The next few days passed uneventfully for both Elesis and Katherine. While Elesis slept and rested as she recovered from her wounds, the Minutemen's General continued to work, tending to the injuries of those men that she had sent out on patrols whenever they would return. It struck Elesis as being extremely odd that a 'general' was a healer. Doubly so when the very same 'general' seemed to wield no weapons at all. Not even a simple dagger or a short sword, as every Velder-raised militiaman was trained to use, nor the strange muskets that her militiamen seemed to use.

Footsteps echoed on the concrete outside the room. Reflexively, the dark knight's hands reached for her claymore, but sighed as she remembered that her blade was most definitely out of her reach. That, and she was definitely in a safe place, given the number of patrolling militiamen about.

"General—I mean, Katherine?"

"...She's asleep," Elesis spoke, looking to the doorway from her bed. The Minutemen's general – Katherine – was fast asleep in a tattered bedroll, snoring softly. "Preston, if I remember correctly. Is there something that she needs to know?"

"Well, it's not urgent. We've received word that a settlement needs some help, and it would be good if she could check it out,"

"I'll let her know once she wakes up,"

"Thank you. We'd prefer to not have the General go out and do these missions, but we're short-handed as it is. How do you feel, by the way? You looked pretty roughed up a few days back,"

"I...feel alright, I suppose. General Katherine's treatment of my wounds has been most effective. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering. You look like you've been in your share of fights. You're not a Minuteman, but you probably know the General isn't one for fighting. No offense, Gen- Katherine,"

"None taken, Preston," yawned Katherine, a hand over her mouth, "It would be appreciated if you could keep your voices down. Mon dieu, my head,"

She checked the device that seemed to be always strapped to her forearm. After flicking through a few dials, a cup of steaming coffee appeared in her lap, on top of a newly-created leather jacket.

"So, is something the matter, Preston?" she asked, sipping her coffee and pulling a face, shuddering. Clearly the drink did not taste at all appealing, "I trust that something important has come to your attention. Otherwise, you would not have come to find me at...thirty minutes past three in the morning, non?"

"Uh, yes, ma'am. A settlement has asked for our assistance, and we don't have any patrols to spare," Preston said, "It's Abernathy Farm. They didn't say anything more. If you have time, it would be good to check it out,"

"Very well, then. It would be most appreciated if you could offer a few of your men to accompany me," she said, gulping down the rest of her drink.

"I would if I could, Katherine, but like I said before, they're all out on patrol. Now, I'd probably get back to my guardpost. Safe travels, friend,"

As soon as Preston exited the building, Katherine let out a deep sigh. "It seems that I will never have enough men to protect every settlement under our protection. But in this wasteland, if the Minutemen do not answer, then who will protect them?"

"I don't know, but...while I was bound to the service of the King of Velder, there were always many squads of soldiers and knights to punish every last brigand. I always had at least a full company of men at my command," replied Elesis. The night was swelteringly warm, and she found herself sweating profusely. Even worse was the stifling heat was the ever-persistent smell of that strange spray that the healer would use every time she needed to operate on someone. She needed an excuse to get out of the room; any excuse would do. Before she knew it, she blurted out, "Could I come along?"

"Excuse me?" the blonde asked, raising an eyebrow. Her forehead was furrowed in thought as she looked Elesis up and down. After a few brief moments, she sighed in defeat, shoulders slumped. "I will admit, you do look much healthier tonight than a few nights ago. But would you care to...enlighten me...about why you would even choose to leave the safety of Sanctuary? When you are not fully healed yet, no less?"

"You said you didn't have enough men," Elesis said, shrugging her shoulders. Inside, she hoped that this healer would understand her intentions, "Just a suggestion,"

"That much is true. Yes, the Minutemen cannot spare men to come with me," Katherine murmured, fixing a glare on the dark knight, "But I will not simply waive my duties as a doctor. Until you are fully healed, I could not permit you to go without supervision, let alone follow me where there may be danger. There is another reason you wish to be out and about, yes?"

Nodding, Elesis gave her a small smile. This healer – a doctor, she calls herself – was more perceptive than the common soldiery that served in the city watch.

"I suppose this clinic could have a little more air. It is a little warm, after all. Very well then. I will examine you to see if you are well enough to travel. Lift up your shirt, s'il vous plait,"

Slender fingers poked at the knight's ribs as she complied, earning a flinch and a slight hiss of pain from her. When Katherine frowned at her disapprovingly, Elesis quickly stiffened up.

