Chapter 12: Begin Again

Once The Courier woke back up, the first thing he heard was The Old Man "welcoming" him to the Sierra Madre and ordering him to dispose of his former party members, who were scattered about the casino. After snooping around and scavenging a bit, Seth set off to find Dog while mentally debating what to do with him.

"If I could get him to recognize me as his master, I can bring him back to the Mojave with me. He is extremly powerful, and could prove an asset." He thought. "Then again, he destructive eating tendencies make him a liability. Better to just kill him."

Shortly after restoring the casino's power, Seth's urgency increased after he learned that Dog was opening the gas valves in an attempt to destroy himself and the casino. Avoiding the security holograms (which The Courier was still enamored with) Seth managed to disable the gas valves while stealthly avoiding the savage. Once the last valve was closed, it was time to put the beast down.

"Hello Dog." The Courier greeted in a neutral tone from behind the Super Mutant. The conflicted F.E.V. reject turned around to face him.

"You! You are... master. You used... kind words with Dog." Dog began to speak, trying to supress God.

"Don't trust him Dog, he betrayed you, used you, let you go hungry! You're a tool to him!" God raged, momentarily regaining control.

"GO AWAY! DOG IS SICK OF VOICE! DOG WILL DESTROY WHOLE CASINO TO MAKE YOU GO AWAY!" Dog yelled back.

"Dog, Dog, can you hear me?" Seth spoke in the same soothing tone he used with Christine. "Would you like the voice to go away, Dog?"

"Don't listen to him, Dog, he's trying to trick you!" God commanded. "I'm not letting you use us anymore!" he added while preparing to lunge at The Courier, but then Dog took over.

"Make the voices stop, master. Dog will do anything, just make the voices stop." He pleaded in a pathetic tone.

The Courier discreetly put his hand over his holstered Police Pistol. If this went bad and the mutant attacked, he just may be able to shoot it in the eyes before it closed the gap and ripped off his head. "The voice comes from inside you, Dog, inside your stomach. If you want it to go away, all you need to do is... pull it out."

Dog placed his hands over his belly. "Dog can feel it, master. It feels cold and tastes like copper."

Suddenly, his hands shot from his stomach to around his head. "No no NO! Do not do it Dog! Do not obey him! I'll... I'll!"

That was the last time God had control over his body.

With incredible force, the nightkin's hands latched onto the stomach flesh, and began to rip and tear, claw and gash, burrowing into the thick, mutated skin, desperatly reaching for the cold metal collar before control was lost once again. Once enough outer skin had been ripped away, Dog, losing blood rapidly as entrails and the indigestible paraphanailia he had consumed came pouring out, thrust his gore caked hands deep into his ripped apart body, grasping for the metal object he had been tricked into beliving was the voice, shrieking in horrible agony the entire time.

He ripped out parts of internal organs in his mad search, until finally, out came the collar, along with a large chunk of guts and 41% of his blood. The Courier stepped back, half to avoid the collar blast, half out of disbelief that he actually did it.

As expected, all of this jostling and clawing set off the collar, which exploded in Dog's hands, reducing them to a fine red mist, spraying shrapnel into his face, a sharp, triangular bit burying itself in his left eye. The mutant fell to the floor in a pile of his own guts, bleeding from his gaping chest wound, blown open wrist stumps, and mangled eye. The Courier stepped forward to check the broken, ripped apart remains for anything useful. As he was about to bend down and search, the troubled mutant spoke his last words.

"Master... the voice... is..." Were his final words before life escaped Dog/God forever, ending his tortuous schizophrenia in blood and gore.

Seth retrived a maintenance pass from his barely recognizable corpse before leaving him to rot, but not before uttering one last sarcastic compliment. "Good Dog."

Next up, Dean Domino. Manuvering past a couple of speakers, Seth entered the dusty, unused theater, and located a key hidden inside a music sheet on a stand in front of the stage. As he contemplated what to do next, a jovial voice exclaimed "Finally, a friendly face! Hey, partner! Up here!"

The Courier smiled. "Dean, good to see you! What are you doing up there?" he asked.

Dean quickly explained how he had woken up backstage, then encountered holograms when he stepped up to the mike. The two worked out a plan of action involving running a hologram performance to reset security. Just as the hazy blue rent-a-cops arrived, Seth dashed out. After disabling some speakers, he arrived in Dean's room, grabbed what he needed, and left. He poped into Vera's room and did the same.

