Veni, Vidi, Vici.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

Charon stared out over the room, his hazy blue eyes scanning the faces for anyone unfamiliar. Everyone in the bar were regulars, so he knew the only thing he would have to do would be to kick out drunks, or anyone unable to pay their tabs. He allowed himself to let his guard down for a moment and leaned back against the wall, tilting his head up and staring at the ceiling, giving himself a little break from the unending sea of mutilated faces.

The main door swung open, and he snapped back to attention, staring in surprise at the young smoothskin that walked through the door. All the other heads in the bar turned too. Some muttered in anger, others shrugged their shoulders and turned their attention back to their drinks.

The young woman wore a blue Vault suit with pieces of leather armor buckled over the fabric, and her curly brown hair was tied back in a ponytail. Her skin was a medium brown, with a very light, almost unnoticeable sunburn on her forearms and face, and freckles were scattered on her cheeks and across her nose. Her dark green eyes scanned the room and fell on Charon. He fought back the urge to sigh in frustration as the woman made her way across the tile floor. He realized when she stopped in front of him that she was surprisingly short, and barely reached his shoulders. She had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze as she spoke.

"Hi, I was wondering who the owner is?"

"Ahzrukhal."

"Him?" She turned to look at the ghoul standing behind the bar, and Charon nodded. She turned and left, and sat down at the bar. She and Ahzrukhal spoke in hushed voices, then she turned to look at Charon, her eyes narrowed. She turned back around and nodded. The girl rummaged through her backpack and pulled out a medium sized brown bag. She set it down on the counter and counted out a few caps, then handed him the entire thing.

Ahzrukhal grinned that big, toothy grin that Charon had grown to hate so much, and handed the woman a piece of paper. Charon's heart skipped a beat at the sight of it. That paper was his lifeline, his heart and soul; his contract. He couldn't imagine Ahzrukhal giving it to anyone else, but he could see it being sold for a large amount of caps.

The ghoul put the bag under the counter and said something else, and gestured to Charon. Kathleen nodded, and shook his hand. Charon noticed the way she wiped her palm on her pants as she walked away. When she stopped in front of him he was at a loss for words, and immediately defaulted to his usual greeting.

"Talk to Ahzru-"

"Wait, wait, wait. I…I bought your contract. You don't belong to him anymore." She said it like she did him a favor, and maybe that was true. Ahzrukhal was a terrible man, who often made him do terrible things. What would make this girl any better? With his bad luck she was from one of the crazy experiment Vaults, and was mentally unstable. He had met a few of those in his long, long life.

"You purchased my contract from Ahzrukhal? So I am no longer in his service. That is good to know. Please, wait here. I have to take care of something." The girl nodded, obviously unsure of what the ghoul was going to do.

Everything seemed to move slower as he walked up to Ahzrukhal and took his gun from his back. He relished the look of fear in the ghoul's eyes; the same fear he had seen in many pairs of eyes before. A look that said 'This is the end'. He had seen it in the eyes of men, women, and even children, but he had never been so pleased to see it as he was now.

The ghoul moved as though to run, but Charon's bullets reached him first. The initial shot took the ghoul off his feet, and he slammed against the back wall. The second shot obliterated his face, and the body slid to the floor. The third shot was to take out the rest of his rage on the corpse, and though he knew it would never make up for the things he had done, it did put a smile on his face.

He turned back to his new employer to find her with her hands over her mouth, tears sliding down her cheeks and between her fingers.

"Oh my god. Why...why did you do that?"

"Ahzrukhal was an evil bastard. So long as he held my contract, I was honor bound to do as he commanded. But now you are my employer, which freed me to rid the world of that disgusting rat." Her eyes flitted from Charon, to the body, to Charon's shotgun, and back.

"Will…you do that to me?"

"For now, for good or ill, I serve you." He grumbled. The girl nodded, and swallowed hard, struggling to take her eyes off of Ahzrukhal's body. Finally, she looked up at the ghoul and sighed.

"Alright, let's get out of here."