand stuttered, certain that her flush covered her entire body at this point. 

  His laughter, heard so rarely, washed over her like a tidal wave. "Forgive me."

  "Only if you keep asking me to have sex like that." Vega shifted her hand in his grip, intertwining their fingers. "C'mon, bedroom."

  "It's not just that." Danse tried to protest, shaking his head. "I care about you. About your wellbeing. I want to make you happy."

  "You do. So happy. I'm so glad that you're here with me still." Vega turned in the doorway of her room when he set her down, seizing Danse by the collar of his worn t-shirt and tugging him into her arms. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, Danse."

  "You don't know how much it means to me to hear you say that." 

  "It's the truth, though!" She insisted.

  Danse surged forward, his kisses still rough and demanding as he fought to claim her affection. But she gave it freely, all he could ever want and more.

  He stripped her of her shirt and dragged his own off over his head, chuckling at the way she greedily drank in the bare skin he presented. "See something you like, General?" 

  He was hairier than she was used to, but Backhand decided it suited him. Nate, after all, had been absolutely adamant that body hair was grotesque, and now look at him. He'd likely never have to worry about that again.

  Thinking of Nate yet again put a frown on her face and Danse paused, giving her a quizzical look. "Is something amiss?"

  "Oh! No, I'm sorry. I was just remembering. Nate was all…" Elizabeth gestured vaguely at Danse's chest. "He shaved everything. I'm not used to all...well, seeing so much."

  "Is it off-putting? I assure you it's within the Brotherhood's hygiene guidelines, but if you don't like it I-"

  "No, I love it. It's new. I've seen your arms, after all, I knew what I was getting into." Vega teased, grinning to ease his worry. "If you can accept all my stretch marks and leftovers, I can definitely handle your chest pelt."

  "I'm planning on doing far more than accepting." Danse cradled her breasts in his palms, the paladin lowering his head to draw his tongue over one of her nipples. "I don't care." He soothed when Elizabeth tried to stammer out something else in regard to her stretch marks. "I don't care. It doesn't make you any less desirable to me, Elizabeth."

  Vega squeezed her eyes shut, kissing his forehead as he continued to cautiously rouse her peaks until they were stiff and aching for more. Then his thumbs took over, stroking in slow, firm circles that made her quiver from head to toe. "You...you're really good at that." Elizabeth said faintly.

  "I'm pleased you think so." Danse grunted when her fingers found his belt buckle. "It has been a significant amount of time for me as well, I...my excitement may be a bit obvious." He admitted, his smile sheepish. 

  Vega's breath caught in her throat, her hands trembling as she struggled to draw down the worn zipper of his jeans. The underside of his cock throbbed against her palm when she dared to slip her hand into his briefs, his skin searing and smooth. 

  Danse huffed out a breath, crumpling a little at her tentative touch. "Elizabeth," he groaned, hiding his face in her neck as he rolled his hips eagerly into her hand. 

  "Keep saying my name like that." She ordered, laughing when the paladin nodded rapidly into her shoulder. "I love you, Danse."

  ...

  Danse rumbled again, words failing him while Elizabeth's fingers wrapped around his cock. This seemed like a dream, another one of his fantasies brought into being. He couldn't seem to do anything aside from stare down at her hand. 

  "Hey, Danse?"

  He jerked to attention, eyes flying up to meet her own guiltily. "Y-Yes, Vega?" He stuttered.

  "Do you...uh, y'know." Backhand fumbled to undo the button on her jeans. "You can, if you'd like." She finished awkwardly.

  No sooner had she given him permission than Danse was pulling her hand out of his pants, urging her backwards onto her bed even as he kissed her battered knuckles again. "Yes." He grated out, kneeling to untie her boots so he could get her pants off. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes."

  "A for enthusiasm, big guy." Elizabeth teased, lazily fingercombing his short hair back. Her veneer of composure was shattered when the paladin eased her underwear down her legs, the young woman covering her face as if she was embarrassed. "Listen, just uh, go easy on me. It's been over two hundred years, after all." She reasoned weakly.

  Danse swallowed hard. Cutler had always praised his dirty talk, the calculated way he could take apart a person with his words and touch alone. Maxson hadn't appreciated his speech, granted, but perhaps…

  "You're saying you don't want me to bury my fingers in you, Elizabeth? You don't want me to open you up, work my way into that beautiful, flushed little cunt of yours?" Danse rasped, two fingers tracing lightly on her pubic mound. Her cesarean scar was faintly visible, and he felt a brief flare of concern before recalling that was indeed where the scar was from.

  "Oh, Jesus. Okay." Vega gasped, blue eyes wide in what Danse could only assume was shock. "Keep that up and you won't have to worry about using anything else. Fuck, Danse, have some pity here." She pleaded, burying her hands in her hair. 

  "Language. Do you deserve my pity? How would you earn it?" The paladin queried, the heel of his hand applying steady pressure to her mound now. 

  "I can be good, Paladin! I can be really good. So good." Her breathless use of his title had Danse's cock pounding, though he tried not to make it obvious. "Please Danse, please touch me…"

  Danse climbed up onto the bed alongside her, gently parting her labia with his fingers. "You'll be good for me, Elizabeth?" He asked, propping himself up with an elbow.

  "Yes, please."

  She had wonderful manners. Danse grazed her clit and her breath stuttered, the paladin spreading the liberal lubrication that she had already created with deft, slow strokes of his index. "Please, what?"

  "P-Please...Danse."

  He cautiously eased one finger into her, exhaling raggedly when her hand sought out his cock. "Vega-"

  "Shh, let me." Elizabeth hushed him, her smile a little dreamy as Danse crooked his finger and rubbed in just the right spot. "Oh, f-uck, Paladin, you--"

  "Language, Vega. Can't have you being a bad example while I'm knuckle deep in your cunt." Danse admonished, groaning when she whimpered. "You're so tight, this could take ages. We'll need to come up with some stretches to cope with this." He teased gruffly, sliding in another finger and spreading her open. "Mm, Elizabeth, you need to relax. Relax." He murmured, latching onto her breast.

  He felt her pussy clench down around his fingers and he took a greedy suckle from her breast, making Vega cry out his name, "Danse!" She twitched and writhed under his deft attack, her thighs quivering even as she tried to spread them wider for him. Her hand fell still on his cock, not that Danse minded. It had always been more about his partner, he couldn't care less if nothing was done for him. Watching someone else fall apart because of him...now that was its own reward.

  "What do I need to do to get you there, hmm?" Danse taunted playfully, tonguing sloppily over the peak of her breast. "What will it take, Elizabeth?"

  She arched her back in response, pressing her breast firmly against his mouth, and Danse gently nibbled on the sensitive area she had offered up. Elizabeth sobbed out, shoving one hand down to her cunt to spread herself even wider for his plundering fingers. "More, Danse! Please please please-" she begged, her moan when he pressed a third finger into her absolutely enough to have Danse hurrying to talk himself down. "Yes, Danse." She was practically growling, her arousal something primal and untamed. 

  If Danse had his way, it would stay like that forever. 

  "What is it that you want, Vega?" His inquiry was almost lazy, three fingers stroking in and out with much less resistance now. "Hmm, I wonder if you're wet enough to take me."

  "You can't just-" Vega made a noise of dismay. "That's not fair, Danse, that's not fair, you know it's not. Please, please fuck me." 

  Jesus. Danse almost choked on his own breath, letting his fingers slip out of her cunt. "How do you want me?" His voice broke noticeably. It felt like a lifetime since he had been desired, wanted in such a blatant and strangely pure fashion. She loved him. She wanted him inside her. Wanted him to make love to her. Wanted him.

  The speed at which she flung herself up a little higher on the bed made Danse want to laugh, but then she was arching her back and looking over her shoulder at him and he suddenly forgot how to breathe for a moment. "This okay?" She panted, brown hair all tumbled around her face as she took off her glasses and pitched them in the general direction of her bedside table.

  Danse nodded hurriedly, kicking his pants off. "If you need me to stop, just grab my hand." He instructed.

  "This isn't exactly my first time getting fucked, Danse-"

  "Language," the paladin reprimanded her with a chuckle, greedily fondling her rear as he mounted up behind her. "You have such a beautiful form, Vega." He murmured, leaning over to press a kiss between her shoulder blades. "An absolute vision."

  "I do have nice tits." 

  Danse rolled his eyes, slipping his hands down to grope said breasts. She gasped out, rocking back against him as he agreed, "yes you do, that can't be denied. Soft, the perfect size, they fit in my hands so well, and so sensitive." He found himself laughing when she whimpered again. "Don't offer up all your weak spots unless you want them taken advantage of, Vega."

  "The only thing I want to take advantage of right now is the raging hard-on I can feel." Elizabeth wriggled and Danse grunted, shuddering. "Pl-ease Danse, please put it in me."

  The paladin slipped his cock between her labia, the hot, slick flesh pressing against him mercilessly as he teased her. He suddenly felt her fingers on his cock and then-

  "Fuck." The paladin grated out the uncharacteristic curse through his teeth, his fists meeting the bedding on either side of her body as he fought the urge to thrust himself home in one breath.

  Elizabeth half-collapsed while he slowly, slowly rutted into her, the woman panting and clawing at the blankets. "Mmmgod, Danse-" she slurred, sighing loudly. "So good, fuck, Danse…"

  Danse toyed with her nipples, stupidly snarling "language," as she keened in reply. "I'll take care of you, Elizabeth. Be good for me." He pressed a kiss to her temple, smirking at the way her body quaked when he finally bottomed out in her. "That's it, look at you, taking all of me so well," he praised. "Now, how can I make you come?"

  "Fu--Please use your big cock to get me off, oh please Danse!" She begged and Danse fondled her breasts yet again.

  "You don't want me to touch you here, just like this?" He asked, stroking over her nipples and lingering to tease the area. "They're so hard, though, begging for my attention."

  Backhand made a noise of despair, burying her face in her pillow. 

  "I think you need me to play with them, don't you? You like when I touch them like this." Danse muttered, thinking out loud and coming to that realization even as the words left his mouth. "What is it about it that you like?"

  "S-Sensitive." Vega whimpered, "feels good."

  Danse rumbled again, bending over to press his chest to her back so he could whisper in her ear, "does it feel good when I'm inside you, Elizabeth? Can you feel how hard I am for you? Feel how badly I need you?" 

  Elizabeth gifted him this pitiful sound, canting her hips and clenching down around his cock so tightly it took Danse's breath away. "Yes, I love it. I need you too, Danse." She murmured, shifting back and forth ever so slightly.

  "Good. I'm glad." Danse took hold of her hips, seating his cock as deeply as he could in her cunt. Elizabeth whined, burying her face in her pillow again as he slowly began to make love to her. 

  Paladin Logan Danse, pride of the Brotherhood of Steel, had never been a man who took sex lightly. It was too important. Even after everything that had happened with Maxson, Danse still held to that belief. The display of vulnerability, the offer of power in exchange for pleasurable release, the brief moments of tenderness in an existence that was soul-crushingly difficult…

  It was serious. It always was. 

  Vega's arms gave out and she slumped onto the bed, but Danse followed her down. Covering her with his body, the paladin thrust into her again and again, her soft whimpers and cries of his name music to his ears. "What do you need, sweetheart?" He asked raggedly when she began to squirm and arch back against him. "What can I give you, Elizabeth?"

  "Fuck me, Danse!" She pleaded, turning her head to the side so she could see him. 

  "Language," Danse smiled, kissing her temple again. "But understood, ma'am."

  …

  For the first time since she'd awoken to an irradiated hellscape, Vega was wholly content to just lay down and be taken care of. 

  Danse was huge, proportionate to his already overgrown size, and he made the most incredible sounds when she inadvertently squeezed down on him. Groans burring in his chest like some untamed animal; he seemed content to just slowly fuck her into oblivion. Which was honestly more than she thought she would ever get. 

  Her fantasies, much as she'd believed they were wrong or silly at the time, didn't hold a candle to the reality of having Danse on top of her. She had gotten off more than once to this exact idea, being dominated and pinned by the massive paladin. This was a dream come true.

  Elizabeth whined when he bottomed out in her again and just rutted himself back and forth slightly, making her feel every inch of his cock. The underside of his dick throbbed against the spot that made her see stars and then, the bastard, he slid his cock out of her cunt to press the head to her clit for a second. "Turn over for me?" He requested, punctuated by a gentle smack to her ass.

  Vega rushed to obey, eager to have him back inside her as quickly as possible. The woman spread her legs wide so Danse could settle in between them and when the paladin did, he shifted upwards to kiss her tenderly. 

  "I've wanted this for so long." He admitted quietly.

  "So have I!" Elizabeth replied in delight, her grin beaming. She was sure she looked like a mess, her hair stuck to her forehead with sweat and her face all flushed. But the way Danse was smiling at her…

  She found she didn't really care about her appearance at this point in time.

  "I love you." Danse murmured as he slid back inside her. 

  "I l-love you, Danse." Vega stuttered, the natural curvature of his cock applying steady pressure to her g-spot. "Make me feel so good, fuck."

  "Language." He growled, making her laugh and then moan. 

  "Feels too good, brain can't cope." She gasped, wrapping her arms around his neck and tugging him closer until all he could do was grind down into her in a merciless manner. The motion flung her towards her peak, disconnecting her mouth even further from her brain and making her ramble into his ear, "God, I love you so much, make me feel so good--"

  "I love you too, Elizabeth." He panted into the hollow of her throat, "you feel incredible. Outstanding."

  Elizabeth wasn't sure how she could feel both so aroused she thought she might die and so annoyed that she wanted to explode. "Danse, did you just call my pussy outstanding?"

  "It's not an incorrect statement, from my perspective. It's perfect. Wet and tight and hot." The paladin praised her freely, a hand lowering to apply gentle pressure over the scar on her lower stomach. "Beautiful."

  I am not going to cry, Vega told herself sternly as she hid her face in Danse's neck. Definitely not going to cry, not going to.

  A sob somehow escaped her as she came and Danse froze, his whole body flinching when her cunt clenched down on his dick. "V...Vega?" He asked tentatively.

  "I'm fine! I'm fine, I promise, m'not hurt or anything. My brain is just dumb." Elizabeth hiccupped, rubbing her eyes. "I'm okay, Danse, I'm fine."

  The paladin seemed uncertain and she couldn't blame him, she didn't seem fine even if she felt a thousand times better than she had in literal months. 

  "I swear I'm okay, that was just...it was really intense, y'know?" She mumbled awkwardly, unable to make eye contact anymore. 

  She felt Danse shift his weight and then he settled down on top of her, holding her close and tight. "You're sure?" He murmured, "if you're overwhelmed, that's entirely acceptable. I'm not hurting you, am I?"

  "No, shit no, you feel incredible. I'm not going to be able to walk after this." Vega huffed, giggling a little when he rolled his eyes. "Keep going, okay? It feels fantastic."

  "If you're certain." Danse acquiesced, kissing a hot trail down her neck when she nodded. "Let me know if you need me to stop." 

  Watching his forearms cord with muscle as he propped himself back up again, Vega's mouth went dry. "I have to say, this might be the best night of my life." 

  Danse pressed a sweet kiss to her forehead, the tenderness of the action a wonderful contrast to the needy way he sheathed his cock in her body once more. "I've thought about this." He confessed again, punctuated by a roll of his hips. "What you'd sound like, look like beneath me. You put my imagination to shame." 

  "What did I do in your dreams?" Backhand asked, unable to keep from breathlessly laughing when Danse hid his face in her neck. "So shy, Paladin! Even with that huge cock in me?"

  "It's lewd, Elizabeth, I-I'm not proud of it." He mumbled. "Shouldn't have thought of you that way." He spread her legs wider, one hand on the back of each knee to urge her to bend. 

  "Mm, you thought about fucking me? Nice to know I'm not the only one with dirty thoughts." 

  "I did not." He protested staunchly. His cock slid back and forth between her pussy lips in a purposeful teasing motion. "I thought about how...I thought about how good it would feel to make love to you." He continued, his voice wavering slightly as his dick brushed her entrance and he plunged deep yet again. "Thought about how good I could make you feel."

  Now it was Vega's turn to be shy, the woman looking away from him and flushing.

  "It was still inappropriate at the...time, but I assure you it was never about that. I am not-" Danse struggled for a moment to find the words, before he sighed and rested his forehead against her own. "This already isn't simple, and I know I make it miles less so. Forgive me."

  "I feel like it's pretty simple." Vega gasped, twitching as his fingers landed on her clit. "I f--fuck, Danse--I feel like it's real simple. You like me. Love me, yeah?"

  "It's more than that, dammit." Danse growled, rubbing her clit in merciless circles. "What you did for me...how can I ever be worth your affection? Hell, your time?"

  Elizabeth threw her head back, arching her entire body up into his chest. "Whatever good I give to you," she moaned, almost exasperated that they were even having this discussion, "you deserve it. Take it." 

  Danse's hands latched down on her hips, thumbs stroking back and forth over her pronounced stretch marks as he fucked into her so fiercely that Vega swore she saw stars. His pelvis ground against her own, body hair providing a delicious new sensation that had Vega grasping at the blankets in an effort to keep herself grounded. "I'm going to come, Elizabeth." Danse panted. "Where do you-"

  "Inside." Backhand implored him, "come inside me, Paladin, please come inside me-" Her voice broke as she begged and Danse groaned loud, the sound incredulous.