"Do not try to hide your pain from me," Katherine muttered. A harder prod to the knight's lowest rib immediately caused her to flinch, "Especially when your attempts are so obvious. Well, at least the bones are set. How does your stomach feel?"

"Feels...alright. Ouch!"

The doctor had run a finger along the red scar along the length of Elesis' midriff. Evidently, despite all the strange medicines in those needles, it had not completely healed. Katherine flashed her a brief apologetic smile. One of these days, the knight thought to herself, she would get back at the doctor in her own way.

"There we go. At least you are not holding it back any more," she chuckled. A loud growl sounded from Elesis' stomach; her cheeks burned a brilliant crimson, "Oh dear. I do apologise for the lack of food. We have had a few...issues...with our supply lines as of late. If you would like, you may have the rest of the broth in my brahmin stew,"

"No solid food yet?" whined Elesis, her embarrassment temporarily forgotten. The chance of eating something more filling than thin, tasteless broth or lumpy gruel was simply too good for her. What she would not give for a well-cooked steak! Yet she was disappointed when the blonde shook her head.

"No. I do not know how much of your...surgery...you were awake for. Or if you were alert enough to remember any of it. Not for another week, at least, and that's with stimpaks every four hours to help with regeneration. Your...insides, for a lack of better words, received quite severe wounds from those spearheads,"

"How much harm could some solid food do? I mean, they're not made of metal or anything,"

"Far too much. Unless you wish for me to look at your insides again in two days' time, you will not eat anything more solid than pureed tatos," Katherine spoke with an air of finality, "And if I must speak the truth, I am still uncertain with how much Med-X I should use on you to properly ensure that you would remain unconscious through the entire procedure,"

The thought of Katherine probing through her insides caused Elesis to blanch. No matter how much her body had been numbed through the procedure, being partially awake was greatly disturbing, to say the least. To see those hands move...with those sharp, sharp implements, without being able to react...

"...I'm not hungry any more," she mumbled, retching a little when those particularly vivid memories came to mind. That was not something she was particularly fond of remembering.

Katherine patted the knight's back gently, earning a cough and a weak glare from her. "I am sorry. I probably should not have mentioned it like that. Now, I think you are well enough to be at least up and about. Just for safety, one additional dose of stimpak. Your left arm, please,"

Shuddering, Elesis held out her left arm. The doctor fished out a needle nestled in her white coat's pocket. Giving it a quick flick, she carefully inserted it into the crook of the redhead's arm, pressing out its contents into her bloodstream. The effect was profound; immediately, Elesis felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and she could finally move about again.

"Now that should help keep you together for a few hours. Not that I expect any fighting between here and a settlement barely a kilometre from here, of course. Oh, and I almost forgot. Sturges has finished repairing your...outfit. It is...unique..."

The blonde's cheeks glowed a bright pink, and she turned away. Elesis could not blame her; the armourer in Velder did remove quite a few pieces of her armoured skirt, to allow the knight to move more freely, as she requested. If it were not for the fact that most of her battles were fought under the cover of night, she, too, would despise being seen in such a revealing suit of leather armour.

"Ahem. We...probably should go," Katherine said, her fingers furiously flying over the device on her wrist. As if by magic, Elesis' armour appeared in a neat pile on her bed, along with the tattered blood-red cloak that she had worn with her old suit of armour, "Please wear it. I had some...additional pieces added. For modesty's sake, of course,"

"...Thank you, I guess?" Elesis replied uncertainly, a door swinging shut as the blonde bolted out of the room in a hurry. Shrugging, she quickly slipped out of her ill-fitting shirt into her well-fitted suit of armour. True to what the doctor had said, there was an additional piece or two – or rather, one large piece. She'd been given some form of form-fitting one-piece suit, made of some tough yet elastic cloth, over which fitted the original leathers and metal plates of her armour. Several pieces of black metal plating had been attached to its left leg. A curious loop of leather, too small for even a shortsword, was attached to its right.

"What's this...?" she said, pulling on the leather loop gently.

"Are you finished yet? I would prefer to leave soon, if that is possible," spoke Katherine from outside the room. Elesis tightened the last strap on her armour and rolled her shoulders. The armour fitted as well as she remembered, even with the addition of that oddly stretchy one-piece undersuit.