Then came the hard part. Deciding to forgo stealth completly, Seth simply dashed past the holograms, earning himself several burn wounds in the process. It paid off, however, when he reached the projector room and played the tape, reseting security just as Dean predicted.

The two reunited right after. As Dean explained how to enter the Vault as thanks to The Courier, he slowly revealed what a twisted, psychotic mastermind he actually was. Needless to say, The Courier's respect for him skyrocketed. He also explained how he had placed Christine in the Auto-Doc, surgically altering her vocal cords to make her speak with Vera's voice. Once he was finished, it was The Courier's turn to talk.

"I must say Dean, I am impressed." Seth began. "Putting together this entire hiest, stringing Vera along, a true piece of Machiavellian art. I would be honored if we could continue to cooperate in future endevors."

"What kind if business are we talking about here?" Dean asked. "I'm not stooping to knocking over convience stores, you know."

"No no no, I wouldn't waste a man of your talents on such triveal things. You see Dean, back in the Mojave Wasteland, I'm a rather powerful person. However, due to the high stress, desk based paper pushing nature of my position, I need talented partners like yourself to... make my will known." He explained, carefully choosing his words to avoid triggering Dean's jelousy. He then held out his hand. "So what do you say... partner?"

Dean thought about for a second, then shakes Seth's hand. "I'm in. What's our next step?"

"For now, all I need you to do is get back to the fountin. I'll settle up with the Old Man, then meet you there with the riches of the Vault. After that, it's Viva New Vegas!" The Courier explained.

"Sounds good to me! I just need to rest for a minute, catch my breath." Dean replied. "You go on ahead."

"Will do." Seth said with a nod. "Good luck... partner."

Dean simply gave him a nod of his head as Seth scurried off to find the last companion, Christine.

After evading a number of Ghost People, holograms, and traps, Seth entered Vera's suite, gun drawn, in search of the bald Brotherhood member. She was too quick, however, and managed to get her laser pistol trained on The Courier as soon as he opened the door. "You!" she exclaimed, then coughed a little, as her voice had not yet recovered to shouting streangth yet.

"Yes, hello, it's me. Nice new voice by the way very... feminine." Seth replied, speaking rapidly. "I don't suppose I could convince you to put down the laser pistol?"

"After you tricked me into that elavator? I don't think so." Christine replied while narrowing her eyes.

"Hold on hold on hold on!" Seth replied quickly. "You kill me and you'll die to. Collars, remember?"

That was actually a complete lie. The Old Man had disabled the mutual kill function on the collars when he ordered Seth to kill of the others. Still, no need to tell Christine that.

The bald woman slightly relaxed her grip on the trigger, but kept the laser pointed towards The Courier. "That's it, nice and easy. After all, if you die here with me, you won't be able to... what did you come here to accomplish again?"

That was Christine's que to tell the long story of her tracking Father Elijah, being trapped in the Big Empty and saved by one who "Wore the flag of the old world on his back," and finally arriving at the Sierra Madre.

"And here we are." Seth stated at the conclusion of her tale. "And now all you have to do to go get him is walk up to that speaker, and say the words Begin Again, and Let Go."

"Begin again..." She repeated. "And let go?"

"Perfect." Seth muttered to himself. He then whipped up his pistol and emptied the entire clip, shooting her once in each arm, once in each kneecap, and twice in the stomach. Christine had started to lose focus during her story, and was too slow on the draw to shoot back. "Well, now that I've got that recorded, I've got to be off then. Sorry I can't just kill you right here, but I can't risk blowback from your collar going off. Have fun bleeding out!"

After playing back the passwords from his Pip-Boy, Seth stepped into the elavator and began his descent.

Back in Vera's room, Christine struggled to reach her stimpacks with her crippled arms, when the shadow of a man with dreadlocks fell across her. "You..."

Down in the basement, The Courier avoided the traps and security until finally, after all the bloodshed, betrayal and brutality, he entered the Vault. After reading Sinclair's last, heartfelt letter to Vera, Seth shut off the terminal, and spoke face to monitor to monitor to face with the man responsible for all this: Father Elijah.

"You. You're in the Vault... finally. After all this time. The Seirra Madre... Mine." He stated in an awed tone. He then quickly ordered The Courier not to touch anything.

