A/N: Helpful reminder of tribal language:

ahk iss - friend
shaiss! - shit (or any profane explative, I imagine)
varoom - why
tag - day
chin dee - devil
hah go - come here
vass - what
geh bits ah - get away

The rest should be clear in context.


"It seemed as though you might have been working for the NCR. Although as a courier it's possible you had no scruples whom you worked for, or perhaps the NCR tricked you in some way."

"Into doing what?"

He eyed her for a moment. "You blew it up."

Six laughed.

Vulpes didn't.

"What do you mean, I blew it up? The NCR doesn't really have the ability to blow up towns, anyway. I mean, Boulder City, but that place was abandoned and they just filled it with mines. I don't know anything about explosives."

"There were Pre War missiles stored there. You activated them."

"How? How could I do that?"

"I'm not entirely sure. It seems one of your packages had a code for them."

Six considered this. "That would strongly imply that I didn't know what was in the package."

"Perhaps," Vulpes agreed. "But then, it didn't activate until you were far enough away to escape unscathed."

"I can't believe this. If you thought I was NCR you wouldn't keep that a secret. You wouldn't..." Six floundered. "You wouldn't do any of the things you're doing!"

"You have very little idea of why I do the things I do."

That was certainly true. She might know things about Vulpes that other people did not, but she didn't know everything. Not even close.

"As it is, I do not believe you were working for the NCR. And even if you were, you had lost all your memories. I watched you closely. An NCR agent would not blow up their monorail, or assassinate their president, or fight their soldiers and officers at the Battle of Hoover Dam. I am sure of your loyalty, even if at times you are not."

"Your confidence in my Legion loyalty never wavers, huh?"

"Your loyalty is not to the Legion; it is to your place in it. I never doubt that."

She didn't respond. It seemed pretty accurate. Instead, she thought about accidentally blowing up a town. Arcade was right, it seemed she blundered her way into more history than she was prepared for. She definitely didn't do it on purpose. She couldn't even imagine doing such a thing for the NCR. But... she could imagine doing it for the Legion. And if she would do it at all, who's to say she was never on the other side? She couldn't, not really.

But she couldn't remember it, couldn't really imagine it, and there wasn't much she could do about it now.

"Alright, so. I guess that brings my total of settlements I've razed personally to three."

"Four."

"What?"

"You're forgetting Helios One."

"I am. Wait, how did you - oh, never mind."

"It is about a five day journey to get to the Divide from here-"

"Is it really five days, or five days at your pace which means it's about an hour away?"

Vulpes looked momentarily nonplussed. "Oh," he said. "Yes, I travelled slowly through the Northern Passage, but there was a very real possibility that you would die facing the Malpais Legate. It was not something I wished to hasten to."

"I think that's the sweetest thing you've said to me."

"All my hopes and dreams are riding on you."

"All of them? That's a lot of pressure."

"Most of the big ones, yes. But as I was saying, five days, depending on the conditions of the roads once you reach it. I have not been there, but as it's been bombed you can imagine it won't be the easiest of terrain. You will find the road west of Primm, near a wrecked caravan. I trust you are familiar with that area, at least."

"Yeah."

"So I will expect you back between two to three weeks." He rose, and took an envelope from an inside pocket.

Six stood as well. "That seems to be erring on the side of me getting a broken leg."

"Anything can arise when you are on mission," he said simply and held out the message.

She took it uncertainly. "I'll just go, then, shall I?"

"Ave, true to Caesar."

At that, he left. Six fingered the letter. It was tightly sealed. She folded it and put it in her pocket, then went back to the Casa to prepare for travel.


Hard as she tried, she could not help but be discomforted by Vulpes' abrupt departure. She couldn't say exactly why it put her on edge, but she had the impression he knew more than he was letting on. Well, of course, he always did, and this time he had said it outright. It wasn't anything new that Vulpes was keeping secrets. But still she was uneasy. It was separate from her uneasiness at his knowledge of her past, and that in turn was separate from her uneasiness at going to see the destruction of the Divide in person.

She walked north.

Toward Chalk.

Which was a completely different uneasiness.

She had decided that, if she wasn't going to travel with him, and if she was going to keep the secret of killing Graham, then the right thing to do would be to say goodbye. As it stood, he did like her. And if she left without a word it would bother him to think she might be dead, or had forgotten him. Six couldn't figure out if it was, at the heart, a selfish desire or not, but either way it seemed kinder to him.

She practiced the lies she would tell him as she walked.

He was laying on a blanket in the sun outside the front of house when she approached.

"Hoi, ahk iss!" He sat up quickly. "I was worried for you. I am glad you are back safe."

"What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"It is nice to lay in the sun. It hasn't rained once since I've been here, it's crazy!"

Six smiled. She would miss him. "It never rains."

"So, what now? Are we rushing off somewhere or do you want to lay in the sun with me?"

Six laughed and shook her head. "Only you would be so happy about the sun. Give it a couple of weeks with no rain or clouds and you won't like it so much."

She did sit on the blanket, though, and rested her head against his shoulder. It would be the last time she could.

So, she thought. Definitely selfish at heart, then.

"I'm sorry, Chalk. I have to go. My employer gave me another job."