"Yes, I'm ready," replied the dark knight, throwing open the door. The doctor now had a long white coat over the blue-and-yellow suit she always seemed to wear, and she was chewing on what seemed to be a dark brown piece of meat with barely veiled disgust. After what seemed an eternity of chewing on leathery flesh, she swallowed it and immediately downed a half a bottle of water.

"Excellent. Here, I have not forgotten that you were hungry. Have the rest of the stew; there is nothing in it that will make you ill," Katherine gasped, pushing the can of mostly-eaten stew into Elesis' hands, "Sacre bleu. Please excuse my manners. I have yet to be accustomed to the local...cuisine. The meat is tougher than rubber, but at least Codsworth has learned to add enough salt now,"

Giving the contents of the can a sniff, Elesis raised an eyebrow. It smelled slightly burned, though otherwise not too terrible. And as she gave the goo-like contents a slow stir with the spoon inside the can, a few minute chunks of some half-liquefied reddish vegetable floated to the surface.

It could not be worse than hardtack and gruel, she thought, picking up the spoon and eating a spoonful of the stew. Salty, but otherwise bland. This she could live with, and soon she wolfed down the rest of the can's contents, much to the blonde's surprise.

"Well, it seems that at least one of us enjoys Codsworth's cooking," said Katherine, collecting the empty can and setting it down on a nearby table, "If you are finished eating, then let us proceed,"

The device on the blonde's wrist projected a bright green light, not unlike that which Eve usually gets one of her drones to project at night. Following her lead, Elesis stepped outside, wondering what Sanctuary looked like at night.

"What in the name of the El Lady..." she whispered.

The world seemed as though it had been scorched to a crisp. The trees were barren, every last leaf scorched away. What little grass poked through from the cracked, hard earth was brown and withered. Every building seemed to have been struck by some tremendous force; many had collapsed, and those that were still standing were crumbling to nothingness.

"Yes, it is much to take in, is it not?" Katherine replied, a hint of bitterness in her voice. She flashed Elesis a small smile, before continuing on down the road. A newer building, crafted of a crude patchwork of wood and cloth, stood on one side, while a smoke-belching machine hummed loudly outside, a light glowing on top of it.

"This is the settlers' dormitory. I would have liked to have each family in their own home, but that is not possible with the resources we currently have. And on the other side of this road-" she pointed to a metal building, shaped rather like a half-pipe, "-is our armoury. We will need to find you a weapon to use,"

"I...I have my sword," replied Elesis, "If you have my armour, then my sword is...?"

"I am afraid that Sturges has not finished repairing it. If I may say so, it is a...unique design. Curved, and rather elegant for its size. But let us see what is in stock. Bonsoir, Mr. Long," Katherine spoke to a nervous-looking man outside the armoury. His eyes seemed as though they were drooping closed, though they flew open once he saw the doctor in front of him.

"G-Good evening, Doc- General Delacroix," he stuttered, snapping off a sloppy salute. Elesis frowned at the display. Just how undisciplined were her men? "A-Are you looking for something?"

"Yes, Mr. Long. I requested the repair of our guest's weapon, but Sturges has told me that he has not yet finished doing so. I would like a...ahem. Perhaps it would be better to allow our guest to choose something that suits her,"

Katherine nodded to Elesis, who stepped into the rather dark room. Inside was a rather well-stocked armoury of crude-looking weapons, lit only by a single flickering light. Many resembled rusted Nasod guns, constructed of rusting pipes and held together seemingly by only bent screws and crude bands of cloth. Not that she knew how to operate a gun, as that was a method of fighting usually given to the ordinary foot soldiers, and not the Red Knights.

But at the back of the room, she found a stock of what appeared to be melee weapons. Some were well-polished, tapered sticks with felt handles on their wider ends, a wide-bladed kitchen knife bound to its narrow end; resembling some form of crude spear. Others appeared to be simple sledgehammers, their shafts reinforced by strips of metal. On one wall, several short, serrated daggers hung from pegs on a board. The other wall held a number of longer single-edged blades, with traces of rust and dried blood on them.

"This will do," sighed Elesis, taking one of the longer blades from the wall and giving it an experimental swing. It was poorly balanced, but it was otherwise sharp.

"Right. I-I'll let Preston know about it. General Delacroix, are you sure you don't want anything? You know, just in case?"

