Fallout 1. Chapter 1

Night had fallen over a vast crater in what was once southern Nevada. The sky blazed with stars and a desert wind moaned across the ruins scattered about the bowl. Movement among the jagged rocks and shattered concrete walls revealed life stubbornly clinging to the blasted ruins.

Three humans dressed in filthy coveralls carefully made their way through one of the rocky hills rising from the crater floor. Their faces were covered with crude masks and they carried spears tipped with white ceramic blades. The three were hungry, the need to find food driving them into the mutant infested bowl. None had names and only a vague need for companionship kept them together. If prey proved difficult to find, the biological imperative to survive would take over and one of their number would become the quarry. Able to communicate only by grunts and growls, the humans crouched silently looking for prey…or predators.

Hazards were many in the crater and death could come suddenly from any direction. In the jagged hills of the crater's rim lurked giant mutant Tarantula Hawk Wasps. They would swoop down the rocky slopes in a controlled glide attempting to paralyze prey with their abdominal stingers. Fortunate victims would lay helpless as the huge wasps drained them to withered husks. The less fortunate would be implanted with larvae and buried alive to feed the wasp's young.

The wasps weren't the only genetic abomination roaming the crater. Savage packs of Coyote and Rattlesnake hybrids roamed the night and the deep shadows. Their howls would echo off the peaks as they searched for prey. Anything moving at night learned quickly to be wary of the sinister rattling of the hybrid's tails. Often the sound meant agonizing death from fangs oozing venom was only seconds away.

And then there were the technological hazards still following their programmed missions two hundred years after the world ended in nuclear fire. Rusting Securitrons, Protectrons, Mr. Gutsy's and Sentrybots patrolled the ruins attacking anything that moved with bullets, rockets, and blasts of laser and plasma fire. Similar to the robots were the humans that had been captured by the crater's automated defenses. Their scarred heads were mute testaments to the procedures that replaced parts of their brains with cybernetic implants. Reduced almost to beasts, the human's lives were brutish and short, interrupted only by programmed imperatives to repair the crumbling facilities dotting the basin.

The hunting party began to move down a narrow path in the shadow of a jagged peak with decaying radio towers jutting from it like horns. Suddenly the sound of falling pebbles made them look up as a shadow dropped from above. Two leaped aside while the third tripped and fell shrieking and thrashing down the slope. Their attacker landed in a crouch and snarled, the moonlight gleaming off its staring white eyes and gleaming fangs. With hoarse cries the two remaining hunters charged slashing with their spears. The creature ducked under a wild swing, then lunged forward seizing a hunter by the throat and whirling to impale him on the other hunter's spear. Her spear trapped, the last hunter pulled out a kitchen knife and charged. Her shriek turned into a gurgle as a taloned hand smashed into her sternum driving ribs through her heart and lungs. The bodies were still twitching in pools of blood when their attacker tore into their remains with teeth and claws.

"Ooooooh, so…savage." A distorted electronic voice intoned, audible only to the creature. "The way you dismember Lobotomites and consume their…flesh. So revolting yet so…fascinating."

Its hunger sated, the creäture stood upright revealing the massive naked form of a woman covered with blood and filth. Alert for other predators she pulled a crude mask down over her fanged mouth. Like the lobotomites scattered about, the woman's head was crisscrossed with scars from the procedures that rendered her mute and subservient to the voice.

"Such a good Teddy Bear." The voice said soothingly. "You remembered to replace your mask. Your face meat, writhing like slugs on your skull. So…repulsive…mustn't experience too…much…at once." The voice began to speak more rapidly as it's excitement increased. "Your biological imperatives have been met, now be a good Teddy Bear, listen to Dala and return to the Village. Other predators will arrive soon and I can't damaging you…yet."

With no other signs of acknowledgement, the Lobotomite began to run down the path to the plain below. Finally she reached a ledge and with a leap landed on one of the huge pipes connecting the structures littering the baked clay of the crater floor like arteries. The largest were two domes dominating the northern and southern sectors. The blue lights of the northern dome and the crimson glow of the southern provided dim illumination for the crater even on moonless nights.

Moving with tireless stamina, the Lobotomite ran along the pipe above pools of contaminated water glowing a sickly green and the decaying hulks of vehicles and robots. Finally the pipe approached a massive concrete structure built into the jagged rim of the crater. Its walls were supported by flying buttresses formed of steel girders now red with rust. Without hesitation the Lobotomite leaped from the pipe, landing effortlessly on the packed clay twenty feet below. She then approached the only entrance, a massive steel door that slid open with a screech and a clang as she approached. As soon as she entered the door closed with a boom and she stared blankly as she waited for more instructions.

"Oooooh." Dala sighed in her mind. "Exertion is causing you to…respirate at an elevated level! You must get to your house so I can study the phenomena at the monitor!"

The woman didn't move as she stared at a cluster of two-story houses built in a ring around a dry fountain. The scene could have been from any small suburban cul-de-sac except for the roof of rusting steel plates blocking out the stars. Something about the tableau was waking something within the blank static filling her mind.

"Lobotomite!" Dala ordered. "Return to the house!"

Still unmoving, the woman squeezed her eyes closed as an image flashed into her mind with painful intensity. It was a similar ring of houses but in stark black and white. Suddenly the face of a little girl with very old eyes appeared accompanied with unaccustomed emotion.

"You are growling lobotomite." Dala observed. "Fascinating. You are defying my orders and acting in a totally spontaneous fashion. Perhaps the implants meant to enhance your performance are having unanticipated side effects. This must be studied further, but first we need…observation."

The woman turned and began to walk around the fountain, and then stopped in front a house where she stared fixedly at a faded number painted on the door.

"This is not your house Lobotomite." Dala said with growing irritation. "Perhaps you are exhibiting the same random patterns I have witnessed in other Lobotomites."

The Lobotomite ignored Dala, instead staring intently at the number "101". Like an approaching storm, images like flashes of lightning were filling her mind. The faces of men and women were appearing accompanied by disorienting bursts of emotion. Each face was mouthing something, a word that seemed to be repeated over and over again. The Lobotomite reached toward the door, tracing the peeling paint of the number with a clawed finger as if it would help her hear the words.

"Now lobotomite!"

The woman staggered then slowly straightened. She than turned to another house across the fountain and began to walk toward it. Marked with the number "104", the lobotomite didn't hesitate and opened the door. Inside was a dimly lit living room with walls covered with peeling wallpaper and furniture slowly succumbing to dry rot.

"Upstairs my Teddy Bear." Dala said in a breathless voice. "Stand before the monitor."

The Lobotomite did as she had been ordered many times before and climbed the stairs. At the top was a short hallway illuminated by a flickering blue light from what was once a side office. The lobotomite entered the bare room and stopped in front of a long wall screen dominated by the flickering blue image of a human eye. The eye moved to center on her and Dala's voice spoke again.

"Yeeees my Teddy Bear." She crooned. "Just stand there and perform respiration." The lobotomite did as she was told, her white eyes staring at the monitor through the holes in her mask. The image on the wall twitched as minutes passed. Finally Dala spoke, her voice distant and thoughtful.

"How strange to…breathe. To feel oxygen rushing through one's orifices, inflating and deflating the chest cavity like a disgusting… flesh balloon." Dala hummed for a minute before continuing.

"Raise your arms above your head lobotomite."

The woman raised her arms and the eye twitched over her huge body.

"Clasp your hands together…yes, like that. Now stretch yourself…slowly." The woman did so and an electric hum began to sound in her mind as the eye twitched rapidly.

"That's enough Teddy Bear. Tomorrow you will finally fulfill the purpose for which you were created. Despite your inexplicable lapses into random patterns, you are still the best specimen for what needs to be done." The woman stood silently, giving no indication she understood what Dala was saying.

"It is time for you to sleep now." Dala ordered and the woman turned and walked to the bedroom. The bedroom was as dark as the rest of the house, but the lobotomite's eyes adjusted quickly and she had little difficulty navigating around the tattered piles of silk and linen strewn on the floor. When Dala first had the lobotomite brought to the Village, she had insisted the woman open the cabinets and put on the spring dresses and silk nightwear hanging within. The clothes were faded and brittle with dry rot, and had been meant for someone considerably smaller. Dala had the lobotomite try them on anyway, resulting in their destruction.

The room was dominated by a four poster canopied bed covered with stuffed toy bears in varying stages of decay. The woman stretched her huge body out on the bed among them and stared blankly at the dark folds of cloth above her.

"What is it like to sleep?" Dala mused. "So inefficient and unproductive, but so tantalizingly strange." She paused as the lobotomite continued to stare at the canopy.

"To sleep, perchance to dream…what an odd saying. What is it to…dream? Do lobotomites have the capacity I wonder? This will require study if matters are resolved satisfactorily. Good night…Teddy Bear." And Dala's voice faded into the background static that constantly buzzed in the lobotomite's mind.

The woman continued to stare blankly, then her arm slowly raised with a long black nailed finger outstretched. After a moment she began to trace the outline of the numbers that suddenly fascinated her. Over and over she traced "101" as images began to flash in her mind once again. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to understand what the faces were saying. Her mouth began to work behind the mask as she began to imitate the images, trying to bring forth sounds other then growls and grunts.

Suddenly her voice sounded in the room, raspy from long disuse. "V…V…" She snarled in frustration. She was close, but it still wasn't right. Again she began to trace the numbers in the air, angrily jabbing her finger. The face of an older man in a white coat appeared before her. His eyes made her feel inexplicably happy, but also deeply saddened. She grasped at the emotions as if drowning and seizing a life preserver.

"V…V…Val…Val…Valeria." She felt a surge of inexplicable joy when she croaked out the last word. It was right, she knew without any doubt that it was right. She also realized its meaning. Valeria was her name. Her face stretched into an unaccustomed smile as Valeria clutched her name to her as if it was one of the teddy bears.

"Time to awaken Teddy Bear."

Valeria looked about in confusion, still lost in the unaccustomed dreams she had been having. Normally Valeria's sleep was a black void filled with static, but with the realization of her name came a flood of subconscious images that refused to stop.

"I observed an unusual amount of REM in your sleep state." Dala said as Valeria sat up and swung her legs off the decaying sheets. "I have never seen such brain activity in a lobotomite before. Perhaps I have had a breakthrough in my cerebral implant procedure.

As Dala spoke Valeria stood from the bed and waited motionless for further instructions.

"Today you must come to me in the Think Tank but first you need to stretch after a night of immobility. Flesh creatures must do this to improve…circulation. Come to the monitor and stretch for me."

Valeria turned and walked out of the bedroom and entered the office where once again she stood before the eye. On Dala's instruction, she began to perform a range of motions as the eye flickered and moved over the play of muscles on her huge body.

"Your blood…should be flowing…through your veins now." Dala cooed as Valeria finished and stood silently at attention once more. "Now you must come to me at the dome. Hurry now Lobotomite."

Valeria turned and left the room, soon exiting the steel door sealing the Village within the hanger. In matters of survival, Valeria was able to operate without any direction from Dala. In the indeterminate time she had spent roaming the crater at Dala's bequest she had learned of the many hazards of what Dala referred to as "Big Mountain." Dala's will kept Valeria away from the bulbous antennas rising from the peaks ringing Big Mountain. She never explained why Valeria couldn't approach the peaks, only saying that it was forbidden.

Once out of the hanger, Valeria paused, looking about in the chill dawn for any signs of movement. In the distance she could hear the yipping of the Nightstalkers as the rising sun sent them back to their burrows.

"The Nightstalkers were one of Dr. Boros' greatest successes." Dala informed Valeria as she climbed up on the massive pipes running above the floor of the crater. Valeria had soon learned that one of the safer ways to travel was along the pipes, above the reach of many of the predators.

"We had told him that splicing rattlesnake DNA with that of Coyotes was impossible, but such criticisms always spurred him to greater efforts, as it did for us all." Dala continued to reflect as Valeria began to run along the pipe toward the blue glowing dome in the distance.

"He succeeded in his ambition, but as always his results were flawed." Dala continued, her electronic voice smug. "He assured us that they were incapable of breeding, but their greater numbers refutes that conclusion. I wonder if Dr. Boros is aware enough to realize his failure?" Dala hummed for a moment in satisfaction as Valeria began to cross over a dry ravine, the sounds of her bare feet on the hollow pipe echoing in the still air.

The massive dome of the Think Tank loomed above as Dala directed her toward another steel door. Valeria stood before it as an electronic alarm buzzed, and with a series of clangs the door slid open. Before her was a small room with a ramp leading up.

"Come up the ramp my dear Teddy Bear. It is time we met."

Valeria entered the ramp and climbed into a huge chamber lit only by the light of monitors along the curve of the back wall. The vaulted ceiling was clearly the interior of the dome and Valeria stopped for a moment to look up, taken by an unaccustomed feeling of curiosity.

"Turn to face me lobotomite." Dala ordered, her voice echoing from the vast walls of the chamber. Valeria turned and saw a huge wall monitor running along the curve of the dome dominated by the vast image of the eye she saw in the Village. The eye looked down on her and Dala spoke.

"You are the first lobotomite to stand in my presence Teddy Bear. I am Big Mountain and Big Mountain is I. I am the last of the great minds of the Think Tank, the final executor of our vision of unfettered scientific innovation."

Valeria stared up at the giant eye as it looked away from her. Lost in memories, Dala continued to speak as she ignored Valeria.

"There were six of us then. Klein, Borous, O, Eight, myself and…Mobius." The last name was spoken with a hiss of hatred. "Before the great static we wrought wonders at Big Mountain, but we were limited by the frailties of our own fleshy beings. I created the process by which our brains could be freed from the hormonal drives of our flesh and gain immortality. Yet I was not satisfied. Wondrous as our brains were, they were still chained by the limits of our biological natures. I knew that the only way to achieve true mastery of science was to integrate our consciousness into machines. Only with the purity of silicon, the speed of electrons could we be truly free."

Valeria watched the eye focused on her once more. "Mobius lacked my vision and opposed my work, but I continued in secret until one day I was ready. I integrated my consciousness into the mainframe of Big Mountain and freed myself from all vestiges of frailty and mortality. Once I achieved my transformation, I could see how flawed and damaged my former colleagues were. Moebius fled, too lost in his petty desires to acknowledge the greatness of my achievement. The others stayed, hoping to become as I, but I was aware of their treachery. Mobius was cunning and I knew he had subverted them." Dala's voice began to become shrill as her agitation grew.

"I offered to free them as well, and the fools walked into my trap. I drained their knowledge into my memory banks and discarded their personalities like wrappers. All except Dr. Borous…" Dala's voice dropped into a hiss. "When he was a man, he would steal my teddy bears and dissect them in his basement, when he wasn't experimenting on his dog Gabe that is." Dala giggled then continued. "I took his knowledge and put what was left of his mind into Gabe. Cut up my beloved Teddy Bears would he. I showed him!" The dome shook with Dala's shrill laughter as Valeria continued to stand and stare up at the monitor.

"All that was left was Mobius, but he was hiding in the X-42 Robowarfare facility. My lobotomites are too mindless to penetrate his defenses. Then you arrived. When my medibots brought you to the facility they brought a mystery as well. Your DNA is a quadruple helix, a phenomenon never seen in nature. If a being such as you could exist outside of Big Mountain, then there must be more than radioactive waste beyond the rim! Big Mountain is too small now, you showed me that there is an entire world for me to expand into and experiment on. Soon I will be the master of the Earth and all of Science!"

The dome echoed from Dala's shout of triumph, then her voice dropped into a hiss. "All that stands in my way in Mobius. I need you to enter the X-42 Facility and end his existence! Turn lobotomite and open the container behind you!"

Valeria turned and saw a steel trunk under the first tier of monitors along the back of the dome.

"It contains what you were carrying when you were brought to me. It has all been cleaned and repaired for your use, except the…Pipboy." Dala spat the word out as if she had tasted something foul. "Vault Tec trash will never be allowed into Big Mountain, and I had that vile device destroyed." At that announcement, Valeria's eyes closed as she felt an unexpected surge of sadness. Somehow, the "Pipboy" had meant something to her, and she felt its loss.

"Open the chest and put on the armor!" Dala ordered and Valeria strode forward to obey. As she pulled out each piece, she found herself putting it on without question or hesitation, as if she had performed the actions many times before. When she had donned every piece, she paused as she experienced a feeling of…comfort. There was something intimately familiar about the armor, and it felt secure and right. One last item lay at the bottom of the chest, and Valeria reached in to lift out a massive steel Super Sledge. She felt it's familiar weight in her hands and once again had the feeling of familiarity and "rightness". Without thinking, she effortlessly slung the massive weapon on her back and stood waiting for Dala's next order.

"Now lobotomite!" Dala's voice boomed. "I order you to go forth and destroy Mobius!"


	2. Chapter 2

Valeria's boots splashed through radioactive muck as she ran with all the speed she could muster. Close behind a pack of Nightstalkers was closing, poison dripping from their fangs as their lidless eyes stared with cold reptilian cunning. The pipes Valeria used to travel with relative safety entered the ground near the twisting canyons of the Forbidden Zone. Having no alternatives, Valeria had descended to the crater floor and began to walk across the cracked earth. That was when the morning stillness was broken by the sound of rattling and she spotted a cluster of sinuous shapes loping toward her with deceptive speed.

"Run Teddy Bear!" Dala ordered needlessly as Valeria turned and ran. She had met Nightstalkers before, and their poison although painful was not life threatening to her cybernetic and genetically augmented metabolism. The danger was their pack tactics as they came at her from all sides attempting to seize her limbs and drag her to the ground. Suddenly Valeria saw a jagged concrete wall jutting from the ground and sprinted toward it.

"What are you doing?" Dala shrilled as Valeria whirled to face the Nightstalkers, her back temporarily protected by the wall. One was already in mid-leap when Valeria's hammer swatted it out of the air. The mutant hit the ground thrashing and howling when another leaped for her abdomen trying to disembowel her. Valeria lashed out with her boot, crushing its throat and dropping it writhing in silent agony. The others hung back, hackles raised on their scaly backs, looking for an opening as their tails rattled incessantly.

"Run you mindless Lobotomite!" Dala ordered, but Valeria ignored her master. If she tried to flee she knew the Nightstalkers would be on her in moments. Her current position was secure for the moment and her eyes darted about looking for any means of escape. Suddenly the Nightstalkers tails went still and they all raised their reptilian heads, their nasal pits flaring as they sniffed the air.

A howl magnified a hundred-hold suddenly tore through the air, staggering Valeria with its sonic fury. The Nightstalkers scattered like leaves in a hurricane as Valeria squeezed her eyes shut and fought a wave of nausea while powdered debris showered down on her. She forced her eyes open to see the Nightstalkers fleeing, and then heard a thundering growl from her right. Whirling, Valeria found herself eye to eye with a giant black hound, its legs and back gleaming with exposed steel and its eyes burning with the same red glow as its dome encased brain.

"Boros!" Dala shrilled as Valeria leaped back, the hound's foaming jaws snapping shut on empty air.

"The sonic howl needs to recharge, flee Lobotomite!" Dala shrieked and Valeria turned and ran with all the speed her powerful legs could muster. Boros hesitated an instant, then with a howl leaped after her, his cybernetic legs whirring with exertion. Valeria knew she only had one chance before Boros ran her down, and with his breath searing her back she didn't hesitate when the ground dropped away and she leaped into space. Valeria slammed into the opposite wall of a canyon then hurtled down in a shower of stones and dirt. Suddenly her plunge was brutally halted by a massive pipe protruding from the canyon walls. Valeria gasped in agony as she rolled off the rusting steel and tumbled to a rocky slope below, sliding to the bottom of the canyon in a shower of stones. Boros glared down from the canyon rim far above, then with a howl of rage turned and loped out of sight.

"My former colleague has clearly suffered considerable cognitive degradation since being implanted in his pet Gabe." Dala mused as Valeria climbed painfully to her feet. "I wonder if he is even aware of his condition?"

Valeria hissed as she felt torn muscles and skin begin to painfully repair itself.

"You have come closer to the X-42 facility than any other Lobotomite. Your…flesh is damaged but your regenerative abilities enhanced by my Monocyte Breeder implants should sustain you."

Valeria said nothing as she retrieved her hammer and limped down the narrow gorge, luridly lit by glowing red crystals jutting from the canyon walls.

"We are almost to the facility Teddy Bear, but be wary of…" Dala's warning was lost as a voice boomed through the canyon.

"I see you! Now I end you!"

Three Mr. Gutsy robots were advancing toward Valeria, their spherical bodies bristling with sensors and weapons attached to articulated arms. Green bursts of superheated plasma erupted toward Valeria as she leaped to attack. A memory had leaped unbidden into her mind, of her facing other such foes with a bewildering array of shapes and armament. She knew the only way she could win was to use her speed and agility to get in close before the robots could adapt their targeting systems.

Her first blow sent a robot spinning, its plasma weapon bathing another robot in green fire before both smashed into the canyon wall. Valeria used her momentum to launch herself into the air, bringing her hammer down on the last robot in a huge overhand arc. It's steel chassis crumpled like foil as her hammer smashed it to the ground in an explosion of crackling electricity and flames. She wrenched her weapon out of the robot, than whirled as a plasma blast signed her hair. One robot remained, its silver hull seared black as it advanced trying to adjust its aim. Valeria swung her hammer over her head and flung it with a shriek. Unable to dodge, the robot went down with thirty pounds of titanium imbedded in it.

"Ooooh, your crude violence is so…intoxicating." Dala crooned as Valeria limped forward to recover her hammer. "But we must hurry. The X-42 installation was Big Mountain's Robowarfare facility and Mobius' minions will be legion. We have little time before he gathers his forces."

Valeria continued to limp though the canyon, her hammer ready as her eyes peered through the holes in her mask, searching for more opponents. Suddenly they came to a huge concrete lined tunnel through the canyon wall. Set into one of the walls was a massive steel door with "X-42" inscribed above it in bold white letters.

"This is the entrance to the Robowarfare facility. Be wary teddy bear, Mobius is cunning and duplicitous. I have no access to the facility and cannot advise you as to what robot minions and traps await us."

Valeria stepped forward and the door began to rattle and clang before sliding open.

"Mobius left the door open? Why? Has he gone mad?"

As Dala babbled in confusion, Valeria stepped through the opening still following the last directive she had been given.

"Teddy Bear wait!" Dala ordered as Valeria entered the dim interior. Suddenly with a boom the door slammed shut and abruptly the constant static in her mind went silent. Valeria stopped and shook her head, disoriented by the sudden absence of Dala's voice.

She turned and stepped toward the door but this time it remained closed. Valeria stared at it, then again shook her head. Gripping her hammer she turned to face a darkened ramp and resolutely strode forward to face Mobius.

The room beyond was a vast chamber shrouded in gloom dominated by the huge inert hulk of a robot shaped vaguely like a Radscorpion. Valeria paused and raised her hammer, then lowered it when she realized the robot had been inert for years. Her footsteps echoed as she walked around the wreck, noting holes melted from energy weapons under the coating of dust. All of Valeria's senses were telling her that the factory was empty of anything but dust and shadows. Feeling an unaccustomed sense of unease, Valeria climbed a steel stair to a platform before another door, which appeared to be the only exit. As with the door outside, this one also opened at her approach revealing another ramp rising into darkness. This time Valeria didn't pause as she strode through.

At the top of the Ramp was a domed chamber identical to the Think Tank but filled with signs of neglect and decay. The only light was a sickly green glow from the few active monitors among banks of silent darkness. The inert chassis of a Robobrain stood nearby, its arms limp at its sides, its brain dome empty and dark. Valeria warily looked about for any signs of activity, than noticed markings on the floor. Kneeling down she saw the floor was covered with signs and symbols scrawled in all directions, many drawn over earlier markings in an indecipherable tangle. Valeria traced a symbol with a taloned nail, her eyes blank with incomprehension when she heard a hum from above. Whirling she looked up into a projected eye that vanished in a blinding flash and a piercing shriek.

Valeria clapped her hands to her ears and screamed as her head exploded with pain, driving her to her knees. As suddenly as it began the screech ceased leaving Valeria gagging on the floor.

"Hmm." Wavered a voice above her. "I wasn't certain that would work." Gasping and coughing, Valeria pushed up from the floor and looked up. Floating above her was a sphere containing bubbling liquid with a brain illuminated by a sickly yellow light. Three monitors attached by mechanical arms to the sphere bobbed before her. One had the image of an eye another had the image of a mouth, the third hung inactive and dark.

"That looked uncomfortable." Said the brain. "I wasn't sure what the effect of a data transmission on a sonic carrier wave would have on your cerebral implants."

"What did you do?" Valeria croaked.

"Oh…to put it another way I broadcasted the memories I captured from Dala's cerebral removal into your bionic implants."

"My…memories?" Valeria asked as she slowly got to her feet.

"Yes. Very imprecise things…memories. They aren't like holodisks. Half the time they're what we cobble together from bits and pieces with our imaginations filling in the blanks. I doubt I got them all but you should find your thinkability improved."

Valeria stared at the brain as it hovered before her, it's eye and mouth monitors swaying and tilting as fragmented images and emotions flooded her mind.

"You're…Mobius?"

"Yes I am." Replied the brain. "Although that's not my original name. My last act before leaving the Think Tank was to hack the mainframe and remove all knowledge of our names. I also removed all references to time or anything outside Big Mountain."

"Why?"