  "You...inside? Are you sure?" He asked through gritted teeth, dark brown eyes conveying his uncertainty. In reply, Vega dug the heels of her feet in beneath his rear, effectively locking him in place. 

  She caught a handful of his hair, gently tugging it until he leaned down again so she could seethe in his ear, "yes."

  "Oh, dammit." With that wonderfully characteristic swear, Danse shoved his mouth against hers gracelessly. The heat in her belly spilled over from the onslaught of his enthusiastic thrusts and Backhand cried out, fingernails digging into his back when she came a second time. 

  Danse, either spurred on by her sounds or by the way her pussy gripped his dick (maybe a combination? Backhand mused) found his release seconds after, his voice breaking and dropping into a lower tone as he moaned her name. Her real name.

  Elizabeth.

  Vega cupped the nape of his neck, guiding his face into the hollow of her shoulder. "Lay down, sweetheart, you're shaking." She murmured, stroking over his quivering back.

  "Don't want to flatten you." Danse rasped, his dick still throbbing inside her.

  "Lay down. It's okay." Elizabeth flexed her bicep. "I'm strong, I can handle it." Danse laughed wearily, almost immediately going limp on top of her. She wrapped her arms back around him, fingers digging into the knots that she found to ease out the tension. "There, isn't that better?"

  "Mmmmuch." Danse slurred into her neck, sounding exhausted. "Love you."

  "I love you. Sleep, okay? We'll get cleaned up later. Right now though you seem like you could use a nap."

  Danse nodded, the tangled mess of his hair mashed flat against her cheek in the process. "Want...to be a good parent." He mumbled several minutes later, just as Vega had thought he was dozing off. Danse propped himself up with one arm, cradling Vega's cheek in his palm. His thumb absently traced the cryo burn marks from the stasis as he continued, "a true partner for you. I don't know if you...if you even want me in that capacity, I--I don't know whether you would prefer that Shaun thinks of me as simply your friend, but I-"

  "Danse," Elizabeth interrupted him sternly, raising an eyebrow. "Someone who's simply a friend wouldn't be balls deep in me."

  Danse sputtered, his blush spreading down his neck to his chest. Despite his proclivity for dirty talk in the moment, he was endearingly embarrassed by her blunt words. Vega felt her heart pound as he floundered to collect himself, the large man looking away. 

  He's really nothing at all like Nate.

  "Danse." Her voice was gentler this time, unmistakable affection bleeding through. "I would have to ask Shaun, of course, and I'd like to have an adjustment period before I do so that he can get comfortable with the idea on his own, but…" The young woman swallowed hard. Why was she so nervous all of a sudden? Oh sure, she could handle the vulnerability of being naked and fucked with absolute abandon but this? This was where her brain drew the line? Unbelievable, Backhand grumbled at herself. "I think the odds are in your favor." She concluded with a grin.

  "You...even though I'm not-?"

  "He's probably the last person to care about that kinda' stuff, Danse. C'mon." Vega chided, running her fingers through his sweaty hair. "Now. We are...absolutely disgusting. We need a bath big time."

  "I...you're right, of course." Danse agreed absently, still seeming shocked at the whole scenario. "I should...w-we should bathe. Er, at the same time. To save water." He didn't meet her eyes, his attention focused somewhere by her left shoulder. 

  Elizabeth laughed, bumping their foreheads together before carefully scooting up the bed. His cock slipped out of her and she couldn't help her sigh, the noise echoed by the paladin who tilted his chin to catch her with a kiss.

  "You are amazing." He breathed when they parted, his smile small but sincere. "I'm...I'll be hard-pressed to keep my hands off you, Elizabeth."

  "Why bother?" Vega asked, chuckling as he ducked back in for another kiss. 

  ...

  Hours later, Danse laid awake while Elizabeth slept peacefully on his chest. The paladin stared up at the ceiling, his mind running rampant.

  The future.

  He hadn't really dared to think about it since discovering his true identity. Hadn't felt like it was something he deserved. After all, if he was just a machine, it hardly mattered. But Elizabeth…

  She thought it mattered. She wanted him. Wanted him to stay with her. Wanted him to act as a father. Pending Shaun's approval, of course. 

  It was surreal how much his life had changed, how far they had come in such a short amount of time. Danse was a little overwhelmed by it all, if he was being honest. Scared, yet hopeful at the same time. And, he thought as he wrapped his arm around Elizabeth, incredibly, immensely grateful.

  This new world was unforgiving, the universe coldly testing the mettle of a man time and again. But Danse had finally come out the other side, and he liked to think he had changed for the better. 

  Whatever the future held, they would face it together. 

  Ad Victoriam, General Vega. Thank you for having faith in me.

[siribear]

before they leave, virgil reveals he has plans for their relay. a pipe dream, he called it, to get back into the institute. get the serum himself. but now that they’ve come - it’s the most excited, most hopeful, he’s been their entire time here.

by contrast, deacon isn’t happy to learn the plans are on the terminal. with no spare holotapes to download the plans on, she has to interface with the terminal herself. which means she has to step out of the power armor and bathe in radiation until a rad-x pill kicks in.

and it does, but not before she feels the growing headache, the ache in her gums. the plans download to her pip boy quickly in comparison.

‘think we should relocate out here?’ deacon says suddenly. ‘even the institute doesn’t want to come out here. worth it in exchange for the radiation, if you ask me.’

whisper looks over her shoulder to see him fiddling with some scrap on a table. keeping his hands busy, maybe. while one hand pokes at an old typewriter, the other is balled into a fist. his fingers flex, then clench, then flex.

‘i can have sturges draw up a floor plan for your new house when we get back, how about that? we’ll start construction when we bring back virgil’s serum.’

he walks up beside her, puts an arm around her shoulders. ‘this is why you’re my favorite.’ his voice sounds even more distorted through his suit up close, unfiltered through the power armor’s speakers. ‘always giving me something to look forward to.’

before she has time to register and unpack that statement, virgil’s terminal pings. file transfer complete. she has him check for any missing pieces, any file corruption, just in case. it’s all there. every little piece that’ll bring her to shaun.

except one.

‘someone will have to decode the courser chip before it will take you anywhere,’ virgil explains. ‘that’s the only missing piece.’

‘we know a guy,’ deacon says, ushering her back into the power armor. honestly. a girl collapses from radiation poisoning once and now it’s an issue. ‘anything else we need to know?’

virgil ignores him and looks up at her once she’s fully settled within the armor. he considers her, frowning. ‘you look.. familiar,’ he says slowly.

‘i’ve heard that before.’ from the synth she met with danse. he looked at her and said he could trust her.

he hums. ‘how old is your son?’

at that, whisper pauses. she - doesn’t know. the boy in kellogg’s memories has her confused. is shaun still a baby? or is he that ten year old she saw with kellogg? how long after the murder and kidnapping did she really wake up? whisper clears her throat. ‘an infant,’ she answers. ‘why?’

a heavy sigh is her answer before he shakes his head. ‘it’s nothing. the virus,’ he says, eventually, ‘has its side effects. sometimes i think i’m losing parts of myself.’ he knows something, or thinks he knows something. or maybe the combination of the virus and isolation have gotten to him.

whisper lifts her left arm slightly. ‘it’ll take some time to complete all of this, but i promise, i’ll be back with your serum.’

virgil nods. ‘thank you.’

-

deacon is almost comical in his ushering her out of the cave. ‘i thought you wanted to put down roots here?’

he grunts, slapping his hand against the back of the armor to get her to move faster. ‘right. casa del deacon. that’s after we get back, though. for now, we should go.’

‘alright, alright. i can’t wait to get out of this tin can, anyway.’ she breaks into a jog; the power armor’s strength carries her bounding steps further than deacon’s expecting. he yells hey! as she speeds back toward the edge of the glowing sea.

the return trip is quicker than the initial journey. they opt to keep walking through the night, dodging around packs of ferals and more wandering deathclaws until they’re finally out of the sea. she and deacon remove their respective helmets once her geiger counter finally stops ticking halfway down the road. blood drips onto one of the gauntlets, pooled at the bottom of her helmet collar.

at the edge of a small farmstead, nestled in a grove of dead trees, they treat her bloody nose and rising rads. a man interrupts deacon hooking up her radaway bag, gun raised, he shifts it between the two of them. ‘what do brotherhood bastards want now?’

whisper brings a blood-soaked cloth away from her nose. ‘not brotherhood,’ she explains, nasally. she illuminates her power armor with her pip boy, the area awash in green. ‘have they been through here much?’

the man lowers his gun slightly. ‘asked for supplies. a place to stay. kicked my own kids out of their beds so they could sleep here. if you aren’t brotherhood, what do you want?’

‘my partner here’s got two left feet,’ deacon explains. ‘tripped and fell on her nose. we just need to rest a moment. outside your house. totally out of your way.’

whisper snorts, more blood spurting from her nose. she spits red onto the ground. ‘we’ll move on soon, and we won’t be a burden on you or your children.’

the man grunts. ‘you’re minutemen, right?’ at whisper’s nod, ‘come on. at least i can keep a better eye on you inside, if you’re lying.’

deacon stuffs the ivs and needles back in his bag, and whisper removes the fusion core from the power armor and tucks it in her own. she removes a pouch of caps and hands it over to the man. ‘i don’t know if this will make it up to you, but - ‘

he takes it. ‘didn’t know if you minutemen would know how to find us out here. no caravans. my kids only hear the stories on the radio. my little girl’s a big fan of the general.’

deacon elbows her lightly, then tips her head back again and leads her toward the house. ‘i’ll make sure a patrol makes it down here. supplies, food, anything we can provide.’

‘you’re the general?’ he asks with disbelief. then he laughs, his demeanor changing completely. ‘oh, my little girl’s gonna love this.’

-

between whisper’s recovery and deacon’s stories to the kids, they end up staying the night. the father ushers the bother and sister back to their rooms once the sun begins to set. the exhausted pair are left alone with a pile of extra clothes on the floor as bedding and frayed blankets draped over a lone couch. broken and open windows allow the cold night air to blow through the small house. whisper sits on the couch, curled in on herself with one of the blankets wrapped around her.

‘you’ve got a little fan,’ deacon murmurs at her feet, wrapped in his own blanket.

‘and you told her i killed the mirelurk queen by myself.’ she kicks him softly.

‘hey, i was knocked out. what do i know?’

she chuckles lightly, drapes her arms over his shoulders and rests her chin on his head. under the ever-present wig, deacon’s now sporting a rough, ginger stubble that scratches against her chin. whisper watches the kids in the other room, smiling, as they sprawl out in their sleep.

deacon runs a finger along her palm, and her fingers curl in response. ‘what’s on your mind, partner?’

‘these kids have to deal with a lot,’ she says, airily. ‘back - back where i’m from, it wasn’t this harsh. certainly not perfect, but nothing like this. but they’re still finding things to be excited about. they looked so happy listening to you.’

‘it’s you everyone’s enamored with, pal. that little girl definitely wants to be you when she grows up.’

‘she’ll have to find herself a mouthy partner, then. wouldn’t be the same without one.’

-

at some point in the middle of the night, whisper abandoned the couch entirely, and finds herself waking up curled next to deacon on the floor. she sits up, one of deacon’s arms sliding down to rest in her lap. the rest of the members of the house are already awake, despite the sun barely having risen. beside her, deacon stirs.

‘i’m getting too old for this, for sure.’ he stretches out like a cat. ‘the kids are up, too? man.’

whisper notes he isn’t surprised at all to see her next to him. ‘come on, old man. let’s go home.’

-

they haven’t talked at all about what virgil told them. maybe he’s waiting until they return to hq so they don’t have to repeat themselves when making their plans - and even have more opinions on what’s surely going to be a ridiculous plan. whisper remembers the dead bodies strewn about the switchboard. the names deacon could remember. methodically and easily cut down, only slowed but not stopped by hails of turret fire.

‘a courser,’ deacon says absently. always following her own train of thought.

‘a courser,’ she repeats.

he sucks in air between his teeth. ‘that’s not gonna be easy.’

she sighs. ‘you saw him. if there were another way, he’d know. for now, this is what i’m stuck with.’

‘i’ve seen you do some crazy things, whisper, but this?’ he pauses. ‘tom could probably cook something up with those blueprints. let’s have fighting a courser be the last resort, okay?’

he’s scared. deacon, who led her into a den of synths with just the two of them, who followed her into the glowing sea despite its inhabitants, is scared. ‘you don’t have to do this. i’ve seen power armor take a beating.’

‘what kind of partner would i be if i let you go after a courser alone? if that’s what you want to do, i’ll be there. let’s just explore our options, first.’

‘okay,’ is all she says in return. she can’t allow his nerves to get to her. not since this is for shaun. she’s so close now; whether deathclaw or courser, she can’t let anything stand in her way. but it will be comforting to have him by her side.

-

sturges greets them at the gates to the castle, and she’s all too eager to hand over the power armor to him. he notes the flecks of blood in the helmet and the dried stain on her jumpsuit, but she waves him off. ‘radiation. where’s preston?’

‘in the armory, working with a few others on building more guns. havin’ trouble keepin’ everyone armed, now.’ he grins. ‘but that’s tons more friends we’ve got, and much less more enemies, right?’

whisper is mostly just glad to get out of the armor. the reminder that she’s now built a militia, an army, doesn’t bring the same smile to her face. with the prydwen looming across the bay, she remembers the words from nate’s speech, the only part she didn’t have to help him write: war never changes.

‘how’s everything going here, then? i see the shops are coming back outside now.’

sturges ducks down into the hallway. ‘yep. we’ve had some caravans out of bunker hill set up inside those old buildings. a family or two are living further down the neighborhood and joined us. all’s goin’ pretty well.’

when they reach the armory, there’s already a group of minutemen standing in the small room. it smells of gunpowder and grease, and a stack of ammunition sits on the middle table along with a series of laser rifles and pipe guns scattered along the other tables. with the slight rumbling from the power armor, one of the minutemen drops a screw for his pipe gun and looks up at the incoming armor.

there’s a scramble of movement as the minutemen move out of the way while also trying to clean up their mess of weaponry. sturges makes it through to the power armor station toward the back. the armor powers down, and after he steps out of the armor, pulls down a series of hooks to hold the frame in place.

with the power armor out of the way, the others finally see her walking down the hallway. the minutemen stand at attention, black-stained hands across their brows. preston, however, moves away from the bench, his jacket slung over a chair in the corner. he approaches her, hands reaching for her but stops himself short.

with a sigh and a soft smile, he says, ‘i’m glad you made it back safe, general.’

whisper looks behind him to the minutemen standing at attention. ‘thank you, preston. i do have something to talk to you about. and you, sturges,’ she adds, noting that he’s already put on a pair of safety goggles and heavy gloves.

after telling the rest of the minutemen to return to what they were doing, whisper leads them down into the tunnels and to sarge’s terminal. deacon startles at the doorway. ‘uh, anyone else see that thing, or did i eat some bad rations on the road again?’

‘he’s deactivated, don’t worry.’

deacon looks him over. ‘he’s facing that terminal. did he deactivate himself?’ whisper takes a deep breath. ‘whisper.’

she shoves his shoulder, but he crosses his arms. ‘you can punish me later, okay? but first - ‘ whisper explains virgil as she loads up the plans onto the terminal. behind her, sturges whistles.

‘complicated, but given some time, i can do it. this part, though,’ he circles a finger around the schematic for a computer, ‘that’s gonna be the hard part.’

‘we know a guy,’ whisper and deacon say simultaneously.

at that, sturges nods. ‘alright. no problemo. give me a few months, and - ‘

whisper nearly chokes. ‘months?’

‘this is a pretty big contraption here, general. we gotta clear out an area, build the thing - and the amount of materials we have to collect. our numbers will help, but it’ll be a while.’

months. her stomach sinks, same as when she walked into kellogg’s empty house and found nothing. a hand suddenly lands on her shoulder, startling her. ‘a vacation. thank you, sturges,’ deacon says, voice pitched higher to match her own. in his voice, ‘we have to coordinate with our other friends, too. and i’m sure everyone will come out of the woodwork with their own problems they want you to solve. it’ll pass quickly, don’t worry.’

whisper takes a deep breath. right. months to finish, months to scratch everything else off her to-do list. she angles her head in his direction. ‘to our friends, then? should we bring them here, so they can work together?’

deacon grimaces. ‘that’s between des and tom. the amount of battery acid injections he’ll make us all take before he agrees..’ he trails off with a wince.

‘battery acid?’

‘carrington wasn’t happy when he introduced it.’ he shrugs. ‘less happy when i let him inject me with it. i might be able to convince him, but it’s up to des.’

preston and sturges look at each other, then to whisper. ‘it’s, um. a long story.’ she shrugs off deacon’s arm and inserts one of the holotapes on the desk. ‘just in case, i’m going to make a copy. that way tom can at least look at it.’ she does and puts the holotape in her bag.