"I will be fine. Thank you for your concern, however," the blonde replied, carefully averting her eyes from the armoury, "Come, Elesis. Put that machete away, if you please. We are in company of friends here,"

The small township soon vanished into darkness behind the pair as they ventured further up the road. The total silence that enveloped the world was almost surreal; it was as though every living creature had been wiped from existence. Only faint starlight and the light from the doctor's device illuminated the cracked and crumbling road ahead.

This must have been once filled with many people, Elesis thought to herself, as they crested a hill and into view of a sprawling town of numerous tall wooden houses buildings. Yet she could not help but wonder where did every last person disappear to. It was unsettling; every house seemed to be either collapsed or boarded up – or empty, its owners long dead and gone.

Or in the case of a particular shop, plundered by bandits. Several tattooed corpses, with numerous bullet wounds, littered the ground in front of the ruined building. Another man and a woman lay dead beside a rotting, two-headed cow, an empty wooden rack on top of the beast's back the only sign of what goods it had carried before its death.

"Mon dieu. Even here, the raiders are still around," coughed Katherine. As if seeking reassurance, she edged ever closer to Elesis, almost clinging onto the knight's arm.

A general that's cowardly? Now I've seen everything, Elesis thought. The knight was no stranger to seeing (or delivering) death, but to see the manner in which the corpses were desecrated brought more than a little bit of anger to her mind. The corpse of the man had its head removed and nailed down between the heads of the rotting two-headed cow, while the woman's clothes had been reduced to tatters and scattered across the breadth of the street. The back of her knees had been slashed, and it was obvious what had happened to her before her untimely demise.

"Come on, let's keep moving," growled Elesis, awkwardly inching her way forward with the doctor clinging on to her arm as though her life depended on it. For someone that was completely unfazed about slicing open a living person to heal them, Katherine was oddly mortified by even being near a corpse.

After what seemed to be an eternity with her clinging to her arm, Elesis huffed and shook her arm free. "You know, you used that little knife on me, cut me open, and you didn't seem to care. You put me back together again, after you'd cut me open. So why does seeing a dead body bother you so much? They don't even bleed, and they're not alive to even do anything back to you,"

"I..." the doctor stammered. Her fists were clenched, and Elesis was certain her face was red, "I...never mind. I am sorry. Perhaps I should speak of it another time. It is a...personal reason. Let us keep moving,"

"As you wish," Elesis said, shrugging.

The trail to the farm was very poorly lit, and the pair of them stumbled over countless rocks and branches in the dark as they made their way. If it were not for the searchlight installed on the roof of the farmhouse, it would have been nearly impossible to find it in the darkness.

"Hold it right there, strangers. We don't want any trouble," called out a voice from the farmhouse, along with an audible click. Squinting, Elesis could barely make out the outline of a gun on a nearby window. She reached for the blade at her her side, but Katherine reached out and pushed her arm down, shaking her head.

Relaxing your guard could mean a swift death, Elesis thought. The only thing that keeps any warrior alive is

"We do not mean any harm, monsieur. The Minutemen have received a request for assistance, and I have come to see what the problem is,"

"Oh, you're with the Minutemen? I didn't think they'd answer. Heard from one of the patrols that you guys don't have enough manpower at this time. Still, come in, come in. No use keeping you in the dark,"

The outline of the gun vanished into the farmhouse. A few lights then clicked on inside, revealing that a man and a woman were inside, their guns propped against their shoulders, while a younger woman stood up from her hiding place under the kitchen table. Slowly, Elesis and Katherine made their way to the farmhouse, where the man – the farmhouse's owner, Elesis supposed – came to greet them, one of the women following closely behind. Both, she noticed, still had their guns, though now held loosely at their sides.

"Do you always greet strangers with weapons?" Elesis grumbled, earning her a sharp glare from the doctor.

"One can never be too careful in the Wasteland," replied the farm's owner, giving her an apologetic nod, "After all, it's what's kept us alive all these years,"

"Indeed. In any case, I believe it is probably best to introduce ourselves. I am Katherine Delacroix, of the Minutemen,"

"Ah, I've heard of you from the patrolman that passed by! Blake Abernathy, and this here is my farm. The roads were safer back when there were hundreds of your group, patrolling the roads and keeping us all safe. But my, you're a sight for sore eyes—"

That earned him a hard slap from the woman behind him, who stalked away, fuming. Nursing the red handprint on his cheek, he cleared his throat and continued, "—I meant the presence of some minutemen, of course. Not that...eh, maybe I should just stop here. So who is your companion here?"