"A courier job?"

Six laughed. It was. She might be a Frumentarius, but she was always a Courier.

"Yes."

"I don't have any plans right now." She could hear the tease in his tone. "I could come with you."

"You can't. I have to deliver it alone."

"Okay, you have to deliver it alone, but do you have to walk alone, too?"

It would be so easy. Just say the words, and he would be at her side. And then she wouldn't have to face the Divide alone. Vulpes wouldn't care if she walked there with him, not really, not as long as she left him well before meeting Ulysses. A voice in her head told her that if she took him all the way to the Divide there was no way to guarantee that. She ignored it. The voice then told her that Arcade would be incredibly disappointed in her. That gave her pause.

It wouldn't be the first time she disappointed Arcade, though. Not that that made it better, really. It probably made it worse.

It was a long time before she said, "No, I suppose I don't."


They took the Long 15 south. It was safer after a month of Legion control, though Six allowed that she had killed most of the deathclaws in the area. It was an uneventful journey. They talked companionably, Chalk asking questions and Six answering them the best she could. Night would fall soon. They stopped at the Goodsprings Source to refill their water bottles. She looked north, but of course she couldn't actually see Goodsprings from there. She thought of that town where her life began, and what she had made of it. She turned south and they continued on to Primm.

Six hadn't been to any of the towns in the area since the Legion had taken over. Luckily, Nash didn't recognize her from the money Caesar had made. She wondered if the one in her pocket was the only one in existence. He did recognize her as the courier with the weird job who freed Deputy Beagle, and welcomed her into the Vikki and Vance.

"Yeah, once it was clear that no one was going step up and be sheriff, Beagle turned out to be better than anyone thought, including himself. He did offer a speedy surrender to the Legion, but perhaps that was for the best. I heard other areas got it pretty bad after the NCR left."

"So you're alright with the Legion being in charge of you?"

"I don't suppose they really take charge much. Seems they just wanted the NCR out. That might change, of course, but so far none of them have tried to mess with us since we surrendered. Which means," he said, smiling, "that we still have spirits here. Have a whiskey on the house. We don't forget them who help us."

"Oh, no, you're too kind-"

"Nonsense. Come over to the back. Ruby's at home with Andy, but come say hi to Beagle with me. And one for your friend, too, on the house."

Chalk looked nervous, but intrigued. "You mean al-ko-hal? I've never drank it before. I heard it's like datura tea."

Nash raised an eyebrow at Six. "Not from around here, is he?"

"He had a sheltered childhood. And Chalk, if what I heard about datura tea is true, you'd need a lot of alcohol to get that effect."

He looked relieved. "Okay. I think I want to try it."

Vulpes told her once that Frumentarii drank alcohol on occasion to help blend in. She supposed that could be the case here. And after finding out she had blown up an entire town, she felt like she deserved a drink. Or maybe a bullet to the head. But then, if she got a bullet to the head every time she massacred an area even she didn't like those odds.

"Yeah, on second thought, I think I could use a drink."


She was careful not to drink too much. At least, she thought she was. Her tolerance for booze seemed to have gone down.

"I think I might have been an alcoholic before I got shot in the head," she told Chalk.

He frowned. "Vass es an al-ko-hal-ik?"

"It's a person who drinks. A lot, they drink every day."

Chalk nodded sagely, then frowned again. "Shaiss! All tags, drinking this chin dee? Varoom?"

"What are you even saying?" She leaned heavily on the bar. "Speak English, Chalk."

"But when did you get shot in the head, Iss?" He looked so concerned. It was adorable. She decided to lean heavily on him instead.

"On my birthday," she said, and started giggling.

"Is it funny to be shot on a birthtag?"

"No," she said. "Not really."

He frowned, and Six started giggling again. "Don't be so serious, Chalk. Serious is for tomorrow."

"What happens tomorrow?"

Six laughed a bit more and said, "Tomorrow we move on. Tomorrow we Divide."

"You tell me speak English. But you make no sense most of time."

Six had the thought that if he did understand her, even a little, he might kill her on principle. She sat up straight. And for a moment it was such a ghastly thought, so utterly horrifying, that she couldn't help but laugh.

"I think," Chalk said, and stood up so suddenly that he toppled over. "Ow wah."

Six snorted with amusement and got up to help him.

"That it is time," he continued once upright, "to stahp drinking your civi-civilized chin dee tea."

"You're probably right," Six said.

She located Johnson Nash who didn't comp a room for them, but he did offer it at a reduced price.

They made their way up the stairs and into the room with a moderate amount of difficulty. There was only the one bed. But she had slept next to Chalk before.

She collapsed on the bed and he followed suit quickly.

They laid there for a moment, just breathing. He reached out for her. "Hah go," he said, and she found herself wrapped in warm arms.

"Ahk iss. Iss Six. Sixiss."

She giggled. "What, Chalk?"

"I want to tell you. I want to say. Iss, can I kiss you?"

Six was quiet for a moment. "You're going to have a hang-over tomorrow," she told him.

His fingers brushed her face lightly. "That is for tomorrow, then."

He kissed her slowly. He gave her plenty of time to pull away. But she didn't.