‘alrighty then. you and your friends story everything out.’ he claps whisper on the shoulder, and she’s sure there’s going to be a bruise from all the reassurances today. ‘i’ll get started on this right away. don’t you worry.’

but she worries. back up the stairs, she worries. because it’s months. she barely notices preston still following behind her until he puts a hand on the small of her back. ‘i don’t... mean to add more to everything going on, general, but i thought you should know: mama murphy’s been asking about you. she wants to talk to you, back in sanctuary.’

mama murphy. ‘you don’t think she had a vision, do you?’

‘i hope not. she has to take jet to see anything. can you - can you check in on her, at least? i’m sure the longs would like you see you, as well.’

‘of course. i should see how codsworth and dogmeat are doing, too.’

‘right. uh,’ he removes his hand and takes a step back. ‘i guess i’ll coordinate a few groups to retrieve scrap metal for this project.’ he wipes his brow. ‘after a shower.’

‘i know a few places that might have some useful scraps. i can mark it on - ‘ she pauses, then, ‘did you say shower?’

‘yeah, sturges found some piping after we cleared out a collapsed wing. we put up some curtains and he set up a few showers.’

whisper blinks, then bolts toward the workshop once more. tom and mama murphy can wait. she’s going to take a shower.

[fallout4treasures]

I’m bored. Here are my actor choices for a Fallout 4 movie.

I don’t think it’s everyone, but it still took me all day.

I tried to keep them in a rough order of appearance.

Also, I based Nate and Nora off of the games’ preset. However, if I were actually casting a movie, I would just have open auditions. But anyway, here we go.

Nate:

Milo Ventimiglia

It was between him and Jensen Ackles. But honestly, I already had my Nora choice in my heart and I could just see Milo and her running to the vault in a panic together. If that’s not enough I saw Nate in him instantly. The widowed soldier desperately looking for his son in the annihilated future. Plagued with nightmares, but he would still stay warm and uplifting. Milo + Jumpsuit + Dogmeat = Yes, please.

Nora:

Anne Hathaway

Anything I say about her won’t do her justice. First off, she’s easily one of the most talented actors of all time. From the Princess Diaries to Les Miserables, she has proved time and time again that she can be anyone she wants to. Could she be a full-of-life but grief ridden mother, making new friends and enemies while shooting her way through the Commonwealth to find her kidnapped child? In her fucking sleep. Plus her presence would be plenty strong enough to stand up to any of the rest of our star studded, “would-be” cast.

Codsworth & all the Mr. Handy bots(voice):

Tim Curry 

I just want to see it, I have no other excuse.

Conrad Kellogg:

Christopher Meloni

I kept wanting to go with Jeffery Dean Morgan, but I just didn’t think I could learn to hate that face the way I hate Kellogg’s. But then once I thought of Christopher there was no other choice. He can do the voice and the terrifying, non-emotional thing with no issue. (His character seriously got to me in Handmaid’s Tale.) But he could also be relatable enough to actually feel for Kellogg while diving through his memories. 

Preston Garvey:

John Boyega

I had definitely forgotten about John when I was browsing through. My husband and I actually discussed him versus Donald Glover for awhile. In the end we decided that Boyega’s Preston would have a stronger stoic side as well as the fun loving friend. I think he would effortlessly display Preston’s disappointment in the Minutemen, as well as his survivor’s guilt.

Sturges:

Chris Pratt

This part is way too small for Chris nowadays, but I really think he could fall into Sturges’ carefree 50’s mechanic vibe. Plus I could see him throwing in a new sarcastic side to him that could be fun. If not, then I think he would still take him on perfectly, line for line.

Mama Murphy:

Helen Mirren

She’s powerful. She’s gorgeous. I would almost be afraid she would steal from anyone else on screen with her. And yet, it’s the surreal power that’s needed to make Mama Murphy a real life character. So there ya go. 

Paladin Danse:

John Krasinski

Have you seen him in Jack Ryan? I really think he could embody Danse, heart and soul. From his hardened and serious outsides to his soft, broken, and vulnerable insides. He would play the soldier with so much heart, and would probably have us sobbing when he struggles over his new identity. (Me being in love with both of them has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.) Plus him in a flight suit. Nuff said.

Piper Wright:

Kat Dennings

First off, she’s freaking gorgeous. Second, I think Piper’s fiery personality would fit her like a glove. Plus she would take on the role of Nat’s big sister perfectly. If you’ve seen her in Thor then you already know she makes an excellent side-kick and adds some great comic relief.  

Mayor McDonough:

Alec Baldwin

I jumped around a lot with this one. I even considered people like James Spader and Jack Nicholson (too old, I know). But then I remembered Alec’s ability to lay on the cheeeeeese. I have no doubt he could handle McDonough’s suspicious but seemingly normal character, and transitioning into his manic and desperate attempt to stay alive. Plus, he would nail his “I am not a synth!” speech, finding the perfect balance of creepy and welcoming.

Ellie Perkins:

Ellie Kemper

She has an adorable, scrappy, and loving personality that glows every time she’s on screen. I don’t think I’ve seen her in anything serious, personally, but I bet she’d be up for the challenge. Especially to fill the role for someone cute and spunky like Ellie. 

Nick Valentine:

Liev Schreiber

I really, really struggled with this one. Obviously CGI and other special effects would have to happen no matter what, but whoever I chose still had to have those serious eyes, warm and friendly smile, and that old Boston gumshoe voice. Cue Liev. He’s probably a touch young, but if we’re already using CGI anyway so who cares.

Elder Arthur Maxson:

Tom Hardy

I don’t even feel the need to explain myself here. Venom. That’s all I’ll say.

X6-88: 

Michael B. Jordan

As sweet as his smile is, I feel like the minute Jordan pulls on a stone cold look, blood would drain the face of whoever was playing opposite of him. However he would easily be able to add the oddly comforting touch X6 has when he watches over the Sole Survivor. 

Desdemona:

Laura Prepon

Her commanding and sexy vibe in everything she plays is absolutely perfect. At least for me. She’s a bit young, but I think it would be easy enough to age her up. She would naturally become the leader of the Railroad, and would totally scare the piss out of everyone in her way.

Deacon:

Ryan Alosio 

Yep, the man himself. He’s got the look, the charisma, and he can obviously do Deac’s iconic voice. Don’t fix what’s not broken. If you’re not convinced, watch this very impressive reel of his. Or do it anyway because DAMN. It was shameful how quickly I fell in love. 

https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3911957785?ref_=nmvi_vi_imdb_1

Tinker Tom:

Anthony Mackie

Tom has a whole lot of energy to keep up with. I pushed him off to one of the last ones I chose because he is just so unique, and I actually needed my husband’s opinion. We finally settled on the talented and energetic Anthony. He’s goofy, absolutely lovable, and would probably have way too much fun playing into the crazy conspiracy bits.

Father(Old Man Shaun):

Gary Oldman

I feel bad not giving this brilliant actor a bigger role. His chameleon ability could land him almost anything here, but his soft but strong voice is literally perfect for Father’s. Just age him up a bit and he’ll melt into the role like with everything he doeswewse. He would make the reunion with Shaun 1000x more intense and emotional, and I could see him almost convincing all of us to join the Institute. I mean, it’s Gary fucking Oldman.

(Side Quest Characters)

John Hancock:

James Franco 

I actually couldn’t believe I hadn’t put this together before. I’m starting to wonder if Hancock was actually written for James. Super chill, but not scared to get shit done. Including taking care of Finn in the most casual and Godfather way possible within the first few moments of meeting him. Then afterward he would take some chems with Sole and talk about life for awhile. I’m totally okay with this idea.

Robert MacCready:

James Marsden 

I’ll be honest, I have never played with MacCready before. I had to watch some videos to get a feel for it but in the end I feel like I found a solid choice. I know he’s “pretty” but throw on some scruff, dirt, and a green cap and he’s there. Think Westworld.

Cait:

Karen Gillan

Cait can kick my ass any day, and that’s how I feel about Karen. They are both just so breathtakingly badass. Any sole survivor would struggle to keep from lusting after her, and then caring deeply as they worked through her drug addiction. 

Curie:

Mélanie Laurent

Both Curie and Melanie are just innocently stunning and can light up a room with a smile. Curie would be especially difficult because not only is she gorgeous, but she’s almost always the smartest one in the room, but I think Melanie could do her justice.

---

So there is our very expensive cast list!

There’s a lot here that I feel on the fence about but this was still a lot of fun to do. I’m sure there are other actors that I have forgotten that could take on these characters too, so let me know what you would have done differently!

[returnn-of-the-mac]

The companions (+ Maxson) talk to Sole about an annoying or boring subject and Sole screams Shut Up! 🤐

This one was a lot of fun! Sorry it took so long to complete! If I were a companion in this request, I think I would annoy Sole by fangirling over MCR. Other than that, I’m totally 100% Codsworth (tag yoself when you’re done reading). I also had to change some name brands to made-up pseudonyms to avoid copyright issues. I normally like to write a silent Sole, but this request kinda required a talking Sole. Anyway, please enjoy!😄 (also the movie nickname rq one should be out either tonight or tomorrow!)

FO4 Companions (+Maxson) React: Companions Rambling & Sole Telling Them to Shut Up

Sole’s eye twitched as their companion rambled on for the third day in a row about the same topic. As much as they adored their companion and admired their enthusiasm about the subject, they couldn’t take it anymore. A fed-up Sole stopped dead in their tracks, turned around, and snapped:

Strong:

“Shut up! I‘m done listening to you explain the best way to gut and cook rotting narwhal flesh,” Sole fumed, “I don’t care if you drench it in tato paste or barbecue blood. I’m never going to eat it, Strong. Never!”

Strong frowned, “No be mean human! Or no find milk! Be nice!”

“Strong, I’m sorry. I’m not eating a parasite-infested narwhal corpse.”

“Come on! Rotting horn whale taste like giant fish stick!”

Deacon:

”Shut up! I don’t want to hear about the benefits of changing the HQ password to DEACON IS COOL anymore,” Sole hissed, “Besides, there is a huge hole in your plan. You can’t even spell that with the letters available!”

“Woah there, calm down pal. I didn’t think of that,” Deacon mumbled. He quickly lit up, “But there’s nothing a little permanent marker can’t fix!”

“You think Desdemona isn’t going to notice black marker squiggles all over the door?”

Deacon scoffed, “Um, I’m not stupid. That’s why I’m going to use a brown marker, pal.”

Curie:

“Shut up! I can’t listen to you talk about spinal contusions and brain injuries anymore. It’s making me squeamish.”

Curie immediately stopped talking and her face fell.

“Curie, I’m sorry, I—“

“I’m sorry, [Madame/Monsieur],” the synth began, her eyes welling with tears, “I hope I didn’t upset you. I just find that topic fascinating.”

Gage:

“Shut up! I don’t care about all the pranks you’ve played on Mason. I don’t blame him for being pissed off.”

“Damn. Anyone teach ya manners, boss?” Gage scowled, “Anyway, what? Ya ain’t gonna appreciate the fact that I egged the furry bastard while he was ramblin some mumbo-jumbo-bullshit to his pack of loonies?”

Sole shook their head.

“Or that I lit a bag of Molerat shit on fire right on top of his pompous-ass throne?”

Sole shook their head again.

“Well, boss. You ain’t got no sense of humor, then.”

Piper:

“Shut up! I’m sick and tired about hearing about how Sturges is a synth,” Sole shouted, “I can get behind McDonough being a synth, but there is no way that Sturges is one.”

“But Blue, he has all the signs. He—“

“And so what? What do you want me to do? Even if he hypothetically is a synth, I’m not turning my back on him. I’m still friends with Danse and I’m not dead yet. Curie’s a synth and she’s a sweetheart. X6? Nick?”

Piper‘s face dropped for a moment, before glaring at Sole and turning her back.

Sole sighed, “Piper, I—“

“Don’t talk to me right now.,” The reporter hissed.

Longfellow:

“Shut up! I don’t care about the eight basic knots.”

Longfellow shook his head in disappointment, “I understand you’re sick of this old man bugging you about tying knots, but it is useful information. You never know when you could find yourself in a situation where you need to tie a good ol reef knot, or clove hitch!”

Longfellow pulled a small rope from out of his pocket and Sole sighed.

“Shall we attempt a figure-eight knot today?”

MacCready:

“Shut up! Stop talking about Santa Claus. I know you read about him in an old book we found but—“

MacCready stubbornly crossed his arms, “Oh yeah? I think you’re just being a snob. Some of us haven’t been lucky enough experienced this, [name]. How can you not obsess over a fat guy who spies on people to see if they’re good, breaks into homes, and leaves presents?That’s so cool!” He paused, “I…probably would’ve gotten coal though.”

Sole’s eyebrows furrowed, “Mac—“

“It’s a darn shame he had to die when the bomb dropped. He could’ve brought so much joy to the Commonwealth.”

“—he’s not real.”

MacCready’s jaw dropped, “But the books, the posters, the pictures…there’s so much evidence.”

“Marketing.”

MacCready shook his head in disappointment, “Pre-war Capitalist propaganda…”

Ada:

“Shut up! I already told you I don’t know what a Sara is. How am I supposed to understand what you’re talking about when you tell me you were a Sara prototype?”

“[Sir/Ma’am], like I said before: Sara was a virtual assistant software that was going to be implemented in all future Vault Tec electronic devices. It had a speech recognition engine that could assist users. My biggest flaw was that I could not translate into other languages. I was scraped and remained inactive in a dumpster for years before Jackson reprogrammed me.”

“I still can’t wrap my head around that technological advancement. It doesn’t seem real.”

“Yes, it was highly advanced. That is why it did not make its debut before the bombs dropped.”

Hancock:

“Shut up! I’m done listening to your crazy Daddy-O trip stories. If you hate the chem so much, why don’t you stop taking it?”

Hancock laughed, “Well, [brother/sister], my Daddy-O rides are a lot more fun to talk about than my Jet or Mentat highs,” he thought for a moment, “I mean, besides the time I solved the theory of Quantum Physics on a Mentat high— that was fuckin wild— but other than that it’s more entertaining to talk about the time I shoved an entire summer squash up my ass while on the Big D.”

Cait:

“Shut up! I wish we’d never found that copy of 40 Shades of Silver. Please stop talking about it.”

“Darlin, I never read. But I could not for the life of me put down that book,” Cait sighed, “It was so…wonderfully smutty.”

Sole grimaced.

“That lass really knows how to have a good time. Sounds like a fantasy of mine, gettin hot n dirty n aggressive like that.”

“Stop…”

“Why? Ain’t it a pleasure to talk about?”

Codsworth:

“Shut up! I don’t understand your obsession with Mr. Tidy Magic Erasers. You’ve been talking about them now for. Three. Days.”

Codsworth beamed, “Well, [sir/mum], you know what they say: there’s no tidy like Mr. Tidy!”

Sole rolled their eyes.

“Besides, have you seen how well those suckers eliminate stuck-on grease and grime from dishes,” Codsworth began, “Oh wait, you haven’t. That’s right. You don’t wash your own dishes.”

Preston:

“Shut up! I’m sick and tired of hearing about all the settlements that need our help. Maybe they‘d have a better chance of defending themselves if we didn’t coddle them.”

Preston crossed his arms, “How could you say that, General? I thought you truly embraced the values of the Minutemen.”

“I do Preston, but I think we just need to take a break.”

“Justice never rests. These settlements need us, General. I understand it’s exhausting, but we need to protect these innocent people from the dangers of the Commonwealth.”

Nick:

“Shut up! Please, no more dad jokes. I’m begging you, Nick,” Sole plead, “I’m…I’m annoyed.”

The detective chuckled, “Hi annoyed, I’m Nick Valentine. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Stop!”

“I’m not moving!”

Sole grunted in defeat at the detective wore a smug smirk, pleased by the outcome of his jokes.

Maxson:

“Shut up! I’m tired of hearing about the technological prowess of the Prydwen. It’s not that great. It’s just a blimp.”

“Show some respect,” Maxson growled, “And you think the Prydwen is just a blimp? How dare you deride the work of the prestigious mechanics who designed the Prydwen. It is my pride and joy. It is the most advanced vehicle in the Commonwealth.”

“Maybe you should get those prestigious mechanics to work on your Vertibird death traps.”

Maxson frowned, “Vertibird design overhauls are in the agenda. We just have more important projects to tackle before then…such as the redesign of my quarters,” Sole shook their head as Maxson pulled out a color card, “I’m thinking a Deep Ruby Maroon would feel more homey than the current Grumpy Grunt Grey I currently have. But I also like Apple Cider Brown. What do you think?”

Danse:

“Shut up! Can we please just talk about something other than the Fancy Lad Snack cakes?” Sole pled.

“First of all, don’t talk to me like that, soldier. That’s blatant disrespect and I will not tolerate it,” Danse barked.

“Sorry…”

“Second, that Courser friend of yours is out of his damn mind. How can any sane individual honestly believe that strawberry Fancy Lads are superior to vanilla ones?”

“Each to their own?”

“That only pertains to subjective topics. This argument— if we can even call it that— is a solid fact and therefore cannot be disputed.”

