(Mad Max AU. Spoilers for Fury Road within)

The first time I saw her, there was madness in her eyes and fire in her blood. This muzzled woman in a pony tail who would have left us to die if she could. She doesn't talk much, but she stares at me a little too long. Maybe I remind her of someone. Maybe she reminds me of someone. Furiosa. They both hold so much rage within them. Rage enough for all of us.

She's a good shot, our madwoman. Whoever she was before, whoever we were before it doesn't seem to matter. Trust is a fragile thing, but we're in this together. We live or we die together. I throw her a weapon, and she catches it without looking. In sync. Her. Furiosa. We wives six. Five, when we lose Splendid. Part of me envies her. She can stop running. The rest of us aren't free. Not yet.

She has nightmares. We all have nightmares but hers make her jerk awake and cock a gun, eyes wild. Her hand shakes as she lowers her weapon. Our madwoman is a survivor. How many notches on her belt? Does she even keep count? But it's enough. Enough to haunt her face. Enough to make her look at me like I'm a ghost. But that's okay. There are things that haunt me. I think she understands.

There's blood on her when she comes back from her retaliation. Someone else's blood. I start to help her wash it off, and she just looks at me. Looks through me, her fingers tight around my wrists. She doesn't remember what it's like for someone to extend a kindness, I think. And then she focuses again and lets me clean her up.

We lose Furiosa in a manner of speaking. For a few hours she shuts down, and I don't know what to think. Or what to do. She's gotten us this far. She's taken us from that place and from that bastard and if I die here that's better than living there.. I watch our madwoman watch Furiosa, sadness in her eyes, like she's seen the loss of hope before.

The madwoman takes a bike, and we leave her. We're clinging to a thin thread of hope that somewhere on the other side of this saltine wasteland there's something for us to find. I glance back as we ride away, and she's looking at us like she's watching us ride to our deaths. But it's hope that she comes to us with. Hope. A second chance. I hug her and she stiffens, but then puts her hand on my back. I wouldn't mind staying like that forever.

I wonder if there's any truth in what the War Boys say. Live, die, live again. Furiosa is dying. Was dying. But the madwoman gives her her blood. Universal donor. It says so on her back. I hear her name for the first time, as she gives it to Furiosa. Furiosa who lived and died and lived again.

"Lara. I'm Lara."

I make Lara rest her head in my lap. I make her rest. She needs to rest, I don't think she's ever really let herself rest. But she needs it, for herself and for our Furiosa. Her eyes hold onto mine. Clear. Steady.

I know I'm not reason enough to stay. Lara doesn't seem like someone who could be chained down easily.

But when she opens the car door to find me waiting, I learn that even she can be surprised. She says nothing, simply climbs in and starts the engine.

We're twenty kilometers from the Citadel before she finally speaks. "What do you want me to call you?"

"I'm-"

Lara shakes her head. "Not what he named you. Who do you want to be?"

I glance at her, then look around the inside of the car. I trace a pattern of letters on the door. "Sam."

"Do you know how to shoot?"

"No."

I didn't know she knew how to smile until just then. "I'll teach you, Sam."