Time for the new story function again. This is the forth in my series and my most ambitious one yet. (if you haven't read my other three fics first then do so now or you'll be largely lost). As before this is in development, if you have any quests you really want to see or any other requests drop a review or a PM my way and I'll see what I can do. Also a big shout out to Dario Soto and his excellent Lone Dragonborn fic that helped inspire me to come up with this one.

Anyway time to get this fic rolling with some basic introductions of a new OC and a new (sort of) hero...

Opening sequence

War...war never changes. This is a fact no matter what world you stand on and it was one that Jaden Storm, the Courier, was about to find out personally. Six months after the cataclysmic collapse of the NCR and his abduction by the alien Zeta Jaden's fortunes, and those of New Vegas, seemed to have turned around. The Legion was largely occupied with its own rebellion problems and other misfortunes and was no threat to the enlarged Alliance at this point. Nor was the newly created nation of Cyberia, currently engaged in reconstruction work, and there were no internal threats of any size.

Despite this all is not well for Jaden. Ever since his escape from the Zeta craft he has been assaulted by dark dreams of his world in ruin. For the last few months he has been desperately trying to figure out whether these are just bad dreams...or a portent of things to come. Even he couldn't have possibly known the scale of the crisis he was about to face or the powers that had targeted him...

Lucky 38-Jaden's suite

Ashley Gordon, former NCR soldier and now Jaden's long-time lover, awoke to two big surprises. The first one was it was 3:00 in the morning. The second was that she was alone in bed. Jaden was nowhere to be seen.

She knew what had happened when she heard the sound of water running from the bathroom.

"That dream again?"

Ashley didn't take Jaden by surprise, he'd sensed her presence the moment she'd gone through the door. "What was your first clue?"

Ashley forced a smile but she knew that, despite the attempt at humour, he was hurting. This had been plaguing him for months now.

"I don't know if it's a dream anymore, Ash," Jaden said grimly. "It feels too real to be a dream when I'm in it and, believe me, I've been through enough to separate illusion real, dream real and...real real if that makes any sense."

"After fighting cyborgs and seeing you taken by aliens I think anything would make sense right now," Ashley admitted. "But I'd feel a lot more comfortable if we knew where these dreams were coming from or what's causing them."

"Tell me about it," Jaden muttered. "I've changed my eating habits, I've had this place swept god knows how many times, I've tried going to sleep at different times and the list goes on."

Of course none of these measures had done an atom of good. If anything the dream had increased in its frequency.

Ashley put her arms around him from behind and whispered seductively. "Come on, let's go try and sleep again. I'll make it worth your while!"

"I don't deserve you, Ash," Jaden smiled. "How the hell do you put up with me?"

"Better question is how you keep surviving after what you go through," Ashley joked. "Anyway between how you helped my family survive and the great nights we keep having do you think I'm ever letting you go?"

Jaden allowed Ashley to drag him back to bed. At least he had one hell of a girl to wake up to...

Lucky 38-Cocktail Lounge

"You look like crap Boss," Raul observed as Jaden and Ashley joined the rest of his inner circle and the Aces the next morning.

"Look who's talking," Jaden was a little too tired for a serious retort.

"That dream again?" Boone knew the answer even before he asked the question.

"I just wish I could make sense of this!" Jaden spat in frustration.

"You and all of us," Arcade spoke for pretty much everyone in the room. "The only things I can assure you of is that you've not been drugged or poisoned. Dr Usanagi, Julie and me can all testify to that. No sedatives, no psychotropics, no other mind altering agents, nothing."

"I don't think there's a drug that would cause someone to have the same dream over and over anyway," Veronica mused. "I think the Brotherhood or the Followers would have heard about it."

"Aside from his obvious lack of continuous sleep Jaden is healthier than he's been in a long time," Julie Farkas added. "What I'd give for just one of those machines those aliens must have had!"

Jaden could understand Julie's wish. The Zeta technology put humanity's in the Stone Age as the Adjutant had demonstrated when he'd restored Jaden's brain and all of his memories.