X6-88:

“Shut up! What is with synths and Fancy Lad snack cakes? You’ve been raving about them for three days.”

“Hey, now. I suggest you calm down,” X6 warned, “A lot of people— such as your Brotherhood friend— like the vanilla cakes, [sir/ma’am], but the real delicacy are the strawberry cakes with chocolate icing.”

“Does it really matter who likes what flavor?”

“Yes. This is an urgent matter. We should not have to dispute this to be completely honest. It is a fact that strawberry Fancy Lads are superior to vanilla ones.”

[atombombbagel]

Ahhhh these make me feel sad for Nate. Can you do a third version where Nate can be happy too and everyone is friends? 🐣

Okay! So this is another Alternate Ending (we’ll call it ALT 3) to the Nate Drama! 

PART 1ALTERNATE ENDING 1ALTERNATE ENDING 2

Sole was a little frightened by the way Nate might react to thenews. She was leaving him, for good. Nate smiled as Sole appeared in his sightsand she returned the look with a polite smile. Sole looked down at the groundfor a moment, she didn’t want to hurt him, but she also couldn’t lie to himabout how she felt. It wouldn’t be fair on either of them, or the [companion] shewas currently dating. The whole situation was complicated.

“You’re back, I know this was a lot to take in,” Nateacknowledged, wrapping his arms around Sole in a brief hug. Sole smiled with uncertainty at him. “Are you alright?” he asked in concern and Sole shook her head.

“Nate… I can’t be with you,” Sole admitted, her gaze fallingback to the ground. She felt ashamed that she couldn’t look him in the eye asshe spoke. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. She was surprised when Nate reached forwardand gently rubbed her arm.

“I understand. I’ve heard a lot about what you’ve done aroundthe Commonwealth.” He smiled at her. “You’ve changed and that’s okay.”

“I don’t… you’re okay with this?” Sole stepped back in confusion.This definitely wasn’t how she was expecting things to go. Nate looked behindSole, noticing the [companion] standing behind her.

“Is this?” Sole nodded. “If Sole’s fallen in love with you, thenyou must be great and she trusts you.” He reached out his hand. “Nice to meetyou,” he said with a smile plastered on his face.

Cait: Caitwas shocked with how nice Nate was being with Sole. She for a fact would feelangry and betrayed if she was in Nate’s shoes. Cait looked from Sole to Nate. Whatwas he playing at? Surely he was pulling their leg? She cocked an eyebrow.

“What’s yer game?” Cait asked tiltingher head. Nate chuckled and smiled at Cait. He looked genuine but Cait couldn’tshake off the bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

“No game.” He shrugged. “I just want Sole to behappy.” Cait finally reached forward and shook his hand. That was awfully niceof him but she still wasn’t buying it. “I’m happy for you Sole, truly,” he said,looking back over at Sole.

“Thank you,” Sole replied with a smile. She reachedover and squeezed Cait’s hand.

“I hope we can remain friends.” Nate turned towardsCait. “It was nice to meet you,” he finished before turning around. Cait wasstill in a state of shock. She turned to look at Sole, her hand still firmly inSole’s.

“Did he just give us his blessin’?” Cait askedslack-jawed and Sole nodded.

“Yeah, he did.”

Curie: “Itis a pleasure,” Curie enunciated, reaching for Nate’s hand and shaking it. “I’veheard so much about you monsieur,” she added. Nate beamed from ear to ear.

“Good things I hope,” Nate said witha laugh. His eyes softened as he looked at the two of them. Sole wrapped an armaround Curie. “I’m so happy you found someone to love you.” Sole blushed, lookingdown. Curie and Sole were both glad Nate felt this way about their relationship,that he was accepting. Sole wrapped her arms around Nate’s neck, giving him a quicksqueeze before she pulled away and pecked his cheek.

“Thank you for understanding,” Solewhispered and Nate smiled. “I hope you stick around and get to know her, she’swonderful.” Curie heard Sole and blushed, looking away. She couldn’t wait to getto know Nate and hear all the wonderful stories he’d shared with Sole. Solelooked back and beamed at Curie in admiration.

“I’d like that, a lot,” Nate said.

“Oh!” Curie exclaimed in excitement. “Weshould all go out for a nice meal!”

Danse: “PaladinDanse-” Danse clasped Nate’s hand and shook it firmly, looking over at Sole ashe did so. This is what people did right? When they met their girlfriend’s ex? Hedidn’t know, he hadn’t been in this situation before but he remained polite inany case. “You can just call me Danse, sir.” He shook his head. “Nate.” He’dmessed up their first interaction, hadn’t he? He turned to Sole who was giggling.

“That’s quite a handshake,” Natejoked, laughing lightly and Danse smiled. “Anyhow,” Nate started, “its nice tomeet the man who’s been looking after Sole.” Danse’s cheeks turned red.

“It’s an honour too. Sole is quitethe woman,” Danse wrapped his arm around Sole’s shoulder, squeezing her lightly.“She’s helped me through a lot recently.”

“That’s Sole for you, always thehelper.” Nate smiled at Sole, “I’m happy for the two of you. And don’t worry, Iwon’t get in your way,” he paused. “It was good to see you Sole, I wish you twoall the best.” Sole reached forward and hugged him.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “You too.”

Deacon:Deacon was unsure whether he should shake Nate’s hand or not. Would it be rudenot to? He wasn’t suited for situations like this. Sole looked over at Deacon,nudging his arm with her elbow.

“John Smith,” Deacon said shaking hishand and Sole shook her head. What? He didn’t know if he could trust him yet.What if all this was just a ploy to get to know him and share his secrets withhis enemies. He couldn’t risk it.

“This is Deacon,” Sole corrected herboyfriend, rolling her eyes. “He’s nervous.”

“I completely understand. Can’t be easyliving in these times. Hell, I found it difficult so far,” Nate admitted, andDeacon nodded. He agreed fully with what Nate was saying. “I’ve heard what yourorganisation has done for Sole, she deserves someone like you.”

If only he knew the full story. Deacon thought to himself.

“He treats you right?” Nate asked andSole nodded. “Then don’t let me stop you guys.” He was happy that Sole hadfound someone as great as Deacon was. They deserved to be happy.

Gage:Gage wasn’t sure if Nate was being all that sincere. Surely he didn’t want his wifedating and sleeping with a raider. A murderer. A scoundrel. But the smile onNate’s face didn’t budge for a second, even as he looked Gage up and down,taking in his appearance. Nick withdrew his hand, rubbing it on his shirt. Was henervous? Gage laughed, he supposed he could be a little intimidating.

“The names Gage,” he said with aquick nod. He possessively grabbed Sole’s hand and laced their fingers together.Sole was the first good thing to happen to him in a while and he wasn’t goingto let Nate swan in and steal her from him.

“Great to meet you Gage,” Nate said,and Gage grunted. He didn’t mean to come off so rude but he couldn’t help it. “Okay,well I hope we can all get along.” he turned to Sole. “Because I want Sole inmy life, strictly as friends. You have my word on that.” Gage nodded.

“Alright.” Gage finally held out hishand and Nate shook it. “Good to meet you.”

Hancock:Nate was shocked when he saw Hancock’s face. He still couldn’t get used to thethings in this new world he’d found himself in, but if Sole was happy, then hewas happy. Hancock was happy to shake Nate’s hand, in fact, he couldn’t believehow pleasant and good-natured Nate was being.

“Mayor Hancock.” He couldn’t help butfeel nervous at the fact that Nate, a perfect looking smooth-skin had waltzedback in to Sole’s life. The thought of her leaving him for Nate, ate away atthe already paranoid feeling in his gut. Sole could sense how he was feeling.

“He’s helped me through a lot,”

“I’ve heard. Its no wonder you two fellin love,” He paused. “I couldn’t be happier that you’re with such a man. He canlook after you like I never could.” Hancock couldn’t stop a grin from formingon his face.

“You really know how to flatter a man!”Hancock mused, patting Nate’s back. “I’m buying you a drink.”

MacCready:MacCready couldn’t help but feel insecure as he looked up at the older man,well-dressed man. He was a better match for Sole, not like him. An ex-mercenarytype with a foul mouth, whereas Nate was excruciatingly good-natured and nice. Fu-fudge him.

“Robert,” MacCready said, feeling asthough using his first name would be a little more formal in this situation. Heshook his head, it didn’t make him feel any more confident.

“It’s a pleasure,” Nate expressed,shaking MacCready’s hand with a beaming smile stretched across his face. MacCreadyscoffed. Could he be more charming? “Sole really knows how to pick ‘em.”

What did he mean by that? RJ thought.

“I’ve heard great things fromCodsworth,” he paused, “and I’ve also heard how great the two of you aretogether.” He looked over at Sole. “You have my blessing completely. I won’tstay in your hair anyhow.” He nodded as he began to walk away.

“Wont you stay for a while?” MacCreadycalled after him. “I’m sure you and Sole have some catching up to do.”

Maxson:Nate was a little uneasy in front of Maxson. He was bigger and taller than himand the look on his face was quite intimidating. Maxson cocked an eyebrow. He didn’treally shake hands with anyone, but he supposed he could make an exception forthe man who used to hold Sole’s heart. Who was he kidding he couldn’t.

“Elder Maxson, Brotherhood of Steel,”He said formally, and Sole raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t expected him to answerwith such hostility. He nodded, and Nate got the idea and put his hand down byhis side.

“But you can totally call him Arthur,”Sole added, crossing her arms over her chest. Maxson looked over at her andsighed.

“Wow, you’ve done well for yourselfbagging him,” Nate mused and Sole laughed.

“Yeah.” She looked up at Maxson. “Ireally did.” She unfolded her arms and reached over to lace her fingers withMaxson’s. He smiled at the gesture.

“I’m happy for you Sole.” Maxsonplanned on being the kind of man that Sole needed and with confidence fromNate, he was sure he could achieve that.

Nick:Nate was a little surprised that Sole had decided to shack up with a synth,especially one like Nick Valentine but he’d also heard great things about theCommonwealth’s favourite detective.

“It’s an honour,” Nick smiled with anod before he took Nate’s hand with his metal one, shaking it lightly. Hedropped his hand back to his side. He wasn’t all that confident meeting Sole’sfirst love especially looking the way he did but Sole flashed him a reassuring smileand gently rubbed his arm with her hand.

“I’ve heard many great stories aboutthe adventures you’ve been on,” Nate declared. He was proud of all the cases Nickand Sole had solved together and it was an added bonus that they’d fallen inlove in the process. He smiled at the thought.

“As have I,” Nick replied with achuckle. Sole was glad to see them getting along. Maybe they could all be goodfriends.

Piper: “Oh!And you’re the amazing writer that publishes the paper!” Nick exclaimed as heshook Piper’s hand. She nodded with a smile, turning a dark shade of red. Shewas glad someone had noticed the effort she put into writing every newaddition.

“Aw- uh -  thanks I don’t know what to say,” Piperstuttered hiding her face in her left palm. He couldn’t believe how sweet andflattering he was being, she could see why Sole had fallen for him way backwhen.

“It’s glad to see Sole is well takencare of by you,” he winked at Piper and she hid further into her hand makingSole laugh. He’d always been a bit of a flirt. He turned back to Sole. “Friends?”he asked and Sole nodded.

“Always. Thanks Nate.”

Preston: Prestonwas ecstatic to meet the man that Sole often spoke of. He’d heard great thingsabout his service in the war and the dedication he had towards Sole and littleShaun. He had no doubt that the three of them would get on like a house onfire.

“Preston Garvey,” He announced with abright smile, gripping Nate’s hand in a firm but friendly handshake. Natesmiled back. “I’m with the Minutemen, Sole here has been a true and firmbeliever in our cause and I couldn’t be happier to have met her.” Prestonreached his arm around Sole and gave her a quick squeeze. She looked down as hercheeks burned a rosy pink.

“That’s wonderful news,” Nate raisedhis eyebrows. “I had no idea the effect she’d had. I hope you wouldn’t mind if Ijoined up?”

“It would be great to have you on ourside.” Preston couldn’t believe his ears. As if the past couple of months couldn’tget any better. “I’ll show you around.”

X6-88:X6 couldn’t believe he was meeting the father of Shaun, the other half of hisleader. He was excited, although he didn’t show it on his face. He reachedforward and energetically shook Nate’s hand. He never thought he’d see the day.

“Meeting the other parent of Father.”X6 couldn’t believe it and he couldn’t be happier. “It’s an honour sir,” heshook Nate’s hand. “I also understand if you want me out of the picture. Soleis your wife after all.”

“That isn’t the case at all. If Sole hadmoved on and is happy,” he sighed. “Then I’m happy too.” He looked over atSole, noticing the smile on her face as she looked over at X6. “As long as you treather right.”

“I plan on doing so sir.” X6 glancedover at Sole. “I love her more than anything.”

“That’s all I needed to hear. I wishyou all the best.”  

[boarix]

Wraith in the Ruins: A Fallout 4 Story Chapter XXIV

The Living End

Trigger warnings: canon harsh language, gun use and violence

Thank you so much for reading. Please enjoy!

…..

“Just breathe, soldier. We are standing by to pull you up if you need us to.”

“I’m the world’s heaviest piñata is what I am! I’M NOT DOING OKAY and I’m not a soldier, Danse. GHAAAA WHAT THE FUCK?! No, no, it’s not a fucking mirelurk. No, it’s just my own, stupid arm. Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ!”

“How’s the pressure feel? Your eyeballs staying in place?”

“My what?! Why would my EYEBALLS NOT STAY WHERE THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO, STURGES?! WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WILL HAPPEN TO THEM?! HELLO?! Seriously, can you hear me? This is a bad turn of events.” The pressure indicator on his HUD was only in the yellow, but with silence being the only response from his support team, his panic grew. “How am I supposed to tell you if the pressure is NOT CORRECT IF YOU CAN’T HEAR ME?! I can’t die yet! I never got to see the sunrise from the top of Mount Everest and I’ve never eaten applesauce. HELLO, STURGES?! DANSE?! I’d even settle for HANCOCK!”

There was a sudden upwelling of air bubbles, followed by a deep, reverberating sound that Deacon could only describe as a groan. He flailed ineffectually as the needle of the pressure gauge bounced from yellow to red and the compass – which Danse had insisted they install in the HUD, despite Hancock calling it stupid – spun crazily. In alarm, he sucked in air and held his breath as the headlamp flickered; casting terrible shadow figures to the rough-hewn walls. A moment later it was blasted from him as he came to a crashing halt. Unable to keep his feet, he fell over face first at the bottom of the well. His helmet glanced off a rock, breaking his lamp and sending him into total darkness.

“MY GODDAMN LIGHT WENT OUT! GHAAAAAhurk.” Choking on his own spit, he coughed violently. Mentally exhausted from terror, he lay face down and unmoving with his eyes screwed tightly shut. After a moment he cautiously opened one and glanced around. Encouraged by the fact that it remained in its socket, he opened the other and made an attempt to righten himself. Just as he gained his feet, the floor shook with another groaning quake. “It’s almost as if someone doesn’t want me here…”

Blinking in the gloom, his eyes adjusted enough for him to notice a faint green glow coming from the ground a few feet from where he was standing. “Like a moth to a flame…”

Starved for any light, no matter how faint, he moved forward with purpose only to be violently jerked backward as his friends on the surface tried to haul him to safety.  Grasping the lifeline firmly, he dug in his heals and pulled backward against them until the tension slackened. Then he pulled three more times to tell them that he was at the bottom and on mission.

Turning back toward the light, he wasn’t surprised when he saw its source, “Wraith said something about a glowing mushroom… wha…” Deacon cut himself off as he felt a strange, percussive sensation that seemed to be coming from the fungus. It passed back and forth through his chest almost as if he was trapped in the heartbeat of an enormous creature. Forcing himself forward, he could see a small lockbox lying next to the green-glowing fungus, “That’s gotta be it.”

As soon as his gauntlet touched the box a flash of covetous emotion coursed through him, “Mine. This is mine.” But oddly, even though the words came from his lips, he knew that rather than him claiming ownership over the contents, the contents were claiming ownership over him.

“No.” It felt important to say it out loud, “I don’t belong to you.”

“Yeeeesssss. We belong, all of us, together.”

“Nope. I’m not ready to go steady with… all… how many of you are there?” He crouched and scooped up the mushroom, “No back seat bingo for you.”

“You are ours.”

He felt a stab of shame at how alluring the artifact was, “I’m Wraith’s, if anybody’s.” As soon as he said her name he felt the artifact’s distress. An audible hiss issued from the box and a newfound confidence filled Deacon’s mind, “Oh, what’s that? Don’t much care for the boss, huh? Ain’t that a bite?” He clipped the now-silent lockbox onto the power armor and wedged the mushroom onto the small shelf-like space of the gorget.  

Following the lifeline back to where it ascended he reached forward to send the signal for extraction up to his friends. Before he could close his hands, the armored rope was ripped away from him, and the floor pitched and twisted almost as if the world had warped askew. Struggling mightily, he finally was able to grab the line and pull it twice. Almost immediately there was a rush of bubbles and a deep, guttural roaring sound that added to the chaos and made him feel like the whole world was coming apart.