"To prevent my colleagues from ever leaving." Mobius replied. "Putting our brains in biogel suspension preserved out lives, but it didn't prevent deterioration completely. Not only had we lost our humanity, we were getting increasingly erratic. I've managed to maintain a degree of stability with combinations of mentats and psycho, but I'm also beginning to lose cognitive function."

"You're going insane."

"Not in so many words but…yes." Mobius replied, his left eye monitor bobbing. "With the insatiable curiosity of the Think Tank coupled with a lack of moral restraint we could inflict terrible damage on what's left of the world. Then Dala merged with the mainframe and absorbed the knowledge of the others." Mobius' monitors sagged down and he was silent a moment.

"What did Dala do to me?"

"Oh, the standard lobotomite procedure she performs on all humans. Removed parts of your cerebellum and replaced them with cybernetic implants. She appears to have added other implants to enhance your already considerable physical abilities. However you seem to be adapting and even regenerating from the procedure."

"Dala sent me to destroy you."

"Did she?" Mobius replied, his eye monitors bobbing. "Oh yes, I remember now. That's why my plan was so urgent."

"What plan?"

"Plan?" He asked, his monitors jerking toward her. "Oh yes, the raisin I wanted you here. I need you to destroy Big Mountain."

"What?"

"Yes." Mobius replied moving his monitors up and down. "I erected a repulsor fence around the mountain with Eight's help…supposedly to keep everything out but it was actually to keep us all in. I then edited our memories and put us all in a recursive loop to contain our curiosity about the outside world. After Dala destroyed the others, I came here and regularly broadcast threats to keep her occupied. But now I have to face the inescapable conclusion that my own deterioration is accelerating. Soon there will be nothing between Dala's madness and the world. Quite frankly the world isn't ready for that kind of too-far-thing taking. "

"Why do you need me?"

"For the same reasons Dala did, including the ending my existence part. Many years ago we performed an experiment with sonic emissions that vaporized the top of Big Mountain. I need someone with…hands to recreate that experiment. There would be some time for you to attempt to get clear, but I can't predict how much with any certainty."

"Won't Dala try to stop me?"

"Doubtless, but I blocked her broadcasts to your implants and I'll be trying to distract her which should give you some time. Dala has yet to find all the backdoors I created in the mainframe so I still have access to the Dome. I've also watched you through my robot monitors and you're very effective at physichology."

Mobius' monitors bobbed before Valeria as he floated silently waiting for her response. Valeria shook her head, bewildered by the riot of memories whirling in her mind. But she remembered most clearly Dala's madness and the madness of Big Mountain.

"Okay Mobius. Tell me what I have to do."


	3. Chapter 3

The Think Tank dome was silent save for the click and hum of the banks of mainframes crowding the walls. On the giant monitor Dala's projected eye flickered as she waited with an unaccustomed feeling of anxiety. Her experiences with Teddy Bear had awakened emotions in her she had abandoned long ago when she entered her cybernetic state. They were not as strong as they were when she had biological components, but she found they still existed like faint after images. Even diminished she found experiencing emotion again intoxicating.

Dala's internal chronometer no longer functioned and she had no idea how long it had been since Teddy Bear had entered the X-42 facility. At first Dala had been angry at her silence, another wonderfully intense experience. Then she began to panic, trying to contact the Lobotomite with every radio frequency she could use. Now she waited fretting in silence, desperately wishing for the sweet release of watching Teddy Bear move in a disgusting yet fascinating display of formography. Dala replayed all the Data she had gathered on Teddy Bear, especially the video of her dancing awkwardly while toy bears stared blankly from their perches on stools arranged against the walls.

It wasn't enough. She was feeling a new emotion, one she didn't find comfortable at all. She regretted sending her Lobotomite to exterminate Mobius, and regret was something she never experienced before. Teddy Bear had become more than a weapon for her nemesis, and she wanted her back to move, stretch and breathe once again.

"Where are you Teddy Bear?" She whispered, her voice echoing about the Dome.

"Hello Dala, it's been a long time hasn't it?" Mobius voice asked cheerfully.

"Mobius!" Dala shouted, her eye jerking about the giant wall monitor. "Where are you?"

"I'm still in the Robowarfare facility. I have access to the Think Tank through channels you have yet to discover."

"Oh of course." Dala replied as she began internal diagnostics to locate the digital pathways Mobius was exploiting.

"I assume you killed Teddy Bear." She announced with forced nonchalance. "She had promise but was only a Lobotomite after all."

"Actually she's still very much alive. I blocked your cerebral link and she is now on her way to fulfilling the mission I gave her."

"Impossible!" Dala thundered. "Teddy Bear would never defy me!"

"Teddy Bear? Oh I see, you formed an attachment with your test subject. How cute. I remember when Boros did that with Gabe, although that didn't stop him from feeding him psycho in his dog chow."

"What are you using Teddy Bear for?" Dala interrupted, her voice hissing with fury. "And why have the trains activated?"

"They have? Oh yes I remember now. I started all the automatic systems to screen what I was up to."

"What is that? Sending your robot army to the Think Tank?"

"Oh I don't have an army anymore. Most of the robots still active have been sent to the rim to contain the worst of our excesses. Your Lobotomite destroyed the only robots I had left at the facility."

"What of your X-42 giant Roboscorpian!"

"I shut that down years ago. When the main generator burned out I just couldn't sustain it any longer. Truly a wonderful device, but it consumed power like there was no tomorrow."

"Then what are you doing?" Dala thundered.

"I'm ending us Dala." Mobius replied sadly. "We are just ghosts of the old world living in the shadow of what we tried to achieve at Big Mountain."

"End us?" Dala shrilled, the giant eye moving frantically about the monitor. "How!" There was silence and then Dala hissed. "Ah, now I understand. All I need to do is follow the power surges and…" There was a pause then Dala shrieked. "The big static! You are powering up the X-2 Transmitter!"

"You're still brilliant." Mobius observed quietly. "I used to have quite a…thing for you back then. Not very proper perhaps but you were young, so full of energy and dreams."

"All Lobotomites!" Dala howled. "Converge on the X-2 array! Destroy everything!"

Valeria looked up as Dala's voice echoed about the crater. She had run along one of the conduits leading to the X-2 broadcast tower when she heard Dala's voice thunder from the Think Tank. Gritting her teeth she gripped the bulbous antenna she was carrying and started running faster. Her boots had limited purchase on the rounded steel surface, but speed was now more urgent than safety.

Rumbles and distant roars began to break the silence as Valeria saw the huge dish of the antenna array rising out the morning haze. Suddenly blasts of plasma and lasers flashed about her from the ground below. Valeria tried to stop, then skidded as her momentum hurled her from the pipe. Desperately twisting in mid air, Valeria was barely able to get her feet under her when she slammed into the ground, the X-2 antenna clattering to the ground nearby.

"I hope that didn't damage the antenna." Said Mobius from inside her head. "I'm afraid Dala's on to me and you had better hurry."

Valeria lunged toward the antenna, then recoiled as plasma blasts filled the air before her. Striding toward her were three figures dressed in what appeared to be form-fitting red space suits with clear spherical helmets. Fleshless skulls rolled and rattled inside the cracked and pitted spheres as they advanced with weapons blazing.

"Y-17 Trauma Override Harnesses." Mobius explained as Valeria dove for cover behind a pile of boulders.

"Brilliant design with the latest in synthetic musculature and artificial intelligence. They were meant to return their wearers to a medical facility if they became incapacitated. Clearly there were still a few bugs to be worked out. I always did wonder what happened to the security team that tried to shut down the tower the last time it activated."

Valeria pulled out her hammer as energy beams sizzled and flashed around her stone shelter. The harnesses were already targeting her and she knew a headlong charge would only get her killed. This time she had no choice but to wait as Mobius continued to extol the virtues of the suits that were now trying to kill her. Suddenly the gunfire ceased as the suits apparently recognized that their fire was ineffective.

Valeria waited until she heard the scuff of dirt and gravel under booted feet, then with a shriek launched herself to the top of the boulder. For a split second the Y-17's were unable to adjust to the sudden shift in her position as she sprang from her perch and came down on top of them. A helmet and the skull within exploded from the terrible impact of her hammer, her momentum driving it down through the suit's torso. There was almost no resistance as the suit collapsed with crackle of electricity.

"The chestplate contains the main processor." Morbius advised as Valeria spun and decapitated the second Y-17 before finishing her spin and sending the last one flying like a rag doll. The headless suit fired as if nothing had occurred, forcing Valeria to release her hammer and block a shot to her face with her bracer. Unable to bring her hammer up in time, Valeria drove her heel into the Y-17's chest plate, denting it and flinging it on its back. Before it could get back to its feet, Valeria brought her hammer down smashing though steel, ancient bones, and synthetic muscle before imbedding it in the ground. With a wrench, Valeria freed her hammer from the spasming construct when an explosion behind her caused her duck as shrapnel filled the air.

"How fortunate." Mobius observed. "The kinetic energy must have detonated what was left of the pressurized gas in the Y-17's life support system."

Valeria slung her hammer and picked up the heavy antenna. She had no way to know if it was still functional, but also no alternative but to using it.

"Oh dear. It seems that Dala has located my last backdoor. I'm afraid…"

Whatever Mobius intended to say next vanished in a burst of static followed by silence. Valeria looked up at the tower rising before her, the symbol "X2" illuminated by two searchlights set above the only entrance. Leaping up the stairs she found the door unlocked and opened it with a screech and a series of clangs. Inside the found the tower silent and dark with shattered remains of robots scattered on the floor. A steel staircase climbed the inside of the tower to a series of landings which Valeria found led to a steel ladder descending from a hatch in the ceiling, and to another steel door apparently opening to the outside.

Valeria gripped the antenna in the crook of one arm and began climbing the ladder one-handed. At the top she wrapped her leg through a rung and with a twist and a shove flung the hatch open. Sunlight poured into the stifling darkness as she flung the antenna through the opening then squeezed through to stand at the bottom of the bowl of the array.

"I know you can hear me Teddy Bear!" Dala's voice boomed across the crater. "Come back to the Dome and I will not have you vivisected!"

Valeria didn't hesitate as she ran up the curved slope to a steel ramp connecting the rim of the dish to the antenna rising above her.

"Mobius has deceived you Teddy Bear. I will not deceive you, I love you!"

Valeria ran along the ramp until she stood before the antenna and saw a socket surrounded by a curtain of cables.

"Love…is that what I'm feeling? How strange to feel emotion. Do you understand Teddy Bear, I need you!"

Valeria pushed the base of the antenna into the socket and with a shove and a twist inserted it. Immediately there was a hum as the antenna began to glow with a pulsing blue light.

"Ungrateful Lobotomite!" Dala howled. "Vivisection is too good for you! I took care of you, gave you a home and cybernetic implants, and in return you try to destroy me! Lobotomites KILL HER!"

Valeria leaped from the tower and slid to the bottom of the dish. The hum began to increase in volume as she ran to the hatch and without hesitation leaped through the hole. Her boots slammed into the steel walkway and Valeria looked over the rail to see a horde of filthy howling humanity crowding the stairway as they swarmed toward her. Bullets whipped past her as the Lobotomites with guns opened fire while Valeria whirled and ran for the outer door. She spun the wheel in the center and kicked the door open when a mass of stabbing hacking lobotomites descended upon her. Valeria was driven through the door and into the rail of a walkway far above the floor of the crater. The rail buckled from the impact as blood poured down her body from dozens of stabs and cuts.

With a shriek of desperation Valeria's mind exploded into white-hot rage as with a superhuman surge she shoved the lobotomites back. Driving the head and haft of her hammer into the filthy press of humanity, she crushed bones and flung bodies over the rails. With a scream and a sweep of her hammer Valeria drove the press back, than seized the door and slammed it their faces. Wild-eyed and panting Valeria looked for a way to escape as the Lobotomites howled and hammered at the door. Looking over the railing she saw Lobotomites swarming toward the array from all directions, driven by the lash of Dala's will. Even through her rage, Valeria realized there was no way she could defeat so many.

Suddenly she heard the rumbling of wheels on steel rails. As the door buckled she looked down and saw the red boxcars of an automated train hurtling by far below. With an impulse born of desperation, Valeria turned and hurled herself over the rail as the door exploded open. She hit a boxcar feet first with numbing force and tumbled over the side. Only a desperate grasp on the rail kept her from flying off as the train hurtled down the track. Gasping with effort, Valeria pulled herself up and crouched on top of the car as she looked back. She could see the receding forms of the lobotomites pouring off the array to their deaths as they tried to leap on the speeding cars in deranged pursuit.

Slinging her hammer, Valeria turned and started to crawl forward on the car as the train roared under a conduit pipe. Suddenly she heard a howl from above and a huge shadow leaped from the pipe to the train. Valeria found herself staring into the glowing red eyes of Borous as the giant hound snarled at her, foam dripping from its jaws as it's claws scrabbled on the shaking steel. Valeria seized the haft of her hammer snarled in reply before seeing the crater wall looming behind Boros. Before he could attack, Valeria rolled and flung herself off the train hitting the ground with bone crushing force as the train hurtled past into the sealed gate of the northern tunnel. With a thundering explosion the train obliterated the gate, its cars twisting like a beheaded snake. Valeria screamed as she desperately rolled toward the track as a car hurtled toward her. The ground shook from the impact as it missed her by inches and flipped into the canyon wall.

Spitting blood, Valeria staggered to her feet and limped along the sparking freight cars toward the smashed tunnel. Suddenly humming became audible over the dying echoes of the crash. Valeria looked up and saw the pylons ringing the crater glowing with a blue light. Gritting her teeth, she tried to limp faster than stopped as the snarling form of Borous crawled out of the wreckage before her.

Valeria unslung her hammer as the hound crawled toward her, his eyes blazing with hatred. Suddenly, with unexpected agility the cybernetic beast launched itself through the air as Valeria screamed and swung her hammer. Valeria was slammed to the ground with the massive body of Borous on top of her. Decapitated by the fury of her blow, the dog's corpse twitched as it showered her with blood and oil. The light from the pylons was now as bright as daylight as their sonic shriek began to pierce her skull. Valeria shoved Borous' corpse from her, then staggered into the dust-choked darkness of the tunnel as the shriek suddenly ceased. Valeria flung herself over the twisted wreckage as the deafening silence turned into a roar as an immense shockwave exploded across Big Mountain. Concrete bunkers collapsed like sand castles and the massive conduit pipes were torn loose and flung like straws. Valeria was running down the tunnel when the sonic wave slammed into the crater wall bringing down the ceiling and plunging her into darkness.


	4. Chapter 4

Valeria crouched in exhausted despair as the sky above her churned with clouds lit by flashes of lightning. Valeria had escaped Big Mountain battered and bloody after the tunnel's collapse. Without her Pipboy, and with her memories still in a chaotic jumble she only had a vague idea of where she was. She knew she was traveling north when she tried to brave Big Mountain. After checking the sun's position, Valeria headed north into the scrub desert, still lit by the blue aurora flicking over the crater behind her. She only had her sledge, and knew she had to find provisions and shelter while her strength still held. Some prickly pear fruits took the edge off her thirst as the sun beat down on her, its heat more intense from the humidity in the air along with the distant rumble of thunder.

That night she had taken shelter in a pile of boulders providing a vantage point to watch for predators and a small measure of protection from the wind that began to moan across the desert. Morning dawned gray with clouds, and although a welcome change from the heat, Valeria knew a storm was coming fast.

Her inhuman stamina had healed the worst of her injuries, and she ignored the fierce growls from her stomach as she began to run, partly to ease the cold and stiffness from her limbs, and partly to travel as many miles as she could in the hope of finding a settlement. She ran for hours, trying not to think of what would happen when her strength finally failed. Night was falling and the storm was beginning to unleash its fury when she came to the end of her journey.

The ground had become more rugged, and Valeria had seen more and more scrub trees which she took as a sign that she was nearing water. Thunder was rumbling constantly when she topped a rise and a flash of lightning revealed a vast canyon, plummeting hundreds of feet down to a river far below. Rain began to pelt her as she fell to her knees, overwhelmed by the size of the obstacle before her. Climbing down the sheer cliffs in storm-swept darkness was suicide, but remaining exposed on the ridge was little better. Valeria gritted her teeth and wiped away tears of frustration along with the sheeting rain.

Suddenly she heard a rumbling growl behind her. Whirling she saw the massive bulk of a giant bear looming over her, its approach hidden by her fatigue and the storm. Its blank white eyes gleamed in the darkness and its huge jaws gaped as it roared then leaped at her. With no time to grab her sledge, Valeria rammed her bracer between the bear's jaws as it knocked her to the ground. The bear's breath reeked of carrion as it gnashed at her bracer and tore at her with its huge claws. Valeria screamed in desperation as blood and hot saliva sprayed in her face as the bear steadily pushed her arm back. Suddenly Valeria screamed and drove her thumb into one of the bear's eyes. Its jaws gaped with agony as blood exploded down its face and Valeria drove her heels into the bear's chest with all her strength. The bear tore free and Valeria tried to scramble clear holding her injured arm when she realized she was in a shallow gully. With nowhere to run Valeria turned to face the enraged mutant as the bear howled and reared up to its full twelve-foot height. Then with a roar a wall of water smashed into it from behind. There was no time to run as Valeria threw her arms in front of her face as the raging torrent slammed into her and swept her over the edge and into the canyon far below.

Elsewhere in the canyon, Joshua Graham led a hunting party back along a trail as water poured from the sky and thundered past them in the raging Colorado River. Not for the first time did Graham envy the tribals he led for their simple attire. They were called the Sorrows, and they wore only a loincloth, necklaces of Yao Gui teeth, and tattoos of wavy blue lines that traveled up their torso's to their faces emulating the flow of their sacred river. In contrast, Graham wore a white shirt, boots and an armored vest over tight bandages that covered his head and body.

Graham had led the hunters to see if there were any survivors of their disastrous river crossing before the flood hit. The entire tribe was wading across chest deep water when a scouting party of White Legs found them. Overcome by blood lust, the White Legs attacked, spraying the Sorrows with lead from their Thompson submachine guns. Only the heavy rain and the White Legs inexperience with their weapons kept the crossing from becoming a bloodbath. Graham returned fire with his pistol, but the rain hindered his efforts as well.

Then a group of hunters toward the rear made an unspoken agreement and turned back to shore, chanting a prayer to the mother river. Although vicious and cruel, old traditions died hard and the White Legs hesitated in superstitious awe. Graham was in the shallows when he realized what was happening and tried to turn back. Two Sorrow hunters seized his arms as one shouted.

"Mother River comes!"

Graham turned and heard a roar building in volume over the crack and rumble of thunder. With a curse, he fled to shore with the others as a huge wave of water crashed into the rocks below. None of the Sorrows looked back as the echo of gunfire was heard over the fury of the river. Once the women and children were given temporary shelter in one of the many caves in the canyon wall, Graham demanded a search party go with him to the ford.

"They have been taken by Mother River." The tribe's shaman, White Bird announced solemnly. "River and Storm rule now, the White Legs will not follow tonight."

Graham glared at the Shaman, then selected three hunters and set out, not because he doubted White Bird's word about their fate, but to alleviate the guilt and rage he felt at once again surviving by the sacrifice of the Sorrows.

There had been no sign of either the hunters or the White Legs, and Graham had almost returned to the Sorrow's camp when one of the hunters shouted.

"Joshua Graham! Look!"

Graham looked down the rocky slope and saw the black bulk of an uprooted tree caught on jagged rocks protruding from the seething water. Suddenly a flash of lightning showed him what the hunter had seen. A shock of white hair was visible above the water, as well as an arm extended over the trunk of the tree. It was neither a Sorrow as both the men and women shaved their heads, nor was it a White Leg who wore their hair in long black dreadlocks. As Graham watched he saw the stranger's arm begin to slide down the trunk as the water began to tear the snag loose.

Graham didn't know who the stranger was, but he had failed to save the hunters and now God was giving him another chance.

"Take my arm!" He shouted as one of the hunters ran toward the camp. A Sorrow clasped his forearm while another took the hunter's other arm and braced himself against the bank. The tree wasn't far from shore, and Graham thought the dam formed by the tree and the rocks would break the grip of the River just enough.

"You failed to take me once, and you will fail now." Graham growled at the torrent as he stepped into the water. Immediately the river caught him and swept him into the tree. The Sorrow had lost his grip and Graham was alone in the river as the water roared and tore at him. His scabbed lips twisted into a snarl of effort, Graham pushed away from the tree and lunged for the river's captive, getting his arm around the stranger's throat as they began to go under. With a heave he pulled the surprisingly heavy body toward the surface, and in a flash of lightning realized with astonishment that he was trying to save a woman. He also realized that the she had a huge steel hammer strapped to her that was pulling them both down like an anchor.

Suddenly there was a crack and the tree shifted as the water began to tear it loose. Graham realized that there was no time to save them both as his bandaged hand slipped on the slimy bark. Then a pair of strong hands seized his arm and he and the mysterious woman were pulled away from the tree. Looking back, he saw the face of the hunter who had lost his grip earlier, and behind him a line of Sorrows from the camp forming a human chain that steadily pulled him from the river as the tree suddenly rolled over and with a roar the freed water swept it away into the darkness.

Graham waded ashore, dragging the huge half-naked woman with him. No sooner had he dropped her to the ground than White Bird crouched at her side, listening for breath as the other Sorrows murmured and stared.

"She lives." White Bird announced, and the murmuring grew.

"Is she a spirit?" Asked one of the Hunters.

"She is a mutant." Graham growled. "A… human changed by the Great Fire."

"She carries the mark of the giant Yao Gui." White Bird observed as he pointed to rows of ugly gashes on the woman's huge body. Many of the Sorrows gasped and looked away, as the stranger had taken on the terrible power of the great bear. Only those who wore the claws of the bear continued to watch as White Bird finished his examination.

"The river has almost taken her. Bring the Daughter of She to the camp. We will bring her with us to the Narrows."

"We don't know anything about this…woman." Graham rasped.

"You bring her from the river, do you wish to send her back?" White Bird asked calmly as he directed the hunters to lift the unconscious mutant's body and carry her to the camp.

Valeria's dreams were fragmented with faces and emotions fading in and out leaving as little impression as waves on a beach. Then she became aware of a constant chanting that blended with the distant roar of falling water. The sound became a guide that pulled her from the darkness to consciousness. Her eyes slowly opened and she saw that she was in a cave illuminated by a flickering campfire.

Her last memory was of being pulled underwater after exhaustion and the relentless battering of the river overcame her. She could still hear the sound of falling water, but the chanting that had woken her had stopped.

"You awaken Daughter of She." Valeria turned her head to see a woman kneeling by her side. She wore only a simple two-piece suit of blue cloth that exposed most of the blue lines inscribed on her body. A fan of eagle feathers framed her shaved head and her eyes were warm despite her lack of facial expression.

"Drink this" The woman said as she offered a clay bowl filled with a pungent dark-colored liquid. Valeria propped herself on her elbow, noting that she was still wearing her armor, but felt clean and her wounds were gone. Valeria drank the bitter tea without complaint, than sat up on a mat of woven grass surrounded by a frame of branches.

"Where am I?" She asked as she handed the cup to the woman.

"You are among the Sorrows in the Narrows of the Great Canyon."

"The Sorrows?"

"My people Daughter of She. I am Waking Cloud, midwife and healer to the Sorrows."

"I'm Valeria."

"This is known to me Daughter of She, for you spoke in your sleep. Much of it was strange and difficult to understand."

"Why do you keep calling me 'Daughter of She'?"

"When Joshua Graham pulled you from the river you bore the marks of one who had faced the giant Yao Gui. White Bird named you as none who bore such marks have ever survived. White Bird says that you were chosen by She, and that you carry her power within you."

"Who is Joshua Graham?"

"He is an owslander like you. His tribe was New Canaan before the White Legs killed them. Mother River brought him to us as it brought you."

"Is he here?"

"Yes. Joshua Graham wanted me to tell him when you recovered so that he may speak with you. I will bring him now." Waking Cloud rose from her knees in one smooth motion and turned to leave the cave through a tunnel lit by several torches.

"Thank you." Valeria said with a smile before Waking Cloud could leave.

"You are…welcome Daughter of She."

Waking Cloud silently walked out of the cave, leaving Valeria to look up at the shafts of sunlight shining through several fissures in the ceiling. The distant roaring didn't sound like a river, and Valeria suspected there had to be a waterfall nearby. She looked down at her body and saw the faint lines of scars from the claws of the Yao Gui she had fought. Once again events had conspired to allow her to cheat death. She had survived so much she almost regarded herself as unkillable. Her ordeal in the river was a sobering reminder that despite her superhuman mutations, she was still mortal.

"Welcome to the Narrows." A deep voice rasped. A powerfully built man emerged from the shadows of the tunnel, wearing light body armor and completely wrapped in bandages.

"I am Joshua Graham, and I know you call yourself Valeria." He stopped before her and regarded her silently for his arms crossed. Valeria got to her feet and looked down into his eyes, which she could see were a deep gray and surrounded by scabbed and scarred flesh. Her keen sense of smell detected a faint odor that she couldn't place, but she ignored it for the moment.

"Waking Cloud said that you pulled me from the river. Thank you." Valeria extended her hand toward Graham, who took it with a surprisingly strong grip.

"I have been the cause of too much death for me to ignore opportunities to preserve it."

"I understand." Valeria said solemnly as she lowered her hand.

"Yes." Graham replied as he stared thoughtfully into her eyes. "I believe you do. I'm afraid that I have you at a disadvantage. I gleaned much about you as you in your delirium, but you know nothing of me. If you have questions I will answer what I can."

