Thank you all for reading (and an extra special thanks to those that reviewed!) If I ever become a proper grownup writer it will be because of all of you.

This is a great song, by the way, you should youtube it. I'm surprised it hasn't made it into a game yet, it's totally got that 'abandoned, dimly-lit dance hall at the end of the world' thing going on. Or is it just me that gets that?

My secret shame: I never found the vending machine code for stimpaks. This made this DLC INSANELY HARD and I had to turn the difficulty all the way down :( When I was doing a bit of story-reconnaissance I found it. Jesus Christ, how did I miss that?

The Courier's mouth was pressed against damp, clammy cobblestones. She opened her eyes weakly. Her head was throbbing. Red. Everything was red. The sky. The air. The gently swirling mist tasted like metal. What was making it move? There wasn't any wind.

She was in what looked like a town square. The buildings were all too close together, clustered together like overlapping teeth, looming over the narrow cobbled streets.

She pushed herself into a sitting position with shaky arms, not entirely sure she was even awake. There was a fountain in the middle of the square, with something glowing in it. A woman. A glowing blue woman. Right.

One whole side of her body ached as if it had been hit hard with something heavy. And she didn't have her armour on. Wait. She didn't have anything. She frantically grabbed at the pockets of the thin canvas jumpsuit she was somehow wearing. She had nothing.

"Fuck," she said, out loud. There was an answering groan from behind her. She turned to see Boone, struggling to stand up, and Veronica, kneeling.

"Holy shit," she said, scrambling over to them. "I am so fucking glad to see you guys." She broke into a coughing fit as the red mist filled her mouth, coating her tongue with a metallic film.

"Are you okay?" said Veronica.

"Yeah, yeah," she replied. "Just... for a minute I thought I'd be all alone here."

"What's that around your neck?" asked Boone. She noticed him going through the same movements as her, checking pockets, legs, back, for weapons or supplies. His eyes narrowed.

The Courier lifted her hands to her throat. "I don't know. Metal and wires and stuff. You've got them too."

Veronica got to her feet, and leaned in to take a closer look at her collar. "Hmm. I have a really bad feeling that this is set to explode. I don't know under what circumstances though."

A tinny crackle from the fountain made her spin to face it, her hands reaching for a gun that wasn't there.

"I may be able to assist in that regard."

A flickering projection of a bearded man's face replaced the glowing woman in the fountain.

"It will explode if you attempt to leave, and," he sighed deeply, "unfortunately, in the presence of certain radiowaves. Do as I say, and you will not be harmed."

"E-Elijah?" Veronica stepped forwards, eyes glowing with excitement. "Where have you been? What are you doing here? It's so good to see you again, I was so worried!"

"Veronica," he said. His voice changed, softening. "I'm... sorry you had to be brought here like this. It's been so long – I wasn't sure how you would remember me, left with McNamara and the rest."

"No, it's fine!" she said. "I completely understand." She turned to face the Courier and Boone, who were standing tensely watching. "Guys, this is Father Elijah! I've told you so much about-" she turned back to Elijah, giddy and almost incoherent with excitement. "She helped- we found the pulse gun! From your notes!"

The image in the fountain must have been from a photograph, because it wasn't moving. "I'm so proud of you, Veronica. But now I need your help. There is technology in this place, Veronica, that is unparalleled in today's world. Unimaginable. You must help me, it is imperative that we secure this technology before anyone else can."

Veronica grinned. "Okay!" she exclaimed. "Of course I'll help you. What do you need us to do?"

Boone, next to the Courier, shifted uncomfortably. "This isn't right," he said under his breath, barely a whisper.

"Mm-hmm," agreed the Courier. "What do we do?"

"Go along with it. For now."

She nodded her assent.

"First," began Elijah. "In the fountain there is a Holo-rifle. Take it. The inhabitants of this place are... aggressive."

Veronica scooped it out.

"There are three of you, so to enter the Sierra Madre Casino you won't need to obtain extra help – although further assistance may prove useful. I will upload your instruction and the coordinates of three-" the faintest of pauses –"people who may prove useful to that girl's wrist device. You should also be able to tune her radio to their frequencies to enable you to listen in on them." He paused. "Veronica – thank you. This means a lot to me."

The projection faded. Veronica turned back to them, brimming with barely-suppressed excitement.

"Isn't this amazing?" she asked. "I can't believe he's here!"

