Decided to do another flash-back. Also, Lily doesn't piss around with computers.

Days of walking through ruins and caves and the hives of strange creatures had taken their toll on Lily. She didn't even want to think about the Marked Men: their skin torn off and hanging from their bodies, dried and peeling like an orange. The shredded skin was not a result from any radiation burns or ghoulification. It was the sandstorms that plagued the area, beating against their weakened epidermises enough to grate them away.

She was now faced with a decision: confront the man who'd been chiding and taunting her, or turn around and never come back. She'd thought of just forgetting about him numerous times. But she couldn't sleep. His voice haunted her mind. It lingered with her in every cautious step she took.

No. She couldn't turn back.

So much effort had gone into finding Ulysses. And there she was, standing so close to the missile silo that had been dubbed his "temple," along with the little eye-bot that had accompanied her throughout her journey. Buzzing, beeping, and possibly terrified. Ulysses would take him away again and he'd never reach Navarro. This bothered Lily more than anything. Sure, being attached to a machine was petty and stupid at most, but, he'd saved her more than once. She wouldn't let him be destroyed or manipulated any further.

Surrounded by cold metal and the screeching of a siren, she ran through the bunker's halls as quickly as possible. The barrel of her rifle smacked against the back of her thigh, yet she continued onward despite the strange sensation it was leaving.

Turn left.

Left again.

Right.

Down the stairs.

She ignored the clanking of the metal the best she could without becoming nauseous.

Elevator. She pressed the button and threw herself in. Slow, she ascended in the steel box with her little robot friend. He sensed her distress and beeped sympathetically. Lily wasn't ready for this, but she just felt like she had to. She had to run out of luck eventually. Slowly, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. Before her, the Old World flag hung: his flag. It was nearly the same as the markings she'd seen throughout the Divide. The ground shuddered beneath her, and before her eyes, a missile rose up from it's grave, facing the sky.

"Shit," she mumbled as she tossed her bag and rifle to the ground. Armed with only her pistol, she moved toward the the man overshadowed by the missile. "Ulysses."

"Courier," he blurted in a disgusted, husky tone. He turned to face her, standing high on a platform. Half his face was covered with a respirator. All Lily could see, and focus on, were his piercing grey eyes. "Mustered up the strength to find me?"

She remained silent, arms tense at her sides, hands balled into fists with her fingernails cutting into her palms.

"Come to pay for what you did?"

"Just do it! Kill me already, won't you?! I didn't come here for you to fucking taunt me!" she shouted, shaking and scared, lump in her throat.

"No. I want you to understand why, and how—"

"This again?! I fucking can't! Don't you understand!? Do you see this?! I was shot in my fucking head! I'm so sorry for whatever I did here: I wish I could just . . . fix everything, but I can barely remember what I did yesterday! I don't even know who I am half of the time! I'm just so confused and you're not making this any easier on me so just get it over with so you can go on your merry way! Or at least try, damn it!"

She caught Ulysses completely off his guard. Here before him, stood a fragile, distraught creature that he selfishly lured to him, like a hunter luring a deer. At this point, he didn't know what to do.

Could she really not remember a single thing about what had happened?

About their history?

Her history?

Arms folded, he walked down the steps, not taking his eyes off the lanky girl once. He stopped a few feet from her.

"Courier—Lily, in a few minutes, this place will be swarmed by the Marked. In the event you killed me, I decided to leave the locks disengaged. Perhaps you wouldn't be able to take them on. Go pick up your gun: we'll fight them off. Okay?"

She nodded and obeyed though she was still afraid of the man who loomed over her. Swiftly, she picked up her gun and swung her bag over her shoulder. Within minutes the silo's defenses were breached and the melting men filed in, guns blazing. The two couriers propped their guns up behind a control panel and began to off the old soldiers the Eye-Bots couldn't deal with. Every time Ulysses moved, Lily flinched. She didn't have time to analyze her situation or the actions of her targets. She felt so nervous and alienated. She thought about possibly killing the man beside her.

Focus.

Point and shoot. She tried to lower her heartbeat. Nothing worked. She missed more and more with each shot. In a futile attempt and a suicide mission, she tossed her rifle to the side and pulled her pistol. Quickly she stood and popped rounds into the grotesque men. She managed to bring down five or six of them before her male counterpart noticed and pulled her back down behind their barrier.

"What do you think you're doing?!" he scolded.

"I can't aim properly with that right now. You're fucking terrifying and making me nervous."

He snorted, "Stay down."

"No. Cover me," she scrambled back over the control panel, firing straight into the barrage of men. Once again, Ulysses grabbed her around her waist and pulled her back over.

"Quit it. If anyone is going to kill you, it will be me, and I'm not planning on doing that at the moment. Stay down."

"Fuck you, I'll tear your lungs out first," she snapped, lobbing a grenade over her head. She heard the bodies running toward them shred into pieces. She remained low while Ulysses finished the stragglers. Before long, Lily found herself digging through the soldiers' pockets. He hadn't shot her yet, or stabbed her, or incinerated her, blown her up, or ripped her arms off. "What now?"

"Focus on the missile. Can't stop it."

"That's bloody helpful," she said sarcastically, growing a bit more brave, "What should I do?"

"Fire it. Have the machine stop it. It'd be destroyed consequently," her male counterpart said. He was planning on destroying everything she loved, but now, he placed the decision in her hands, just as he'd done before: let her destroy Hopeville and give her a taste of what she couldn't remember.

Foolish.

She sighed, "No, it won't."

She maneuvered her way to the launch terminal and typed away, acquiring access codes, terminal passwords, and the like. The little Eye-Bot watched over her shoulder. She motioned him to zap the terminal itself a few times in between her vigorous typing. It seemed relatively unharmed. Perhaps she was using the ED-E model to access only certain parts of the encrypted database. With a few more keystrokes, she left the terminal. The little machine was still buzzing away, playing more clips from that movie it was encoded with.

"What did you do?" Ulysses pryed.

"Cancelled it."

"Wha—how?"

"Ashton."

With a simple nod, he replied, "You at least learned something from this."

"I guess. I just want to go home."

"You are."

"No. I'm not. I live in Novac"

"Can't believe I'm doing this,"he thought, and then stated, "I'll take you back."

"I don't trust you. I can find my own way back, thank you."

"Don't trust you either. Won't hurt you though."

Lily groaned, "Fine. I'll follow you. But, if you try anything, you will lose your hands."

"Fine."