"How did you end up with the Sorrows?"

"That is a deceptively easy question with a difficult answer. Do you know anything of Caesar or the Legion?"

"No, I don't."

"Then my assumption that you came from the South was correct. It would be impossible to travel though the Midwest without passing through Caesar's territory. His name is Edward Sallow, and thirty years ago he was leader of a group of scholars from the Brotherhood of the Apocalypse who were studying the tribals east of the Colorado River. I was recruited as his translator and was with him as his mission changed from study and exploration to conquest. Sallow took the name of an ancient General and began to militarize the tribes. Any that refused to submit were crushed and the survivors enslaved. In my pride and arrogance I joined him in his mission, becoming his Malpais Legate and leading the Legion in battle. Tribe after tribe was defeated and absorbed into the Legion until we came to the Colorado River and faced the NCR."

"That stands for the New California Republic?" Valeria asked, frowning as a memory sprang into her mind.

"Yes. They controlled a pre-war edifice called Hoover Dam. Caesar became obsessed with defeating the NCR, and I led the Legion across the Dam into the first true defeat the Legion had suffered since it was formed. For my failure, Caesar ordered me set afire and thrown into the Grand Canyon. I survived and was found by the Sorrows who were migrating along the Colorado River as they have apparently done for almost two centuries."

Valeria stared at the bandaged man standing before her, astonished that he had survived the ordeal he had described, and seemed physically intact despite his apparent disfigurement. Then with an unexpected flash of insight she remembered the odor she had detected.

"You're a ghoul, aren't you?" Valeria observed quietly. Graham's eyes widened and he visibly started.

"How could you…?"

"I'm a lot tougher than normal, and my fall into the canyon nearly killed me. If your bandages are covering burn scars, then you were burned over eighty percent of your body. You shouldn't be alive, let alone able to move without discomfort. That and your bandages aren't stained with blood or seepage, which they would if your burns were still healing. You're bandaged to hide yourself, not to protect your injuries."

"You have impressive intuition." Graham growled.

"My father was a physician and I've met a lot of ghouls which was why I recognized your smell."

"Very well, you're correct. Before Edward became Caesar, we had journeyed to several areas that were called Taboo by the tribals. A sinkhole trapped us in what proved to be an underground silo filled with radiation. We escaped with what appeared to be no ill effects at the time. As the years passed I began to show symptoms of ghoulification. The Legion regards ghouls a little more than beasts so I concealed my condition, and even used it to further the myth of my invulnerability. Caesar forbids the use of drugs, but none suspected the water I drank before battle was radiated."

"If you listened to me while I was raving, then you probably know I have secrets of my own." Valeria observed. "I am very grateful to you for saving my life, and I promise that your secret is safe with me."

"You have my thanks." Graham rasped with a nod. "But now we must discuss the real reason I wished to speak with you." Valeria nodded then waited with her arms folded for Graham to continue.

"The Sorrows have taken on a terrible burden by sheltering me. Rumors have spread that I did not die on the day of my 'rebirth'. Caesar fears me and what I know, and will stop at nothing to destroy me. He has already unleashed the White Legs tribe against my people at New Canaan. They were wiped out both trying to flush me out if I had taken refuge there, and to deny me that haven if I hadn't. Now his attention has turned to the Sorrows and the White Legs have come to the Grand Canyon. They are vicious and brutal, and their war chief Salt-Upon-Wounds is infamous for his cruelty. The Sorrows are strong and brave, but they are hunters not warriors. To stand against the White Legs would require changing their entire way of life to waging war. That would take time and weapons that I don't have. Even if I had both I wouldn't do it. I spent decades with the Legion crushing the cultures and traditions of the tribes to induct them into Caesar's war machine. I swore a vow that I would never inflict such evil on another again."

"If you can't fight, then you have to run."

"Indeed, but that has its own difficulties. Such an action would also change their way of life, which was to follow the cycles of the River. However I consider it the lesser of two evils. But even so the Sorrows will not leave this place because it the sacred site of their 'Tree Father'."

"One of their gods?"

"One of three spirit deities which consists also of 'Mother River' and the 'Ghost of She'. 'Tree Father' appears to be a more active participant in their lore, and they believe that he will guide and protect them. White Bird, the shaman, has told them they must wait for a sign from the Tree Father, and I can't sway him even with the White Legs fast approaching. The rains and flooding bought us some time, but only a little."

"What do you want from me?"

"Through happenstance you seem to fit their tribal myths, and White Bird has announced that you are of the Spirits. As such he has declared that you are the chosen one who must meet with the Tree Father. From what I've been able to deduce, I think the Tree Father is a myth that has grown from encounters with a survivor of the Great War who aided the Sorrows before they became a tribe. He would leave notes and gifts to teach and aid them in survival. His sacred site is taboo, and the Sorrows claim that any who tried to find his dwelling never returned. I believe this survivor must have laid traps around his camp, to keep his isolation."

"So you want me to expose the Tree Father as just a story?"

"Even if they believed you I wouldn't advise it. My purpose was to give you the information you needed to appraise the situation and let your heart guide you. Whatever your appearance, I believe you are a good person and you will do what you feel is right."

Valeria stared for a long moment into Graham's gray eyes, then nodded.

"I'll do what I can."


	5. Chapter 5

Valeria stood at the base of a narrow cleft in the towering cliffs as the morning sun painted the rocks with blazes of orange and red. Her mouth burned with the bitter taste of Datura root as she looked at hand prints etched in red ochre on both sides of the path. She felt dizzy a moment after drinking the foul-tasting potion White Bird made from the clusters of white flowers growing around the entrance, but otherwise felt nothing. She assumed her metabolism dealt with whatever narcotic effects she was to have experienced.

"The hands warn of a taboo place." White Bird explained as Valeria readied her hammer. "The spirits of this place have become restless and angry. I used to speak with the Tree Father under the protection of the Datura root. Now I cannot travel this path, but you have been chosen by She and might be strong enough."

Valeria nodded as she checked the two tomahawks she had added to her belt. The weapons were simple and weighted to spin in flight. Valeria found that with her reach and great strength she was able to hurl them with much force and some accuracy.

"I will wait for your return Daughter of She, or until the sun touches the peaks. The Burned Man will return soon from his tasks and the Sorrows must be ready for what will come."

Valeria looked at White Bird at his mention of Joshua Graham's title. As she and the shaman had set out for the sacred site of Morning Glory Cave, Graham had taken a group of hunters with him to scout possible routes of escape, as well as the location of the White Legs. Valeria agreed with Graham that she had to hurry. She had no idea what waited for her at the top of the trail, but knew that if she failed in her mission the Sorrows would stay in the Narrows. Graham said that the White Legs were many and armed with firearms given to them by Caesar. As brave as they were, the Sorrows were doomed if they stood their ground.

White Bird sat cross-legged at the cliff edge and silently regarded the canyon below as Valeria started up the path. The gradual slope quickly became a climb over piles of boulders. The silence became ominous as the shadows grew thicker and Valeria continued her climb with only the moan of the wind through the crags looming above her. Then she began to see ferns growing from beds of moss clinging to the stones. There was no sign of insects, only clouds of spores hanging in the air. Something about the still motes made Valeria uneasy, and she did her best to avoid disturbing the increasingly frequent patches.

Finally she reached the end of the trail and found that it opened into a windswept plateau overlooking a ravine. Several trees were sprouting from the rocky soil, with one in particular looming over them all. Its bare branches reached toward the sky like skeletal claws while its roots undulated over the ground like serpents. The twisted trunk was dark green and covered with bracket fungi, somehow looking deformed and twisted. Valeria pulled out her sledge and warily stepped up to the plateau, resolving not to touch the roots of the grotesque plant. Across the clearing Valeria saw what appeared to be a cave almost completely covered by the strange fern-like growths. She began to approach the cave when a hoarse voice echoed around her.

"I can't…believe it. White Bird finally sent…someone."

Valeria started and looked about for an ambush. The only movement she saw was the branches of the trees in the wind.

"The big…tree in the…middle." The voice said, as if struggling for breath. "You'll find me…there. Don't worry. I won't…hurt you." The last words were said with great weariness, and Valeria found that oddly reassuring. Holding her hammer at the ready, Valeria approached the tree, realizing as she approached that the deformed trunk looked like the gnarled and twisted form of a man. She looked up and saw a knot on the trunk that resembled a nose less face. Then one eye opened and the yellow orb rolled down to look at her astonished face.

"There you..are." The tree said, yellow teeth visible in its mouth. "You have no idea how…happy I am…to see you." Realizing the potential double meaning in the tree's statement, Valeria raised her hammer.

"Oh no!" The tree objected. "I'm not going to…hurt you. I've been…rooted to this spot for over twenty years…now. My name is…Harold."

"Harold?" Valeria replied as she lowered her hammer. "You weren't always a tree?"

"No, I used to be…human once. A long time ago I was exploring a…base and got covered in glowing green…stuff. I thought it turned me into a…ghoul at first. Then Herbert started to grow out of my head."

"Herbert is the…tree?"

"Nah, Herbert is what I like to call him…his real name's Bob."

"So you're the Tree Father of the Sorrows?"

"More or less." Harold replied wearily. "Herbert was getting…hard to carry around. I came here because I heard…rumors of weird plants in a…cave. I found the cave over there…and went inside looking for some kind of…cure I guess. Turns out it belonged to someone the Sorrows called…The Father in the…Cave." Harold closed his eye and took several labored breaths while Valeria waited for him to continue.

"I found some…journals from a survivor of the war named Randall Clark. Seems he holed up here until he met some refugees from Vault…22. Seemed some kind of fungus made them crazy and he killed them all except one. A girl named…Sylvie. She lived with him a while until he found out the…fungus got her too. Then he found out the fungus…was in him too. That was when a bunch of…kids showed up. He knew the fungus was going to get him so he hid from the kids but left them supplies and notes and stuff. His last…entry said he was going to kill…himself, but it was hard to read."

"The children must have become the Sorrows."

"I think so. Well, I just finished reading the…journal when a big plant creäture jumped me. I drove it off with a flare and got out of the cave, but I was hit bad. I don't know how long I was…out, but something in the cave made Herbert go crazy. When I came to, I was…rooted to the ground. I've been stuck here ever since."

"How did you become the 'Tree Father'?"

"That was White Bird…I think. It was…twenty years ago when he came up here. He was…training to be a medicine man and I think he wanted to…prove he had the stuff by going to a taboo site and returning. He was lucky, the plant creatures don't like sunlight or that…Datura Root. I hadn't…spoken to anyone but Herbert for so long. I talked to White Bird but I don't think he…listened. I guess he updated the 'Father in the Caves' story to include me."

"White Bird sent me to speak with you."

"He's come up here a few other times. The last time I…asked him to send someone who could help me. I guess some of my…message got through."

"Help you how?"

"I need you to do me a…favor. Could you please…kill me?"

Valeria stared speechless at Harold's distorted face. Harold's eye looked down as he sighed, then returned his gaze to Valeria's.

"I've been rooted to this spot for over twenty years. I don't know how much longer I have before I won't be able to see…or talk. That and something…bad happened to Herbert. Every now and then he grows a seed that…hatches into one of those plant creatures. I don't know…how long they're going to stay in those caves."

"How can I help you if I agree to do it? Do I have to use fire?"

"Oh no, no! I got caught in a burn ten years ago and I felt everything! I need you to… destroy my heart. After the fire Herbert sort of…moved it down below somewhere. I think you can reach it through the caves."

Valeria turned to look at the cave then back to Harold.

"I think the Datura Root protects you from the fungus." Harold said. "At least White Bird never seems to catch anything."

"It's not that Harold." Valeria replied softly. "I was told once that I'm a killer, but not a murderer. I wont murder you."

"Oh no, it wouldn't be murder. I would have done it myself if I could. It would be a…mercy. I'm getting lost a piece at a time inside Herbert. Please, I'm…begging you to kill me."

Valeria's eyes began to shine as the sadness she kept hidden deep within her began to surface.

"I've mutated ever since I left Vault 101. I don't know if it will ever stop and I'm going to turn into some mindless behemoth. One day I might be where you are now. Begging someone to kill me before I'm lost forever."

"So you'll do it?" Harold asked, his lips twisting into a semblance of a smile.

"I will Harold."

"Thank you…you've made me so happy! I'll just say goodbye to Bob."

Valeria turned and advanced toward the cave. She had almost reached the entrance when Harold called out to her.

"I never asked…what your name was."

"It's Valeria."

"Thank you Valeria…goodbye."

"Goodbye…Harold."

The humid darkness enveloped her as she descended into the cave. Moss was growing everywhere and vines were running along the walls like arteries. Glowing green motes floated in the air and Valeria could hear a rapid throbbing like a huge heartbeat. The tunnel opened into a cave containing the remains of a wooden table and chairs overgrown with moss and red mushrooms. The heartbeat was louder in the cave, and Valeria saw another tunnel leading deeper into the plateau.

As she approached it, her senses warned her before her boot stepped on a wire. A quick examination revealed the trip wire had been snapped, but the trap hadn't detonated. Her gaze followed the rest of the wire along the cave ceiling and down to a pile of crates covered by moss. It was clear that someone had rigged the cave to explode a long time ago. Valeria wondered if it had been Randall Clark when he realized he was going to turn into a monster. That reminded her of Harold's warning that there were plant creatures living in the caves and she hurried into the tunnel.

She didn't have to go far before she found what had to be Harold's heart. It had grown to monstrous size and was surrounded by roots like a cage as it hung suspended among the stalactites. Valeria hefted her hammer and stared at the giant pulsing organ as she tried to see the quickest way to end Harold's torment. Suddenly she heard a growl from deeper within the tunnel. Realizing she was out of time she seized her hammer and with a scream brought it down with all her strength. The root cage shattered as her blow drove into Harold's heart, bursting it like a ghastly balloon. Steaming brown blood splattered over Valeria as the heart's contents gushed to the ground. Valeria staggered back, gagging on the thick odor of copper as the stream slowed to a trickle.

Suddenly a hunched green forms scrambled out of the darkness through the slimy muck and leaped at her. The pommel of Valeria's hammer smashed into its mockery of a face, exploding its head in burst of blazing green motes. Valeria staggered away as the creäture thrashed and flailed in Harold's blood, and Valeria heard more growls and inhuman cries from the darkness. She turned and ran, stopping only long enough to seize the wire she had discovered earlier and give it a desperate yank. Nothing happened and Valeria turned and leaped toward the tunnel. Her boot slipped on the moss and she sprawled to her hands and knees. Before she could get up something heavy landed on her legs and raked her thighs with its claws. With a shriek, Valeria kicked back at the huge humanoid trying to drag her back into the cave. In the moment she looked back she saw the floor seething with crawling shapes moving toward her, and a shower of sparks suddenly spraying from the pile of crates. Valeria screamed and drove her foot into the creature's head as the crates exploded like a blast of lightning bringing the ceiling down with a roar. Valeria flung herself up the tunnel as choking clouds of dust billowed past her as tons of rock buried the last refuge of Randall Clark.

Valeria emerged from the tunnel covered with a thick paste of dust mixed with Harold's blood. She limped to the front of the tree as she tried to wipe the gore from her face and body. Harold looked the same as he did when she spoke to him except his remaining eye was dull and lifeless. She reached forward and gently pulled his leathery eyelid closed, then turned to leave. She had killed one of the Sorrow's gods, and had no idea what kind of reception to expect when she returned to White Cloud. All she knew was that she would tell as much of the truth as she could, and then reap the consequences.

When she finally reached White Cloud's camp, she found him waiting for her with his arms crossed.

"The Daughter of She returns covered with the blood of the Tree Father." White cloud said with no emotion in his face or voice. Valeria nodded and waited warily.

"The cycle is complete. The Daughter of She has freed the Tree Father to journey to sky. In turn you have freed the Sorrows to journey from the banks of Mother River. Grasas, na'ne Daughter of She."

Valeria's knees almost buckled with relief. She had been mortally afraid that her actions would enrage the Sorrows. With White Cloud's statement she realized that she had managed to free Graham to try to evacuate the Sorrows.

If there was still time.


	6. Chapter 6

"It is good news that White Bird has received the sign that the Sorrows can leave the Valley." Joshua Graham said without looking at the Shaman sitting cross-legged across the campfire. "But it may be too late. My scouting expedition found signs that the White Legs have been encircling this area, doubtless to cut off our escape."

"Why haven't they attacked if they outnumber and outgun the Sorrows?" Valeria asked from beside White Bird.

"Salt-Upon-Wounds has tried that before." Graham replied. "Each time we were able to elude him using the Sorrows intimate knowledge of the Canyon to find trails. This time it seems he isn't taking any chances. He's taking advantage of his numbers, sending scouts to find all possible avenues of escape. Once he believes there is nowhere to run he will attack."

"Do you have a plan?" Valeria asked, glancing at the shaman who sat placidly beside her.

"Yes, but it won't be easy. With White Bird's permission I intend to take a force of Sorrow hunters to the Meriwitia Spring Tunnel. We will do whatever damage we can to the White Legs there and give Salt-Upon-Wounds the impression that we will use that route. If it works, it will draw the White Leg's attention and allow the women and children to escape through the Diamond Creek Tunnel."

"What about you?"

"The Sorrows are more skilled at woodcraft than the White Legs. I believe we can elude pursuit long enough to reach the tunnel and rejoin the tribe. Once through I will destroy the tunnel with explosives."

"You have explosives?"

"There are hidden caches of weapons and supplies at many points in the Canyon. The Sorrows insist they're from the Tree Father, but lacking knowledge of demolitions they leave them untouched. I liberated one such cache, which the first group of Sorrows will carry to the tunnel."

"The Sorrows have followed Mother River for many, many moons." White Bird suddenly said. "The Tree Father watched over us and showed us how to hold to our traditions with our roots sunk deep in the banks of the River. Then She, the bringer of death and change freed the Father, and in turn freed us. Now we will change our course as the River changes yet remains the same."

Graham waited, the tension in his posture betraying his impatience at White Bird's meandering speech.

"The hunters will go with Joshua Graham. The Sorrows hunt the Yao Gui; we will hunt the White Legs. The Bear and the Bull will fight in the Canyon as they fight in the owsland. But Joshua Graham must make a promise before the Spirit of the River and She."

"What promise do you need White Bird?" Graham rasped.

"Many of the young men do not understand that hunting the Yao Gui and hunting the White Legs are not the same. The White Legs do not hear the call of the river, and they kill as wild dogs do, without need or hunger. Do not let the Sorrows forget who they are, Joshua Graham. If they do, they will become as the White Legs and you will die."

Graham stared intently at the Shaman before he finally said. "Very well. I swear I shall keep the Sorrow's ways, even if my life is forfeit. So help me God."

"Then it is time." White Bird said with a finality that brooked no further discussion. "The Daughter of She will go with the Sorrows to the Diamond Creek Tunnel."

"Why?" Graham snapped with a glance at Valeria.

"The past and the future of the Sorrows travels with our women and children. They will be far from Mother River, and only the power of She will keep them from the wrath of the Bull."

"But…" Graham started to say as he glared at the Shaman. White Bird returned his gaze calmly, and Graham finally nodded once before glaring at Valeria. White Bird turned without another word and strode to the tunnel leading from his cave. Graham turned to Valeria and growled.

"With your intervention I can begin the Sorrow's retreat, but I do not share White Bird's unconditional confidence in you. The Sorrows will obey White Bird's will in this so I have no choice but to trust you."

Graham stepped forward and stared with grim intensity into Valeria's eyes before adding. "The Sorrows are my people now, and if anything happens to the ones in your care there will be no power on Earth that will save you from my wrath."

"Understood." Valeria replied with a tight-lipped nod before turning and following White Bird out of the cave.

The Sorrows gathered silently at the island Below Emory Falls, the women carrying dried provisions in hide shoulder bags, and in many cases tightly swaddled infants strapped to their backs. The men had all solemnly embraced their loved ones, than silently stood around Joshua Graham until with a nod he led them into the pre-dawn darkness.

White Bird joined the women and children and stood calmly watching the sky as thunder again rumbled in the distance. The children also stood quietly, but stared wide-eyed at the giant woman standing in their midst. Valeria returned some of their stares with careful smiles to hide her fangs. The children didn't smile in return, clinging closer to their mothers but still staring.

Then a red spark rose into the darkness over the canyon rim before slowly drifting down.

"It is Joshua Graham's signal. We go now." White Bird announced and he began to lead the Sorrows out of the Valley that had been their home for over a hundred years. As they made their way along pitted roads and crumbling trails, Valeria was impressed by the silent discipline the of the Sorrows. The young children walked without complaint while the infants slept with the aid of an herbal draught their mothers had given them.

The day was dawning cloudy and cold with a wind blowing at their backs as the procession made their way over an ancient timber bridge that creaked and groaned over the roaring water visible below through gaps in the bridge planking. Suddenly a coughing roar echoed over the peaks and the Sorrows stopped looked up at the rumbling sky.

"Mountain Yao Gui." White Bird announced. "It is a sign. The spirit of She walks with us."

Valeria looked back at the Sorrows and saw their shaved heads bobbing in assent as they continued the crossing. Lightning flashed in the distance as Valeria stepped off the other side of the bridge, than stopped flinging her hand out to halt White Bird. The Sorrows froze as Valeria crouched down, staring at the packed dirt between the patches of asphalt. Than she struck the pommel of her hammer on the ground and the rusted jaws of a bear trap exploded from the ground, snapping on the handle with a clang. Valeria felt for the buried chain and with a wrench tore it out of the ground before flinging the trap into the river.

"You have keen eyes Daughter of She." White Bird observed. "The White Legs have laid traps."

"You saw it too." Valeria accused as she slung her hammer.

"Yes, but the Sorrows needed to see that the Daughter of She has sight."

Valeria stared at the Shaman as he continued walking then shaking her head followed him. Finally rain began to fall as lightning flashed and rumbled directly overhead. Suddenly there was a cry from among the Sorrows. After their earlier silence, Valeria was startled at the sound and turned to look back. She could see that someone had fallen and several Sorrows were kneeling around her. Valeria strode back through the line, the women and children stepping out of her way until she stood over the one who had cried out. To her shock Valeria realized that the Sorrow on the ground was pregnant. Waking Cloud was examining her and she looked up as Valeria approached.

"The baby might be coming soon, she cannot walk."

Valeria looked about in consternation, than down at Waking Cloud.

"Tell her not to be afraid, I'll carry her." Waking Cloud nodded and quietly spoke to the woman. She nodded then closed her eyes as she began to take deep breaths. Valeria took the Sorrow in her arms and effortlessly lifted her. From further ahead White Bird nodded and began to walk without waiting for Valeria to catch up. Not wanting to jostle her burden needlessly, Valeria walked as fast as she dared while worriedly looking down at the woman's rain and sweat-streaked face as she stoically bore her labor pains.

The rain was pouring in steadily when White Bird stopped next to a battered metal sign with faded white letters showing that they had almost arrived at the Diamond Creek Tunnel. The Sorrow that Valeria had been carrying finally relaxed as her contractions eased. Despite Waking Cloud's assurance that her waters were intact and the baby wasn't coming, Valeria preferred not to take any chances and continued to carry the woman. Her exaggerated care slowed her down and she was halfway down the column of sorrows when White Bird had called the halt.

The Shaman continued to hold his hand toward the Sorrows as he looked slowly about at the trees covering the rugged slope rising from the road. The Sorrows also began to look about and Valeria carefully set the woman on her feet and reached for her hammer when White Bird whirled and opened his mouth to shout. Whatever he was about to say was lost as a roar of gunfire erupted from the pines and the Shaman jerked and crumpled to the road.

With ululating cries, ten white-painted warriors with shaggy dreadlocks leaped from the trees, their guns blazing as they raked them across the Sorrows trapped on the road. Discipline was lost as children screamed in terror while their mothers tried to shield them with their bodies as bullets scythed through them. The White Legs were howling with triumph, their red-painted faces twisted into savage grins of blood lust as they ran forward to prevent any Sorrows from escaping.

Then they heard a howl that brought them up short in confusion. Before it had finished echoing from the cliffs, a crack of lightning revealed a white-haired giant hurtling toward them with a huge hammer in its fists and eyes blazing with white-hot fury. The White Legs opened fire, but the giant warrior was already among them, its huge weapon striking like a thunderbolt. So sudden was the reversal, the White Legs fired without aiming, their wild shots hitting each other as they tried to shoot the whirling, leaping warrior. In moments seven of the war party were dead or dying and the survivors reeled back from the giant's onslaught, dropping their empty guns and pulling out clubs and tomahawks.

The first White Leg to swing his club found it blocked by the hammer's haft, then the pommel snapped forward shattering his skull. A long bloody gash appeared on the giant's side as another White Leg slashed it from behind with his tomahawk. The steel hammer whipped about and smashed the White Leg's corpse through the air. Suddenly there was a roar of buckshot as a White Leg blasted the huge warrior in the back with both barrels of his shotgun. The warrior screamed and spun about, glaring with wild-eyed fury at the White Leg who froze in shock when he realized he faced a woman. In that second she yanked a tomahawk out of her belt and flung it, splitting the warrior's head like a melon.

Only one White Leg remained, and she turned to run down the slope toward the creek. In her panic she tripped and smashed head first into the rocks at the water's edge. With blood mixing with her red war paint, she staggered to her knees and turned to face the creature that protected the Sorrows. The woman stood on the slope above her, covered with blood, her fanged mouth twisted with rage. The White Leg saw her death in the woman's eyes and immediately began to sing her death song.