"Well, looks like you've won the million cap prize, Old Man." Seth began in a slow, laid back tone. "Or should I say... Father Elijah of the Brotherhood of Steel. You know, Veronica spoke at great lengths about what a genius you are..."

"Wait, Veronica?" Elijah seemed suprised. "She's alive?"

"Oh yes, alive and well. You could say that she... works for me, in a sense." He replied casually. "She also told me how you let the NCR take HELIOS One."

"She would have survived..." Elijah mused. "As for losing HELIOS, that was the only option, aside from retreat. NCR, swarming like ants all over old world relics..." he spoke, ever syllable seething disgust.

"Sounds like someone's got a bone to pick with the Republic." Seth stated.

"I don't intend to let those children seize anything else. The others in the Brotherhood can't stop them, so I will! And the old world will be my weapons!" he declared.

"Slow down there. Are you saying you want to attack the NCR? All of the NCR?" Seth asked quizzicly.

"Attack? No, not attack them." he replied. "I want to exterminate them! I'll send the cloud and the holograms, bring ruin in my hands until I stand atop HELIOS One again!"

At that, Seth let out a nervous sigh. "Yeah, about that... You see, the NCR isn't actually in the Mojave anymore. I kinda... kicked them out."

"What! Do you expect me to believe that some... wastelander was able to drive away the entire NCR single handidly?" Elijah declared in an angry voice.

"Well, I did have some help..." Seth replied. "Check my Pip-Boy if you don't believe me."

Elijah became silent at this. At the other end of the line, he was reading over data from the Pip-Boy. Sure enough, The Courier was speaking the truth.

"If you wipe out the Mojave now, you'd be doing the NCR a favor. You'd be destroying their greatest enemy since the Legion. But if we work together..." Seth suggested. "How does that old saying go? The enemy of my enemy is my friend..?"

Elijah remained silent from a moment, thinking it over. "The NCR has many soldiers, many citizens." he began. "Perhaps I should not have been so quick to place a collar on a prospective ally."

The Courier clapped his hands together in joy at this. "So does this mean we're in business?"

"Yes." Elijah replied, sealing the fate of the Republic. "I'll come down... and show you what the Sierra Madre has in store..."

4 weeks later...

It was a clear, sunny morning in Jacobstown, and all of the Super Mutant inhabitants were working away at their usual jobs. The mountin mutant community had recived several offers to join The Courier's growing empire, but Marcus had turned him down every time. He had created this town to be a sancutary for his people, and he wasn't about to drag them into another war.

As such thoughts ran through the mayor's mind, he noticed something new rolling in on the morning breeze. A blood red, lethal looking cloud. As he squinted to get a better look at it, the cloud suddenly picked up speed and washed over Jacobstown, catching the mutants unaware.

The cloud poured down the throats of the F.E.V. children, slowly choking them to death on the vile mixture of chemicals. Several mutants made a dash for the exit, but once they breached the cloud, they found a line a hazy blue soldiers with their hands raised to their heads, spitting out searing beams of burning light.

Not a single mutant among them survived.

Away from the now empty town, a small band of observers stand upwind, observing the cloud settle into the cradle of death, as a team of enginers in modified radiation suits operate a mortar device that had just emptied itself of canisters of the lethal gas.

The Courier, Father Elijah, and Veronica watch through binoculars as the holograms disapear and the Eyebots carrying their projectors return to their masters. "Well, it definitly works on super mutants." The Courier states bluntly.

"The New California Republic shall be the next ones to choke to death on the fumes of the Old World." Elijah stated ominously.

"Quite right." Seth replies while pocketing his binoculars. "Anyway, Team 1 will escort you to HELIOS, while I shall travel back to Vegas with Team 2. Everything has been prepared exactly as you specified."

"Good, good. Come along now Veronica. HELIOS One awaits!" Elijah exclaims victoriously as he began to trot down the hill to the waiting escort team as Veronica silently followed. "Oh, and Seth!" he called back. "I look forward to continuing our partnership." he stated before departing, his apprentice in tow.

"As do I, Father Elijah." Seth replied, even though the maniacal genius could no longer hear him. "As do I."


A/N: And so ends the Dead Money saga. The next few chapters are going to show a combination of the integration of the Sierra Madre's technology and The Couirer's continued battles with the NCR before we move onto Honest Hearts. Please review!