*Author's Note*

I just wanted to make clear this: I do not own the parts of this fanfiction that I used from the original to link Kantata's story with my own. I was reading the ending, when I thought, "I want to know how it ends, but it's been six years since last being updated! I know... I'll finish the story myself!" So, here it is.

If you haven't read the first part of the story, I'd definitely recommend it, considering this is a "sequel", or whatever, it will be hard to understand. Here's a link to the original: s/5038406/1/On-A-Deeply-Personal-Level

And here's the link to Kantata's profile: u/1903631/Kantata

Much love!

~Alice

Butch POV

As I wake up, I notice that I'm not as warm as I usually am. And the bed is lumpier than usual, but I couldn't remember if I was sleeping on a pile of clothes or not. As I lay with my eyes still closed, I put my arms over my head to stretch, because I was feeling a lot more tense than normal when waking up.

My hand hits the headboard. But it's not my headboard I touch. This one has bars, comparing to mine with a solid piece of metal. My eyes snap wide open and I jerk forward into a sitting position. This is not my room, I think.

Then realization hits. Of course it's not my room. I don't even have a room to call mine anymore. I'm in Kate's house in Megaton. And deeper realization hits. She's not here.

I remember I had work to do this morning. So, I quickly dress and head downstairs. Of course I made sure my hair wasn't in disarray and my jacket zipped halfway up. I recounted all the caps I 'collected' last night, and came up with 197. That should be enough to get some food and some ammo, right? Maybe a better gun? Not that my 10mm wasn't gonna totally murder everything out there.

I leave Kate's house, glancing at her robot butler—still laying on what I guess was its face—and locking to door before shutting it. How many more freaks am I going to run into in this place they called a town? To me, it just seemed to be a housing experiment for assorted misfits.

I make my way down to the lowest level of the great hole, and see what appears to be some kind of restaurant near the big bomb. That was a comforting thing to sit next to, huh? As I take a seat on one of the barstools that looked like it could give up on its job at any point, a woman in a yellow jumpsuit turns to me.

"I've never seen you here before. Just passing through?"

"Uh…" I would have loved to have said, Well, I'll be living there in that house with Kate from now on, but I couldn't. So, I replied with a lame, "Yeah."

"Well, I'm sure you didn't come here to the noodle stand for the scenery. What can I get you?"

"What do you got?"

"We've got a lot of stuff. For breakfast this early, I'd suggest crunchy mutfruit, Sugar Bombs, and of course, the noodles. It's our specialty." I haven't heard of whatever that crunchy thing was, and anything with the name 'bomb' doesn't really sound appealing. Especially with one behind me. If noodles was their specialty, I'd give it a whirl.

"Noodles sound alright." At that, she turns around and opens a fridge to her right. She sets a bowl with what I'd best describe as slop in front of me.

"That'll be five caps." I get them out of my pocket and handed her the right amount. She turns on her heel with the strange currency, and goes inside.

As I look closer at the bowl before me, I'm not quite sure if I really want that in my body. But my stomach tells me otherwise as I hear the sound of a dying whale come from it. I grab a spoon and dig in, trying not to think too hard into it. It tastes horrible. Like a 'edible' version of the smell of that blonde chick's house. But I was hungry, and no matter how much my mind was telling me to spit it back into the bowl, my hand kept forcing spoonfuls of it down my throat. And finally it was gone. But my mouth had a terrible taste now, so I walk into the same door yellow-jumpsuit-lady disappeared behind. There was a man eating some kind of rodent looking thing off a stick at one of the tables, and a man behind the counter. "Can I help you, bud?"

"Some water would be good."

"Alright, then. We're all out of purified, so will dirty do?" He drums his fingers against the counter in a fast rhythm.

Why would they even sell dirty water, I ask myself, but reply with, "I guess. Better than nothin'."

"Ten caps," he says as he bends down behind the counter and comes back with a bottle so small it'd probably be gone in four swallows. The price was ten caps for that?! But the taste is so frickin' bad, I give up ten caps of my precious stash.

And as I was expecting, it lasts exactly four swallows and is gone, just like my caps. If I was gonna stay here any longer, I wouldn't have any caps when I left, so I walk out, looking at the Craterside place, and trying to figure out a way to get up to it. I find a ramp not too far from me that looks like it might come close to my destination, and start my way up it. Several seconds later, I'm walking into the place. A woman with auburnish hair is sweeping the floor when she looks up at the sound of the door opening. "Well, you're new here!" She said excitedly. "Where'd you come from? Oh, I love seeing new faces!" What kind of drug is she on? I think.

"Just passing through," I say, using yellow-jumpsuit-lady's words.

"I bet you're looking for ammo then, huh? And maybe some armour. That sure is an fascinating jacket you have there." She starts eyeing my garment like it's the single most interesting thing she's ever saw. I ignore this and try to move on. I need to get to Kate.

"I need bullets for a 10mm. You got any of that?"

She sets her broom against the counter, and goes behind it pulling out an ammo box and opens it. "Do I ever! Last time I checked the inventory—which was this morning—" she winks at me, "I have 249 shells." She sets multiple prefilled clips in front of me.

"I'll take 'em," I respond as I dip into my pockets for my remaining caps.

"They're a cap a piece, so that'd be 249 caps."

I look up at her. "I only have 182."

"Well, then I guess you're only going to get 182, then." Her smile doesn't match her words. She might have well just said, That's too fricking bad, you piece of crap. "I can't give out ammo with such high demand. You know how business goes." Her smile widens. Really, what is she on?!

"182 bullets ain't gonna go very far. I don't know where I'm headed, and I don't know what's out there. I need more than that, lady."

"Well, you can always trade in some possessions for any of my inventory. What do you have?"