The keening wail of the White Leg cut through the red fog filling Valeria's mind and she hesitated as the woman's song rose and fell in a breathless rush of despair. Suddenly the song ended and the White Leg waited on her knees, her head raised as she looked into Valeria's eyes. Pain began to replace her rage as Valeria stared at the woman, than slowly lowered her hammer. The White Leg waited for the end, then Valeria turned and heavily began to walk back toward the road. The woman stared in mute incomprehension, than staggered to her feet and splashed into the creek as she ran to the other shore.

Valeria looked up the slope and saw Waking Cloud standing at the top with a knife ready in her hand.

"There are many hurt at the tunnel Daughter of She. We must tend to them and ready the explosives for Joshua Graham."

Valeria nodded heavily and looked back to where the White Leg she had spared fled into the trees. The wailing and crying from the road above returned her to the moment and she followed Waking Cloud to the tunnel.


	7. Chapter 7

Salt-Upon-Wounds watched his warriors move along the bridges and cliffs of the Sorrows' camp with mounting fury. The Sorrows had slipped through his grasp repeatedly on their flight down the Canyon, and now appeared to have eluded him again.

He had sent war parties to all the paths out of the Canyon and laid traps to further slow any escape attempts. He had been confident that this time the Sorrows would not escape.

The pre-dawn attack at the Meriwita Spring Tunnel had almost wiped out the war party camped there. By the time reinforcements had arrived the Sorrows had already fled. His scouts told him that the Burned Man had led them, and in his rage Salt-Upon-Wounds almost sent all of his warriors into the canyons after him. However he had learned valuable lessons in his pursuit of the Sorrows and the Burned Man. Upon questioning the survivors he learned that no women and children had been present. The Burned Man had tried to trick him again by making him think the Meriwita Tunnel was the Sorrows escape route. Salt-Upon-Wounds ordered the White Legs to advance on the main Sorrows camp. He fully expected to find the women and children hiding there as they waited for the men to return. In preparation for the coming slaughter, Salt-Upon-Wounds wore his armor of thick spiked leather and donned his skull painted helmet.

The ashes of the cook fires were still warm when the White Legs arrived, but there was no sign of the Sorrows. Salt-Upon-Wounds seethed with rage as his warriors searched and despoiled all they could find. He considered dividing up his force and sending them to all the tunnels to reinforce his war bands but realized that the Burned Man and his force of hunters were still out in the canyon somewhere. As much as he hated the Burned Man, he had a grudging respect for his cunning. Dividing his force into smaller bands would allow them to cover more territory, but would also leave them vulnerable to attack. So there was nothing he could do but wait for some sign as to where the Sorrows had gone.

"Ave Dread Chief." A White Leg warrior said in a greeting adopted from Caesar's Legion. "Our scouts return with a Dead One from the Diamond Creek Tunnel."

Salt-Upon-Wounds turned and looked down on the group of warriors approaching him across one of the Sorrows suspension bridges. Between them was a woman in the leathers and war paint of a storm drummer, his newly formed force of warriors armed with weapons of the old world. They stopped before him and the bloodied White Leg peered at him through her dreadlocks with the faraway look of the walking dead. Salt-Upon-Wounds didn't need her name, it was meaningless; she had prepared for death and hadn't died.

The War chief stepped forward and glared at her through the eyeholes of his helmet.

"Why are you here dead one?" Salt-Upon-Wounds growled as his hand closed about her neck. His warriors shifted and murmured about him as they waited for the dead woman's reply.

"We were fleet and we reached the tunnel before the Sorrows." She replied in a singsong voice, heedless of the hand on her throat. "We laid traps at the bridge and waited at the tunnel with the Storm Drums. The Sorrows came with only women and children, and we prepared for the killing. Then the stranger came…" She shuddered and looked away from her chief, as the murmuring about them grew louder.

"What stranger!" Salt-Upon-Wounds snarled as he shook the dead woman.

"A woman." She gasped. "A woman taller than our tallest warrior and wielding a hammer of iron. Her magic was stronger than our storm drums, mightier then our mantis fists. Our blows only made her stronger, her eyes were white flame and her teeth and claws were red with blood." The warriors were now silent as all the White Legs listened to the dead woman's account.

"Near two hands of our warriors fell, I alone remained. My Storm Drum was empty of thunder and the stranger turned to me. I saw my end and sang my song of death."

"Then why do you walk, dead one?" Salt-Upon-Wounds hissed in her face.

"She stopped and listened, and when I finished she walked away." Salt-Upon-Wounds stared into the dead woman's eyes, then grated out one question.

"Did the stranger bleed?" The woman nodded, then gasped as Salt-Upon-Wounds' Mantis fist rammed into her abdomen and tore up into her heart. He flung the twitching body from him to fall to the river below and held his gory fist aloft.

"Hear me warriors of the White Legs! This stranger who fights for the Sorrows is no spirit! She bleeds! And anything that bleeds I can kill! Our totem is the one-headed bull of Kaiser, which is mightier then all others!" He glared at the warriors assembled about him, his bloody Mantis Fist still upraised. "We will take the Burned Man's head to Kaiser, and I shall take the stranger's scalp for my belt!" The White Legs brandished their weapons and their war whoops echoed from the cliffs.

"Gather all our warriors! We go to the Diamond Creek Tunnel!"

"Why did you allow a White Leg to escape?" Joshua Graham growled with barely restrained fury as he glared up at Valeria. "Our only chance was to direct his attention away from our true route!"

"I'm not a murderer." Valeria replied as she glared down at him with her arms crossed. "I'm a mutant freak and a killer, but that is a line I will never cross."

Graham clenched his fists with rage as stared into Valeria's eyes, but suddenly realized that her action didn't stem from a stubborn naïvety, but from a profound pain he could see in her gaze. The strange woman had made her decision knowing full well the possible consequences. Suddenly Graham's rage cooled and was replaced by weariness.

"I used to believe the end justified the means." He finally said as he looked over the groups of Sorrows tending the wounded and the dead. "I held to that belief even as I damned myself for eternity. Perhaps God is infinite in his forgiveness, but I am not."

Suddenly a Sorrow hunter appeared out of the trees and ran toward Joshua.

"Joshua Graham!" The Sorrow gasped between gulps of air. "The White Legs come!"

"Everyone into the tunnel now!" Graham ordered and watched grimly as he saw Sorrows helping the wounded to stand.

"There isn't enough time." Joshua growled. "By the time I set the charges the White Legs will be on us." He turned to Valeria as he chambered a round in his pistol. "The Sorrows regard you as touched by the Spirit World. With White Bird dead they are without leadership. I will slow the White Legs and give you time to escape."

"No you won't." Valeria said with grim finality. Graham started at her unexpected denial, and felt some of his rage return.

"I underestimated Salt-Upon-Wounds and led the Sorrows into a trap." He snarled. "It was because of me that New Canaan was destroyed and my people slaughtered. Now the Sorrows are about to pay the price for my sins, and I will sacrifice my life to prevent it."

"Your place is with the Sorrows Joshua." Graham opened his mouth to object but Valeria shook her head. "They are your tribe now. You know the wilderness and you know Caesar. You said New Canaan was destroyed just from its association with you. Your death won't stop Caesar from hunting the Sorrows and you know it. Their only chance out of this trap is with your guidance."

"The White Legs will be on us before we are halfway through the tunnel."

"No they wont." Valeria replied grimly. "I will stay behind. You've seen what I can do. I will buy you the time you need to get the Sorrows to safety."

"The tunnel must be destroyed for the Sorrows to have a chance." Graham objected. "I will be leaving you to your death."

"I've had to turn away too many times Graham. I had my reasons, and I've hated myself for it each time. The Sorrows are not my people, but I can help them and I will."

"Joshua Graham, Daughter of She, we wait in the tunnel." Said Waking Cloud as she approached. Graham looked between Waking Cloud and Valeria, than made his decision.

"God be with you Valeria." He said as he extended his bandaged right hand. Valeria clasped it, than watched Graham turn and run to the tunnel.

"Paz patasooba Daughter of She." Waking Cloud said as she stared into Valeria's eyes. "May Mother River guide and protect you." She bowed her head, then turned and joined Joshua Graham at the tunnel.

Valeria watched until Graham and Waking Cloud vanished into the darkness, then stood and walked into the middle of the road. She had faced overwhelming odds before and survived, but this time survival was not her goal. She had to focus their attention on her, but with their firearms she knew she couldn't take a defensive position. She had to attack them with everything she had. She had to embrace her rage and use its power to stop them. Valeria took several deep breaths to clear her mind, then she began to revisit scenes of horror and despair that even Dala couldn't remove completely. She recalled moment after moment of suffering and death until she finally recalled her father sacrificing his life for hers. The floodgates in her mind opened and Valeria's lips curled into a snarl she began to shake with rage.

Suddenly she heard war whoops as the White Legs charged out of the gloom, their Sub Machine guns flaming as they sprayed the canyon. Flinging her arm up to protect her face Valeria screamed in reply, then hurled herself into a hacking howling storm of clubs, hatchets and spiked gauntlets. The White Legs howled as they tried to overwhelm her with numbers, but were hampered by trying to not hit each other. Valeria didn't have to hold back and every blow from her hammer killed or maimed a White Leg. Soon she was standing in a pile of bodies as war band after war band charged in increasingly desperate attempts to drag her down. Suddenly Valeria found herself alone as the White Legs staggered back up the road. Wild-eyed and covered with blood, Valeria shrieked her defiance and braced for the next attack.

Salt-Upon-Wounds was also snarling as the bloody remains of the war bands returned. He turned to look at the rest of his warriors, and could see fear in their eyes. He had made himself the sole chief of the White Legs by killing all of his rivals. He had turned them from their old traditions to follow the example of Kaiser and the one-headed bull. With the thunder drums, none could stand before them and his people followed him without question. Now a stranger stood alone in the mouth of the Diamond Creek Tunnel. Armed only with a hammer, she stood before the thunder drums and slaughtered many hands of his warriors. He could feel the growing doubt of his people, doubt in his leadership and doubt in the power of Kaiser. Salt-Upon-Wounds knew the stranger would eventually fall under the weight of numbers, but the doubt he was sensing demanded that his personal intervention.

"You are all weak!" He roared at his warriors. "You will hide here like frightened children while I kill the stranger!" He furiously jerked the ties on his mantis fist and noted the dark stains of Datura Venom on the chitinous blade. He then strode forward to face the woman standing in the way of his vengeance. He reached the last bend in the road and for the first time saw the woman described by the Dead One. She was tall as a Yau Gui, her near-naked body covered with blood from the dead heaped about her as well the oozing wounds covering her body. Her white eyes were burning with berserk wrath as she glared at him through a mask of blood. Suddenly there was a roar as a cloud of dust and debris billowed from the tunnel mouth. Salt-Upon-Wounds stared at the tunnel, wild-eyed with rage as he realized the Burned Man had escaped once again. Turning his helmeted face toward the giant woman he raised his fists skyward and roared.

"Hear me outman! I am Salt-Upon-Wounds, war-chief of the White Legs! The scalps of many hands of warriors decorate my lodge pole! My magic and the magic of Kaiser is mighty and I will take your scalp!"

The woman snarled and raised her hammer. Salt-Upon-Wounds yanked a tomahawk out of his belt and hurled it before he charged. Valeria swatted the hatchet out of the air with her hammer, and then realized too late what the attack truly was. Diving in low, Salt-Upon-Wounds slashed his Mantis Fist at Valeria's abdomen. She screamed and swung her hammer, but the war chief somersaulted back into a crouch.

"Hah!" Salt-Upon-Wounds barked in triumph. "You will feel the sting of Datura now outman! I will eat your heart before I take your hair!"

Valeria staggered as she felt the burn of poison in the deep cut. Only her inhumanly dense tissues had prevented her from being disemboweled. Salt-Upon-Wounds began to walk slowly around her, clearly waiting for the poison to take hold before his next attack. He was confident now, and the trembling he saw in the woman's limbs was clearly a sign that they would soon fail.

The war-chief was wrong. Valeria's shaking was not weakness but the last remnants of her reason being swept away in a wave of berserk fury. With a scream Valeria launched herself at Salt-Upon-Wounds swinging her hammer in a vicious arc. The war chief staggered as his helmet was torn from his head. Using her momentum Valeria whirled and brought her hammer down, smashing Salt-Upon-Wounds' headless corpse to the pavement. Looking up, Valeria howled at the White Legs watching from the road. The White Legs staggered back averting their eyes and holding their hands with their index fingers and thumbs touching. Still averting their eyes, they withdrew leaving Valeria alone in the darkness.


	8. Chapter 8

The Mojave Drive-in had been silent ever since atomic fire seared the sky two centuries earlier. Rusting cars still faced the projection wall with speaker poles leaning out of the cracked earth. Tumbleweeds blown by the morning wind was the only movement until suddenly a woman wearing a hooded wasteland dress leaped over a pile of rubble and ran for the gutted remains of the concession stand.

With a howl, a huge dog bounded in pursuit, knocking the woman to the ground with a leap. It tore at the thick cloth of her tunic then lunged for her throat as she rammed her forearm between its jaws. The hound tore at the straps protecting her wrist as the woman wrapped her legs around its body then shoved her arm up as with a cry she slammed her other forearm down on its neck. There was a snap and the dog spasmed then went limp.

Gritting her teeth with pain, she held her arm to her body as she kicked the dog's corpse off and got to her feet.

"Don't move profligate!" Shouted a voice from behind her, and the woman stiffened and slowly turned with her hands raised. Three men in leather tunics covered by pre-war sports gear slowly advanced toward her, their faces impassive behind dark glasses and face wraps.

"So what happens if I come quietly?" The woman asked as they stopped before her, the leader pointing a revolver at her stomach.

"You won't be lashed to a cross like the others." He replied as the other two raiders drew crude machetes from their belts.

"You're not curious why I ran here?"

"I am not interested in your tricks profligate. You've defied the Legion and for that your life is forfeit."

"I guess you're too smart for me." The woman replied with a smirk. "There's no way you'd fall for the old, 'who's that behind you?' trick."

"Words will not save you profligate." The soldier growled as his two companions reached for her arms.

"Too bad, because for once it's true."

A shadow fell over the raider as a huge arm encircled his throat. The other raiders released their prisoner as they saw their leader jerked into the air by a towering figure backlit by the sun. Suddenly their former captive shouted and drove her elbow into one raider's neck, than dropped and swept her leg sending the other one sprawling. The first raider staggered than turned as the woman launched herself from the ground and drove the heel of her hand into his chin. His head snapped back and he crumpled to the ground.

She turned to the last raider who had recovered his machete when there was a whoosh of air past her head and a throwing axe buried itself in his throat. The raider fell thrashing to the ground and she whirled to face her rescuer. Her eyes widened as she saw the body of the first raider sag to the ground with a broken neck, revealing the biggest woman she had ever seen.

"Uh…Thanks for the assist…um?"

"Valeria." The big woman replied with an odd ashamed look on her face as she looked down at the body of the man she had killed.

"Veronica. The pleasure's all mine."

"It looked like they meant to kill you."

"They were." Veronica said with a grim nod. "That's what I got for being in Nipton when the Legion decided to make an example of it."

"That's Nipton?" Valeria asked as she looked toward the nearby rooftops with black smoke billowing overhead.

"Not anymore. I don't know where you're headed, but I'm not going to be found here with dead Legionaries. You'd better not stick around either."

Valeria nodded as she stepped forward to retrieve her throwing axe. Veronica stared at the giant woman's hugely muscled physique as she wrenched her axe free and quickly wiped it on the Legionnaire's tunic. Veronica shook her head and stepped over a pile of rubble to a battered metal locker covered by a dirty canvas.

"Are there any other survivors?" Valeria asked she put the axe on her belt and adjusted the harness that held a super sledge to her back.

"Who ever the Legion hasn't beheaded or crucified is probably being rounded up to work in the Searchlight Gold Mines."

"They're taking slaves?" Valeria growled. Veronica looked up and the look she saw in the big woman's white eyes told her that for Valeria slavery was a deeply personal issue. She also noticed that she had very long eye teeth that were revealed when she snarled.

"I don't like it either." Veronica said as she reached into the locker and pulled out a tubular metal rifle with a bell-shaped muzzle and vacuüm tubes protruding from the barrel. "But there's at least a hundred Legionaries and judging from the shots I heard most are carrying guns."

Valeria stared at the burning town as Veronica strapped the rifle to her back, than stepped cautiously around the shattered wall.

"There's no cover for miles." Veronica observed as she turned back toward Valeria. "If you didn't know that was Nipton, then I'm guessing you're not from around here."

"No. I came from the south."

"I don't know what you're planning to do, but if you intend to attack the Legion, could you give me a few minutes head start first?"

"Where are you going?"

"The Ivanpah lakebed. It's lower than Nipton and this time of year there's always a dust storm blowing across it. If the Legion spots me I think I can lose them there."

Suddenly there were shouts from Nipton and the sound of barking.

"Time to go." Veronica looked over her shoulder at Valeria and added. "Thanks again for your help. Good luck." With that she sprinted toward the crumbling roadway leading past Nipton. Valeria hesitated, than heard the crack of a gunshot from the town. She saw Veronica duck than disappear around a pile of boulders as howls erupted from Nipton. With a snarl, Valeria jerked her gazed from the burning town and sprinted after Veronica.

Veronica picked herself up after a bruising slide down a steep hillside. She blinked as a cloud of dust billowed about her and she shielded her eyes with her hand. The rolling dunes of the lake stretched before her as the wind-swept clouds of grit into the sky. Veronica turned as a howl echoed from behind her and with a curse she started to run into the blowing dust. She had hoped to have more of a head start, but if the Legion had loosed their hounds she knew she wouldn't get far. She had her LAER rifle but only a few microfusion cells for it, and her left hand was still painful to close after the hound had crushed her forearm. She ran as fast as she could in the hope of finding a place to make a stand when she heard heavy footsteps racing behind her. With an impact that almost knocked the wind out of her, Veronica was swept from the ground and into Valeria's arms. Too startled to struggle Veronica stared in astonishment at Valeria's grimly determined face as the giant woman raced across the lakebed. Veronica quickly realized that Valeria was moving faster carrying her than she could run on her own so she bowed her head and squeezed her eyes shut against the blowing sand.

Valeria ran with no sign of fatigue until she finally stopped and set Veronica down.

"We lost the dogs." Valeria said. "And it looks like there's a town up ahead."

"A town?" Veronica asked as she turned and peered into the distance. "That's Primm! I recognize the roller coaster!" She turned and stared up at Valeria in astonishment. "You ran thirteen miles carrying me without stopping!"

"We had a pack of hounds after us." Valeria replied with an embarrassed shrug. "I had to make sure we lost them."

"Well, thanks to you I'm a lot closer to home than I planned."

"You live in Primm?"

"No. Actually I avoid towns if possible. Prospecting is against Caesar's law and you never know who might be willing to turn you in for a bounty."

"Prospecting?"

"Wow, you're really not from around here are you?" Veronica said with a smile. "I'll tell you what we'll do. You saved my life back there, and that counts for a lot in my book. We'll head to my safe house while I work on plan B and I'll fill you in there."

"We're not stopping in Primm?"

"The law there is Sheriff Beagle. Primm was run by Powder Gangers until the Legion cleared them out. Beagle was put in charge and he stays that way as long as he does what the Legion says. The Legion has a garrison in the old NCR correction facility about twelve miles north of Primm. With the Legion that close, Beagle doesn't rock the boat."

"So where is your safe house?"

"My place is about twelve miles from here near Black Mountain. As long as we stick to the hills we should be able to avoid patrols." Valeria nodded than looked back across the lakebed.

"Trust me, there wasn't anything you could do for Nipton." Veronica said as she crossed her arms. "The Mayor of Nipton was a crook named Joseph Steyn and he turned Nipton into a black market hub between Legion and NCR territory. He even got the Legion garrison commander to go along. It was only a matter of time before Caesar got wind of it and cracked down."

"How did you escape?"

"I got lucky. I was in the OK Trailer Park outside of town selling a refurbished laser rifle. We were missed when the Legion marched into town. From the sounds of it the garrison commander tried to brass it out, but ended up being crucified while his troops were decimated."

"Decimated?"

"Every ten soldiers draws lots and loser is beaten to death by the other nine. Between that and executing the townspeople the Legion was pretty busy. I was hoping to wait for the sun to go down but some of their dogs caught our scent. The idiot I was trying to sell the rifle to panicked and attacked the patrol. While he was busy getting killed I ran to the Drive In where I stashed my rifle. You know the rest."

"Perhaps Nipton was corrupt, but that didn't mean it deserved to be destroyed."

"I didn't say it did, but Nipton was within sight of an NCR outpost. That and from what I've seen the Legion is spread pretty thin. Caesar needed to send a message to the NCR and the Mojave that you better not mess with the Legion. I guess Nipton just figured it was far enough from New Vegas to get away with it."

"Why didn't you head to the NCR outpost?"

"The NCR and I have a…history." Veronica said with a sigh. "Let's just say I'd not be leaving the outpost for some time." She glanced at the sun blazing in the afternoon sky and tightened the harness of her rifle, wincing as she flexed her injured hand.

"It's going to be dark soon, and traveling in the high country at night is dangerous. If you want to go back to Nipton, be my guest."

"I made my decision." Valeria said with a scowl. "I just have to live with it."

"Then lets not burn any more daylight." Veronica said as she turned and walked through the blowing sand toward the rugged hills rising to the west. Valeria stared after Veronica for a moment, then set out after her.

The two women traveled into the sun-baked foothills and made their way north. Veronica was accustomed to traveling on foot, but soon found she was trailing behind Valeria. The big woman's long stride and tireless stamina allowed her to keep an easy lead. Veronica gritted her teeth and pressed on as the Mojave sun blazed above and the ground shimmered from rising heat waves. Veronica didn't like being uncovered, and the worn hide and cloth dress she wore was both inconspicuous and protected her pale skin from the sun. Valeria on the other hand was nearly naked, giving Veronica plenty of opportunity to appraise her companion's bizarre appearance. Where Veronica was pale, Valeria's skin was a light bronze and stretched tightly over her immense body, showing every tendon, vein and striation in bold relief. Valeria seemed to have no body fat except in her mammaries, which were incongruously large and so firm she only needed a leather strap to support them.

Valeria stopped on top of a ridge and turned to wait as Veronica trudged up the slope. Valeria hadn't said anything, but her expression showed her concern. Veronica noted idly that if one looked past the white hair and eyes Valeria actually was rather pretty, as long as Veronica didn't look below her thickly corded neck. There was also something familiar about the big woman, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Veronica wiped her streaming face with her arm and leaned on her knees as she gulped for air. She noticed that Valeria wasn't even breathing hard, and her perspiration only seemed to bead on her skin in tiny droplets while Veronica's dripped from her nose and stung her eyes.

Valeria produced a yellow barrel cactus fruit and quickly sectioned it with her long black nails. She offered the fruit to Veronica who took it from Valeria's broad palm, noticing that her nails were not painted and were naturally dark-colored. Veronica savored the tart relief from the dryness in her mouth as she looked up at the sky. The sun was dropping toward the horizon and the sky was deepening into violet as evening approached. She looked down into the valley below and realized that it would be dark long before they reached their destination.

"Ok Valeria, you win." Veronica said around a mouthful of fruit. "We'll never make it before dark at my pace. I need you to…carry me."

"Are you sure?"

"At this rate, if we run into trouble I won't be in any shape to do anything about it. Goodsprings isn't far from here but the Legion knows how to use radios. I could probably stop there without sending up flags, but you really stand out. We just killed three Legionaries; I'd rather not risk telling them what direction we're heading. Just don't get any funny ideas, okay?" Veronica smiled at what she meant as a joke, but the confused look in Valeria's eyes showed she hadn't gotten it.

"Okay Veronica, but let me know when you need to walk."

"Oh you'll know. And we've traveled together long enough I'd prefer if you called me Ronnie."

"Ok…Ronnie." Valeria replied with a small smile.

"Anything you like to be called?"

"Well…sometimes I've been called Val."

"Ok Val. Let's get this over and watch the hands."

This time Valeria's uncertain smile showed that she understood, although she clearly didn't know how to respond. Veronica finished the fruit and nodded to show she was ready. Valeria lifted her up while Veronica draped her arm around Valeria's neck. Coyotes began to yip and howl in the distance as Valeria began to run down the slope into the valley stretched out below.

As much as it galled Veronica's independent soul to be carried like a child, she had to admit that Valeria could cover a lot of ground in a hurry. The only movement they saw were tumbleweeds rolling across the remains of the I-15 Highway as Valeria sprinted across. It was still evening when Valeria put Veronica down outside a chain-link fence enclosing a barren stretch of blowing sand. Veronica pushed the gate open and led Valeria inside. Although the sand storm made landmarks impossible to make out, Veronica seemed to know exactly where she was going and soon led them to a cylindrical concrete bunker in a bowl of shifting sand. A heavy steel door seemed to be the only entrance and Veronica quickly manipulated the lock and led the way into the dark interior.

The door closed behind them with a clang, shutting the storm outside and leaving them in darkness. Veronica reached for a small light she kept at her belt as she heard Valeria confidently descend the stairs. The small but powerful light filled the chamber below with a faint white glow as Valeria looked back and flinched, shielding her eyes with her hand. Veronica descended the stairs and glanced at her huge companion in continuing wonder.

