"Okay, run the plan by me one more time." Livius trailed behind me as we walked back to the Prospector's Saloon.

"I'll give you all of the details later. Just try to act natural and don't give away your allegiance."

"Your requests seem to contradict each other, but I'll try my best."

I lead Livius into the saloon and walked into the bar. Fortunately Trudy was still working behind the bar. I sat down on one of the stools, but Livius seemed a bit more hesitant to, choosing to stand behind me instead.

"Oh, you're back." Trudy looked up at me. "Who's this?"

"This is, um, Levi. I found him passed out outside of town."

Livius gave a little wave.

"Two visitors in less than a week. Must be a new record." Trudy crossed her arms. "Can I get you two a drink?"

I shook my head, but something in my brain scolded me for turning down a drink twice in one day.

"Actually, we're here to help you with your Powder Ganger issue."

Trudy sighed and shook her head. "What are you dragging this down into?"

"Please, you have to trust us." I held my hands up. "I promise we won't harm Ringo."

Livius gave me a confused look, but I returned it with a look of I'll explain later.

She leaned back and ran her fingers through her dark hair. "It's not that I'm worried about, for the most part. Well whatever you're doing, I'm not bringing my saloon into this."

I gave a slight smile. "You have nothing to worry about. But you probably don't want anyone outside of their homes tonight. If you can get that message across town, that will be helpful."

Trudy paled and even Livius seemed a bit uncomfortable, but I gave a dismissive wave. This plan will work, I just know it.

"I'll see what I can do…" she looked over at one of the citizens who was seated on the far side of the bar and he nodded back at her.


The sun was setting rapidly, but I managed to fill Livius in on all of the details as we ran up to the gas station on the hill.

"…one of the Powder Gangers mentioned something about an ambush on the town tonight. Hopefully we can stop them before that happens."

"How do you know he wasn't bluffing?" Livius reached behind his head to tie his hair back.

"It didn't sound like he was. Besides if he was, if his gang is able to come into town this frequently, they can't be too far away. We can take care of them there in that case."

Livius looked over his shoulder and knotted his brows.

"Honestly, if this town was wiped off of the map, it would be doing the world a favor."

"Okay, this place isn't my ideal vacation spot either." I placed my hand on one of the rusted gas pumps and tried to catch my breath. "But I have a feeling lots of people pass through here. If we get a good reputation here, that can help us out greatly in the future."

"Help us, or help you?" Livius leaned against one of the gas pumps and kicked a pebble away.

"Both of us, really. The less people who know you as a Legionary, the less people will be lining up to shoot you. The better things that people hear about the both of us, the more likely people will be willing to help us. A good reputation never hurts."

Livius frowned. "I can't believe I'm lowering myself to help these degenerates, but whatever it takes."

"That's the spirit!" I pressed my foot against the gas station door and pushed.

"That's close enough." A man wearing grimy, patched up clothing greeted us—with a pistol being aimed in our direction. Despite obviously hiding out for a while, he was clean shaven and his full head of brown hair was neatly trimmed.

"Normally one would say having guns aimed at them three times in a week would be overkill." I raised both of my hands to show I wasn't a threat. Livius reached for the pistol clipped to my belt but I slapped his hand away.

"Sorry about that. I thought you were a Powder Ganger." He put the gun away, but Livius didn't seem to relax at all, still eyeing him like he was a bomb that was about to go off.

"A common mistake. So I take it you're Ringo?" I placed a hand on Livius' shoulder and gently pushed him away from the man.

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"I'm Celeste and this is Levi." I slapped Livius lightly on the back and he frowned, obviously sick of this false name business. "We're here to help you with this Powder Ganger issue."

Ringo grinned a bit. "'bout time someone came around. So do you have a plan or are we just going to rush in and give the Powder Gangers three targets to practice with?"

I wiped the dust off of my glasses. "Well if my sources are correct, the Powder Gangers will be attacking the town tonight—looking for you. I say the three of us try to stop them."

"H…what‽" Livius just barely managed to stop himself from slipping into Latin. "How many Powder Gangers are we talking about‽"

"He's right." Ringo sat down against the wall. "There's only three of us and god knows how many of them. They have dynamite too. They're going to splatter us against the buildings like a new paint job."

I paced around the gas station, running my fingers through my hair. Livius shifted back and forth on his feet nervously. The light shining through the cracked window was getting more and more dim; we were running out of time.