"Yep," said the Courier. "That's really something." It had been a while since she'd been referred to as just "that girl". The associate of someone else. No one special. She smiled.

Boone leaned in and lifted her collar gently in his hands, turning it around so he could see it from all angles.

"Watch your fingers," she said, grinning, trying to feign a confidence she didn't feel.

"What are you looking for?" asked Veronica.

"Speaker," he replied.

"What for?"

He didn't reply, but tapped the collar just under her chin. The Courier touched it, felt the tiny grill, and nodded.

"Right," she said. "So, Elijah's uploaded three targets. The first one is... Dog? A real dog?"

"Can't imagine a dog here," said Boone. "Who gets the gun?"

Veronica handed it to him. "I don't really need it," she said. He raised an eyebrow at the Courier, who shrugged.

"You're a better shot than I am," she said. "I'll just, uh, tag along at the back." She laughed dryly. "Scream if anything gets too close, you know. Collect these fucking chips or something."

Their footsteps echoed strangely as they moved through the streets, and the mist seemed to whisper mutedly around the doorways and arches. More than once, Boone held up his hand for them to stop, listening, but after long, tense minutes, nothing made any more sound.

They moved slowly through the narrow streets. The buildings around them were crumbling, roof tiles piled under the overhanging roofs where they had slipped off long ago. Most of the doors had been boarded up, and most of the ones that hadn't were blocked by something on the other side. More rubble, probably. The buildings seemed to loom over the streets, and the Courier was afraid their footsteps would judder them out of place, burying the three in a pile of crumbled masonry.

They walked through a gate, closing the door behind them. In the distance they could hear a faint clanging, like a warning bell. They moved slower, more cautiously, watching for any sign of life.

Up ahead, through an archway, something was moving. It was poking at the piles of rubble, weaving in a sort of undulating movement that looked inhuman.

"The fuck is that?" the Courier said, under her breath. The figure froze. The Courier's eyes widened? How could it have heard that? It couldn't have.

The figure turned, first its head and then the rest of its body, to look at them. It was wearing some sort of mask, and its eyes glowed in the dim light like lamps. It leaped towards them, bounding like an animal. Boone took aim and fired, stopping it in mid-jump. It fell to the ground.

"Fucking shit," said the Courier, badly unnerved. "What the fuck is that?" She crouched over it and tugged at its mask. It wouldn't come off. It seemed to be attached to its clothes, like a radiation suit. She reached for its right hand, which had what looked like a bear trap on it, and started undoing the clasps that held it to its wrist.

The left hand of the creature grabbed her wrist. She screamed, yanked back hard, and stamped on its face as hard as she could. It didn't feel like bone and cartilage that cracked under her feet, after the initial crunch it was a lot more soft, almost liquid. She stamped on it again, and her feet sank into its head like a bag filled with water.

"Jesus fuck," she said, scrambling away until her back was up against a pillar. Veronica was crouched over, staring at it. She finished removing the bear trap glove and strapped it to her own wrist. She poked experimentally at its head a couple of times, then stood with a shrug.

"Let's keep moving," she said.

They found the bell, still ringing insistently, outside the police station.

"It says Dog's in here," said the Courier.

Their collars started beeping almost as soon as they were inside, and they had to press themselves against the door to make them stop. Boone took aim at the radio on the other side of the room and hit it, sending bits of metal and plastic flying. Dog was a nightkin, and Veronica crouched by his cage trying to get him to speak to her without much success, while the Courier searched the back rooms for weapons. She found a pistol and some body armour in the locker rooms, the latter of which she reluctantly gave to Veronica, who'd probably need it more.

The pistol, at least, allowed her to shoot out the speakers herself. Boone followed her as she walked down the steps to the basement. She jumped as a voice came from seemingly nowhere.

"Come and find me," it said. It seemed to be challenging them rather than inviting them, and the Courier readied her pistol. She wasn't as happy with pistols as rifles, but she was still a decent shot. Close up, at least.

"You doing okay?" asked Boone.

She smiled. "It's not really what I was expecting," she said.

"Yeah," he said. "Me neither." He looked away, down the dark corridor. "Sorry."

"Denied," she said. "It's still an adventure. Better than... I don't know. Arguing with sharecroppers about irrigation systems."

Boone wrapped his fingers around his collar, covering the speaker. She did the same.

"What are we going to do about Elijah?" he said, his voice low.

"Holy shit, I don't know," she replied. "We are actually prisoners, right? Veronica's got me confused."