“GAAAAH! PULL ME UP! PULL ME UP!” The roar was deafening and now he could imagine that he saw a huge humanoid shape reaching for him from out of the inky darkness. “HANCOCK!” There was no relief from the terror when he finally felt the pull from above, now that he was racing the outstretched hand up the shaft of the well. “FASTER, PLEASE!”

Screaming incoherently and struggling with an invisible opponent, it took all three of his companions to pull him out of the well and dump him unceremoniously onto the ground. Even though he was free, he still kicked his feet and wouldn’t stop yelling until Hancock punched him, none to gently, on the side of his helmet.

“Stop it, you spaz!” The ghoul helped Deacon remove his helmet and searched his face with his eyes, “What’s the problem? You get the thing, or what?”

Deacon gapped like a fish out of water for a few seconds, “Oh, I’ll say.” Rolling over, he staggered to his feet, grabbed the lockbox off his clip and threw it to Danse, “Be careful; that thing bites.” He noticed that his mushroom was gone and stomped back over to the well to look for it. It floated, unharmed at the surface just out of reach. “Hancock, gimme your gun for a second.”

“Oookaay…”

Using the barrel of the shotgun, Deacon poked the fungus over to him and snatched it out of the water. As he pulled away an image of a large, angry, bearded face glared at him from the surface of the well. After gently returning the mushroom to its place of honor, he unloaded a full drum of buckshot into the murky depths. Hancock laughed but Danse and Sturges both flinched and glanced around in alarm.

“Just what the hell are you doing, soldier?!” Danse rushed forward as if he was going to try and stop the other man, “That’s a gratuitous waste of ammunition!”

Deacon calmly returned the gun to Hancock, but grabbed Danse roughly and pulled him so that their faces were almost touching, “Piñata. Not. Soldier.” Pushing him away he searched around until he found an empty can to plant his mushroom in. “Surprised you boys aren’t a little trigger happy too, considering all that’s been going on here.”

After exchanging worried glances with the other two men, Sturges came and lay a gentle hand on Deacon’s shoulder, “You alright, man?”

“No, I’m definitely not alright with yelling earthquakes and giant, underwater monster people.”

“Giant…”

“Yelling…”

Hancock laughed again, “Heh, it’s a wonder your teeth are still white; all the shit that comes outta yer mouth. Was all quiet and boring up here, brother. Sounds to me like you got cross-roughed by the artifact and the resident ghosts, ya feel me?”

“What’s with the mushroom?”

“It’s a souvenir, Sturges. Don’t want to forget my special time here at Death Mine. Can we go home now, please?”

…..

“No offence, Mayor, but between the two of us, who’s the engineer?”

The ghoul held up his hands in surrender, “Alright, brother. I meant no disrespect.”

Sturges sighed and washed his face with his hands, “No, I’m sorry. It’s this stupid thing; it keeps telling me I need to swallow it and rule the world, or something.”

“But, first it wants to be united with its other portions…”

“And stomp Wraith into oblivion.”

“Am I the only one it hasn’t tried to flirt with? I’d be lyin’ if I said I’m not a little bit envious.”

“Trust me, Hancock. Its words are poison.”

It had been a couple of weeks since the trip to Dunwich, and a meeting had been called for the Minutemen and their allies. There was a mix of alarm and relief when Wraith told them they would have time to plan while Radiance gathered a new army. Broadcasted on a secure frequency via Radio Freedom, all settlements of the Commonwealth, both great and small, were represented.

Sturges had made many attempts to attach the artifact pieces to the beautiful circlet he had made, only to find them detached and back in the lockbox the following day.

“I don’t know if I’m doing it, or what.”

“Perhaps it is subconsciously? You do not wish Madame to fight?”

Sturges tapped his temple, “How should I know? I’m an engineer, not a doctor.”

Preston’s voice sounded tired over the radio as he gave his report, “… and we have an additional ten Dragoons, fully trained, and almost as many new medics, but… we won’t have all the armor necessary to equip them for the front. Also, there is the problem with the food caravans; we still don’t have enough ballistic weave for the brahmin.”

“Not to sink an already low morale, but how could we even begin to fight her?” Jack Cabot was holding the gun he had made for Wraith, “She is surely amassing a great host out there in the Glowing Sea. We would be lost by numbers alone.”

“Careful, Cabot, yer cowardice is showing.”

Jack matched Hancock’s glare with one of his own, “I assure you, Mayor, I am no coward. I speak openly of practical concern.”

“Begging your pardon, Master Cabot, but I don’t believe it’s as simple as all that.” Codsworth had traveled to Diamond City, at the behest of Shawn and had decided he wanted to be part of the Grand Council along with Piper, “Radiance as you call her, although I’d be more apt to call her something less flattery… The Loony Lurgy is more like… is actually quite alone.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call being surrounded by every glowing Tom, Dick and Harry from the Wasteland alone.”

“I assure you, detective Valentine, one can be surrounded by… er… people, and yet still be alone. She has no true subordinates. There is no one she trusts to delegate tasks to.” As he spoke, Codsworth’s momentum grew and his pleasant voice rang out over the radio and held the Commonwealth’s listeners in rapt attention. “Radiance has no sounding board, or indeed a board of committee. As much as an army may be bogged down by bureaucracy, so too will it loose functionality to chaos. There is no organization and she has no officers, nor indeed would she suffer anyone’s opinion in contrast with her own. She has many moving parts to her force of arms, but she will have to turn all the gears individually herself. And once more, she is an invading army with shallow motive. We, however, will be defending our homes and families; be they found or of one’s own blood! She has no great machine turning on well-oiled pistons! She is alone.”

There was a momentary silence followed by an excited overlapping of voices as the council, hope renewed, set their crisis management plan. It was agreed that Radiance would most likely push forward with an all-out frontal assault. She would have over confidence in numbers and little care for her individual soldiers. A Fodder War as Hancock called it.

“If she has any presence of mind she’ll be singing like a siren to the ghouls, feral or not, from as far away as she can reach. She’ll try to flank us with our own citizenry. We need a shield for them, you feel me?”

“I keep telling you how much I’d like to. Ha-ha haaa.” Infamy leered at Hancock, “Leave the shielding to me and the Harbinger. By Atom I will see that fungus-ridden demon reduced to ash, and send her to stand and be judged before Him.”

“Who’s what now?”

“I told you, you can only be up here if you’re quiet!” MacCready pushed the glowing one out of the room toward the basement stairs while calling over his shoulder to the radio, “Don’t worry about it, Piper. They are literally nobody worth mentioning.”

Atom’s Assassin was pouty as they walked to Wraith’s cage, “Only trying to help. It’s almost like no one wants me here. Ha ha.”

“Has Sturges figured out the headband situation yet?”

“The ‘situation’ is it’s apparently terrified or disgusted by you. It wants no part of your machinations.”

Wraith sighed and looked up at the ceiling, “Did I hear Codsworth?”

Infamy shrugged and waved a dismissive hand, “I don’t know who that is. Why don’t they just give the pieces to Hancock and have him glue them to your tiara? Those twisted bits seem to have no care for him.”

“That’s… odd.”

“For that matter, they don’t sing to me either.”

Wraith pressed her forehead onto the bars and closed her eyes for a moment. “I can’t figure out if that will be helpful or not. I’m hoping to put it on then have you and me wrestle it to submission.”

“Oooo a ménage à trois.”

“Ugh, why are you...” She gestured vaguely.

“So incredible at inter-personal interactions?”  They clapped their fist into their palm, “I know! You were going to ask ‘why are you a rocket scientist of wordsmith?’”

“You promised me that when this is over that you’ll go back to the Capital Wasteland, right? You promised?!”

After the meeting adjourned for the evening, Hancock and MacCready came down the stairs to give Wraith an update. Hancock was especially impressed with Codsworth’s speech and made a great show of reenacting it for her. MacCready outlined suggested battle formations and the two got into a deep discussion of tactics.

After a few minutes Hancock looked around into the darker corners of the basement, “Where is the sneaker gone to?”

“You mean Deacon? He hasn’t been down here. I haven’t seen him for a few days. Wasn’t he up in the radio room for the meeting?”

MacCready frowned at Hancock, “Who cares where he is?”

“Ouch, Hatty MacCheekbones! So mean. So cruel.” Deacon loudly clunked down the stairs, “And just when I thought that we were all finally bonding; living together in domestic bliss.”

MacCready turned his frown to him, “You won’t even do laundry.”

“You know? I was surprised, given your normally crusty appearance, how well you tend house.”

“Crusty?!”

“After all this time I thought I would finally achieve my lifelong dream of changing my underwear daily.”

“CRUSTY?!”

“Don’t get used to it, brother. Can’t hardly stand sharing a roof with ya.”

“Ouch again! Now, c’mon, Hancock, don’t be like that. You know I’ve grown on you a little.”

Wraith smiled at their banter, “Like one of those mushrooms… a bog beacon… Bog Deacon!”

Hancock put up his hands placatingly, “Now, don’t misunderstand; I can’t stand to share space with such an oxygen waste…”

MacCready grinned at him, “Heh, that rhymed.”

Wraith frowned, “Do ‘space’ and ‘waste’ rhyme?”

“… but I’d be mournful if anything happens to you. I’d be vengeful and dare I say, hurt?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure they rhyme if you say ‘em fast.” MacCready turned back to Hancock, “Yeah, you’d be mad it wasn’t you that gutted him.”

Hancock lost his train of thought, turning to smile at his lovers as they amused themselves by loudly chanting “space waste” over and over.

Deacon, smiling as well, waved his hands above his head in mock distress, “Oh, no, my dream!”

“Seriously though; it was an important, tactical meeting. Where were ya?”

Deacon winked at the ghoul, “Sneakin’.” When Hancock’s grin turned to a glower the spy put his hands up placatingly, “I’ve been down to the edge of the Sea, well, as close as I can to the edge, to see if I can get eyes on the Crater. There is activity, but, are we absolutely sure that’s where the attack will come from?”

“I feel the greatest volume of light from there. And I know that Isolde’s group has fallen.” The glowing one almost sounded regretful.

“I still have no idea what that sh… crap means.”

“It means the Crater of Atom is about to spew forth an attack force like a volcano vomiting green-glowing monsters and will cover the land of the Commonwealth in a blanket of radioactive ash.”

“Oh.”

“Now that that’s settled,” Wraith waved them to her, “bring on the artifact bits. We’ll head on down to Somerville and meet her head on. Let’s fire this shit up!”

“Sorry, sunshine, but I think we need to wait for that.” Now it was Hancock’s turn to put his hands up, “If we glue ‘em to ya now, Radiance will make a bee-line for ya, and we aren’t ready yet.”

“Every moment we spend building our strength lends her time to do the same.”

…..

Wraith was more right then she knew. Radiance had subjugated Isolde and was using her to push the Children to gather arms and armor so that her horde was less a mob of berserkers, and more like an army of soldiers. Knowing full well that the Commonwealth’s defense force was going to primarily be human, gamma guns would be extremely effective.

Radiance hated how much mental ground Wraith had gained, but it was unavoidable, due to how thin her own powers were spread. She was keeping an enormous volume of minds bent to her whim, and so it was only natural her grip had lessoned, but she was only holding on by her fingertips at this point.

Even as Radiance whispered to her army, the artifact fragment embedded in her skull whispered encouragement and confidence to her and it never even occurred to her that Wraith would use the artifact against her.

Just as it never occurred to the Commonwealth’s defenders that Radiance would attack them from someplace other than the Crater of Atom.

…..

“You’re gonna be short on time once I crown you, sunshine.”

With the main force – consisting of the Dragoons and Spear Hounds – in position along the hills, cliffs and swamp west and south of Somerville, and all support troops arranged on dry land north of the swamp along the river, hidden to the best of their abilities, the Commonwealth Defense Force stood, ready for battle. The only thing missing was their beloved hero, and operational spearpoint, Wraith.

The anticipation of the citizenry had caused the general rumor mill to generate some truly spectacular versions of Wraith’s return to the public eye. Not the least of which included a scenario where she had somehow been mutated by the powers of the Children of Atom to be a feral ghoul with the ability to shoot lasers from her eyes.

“The faster she and I get together, the sooner this is done.” Wraith’s mouth was set in a determined line and she held her head high.

“I’m digging the confidence.” Hancock gave her a huge smile, but it crashed into a frown when he turned his head to the glowing one sitting cross-legged at his feet, “You gonna be useful today, or what?”

“You wound me daily, commander… or is it captain? Or is it ‘Ghoul Of No Rank Worth Mentioning’? Ha! Hahahahaa!”

“Oh, shut yer glow-hole.” He looked over to Deacon, “No disappearing today, you feel me?”

“Oh, I’ll be around; even if you can’t see me.”

Shaking his head in irritation he turned back to Wraith. He stared deep in her eyes as he lowered the circlet that Sturges had fashioned to her freshly-buzzed head, “I love you, sunshine.”

“I love you too, Hancock. And you, MacCready.” She tried to meet Deacon’s eye, but he was staring at a spot on the ceiling.

As soon as the metal strip touched her, she felt her mind pulled and twisted in every direction at once. Closing her eyes, she moved to her mental dungeon. It was vastly changed. Rather than the normal pale green sky over a sea of white nothingness, there was a torrent of colors in turmoil, and the noise was terrific: like every voice and meaningless sound from every memory she’d ever had banging around in her ears.

But not just from her memory.

There were things so bizarre and alien that they had to be just that: extraterrestrial. There were machines and creatures beyond description all bidding access to her mind, and body.

Infamy watched, fascinated, as Wraith seized and babbled like a greatly sped up holotape. They snapped to though, because as interesting as it was to watch a smooth skin, non-believer have a meltdown, The Mother of Fog clearly had named her a favorite and therefore Wraith had to succeed at her Appointed Holy Task…

They viciously slapped Wraith across the face, “Pull it together, you nut-bag!”

“HOW DARE YOU STRIKE US?!” Wraith’s image grew faint when struck, then burned bright as a glowing one in the middle of a radioactive pulse as she shrieked at the ghoul.

“Oh, I dare!” Despite their bravado, they quickly stepped backward out of reach, “Come now, Wraith. I know your scary self is still in there. If you can’t fight off these tiny, weak fragments, what hope have you to fight of that feral-stealing bitch and her big fragment?”

“Weak?” Wraith flickered like a florescent light on the verge of burning out as she rose into the air, “We shall show you how weak we are.” Pulling herself into a fetal position, she began to glow steadily brighter and the air around her shimmered with growing heat. Then, with a roar like an inferno she cast out her limbs and sent a shockwave of kinetic energy at the ghoul.

Infamy was ready. They too had gathered themselves for a pulse, and when the two opposing forces came together there was a massive explosion that sent Infamy out from Wraith’s mind.

Barely conscious, Infamy’s speech was slurred as they lay on the basement floor, “Wraith, you fucking bitch! Fight! Be the brightest light! Don’t lose yourself to them. You are the Lighthouse! Find your LIGHT!”

“This one is yours…”

That’s Deacon’s voice…

“Pippa…”

In a snap the kaleidoscope of memory stopped and only two remained: a dream from the past and, more recently, when Deacon had returned from Dunwich. In both he offered her a glowing mushroom.

“This one is yours…”

Wraith opened her eyes and blinked rapidly. Slowly she reached toward her temples as if she was going to grasp the artifact.

MacCready trained the syringer rifle at Wraith’s torso, “Boss? Are you…”

“I’m fine, Mac. Better than fine,” She lowered her hands and smiled, “I’m… me. Unlock the cage.”

Hancock didn’t even hesitate.

…..

Radiance felt the moment Wraith opened her mind to the fragments of the alien artifact. She saw the clash of power between she and Infamy. She exalted at Wraith’s strength as she cast the ghoul out of her mind. Like the song of sirens she heard the fragments call to the greater piece in her own crown, and a surge of triumph coursed through her. Her elation turned sour, however, when a second later all input was cut off and a wall went up in Wraith’s mind.

It doesn’t matter, love. We know everything we want is in one place. We know where that place is, and any barrier you’ve built will be no match for us.

…..

The moment Wraith was set free a public call went out over Radio Freedom that the “retired” General was back to support General Garvey, and that all should remain calm and hunker down in the “safe” Minutemen settlements awaiting the all clear which should be “very soon, we are all sure”.

As Wraith’s group made their way to Somerville, Infamy pestered her about her refusal to call ferals, “…trained by The Sun of Atom!”

“Whose death was a direct result of my failure to deal properly with Marie and The Children of Atom.”

They scoffed, “His death is nothing; he is with Atom and is infinitely better off…”

She spun on them, “His death was not nothing. He was a sweet, kindhearted ghoul who deserved better.”

“You knew him for a heartbeat. That is to say, not at all.” Their mouth angled in a hideous smile, “He was a Necromancer. He murdered smooth skin non-believers, just as the rest of us did. How? With feral ghouls that he called, and herded. Just as he trained you to do.”

Cait spotted the group almost before Lloyd did in the settlement watchtower and all but leaped off of Gracie to throw herself into Wraith’s arms, “You daft, shirty seanbhean! Took you long ‘nough!”