"You can see in the dark?"

"Sometimes I forget." Valeria apologized as she lowered her hand.

"You're just full of surprises." Veronica observed as she turned and approached a darkened monitor mounted on the wall next to another steel door. Her fingers flew over the keys and the monitor came to life with a dim green glow. Lines of text crawled across the screen as Veronica responded to a series of prompts, than the door opened. A steel-lined corridor ending in a cross-junction was revealed as tubular lights set in the ceiling flickered than burned with a steady yellow tinted glow. Veronica led Valeria to the left tunnel, as Valeria could see the other two were filled with rubble and debris.

The tunnel led to another door behind which was a rectangular room filled with workbenches covered with tools and electronic parts. There were also bookshelves and bunks built into the walls and clear signs of recent habitation. Valeria also saw several wall hangings. Two were pre-war posters of a woman in elegant attire with the title "Sierra Madre" written below. The last was a tattered banner with the insignia of the Brotherhood of Steel emblazoned on it.

"Here we are." Veronica said as she turned to face Valeria. "Home sweet home."


	9. Chapter 9

"I know we both have questions." Veronica said as she stood from the table and removed the plates from their meal of canned pork and beans. "So since you're new here why don't you go first?"

Valeria watched Veronica take the plates to a nearby sink, then looked at the Brotherhood of Steel banner. Veronica had been thirsty and hungry after their journey, and insisted on eating before any further conversation. Valeria didn't argue and ate silently as she waited for Veronica to finish.

"Could you tell me about yourself?"

"Sure, it's my favorite topic." Veronica replied with a grin as she returned to her seat at the workbench they used for a table. "What would you like to know?"

"You apparently are guilty of prospecting, which is punished severely enough that you don't want to be caught. You mentioned a 'Plan B' which makes me wonder what 'Plan A' was. You also said you have 'history' with the NCR, and there is a banner with the symbol of the Brotherhood of Steel hanging on the wall."

"That's all huh?" Veronica replied with a smirk. "Okay, I'll start at the beginning. But before I get started I have to know, what do you think of the Brotherhood of Steel?"

"They were some of the bravest and most honorable people I've ever met." Valeria replied without hesitation.

"Really?" Veronica replied, raising her eyebrows in surprise. "Wow. I grew up with them and I wouldn't have described them that way."

"You're a member of the Brotherhood?"

"Once. I was trained as a scribe and came to the Mojave with Elder Elijah. What chapter did you run into?"

"They were led by Elder Lyons."

"Elder Lyons!" Veronica exclaimed in astonishment. "His chapter was sent east over twenty years ago. We hadn't had word in so long it was assumed he was dead."

"He made it to the Capital Wasteland around Washington D.C. He died fighting the Enclave and his daughter Sarah became Elder." Valeria looked down as she remembered the flaming crater where the Citadel of the Brotherhood had been.

"The Enclave was on the East Coast too?"

"You know about the Enclave?"

"Of course. The Brotherhood fought their remnants after their base in San Francisco was destroyed. I didn't know any of them had set up shop that far east."

"I think Elder Lyons changed the Brotherhood's mandate." Valeria said slowly. "Talking to him and Sarah gave me the impression that defending the Capital Wasteland against the Enclave and the Supermutants was…unusual."

"I'll say it was." Veronica replied with nod. "The Codex states that the purpose of the Brotherhood was to preserve technology. How best to do that is open to some interpretation. The West Coast Brotherhood decided to seclude themselves and not recruit new members from the outside. As you can imagine, this didn't do much for our numbers. The NCR was a rising power and growing while the Brotherhood got smaller and smaller."

Valeria nodded, struck by the similarity between the Brotherhood's fate and what happened to her home in Vault 101.

"Elder Elijah wanted to use technology to improve the world, not hoard it for ourselves. But he was never good at dealing with people, and he made a lot of the Brotherhood Elders mad. Finally they sent him to the Mojave to investigate Boulder Dam, but really I think it was just to get rid of him."

"Did you go with him because you agreed with his beliefs?"

"Elijah was kind of like a grandfather to me, especially after my parents were killed. I agreed with his overall philosophy, but not with the details. Elijah didn't think much of people, and over time seemed to think using force for the greater good was the way to go. Even so, he asked me to come with him and I agreed."

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know." Veronica replied sadly. "We never got to the Dam. Along the way we found the Helios One solar plant and Elijah ordered us to fortify it. He didn't tell us why, but he seemed to be more and more obsessed with it. When he heard the NCR had taken Boulder Dam he went into a rage. We were starting to think Elijah was losing it, and I confronted him with our concerns."

"What did he do?"

"He listened to me so calmly it was spooky, then nodded and told me my talents were wasted at the plant. He said that I was needed out in the field gathering intelligence, then ordered me to recon the old REPCON facility. I did what he ordered, but the automated security in that place is pretty tight and I wasn't able to get in. While I was gone the NCR arrived at Helios One."

"I take it Elijah didn't negotiate."

"No." Veronica replied. "I wasn't inside, but I watched from the hills while the NCR stormed the plant. We may have had better armor, weapons and training, but the NCR had numbers and resupply. Then just when it looked like it was over I heard alarms all over the plant. Laser beams from the sky converged on the plant, then a huge energy beam blew the entire facility to pieces."

"Elijah activated an orbital weapon platform?"

Veronica looked sharply at Valeria, clearly surprised that she knew what an orbital weapon was. Then she nodded and sighed

"He must have discovered that Helios One was more then a power plant. When it was obvious the NCR was going to take it, he turned the weapon on the plant rather than let them have it."

"So that's why you didn't go to the NCR outpost. You were afraid they would hold you for questioning and discover your link to the Brotherhood."

"It's pretty likely. I've laid low for years, wandering around trying to scavenge tech to sell. The NCR ended up fighting the Legion, and after the first battle of Boulder Dam had to devote most of their resources to keeping Caesar east of the Colorado."

"Until the Legion found a way to turn the tables."

"They used their numbers better the second time. There was still a nasty fight at the Dam, but this time it was a diversion to get the NCR to commit most of its forces. Caesar even had Legate Lanius there to make it look good. While the NCR was trying to hold the Dam, Legion infiltrators started raising hell behind their lines. One of their raids dumped radioactive waste in the town of Searchlight, killing most of the garrison there and making the area impassable for reinforcements. The NCR didn't know how to handle being encircled and a lot of them broke and ran. Caesar kept the pressure on and the NCR wasn't able to rally. Finally they withdrew from the Mojave after blowing up a lot of stuff they didn't want Caesar to have."

"Is 'prospecting' is another word for scavenging?"

"Most prospectors think it's more dignified. The Legion allows the townspeople to go about their business, but owning high-tech weapons and armor are illegal. The use of currency other than Legion Denarius and Aureus is also illegal. There aren't a lot of laws, but the ones the Legion has are all punishable by death or enslavement. Women get enslaved more often because the Legion considers us to be breeders." Veronica smirked at Valeria before adding. "I wonder what they'd make of you?"

"So you scavenge tech, fix it up and sell it on the black market?"

"Pretty much. Nipton was the best place to go outside of New Vegas, but that's not an option anymore."

"Was that your plan A?"

"Sort of. I'm pretty good with tech, but that doesn't have a lot of applications under the Legion. I scavenged to get by until I was able to return to Helios One. I found a terminal that seemed intact, got it working and found a message from Elijah to me. At first it looked like rambling with numbers scattered through it. It turned out the numbers were coördinates, which led me to this place. Elijah had turned this bunker into a secret headquarters, and based on the journal entries I found he had been here after Helios One was destroyed. He had made references to a treasure that would change the Mojave forever, but I didn't get what he meant until I came here and saw the posters from the Sierra Madre."

"The Sierra Madre?"

"It's a Mojave legend. It was a casino built by a pre-war millionaire named Frederick Sinclair. It's supposed to hold a fortune in tech, but no one who tried to find it has returned. There are a lot of stories about the place being cursed and haunted by ghosts. I don't believe them, but it is located in a hell on earth called Death Valley. If Elijah went there, then there's something to the stories about the treasure.

"You want to find the treasure?"

"Mostly I want to find Elijah. He was obsessive and hard to like, but he is also the closest thing to family I have left. He believed that whatever was in the Sierra Madre would change the world, and based on what I've seen I think he may be right."

Veronica gestured to a device shaped vaguely like a pre-war jukebox with a soft blue glow coming from a round receptacle on the top.

"I can't make it work, but from Elijah's notes it's a workbench similar to ones installed at the Sierra Madre. While I was with the Brotherhood there was always a chance I could change their minds and make a positive difference. Now I'm just a scavenger living on the fringe of society. Maybe with the treasure I could make the Mojave a better place."

"So you've tried to get money to find the Sierra Madre?"

"Actually I've tried to get enough cash to pay the admission fee to get into the New Vegas Strip. The current rate is five hundred Denarius or twenty Aureus, which isn't including the exchange rate on the black market if I try to convert caps or NCR dollars. It's been pretty slow going."

"Why do you need to get into the Strip?"

"I've heard rumors that groups of mercenaries are being hired by House and Dean Domino to look for the Sierra Madre. House runs New Vegas, but he lives in the Lucky 38 and its been sealed for two centuries. Dean Domino runs the Ultra-Luxe Casino, which is open to visitors. If I can get in to meet him, I'm hoping he'll take a chance on backing girl from California with stars in her eyes and a pneumatic gauntlet on her fist."

"So what's plan B?"

"I'm still working on that one." Veronica replied as she rested her chin on her fist and stared thoughtfully at one of the Sierra Madre posters. Suddenly her eyes widened and she turned to stare at Valeria.

"That's why you looked so familiar!" Veronica exclaimed. Valeria turned to look at the poster of a dark-haired woman reclining provocatively in an evening gown, then back at Veronica in confusion.

"The hair threw me at first, but you look exactly like Vera Keyes!"

"Who is she?" Valeria asked as she again looked at the poster.

"I don't know much about her." Veronica explained. "She was a celebrity before the war, and Sinclair must have had a serious thing for her because she's on all the Sierra Madre posters."

Valeria stood from the table and approached the poster, touching the yellowing paper below Vera's face. Was it simply a coincidence that she looked like a woman who had been dead for centuries, or was it more? Her mother and father had come from California, so were they connected with the Sierra Madre, and if so how?

"That's pretty much all there is about me. What brought you to the Mojave Val?"

"I'm trying to find out what I am." Valeria replied as she continued to stare at the poster. "My mom and dad lived in New Vegas before they went east. It's not much, but it's the only clue I have."

"You crossed the Mid-western empty to find your past?"

"Yes, although I ran into some trouble at Big Mountain and my memories are pretty patchy." Valeria ran her hand through her hair and felt the faint scars that still criss-crossed her scalp.

Veronica stared thoughtfully at Valeria's massive shoulders and the huge hammer she carried effortlessly on her broad back.

"I think plan B is coming to me." She said. "We both need to get to New Vegas and it's a town where you need money even if you don't gamble. Discreetly selling salvage will take too long and it's too risky with the Legion cracking down."

"What do you have in mind?" Valeria asked as she turned from the poster.

"I noticed you aren't carrying any guns." Veronica observed as she stood from the bench. "Either you're crazy or you don't need them."

"I'm a pretty bad shot." Valeria explained with a shrug. "I just can't seem to get the hang of it so I rely on my hammer."

"You've been fighting hand-to-hand across the wasteland and still have all your parts." Veronica shook her head in amazement then grinned. "We need to get to Westside outside the Strip. With my brains and your brawn, we'll be inside the gates in no time!"


	10. Chapter 10

Valeria wrenched her hammer free from the twitching corpse of a giant Radscorpion in a shower of white gore. The crowd jamming the catwalks above howled its approval as she wiped blood and sweat from her eyes with her arm and surveyed the dry sewage pit. The shattered bodies of Radscorpions littered the packed dirt, their limbs still twitching as their primitive nervous systems shut down. Gritting her teeth against the burn of poison in her wounds, Valeria looked up at the crowd and snarled. The catwalks above her were crowded with the drab browns and grays of wasteland robes and coveralls mixed with the dark red of Legion tunics.

"Again the Thorn witnesses the triumph of its mightiest champion!" Shouted Red Lucy from her vantage point on a concrete platform above the center of the pit. "None have stood so long against the Thorn! But can she prevail against the final test? Return when the moon is full to find the answer!"

Red Lucy crossed her leather-clad arms and watched as the crowd began to slowly disperse. Then she looked down at the huge woman glaring at her from below. Red Lucy stared into Valeria's eyes and smiled as she felt thrill she always felt in the presence of the hulking mutant. Valeria looked away and limped toward the steel gate leading out of the arena. She had always been resistant to toxins, but since her experience at Big Mountain they hardly affected her. She still had no idea what Dala had done to her, but so far it appeared that many of her inhuman abilities were enhanced. This had served her well as she faced the mutant beasts of the Thorn.

A gate rattled open before her and Valeria stepped through into a dark sewer tunnel beyond. Grim faced guards in heavy leather armor and carrying rifles watched as she made her way through the tunnels reeking of refuse, decay and blood. Finally she arrived at a door with a flaming barrel nearby providing light. Valeria leaned against the wall and waited for Red Lucy to arrive as the distant echoes of the departing spectators filtered down from the levels above. Soon Valeria heard boot steps on the stairs beyond the door as Red Lucy descended. She was wearing the same leather armor as her guards, with a shotgun strapped to her back. The flickering flames backlit her short red hair and striking green eyes as she smiled up at Valeria.

"You fought well my hunter." She said as she produced a leather pouch and dropped it into Valeria's outstretched hand. "Your payment as we agreed."

Valeria weighed the pouch containing Denari, and knew that it wasn't going to be enough to allow entrance to the Strip.

"Caesar's tribute must come first." Lucy said as she noted the look in Valeria's eyes. "You are bringing more crowds to the Thorn than ever before, but to increase profits you must be willing to face more challenging opponents."

"I just killed six giant radscorpions, wasn't that 'entertaining' enough?"

"The crowd's appetite for blood is as insatiable as the Thorn's. They have witnessed your prowess and now refuse to bet against you. If you want to win their gold as well as their devotion, you must truly risk your life."

"I take it you have something in mind?"

"Indeed. The hunters of the Thorn are braver then the Legion, and have provided such a challenge. Do you want to face it?"

"I don't like this." Valeria replied with a scowl. "I don't enjoy killing, and definitely not to entertain a bloodthirsty mob."

"You don't have to accept the challenge." Lucy said, her smile unchanged. "But the Thorn is not a place of decadence, it is a temple to truth. The Thorn strips all pretense and reveals what they truly are. You deny you enjoy the act of killing, but the Thorn has shown me the truth."

"I'm doing this because I have to, not because I enjoy it!"

"Whatever the reason for entering the Thorn, once blood is spilled the truth is always revealed."

"You're sick." Valeria growled, but Red Lucy simply smiled and crossed her arms.

"You are free to go my hunter, but you will return." Valeria glared at Lucy, than strode past her to the stairs. Red Lucy watched Valeria go, than her smile faded as she leaned against the wall and stared into the flickering flames of the barrel.

"Will the mutant fight?" A calm voice spoke from the doorway behind her.

"All who fight in the Thorn do so of their own free will Vulpes." Lucy replied without turning around. A man in a red Legionnaire tunic with a red cloth concealing his face stepped next to Lucy and she turned to look into his cold gray eyes.

"The Thorn has been most useful in bolstering the Legion's warrior spirit, and its tribute has been most satisfactory." Vulpes said evenly. "For these reasons you have been allowed to continue, but don't mistake forbearance for autonomy. Soon Caesar will come to witness this mutant who has become so popular with the masses. I expect a fitting performance for such a momentous occasion."

"The Thorn does no one's bidding." Red Lucy replied with a chill in her voice. "But have no fear on the mutant's account. Whatever her protests, she will return."

"For your sake I hope you're correct." Vulpes whispered before backing away and leaving Red Lucy alone to stare into the flames.

A cold desert wind was blowing when Valeria climbed out of a manhole to the decaying streets of Westside. Veronica was waiting in the shadows under a sign that announced "Thorn" in red letters with an arrow pointing down to the manhole.

"Are you okay Val?" She asked as she looked at the blood drying on her friend's body.

"I'm fine, but I didn't get enough." Valeria replied wearily as she handed the pouch to Veronica.

"It's okay Val." Veronica replied cheerfully. "I know it hasn't been quick, but we'll get there." Veronica glanced furtively about then added. "Let's go."

Valeria nodded and followed Veronica, not questioning her reluctance to be seen by any members of the Legion. Veronica maintained that she had to keep a low profile because of her history of scavenging, but Valeria had begun to suspect there was something more. When they had arrived at New Vegas, Veronica insisted that they get off the highway and avoid the sprawling farms stretched before them. She explained the farms were worked by slaves, and watched from the Legion fortress in McCarran airport. Veronica had already explained the Legion's bias against women and mutants, and suggested they not push their luck. As they had made their way through the scattered ruins they began to pass rows of crosses with rotting bodies in patchwork armor tied to the cross beams.

"That's what the Legion did to the Fiends." Veronica had explained. "A bunch of drug addicted killers, so nobody minded when they cleaned house." Valeria didn't reply, but stared grimly at the remains. The forest of crosses had thinned when they reached the suburb Veronica called 'Westside'. It was a stretch of urban decay surrounded by a crude barricade of stacked cars and sheet metal fences with sandbagged guard towers manned by grim-faced militia. There was some difficulty getting in as the guards shot suspicious looks at Valeria, but with no clear reason to deny entry, they were allowed inside with a warning to not make trouble.

"Why does the Legion allow a militia?" Valeria asked as they had passed the gate.

"The Legion doesn't enslave everybody." Veronica had replied. "As long as towns obey Caesar's laws and aren't late with tribute, they pretty much leave them alone. Of course the laws prohibit stockpiling ammunition or buying energy weapons. Towns are allowed enough arms to keep the peace, but not enough to pose a threat to the Legion."

Now Veronica led them through the darkened streets with the only light coming from scattered campfires and the blazing neon filtering down from the Lucky 38 Casino towering overhead. Snatches of pre-war band music drifted on the wind from beyond the massive wall surrounding the Strip as well as shouts of distant laughter. There was no place in New Vegas where the opulence of the Strip wasn't visible or audible, enhancing the feeling of squalor and despair in the slums outside the wall.

After passing through a junk metal gate through a wall of crushed cars, they arrived at a decaying building which a faded sign announced was the Casa Madrid Apartments. In a pool of light cast by a flickering streetlight, a woman in a heavy leather coat leaned against the wall near the door smoking. Her burn-scarred face twisted into a smirk as she saw Veronica and Valeria approach.

"Got a lot of business tonight thanks to you." She said. "Those Legion boys get all fired up after some blood sport. Jimmy and Sweetie have been pretty busy, hell even Maude's getting some." She laughed and inhaled from her cigarette as Valeria and Veronica walked past.

"Good night Sarah." Veronica said as they pushed through the door and entered the dusty darkness beyond.

"Hey Val!" Sarah said with a leer. "If you get tired of smashing bugs in the Thorn, I've had a bunch of customers asking about you." She snorted with laughter as Valeria stopped and turned to glare as the door closed between them.

"Why do you let her get to you?" Veronica asked as they climbed the creaking stairs to the second floor. "So what if some of the men here think you're attractive?"

Valeria stopped and stared incredulously down at her friend. "Attractive? I know what I look like! I don't like being reminded that I'm only interesting to freaks and degenerates!" Valeria turned and angrily shoved the door to their apartment open and stomped inside while Veronica followed.

Not long after arriving at Westside, Veronica and Valeria had descended into the sewers and approached Red Lucy at the Thorn. They soon found she had no interest in hiring hunters, but was willing to let Valeria fight in the arena for a cut of the profits. Valeria had been very reluctant to do so, and only the knowledge that she wouldn't be facing humans finally convinced her to try. At first the money had been good, allowing the two women to rent an apartment at the Casa Madrid while Veronica began investigating the Sierra Madre and Valeria tried to find information about her parents. Both endeavors proved frustrating as they found that information was a commodity not sold cheaply.

Adding to their financial woes was the unexpected burden of feeding Valeria. Her mutant metabolism required large amounts of raw meat, especially after recovering from her injuries. Fresh or even spoiled meat was rare and expensive. Valeria defied Legion law and attempted to hunt in the wastes but game was scarce and Legion scouting parties common. Hunting wild game was restricted to the Legion garrisons, leaving the citizens of the city to subsist on vegetable proteins harvested from jealously guarded plots, or from catching radroaches or mutant rats. The Strip was said to dine on the finest Brahmin meat imported from the sprawling ranches of California by the Crimson Caravan. The independent merchant house was allowed to operate in Caesar's Mojave in return for tribute and brought in delicacies for the Strip despite an NCR embargo.

"Take your armor off Val." Veronica insisted as she closed the door of their squalid apartment. "Let's see how bad those wounds are."

"They're nothing Ronnie." Valeria insisted as she sat heavily on one of the steel framed beds pushed against the walls of the main room. The apartment consisted of an open bathroom with a stained sink and toilet, an alcove with a methane gas stove, and the living room, which also served as the bedroom and dining area.

"What were you fighting?" Veronica demanded as she faced Valeria with her arms folded.

"Six giant radscorpions." Valeria replied as she sighed and started to unbuckle her pauldrons. Veronica had entered the Thorn only once, and had left as soon as she realized how many Legion soldiers were in the crowd. Now she waited outside in the shadows for Valeria's return. Perhaps it was guilt for leaving her friend underground, but Veronica insisted on tending Valeria's injuries despite how rapidly she healed.

"Six!" Veronica exclaimed. "Did they sting you?"

"Twice I think." Valeria replied with a sigh as her pauldrons dropped with heavy thuds to the stained mattress. "One in my upper arm and one in my thigh."

"Was Red Lucy trying to get you killed?" Veronica asked as she began to check Valeria's injuries.

"She's trying to up the ante and get people to start betting again. Right now the odds are so high in my favor that nobody is willing to."

"You're just too efficient." Veronica observed with a smirk as she noted the swelling already receding from Valeria's arm. "You should let the mutants chew on you a while to make it look like a fair fight."

Valeria didn't smile at Veronica's attempt at humor. "I'm killing for money, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or play it up."

"Well it's not in vain Val. It's taking longer then I thought, but we're managing to save a little each time."

"Until Lucy sends something tough enough to kill me." Valeria observed sourly. "She's already mentioned that she's got something in mind."

"You're not going back are you?" Veronica asked with a worried frown as she moved to stand in front of Valeria.

"I don't see any alternatives." Valeria replied as she rested her forearms on her knees and stared at the floor. "I found your stash of refurbished microfusion cells several days ago." Veronica started in surprise and opened her mouth to protest but Valeria interrupted.

"You're trying to salvage tech to sell again. We both know how dangerous that is. I'm not good for much, but I am good at this. I'll win the money we need to get into the Strip."

Veronica glared at Valeria and crossed her arms. "You self-sacrificing idiot!" She snapped. "Don't ever tell me you're no good again! Yes it's been hard going, but the next time you go into that arena you could be killed and I can't…" Veronica's voice trailed off, and then with a forced smile she punched Valeria in the shoulder. "We're partners you big lummox, and I get a say in what you do around here. Clear?"

Valeria looked into Veronica's eyes and saw the pain and concern she was trying to hide with her bravado. Valeria had been suspecting for a while that something terrible happened to Veronica after Helios One was destroyed. Valeria never asked, but Veronica was extremely shy about uncovering her head, and her wish to avoid the Legion seemed more excessive than prudence required. The strain was taking its toll on the young woman and she was starting to look haggard.

"Okay Ronnie." Valeria said with a small smile. "I'll think about it some more."

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Sarah's voice barked. "Hey in there! Someone's here to see you!" Veronica and Valeria looked at each other in surprise.

"Pretty Sarah wouldn't sound that calm if it was the Legion. I'll get it." Veronica stood and opened the door to show Pretty Sarah, her fist raised to knock on the door again. With a scowl Sarah stepped aside and nodded toward a dark faced young man who was conspicuously well fed and groomed. His dark coat looked new, as did his black leather shoes, which were visible beneath the cuffs of his neatly pressed trousers.

"Yes?" Veronica asked as Pretty Sarah turned and walked away.

"Uh, yes." The man replied, who was clearly nervous in his squalid surroundings. "My name is Chauncey, and I am here on the behalf of Dean Domino to offer an invitation to join him at the Ultra-Luxe for dinner tomorrow night."

"The Strip?" Veronica asked, her eyes wide with astonishment. "Why would Domino invite me to the Ultra-Luxe?"

"Actually the invitation is for Valeria who I understand lives here?" Chauncey tried to look over Veronica's shoulder to see into the room as Valeria stood from the bed and approached the door. His eyes widened with astonishment as she loomed over Veronica and looked down at him with her arms folded.

"I do live here." Valeria announced. "Why would Domino want to see me?"

"Ah…uh." Chauncey stammered as he fought to regain his composure. "You have become a bit of a celebrity from your exploits in the Thorn, and members of the White Glove society have indicated an interest in meeting you."

"They want to gawk at the freak you mean." Valeria growled. Chauncey swallowed hard and backed up a step but before he could protest Veronica turned to face Valeria.

"Excuse us a minute, will you?" She asked as she looked into Valeria's scowling face.

"Of cou…" Chauncey started to say as Veronica kicked the door closed.

"I know you don't like crowds Val, but this is our chance!"