"I assume that if we weren't, we wouldn't have to wear these."

"Maybe bomb collars are how the Brotherhood express affection," she said. "Were you at Hidden Valley with me that one time?"

He didn't smile. "I think that the others might know more about him. Once we've got them we might be able to figure out a way out."

"Or a way in, right? He wants to get into the casino, we help him, then maybe we can get out while he's doing whatever."

He shrugged. "Could go that way."

"What do we do with Veronica? Just go along with Elijah actually being an okay guy?"

"I don't know. Yeah. For now."

"Fuck," she said, and followed the voice recording down the hall.

Boone had been right. The voice led to a radio, which she turned off gratefully, and a holotape next to it.

The Courier stood outside the nightkin's prison cell.

"Hey buddy," she said. "I got something for you." She hit the 'play' button on her pip-boy.

The effect on the nightkin was amazing. He stopped mumbling to himself and got to his feet, shook his shoulders back, and walked towards the cell door with an air of barely-suppressed menace. The Courier took a step back involuntarily. The nightkin laughed.

"You must know I have the key, surely."

"Are you... Dog?" she asked, confused.

"No. I am God. Dog is in the cage. You're not who I was expecting. Where is the old man?"

"Um. I can take you to him? Well, sort of."

"No. No." The nightkin grasped the bars of the cell. "The old man was meant to come here."

"What did he do to you?" asked Veronica, cautiously.

"He made Dog his pet," spat the nightkin. "A wretched, snivelling, cowering pet to do his bidding."

"Well," said the Courier, cheerfully. "Why don't you come out and we can all go see him?"

The nightkin turned his back. "I'm not going anywhere with you. You're a slave as much as Dog is."

"Fuck's sake," she said. "What turns you back into Dog?"

"It's voice-activated as well, isn't it?" said Veronica. She took a step closer to the cage. "Elijah's voice?"

It was God's turn to take a step back. "No. You wouldn't-"

"Don't worry," said the Courier. "I'll let you right back out." She hit the play button on her pip-boy.

The nightkin cowered, hunching his shoulders. "M-master?"

"Hey, big guy," cooed the Courier. "You've got a key on you somewhere. Find it and give it to me."

Dog handed it to her hesitantly, and she unlocked the cell door.

"Great," she said. "Now come on out here."

She felt Boone coming to stand close behind her, wary.

"And let's talk to that other guy again." She played God's voice from her pip-boy.

God looked at the cage, then her, and roared. She took a step back, tripped over Boone's foot, and fell to the ground. Boone didn't have a chance to raise the rifle before the nightkin backhanded him violently, knocking him across the room. The Courier scrambled back, frantically mashing at the buttons on her pip-boy, and finally managed to play Elijah's tape.

Dog looked down at her, confused.

"Fuck," she said. "That was fucking retarded." She waited for her heart to stop pounding.

"You okay?" she called out to Boone.

There was no reply. She took her eyes off the mutant, trying to see into the darkness. "Boone?"

Veronica was crouched over him in the corner, next to the bench he had hit. "He's – he's bleeding," she said quietly. "Quite badly."

The Courier swallowed thickly. She stood, stomach full of dread, and walked over. One of Boone's jumpsuit legs was soaked with blood already. Boone was conscious, but only just, breathing raggedly.

"I've got no stimpaks. No med-x. Anything," she said. She reached out a hand to touch Boone's leg, as gently as she could. The fabric was damp with blood, and she ran her hand up his leg, trying to find the source of the bleeding. Just above his knee she felt something hard and sharp, out of place. It was bone. Boone went white when she touched it, and let his head drop back against the wall.

"Sorry," she whispered. "Shit. Okay, there's some sort of clinic to the north. Should we try and reset the bone?"

Boone shook his head. "Bleeding... too much," he said with some effort. "Sharp. It'll cut... more."

She nodded, and lifted his arm over her head to help him up. Standing was too much for him, though, and he collapsed, unconscious. The Courier fell to one knee, unable to hold him up on her own.

"Ronnie," she said desperately, fighting back tears. "I can't – I'm not strong enough, can you?"

Veronica took her place, and was able to take most of his weight.

The Courier picked up the holo-rifle, and opened the door. The red mist swirled in, and, jaw clenched and with her heart in her throat, led them outside.

Oh man this was so hard to write. I hate covering in-game stuff.

Dialogue is my one true love.