Cardin walked up the same destroyed tarmac road he had followed for days, his crew following him close behind. Despite the massacre of the raiders they saw the day before, there wasn't very many tell tale signs of Yang's trading caravan, and the slavers were beginning to lose morale. Then, a black shadow appeared from the grey fog of the early morning, the farmhouse that belonged to Lie and Nora, the same place his quarry was just a few days ago. All of a sudden, they heard the front door swing open and reveal Nora, stretching out on the porch, as was her usual routine in the morning. Russell and his comrade Dove raised their rifles, but Cardin forced them to stand down before Nora noticed: the last person he threatened blew his arm off, killed off his original crew and left him for dead. As he neared the house, he made his footsteps noticeably heavier, announcing his presence. Nora turned to her new guests and flashed a smile, though she kept a hand close to her lever action shotgun that was clipped to a leg of her trousers.

"Good morning, ma'am," said Cardin, doing a respectful little bow, and flashing a smile.

"Good morning," answered Nora, her smile widening, but not relaxing her stance. Before Cardin could speak again, Ren stepped out, his two signature weapons – turquoise painted 10mm submachine guns with knife blades welded to the barrel - in hand.

"Hello there," said Ren in an unwelcoming tone.

"Good morning, sir," smiled Cardin, his forced politeness strained with impatience, thankfully going unnoticed by Nora and Ren, who was tucking his guns safely away.

"I apologize for the weapons. Don't know who you are dealing with these days," Said Lie, easing up his voice to show a hint of friendliness.

"It's quite alright," Cardin said, still flashing a toothy, but artificial grin.

"Would you be willing to trade with us? We been on the road for days now, and we are quite hungry and haven't got much in the way of ammo" Said Cardin, in a false voice of pleading, hoping his charms would rub off on the couple.

"No, I'm afraid we can't, we traded a lot of our goods a few days ago, but if you keep going west, there is a trade caravan who would be more than willing to trade with you" announced Ren, unknowing of Cardin's true intentions.

"Thank you, where should we go to catch up with them?"

Ren pointed down the opposite end of the road Cardin and his men had been following.

"Just follow the road you came from. If you are lucky, you'll be able to catch up with them soon,"

"Thank you. Have a lovely day, sir, ma'am," said Cardin, doing a final mock bow, and led his men where Ren had shown them. When they were a fair distance away, Nora finally spoke again, her usual happy mood replaced with concern.

"They don't seem like your normal traders," muttered Nora.

"No, they don't" Ren agreed.

"But even if they are trouble, Yang will be able to deal with them. Come back in the house." Ren ushered his wife into the farmhouse, unaware that he may have doomed his friends…and himself.

"Should we kill them?" muttered Sky Lark, one of the other men Cardin had brought along for this job. The leader turned around, frowning.

"Sky, Sky, Sky! Don't you have any sense of integrity? That lovely couple just showed you the way to your next load of caps, and you want to kill them?" Cardin tutted, turning back around and focusing back on the road, an evil smile on his face.

oo0oo

The convoy sat on the edge of a cliff path, taking a break from travelling to have dinner. Ruby, Yang and Weiss sat around a dim fire, as Blake lay down by Yang's side, keeping an eye on the road through the scope of her rifle, though they had been there for a while and it didn't seem like anyone or anything passed through here recently. The only sounds they heard was the pack Brahmin snuffling gently in its sleep and the whistle of the cold wind.

"So…what's the plan, Yang?" questioned Ruby, after slowly finishing a mouthful of dried mole rat meat Nora had prepared for them. Though she knew the trade route they usually followed for the past few years, she did it simply as a way to break the long silence that hung over the group.

"Well, if we are lucky, we should reach Sun within a few days. He usually has plenty of stuff to trade, and then we'll try and trek over to New Vegas. After that, we can try and do some trading in California, then maybe head out to Arizona-"

"ARIZONA?!" Spluttered Weiss, half choking on a mouthful on meat. Honestly, it was the reaction anyone would expect: Arizona was under legion control. It was no secret that most people saw them as a band of trained murderers, no better than an organized band of raiders. Or that's how Weiss saw them. Despite their unsavoury reputation, Blake, Yang and Ruby knew from years of trading experience that legion territory was among one of the safest and most profitable places in the wasteland to trade. They had wiped out all raiders within the state, and unlike the NCR, they didn't tax trading caravans. Despite their reputation, they were a strong political power that demanded respect.

"Yep, Arizona. Nobody will try to screw with us there. Don't worry, princess, we'll be there for a few days at the most," Yang grinned, tucking back into her can of pork and beans.

"But have you heard what they do to women?" half shouted Weiss, her usual scowl on her face.

"That's only their slaves," said Blake, a slight hint of sadness in her voice, "Besides, we won't be dealing directly with the legion. Just traders in Arizona," Yang looked over at Blake, took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Though it had been almost over a decade ago since she escaped the legion's grasp and there was almost no way any legionnaires could recognize her at first glance, Blake made Yang promise to never deal with the legion. Blake half smiled back at Yang, then continued looking through the scope of her rifle. Suddenly, Blake peaked up, stood up and stomped out the fire as fast as she could before she lay back down on the ground and took her gun again. Yang didn't question what she was doing: it was her routine when she saw danger.