"Maybe it's not drugs but some kind of new technology," Dr Usanagi ventured. "Maybe someone's trying to warn us or Jaden specifically about something."

"I get the feeling you've been working too long, doc," Cass didn't buy into that much.

"Well we seem to have eliminated everything else. When you've done that only the unlikely remains," Usanagi insisted.

"I have to admit you might have something with that," Arcade admitted. "After all what does that dream end with every time?"
Jaden sighed. "Yeah, 'we are coming'. Six months of that and still no damn clue about who or what's supposed to be showing up."

"That bothers me too," Boone admitted. "It's not going to be the Legion, they're still fighting rebellions."

"And not after what happened to their slavers three months back!" Cass agreed with a smirk.

Arcade nodded. "There's no sign of trouble with Cyberia either. Epsilon's kept all his promises up to now and that doesn't look like changing anytime soon."

"Elijah's dead," Veronica pointed out with more than a bit of pity in her voice.

"So is Ulysses," Boone added. "So who does that leave?"

"Not much," Jaden admitted. "But it does give me an idea of how to deal with this. Something I've been thinking about doing for some time."

"You mean leave and go on that walkabout thing you were talking about, Boss? You sure that's a good idea?" Raul asked sceptically.

"If there is a threat and it's targeting me then maybe it's a good idea I lead it away from Vegas. Plus the docs keep telling me I need to take a rest so given I can't do that a change will have to do!"

Everyone had to make an effort to keep from smiling. They knew Jaden was just looking for an excuse to do what he'd always loved doing: being a courier and wandering again. Two months ago he'd called an election for his office of President. This had been done for 2 reasons. Firstly he was following through on a promise to maintain the old NCR's tradition of democracy and secondly he'd simply felt he'd done enough.

After establishing an independent New Vegas then fending off a cyborg invasion and absorbing the NCR remnant he felt comfortable passing the reins to someone else. He'd put his name in the race as a formality but hadn't campaigned or bothered to do much of anything else thinking that would make his intent rather clear. Fate, however, had something else in mind. He was voted back in with an overwhelming majority. Even most of the old NCR states had decided he was still the best man to lead.

At the time Jaden had been dumbfounded. But the sore truth was he and his allies had done too good a job. He was a strong leader; his simpler administration was seen to be better at getting things done than the old NCR Congress had ever been and, although he'd conquered them, he'd also liberated the California states from their budget deficit crisis. Details of that hitting the airwaves had convinced most people they were going to be much better off long term under Vegas. Even the normally acid Colonel Moore had acknowledged that after seeing several months of Vegas rule.

All of which had culminated in a fresh mandate and a new fixed five year term in office for Jaden that he didn't want but couldn't really turn down, not with such a popular vote. On the plus side there hadn't been much trouble in the months since the annexation aside from a small NCR rebellion and assassination attempt. Both had been farcical and all involved were now dead.

"I'll tell the cabinet that I'm off on...sabbatical this afternoon," Jaden decided.

"I suppose you're not taking any of us either?" Boone asked knowingly.

"Apart from Ash, no I'm not," Jaden decided. "I need all of you here to hold things together. Hopefully this won't take long but we can't count on that."

"We know that from past experience Boss," Raul grinned. "I suppose it'll take what it takes. Go ahead, we'll cover you here."

Think Tank-early evening

Jaden had made 2 changes to his travel plans that day. The first had been to Camp McCarran to pick up another travelling companion, namely 19 year old Skyler Thomas. Skyler, Sky to his friends, was a new addition to the NV army. Blond haired and well built, he had a very troubled past and a not much better present. He'd once been part of a large family but now they were all dead courtesy of a botched slave raid by the Legion three months ago. Needless to say Sky was now embittered, moody, alone and a cold killer in battle. He'd come to idolize Jaden after meeting him on the battlefield, not least for the damage he'd caused to the Legion. Seeing a lot of his past self and a possible addition to his inner circle in Sky Jaden had ended up taking him under his wing.