Wraith could see the tears in her eyes and didn’t take the ribbing to heart. She held the other woman gently before pressing their foreheads together, “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“Well, you’re here now. So, let’s get to this fight!”

After meeting with Danse – which involved another teary eyed reunion  ̶  and the rest of the officers, communication equipment was distributed and the teams split into their various positions. Wraith, wearing new armor courtesy of Bear, and wielding Kremvh’s Tooth and a newly modded western revolver, climbed the rocky ridges surrounding the settlement to pick a spot favorable to her fighting style. Strong, strangely enough, disappeared into the swamp muttering something about “friend” and she hadn’t felt Deacon’s presence in hours. On the other hand, Hancock and MacCready were practically glued to her hips.

“You boys are going to actually let me fight, right?”

“Heh, we’ll see, sunshine.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome to any that can get past us.”

“Well, we shouldn’t have to wait long.”

Wraith couldn’t have been more wrong. The minutes ticked by and not a single feral appeared. The weather held in spite of the low ceiling of slate-gray clouds and so all was quiet apart from the various cow noises coming from the supply teams’ brahmin.

“Hey, Capt’n Danse?”

“Yes, Gen… er… uh. Forgive me ma’am; I’m not sure what your current rank is. I know you haven’t been reinstated…”

She shook her head even though he couldn’t see her, “No. The General offered, but I told him I’d rather kick rocks. I’ve been busted down to captain. Mostly cause I didn’t want any of it, but that sounds official without… Anyway, I don’t like where the pack brahmin are. If we need to cut north for any reason, we’re going to have to run right through our supply. That’s bad.”

“I agree, however space for optimal positioning is sparse. We can’t move them into the swamp or the river, and the settlement’s buildings block maneuverability.”  

“Yeah… do we need that many?”

He chuckled, “Yes, ma’am. It takes a lot of food and fresh water to feed an army. Even one of our size.”

“Well, that’s definitely something she has on us…” Wraith waved Hancock and MacCready to her, “I feel stood up.”

MacCready nodded, “And here I thought we would be too late.” He tapped his temple, “Maybe she didn’t hear you… or feel… whatever.”

“Can you tell where she’s at, sister?”

Wraith blinked at Hancock, “What do you mean?”

“What do you mean by what do I mean?”

She raised her hands up to either side of her head, “Shields up, captain! I’ve completely kicked her out. I’m a novice with this whole telepathy mind-control thing. I’m not sure what my limitations are, and I don’t want to accidently invite her back in. I’m enjoying being an empty nester!”

“Well… shoot.”

Hancock whipped about, “Where th’ hell that damn glow bug go? Infamy!”

They popped up out of the rocks like a gopher, “You rang?”

“Don’t get cute with me; status report.”

“Hmm, S.N.A.F.U.?”

“I swear I’m going to ring you out and wear your hide…”

They waved their finger back and forth, “Tsk, tsk. No need to be so grouchy. The lights are all still in the holy crater. Not a soul has moved.���

“Something…”

“Is…”

“Wrong…”

“…WRONG! YOU’RE IN THE WRONG SPOT!” As if the three of them were chanting a spell of summoning, Deacon phased into visibility as he scrambled recklessly down to them from the northwest, “SHE’S GONE NORTH FROM THE SUPPLY CACHE…” his chest heaved as he fought for air, “LAKE  COCH… CROCHET… how the fuck… COCHITUATE!”

“Captain Wraith, who is that shouting?”

Wraith’s mind spun and she fumbled with her receiver, “She’s tricked us, Danse. We need to change positions, right now.”

The mad rush northwest was terrifying for Wraith as she imagined all the horrors that Radiance’s army could inflict on her friends and settlers of the Commonwealth. Valentine and Piper were in Diamond City as part of the Minutemen reserves in place at all the major settlements, and most of the smaller ones had been evacuated, but those facts did little to quiet her anxious mind.

Not even ten minutes into the quick march, Infamy’s very vocal self-admonishment surprised them, “How?! How could she have tricked me? ME! I saw them! Felt them!”

“We didn’t plan this whole operation around your ability, Infamy.” Wraith wasn’t sure why she felt the need to make the glowing one feel better, “We had reconnaissance. Minutemen saw a huge herd at the Crater of Atom.”

They reached out and grabbed Wraith’s arm, “Stop! They are there… they are moving now!”

“She’s… oh fuck.”

…..

On an armored palanquin made from the chassis of a Highwayman, hoisted aloft by eight reavers, looking every inch a queen, rode Radiance. She lacked the lips for it, but her self-congratulatory smirk would have been unmistakable were there anyone around her with enough self-awareness to see it.

She had defeated the Minutemen. She was sure of it. With the ferals coming from the Crater and her horde of mixed masked Children of Atom and ferals falling on them from the north, there could be no other outcome.

They will never survive fighting on two fronts. Not with their meager metal.  

She chuckled to herself at the pun; a gross, gurgle-cough sound.

Once Wraith’s moral was broken by the utter loss of the Commonwealth’s defenses, her shield would surly crack and Radiance will have everything she wanted.

You, Hancock, my crown and all the power it will provide… everything.  

…..

Wraith couldn’t convince MacCready to join Lloyd in the tower, “You will be the most help…”

“NO!” Weaving throughout the chaos, he was using his sidearm and bayonet far more than his rifle, “I’m NOT LEAVING YOU, WRAITH!”

Hancock shrugged at her after dispatching his 14 feral, “Don’t look at me, sunshine. Though…,” He paused as number 15 attempted to brain him with wicked right hook. Using his opponent’s over-enthusiastic follow-through, he pushed them off the ridge with minimal effort, “… damn, I hate the way they just fling themselves at ya! As I was saying, we are expecting a whole other party – of unknowable size, mind you – from the north. It sure would be swell if we had two of the best snipers in the wasteland up there diminishin’ their numbers, you feel me?”

Looking as tortured as he’d ever been, his voice wavered on the edge of a sob, “If I leave you two and you die, what then?”

“I gave you all th’ kids in my will. Though, Fahrenheit will probably object to calling you ‘pa’.”

The sniper sputtered helplessly before pulling the other two to him in a tight hug. In a merciful lull in the fighting, he touched their three foreheads together, “We are going to live. This won’t be the end for us.”

Wraith held Hancock’s hand as they watched MacCready scramble to the watchtower, “The living end…”

…..

“Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…” The sight of Radiance’s army and their equipment baffled Danse.

Radiance was also confused as she had not expected to see the Dragoons that far north. She knew that halting her horde’s momentum to adjust tactics could be catastrophic to her, so she allowed the two armies to join at full force.

Like two weather fronts colliding, the resulting storm was violence incarnate. The sound from the impact was terrific with the screams of the ferals mingling with the war cries of their opponents, and the nails-on-chalkboard shriek of protest from the metal suits as their hook-like hands scrabbled at the armor.

A great spray of ichor-like blood flashed through the air as the Minutemen ground down the front line. It seemed that it might be over as soon as it began, but there are only so many rounds of ammo an individual soldier can carry, and there seemed to be no end to Radiance’s horde.

“CONSERVE YOUR SHOTS!” Danse knew the supply chain had been left almost an hour behind them, “HAND-TO-HAND!”

Even with such a sound tactic, there is a limit to human and non-feral ghoul endurance. Much as there is a limit to the power of a fusion core. If Danse’s team could have remained in a firing line that slowly advanced, they would have gotten more from their cores. As it was they were doing a lot of jumping, sprinting and shaking. The last was to prevent being bogged down by bloated and chard ferals, of which Radiance seemed to have an inexhaustible supply.

Danse whispered to himself as he fought, “This is not sustainable. We need to fall back or we will perish. How, damn it?! With no one to cover our flank...” His sigh was deep, “A few will have to remain… I will…”

…..

…..

“These things she thinks she wants, they aren’t from her own heart or mind.”

Days ago, on the night of the meeting, Jack Cabot sat on the floor next to Wraith’s cage. Up until that moment he had been quietly watching her pace while he continued to spin the gun he had made for her, over and over in his hands, “I saw it with my father and now I see it in my sister. It’s entirely my fault.”

“Yours wasn’t the original sin, Jack.” Edward Deegan came down the stairs holding an AMR.

Jack steeled his nerves, “None the less, I am prepared to aid in the rectification of my family’s wrongdoing!”

Wraith glanced between the two of them, “I don’t know, boys, Infamy’s promise of shielding the non-ferals is a little watery to me. And I know you’re capable with a gun, Jack, but…” she waved Jack to silence, “I don’t want you seeking martyrdom as a means of justice. I share in blame for this as well.”

“Maybe there’s still a chance to reach her.”

“I don’t think there’s much of Emogene left.”

Deegan was grim, “If you can’t reach your sister, Jack, you can bet my rifle will reach Radiance.”

…..

…..

“Captain Danse, are you ordering us to abandon you!?” The armored soldier was incredulous.

Danse could barely hear her over the din of battle, “THAT’S LIS, RIGHT?”

“YES, SIR! LIEUTENANT ZOSIA LIS.” She moved closer, “Sir, I advise a different course of action; the number it would take to efficiently protect a retreating…”

“FAUGH A BALLAGH!”

A familiar voice rang true through a bullhorn, strapped to a saddle of a super mutant hound. Astride their enormous, green mounts, 20 Spear Hounds, in wedge formation cut a bloody swath through the feral army.

Rotating away from the tip of the spearhead, Cait rode straight for Danse yelling at him the whole way, “OI, YE DAFT CUNT! RETREAT ALREADY!”

He winced, trying to remind himself that her sharp tongue was indiscriminant amongst all their friends, even Wraith. “GOOD TIMING; THANK YOU HOUNDS!”

She rode a circuit around him to see if there was evidence that he might be hurt, “Ye alright then? Good.” She made a face, “Are these ferals really wearin’…”

“Yes; I found that odd myself.”

She shook her head. As she rode away her voice floated back to him.

“Now, I’ve seen everything.”

…..

Deacon had been briefly in the tower, but found it crowded with Lloyd, Deegan, Jack and MacCready. Trying to find a way to be helpful, he had been hauling ammo up to them on a pulley until MacCready had yelled at him.

“Aren’t you a good shot? Get the heck up here and shoot something! Somebody else can do that!”

Just before he left them he gripped MacCready on the shoulder, “I’m going to bodyguard Wraith for a bit; there’re too many elbows up here for my poor, old kidneys. Don’t die, she’ll be sad.”

“Take them ammo. And… same to you. Be… be safe out there.”

“Should we kiss… or…”

“WOULD YOU JUMP OFF?!”

“Nope.”

He found Wraith yelling back and forth with Infamy as the two fought and converted ferals respectively. Hancock thanked him for the shells and Deacon covered him while he reloaded. Popping his chin at the other two, the spy wondered aloud what their current problem with each other was.

“Wraith won’t herd ‘em. Says Sunny would be sad… not sure who that was.”

It was only then that Deacon noticed that some of the ferals were fighting their brethren, courtesy of Atom’s Assassin, “That would be pretty helpful...”

He was interrupted by a particularly loud closing argument from the glowing one.

“YOU ARE A NECROMANCER! NECRO-MANCE!”

Hancock shook his head at them, “Yeah, I agree, brother, but she’s also afraid to open her mind. Can’t say I blame her. But, seeing as how Danse is bringing the rest of the merry makers, they’ll be here in ten, and we’re already losing ground, her hand might be forced.”

When Infamy saw the ferals coming down from the north their already large eyes bulged nearly from their sockets, “TINFOIL HATS!? HA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!”

Wraith couldn’t believe what she was seeing, “What the fuck is…”

“What is the shiny stuff on the enemies’ heads?”

“Mac, it’s…”

“I COULDN’T SEE THEM BECAUSE OF FOIL?!”

Yes indeed; Radiance’s great army to the north had been shielded from Infamy by the use of foil hats.

The fighting along the ridges was brutal. Danse had lost quite a few Dragoons in the retreat and all teams felt their absence. Pushed ever closer to the settlement wall, the Minutemen were rapidly losing all high ground save for the marksmen’s tower.

Even the Hounds were less effective due to losses. They stopped their penetrative wedge formations and instead kept to strafing runs along the edges.

On the opposing side, the Children of Atom and a few of the reavers were equipped with gamma guns, and were testing both the limits of Rad-X, RadAway, and the medics who were supplying them.

Infamy had accumulated quite a few ferals and was attempting to use them to pull off foil hats, as well as hold some of his people down so they couldn’t attack or get hurt, “Dying in Radiance’s service is not their path to Atom, I’m sure.”

“Wraith, I don’t see Radiance. Does anyone have eyes on the opposing commander?” MacCready was hopeful that he could end the madness quickly with a well-aimed shot. The sun was rapidly declining and he knew a night battle would lean heavily in the opposing army’s favor. “We’re gonna lose our light soon.”

Wraith was fighting several bloated and a charred, so it took her time to respond. Her strength allowed her to chop through their legs in one stroke, but the numerous glowing ones in the area meant these hits weren’t fatal and there were a great many grotesque torsos dragging themselves around, snarling. In the span of dead air, MacCready called out to her from his walkie three more times; each with increasing panic. “MAC! I’m okay, but no. I don’t see her at all.”

A strange calm settled over her when she came to a decision, and when she made eye contact with Hancock the look on her face unnerved him enough that he quickly snapped the neck of the ghoul the spy had been fighting and all but dragged Deacon with him to her.

“I don’t think I like that look, sunshine. Don’t you be giving up on me. We haven’t lost yet! Tell her, Deacon.”

“Uhh, yeah. We still got… uhhh…” He waved vaguely behind him, “The wall.”

Wraith shook her head, denying their assumptions but any response from her was interrupted by a commotion from the tower. Her voice rose in octave when she radioed in, “What?! Who’s yelling? What’s happening?!”

“Wraith, you aren’t going to believe this…”

She snorted and pinwheeled her arms at the bedlam all around her, “Try me!”

“There’s a behemoth coming up from the swamp, and… Strong is riding on its shoulder.”

Wraith exchanged a series of rapid blinking with Hancock and Deacon, “You said… who what now?”

“ALPHA! STRONG BROUGHT FRIEND! STRONG BROUGHT OMEGA! ALPHA, COME SEE STRONG’S NEW BROTHER!”

Wraith’s trio made their way to the super mutants as quickly as their foes allowed. Deacon hung back a bit and for some reason Hancock was laughing.

“Heh, what’s the story here, brother?”

“No story, friend Hancock. We fight. Strong SMASH. Omega and Strong are brothers now.”

“Does Omega speak?”

A quizzical look passed over his brutish face, “Strong…” He turned to look up at the creature, who in turn, gazed back at Strong with a look that somehow combined undying loyalty and a complete lack of self-awareness, “OMEGA, SPEAK!”

“Does ‘Omega’ know his name is ‘Omega’?” Deacon kept edging further and further away from them.

Apparently, Omega did know their name, though the guttural sound the great mutant made was outside that of discernable speech, “GHAAAARRRGGGHH!”

“Good enough for me.” Wraith pointed at the ridge that the Minutemen had lost, “Strong, take him – carefully – up to the high ground and let him smash ferals away from the Hounds and Dragoons. Don’t smash ghouls like Hancock, okay?”

“Strong smash Infamy?” His tone was hopeful.

“No, Strong. But if you see Radiance, smash away!”

Strong’s new playmate was quickly turning the tide, and Cait and the Hounds recruited them to be the new spear point; their captain calling their battle cry over and over through her bullhorn. But, not everyone was pleased with the super mutants’ almost indiscriminant violence. Jack was yelling to Wraith to let him have a chance to talk his sister back to sanity, and Infamy was in a panic over the loss of Children of Atom.

They fell on their knees at her feet, “Please. Please, Harbinger. Chosen of the Mother of the Fog. Please reach out and save my people.”

“They’re fanatics, sure. But, Isolde and you… she isn’t your enemy by her choice, you feel me?”

“Infamy, have you seen the Crater’s elder?”

“No. I imagine Radiance has her on a short leash. If I could but find her…” They turned and puffed out their narrow chest, “If I can chip my way past that foul bitch’s barrier to save you I should be able to get past a retched piece of tinfoil!”

Deacon shrugged, “Maybe it’s aluminum foil.”

The look Infamy gave him could well have melted steel before turning back to Wraith, “I have never begged for anything… well I suppose that’s not strictly true. Ha!” They turned their luminous face away at the very human scream that marked the end of yet another of his brethren’s lives. When they turned back, all trace of their usual madness had left them, “Help me. Please.”

“Very well, but, let’s try to have a plan, okay?”

Hancock snorted, “Yeah, sunshine, cause those almost never go sideways…”

She smirked at him, “Cait, bring Omega to me, if you would.”

…..

The second she felt Wraith’s shield go down, Radiance launched a mental attack like an RPG. She could feel her agony as her attacks struck true, but after a brief moment of celebration she felt the white-hot knife of Wraith’s retaliation. A rage-ignited flame assaulted her from the artifact fragment, and for a moment she had to fight against the urge to kill her.

No. She will be mine again. I will have what I want. We will have what we want. Soon.

…..