Ringo waved his hand and turned around to the shelves that lined the far end of the gas station. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll take my chances getting killed in the comfort of this gas station rather than out there."

Livius huffed a bit and turned around to leave, but I grabbed his collar.

"Listen, the town will be destroyed if we don't deal with the Powder Gangers. We can either hand you over to them, or give you a fair chance in a fight. We don't live in a vacuum. If we leave like th_"

My voice was cut off by the ear drum shattering sound of an explosion. I instinctually hit the ground, the way I was trained to back at my old lab (still don't know how that's supposed to protect me from a chemical explosion) and Livius dove behind the counter.

Ringo managed to regain his balance, holding his hand against the wall for support.

"Damn…what was…?"

I looked up, my glasses sliding off of my face.

"We don't have much time. We can either go out there and face them, or let them slaughter everyone else in the town before they eventually find us. What's it going to be?"

Ringo paced around the gas station a bit more. I would have to press harder.

"The people in this town gave you a place to stay, and you're not even going to repay them?"

"Listen, I need to think this over."

There was a gunshot outside and I cringed. "You can think it over after we kick their asses." I grabbed Livius' collar again, but he slapped my hand away. "Fine. Levi and I will head out. But if we die, you'll have to deal with that. You'll have to deal with the fact that everyone who tried to help you ended up dying."

"Hold it right there." Livius took a step back. "Now you're sacrificing me to those deg…people?"

"Levi, you and I both know you're not in any position to make these decisions."

He dug his nails into the rough wood of the counter, then nodded.

"Fine, but I'll need a better weapon."

I unclipped my pistol from my belt and handed it to him, as well as the ammo I had in my bag. "Take this. You shoot and I'll see if I can use close combat. Maybe I can get some dynamite from them if I get close enough."

Livius picked up the pistol and gave me a questioning look, but I shook my head.

"Do you honestly think you're going to find the opportunity to get close to them?"

I picked at my spiked knuckles. "I'm afraid it's our only option. And besides, it's not like Ringo is going to help us."

"I told you I have to think it over!" Ringo pressed his forehead against the gas station wall. "Alright, fine. I'll do your little suicide mission."

"Thought you'd turn around eventually." I pushed my bangs to the side, narrowly avoiding slicing my face with the spiked knuckles as I did so.

I reached out to push the door open, but Livius stopped me.

"So do you have any more of a plan?"

"Nope!" I threw the door open again and readied my fists.

Fortunately I could see other people fighting the Powder Gangers, but from where I was I couldn't tell who was whom. I ran out, Livius and Ringo moving ahead of me. The smell of smoke filled my nose and the sound of gunshots filled my ears.

I could count six Powder Gangers. Livius was crouched behind an overturned wooden cart and I could tell he was not experienced with the pistol. I made a mental note to teach him a thing or two if we survived.

A bullet whizzed past my ear and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. What kind of idiot runs into a gunfight without a damn gun?

No, don't think. Find someone who would be an easy target.

One of the Powder Gangers had his entire torso exposed; this will be perfect.

The sound of my heart pounding managed to overpower the gunshots and I locked my eyes on the shirtless Powder Ganger. I hated hiding away like this, but I just needed a damn gun. I took another deep breath.

"This is the stupidest thing I've ever done!" I jumped out from behind the boulder and ran towards him as fast as I could. The Powder Ganger looked up in shock and I slammed my fist into his abdomen, puncturing the skin.

He yelled out and I dug the knuckles in further while I looked for his gun. I felt the cleaver he was holding slice across my cheek. I bit my lip to keep my screams of pain inside, my blood was dripping onto his face.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" I slammed my fists into his face. "You came to a gunfight without a shirt or a gun?! You're even dumber than me!"

At this point, the Powder Ganger was just a withering mess on the ground. I stood up and kicked him again for good measure, but I could feel a certain presence behind me.

Don't turn around… I fixed my eyes on the bloodied man on the ground. There was no way I was going to survive two bullets in the head.

The gun went off. I squeezed my eyes shut and fell to my knees, but the bullet scrambling my brain into a pulp never came. What if I was dead? What if I was dead this entire time and Goodsprings was my afterlife? Shit, the afterlife sucks.

I opened my eyes just a crack. I still felt like I was made out of concrete matter, but why did my back feel…warm?

My head slowly turned around and the corpse of one of the Powder Gangers was splattered against the pavement, and apparently my back.