"Wha-?" Weiss tried to ask before Ruby laid her down and covered her mouth.

"Don't make any noise," Ruby whispered. Though she was unsure of how close the danger was, Yang always told her it was better to be safe than sorry. Yang laid on her belly and crawled towards Blake, who stared intently through her telescopic sight. She turned to Ruby and motioned to pass her Crescent Rose, who slid her beloved weapon across the ground to Yang. She adjusted the rifle so she could look through the giant scythe's sight.

"What am I looking at, Blake?" Yang whispered.

"Tarmac road, four men," Blake answered.

Yang tried to follow Blake's line of vision, and found what had spooked her: the four men were led by Cardin.

"No way, he should've been dead," Yang whispered harshly.

"You remember when your dad found me, Yang? I should've been dead as well," Blake turned a corner of her mouth up in a smile. Yang made a quick single laugh, still keeping her voice down, though the slavers were a fair distance away.

"Should we try taking them out?"

"I wouldn't risk it, there might be more of them" Blake muttered, another unspoken reason lingering on her mind. The legionaries were glorified slavers, and from her experience, slavers didn't try to retrieve their old "stock", unless it was too high value. She turned to Weiss, and cursed under her breath. Weiss was the daughter of the founding members of the gun runners, and that made them a huge target to anyone who knew who she was. If they took out the group of slavers, they would only just send more after them, and if Weiss was such a valuable target, it was a safe bet Cardin's employer was prepared to go to extremes to find her.

"What do you suggest we do, Blake?"

"Let them pass. They seem to be following the road. I don't think they'll notice us or follow the path we took,"

Yang smiled gently, relieved that what she learned from her experiences of years of trading once again paid off. Still, she couldn't help but feel a pang of doubt. Experience also told her never to rely on luck, but more thought.

"And…speaking hypothetically…what if they do notice us or follow the path?"

Blake sighed. They weren't in the best defensive position, and if even they tried to make a run for it, they would be easy pickings for the slavers, but when she turned to the horizon, she couldn't help but smile. The light of daylight was beginning to wane.

"We would have to make a stand, but soon night will fall, that will give us more options"

Just as she said that, Blake noticed through the scope of her rifle that another group of about ten men appeared on the small hill Cardin and his boys came from. Cardin turned and started arguing with the man in front. Though they were too far away to discern any of the words they were saying, Blake was both concerned and curious as to what was going on down there. Observing the heated debate, Blake and Yang's curiosity only grew. What the hell was going on down there? Finally, throwing his arms in a fit of exasperation, Cardin turned and continued walking down the road, followed by his men and the new group.

"Fuck," muttered Yang under her breath. If this new group was with Cardin, that eliminated the option to stand and fight. Though the group had faced greater odds before and they had a vantage point from here, the darkness would reduce their ability to fight. It served as a stealth advantage, but was a huge disadvantage vision-wise. Yang didn't want to put her friends in danger. Yang was torn between what to do: stay here and risk getting caught – they weren't totally invisible on this cliff – or make a run for it in the night. She turned to Ruby and Weiss, who lay down on the ground, half sprawled on each other and covered in cold sweat.

"Unpack the Brahmin, but do it slowly and quietly"

oo0oo

Yang, Ruby and Weiss sat at the edge of the path, their trading goods evenly distributed on their backs. Blake had temporarily retreated into the night to release the Brahmin. She also took a block of C4 and a detonator, undoubtedly creating a distraction. The whole time they waited, they kept an eye on the small fire by the road. As the seconds passed by and grew more agonizing, the group worried more and more about the fate of their comrade.

"She should be back by now," whispered Ruby, pacing impatiently.

"She'll be here!" Yang whispered harshly, a little more venom in her voice than she originally anticipated. She was glad that it was so dark, because she couldn't bear to look at Ruby if she unintentionally hurt her. Almost as if on queue, they heard running footsteps coming up behind them, and faintly saw gold eyes and the slender form of Blake.

"Ok…the charge is set…all we have to do…is wait for my signal…"puffed Blake, out of breath. "Also, sorry for keeping you waiting."

Blake pulled her detonator, and she motioned the group to walk down the cliff path. They walked down the path slowly but surely, careful not to create too much noise. Even though Cardin and his group of men were a fair distance away, they did it anyway, just in case they had patrols – when Yang looked through the scope of her Crescent Rose as it grew dark, she noticed a few men were not sitting around the fire. Finally, the path levelled out and this is when you pulled the trigger on her detonator. They couldn't feel it, but they heard it and noticed a quick flash of light piercing through the darkness. The intended effect worked, when Yang noticed black silhouettes getting up from the campfire they sat around and walked towards the explosion, curious as to what it was. Blake nodded and the group started running as fast and as hard as they could, holding hands so that they couldn't lose each other in the darkness. Cardin might have noticed some footprints in the dirt, but he wouldn't seem without the help of daylight.

And they would be long gone by the time morning arrived.

(Ok, guys! I feel like this is just a filler. I don't want to keep Cardin as a main threat but I want it to be so that he'll be keeping Ruby, Yang, Blake and Weiss on their toes. Hope you guys enjoy it, and Adios!)