Noting that Elesis merely kept a cold stare on the man without saying a single word, Katherine coughed and covered for the knight.

"She is Elesis Sieghart. A volunteer, so to speak, She is here as my escort tonight,"

"Escort? Hmm. If you say so,"

"In any case, I do not think that you have called for Minutemen assistance for idle chatter, non?" Katherine continued, smiling at the farmer, "So, let us get down to the business at hand. We shall be on our way as soon as we can,"

"A-Alright. Well, we have a bit of a raider problem. The bastards over at old Satellite Station Olivia stole a locket. One of our old family heirlooms, actually; a silver locket. My eldest daughter – Mary – thought that she could take on the whole raider gang and get our heirloom back,"

"How long has it been?"

"Two days. It's been two days since she left, and I'm getting worried. We'd left the message with that minuteman last night, but...well, since you're here, I guess there's not much more to explain. Please, you've got to find her. Connie would be devastated if we were to lose her,"

To Elesis' disgust, the man had tears building up in the corner of his eyes. Tears. If he cared about his daughter so much, he should have gone after those bandits with her!

"Well, Mr. Abernathy. The Minutemen are here to help. We will find your daughter and bring her back," Katherine whispered, leaning over and wiping away some of the tears on the man's face, "I promise. Now, please remain calm. I do believe that your wife and...your daughter, if I presume correctly...would appreciate having some normalcy in their lives. Now, if that is all; bonsoir, monsieur. I shall return when I have your daughter, or more news of her,"

Flashing a gentle smile, she turned away from the man and began walking back towards Sanctuary. Elesis soon followed suit, looking over her shoulder at the farmer. He was still wiping his face with an arm, even as he walked back to his farmhouse.

"I was dearly hoping that he would not ask that of me," Katherine said sadly. There was a sad smile on her lips, "I do not wish to kill. Raiders, as uncivilised and uncouth as they are, are still humans. They live and breathe on the same food, and the same air as we do,"

Elesis shrugged. To her, there was little difference between a wolf and a bandit, a demon and a murderer. "If they were ready to kill and plunder, then they must be stopped. At any cost. Even if that means killing them, so that they may not harm an innocent,"

"Ah, but you think so?" Katherine said wistfully, "I knew of people, when this...wasteland...did not exist. They thought the very same as what you have just said. That they had the right to be the judge, jury and executioner of those who had wronged them. Do two wrongs make a right? Does taking a guilty man's life restore the life of the innocent that he had taken? Does destroying a possession of a burglar return that which belongs to its owner?"

"..."

"As it stands, Mademoiselle Sieghart, they do not. I do not believe that the act of killing would resolve any problems. The first cardinal rule of my profession – that of medicine – is that I will do no harm,"

And with that, Katherine continued walking back towards Sanctuary, leaving Elesis looking at the blonde as though she had grown another head.


A/N

Hope you guys enjoyed it! It's been very fun writing this :D

Thank you for the reviews, Yzrac. As for Elesis' costume; yes, it's the DK costume, complete with the katana-like claymore. I feel it's easier to work into a Fallout environment, because as you said, it DOES look like an infiltration catsuit. Here, I've reimagined it to be the leather underarmour of a knight's cuirass, stripped of some metal plates for flexibility.

Yeah, Elesis' hair colour would be an odd thing if hair dyes were not known. But given how there are raiders with pink or lime-green mohawks around in Fallout, it's rather difficult to say if someone's hair colour is natural. Without attempting to wash the dye out of hair (and therefore finding out it's not a dye), the SS may not figure out that Elesis' dark red hair is actually her natural hair colour. As for talking Nasod, I guess Eve would be the first one that she has met by that stage. Then again, Elesis canonically joins the El Search Gang in the later parts of Velder, and therefore cannot have met Eve by the time the CrA's class change quest comes about. It's always a bit weird when the class' background stories vary a lot from the canon main storyline. So for the purposes of this story, assume that the entire Elgang up to Elesis has come together after the events in Altera, and split up again so that the main gang is taking care of the demons in Velder while Elesis is helping the knights in a last stand in Feita.

Now that there are more themes possible; I do wonder what Eve would think of how Synths would be treated in the Fallout universe. They are, for all intents and purposes, the same as Nasods. Just a little bit more advanced in the case of Gen III synths, and less advanced in Gen II and Gen I synths.

-ArcturusWolf, signing out.