Wraith had been driven to her knees by Radiance’s vicious assault, but had held on through the wave of pain to gather her own strength for a return volley. “Got her!” Afterward, there came a dizzying rush of painfully oppressive thoughts that pushed her flat to the ground. She could vaguely hear Hancock and Deacon calling her name, but it was Infamy who cut through the haze to shore up her resolve.

“Push ‘em back, push ‘em back, push ‘em waaaaaay back!”

Realizing that the attack came from her own pieces of the alien artifact, she brought forth images of her own to combat them. She bound them in chains made from the snapshots of happy memories she had made with her beloved companions in the Commonwealth over the course of her adventures. And although she could feel blood dripping down her face to run off her chin, she knew that she had bested them.

“That’s the power of mother-fucking positive thinking! Woooooo!”

Infamy’s look was inscrutable as they watched Hancock help her to her feet and wipe the blood from her eyes, “You… you bond to people quickly…” They had seen Sun of Atom in her memories and felt the feelings the image carried within them, and though they had come from someone else, they couldn’t be dismissed. Their voice was almost a whisper, “You are a very strange sort of human, Harbinger.”

“Alright,” Wraith clapped her hands together, “we are going to go up in the tower and start stealing glowing ones from her while you,” she pointed up to Omega, “You gently – does he know that word? – pick up the Children and put them in your basket.”

“Strong will help his brother.”

“That’s good, Strong. Don’t let them swarm you; I bet even he can be bogged down.” Wraith waved Cait back to her, “Help the mutants by herding the ferals away from them, please. Oh, can I borrow your bullhorn?”

“Like fuckin’ Border Collies now, are we?” Despite her rolling eyes she passed Wraith what she asked for and set about mustering her fellow riders with the enthusiastic high-pitched whistles that a sheep herder might make.

“Alright, Danse, put out the call for a full retreat; bring everyone inside the walls.”

Danse shook his head but smiled at her, “Not the General, huh? Old habits die hard.”      

Once in the tower, Wraith and Infamy sat cross-legged across from each other much the same way she and Sun had. The similarities of that training session over a year ago weren’t lost on her and she felt a wave of sadness wash over her.

“Though we are not The Sun of Atom, we will do our best to help you, Wraith. Our people must go to Atom on their own terms, and not by the whims of a mad creature.”

Over and over Wraith and Infamy sought the lights of the glowing feral ghouls and compelled them to motionlessness where they were dispatched by the Minutemen. Without the regenerative radioactive pulses the other ferals were easier to put down and the previously overwhelming horde began to diminish.

As for the Children of Atom, Omega took three trips to gather all that remained and MacCready put them all to sleep with the syringer. Isolde was still unaccounted for.

Radiance had no choice. She needed proximity to her foes to try and regain control and so compelling her personal guard to move, the palanquin came into view of the tower. To the horror of all that could see, Isolde was tied down, spread eagle and nude to the hood of the Highwayman. Burned and bloody it was unclear if she was alive.

Frantically both Wraith and her glowing one ally reached out to see if the light of the Children’s elder yet shone.

No you don’t.

Now that she was closer and controlling far less minds, her mental intrusions on Wraith and Infamy were far more intense and she was merciless in her attacks. She easily blocked them and sent them wave after wave of pain.

Infamy had never felt such agony! Even the pain of becoming a glowing one had been dull in comparison. For that metamorphosis had been almost purely physical, whereas now it felt as if their entire being would be burned away. On the verge of breaking, their breath came in ragged gasps.

“I’ve got you.”

They felt a presence that was undeniably protective and positive wrap itself around their pain, and when they opened their eyes, Wraith’s left hand was on their forehead.

“I can help, but I don’t have the experience to fight her this way. I had to put the wall back up or she’d take me out.” Wraith touched MacCready’s leg with her other hand, “Shoot the reavers, Mac. Trap her in there.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

“Can you see in? Can you shoot her?”

“No, Wraith, the car’s windows are shielded. I’ll bet the whole thing is reinforced. Though I’ve no doubt the AMR could still make it through, we’d have to get lucky to hit and we run the risk of shooting her hostage.” Deegan had at last fully separated his feelings of Emogene from the creature hiding in the car.

“Send Omega up there to smash her.”

“I won’t abandon Isolde.”

“Let me try!” Desperation was clear in Jack Cabot’s voice, “Let me try to save my sister!”

“Okay, Jack.” Wraith’s tone was grim, “I told you that you could. So try.”

“Emogene! This is Jack…” His voice cracked and he cleared his throat before bringing the bullhorn back to his lips, “It’s your brother. It’s not too late…” He shot MacCready a dagger-filled look when the sniper snorted, “We can help you! It’s not your fault. We know it was the artifact. The things it promises you are lies. We saw it with our father. Imagine the joy on mother’s face when she sees you alive.” He took a deep breath and tried a new angle, “We’ll leave. We will leave the Commonwealth and travel west…”

When Deegan had previously shot her, the speech center of her brain had sustained irreparable damaged, however, Radiance was still able to make sure that her answer was perfectly clear. Every feral that remained under her control turned simultaneously and – if they still possessed the necessary equipment – gave Jack the Two Finger Salute.

“Well, that answers that right, Wraith? Wraith?” MacCready looked around surprised as both she and Infamy were no longer in the tower.

As soon as Jack had started to speak, Wraith had slung Infamy over her shoulder and left. She made quick progress to the ridge just below Radiance before plopping her glowing companion down in a sheltered hollow in the rock. Pressing her finger to her lips to indicate stealth, she pantomimed her intentions to Atom’s Assassin and then disappeared once satisfied they understood.

If Radiance was surprised when some of her own allies untied Isolde and started walking off with her, Wraith wasn’t able to see. However, she could feel a massive, angry buildup of energy from within the car and so ducked behind a rock just as the pulse detonated. Several of the seemingly lifeless ferals in the immediate area sprang to their feet afterward, and Wraith had to fight and dodge them as she advanced on the Highwayman. Alarmingly she heard a rifle bullet wiz past her ear, but assumed that the snipers in the tower were trying to aid her. At least she hopped it wasn’t Jack trying to kill her.

Knowing she only had a few seconds before Radiance built up another charge, Wraith hooked her fingers in a gap of the warped car roof and pulled back with all her might. The metal shrieked in protest as she struggled. Just when she thought she was making progress, a searing tendril of mental intrusion lanced through her skull. Falling backward onto the roof, she clawed at her temples in an attempt to rid herself of the pain.

I’ve won.

Then Radiance made an error: trying to see Wraith in the moment of her defeat, the glowing one put her face too close to the gap Wraith had made in the roof of the car. With herculean effort, Wraith gained enough control to reach in and grasp Radiance’s forehead. Alarmed, the glowing one gathered kinetic energy as well and in an act of self-preservation, prepared to utterly destroy Wraith.  

“Emogene… if there is any part of you… I… I’m sorry.”

Wraith closed her fist just as Radiance discharged her pulse and the resulting shockwave flung her away – car roof and all – like she was riding a leaf in a hurricane.

“I’ve got to hand it to ya.” Infamy found her several feet away and seemed genuinely please that she survived, “Get it? Hand?”

Wraith stared owlishly down at the twisted stump that had been her left arm before erupting in hysterical laughter, “HA HAAAHAHAH! You’ll forgive me if I don’t applaud your wit.”

.....

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you had fun these past few years. As always, if you have any questions/comments/concerns, please feel free to send me an ask. Anons too. =^..^=

[atombombbagel]

TIME FOR ANGST What do the companions do upon seeing Sole wobbling their way to camp missing an arm from a battle with a deathclaw/ being beside soul when they lost their arm in the fight? (Sole totally won tho that deathclaw is well we don't talk about that.)

WARNING! - HellaAngsty, Blood/ Gore / Loss of limbs! (If you are uncomfortable about readingstuff like this, I suggest you don’t).

Also, I did a mix of the two, so some companions are withSole when it happens, and some aren’t.

Cait: Cait got knockedback, flying through the air as the Deathclaw whacked her with its arm. She hita wall, falling to the ground with a groan.

“Cait!” Sole shouted as the Deathclaw stalked towards herready to finish her off, but Sole’s shouting made it turn around and focus onthem instead. The Deathclaw roared at Sole, making them gulp as they fired afew pathetic shots at it. Cait lifted her heavy head off the ground, her headdizzy from where it hit the wall. She glanced over at Sole, her eyes focusingas she saw the Deathclaw swipe at them, knocking them clean to the ground.

Cait picked herself off the ground, picking her weapon backoff the ground and firing rapidly at the Deathclaw. Sole struggled to do thesame, pulling out their pistol. The Deathclaw roared again and Cait shot it inthe back of the head, making it stumble around before it slumped to the ground,letting out one last dying huff. Cait then ran towards Sole dropping her gun tothe ground.

“Sole!” She dropped to her knees at Sole’s side, slapping Sole’sface gently, trying to wake them up, they’d fainted from the loss of blood.Cait’s eyes flicked down to Sole’s arm that was completely detached from thebicep downwards. Using her knife, she ripped the lower part of the sleeve onSole’s detached limb, using it to wrap around the blood stump that was theirarm, “Sole! Please wake up yer scaring me,” She slapped Sole again, but alittle harder this time.

After a minute of two Sole slowly opened their eyes, blindedby the light from the sun shining down on them. When their eyes adjusted theylooked up at Cait, meeting her worried eyes.

“Oh my god, I was so worried about ye,” She covered hermouth with her hand.

“I can’t feel my arm,” Sole said sadly, looking at theirshoulder, “My arm!” Sole panicked throwing their head back against the ground.Cait lifted them up pulling them into her as she attempted to calm a stressedSole down.

“Yer going to be alright,” Cait whispered as she held Sole,she’d stopped the bleeding, now all she had to do was calm Sole down.

Curie: Solestumbled through the gates, nearly falling over as they gripped onto the gatefor support. They made their way through the street, weak and pale from thetremendous amount of blood they’d lost. They only stopped moving when theylooked up and saw Curie, her face in a state of horror as she looked at Sole,her eyes trailing down to Sole’s missing limb.

“Oh my goodness!” Curie screamed in shock as Sole slowlywalked towards her, holding their elbow. Sole’s sleeve was soaked in bloodnearly reaching Sole’s shoulder. Curie closed the distance between them,running towards Sole. She caught a falling Sole in her arms, their legs finallygiving out from under them, “What happened?” she asked, carefully removingSole’s hand from their elbow so she could take a look at the extent of thedamage.

“I got into a fight with a Deathclaw,” Sole said with aslight muse in their tone of voice, trying to make light of the situation, “Isit bad?” Sole then asked, looking up at Curie. She shook her head.

“You got to me in good time,” She helped Sole to their feet,wrapping Sole’s arm around her neck as she helped them walk towards the surgerySole had built for her, “I’ll patch it up, you’re going to be fine.”

Danse: Sole andDanse had been making their way to the Sentinel Site, where they were to securethe warheads for Liberty Prime and on their way to the location they had comeacross an angry Albino Deathclaw. The minute the Deathclaw spotted them itrapidly clambered towards them, knocking Danse to the ground before picking himup and roaring in his face and then slamming him into the ground. Sole quicklyshot at the Deathclaw, making it spin around and run towards Sole’s position.They backed up, still firing at the Deathclaw but it lunged towards Sole, rippingtheir hand from their body.

“Shit!” Sole exclaimed as their hand fell to the ground,blood spurting out of their arm. Sole thought fast, combat rolling to the sideand putting a few more bullets into the monster. By that time Danse had gottenup and was firing at the Deathclaw, beams of red light piercing through itsbody and sending it to the ground in a heap.

“Soldier?” Danse walked towards Sole, who was bending downand picking their hand up from the ground, “Right, I’m calling a vertibird downhere right away,” He said, tossing a signal grenade to the ground. Sole triedto stop him, telling him that they would be fine and to proceed with themission, but he was having none of it, “We will proceed with the mission whenyou’re fully healed, I’m not going to leave you in this state,”

“But-” Sole started but Danse cut them off almostimmediately.

“You’re getting on the vertibird, even if I have to carryyou on there.”

Deacon: He knewthat Sole was doing crazy shit most of the time, they’d thrived for it and hewent along with it because that’s how he was. And when they’d both spotted aDeathclaw approaching them from the fog he suggested that he and Sole get thefuck out of there, but that wasn’t Sole.

“C’mon we can take it,” Sole said enthusiastically, nudgingDeacon’s arm with their elbow, wagging their eyebrows at him. That sly smilestretched across Sole’s face and Deacon knew he was beat, because he couldn’tsay no to it, no matter how hard he tried. Sole took the first shot, snipingthe Deathclaw from the distance and it somehow knew exactly where they werebecause it came running at them. Deacon ducked avoiding a swipe from it,ducking into nearby cover. Sole did the same, only somehow the Deathclaw hadfuriously attacked them, making them stumble over and land on their back.

Deacon did his best to try and shoot the Deathclaw off Sole,but it was towering over them. The Deathclaw roared in Sole’s face beforeleaning it and tearing their arm from their body, Sole’s piercing screamechoing through the air. Deacon shut his eyes unable to look at his fallenfriend. But Sole being the strong person they were, pulled a combat knife fromtheir pocket and rammed it into the Deathclaw’s head. It let out a painedscream before collapsing to the ground, it’s blood seeping onto the pavement.

“We’ll I seemed to overestimate myself,” Sole joked asDeacon stood over them, holding out his hand to pull them to their feet, “Shit,this hurts,” Sole said poking at their missing arm. Deacon held out a Stimpak,only then realising Sole couldn’t use it on their own, so he administered itfor them.

“You going to listen to me from now on?” Deacon asked givingSole an injection of Med-X.

“Definitely…” Sole paused and then winked, “Not,” Deaconshook his head, why did he even bother?

Gage: “Do youhear that?” Gage asked, holding up his rifle at the rustling bushes in front ofhim. Sole cautiously poked the end up of her gun in the bush, moving the leavesto the side as she peeked in. A large green arm swiped them from inside thehedge, knocking Sole backwards and they landed on their ass. Suddenly, aGatorclaw sprang out from the green jumping on top of Sole. It furiously clawedat Sole’s arm, ripping it off and throwing it across the park. Sole criedthrowing their head back at the throbbing pain they were now experiencing.

“Look over here you ugly piece of shit!” Gage yelled,grabbing the attention of the Gatorclaw, it sprinted towards him and he hit itwith the butt of his gun before unloading the whole magazine into its skull,spraying blood everywhere. It groaned and collapsed to the ground in front ofhim and he spat on it before jogging over to where Sole was lying on theground.

“Boss!” he shouted, pulling Sole up from the ground. Theywere unconscious, and he had to get them to a doctor immediately. He pickedSole up bridal style and carried them to safety inside a building, so he couldmakeshift a bandage out of his shirt. He ripped it with his bare hands wrappingit and then securing it around their detached limb, “stay with me boss,” hesaid quietly knowing they couldn’t hear him anyway. He picked them up again,carrying Sole in such a way that they didn’t lose anymore blood. He hurried tofind someone to patch up Sole, worrying about them the whole time.

Hancock: Hancockthrew his head back as he laughed at something Fahrenheit had said to him, butthey were interrupted by the gates rustling open and closed. Fah threw her handover her mouth as her eyes widened at the sight behind her.

“What’s wrong with you?” Hancock turned around and his heartdropped to the pit of his stomach as he realised what was happening. Solecollapsed to the ground, their blood seeping into the cracks in the pavement.Hancock’s hat flew off as he rushed to Sole’s side, everyone else followingsuit. He was panicking, everyone could tell by his shaky hands and the unsteadytone in his voice. Daisy handed Hancock a rag that he held over their woundedarm.

“I won,” Sole choked out, looking up at Hancock through theslits in their eyes, trying to keep them open but they couldn’t.

“What? Won what?” Hancock asked quickly but he got no reply.Sole’s head dropped to the side as they fell unconscious. He grabbed the sideof Sole’s face with his hand and tilted their head back to face him. He thenused his fingers to check for a pulse on their neck. Breathing a sigh of reliefwhen he felt one, “Get Amari,” Hancock said, squinting his eyes when no onemoved, “I said, GET AMARI!” he boomed, his husky voice startling a couple ofpeople. A drifter ran towards the direction of the memory den.

“Don’t leave me Sunshine,” Hancock whispered, brushing acalloused finger down their cheek, “Not like this.”

MacCready: Soleheld a finger to their lips as they carefully moved into the next room, notknowing what was lurking around the corner. MacCready nodded, waiting behindthe wall, sniper in hand. Sole snuck into the room, clearing out every cornerbefore they disappeared behind the last one. Everything went quiet andMacCready grew nervous, that was until Sole was launched through the alreadyweak wall. A Deathclaw emerged from the wall, climbing towards Sole and pinningthem up against the wall.

“Sole!” MacCready shouted making his way towards them butthe Deathclaw swung its arm and sent him flying into a wall. He struggled buthe did manage to get back up, shooting the ‘claw with .50 calibre ammo. Itslammed Sole into the wall again before using its claws to rip their arm cleanfrom their body. MacCready watched in horror as Sole screamed, their blood splatteringon the wall behind them. Sole fell to the ground limp as the Deathclaw droppedthem, focusing on MacCready instead. MacCready stumbled backwards fearing he’dendure the same fate but Sole got back up and shoved their knife in the side ofthe monster, ripping its side open as they twisted the knife. They pulled itout before skilfully climbing onto its back and shoving the knife into its eye.The deathclaw threw itself at the wall, accidentally knocking Sole off theirback and falling through the hole it had made in the wall.