"Domino just wants to give his guests a cheap thrill. This isn't a job offer Ronnie."

"I know that you big dummy! But we'll be inside! Maybe the chance isn't a good one, but it's better than what we have now!"

Valeria locked eyes with Veronica, and again saw the pain, but this time also hope.

"Okay Ronnie. Let Chauncey in before he leaves or I change my mind." Veronica gave a squeal of delight and leaped up to hug Valeria.

"You're the best Val!"


	11. Chapter 11

The monorail platform at Camp McCarran was dark except for the torches carried by the Praetorian honor guards as they stood at attention. As the NCR abandoned their posts, they sabotaged every generator they could as well as blowing up their fuel and ammo dumps. The Legion was sorely lacking in ability to fix the few devices that remained, and often had to rely on more primitive forms of illumination.

Vulpes Incultua stood and waited with the Praetorians as he heard the distant rumble of the monorail as it followed the elevated track from the Vegas Strip to the Fort. The monorail had been left intact in the NCR's retreat, although they had left booby traps that had taken the Legion over a week to find and disarm. Now it was used as Caesar's exclusive transport to the Strip where he would go to parley with its reclusive warlord House. Finally with a loud hum the Monorail's two long cars slid into the station and stopped with a jerk. Although still functional, the bullet shaped train had not escaped the ages unscathed. Only jagged shards of glass remained in the windows and the once pneumatic door were permanently jammed open. After a moment Caesar stepped through the door to the platform accompanied by two Praetorians.

"Ave Caesar!" Vulpes announced as he snapped to attention and saluted by striking his chest with his fist. Caesar nodded absently as he waved his guard toward the stairs leading to the former Airport's main terminal. Caesar was not a tall man, but he exuded an air of confidence and authority that demanded attention and respect. Although his white thinning hair showed his advancing age, the harsh angles of his face showed no signs of weakness, unless one knew where to look.

"What brings you here Vulpes?" Caesar demanded, his pupils dilated from the effect of a powerful narcotic.

"I have news to report mighty Caesar, and matters to discuss that cannot wait."

Caesar's eyes narrowed as he regarded Vulpes for a moment. A Legionnaire would have quailed under that gaze, as Caesar's disapproval often meant swift death shortly after. Vulpes stood his ground, returning his master's gaze calmly until Caesar's mouth curved into a sardonic smile.

"It must be important than. Very well Vulpes, I'll hear your report in my office."

"Ave Caesar." Vulpes replied as he lowered his eyes and saluted.

The Praetorians formed a protective square around Caesar as they left the Monorail and entered the terminal. Caesar ignored the legion soldiers who stood at attention as they approached the silent escalators that led to the main entrance. The guards immediately moved into a single-file formation as they descended the steel stairway under the shadow of a pre-war fighter plane suspended from the ceiling as if banking in flight.

Caesar's office located innocuously off the side of the main hall, and two Praetorians immediately took posts to either side of the door and saluted as Caesar entered, then closed it behind Vulpes. The office was bare of all decoration and consisted only of a desk and one chair. Only Caesar sat when he held audiences, and Vulpes stoically stood at attention as he waited for his master to allow him to speak. Caesar took sat down than leaned forward and silently regarding the Frumentarius.

Caesar trusted Vulpes only slightly more than he trusted anyone, but Vulpes had proven to be a master strategist with an instinctive grasp of tactics. Although Caesar took the credit for driving the NCR out of the Mojave, it was Vulpes strategy that had actually made victory possible. The Frumentarius had suggested using infiltrators to create chaos in the NCR's rear while its army was focused on Hoover Dam. The strategy was similar to the one the pre-war empire of Nazi Germany used called 'Blitzkrieg'. It rankled Caesar that he, the historian, hadn't considered it while Vulpes, an unschooled former tribal implemented the manuever from his own intuition.

After staring intently at the impassive Frumentarius, Caesar finally leaned back in his chair.

"What do you have to report?"

"I return with news from the South." Vulpes replied with a deferential nod.

"Nipton has been dealt with?" Caesar snapped. The formal speech patterns the Legion used were used by his command, but as Caesar, he saw little need to use the formalities.

"It has mighty Caesar." Vulpes replied calmly. "Decanus Varis has been executed for his treachery and the garrison decimated."

"Did you make an example of the population?"

"We did. The town was put to the torch and those not beheaded were crucified in sight of any NCR watchers."

"Good work Vulpes." Caesar said with a grim smile. "That'll show the NCR what happens when you fuck with the Legion."

"Indeed mighty Caesar. However the fact that Varis felt he could commit his acts of treachery brings me to the matter I wish to speak to you of."

"Indeed." Caesar said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. To question or criticize Caesar was perilous, and he knew that Vulpes wasn't stupid enough to do so lightly. "What matter is this?"

"I have asked you to consider appearing at the Thorn."

"Ah yes." Caesar replied, still smiling as he leaned forward. "And why do you feel my presence is required at such a spectacle?"

Vulpes weighed his next words carefully. The Frumentarii were the spies and special forces of the Legion and as such were given greater autonomy than other members of the Legion. But as the fate of Legate Joshua Graham had proven, status was no shield from Caesar's wrath.

"Your strategy of establishing the Legion's capital at New Vegas is both brilliant and I believe critical."

"Go on." Caesar ordered as Vulpes paused a moment to gauge his master's reaction.

"The war with the NCR showed not only the strength of the Legion, but also our weakness. We have no trade center or manufacturing ability. In terms of loyalty and training, there is no comparison between the Legion and the NCR, but their logistics and arms made us pay a heavy price for our victories." Vulpes paused as he watched Caesar. He was now verging on criticism of the policies of a man who could have him crucified with a wave of his hand. Caesar regarded Vulpes impassively, than nodded for him to continue.

"Your leadership has raised the Legion from disparate bands of ignorant tribals to the mightiest army on Earth, but many superstitions stay in their hearts. The persistent rumors of the 'burned man' demonstrate this."

"Get to your point Vulpes." Caesar snapped. Vulpes realized that as Caesar often said, he had "Crossed the Rubicon." Either Caesar would listen to what he had to say, or he was writing his own epitaph.

"My point is that the Legion was built on warfare and victories. Without battles to add glory to Caesar, the center of gravity for the Legion is moving to the East."

"What do you mean?" Caesar replied, his voice low and menacing.

"Legate Lanius continues to battle raiders and tribals East of the Colorado. He is adding to his personal myth and the Legion is turning its eyes toward him."

"Lanius would never be stupid enough to turn against me!" Caesar snapped.

"I am not saying that he is." Vulpes replied, keeping his tone empty of inflection. "But his reputation that has been so useful in the East is proving problematic."

"So you're suggesting I have Lanius…removed?"

"No, he is still valuable in enforcing discipline as your personal blade. However, Gaius Magnus in Dry Wells is showing much potential. If Caesar's wisdom requires Lanius' death, than Magnus would be a logical replacement."

"And you think my going to a show in the Thorn would counter this…shift?" Caesar asked, his face stern.

"We must battle perception with perception." Vulpes replied quickly. "It was perception that the battle was lost that broke the NCR army. The spectacles in the Thorn are keeping the warrior spirit of the Legion strong despite the stupefying realities of occupation. The demands of governance have removed you from the minds of the Legion. I am proposing a series of strategic appearances to remind them that it is Caesar who rules. Once again, you will be linked in the Legion's minds with blood and glory, as it should be."

The minutes slowly passed as Caesar stared impassively at Vulpes, and although the Frumentarius kept his stoic posture, sweat began to trickle down his face.

"Perhaps you're right Vulpes." Caesar finally said and Vulpes breathed an inward sigh of relief. "But there is something about this that concerns me."

"Yes mighty Caesar." Vulpes replied stiffening slightly.

"I understand the star attraction of the Thorn is a mutant…woman. My policies on both are very clear and I don't see the advantage in aggrandizing this individual."

"I have been to the Thorn." Vulpes replied quietly. "And assure you that to describe this champion as 'female' is an exaggeration. No woman would look at this, Valeria and see an ideal to aspire to. Also, although clearly not human she is not as monstrous as the beasts we encountered near Black Mountain. She is an aberration, and as such is clearly outside the social order of the Legion. I believe she is no threat to the society you are building here."

"All right Vulpes, I'll consider this plan of yours." Caesar said with a nod, but before Vulpes could salute he added. "Speaking of the Burned Man. Have you received any reports from the White Legs in the Grand Canyon?"

"The White Legs have fragmented." Vulpes replied, silently berating himself for dropping the former Legate's title in Caesar's presence. Then he resigned himself to the fact that it was only a matter of time before Caesar demanded a report. If the time to give it was now, than so be it.

"Fragmented?" Caesar asked as he leaned back with his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Their war chief, Salt-Upon-Wounds, is dead and without his leadership the White Legs have scattered."

"The White Legs wiped out the Mormons at New Canaan!" Caesar exclaimed incredulously. "What in the Canyon could defeat them?"

"Reports are confused." Vulpes replied carefully. "But they agree on several points. The first is that one they called the 'Burned Man' was aiding a tribe called the Sorrows."

"Impossible!" Caesar roared as he slammed his fist down on the desk. "I saw his burning corpse fall into the Grand Canyon!"

"It is what the White Legs claimed, even under more rigorous questioning." Vulpes replied. "All the captives would say was that he was an outsider completely wrapped in bandages."

"So it could have been anyone." Caesar said to himself as he stared at desk. "Not that it matters if word of this gets out." He looked up at Vulpes with a snarl. "I want the White Legs killed. Put this Gaius Magnus on it if he desires my favor. It is time for another lesson of what happens when you fail Caesar!"

"It will be as you command mighty Caesar." Vulpes said as he bowed his head.

"What else did they say?" Caesar demanded.

"The White Legs insisted that the Sorrows had summoned a spirit to protect them, and it was what killed Salt-Upon-Wounds."

"There was something other than this 'Burned Man'?"

"Yes mighty Caesar. Although descriptions vary, they all agree that weapons were useless against it, and it slaughtered their warriors by the dozens before killing their war chief."

"Probably a story they invented to hide their failure. No matter, they failed and their lives are forfeit. Is there anything else Vulpes?"

"No mighty Caesar."

"Then you are dismissed." Caesar said he stood from his desk. Vulpes snapped to attention and saluted but as he turned to leave Caesar spoke from behind him.

"You got a pass on this one Frumentarius, but mention the Burned Man in my presence again I'll have you burned alive."

"Ave Caesar!" Vulpes replied with a salute as he turned and strode to the door as the guards outside opened it to allow him through.

As soon as the door closed Caesar slumped into his chair, holding his head in his hands as pain stabbed through his temples. Even with Med-X coursing through his system, the headaches were getting worse and more frequent. The tumor consuming his brain was clearly spreading, and it was getting harder to hide his affliction. Vulpes report only confirmed that the Legion was beginning to sense weakness in their leader, even if they didn't know the reason. The irony that he was going to die just as his dream of empire about to be realized filled him with rage. His only hope was the promise of a cure that House dangled in front of him like a lure. He hated House with every fiber of his being, but as much as he wanted to destroy the arrogant warlord he had no choice but to play his game by his rules.

The pain finally eased enough to where he could stand. Vulpes needed to be taken down a peg, but the Frumentarius was correct. He had to combat the rumor that he was weakening, and a public appearance at the proper venue was the easiest way to do it. He had fought too hard to get where he was to give it all up. He would get his cure from House, Gaius would crush the rumors of his former Legate's survival, and he would show the Legion and the world who truly ruled New Vegas.


	12. Chapter 12

High was not the busiest time at the Atomic Wrangler and Beatrix tried to ease her boredom with shots of whiskey at the bar. The problem was that as a ghoul, it took a lot of alcohol to affect her bizarre metabolism. Fortunately she had an arrangement with the Garret twins who owned the Wrangler and they provided her with a discount in return for her plying her escort trade in their establishment. Beatrix knocked back another shot and waited for James Garret to fill it up again. The booze the Garret's made was potent, which Beatrix liked because her condition only allowed her to taste the strongest of flavors.

Garret poured another finger of whiskey and leaned on the counter giving Beatrix a knowing smirk. Her noseless face crinkled as her scabbed lips twisted into a smile. Garret wasn't bad-looking, and cut a nice figure in his usual tan business suit and tie. However Beatrix had a personal rule about getting involved with employers, and knew his tastes didn't run toward women without skin anyway. When she thought about what his kink really was she snorted with laughter and turned on the bar stool to face the door to the Wrangler.

Located down the street from the intersection of Freemont and Las Vegas Boulevard, the Wrangler represented the only gambling in Freeside. The slum was the only route into the Strip crammed between two walls made of abandoned boxcars, slabs of concrete, and abandoned buildings filled with rubble. Anybody wanting to find their fortune in Vegas had to come to Freeside, and the first thing they would find was the squad of hulking Securitron robots guarding the last gate. The robots challenged any who approached to submit to a credit check. Any who failed to measure up stopped there, and any who tried to make a dash for it were shot dead by the merciless robots. It always surprised Beatrix how many tried, and there was almost always a fresh corpse near the gate as a warning before the Securitrons hauled it away.

The Legion kept a garrison in the Old Mormon Fort in the suburbs outside the first wall. Their presence seemed mostly ornamental to the ghoul since they showed up to put down riots. With a steady stream of desperate migrants entering Freeside and finding themselves trapped between the walls, the slum became a pressure cooker of tensions. The Wrangler provided a safety valve of sorts, and at the corner of Fremont Street was the headquarters of the Freeside Kings. The Kings were one of the few gangs allowed to continue operating, and that was only because their relations with the NCR had been bad enough for the Legion to give them the benefit of the doubt. The King stayed in the old Impersonation School and sent his leather-jacketed soldiers into the street to keep Freeside from spiraling into chaos and bringing in the Legion. Nobody wanted that, because when the Legion arrived they restored order as quickly and brutally as possible. A lot of heads would be displayed on stakes after they were through, and the Legion was indiscriminate in who they made examples of.

Beatrix sighed as she thought of the King. He was a truly fine-looking man with an inner quality that really filled a room. Sadly he also preferred fully fleshed women, leaving Beatrix to her usual clients who had a taste for ghouls in cowboy hats and using whips. The jaded ghoul didn't mind her current line of work, it was often fun and she got to choose her own clients and kept most of her profits. At that moment the hot sun was keeping things quiet. Once it began to set and the shadows got darker, then the squatters and gamblers would begin to emerge from the ruins and shanties and head for the neon beacon of the cowboy riding an atom. Currently their only patrons were a few Kings who headed straight to the pool tables on the gambling floor in the adjacent room.

Suddenly the door opened, making Beatrix to blink in the harsh sunlight.

"Welcome to the Atomic Wrangler." She heard Garret say as she heard the door close while she blinked. "What'll you be having?"

"We're here to meet someone." Replied a pretty young woman in a hide robe with her head covered by a scarf.

"I'm Veronica and this is Valeria." Beatrix was already looking past the young woman to her companion and her decaying lips pursed as she made a low whistle. She had been around a very long time and seen a lot of strange things, but the giant woman looming over her companion had them all beat. Beatrix had never seen muscles that big on men, let alone on a woman, and her spiked armor hardly covered anything.

"I was told you were coming, but nobody's showed up looking for you yet." Garret said with only the slightest widening of his eyes showing his surprise. "Feel free to sit a spell. Perhaps I can get you something?"

The young woman smiled and turned to her companion. "What do you think Val? Feel like splurging a little?"

"We don't have much to spend Ronnie." Valeria replied with a look of concern.

"Oh come on, let's have some fun. Two whiskeys." Veronica said holding up two fingers before Garrett. He nodded and with practiced efficiency produced two shot glasses and filled them with quickly filled them with amber liquid without spilling a drop. Veronica took her glass and with a grin tossed it back. Beatrix smiled as the young woman's eyes went wide and she began to cough uncontrollably as the booze burned its way down her throat.

"Go ahead Val, it's fine." Veronica finally choked out. Looking dubiously at her companion, Valeria took the glass in her huge hand and quickly drank it. Beatrix waited for a reaction but aside from a frown of distaste, Valeria showed no discomfort.

"I'm going to check out the tables." Veronica said. "Maybe I can win us something." And with a wave to Valeria she strode to the door leading to the tables.

Valeria watched her go with some concern. Ever since their invitation to the Ultra-Luxe, Veronica had been acting almost giddy with excitement, laughing and joking almost as soon as Chauncey had left their apartment. After they had accepted his invitation, Chauncey asked if he could take a few measurements to confirm the sizing of their dining attire. Veronica almost squealed with delight at the prospect of wearing a dress, and Valeria marveled how her friend could act with such childlike enthusiasm. Chauncy was hesitant and clearly very uncomfortable when he unrolled a measuring tape and measured Valeria's hips, waist, and chest. He almost stammered when he asked to do the last measurement, clearly concerned about Valeria's response. She smiled as reassuringly as she could and stood with her arms away from her body as he took the last measurement than informed them that a contact with a one-night pass would meet them at the Atomic Wrangler in Freeside.

As soon as he left Veronica almost doubled over with laughter. When she recovered she wiped her eyes and said. "That look on his face when he wrote down your measurements was priceless. I wonder if the Ultra-Luxe is going to think he made them up?"

Valeria smiled in response and suggested they get some sleep. Veronica was up at the crack of dawn, and when she couldn't stand it any longer insisted that they head to Freeside even though it was still morning. As they traveled through the ruins, Veronica kept up an excited stream of conversation until they passed through the first gate and saw the standard of the Legion, a gold bull on a red field, flying above the walls of an ancient adobe-walled fort. Veronica immediately fell silent and urged Valeria on while Legion sentries silently watched them from the guard towers. Her spirits didn't return until they saw the neon sign of the Wrangler and she had led Valeria inside.

"My, you're a big one." Beatrix observed as she looked up into Valeria's white eyes. "My name is Beatrix. I've been around a long time, but I've never seen anyone like you."

"Have you lived in Vegas long?" Valeria asked with a look of honest curiosity. Beatrix noticed that Valeria's reaction to her appearance was neither disgust nor lust. But than she observed that with looks as bizarre as Valeria's, she probably had learned tolerance.

"I've been here long enough to know House before and after he became a face on a monitor." Beatrix saw a flash of hope in the giant woman's eyes.

"Do you remember someone named James? He was a doctor and would have been here over twenty years ago."

"You must mean 'Doc'. Sure I remember him." Beatrix replied with a nod. Valeria stared in astonishment at the ghoul. After more than a month of frustration and dead ends, to have the lead she was looking for dropped in her lap caught her completely by surprise.

"Vegas twenty years ago was nothing like it is now. Nothing but ruins and tribals fighting them. The only folk who came here were running from something or heading somewhere else. A doctor willing to put out a shingle and make house calls was really unusual."

"Did you meet him?"

"Sure, he hired me as his bodyguard." The ghoul smiled at Valeria's start of surprise. "I haven't always been doing the slap and tickle for caps hon. Why the curiosity about Doc?"

"He was my father." Valeria replied causing Beatrix's opaque eyes to widen in surprise.

"Really?"

"Yes." Valeria replied with a sigh. "I've been through a lot of…changes. Did you know anything else about him?"

"Not really." Beatrix admitted. "Doc was real nice but he didn't talk much about himself. All I knew was that he came from Arroyo."

"Did you also meet someone named Catherine?" Valeria asked hesitantly.

"Sure. Was she your mom?"

Valeria froze in surprise. "Yes she was. How did you guess?"

"It wasn't hard to see that your Dad fell for her. They headed east not long after she met Doc and I always figured they'd be a couple. You have the same hair she did."

"My mother's hair was white?"

"Not at first." Beatrix admitted. "It turned white pretty fast after she met Doc. She was on the run from the NCR, and I always assumed she was one of the Enclave remnants on the run."

"The Enclave!" Valeria exclaimed.

"She didn't talk about it, but she wanted to avoid the NCR pretty bad. Back then the NCR was hunting Enclave people, and your mom was a scientist from down South. To the best of my knowledge the only people with tech savvy down that way were Enclave."

Valeria stared at the floor bewildered by what Beatrix had said. Her father had mentioned her mother was secretive about her past. Could it be it was because of involvement with the Enclave?

"You said her hair turned white after she met Dad?" Valeria asked as she looked into the ghoul's eyes.

"Her eyes too." The ghoul admitted as she looked into Valeria's. It seemed kind of strange, but strange stuff happens all the time those days so I didn't give it much thought."

"Do you remember anything else about them?"

"Nope." The ghoul replied shaking her head. "But Doc was a real decent man at a time when I didn't run into many. I was sorry to see him go."

"Thank you Beatrix." Valeria said with a smile when Veronica's scream echoed from the next room followed by a crash. Before anyone could react Valeria leaped across the room and through the door to the casino. Two dark-haired men with leather jackets inscribed with the words "Freeside Kings" had Veronica backed against a blackjack table. A third King was getting up off the floor and rubbing his jaw while the dealer was running for cover.

"Hey, he just said you must have pretty hair little lady." One of the Kings snapped as he grabbed for Veronica's hood.

With a shriek Veronica smashed his forearm aside with hers, then drove the palm of her hand into his sternum. The King fell sprawling to the floor as his companion seized Veronica from behind and lifted her kicking into the air. The first King she had struck got to his feet and was wiping blood from his mouth when a huge hand seized his shoulder and flung him over a poker into the wall. The King holding Veronica released her with a curse when she smashed his nose with the back of her head. As soon as her feet hit the floor she whirled and with a cry punched him in the stomach.

As the King dropped, the last one got to his feet and looked up at Valeria's snarling face. Egged on by sheer bravado he drove a fist into the mutant's stomach and another into her jaw in a vicious one-two combination. Valeria didn't even flinch as the young man cried out with pain and fell to the floor clutching his hand.

"What th' hell's going on in here!" A voice boomed from the doorway. The Kings froze and Valeria and Veronica whirled to face the speaker. A tall man with slicked back hair and sideburns and wearing a white jacket was glaring furiously from the doorway with his arms crossed.

"We were just having some fun King." The man Valeria had thrown said quickly as he painfully pulled himself to his feet. "Then the girl went crazy on us."

"Is that true?" The King drawled as he glared at Veronica as she stepped next to Valeria and pushed her hair back under her hood.

"I told them I wasn't interested." Veronica growled. "Then that one tried to yank my hood off." The King glared at the young man who glared back defiantly. It was then that Valeria noticed there were leather armored enforcers also standing in the room.

"You damn fool!" The King snapped. "Are you tryin' to bring the Legion down here! When a lady says no, its no! Now get you and your friends out of here! I'll deal with you later!"

All signs of defiance gone, the three men staggered through the door and with glares at Veronica and Valeria the Wrangler enforcers also returned to their posts. The King then approached Veronica.

"Sorry little lady. Some of the King's teachings make more sense to youngsters than others."

"It's okay." Veronica replied as she glared at the floor trying to calm down.

"You must be that Thorn fighter Valeria." The King said turning to Valeria. "Much obliged that you didn't kill those boys. When I was told you were passing by, I had to come see what all the fuss was about. I caught the tail end and it looks like some of the rumors are true." The King looked intently at Valeria's face, noting there was barely a bruise where she had been hit.

"Now I don't need trouble with the Legion right now." The King said as he folded his arms. "I'm considering this matter closed if you're willin' to let bygones be bygones."

"We are sir." Valeria replied as Veronica glared at her.

"Fine than." The King said with a nod and a half-smile. "I'll make sure my boys get the word and treat you right as long as you keep the peace. 'Till we meet again, adios." The King turned and without a backward look strode out of the casino.

"Are you okay Ronnie?" Valeria asked turning to her friend in concern.

"I'm fine." Veronica snapped. "Let's find a table in a dark corner somewhere and wait for that damn contact to arrive."


	13. Chapter 13

"I'm really not sure about this Ronnie." Valeria said from her seat on an ornate chair as Veronica adjusted a lipstick.

"Don't worry Val, I know what I'm doing." Veronica replied with a smile as she leaned over and began to carefully apply a thick coat of scarlet to Valeria's lips. "We didn't always study holodisks and practice hand-to-hand in the archives."

Valeria touched her tongue to her lips and made a face. "It's just that I've never worn makeup before. Do you really think it's necessary?"

"Listen you." Veronica said with mock severity as she stood and put her fists on her hips. "This is our only chance to dress up and you're going to take advantage of it whether you like it or not."

Valeria sighed and reflected on the events of the past few hours. Veronica had been silent as they sat at a corner table until Valeria asked if she was okay. Veronica nodded curtly, then sighed and turned to Valeria with a small smile. "I bet the King wouldn't have been nearly so forgiving if you hadn't been there."

"What do you mean?" Valeria had asked.

"He didn't lose any face when his men were beaten by a seven-foot mutant gladiator."

"Oh." Was all Valeria could say before a man in a tan overcoat and dark glasses approached their table. After a polite introduction he handed Valeria a gold plastic card and informed her that it would allow passage through House's Securitrons. He hurriedly left the Wrangler, and Valeria and Veronica soon followed. Soon they came to a heavy steel gate surrounded by scaffolding that halted further progress down Las Vegas Boulevard. A Securitron rolled toward them on its thick single wheel. The towering Robot halted in front of Valeria and tilted forward slightly as if to see her better. The stylized image of a police officer flickered on its main screen as its electronic voice resonated from speakers set within its boxlike torso.

"Submit to a credit check or present your passport!"

Valeria held up the card to the robot's screen, but the machine remained silent for a moment before announcing in a robotic monotone.