When I managed to catch my breath, I pried his pistol from his fingers. I looked up and saw Livius standing, a tiny trail of smoke trailing from the gun I gave him.

"Thanks, kid." I wiped the blood off of the gun and stood up, my knees were still shaking.

Livius just nodded and ran off. I pushed my glasses up and looked around the town.

Blood dripped from the walls and the road was littered with the bodies of the Powder Gangers. It didn't look like any civilians were killed so far, but I wasn't going to push our luck.

"Celeste!" I heard Livius yell from behind the saloon.

"Livius!" Shit, I used his real name. I ran to the saloon, my feet sliding on the puddles of blood.

I turned the corner and aimed the gun, but Livius didn't seem to need my help. He was just standing there with his arms crossed, his sweater vest splattered with blood. A Powder Ganger, the one I saw earlier in the saloon, was kneeling in front of him with his hands tied behind his back.

"Where the hell did you get the rope to do that?" I clipped the gun to my belt and stomped over to him.

"I found the man they answer to." Livius pushed his bloody bangs behind his ear. "Now we must decide which punishment is appropriate."

"Punish…what, no?!" I grabbed his shoulders and forced him to look into my eyes. "You're not with the Legion right now." I said through gritted teeth. "We don't torture people. We're just going to kill him like civilized people."

"But he must pay for his actions."

"Wait, Legion?!" The Powder Ganger looked up with a terrified expression, but I just smiled back.

"Don't worry about it." I turned back to Livius. "He's not even worth it. He's just the leader of a tiny troop of Powder Gangers that's taking over a dinky little town. There will be plenty of time for torture when we find the asshole I'm looking for."

Livius narrowed his eyes at me, but then he let out a long sigh.

"As you wish." He spun around on his heel and shot him between the eyes.

"Whoa, whoa!" I jumped back at the burst of gunfire. "I wanted to do it!"

"What?"

"I didn't get to shoot one."

"Oh…" he held the gun out to me. "Want to shoot him now?"

"No, the magic is gone."

"I'm sorry. You can shoot the next one, I promise." His face twitched in a way that I suppose was supposed to be a smile.

I shrugged and stepped around the body, trying to avoid stepping in the puddle of blood that was slowly growing around him. I knelt down and slowly rolled him over onto his stomach.

"What are you doing?" Livius let the pistol fall limp in his hand.

Using the small knife I kept in my pocket, I managed to cut away the rope that bound his wrists together.

"I want it to at least look like he had a chance." I stood up and scraped the blood off of my boot with the packed earth.

"He had a chance, but he failed." Livius reached back and untied his hair, snapping the tie back on his wrist.

"So then you kill him." I wiped away at the blood from the cut on my face.

"But we punish those who are weak. That's how the Legion remained strong."

"You're not in the Legion right now!" I slammed my fist against the wall of the saloon. "I would like to get to the Strip with as little torture as possible, if you don't mind."

"Legion?"

Fuck.

I turned around slowly and saw Trudy standing there with her arms crossed, soon joined by other citizens of Goodsprings.

"I knew there was something strange about all of these visitors, but I couldn't put my finger on it until now. You two are Legion spies, aren't you?"

"What? No!" Shit, brain don't fail me now. "We're just, uh…it's an expression. A figure of speech or something…"

Livius shook his head and stepped forward, his head bowed.

"No, there's no point. While I can assure you that the woman has nothing to do with this, I am a Legionary recruit." He lifted his blood stained shirt sleeve, revealing two black striped tattooed on the skin of his forearm. Even though he looked nervous, I could also feel a sense of pride when he spoke.

Livius was a skinny young man with large, round green eyes and a sweater vest, but by the way the people in the town looked at him you would have thought he was a fifteen foot super mutant with a grenade launcher.

"I'm afraid we have no choice but to turn him in to the NCR." Trudy took a tiny step back. "It wouldn't do good things for our town if people find out that we were knowingly keeping a Legionary here."

Livius sighed. "This was a stupid idea." He held his wrists out and closed his eyes.

"Wait, are you kidding me?" I grabbed Livius' shoulder and pulled him back. "This man just fought alongside you against the Powder Gangers and you're just going to throw him away like this?"

I scanned the small crowd for Doc Mitchell. We locked eyes, but he just sighed, his eyes falling on the blood and bodies that now adorned the town.

Trudy's entire body stiffened, but then her shoulders slumped.