“Shit,” MacCready accidently swore, shaking his head beforerushing over to Sole’s side, pushing them onto their back as he kneeled attheir side.

“What an asshole,” Sole joked, lifting themselves up ontheir remaining elbow. It took a couple of seconds for the realisation to sinkinto Sole’s mind and they burst out crying, “It ripped off my fucking arm!”they shouted in frustration and MacCready quickly stuck a stimpak in their arm,causing Sole to wince.

“You’re going to be alright,” MacCready stated and Solescoffed, sitting up properly.

“I have one arm,”

“Yeah and you still kicked ass, so get up,” MacCready pulledSole up off the ground and they both walked over to the hole in the wall,looking out at the Deathclaw corpse on the ground below, it’s head cracked openlike an egg, “You’ve got this,” he said squeezing their hand, Sole nodded witha smile. He was so right.

Nick: Nick wassitting on a bench outside Sole’s house, smoking a cigarette when they struggledthrough the street, their arm dripping with blood. He put out the cigarette andrushed towards them, his hand flying to stub that was now their arm. He didn’t carethat their blood was seeping into the sleeve of his own coat, he only caredabout the wellbeing of his companion.

“What did you get yourself into this time?” he said light-heartedly,making Sole sadly laugh. Sole didn’t answer straight away, building up thecourage to tell Nick what had happened.

“I may have pissed off a Deathclaw,” Sole winced as anothershot of pain ripped through their arm. Nick stopped Sole from falling over,their knees weak and shaky.

“We need to get you to a doctor, this isn’t looking goodkid,” he said and Sole nodded, more colour draining from their face as theylost more blood. He helped Sole struggle along the pathway, being met by theowner of the health station half way, “Don’t worry, I’ll be with you the wholetime,”

Piper: “Waithere, I’ll be right back,” Sole had said to her, it must have been about tenminutes since then and Piper had heard nothing, she had no idea what was goingon. That was until she was startled by a roar and a bloodcurdling scream comingfrom Sole. She rushed towards the sound, her heart beating rapidly in her chestas she approached Sole who was lying back on the ground. Her eyes then foundthe Deathclaw that was lying dead a couple of feet away from Sole’s body.

“Blue?” she said quietly, slowly walking towards them, afraidof what she would find. She nearly threw up when she spotted that Sole’s arm hadbeen torn off their body. Sole groaned and Piper let out a sigh of relief, “Whathappened?” she asked, regretting it as soon as she said it, she knew whathappened, it was clear by the scene before her.

“Bastard bit me,” Sole choked out, coughing weakly. Solespat the blood in their mouth onto the ground as they picked themselves off theground, “Any idea where my arm landed?”

“This isn’t funny Sole,” Piper said sadly, worried about themental health of Sole at that moment.

“You’re right, I just don’t know what to do,”

“Let me help,” she offered, pulling a cloth from her pocketand unravelling it. She tied it around Sole’s arm, the blood seeping through ontoit, Piper’s lip quivered as she tried not to cry. Sole caressed her cheek tocomfort her, “this will have to do until we get you some help,” she swallowedthe lump in her throat.

“Thank you,” Sole said with a smile, and Piper returned itwith a gentle nod.

Preston: Prestonwas working the nightshift again, walking around the settlement and checkingthat all the turrets were up and running, along with hanging up some tincantraps. He raised his gun up in caution as one of the tin traps was knocked,clanking away as a person stumbled into them.

“Freeze,” Preston called out, holding up his gun andpointing it at the perpetrator. It was only when the person stepped into thelight that he realised it was Sole. They fell to the ground, but Preston caughtthem before their head smacked off the pavement. He went to grab Sole’s arm,but he only felt material where their arm should have been, “Sole? Sole?” Hetried shaking them, but they were unresponsive, “Can I get some help over here!”Preston shouted, alerting some settlers nearby, who rushed to his side.

The three of them carried Sole to their house and laid themdown on their bed, so Preston could better treat their wound. He tore thematerial that was restricting him from seeing what was left of their arm.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” Preston said as Sole came to, “Whathappened,”

“Won a fight with a Deathclaw,” Sole said quietly, movingtheir stunted arm.

“You’re lucky to be alive,” Preston said with a sigh, “Youscared me back there. Please in future promise you’ll be safer,” Sole nodded, “good, now you’d better get Some rest.” 

[atombombbagel]

Yoooo!! I'm loving the frickin Nate drama! Instead of Nate becoming violent, what if he stuck around the settlement for a bit while Sole was making up her mind and he starts chatting up "intimate" details of his and Sole's past relationship(while possibly intoxicated)with companions unaware that they're the ones who are now romantically involved with her; how awkward and uncomfortable do companions get?

So this is an alternate ending to Part one, where Nate returns and he is alive, this isn’t a continuation of part two. (I suggest if you haven’t read the first one, you go to that to get the background of the situation).

PART ONE

PART TWO

Also, Slightly NSFW

There was no way Sole was going to leave her companion for him, not after everything that had happened, the fact of the matter being confirmed seeing how Nate was acting, drunk already. She hadn’t told him yet, she didn’t know how to bring up the matter because she knew how he was and how he’d react… 

Cait: Cait wassitting on the bar stool a couple of seats down from Nate, low key listening inon his conversation with the bartender.

“She’s freaky,” Nate slurred, leaning his weight on the baras he leaned into the bartender, if he was trying to be quiet he was failing atit, “gave me a blow job in the middle of a parking lot,” he sniggered, liftinghis beer back to hips lips and taking a long swig of it. Cait scoffed fromwhere she was sitting, making Nate look over to her.

“What a fucking asshole,” she muttered to herself, only Natehad heard her say it.

“Got a problem sweetheart?” Nate slurred again, turning hisfull body to Cait. Cait swung her legs around, slamming her beer on the table.

“Watch yer fuckin’ mouth, wouldn’t go running it around inthese parts,” Cait warned, the only warning she’d give him. He laughed darkly.

“I’ll say whatever I want about my wife honey,” Cait huffed,pushing herself off the stool and storming over to where Nate sat.

“I warned ya,” She said before knocking Nate square in theface, he fell to the ground, his hands flying up to hold his bleeding nose,“Don’t disrespect my girlfriend again, because I’ll fuckin’ end ya, ya prick,”

Curie: Natestumbled through the street, a warm gwinette ale in his hand. He messily dranksome, a bit of the drink spilling onto his vault suit as made his way backtowards the bar, only leaving to take a leak. He saw Sole out of the corner ofhis eye, Curie standing next to her as they spoke to each other.

“D’ya remember the time youuu gave me a handjob under thetable in your parents house, because that, that was great,” Nate hiccupped, nowstanding in front of the two of them.

“Nate!” Sole snapped, shaking her head. Curie uncomfortablyshifted from one foot to the other, looking from Nate to Sole, “Ignore him,he’s drunk,” Sole said, pushing past Nate and walking into her and Curie’sshared house.

“She’s a tease that one,” Nate said, his eyes followingafter Sole.

“That’s enough!” Curie snapped, startling Nate, “Keep yourcrude comments to yourself,” she walked past Nate, her anger bubbling up insideher, but she restrained herself from doing anything to him.

Danse: Danse hadbeen walking past the bar when he heard Nate’s loud obnoxious voice frominside, he stopped when he heard him mention Sole’s name. He decided to listenin from outside.

“I’ll take another!” he shouted at the bartender, slammingdown his empty bottle on the table, “man, being frozen for 200 years reallymakes you horny,” Nate laughed, making Danse scoff at the thought, “One time,my wife,” he hiccupped, “she let me put it in her ass, and maaann, it feltgood,”

Danse went a bright shade of red as he listened to Natespill intimate secrets about Sole and it felt like he’d read her diary, it waspersonal and what he was doing was wrong on so many levels. He was disgusted byNate’s actions, it made him very uncomfortable and he couldn’t listen inanymore, instead he decided to go and tell Sole about it. Because she deservedto know how much of a sleaze her ex is.

Deacon: Deaconwas standing, arms crossed in the dark corner of the bar, Sole standing next tohim as they both watched Nate at the bar, ordering himself six shots, that hedowned one after the other.

“He’s sticking around?” Deacon asked rhetorically, reallywishing the guy would just give up and leave already but clearly Nate wasn’tgoing to give up without a fight. Nate turned around and spotted Sole, a smirkspreading across his face.

“Hey darlin! Still up for that threesome?” he mused, makingSole’s eyes go wide as she covered her face with her hand, he’d embarrassed herin front of everyone she knew, in front of Deacon, “or maybe you just want meto watch you with another woman?”

“Oh my god,” Sole muttered to herself. Deacon pushed himselfoff the wall and made his way outside, he couldn’t listen to that asshole speakany more, he didn’t want to be brought into the middle of any drama. Becausewith drama, brings attention, something he didn’t like.

“Awh, perhaps your friend is too mellow for that,” Natejoked again, laughing to himself, in fact he was the only one laughing. Soleshook her head, following Deacon outside, she had to explain but he was nowhereto be found.

Gage: Gage didn’tdrink, and this was exactly the reason why. He shook his head as he sipped abit of his Nuka Cola Orange, embarrassed for Sole, they’d actually been marriedto the man. Nate leaned into the settler next to him, his hand on her leg as hetrailed it higher up her dress.

“Come on, my wife let me do whatever I wanted, like all thetime,” the settler looked away from him, moving his hand from her leg, “hah,she was easy thinking about it and loud, very loud,”

Gage shifted in his seat, trying for Sole’s sake, not to getup and break Nate’s arm, which he was extremely tempted to do. Nate opened hismouth again spilling more secrets about Sole and Gage snapped, getting up andmoving to the seat next to Nate.

“Mate,” he said to Nate grabbing his attention, “Speak abouther again and I’ll knock your teeth from your mouth,” Nate gulped as he lookedat the raider, who was fully dressed in scary armour with a menacing look onhis face, “just so we’re clear,” Gage got back up, tapping Nate’s back with ahard hit, making him jolt forward, nearly hitting his face off the bar. Thatwas the last time he spoke about her like that.

Hancock: Themayor sat back on the sofa, holding a cigarette to his lips as he watched adrunk Nate from a distance. From the moment he met him, he didn’t take a likingto the man, maybe because he was a little jealous he’d previously held Sole’sheart or the fact the guy was a total asshole.

“She likes it rough, trust me on that, begs for it,” Natestumbled, holding himself up on the table he was standing next to. Hancockfrowned as he listened to Nate talk about Sole like that, “One time she’d mademe-”

“I think you’ve had enough pal,” Hancock said, holding ontoNate’s shoulder, Nate tried to shove him off, but Hancock gripped his shouldertightly, “I said, that’s enough,” he growled, grabbing Nate’s drink from hishand and putting it on the bar. He pulled Nate outside, pushing him into thestreet making Nate nearly fall to the ground but he steadied himself.

“If I hear you talking about Sole like that in public again,I will put a fucking knife in your gut, do you understand me?” Hancock saidcalmly, making Nate scoff, “I said,” he grabbed Nate again, upper cutting himin the stomach, “Do you hear me?” he spoke through gritted teeth, Nate yelped,nodding and Hancock released him, shoving him again, “Get the fuck out ofhere,”

MacCready: Natestumbled into Sole’s house, nearly tripping over the mat as he made his way intothe living room. Sole was sitting on the counter, MacCready standing in betweenher legs as they joked around, the two of them being interrupted by Natecoughing.

“We fucked on that counter, do you remember dear? multipletimes,” Nate said with a chuckle, realising that he’d made MacCreadyuncomfortable. MacCready stepped away from Sole, crossing his arms across hischest, “In fact we fucked on pretty much every surface in this house,” Natestepped closer to Sole, running his hand up her leg but she slapped him off.Nate faked a face of shock, “We could relive those memories,” he said, his hotbreath hitting Sole’s ear. MacCready left the room, making his way to Sole’sand his bedroom, closing the door behind him with a bang.

“Get out,” Sole seethed, jumping down from the counter. Natestepped back, “get out of my house,” she shouted. Nate turned around in a huff,walking out into the street and Sole slammed the door behind him. Sole openedthe door to her bedroom, frowning as she noticed MacCready sitting on the bedwith his head in his hands. She climbed onto the bed behind him, wrapping herarms around his waist.

“I can’t believe he’d treat you like that,” MacCreadyfinally said, looking up, “I’m sorry I had to leave, hearing him, I wanted tobeat the sh- the crap out of him,”

Nick: “She’sboring in bed I can tell you that,” Nate flung around his arm, nearly spillinghis drink in the process, “but she does have a tight ass,”

“Haven’t you ever heard of don’t kiss and tell?” Nickinterrupted, confronting Nate. Nick was classy, and he couldn’t stand foranyone disrespecting their loved ones in such vulgar ways, because that wasn’tlove and Sole deserved respect. More respect than Nate was showing her, he wasdisgusted by his behaviour.

“Don’t really care bot,” Nate sassed back.

“Well you should care! She did nothing but love you andyou’re treating her like this, you are a disgrace of a person and she deservesbetter,” Nick shot a disapproving glare at Nate making him look down, “andthat’s what I’m going to give her,” he said to himself, walking away, swearinghe’d never act like that.

Piper: Not onlyhad Nate sat down next to her, he was now flirting with her and Piper couldn’teven hide the disgusted look from her face as she looked at Nate.

“Show me a smile,” he said, his hand squeezing Piper’s knee,she almost picked up a knife from the table, planning to stab him in the leg.Instead, she pushed his hand from her leg, turning the other way.

“You know Sole right? Maybe you, me and her could go backand get lucky,” he whispered, leaning right up into Piper’s ear. She scoffedloudly, “Well, it isn’t like she hasn’t done it before, she was quite theslut,”

“You’re disgusting,” Piper said, getting up and leaving thebar, she couldn’t stay next to that creep for another second. She didn’tbelieve for one second that Sole was a slut and she nearly went back in thereto give Nate a piece of her mind, but she refrained from it.

Preston: Hewelcomed Nate into the neighbourhood because that was the polite thing to do,he didn’t want to cast him away with no place to live, so he put up with him,he hadn’t been trouble.

“Sole,” Nate said as he walked towards her, “Do you, stillhave those toys in your drawer?” he thought he’d said it quietly but the wholebar had heard him. Sole’s eyes widened as she realised what he was getting at,“You looked so hot playing with yourself,”

“Nate,” Sole said quietly, “keep your voice down,”

“Play with yourself for me,” he said, pushing himself upagainst her, backing her up against the wall. Preston was the one to come overand yank the drunk man off his girlfriend, shoving him away.

“You need to sleep off the alcohol,” Preston told him, butNate shook his head.

“Mind your own business,” Nate slurred, trying to shove himback but failing miserably.

“You made it my business when you aired your dirty laundryin my town, I suggest you leave, we’ve been accommodating but you crossed theline,” Nate looked between Preston and Sole before sneering and making his waytowards the door.

X6-88: Nateleaned into X6, who just turned to Nate with a straight face. Nate was lookingover at Sole who was laughing away with Preston in the corner.

“See her, she is magnificent at blow jobs, literally canmake you cum in minutes,” Nate said, nudging X6’s arm, pointing over towardsSole. X6 looked over at her and then back to Nate, although he was right, shewas good at them, it wasn’t something Nate should be sharing to everyone hemet.

“I don’t know why she ever stooped so low to actually dateyou, let alone marry you,” X6-88 stated.

“You what!” Nate shouted, trying to punch X6 but he stoppedhim, grabbing his hand and twisting it up behind his back. By now the whole barwas looking at them, including Sole.

“If I hit you here,” he jabbed Nate in his back with hisfingers, “I could snap your arm clean from your body,” he paused, “Want me todemonstrate?” Nate shook his head in panic and X6 let him go with a shove,making Nate fall to the ground, “I suggest you don’t show your face around hereagain.”

Maxson:  Nate had approached the Elder who was leaningagainst the wall outside Sole’s house, smoking a cigarette. He stood next tohim, looking up to him, because Maxson was a lot taller than Nate was.

“She’s kinky, we used to have a pair of handcuffs,” Nate said,the smell of alcohol on his breath smacking Maxson in the face, “but she likesropes too,” Nate tilted his head as he looked over at Sole who was leaning overa workbench, “her ass still looks great,”

“She still has them,” Maxson stated, flicking the ashes fromhis cigarette to the ground. Nate looked back up at him confused.

“What?”

“The handcuffs, she still has them,” Maxson threw the buttof his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it before leaning back andcrossing his arms over his chest, “Although, she won’t be using them with you,”Maxson looked down at Nate, who had a stunned look on his face. That certainlyshut him up, “Don’t even think about trying anything,” Maxson said sternly,pushing himself off the wall, he turned to face Nate, “She’s mine,”

Nate stayed silent as he watched Maxson walk over to whereSole was working on her weapon. Maxson turned around and winked at Nate, afinal ‘fuck you’ to him.