"Scanning…Scanning…Facial recognition submitted. Passport accepted. Have a nice day."

The hulking robot rolled backwards to allow them to pass, and it and the other Securitrons resumed scanning the street as the gate rolled open and Veronica led the way into the Strip.

Veronica had stared with a grin of delight at the towering neon signs as the sound of pre-war big bands filled the air. Valeria was no less impressed, but noted the cracked sidewalks and fading colors revealing the decay of decades of neglect. Valeria had seen impressive sights on her long journey, but nothing like the gaudy opulence of the Strip. The first casino they passed was the towering Lucky 38. Unlike the other casinos, the broad flashing staircase was empty except for two Securitrons flanking the entrance. Valeria noticed even drunk passer-by avoided the empty stairs.

Even in the heat of the day, the Strip was busy with people moving between casinos or haggling with the Vendors working behind small tables in the shadows. Valeria saw mostly spring and casual attire with some rougher outfits of hide, flannel and denim mixed in. The only uniforms she saw were the crimson cloaks and tunics of Legion officers as they strode about their business. Almost everybody stopped to stare as Valeria passed, most with expressions of astonishment, some turning away with disgust or fear. Accustomed to reactions to her bizarre appearance, Valeria didn't return any glances as she led Veronica through another gate to the Ultra Luxe Casino.

The Ultra Luxe was a towering art deco structure of dark stone accented with strategically placed yellow lights. A marble fountain shooting plumes of water into the air dominated the courtyard at the bottom of the illuminated steps leading to a set of double doors. Valeria stopped to stare at the fountain. Water was too precious a commodity in the wastes to use for decoration and the extravagance was startling. Veronica stared at the fountain as well for a moment, then impatiently tugged Valeria's arm. Valeria followed Veronica up stairs of thick glass illuminated by a flashing sequence of fluorescent light intended to draw visitors to the gilded entryway.

The doors opened directly into the casino, a sunken chamber coolly illuminated by lights hidden behind pillars and leafy floral arrangements. Soft classical music played from hidden speakers as the two women looked about the marble lined walls. Suddenly Chauncey arrived to greet them. He politely welcomed them to the Ultra-Luxe, and then just as politely asked them to turn in their weapons at the reception desk while apologizing for the necessary inconvenience. Veronica and Valeria were soon placing their weapons on a mahogany desk while a receptionist in a white evening gown inventoried them. Soon after Chauncey escorted them across the casino floor to a lushly carpeted hallway leading to a set of heavy wooden doors. They opened silently at his touch and he took them up a flight of stairs to a series of suites off of a main foyer. He selected a door, opened it then stepped aside to allow them to enter.

Valeria and Veronica found themselves in a windowless room softly illuminated by fluorescent lights and decorated with dark wooden furniture and potted ferns.

"I will have a cart left outside the door for your…clothes." Chauncey announced. "Your dinner attire will be delivered shortly so in the meantime enjoy your stay at the Ultra-Luxe. Complimentary toiletries and cosmetics are provided, and dinner will be served in the White Society banquet hall at seven." Chauncey nodded then backed out of the room and closed the door.

Veronica clapped her hands with delight and leaped on the bed. She stretched luxuriously then giggled.

"This is so wonderful!" She announced with a grin. "Val, you have to try this!"

Valeria smiled, turned away, and started to remove her armor. "We might as well get clean first." She said as she dropped her armor pieces to the floor.

Veronica stared at Valeria's broad back while she undressed. In their tiny apartment in Westside, privacy had been a luxury they had little of. Valeria always turned her back when Veronica got undressed, even though she had never asked her to. Veronica found the consideration touching, and only felt a little guilty that she always snuck a look when it was Valeria's turn. The huge woman's armor didn't cover much, but Veronica had become curious about her friend's bizarre appearance. Her personal taste ran toward leggy brunettes, but she had to admit that there was something oddly attractive about Valeria. She just couldn't decide if she was just getting used to her, or if Valeria's personality was influencing her perceptions. As Veronica got to know the huge woman, she began to see her as a gentle giant. Valeria could be intimidating when she tried, but mostly she was quiet and surprisingly considerate.

"You use the bathroom first." Veronica announced as she covered her eyes before Valeria turned around. Valeria nodded and padded across the thick carpet to the bathroom. She closed the door and looked about the marble lined facility, noting the unstained toilet, sink and a claw footed bathtub. She looked back at the door and sighed. She had observed Veronica's shyness early on and decided not to pry. She felt that if Veronica trusted her enough to confide in her she would. Her own appearance had made her very self-conscious for a long time, so she sympathized with Veronica's reticence.

She approached the tub and turned the hot water spigot, half-expecting it to be a decoration. To her surprise, not only did water pour out with some force, it also quickly warmed to the touch. Feeling inexplicably guilty about indulging in such extravagance, Valeria fetched a towel monogrammed with the letters UL, as well as a bar of soap smelling of lavender. Wetting the towel in the water, she crouched in the tub and proceeded to scrub herself. When she finally felt she had gotten off the worst of the grime, she finally filled the tub with hot water and settling into it. It was a tight fit, and she had to drape her knees over the edge get her upper body partly submerged. For the first time since she had left her home in Vault 101, Valeria allowed herself to relax and luxuriate in the moment.

Soon the water began to cool and with a sigh Valeria pulled herself out of the tub, picked up a towel, and began to scrub herself dry. Finally she held the towel to her front and pushed the bathroom door open. Veronica was standing with her back to the bathroom wearing a white formal dress that left one of her shoulders bare. She was humming and twisting from side to side to see the folds of the dress swish about her legs. Realizing the door had opened, Veronica started than turned to face Valeria who was watching her with eyes wide in astonishment.

Veronica's head was bare.

Veronica smiled until she saw Valeria's stare and hesitantly touched a strand of her short brown hair.

"The hood really clashed with the dress." She explained. "Isn't this incredible! I love dresses! They make me feel like a woman."

"Are you…okay?" Valeria asked with a look of concern.

Veronica grinned and opened her mouth to offer a sarcastic remark then looked into Valeria's eyes. Her smile faded and she allowed her nervousness to show as she absently touched her hair again. "It's easier when it's my decision." She finally said before grinning and pointing at the bed.

"They brought both our dresses! Come on Val, put it on!"

Valeria lifted the mound of satin fabric from the bed and looked at it in confusion. "I've never worn a dress in my life. How do I put it on?"

"Oh that's easy." Veronica said as she took the dress from Valeria's hand. "Turn around and I'll help."

Soon Valeria was dressed and Veronica stood back to appraise her friend. Valeria looked down as the voluminous smoke-gray fabric feeling as self-conscious as the day she had been given her armor by the inventor Moira Brown.

"Wow." Veronica finally said.

"I look ridiculous." Valeria complained. "With my arms uncovered I look like a man in a dress."

"Not with those boobs you don't." Veronica replied shaking her head. "Honestly, how can you be so top-heavy with no body fat?" Before Valeria could try to answer Veronica interrupted.

"No, you don't look traditionally 'feminine', but you're something completely new and really…striking."

"I'm grotesque."

"No you're not!" Veronica snapped with emotion that made Valeria's mouth close with surprise. Then Veronica smiled and added. "It does need something else, so I think we'll try those complimentary cosmetics!"

"Make-up?" Valeria said almost fearfully. "Ronnie, I've never…"

"Worn make up before, I know." Veronica said dismissively. "Now sit down while I get everything."

Soon Valeria found herself submitting to Veronica's ministrations as she brushed her hair, applied lipstick, and added highlights to her eyes. She lifted one of Valeria's hands and stared intently at her nails.

"Hmm, your fingernails are naturally dark and they complement your dress and hair. A little gloss for highlights and I think that's all the manicure you'll need."

When Veronica was finally finished she surveyed her handiwork, than picked up a wooden box from the bed.

"They gave us some jewelry, and I think it would be just the thing for you Val."

Valeria opened her mouth to speak but Veronica said. "I know, you don't wear jewelry either. Just get with the moment will you? Gee, for someone who walks around in an iron bikini you're awful boring."

When Veronica finally clipped a pair of ornate earrings on, she stepped back and nodded. "That's it. Stand up and move around a bit." Valeria did as Veronica suggested, swaying awkwardly as she looked down at herself.

"Hmm, try striking a pose and smiling a little." Veronica said with a frown.

Valeria took a deep breath, then straightened and turned her head toward Veronica with a small smile.

"Wow." Was all Veronica said as she stared at Valeria.

"Is it okay?" Valeria asked frowning.

"More than okay." Veronica said shaking her head. "Nobody will be looking at me, and that suits me fine." She turned and approached the bed where she picked up a large pair of high-heeled shoes. "I'm betting you've never worn these before either. Why don't you practice in them while I get cleaned up?" Valeria took the shoes and looked at them quizzically.

"How did they get clothes in my size so quickly" Valeria wondered aloud.

"This place caters to the whims of the rich." Veronica replied with a snort of laughter. "I'll bet a lot of the men around here like to lock themselves in their rooms and play dress up."

"Oh." Was all could say as Veronica entered the bathroom giggling and shaking her head.

Valeria sat on the bed in a rustle of fabric, then with a frown stood and smoothed the back before sitting again. She knew she was about to be offered to the patrons of the Ultra-Luxe as a freak and oddity, but for Veronica's sake she would face the inevitable humiliation. She looked at the door of the bathroom and wondered at Veronica's reaction to her appearance. She had been genuinely impressed, a reaction Valeria wasn't used to. For the first time, she wished she had a mirror. Valeria never sought her reflection. She cut her hair simply to keep it out of her way, and wore little else save her armor.

Then she wondered about Veronica's willingness to remove her hood. What was it about this circumstance that made her able to face the world without it? Valeria had never seen her hair before, and now knew the hood didn't hide any disfigurements. She had always suspected it wasn't vanity that made Veronica hide her hair, and now she was certain it was something far more complicated. She hoped Veronica would be okay. She desperately needed her friend's brash confidence as she faced the ordeal of a society event. At that thought she looked again at the shoes, and with a sigh bent to put them on.


	14. Chapter 14

Chauncey arrived at six to announce that the guests were arriving. Veronica had emerged from the bathroom shortly before Chauncey's arrival, clearly enjoying the luxury of a hot bath. Valeria hadn't rushed her, instead spending the time trying to walk in the high heels provided by the Ultra-Luxe.

"Are you ready to make our début?" Veronica asked as she cocked her head with a grin and rested a hand on her hip.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Valeria replied with a nervous smile.

"Then lead the way Chauncey!" Veronica said gaily as she turned toward the door. Chauncey nodded and led the two women into the hall. As they walked toward the stairs to the lobby, Veronica looked over her shoulder at Valeria.

"Wow, you sure walk quietly in those shoes." She whispered with a grin.

"I…I'm not wearing them." Valeria replied with a flush of embarrassment.

"You're barefoot?" Veronica exclaimed incredulously as she looked at the hem of Valeria's dress. Accustomed to wearing boots, Valeria had found the shoes uncomfortable. She also discovered that her center of mass was in her upper body making balancing difficult. Already self-conscious, Valeria decided to take advantage of the floor length hem and go without the shoes.

"Oh well." Veronica declared with a grin. "Given what you're showing off in that dress, I bet nobody will be looking at your feet anyway. Who knows, maybe you'll start a trend."

Valeria smiled gratefully at Veronica's attempt to cheer her up as they entered the lobby and approached a set of doors separated by red velvet ropes from the rest of the casino. Chauncey unhooked one of the ropes than pushed the doors open. Still holding the rope, he stepped aside and nodded to Veronica and Valeria to go ahead. Veronica turned and smiled at Valeria, but now there was a hint of fear in her eyes. Valeria squared her shoulders and strode into the room with Veronica following several steps behind her.

The hall of the White Glove Society was a lofty chamber with a sunken floor dominated by a long banquet table. The far side of the room was a stage covered by green velvet curtains decorated with the masks of comedy and tragedy, and to the right a bar and podium. The strains of the song "Something's Gotta Give" played in the background over the murmur of conversation. The members of the Society were wearing formal attire with gilded facemasks and stood clustered in small groups. As Valeria approached conversation began to die as one by one the society members looked up. Soon the entire gathering was silent as they stared at the two women.

Valeria stoically surveyed the crowd listening to gasps and muted whispers until a woman in a white dress approached with a tray holding tapered glasses filled with pale yellow wine. Valeria looked down at the woman who visibly steeled herself as she held the silver tray. Valeria nodded and offered a tight-lipped smile to hide her fangs before taking two glasses from the tray. The ritual completed, the woman quickly retreated and Valeria turned to hand a glass to Veronica.

"We paid the piper." Veronica quipped as she took the wine. "Now let's dance."

As if a signal had been given, the murmur began again as the Society Members returned to their conversations. Valeria stood looking about uncertain about what to do. Veronica took a large drink from her glass and smiled at Valeria.

"Maybe they have a buffet table or something." She said.

"The White Glove Society offers only the finest delicacies for the truly discerning palate." A member in a dark suit announced loftily as a group of society members approached them. "Dining at the Ultra-Luxe is far more than satisfying base hunger. It is a celebration only for those of culture and breeding who can appreciate it."

Valeria stared at the man, recognizing the insult in his tone. The other members had drifted toward them and now waited to see the reactions of the barbarians in their midst. Valeria never knew how to reply to insults, and usually ignored them. However, she was unable to walk away this time and her awkward silence began to elicit smiles and discreet snickers behind raised hands.

"I'm Veronica, and this is Valeria." Veronica said stepping to Valeria's side. "You have to excuse my friend and I. We're just off the wastes and aren't familiar with social etiquette, so we're a bit confused. Are you trying to be insulting or are you just a fucking idiot?"

Veronica grinned as her comment elicited gasps and a few chuckles from the members.

"Clearly the standards of the Society have lowered greatly if wasteland savages are allowed." The White Glove replied with a sneer.

"They let you in didn't they?"

The White Glove's face darkened with rage, then he glanced up at Valeria who had crossed her arms and was glaring down at him. He opened his mouth to speak, then his eyes widened as he saw the look in Valeria's eyes. He glared at Veronica, then spun on his heel and strode stiffly away.

"You know Val, this could be fun." Veronica said with some of her old confidence restored. "Let's mingle."

Although the tension in the air had eased a bit, it was still clear that they were not welcome in any conversations. However the white gloves were finding it difficult to actively snub Valeria when they kept sneaking looks at her. With their masks it was difficult to read their expressions, but the women would look then whisper to one another, falling silent when Valeria wandered near. Valeria quickly had enough "mingling" and walked to the bar. Veronica followed her looked back at the gathering while drinking her wine.

"It's almost eight." Veronica observed. "It looks like Domino's fashionably late."

Valeria sighed in weary resignation as she leaned on the counter.

"It may not look like it." Veroncia said as she gestured with her glass toward the gathering. "But you've really given them something to talk about."

"No more than you did Ronnie." Valeria replied with a smile. "Thanks."

"I saw that put-down on an old holotape." Veronica admitted. "I couldn't believe I had a chance to actually use it."

"Member of the Society, honored guests." Chauncey suddenly announced from the bottom of the stairs leading to the banquet table. "If you would please take your assigned seats, dinner is about to be served."

The society members began to approach the table while Chauncey stepped aside and waited. When Valeria and Veronica descended the steps, he stepped forward and indicated their seats near the end of the table. Once he saw they were seated he left for the head of the table to assist the Society members.

Veronica scowled at her plate in frustration. She had hoped to approach Domino discreetly to increase the likelihood he would be receptive to her offer to work for him. Given the location of the chair at the head of the table, that was going to be difficult.

"Good evening." A cultured voice with a noticeable English accent announced. Valeria looked up and her eyes widened in astonishment as she saw a ghoul in a black tuxedo and dark glasses standing behind the podium.

"Once again we have gathered to sample the finest cuisine and most unique experiences the Mojave has to offer. For your dining pleasure, Philippe has prepared for us the most humble of dishes, the ubiquitous meat pie."

There were murmurs about the table as the ghoul who had to be Dean Domino smiled and surveyed the room. He then raised his hand for silence and continued speaking.

"Don't let their appearance fool you. Philippe assures me that this recipe is a culinary breakthrough, and that you will be treated to a truly singular dining experience. He calls this dish "Sweet Veal", and I challenge you to identify its subtle flavor."

As Domino spoke, waiters in black tails and masks began to file through a door near the bar carrying trays filled with steaming pies.

"Members of the White Glove Society." Domino said as he stepped back from the podium. "Bon Appetit."

Valeria looked at the pie on her plate, then about the table where she noticed all the Society members openly or not so openly watching her. Clearly they expected the savage mutant to tear into the meal like an animal. Valeria picked up a knife and fork, carefully cut a piece and deliberately began chewing it. Immediately her mouth was flooded with a delicious combination of savory juices and spices, but also another flavor she recognized immediately. Her eyes wide with shock, Valeria stopped chewing and shot a look at Domino who had just taken his place at the head of the table. The ghoul still wore his dark glasses, but she could tell he was looking at her. He saw her look of shock and smiled before cutting a piece of pie and slowly chewing it as he watched her.

Valeria couldn't ruin Veronica's slim opportunity by spitting her mouthful out, so she quickly swallowed and set her knife and fork down. Veronica looked up from her pie and seeing Valeria's reaction slowly put her utensils down as well. Valeria gave her head a small shake in answer to Veronica's questioning look and the two women sat and waited as Domino finished eating.

"Superb." Domino said as he leaned back and sipped his wine. "Philippe truly outdid himself this time." There was murmured assent from the other members as Domino looked down the table toward Valeria and Veronica. "It appears the dish was not to everyone's liking?"

"I'm not used to the…spice." Valeria replied.

"Ah yes." Domino replied with smirk on his scarred lips. "Dining in the wasteland can be a bland affair. As for myself this repast brings back…memories. Perhaps it did for you as well?"

"Have you spent a lot of time in the Wasteland Mr. Domino?" Veronica interrupted as Valeria struggled to find a reply.

"My dear girl, I played Vegas before the world blew itself to hell. My orchestra performed at the finest venues, and I've dined on every delicacy it had to offer. I've seen more in my long existence than someone with a thousand lifetimes could. It takes a hell of a lot to surprise me, and you…" Domino turned to look at Valeria. "…Just did."

There were murmurs about the table as the White Glove's realized that something unusual was about to happen.

"When I invited you." Domino said to Valeria. "I didn't expect you to resemble someone I knew two centuries ago."

"You knew Vera Keyes?" Veronica interrupted.

"Ah, you've seen the posters I presume." Domino replied with a nod. "She was my protégé' before she left for a shot at Hollywood. She didn't seem like much at the time. Nice pair of legs, easy on the eyes, good voice. Nothing dozens of other girls didn't have. Yet she had a quality about her…" Domino's voice trailed off into the silence as the Society members waited and listened intently.

"The last time I saw her was at the Sierra Madre the night the bombs started dropping." Veronica started and opened her mouth to speak when another woman further down the table interrupted.

"But the Sierra Madre is just a myth!"

"Oh it's quite real." Domino replied cheerfully. "A glittering monument to one man's hubris tucked away in a corner of Death Valley."

"Then why hasn't anyone claimed its fabled treasures?" Another society member asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Have you ever been to Death Valley?" Domino asked with a sneer. "It has winds that can strip the flesh from your bones and pockets of radiation that will kill you in seconds. Even if you make it past those and the feral mutants living there, you face the defenses built by Frederick Sinclair meant to protect the Sierra Madre from an atomic holocaust."

The table was silent as Sinclair rose from his seat and growled. "There were over five hundred guests and workers at the Sierra Madre Gala event. After the bombs dropped and the world went mad, I was the…only…one who escaped." He straightened and lit a cigarette, as the room was silent. He exhaled a cloud of smoke and continued with his pleasant demeanor restored.

"Of course I didn't leave right away. I hung around for a few years trying to find a way in before I finally…let go."

Suddenly Chauncey approached Domino and whispered in his ear. The ghoul nodded and turned to face the table.

"It appears the next spectacle for the evening has begun." He announced. "Perhaps you have all been aware of the recent troop movements of the Legion? It appears that Caesar has decided to take care of unfinished business and has attacked Nellis Air Force Base."

An excited babble of voices greeted Domino's announcement and Veronica's expression changed to shocked astonishment.

"If the Boomers are true to their reputation, this should be quite a show. Chauncey will show you to the roof where drinks will be provided and you should have a clear view of the battle." Domino nodded at Chauncey who had taken a station at the top of the steps leading from the banquet hall. The White Glove members rose from their seats and filed from the hall as quickly as decorum allowed, leaving only Veronica and Valeria as Domino began to walk around the table.

"I've heard you've been hiring mercenaries and sending them to Death Valley." Veronica said as she stepped in front of Domino.

"Yes, that has been a persistent rumor." Domino replied as he exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Do you have a reason for such repeating such…dangerous slander?"

"Whatever you told the Society." Veronica said earnestly. "I think you still want the treasure and Val and I can get it for you."

"Aside from…Val's surprising resemblance to a long dead starlet, why do you think you would succeed where so many others failed?"

"I was a scribe with the Brotherhood and protégé of Elder Elijah. He left me a message that he found the Sierra Madre after my chapter was wiped out at Helios One." Valeria stared at Veronica, as she breathlessly revealed more about her secretive connection to the ancient casino. "Elijah left me some clues in case he didn't come back, but he was one of the best scribes the Brotherhood had. If anyone could find a way in, he could."

"I see." Domino replied, his face unreadable. "And you hope I would finance an expedition to follow your mentor. Hypothetically speaking of course."

"I'm the one you're looking …" Veronica started to say when Domino raised a hand to silence her.

"I'm missing a war, so I'll be brief." He snapped. "I invited your large associate to this party to liven up an otherwise stupefying event. I allowed you to go with her on a whim, not to listen to your resume'. Yes Val has a passing resemblance to Vera, but that's as far as my interest extends. Her reaction to dinner was also as amusing as I had hoped."

"What were those pies made of?" Valeria demanded.

"Have no fear, it only contained Brahmin. However Philippe has managed to give it a distinct flavor. I always find it amusing to see who reacts to it."

Veronica stared in confusion at Valeria, than turned back to Domino who had returned his attention to her.

"My dear, all you are offering is a connection to a dying organization not known for sharing. You provided an entertaining diversion until Caesar completed this evening's entertainment, and that is all I desired of you. Now if that's all…"

Veronica glared at Domino, then stepped aside. "Cheerio." The ghoul said with a smile as he strode between the two women and climbed the stairs.

"It was a long shot Ronnie." Valeria said as she rested her hand on Veronica's shoulder.

"This isn't over Val!" Veronica declared angrily as she shrugged Valeria's hand off. I'm going back to our room, and I'm keeping this dress!"

"There's still the Thorn…" Valeria began but Veronica whirled, her eyes shining.

"Don't say it!" Veronica snapped with a catch in her voice. "You're not going back to that pit to get killed if there's anything I can do about it!"

Valeria looked into Veronica's eyes then nodded wearily.

"Okay Ronnie, let's go."


	15. Chapter 15

As the sun began to set behind the mountains, New Vegas began to awaken as the asphalt streets began to cool off. Valeria had finished hauling crates of produce for the Westside Co-Op and was making her way back to the Apartment she shared with Veronica. The Co-Op was an informal market run by the Westsiders where they sold the surplus grain and vegetables they had managed to grow in their sheltered plots. It wasn't a lot of food, but by wasteland standards it was an impressive bounty. Sometimes Valeria offered her services as a manual laborer to raise extra money. It didn't pay well, but she could usually find a day job as word had spread that she could do the work of three men.

Ever since the party at the Ultra-Luxe, Veronica had become obsessed with getting enough supplies to travel to Death Valley. She would offer her services as a tinkerer and repairwoman, then return after dark to store what she made during the day. Valeria wanted to help her friend, but found there was little work to be had for her medical and mechanical training under the neo-luddite domination of the Legion. Pretty Sarah often approached them with partly serious offers to work as escorts, but both firmly refused. Meanwhile word was spreading of a major event in the Thorn with rumors of an unusually large purse for the winner. It was even said that Caesar himself would be attending to celebrate the Legion's victory over the Boomers.

The Boomers had occupied Nellis Air Force Base since before the NCR had arrived. They fiercely defended their independence with artillery fire against any who tried to approach the fence. When the Legion occupied Vegas, Caesar had sent an expeditionary force to Nellis, which was brutally repulsed. With the demands of absorbing the Mojave into his empire taking priority, Caesar postponed another attack, many assumed indefinitely. The second assault on Nellis was as unexpected as it was sudden, and the Legion's victory was a sobering reminder of its power and ruthlessness.

However, Valeria had also been hearing whispers that the fall of Nellis had come at a horrific price for the Legion. Some suspected that the increased frequency of patrols was meant to cover the reality that the Legion's garrisons were now under strength. The Legion was mounting a media campaign of posters and flyers extolling Caesar's strength and the might of the Legion on a scale not seen since the NCR was driven out of the Mojave. Valeria had little opinion about the pageantry except that it confirmed that the Thorn was going to host its biggest spectacle ever. Valeria had no intention of returning to the Thorn, but time and her own mutant physiology was working against her.

Veronica was well aware of Valeria's need to eat raw meat to sustain her metabolism and healing abilities. In an effort to lessen the strain on their meager finances, Valeria kept herself on the edge of starvation, eating only when the need was simply too great. However, what Veronica didn't know about was Valeria's need for human proteins. Whether it was built into her genetic code or was a random mutation, Valeria needed occasional infusions of human tissue to stay healthy. Once she had found a tribe of mutant cannibals with a similar affliction. Their leader had tried to control their craving by having them consume human blood alone. Following their example, Valeria found that by using blood packs to supplement her diet she was able to stave off the worst of her hunger. However, blood packs were not easy to find, and their price on the black market was high.