"Look, lady. I just got outta that vault outside Springvale. I ain't carrying much on me." I'm not about to give her my smokes or switchblade. We've been through too much to separate now. And if this kinda stress continued, I'mma need a smoke as soon as I leave this joint.

She looks at my jacket again. Oh, no. "You have your jacket. That counts as a possession to me. Tell you what. I'll give you all my 10mm ammo, if you give me that jacket and 150 of your caps. I'll throw in a couple grenades even."

I stare at her with my mouth open for two seconds before responding. "This is my Tunnel Snakes jacket!" I didn't even care about the money she wanted extra.

"Tunnel who?" She asks. She shakes her head and chuckles. "Nevermind. Is it a deal or what?" Pushy, isn't she?

"I've worn this jacket everyday for seven years straight. Ain't no way I'mma just give it up for something so small!"

"Is your life something small to you, then?" She replies. "From what I understand, you need these bullets. Is that jacket gonna save your life when a yao guai rips you to shreds?"

I don't know what a yao guai is, but it sounds mean. So, she does have a point, as little as I want to admit it. "But I've had this for so long…"

"Life or death. Your choice," she says quietly. First time she has been any kind of quiet since I came in here.

I empty out 150 of my caps onto the counter, and without thinking it through—in fear of me changin' my mind—I unzip my beloved jacket and place it onto the money hastily. "Gimme my stuff!" She turns and dumps all the clips into my waiting palms and puts two grenades onto the pile. As I load my new weaponry into my vault suit pockets, she grabs and hanger, and places my once prized possession on it, hanging it—backside out to show off the snake—next to a vault suit like mine, but armoured. Just turn around, DeLoria. You got your stuff. Just leave.

I turn and walk to the door. The woman notices me leaving, and calls out, "Good hunting!" Why, I oughtta… Just keep going.

I go outside, and feel colder than when I walked in there. Not because of the temperature—it was really warm today—but because I feel like a part of me was gone. I've stayed behind that zipper for so long, that if any of the vault residents were to see my arms only, they wouldn't know it was me.

I turn to my right and go up another ramp to Moriarty's. Once I'm inside, I have to swallow back my disgust for Meatloaf Man. I bet he can't help what happened to him—how would he want to look like that?—but I still can't look him in the face. I take a seat on a barstool and ask for a beer. "Sure thing, smoothskin." He walks over to the cooler and grabs a bottle from it, puts it in front of me, and says, "Two caps." I set them on the counter, and take a pull from the bottle. At least it tastes better than their sorry excuse for scotch. The song on the radio comes to an end, and the DJ speaks:

"Hellooooo, Capital Wasteland! This is Three Dog, coming to you loud and proud from Galaxy News Radio… You ever wonder what it's like living in a big, metal tub? Well, you can ask any Rivet City resident. I hear they're saying the people living on the flight deck has it made, while the lower deck citizens are sufferin'. I think it's better here in GNR Building Plaza. You're welcome to drop by an' visit, but you can't stay. Not enough room for everyone. Thanks for listening, chill-dren! This is Three Dog, owwww! And you're listening to Galaxy News Radio! We're Radio Free Wasteland! And we're here... for you."

I try my best to look at Meatloaf—Gob—and ask him, "What's that Rivet City place the Dog guy was talking about?"

Meatloaf sighs like he doesn't have patience to answer. "It's a town, kinda like Megaton. But it's down in the southeast corner of DC. It's a big aircraft carrier somebody thought would make a good place to live, I suppose."

"You think Kate went there?" He just looked confused. So, I amended, "The Lone Wanderer?" He understood now.

"Maybe. But there's no telling where that kid ran off to. The Capital Wasteland is pretty big. And she is awful adventurous. She could be at any settlement by now." So, I'm guessing there's more than a few towns. Crap. "If you wanna go there, I can point you in the right direction." Just then a voice with an accent came from the backroom.

"Are you out there talking to me customers again, Gob? What did I tell you, lad? Just do your job. You don't get paid to loiter!"

Gob looks back at the room from where the voice came from. "Uh, yes, sir." He quietly walks around the counter and waves me over to the entrance. I follow him reluctantly. He opens the door gently, and goes outside, with me on his tail. He closes it to the frame. "Now, I haven't been out there in fifteen years, so things mighta changed," he says in a hushed whisper, "but I'll tell you from how it used to be at least. Okay. Once you leave those gates, you go north until you hit a road. Follow that east until you see a bridge going to the other side of the river. Turn right onto the freeway, and keep going. You might have to improvise a little bit. But you'll come across the big boat eventually. It shouldn't be any farther than a few days' walk." He looks back at the door. "I'm gonna go before Moriarty serves my head on a plate for his next meal. Good luck, kid." He turns and goes back into the saloon.

I decide that water might be a thing that's hard to find out there, and head back to the noodle stand place. When I go in, I ask how many bottles they have. "You adding to your hording collection?" This man—which looks similar to the other one I saw this morning, so they must be brothers—isn't as friendly. He has a frown on his face constantly, it seems. That'd explain the deep frown lines he's already developed, even though he couldn't be more than a few years older than me.

I come back with, "Does it matter? As long as you get your caps, who cares. How many do you have?"

I don't know how, but his frown deepens even more. "Two bottles of dirty water. Happy now?" What's up with this guy? Must have piss and vinegar running in his veins.

"I'll buy them. And a crunchy… uh," I can't remember the name of that thing yellow-jumpsuit-lady said this morning.

He raises his eyebrows. "A crunchy mutfruit?"

"Yeah."

"All that will come up to 25 caps." He starts getting my purchase as I get out the caps. I only had five left! Jeez, things were expensive out here!

He hands me my water and fruit-thing as I hand him his money. He grunts an' nods his head as I turn to go. I guess that was his way of a parting.

Well, Butch. Looks like it's time to go find some adventure.