"What the hell is this place, Jaden?" was his understandable reaction when he teleported in with Jaden.

"And why the hell are we here at all?" Ashley asked irritably. "You know I don't like this place."

"Sorry Ash but the brains sent me a message saying they had something big to show me. Thought I'd better stop in and see what they've got for us before we head out."

Ashley turned to Sky. "This is the Big Empty; a big pre-war weapons lab and now Jaden owns it. Only trouble is it's run by a bunch of lunatic brains."

"Whoa I thought this place was just a legend," Sky was duly impressed as he walked through Jaden's Sink apartment toward the control centre. "I bet those brains aren't anything to worry about either, I find most scientists are loons."

Jaden and Ashley shared a knowing look that said 'he has no idea'.

Jaden counted slowly down from ten to one.

"HOLY SHIT!" The predicted reaction came straight after one.

"Well he's met Klein and the Think Tank," Jaden said. "We'd better get in there before they decide to start lobotomizing again."

They both entered the control centre to find Sky with his mouth hanging open and Klein on another one of his loud tirades until he saw Jaden entering the room.

"Still not fixed the volume control then, Dr?"

Sky was almost like a fish out of water. "Jaden...they're..."

"...literally brains yeah I know. I'll explain it all later. In the meantime Dr, what was so important that you call me out here at such short notice?"

Dr Dala answered for Klein. "We've just made a great breakthrough, teddy bear. We've managed to come up with a much improved transportalponder. One that can actually transport objects not only across the world but between worlds!"

"Did it...she say between worlds?" Sky asked.

"She did," Jaden confirmed though he could hardly believe it himself. "Assuming such a thing was possible, Dala, what would be the point?"

"I'd have thought that obvious teddy bear, given the state of this world. With most of the old world's resources destroyed and in ruin this gives the opportunity to acquire more from elsewhere. Resources that won't be damaged by nuclear fire or radiation."

All of them could see where she was coming from. If this worked Vegas could, in theory, start obtaining intact machinery and material and wouldn't have to rely on the irradiated leftovers from the past.

"So how does it work?" Ashley was curious despite a little voice in her head warning her against this.

"WE CAN DEMONSTRATE," Klein announced proudly as he manipulated a control and teleported a table with what looked like a gaudy coloured toy rifle resting on it in an upright position.

"That's supposed to be able to punch holes between worlds is it?" Sky scoffed.

"Don't judge it on size or looks, remember what got us here?" Jaden warned. "Ok show us what it's got!"

"WITH PLEASURE," Klein manipulated another set of controls aiming the gun at a point near the giant screen at the end of the room and firing off a blue laser beam opening a large wide glowing blue portal.

"Portal is stable at this end," Dr Borous reported. "Establishing link to new world now."

"What do they expect us to do, walk through that thing?" Ashley was feeling nervous.

"I don't think so," Jaden reassured her.

"I'm just wondering what they're going to bring through there," Sky wasn't feeling confident either.

As it turned out that nervousness wasn't misplaced. The portal suddenly seemed to jerk violently. More ominous still was it was turning from blue to red.

"Doctor, something is wrong!" Dala's voice confirmed what was pretty obvious already. "The portal is out of control!"

"ENGAGE PROTECTION SHIELDS!" Klein ordered.

The brains quickly engaged a new protective measure they'd installed, namely transparent but tough energy shields, over themselves as the portal elongated and expanded in a flash of red light.

Thirty seconds later they all regained their vision as the energy cut out along with the portal.

"WHAT WENT WRONG?" Klein snapped. "GIVE ME A REPORT!"

"The computers collected a lot of data but none of it makes sense," Borous reported. "It's like the portal was moved from elsewhere."

"{ }}}!"

"NOT NOW 8, I'M TOO BUSY ANALYSING!"

"Breaking news Klein: that's not the only problem!" Doctor Zero reported in his usual manner.