When Valeria shared her first winnings from the Thorn with Veronica, she didn't tell her that she had already spent a significant part of it buying a blood pack. As the purses declined, Valeria ignored her growing hunger as they attempted to save enough to enter the Strip. The taste of the "sweet veal" at the Ultra-Luxe had sharpened her craving, and Valeria realized she needed another infusion soon before the hunger turned her into a crazed beast. Veronica had left for her daily odd jobs when Valeria opened the metal box where they kept their stash, and with a heavy heart took what she thought she'd need. Valeria hoped she would make enough as a day laborer to cover the theft before Veronica found out, but deep down she knew it wouldn't be enough.

Valeria's time with Veronica had been hard as they lived in squalor and often went to bed with hunger pains gnawing at them. It was also one of the happiest times Valeria could remember in years. Her only friend growing up had been the Vault Overseer's daughter Amata. Her last memory of Amata was her tear streaked face as the massive Vault door rolled closed sealing Valeria outside forever. Her father James had been her only other companion in the Vault, and her last memory of him was his irradiated body slumping to the floor as he sacrificed himself to save her. She had briefly met a Supermutant named Fawkes who helped her escape his more savage kin in the grim fortress of Vault 87. The last she had seen of the heroic mutant was his body plummeting into a black abyss as the Vault tore itself apart in a catastrophic meltdown.

The only other person Valeria could have called a friend was Sarah Lyons, the daughter of the Elder of the D.C. Chapter of the Brotherhood. The Enclave destroyed the Brotherhood's base at the Citadel, killing Sarah's father as well as many Brotherhood knights and scribes. Valeria felt personally responsible, although she could never tell Sarah why. For a brief time Valeria was imprisoned in the Enclave's fortress at Raven Rock. The Enclave's leader, a supercomputer named "President Eden", offered her a bargain to allow them both to escape. Valeria had agreed not knowing what the AI would do with its freedom. Unable to confess what she felt was her role in the destruction of the Citadel, Valeria left without a goodbye or explanation. Although she had met other people on her journey through the midwestern empty, her ghastly secret had kept her on the move until she met Veronica. For stretches, Valeria tried not to think of anything but the moment as she enjoyed Veronica's quirky sense of humor and relentless optimism. She basked in the glow of her companionship as she dared to let herself experience what she had convinced herself she never would. But then the hunger would make its presence felt, and Valeria became desperate to keep its pangs at bay and Veronica ignorant of its existence.

Pretty Sarah's burn-scarred face twisted into a smirk as she saw Valeria approach. She didn't offer Valeria and Veronica escort jobs anymore, but her smirk always seemed to say that it was only a matter of time before they came to her. Valeria didn't smile in return as she opened the door and entered the dark interior. As she climbed the creaking stairs she could hear the gasps and moans of Sweety from her room further down the hall. Sweety was the youngest of Pretty Sarah's escorts, and often entertained clients until late in the evening. On one of the rare occasions that Sweety and Valeria spoke to each other, the whore admitted that having Valeria down the hall was reassuring. Valeria was so intimidating in appearance and reputation that she had little fear of her John's getting rough.

At least her presence was doing someone some good, Valeria observed sourly as she used her key to open the door to her apartment. As the door swung open Valeria froze as she saw Veronica was also home. She was wearing her customary hide dress and hood and was using their only table and chair as she worked with a pile of circuits spread out before her.

"Hey Ronnie." Valeria said with a nervous smile. "How did it go today?"

"Fine." Veronica replied without turning around. "Did you get what you were looking for?"

Valeria instantly detected the chill in the innocent seeming question, and knew that the confrontation she had desperately hoped to avoid had finally arrived.

"Ronnie…I…." Was all Valeria said before Veronica whirled around in the chair and fixed Valeria with a furious glare.

"Why Val?" She snapped. "Why did you take our money without telling me?"

"I can explain…" Valeria blurted as she raised her hands as if to hold Veronica back.

"Oh you can?" Veronica replied sarcastically. "Don't tell me, let me guess. This was a one time cost, and you were going to repay it before I found out…right?"

Valeria's mouth opened to reply, then closed as she stared with shame at the floor between her boots.

"While I was fixing a still over at the Atomic Wrangler, I overheard a conversation between some Thorn hunters." Veronica stood from the chair and slowly strode toward Valeria while she spoke. "They were talking about the usual prize for volunteers in the arena, and I couldn't help but notice a discrepancy between what they said and what you showed me." Veronica was now standing directly in front of Valeria and glaring up into her face.

"Ronnie…please." Valeria tried to say before Veronica silenced her with an abruptly raised hand.

"I don't want to hear it!" She exclaimed furiously. "We've lived in this hellhole on the brink of starvation trying to get enough money and you've been holding out on me!"

"I didn't mean to steal from you." Valeria replied miserably as she realized how feeble her words sounded.

"Oh well that makes it all better than!" Veronica shouted with mounting fury. "Where's the money Val?"

"It's gone." Valeria finally said as she continued to stare at the floor.

"For what?" Veronica exploded. "Drugs? Which flavor? Med-X? Psycho?"

"It's not drugs Ronnie."

"Than what?"

"I…can't tell you." Valeria finally said as she forced her head up to meet Veronica's furious gaze. Tears were filling Valeria's eyes, and at the sight of Valeria's misery Veronica hesitated.

"I thought you were trying to help me." Veronica finally said her voice choked with emotion. "I thought we were partners."

"We are Ronnie." Valeria whispered.

"Partners don't steal from each other." Veronica snapped with some of the rage returning to her eyes. "Partners care about each other's dreams! What's your dream you big freak? Is it stringing me along so you can have someone to talk to in this dump?"

Valeria started in shock to hear Veronica refer to her as a "freak". She also felt a wave of guilt as she suddenly realized that what Veronica was accusing her of was exactly what she had done.

"I'm…so sorry Ronnie." Valeria said miserably, realizing how inadequate her apology sounded.

"Why can't you tell me Val?" Veronica demanded. "Do you owe money to some mobsters and planned to let me know after they showed up to collect?"

"No Veronica." Valeria replied shaking her head. "It's nothing like that."

"So what I don't know won't hurt me, is that it?" Veronica replied sarcastically with her fist on her hip. Valeria flushed and looked away and Veronica's mouth dropped open in astonishment.

"You do think it would hurt me, don't you?" She accused.

"Veronica, you're the only friend I have." Valeria pleaded as she turned back to meet Veronica's furious gaze. "I didn't realize how…lonely I was. I didn't want to lose this." Valeria gestured vaguely between Veronica and herself, then let her arms fall helplessly.

"So whatever your deep, dark secret is." Veronica finally said as she folded her arms. "You think its dangerous and you're willing to steal from me rather than let me find out what it is."

Valeria didn't reply and simply stared miserably at the floor, her cheeks wet with tears.

"Well guess what?" Veronica snarled. "You can keep your fucking secret. Get out!"

Valeria looked up at Veronica, her face stricken. Then she squared her shoulders, turned and walked to the door. Veronica watched silently as Valeria retrieved her hammer from its place against the wall, and without looking back stepped through the door and quietly closed it behind her. Veronica stood immobile, her arms still folded as she glared at the door. Then she turned and angrily threw herself into the chair and grabbed an electronic component and a screwdriver. She angrily jabbed at the device, then with a cry swept everything to the floor and buried her face in her arms.

Red Lucy sat behind the desk in her office, reading a ledger at the flickering light of a lantern. She could hear the roars of the beasts the Thorn had acquired in preparation for Caesar's event. Then there was a heavy knock at her steel door.

"What?" She demanded. The door opened and one of her leather armored guards stepped inside.

"The one called Valeria wishes to speak with you." He said impassively.

"Ah, my favorite hunter." Lucy replied with a smile. "Send her in." The guard stepped back through the door and soon the giant woman entered, ducking her head to clear the steel door frame.

"The Thorn showed me that you would return." Red Lucy said as she rested her chin on her steepled fingertips. "You wish to fight in the Battle Royale?"

"I do." Valeria said, her face devoid of expression.

"You were slow to see the truth. There have been others who seek to battle in the grand event and I cannot promise you a place anymore."

"Yes you can." Valeria replied, unconsciously baring her fangs in a snarl. "You want a spectacle worthy of Caesar and we both know I'm the only one capable of giving it. I will fight for you but only on one condition."

"You wish to dictate terms?" Red Lucy exclaimed, raising an eyebrow in amusement. "Very well my hunter, name your conditions and Red Lucy will decide if the Thorn will answer."

"I want everything I earn to go to Veronica Santangelo." Valeria said firmly as she crossed her arms. Red Lucy looked thoughtfully into Valeria's eyes for several seconds before her smile widened and she nodded.

"The Thorn will grant your request."

"Just like that?"

"It doesn't matter who the money goes to as long as you spill blood in the Thorn." Red Lucy explained. "Your eyes are those of one who doesn't care if they live or die. I have no use for such in the Thorn. However you are fighting for someone else, which means you want her to benefit from your pain as much as possible. You will fight as hard if not harder for this 'Veronica' then to keep your own life. You will have your battle my hunter."

Valeria nodded grimly. "Just tell me when I need to be there."


	16. Chapter 16

The full moon hung over the spire of the Lucky 38, adding its pale light to the flickering neon of the Strip as clouds of smoke from a multitude of burn barrels and campfires hung in the chill air. Outside the walls the moon also illuminated the subterranean world in the sewer tunnels beneath the city. Beams of moonlight shone through sewer grates and storm drains, brightening the stifling darkness of the old tunnels. The roar of the crowd filling the Thorn echoed through the underground warren, heralding its bloody spectacle.

Caesar sat in the chair watching the carnage impassively from the lowest catwalk. Like a ringleader in a Circus, Red Lucy directed the battles from atop a concrete pillar near the center of the arena connected by a crude bridge to the steel catwalk ringing the arena. With abrupt hand gestures, Lucy would have various mutant animals released from old sewer pipes into the dry remains of an old sewage pool. The last spectacle had been a pack of wild dogs and Molerats who had torn into each other with snarling abandon. Now the bodies were dragged from the arena to prepare for the next battle.

Caesar didn't allow his emotions to show, but he was enjoying the bloody displays more than he expected. Caesar had agreed to come to the Thorn, but decided to add real military glory to his effort to regain control. He admitted the attack on Nellis had been extremely costly, but the prize in munitions and supplies had been huge, despite the Boomer's efforts to blow them up. As he watched the Wastelanders and Legionaries cheering and howling with blood lust, he felt he finally understood why gladiatorial contests were an integral part of the old Roman Empire. As a scholar, he had used the structure of the Roman Army as an expedient way to unify a wide array of primitive tribes. After two-hundred years, mankind seemed incapable of crawling out of the atomic dark age on its own so Caesar had taken it upon himself to do the deed. He set out to forge a new society, one based solely on personal merit and free of the old racial and societal divisions that had nearly destroyed the world. Since brute force was the only language people responded to, that was the tool he used.

Like many of his former colleagues in the Followers of the Apocalypse, he had assumed that the gladiatorial contests of Rome were a symptom of the moral decay that contributed to its collapse. Having lived with a similar warrior society for decades, he now understood its true purpose. A warrior people needed war and bloodshed to stay strong. Vulpes had been correct in his assessment that the demands of peace were weakening the Legion. The gory spectacle below kept the Legion's lust for blood strong, even in a time of peace.

Caesar glanced up at Lucius, the leader of his élite Praetorian guards. The taciturn gray-bearded soldier was leaning forward to see what was happening in the arena below, his eyes gleaming with excitement in his otherwise impassive face. Caesar nodded as he returned his attention to the Arena. He would have to make these fights a formal part of Legion culture, perhaps building an arena above ground.

"Val…Val…Val…!" The crowd was beginning to chant and Caesar leaned forward to see better. Women had a very specific role in the streamlined society he was creating, and the Thorn's champion was both a woman and a mutant which irritated him. However the point of his presence was to celebrate the Legion's victory, and if he played his cards right no one would see this "Val" as anything but an aberration.

Meanwhile, in the hall outside the arena Veronica hesitantly peered through one of the doors. She had been furious with Valeria, but half expected the big woman to return with an apology and an explanation. The next morning Veronica awoke to find Valeria's bed empty. That day Veronica began to hear the criers announce that Valeria would be fighting in the last arena event. She tried to tell herself good riddance, but as night fell and she sat in their suddenly barren room, she admitted she missed her friend. The big woman was one of the kindest people Veronica had met since the fall of Helios One. Despite her bizarre appearance, she had always been considerate and genuinely concerned about Veronica. Then Veronica remembered her years of wandering on the fringes of the Mojave, and suddenly wondered if their positions were reversed, would she have done the same? Veronica had resolved not to go to the Thorn, but on the first night of the full moon she found herself standing before its entrance.

Now Veronica crouched outside the door to the arena shaking as the roar of the crowd, the flickering light of the flames, and the reek of blood brought back a flood of nightmare images. Veronica gasped for air as memories threatened to overwhelm her of a night of blood and fury when the Legion pillaged the town of Novac. She had tried to bury the memory, but every time she saw its soldiers and felt their eyes on her she felt as if she would start screaming.

"Val…Val…Val…!" She could hear the crowd roar, and steeling herself she crept through the door behind a press of Wastelanders shaking their fists in the air. Pushing between two men reeking of dirt and smoke, Veronica looked down into the arena below.

As Veronica entered the arena, one of the Thorn guards watched her with detached interest. His job was to make sure no one left the arena to wander where they shouldn't. This almost never happened, and he was ready for a boring shift of guard duty. As he looked away from the door Veronica had entered he thought he caught a shimmer in the air out of the corner of his eye. Frowning he turned to peer into the shadows. After a moment he shook his head, then leaned against the wall and craned his neck to look into the arena. As soon as he looked away, part of the shadows detached from the wall and moved with a ripple in the air around a corner and out of sight. Suddenly there was a crackle and the shimmer solidified into the form of a female ghoul in a dark hooded robe.

Sunflower finally exhaled as the Stealth Boy ran out of charge just as she had escaped the guard's detection. She had hoped it would last until she reached Red Lucy's office, but it would have to do. According to the map she had been given, the chamber where Red Lucy kept her mainframe access was at the end of a hallway lined with steel doors behind which helpless animals were imprisoned until it was time to slaughter them for the decadent pleasure of the mob. Sunflower caressed one of the doors as she hurried down the hallway.

"Soon…Soon…" She crooned to the animals imprisoned within. She had always loved animals and raised rabbits in the commune she had lived in back in Hopeville two centuries ago. One day she and the other members of her commune were protesting the war against China in front of the main gate to the missile base. Suddenly they were all being cuffed and loaded on trucks by soldiers in expressionless masks. They were taken to a concentration camp at the Big Mountain research facility, fitted with explosive collars, and left to wait as one by one they were taken away.

Eventually Sunflower was the only one left as new prisoners arrived, all of Chinese-American descent. Then came the night when the sky burned. No guards came to let them out, and one by one the prisoners died as they succumbed to radiation. For some reason, Sunflower and a handful of others didn't die, although their hair fell out and their skin began to slough off. Their collars continued to beep as they approached the perimeter fence, even after the day when Big Mountain vanished in a searing white flash. After years of a wretched existence within the squalid compound, Sunflower decided enough was enough and walked through the gate, heedless of the warning beep. Yet fate spared her as her collar failed to detonate, unlike the ones of the prisoners who tried to follow her.

Sunflower drifted and scavenged until she the Legion and imprisoned her for scavenging. Once again she had waited in the dark cell until she was the only one left. When a masked Legionary entered her dark cell she almost sobbed with relief that her long wretched existence would soon end. Instead the soldier began to question her in a low cold voice. He asked about her knowledge of tech and she told babbled everything she knew, especially her degree in computer science from her life working as an imperialist lackey before she left it all to join a commune. The soldier listened, and then dropped a heavy bag in front of her.

"I will spare your miserable existence to do a single task." He said, his voice filled with quiet menace. A loyal follower her entire life, Sunflower eagerly leaped at the chance to make a difference and was now using a map and a Stealth Boy provided by her 'benefactor' to allow her to infiltrate the Thorn. Finally Sunflower crouched before a steel door leading to Red Lucy's office. Looking furtively about for any guards, she pulled out a screwdriver and a bobby pin and began to work on the lock.

In one of the dark tunnels leading to the arena, Valeria took a deep breath as she listened to the crowd chanting her name. Memories rushed back to her of another arena beneath the industrial hell of old Pittsburgh where she had been forced to fight. She finally faced a Deathclaw in a battle that almost killed her. Only by losing herself in rage and becoming a monster as savage as the mutant was she able to defeat it. Suddenly the gate rattled up and Valeria stepped forward to the bloodstained concrete of the Thorn. The roar of the crowd swept over her like a wave as she walked to the center of the arena and looked up at Red Lucy. The master of the Thorn looked down with a smile and a light in her green eyes that looked like…joy. She then raised her hands for silence as she swept her gaze over the crowd.

"Tonight the Thorn has drunk deep of the blood beasts, but now it is time for the final tribute!" The crowd cheered in reply and Lucy waited for the noise to die down before she continued. "Before us stands one of the mightiest champions the Thorn has ever witnessed! She has triumphed in every contest but now faces the fiercest beast the Thorn has ever captured!"

Caesar leaned forward to see the mutant Vulpes had described. His Frumentarius had been correct, the mutant was a freak and to his eyes only vaguely feminine. However she was carrying a super sledge with no apparent effort, so her grotesque musculature wasn't just cosmetic. Caesar's eyes narrowed in thought as further away in the crowd Veronica unconsciously chewed on a knuckle as she waited for Red Lucy's announcement.

"From the great rift in the southern wastes, I give you the Mountain Yao Gui!" Another gate rattled open and a coughing roar echoed from the dark tunnel, silencing the crowd for a moment at its raw fury. Then the Yau Gui hurtled from the shadows, a living engine of hatred and destruction. Red Lucy almost laughed with delight at what was to come. The Thorn would now witness a truly worthy contest.

Surprised by the speed of the giant bear Valeria leaped aside avoiding a paw swipe that tore bloody furrows down her side. The Yau Gui spun toward her as she whirled and swung her hammer. Valeria felt bones snap under her blow, but the crazed mutant lunged forward with a howl and smashed Valeria to the floor.

Veronica gasped in horror as Valeria vanished under the bear's bulk, her hammer spinning away. Veronica covered her eyes as the giant bear roared and drove its gaping jaws toward Valeria's face. Veronica cringed as she listened for the end, but the cheering only increased in volume. Then she heard a scream, not of pain but of rage and Veronica jerked her arm from her eyes. Valeria had seized the Yao Gui's slavering jaws and was holding the mutant's head inches from her own. Valeria's eyes blazed as with a shriek of fury she savagely wrenched the bear's jaw, dislocating it with a sickening crunch.

The Yao Gui howled in agony and thrashed its head as Valeria released her hold on its lower jaw and rammed her bloody fist down its throat. The crowds' roar of approval shook the walls as with a scream Valeria yanked out the Yao Gui's tongue in a fountain of blood. The bear fell back, gagging on its own blood as Valeria lunged for her hammer. Her hands closed on the haft and she spun to face the dying mutant as it managed to rear up on its hind legs. Coughing gouts of blood, it fell toward her a dying mass of hair and hate. With a scream, Valeria leaped to meet it, whirling in mid-air to smash her hammer into the side of its head. The Yao Gui's skull exploded in a shower of brains and bone and its massive bulk slammed twitching to the arena floor. Valeria was still screaming as she smashed her hammer again into the corpse, then screamed wild-eyed at the howling mob above her.

Caesar sat stunned by the savage spectacle. Against all odds, the mutant woman had killed a Yao Gui practically with her bare hands. Once the bedlam died down, he would have to publicly acknowledge the astounding feat and place himself in the moment. He would then meet with Vulpes and arrange to have the mutant killed. She was clearly too powerful to be allowed to live as a potential focus for opposition.

Veronica reeled from the edge of the arena in shock. She knew Valeria was a fighter, but never in her wildest imaginings did she picture the primal fury she had just witnessed. Veronica turned and pushed her way through the mass of packed humanity trying to escape to the exit. The air suddenly felt thick and choking, and Veronica blindly fought to escape from the reek of blood and the howls of both the crowd and the monster in the below.

"Yes!" Sunflower cried in triumph as she hacked into the mainframe from Red Lucy's terminal and powered down the Thorn. Immediately the entire complex went black except for flickering glows from the burn barrels, and almost lost in the chaos was the clang of the doors confining the beasts of the Thorn sliding open.

Red Lucy looked up in fury as the lights went out. At first she assumed it was a power bump from the ancient generators powering the complex, but then she heard gunshots and scream of agony before all hell tore loose. Bewildered and terrified, the crowd became a mob that tried to flee for the exits only to meet the mandibles and claws of giant radscorpions. The buzzing nightmare bulks of Cazadores squeezed through the doors and launched themselves into the panicked press stabbing with their poisoned stingers and mandibles. Hissing and howling, Nightstalkers materialized slashing and tearing into victims with their poisoned jaws. Valeria was still blinded by a red haze when a howling squealing mob of mole rats and dogs erupted back into the arena through the darkened tunnels as people pushed by the panicked press began to fall into the arena.

Veronica was hurled back as the mob fled from the door as a Cazadore erupted through the opening, its orange wings humming and its multifaceted eyes glittering in the moonlight. Veronica tried frantically to get to her feet when another surge from the crowd knocked the wind out of her and flung her off the catwalk. Veronica hit the ground and screamed as she felt the bones in her arm snap.

Caesar's Praetorian guard closed ranks around their master and drove their powered gauntlets into the panicked press trying to clear a path to stairs off the landing. Their blows killed and maimed indiscriminately, but the panicked mass of humanity drove them back from sheer momentum. Lucius forged ahead of Caesar, blood splattering from his blows when a Nightstalker leaped from above, landing on his back and its fangs into his neck. Lucius staggered and went down and Caesar was swept back in the panicked crush until he was hurled into space as well.

Caesar slammed with bone crushing force among the bodies strewn on the bloody concrete. The Med-X coursing through his veins made him only faintly aware of the pain as he tried to push himself to his feet. With a curse, Caesar realized his leg wouldn't move and he looked down to see his thigh twisted at an unnatural angle. Suddenly he heard a high-pitched squeal and his head snapped about to see the shadowy forms of Molerats as they swarmed over the bodies of the living and dead. One of the hairless mutants charged, its chisel-toothed mouth gaping wide and Caesar howled in rage, and then the mutants were upon him.

Sunflower was almost giddy with joy as she heard the sounds of the animals fighting for freedom from their oppressors. She crouched inside the door to Red Lucy's room, and then activated her stealth-boy. There was no electric tingle, as the field activated, no crackle, nothing. Frantically she pressed the buttons again, and still nothing. Then the door clanged open and Sunflower looked up into the barrel of a shotgun held in the bloody hands of Red Lucy. The former master of the Thorn glared at the ghoul through the blood pouring from her torn scalp, then with a snarl pulled the trigger.

Veronica's arm seared with pain as she heard the sounds of animals tearing into people and knew she was as good as dead. In desperation she began to scream Val's name as she staggered to her feet, as the wild dogs and Molerats fought in a bloody tangle. Suddenly, as if in slow motion Veronica saw a dog leap toward her, its bloody fangs black in the moonlight. Veronica closed her eyes than heard an explosive crunch. Her eyes flew open and she saw the corpse of the dog flying away in a shower of blood from the impact of Valeria's hammer.

Valeria didn't say anything, but leaned down and picked Veronica up in one arm as she slung her hammer. Weak with pain and fighting panic, Veronica clasped her good arm around Valeria's neck and closed her eyes; ignore the slimy feel of the blood that covered the big woman's body.

"Hold on Ronnie!" Valeria rasped as she turned and ran toward one of the open tunnels. A Molerat charged out of the darkness, its blood smeared maw gaping only to drop with a crushed skull from a kick from Valeria's steel soled boot. Veronica refused to look up from Valeria's shoulder as they ran through the darkness. Valeria ran up a ramp then stopped at a steel gate. She hooked her fingers through the heavy steel mesh and with a jerk slid it open. Valeria found herself looking down a darkened hallway at a large group of bloodstained and wild-eyed Legionaries. Valeria whirled and ran down another tunnel as the soldiers charged after her.

Bullets began to screech past them and careen of the walls as the soldiers with guns began to fire wildly after them. Gritting her teeth in desperation, Valeria frantically searched the darkness for a place she could make a stand and effectively defend Veronica. Suddenly a view screen with the monochrome cartoon image of a smiling cowboy appeared out of the darkness before her.

"Y'all better duck." The Securitron drawled pleasantly as its segmented arms raised before it. Valeria skidded into a crouch as the robot's clawed hands roared with gunfire, scything down the pursuing Legion soldiers in a hail of bullets.

"I'd love to stand and jaw a spell, but y'all better follow me before more of them Legion fellas arrive."

Valeria stared in bewilderment into the robot's flickering screen, then quickly nodded.

"All right pardner, lets get a move on." The robot announced before turning on its single wheel and rolling into the tunnel. Veronica went limp as she lost consciousness, and Valeria carefully lifted her friend and followed the robot into the darkness.


End file.