"I suppose we don't have to…but you have to leave."

"That was part of the plan to begin with." I pushed my glasses up and marched off. "You comin' kid?"

Livius opened his mouth to say something, but when no words came out he nodded and ran after me, pulling his sleeve back over his tattoos again.

"Wait!"

I stopped in my tracks and turned around. Ringo was running after us and I stood my ground.

"What is it?"

He eyed Livius nervously and cleared his throat.

"I just wanted to thank you for your help." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag of caps. "There should be around a hundred in there. I'm sorry, but that's all I have to offer for now. But if you pop by the Crimson Caravan, I can pay you the rest."

I took the bag and tossed it around in my hand. "Thank you…you're not going to mention the little details, are you?"

"What do you mean?"

I motioned toward Livius.

"Oh. Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of it."

I slipped the bag into my pocket. "So that's settled. Thanks for the caps."

Ringo shook his head. "No. Thanks for what you did."

When he ran off, Livius shook his head.

"I wish I didn't have to be in hiding like this."

"I'm afraid we don't have another choice." The sun was almost entirely behind the horizon at this point. "Well we can't stay here anymore. I'll look around for a place to camp for the night."

Livius nodded. "I'm going to go get my things from the schoolhouse."

"All right. Be careful."

Livius gave a dismissive wave and walked off.


After walking around for what felt like hours, I eventually found an abandoned trailer by the Goodsprings wells. Hey, they said nothing about using their resources, right? The trailer was rusted, half buried in the ground, and the only things in it was a mattress packed with dirt. It certainly wasn't the Ultra Luxe, but it was something.

Livius made a fire and began roasting a gecko we shot nearby. He changed back into his recruit uniform, even though I advised against it.

I shivered and rubbed my upper arms. For a desert, it was surprisingly cold at night. The cold wet feeling of blood on my back didn't help matters.

"You need to get that shirt cleaned." Livius examined the gecko to make sure it was cooked all the way. "That blood is not going to smell good after a while in the heat."

I pulled at the straps of my tank top. "I would, but it's not like I have anything else to cover up with. Besides, I'm not wasting water on something like this."

He pointed behind himself to the wells. "We're by the wells."

"And I'm not angry enough at the town to use their water to wash blood out of my clothing."

The gecko finished cooking and we began picking it apart like two vultures.

"So, who is this person you're looking for?" The fire made Livius' armor look ablaze with oranges and reds.

My teeth ripped off a particularly stringy piece of gecko.

"Some asshole shot me in the face. Obviously I have some questions."

Livius gave me a skeptical look. "You were really shot in the face?"

I sighed and lifted my bangs up, showing him my scar. "Apparently he's going to the Strip. You mentioned something about Primm and Novac. Maybe he passed through those places too. The more information I get, the better."

"Why were you shot?"

I shrugged. "That's what I want to know. One moment I'm delivering a package, the next I'm on my knees with a gun pressed to my forehead."

"What kind of package?"

"Just some…" I paused. "What's the Legion's stance on chems?"

Livius gave me an odd look. "We think that they are poisons that feed on the weaknesses of degenerates.

"…just some stuff. Anyway, I guess something was smuggled in the package, but I still don't know all the details. So what about you?"

Livius poked the firewood with a stick. "Yes?"

"Why Legion?"

He shrugged. "Why anything?"

"Don't get philosophical on me, mister."

"I was born into it, and I'm glad. I don't know what I would have done if I was born to just some mere degenerates."

"You mean like me?"

Livius smiled a bit. "You may have saved my life, but you're not an exception."

"Fair enough."

He cleared out some of the rocks behind him and laid down.

"So are you like a delivery girl or something?"

I shook my head. "I had a small clinic out in the Mojave with my brother." I sighed and leaned back against the trailer. "When raiders attacked, I managed to stay alive by…by developing and delivering chems."

Livius scoffed and shook his head. "Under the rule of Lord Caesar, that sort of thing would never have happened."

I smirked a bit. "Well no matter who's in charge, there are going to be problems." I stared up at the sky, watching the flames from the fire climb up.

When the gecko was finished, I extinguished the fire and stepped into the trailer.

"Well, I'm going off to bed."

Livius sat outside by the entrance, my pistol still in his hands.

"You go ahead. I'll keep watch."

"You sure?"

He nodded.

"Okay then." I went inside and laid back on the mattress. "Goodnight, Livius."

"Goodnight, Amicus."