"I'm afraid he's right, we overlooked one critical factor before starting this experiment," Borous added.

"AND THAT WAS?"

"Teddy bear and his friends didn't have shields!" Dala realised in horror. "Oh dear..."

At the other end of the portal...

The journey through the portal had been anything but a pleasant one for Jaden and his friends as they were tossed end over end travelling through it. One minute they were standing in front of the portal, the next the portal had grown and swallowed them whole. It had been like getting thrown over the Niagara Falls in a barrel.

All three were about ready to puke their guts out before they were thrown out of the other end of the portal into a heap on the ground. About a minute later they started to regain their senses and the first thing they sensed was how cold it suddenly was. They opened their eyes to find themselves in the open air and in the most beautiful open countryside any of them had ever seen. Snow covered mountains, clear air, fir trees and rocky landscape surrounded them. There was no hint of pollution in the air at all.

"What in the name of the Nine are you doing lying there like that?"

All of them turned their heads toward the source of the voice and had to work hard to stop their mouths from falling open as they saw who'd called out to them standing in front of a cave entrance.

The speaker was female. She stood on two legs, had two hands and all the other usual features of a normal woman...save for the facts that her skin was much darker than normal and practically grey in colour, her ears were not round but pointed and her eyes were ruby red. Her hair was long, flame red and smoothed back aside from two thick knots tied around to the back of her head. She was dressed in leather and quilted painted blue cuirass.

"What's the matter? You've never seen a dark elf before? Or are you one of those elf haters?"

No one had time to reply before a rugged blond haired man dressed identically ran out of the cave.

"Lyra! Get your new friends over here and wait!"

This time they weren't able to stop their jaws crashing open as they saw the thing flying past with a roar. Huge, scaled, black as night, orange coloured eyes and straight out of a nightmare. Except this wasn't a nightmare and it was a 100% real dragon.

Sky found his voice first. "Is...that...?"

"A dragon? Aye, it is. Don't ask me where it came from though; I haven't an answer for you. Where did you find these, Lyra?"

The dark elf scoffed. "They were just lying on the ground out here Ralof, I nearly fell over them."

"We were...hiding from that thing," Jaden quickly thought on his feet.

"Well next time try hiding in some actual cover," the elf rolled her eyes. "You're not bad looking but that doesn't protect you from a dragon does it?"

"Easy," Ralof chided. "We've got enough problems as it is without adding these three to them. If you were looking to stay the night in Helgen then I'm afraid I have bad news: it no longer exists."

"So where can we go?" Ashley was trying to stop her teeth chattering. She was only dressed in light NCR style desert armour which did little to keep out the cold.

"Not to worry, we can go down to my village of Riverwood. So long as the Imperials haven't made it there ahead of us," Ralof promised.

"So now we've got three followers to protect? I feel better already!" Lyra snorted as she started down the road.

"What's her problem?" Ashley muttered.

"Between nearly getting her head cut off by the Imperials and then getting killed by that dragon she's had a bad day," Ralof answered bluntly. "Come on, we should start walking."

Ashley felt her anger beginning to rise. "Jaden, promise me something. When we get back home, no if we get back home you'll let me squash those fucking brains flat!"

Jaden and Sky shared a look of dread. The portal had definitely closed up behind them and they had no way to open it again. On top of that they had no idea exactly where they were now, only that they were on a world where elves and dragons were real.

Jaden finally shrugged his shoulders. "Well look on the bright side. We're still alive and we can still do what we were planning to do anyway: explore somewhere new."

In spite of herself Ashley smiled. "Only you could say something like that when we're stuck in a new world, Jaden!"

"Hey what am I, chopped liver?" Sky complained. "I actually feel the same way. This world looks way better than ours anyway."

"Hey! Are you coming or are we leaving you here?" Lyra's angry voice echoed up the road.

"Our new mistress's voice!" Ashley muttered as they all started to follow the road down. Little did any of them know of the situation they'd just walked into or the horrors that awaited them...