Edited: 10/2/2015, 2:54 a.m.

NEVAEH

"Why are we going in here?"

I looked over my shoulder at Alex and smiled a little, nudging a piece of rubble out of my way as I walked around the small room. "I needed to make sure it's all cleared of Super Mutants and Slavers for the Temple of the Union."

"Temple of the Union? Didn' know you were so giving."

I rolled my eyes and picked up a piece of old plaster and tossed it into the air before I caught it again. "Yeah, but I owe Hannibal more than you think," I whipped around and chunked the piece of plaster at Alex.

He caught it easily and threw it back at me. I chuckled when it bounced off of my chest. "Ha, boob jiggled."

I laughed loudly. "Well yeah they do that, now look around for any Lincoln Artifacts or tripwires."

He smirked and then nodded, walking into the room opposite of me. I walked around the room, knocking around rubble and checking behind the old crumbling cases. I poked at a piece of shattered glass and it tinkled to the bottom of the case. I sighed and turned my back on the case, sitting down on top of the glass; I placed both of my hands on my lap as I looked around the room. There were cameras in the corners, only one still blinked red and moved slightly, meaning there was power to the place, good thing to cus I didn't want to have to help get that shit back on. I heard Alex shuffling around in the other room and sighed, leaning back so my head was against the wall. I was tired, I was dead tired and I wanted Charon back to the way he was. He wasn't really exciting or anything, he wasn't peppy and talkative, but he had been loosening up slightly and I didn't want to have to restart on the process. He hadn't moved all night, he hadn't spoke to me since he had gotten in.

He hadn't even came back to the bar last night, he just went into our room and sat there. I don't know what Alex said to him but he was extremely upset or too deep in thought. I didn't order him to say anything to me because that would be breaking a human right. We all deserve our privacy in our own heads, but that didn't mean it didn't bother me. I wish he would talk to me, but that's not the type of person Charon is so I won't pressure him about it.

Maybe he was just on edge being back around Ahrzukhal, who had been genuinely polite the time I had spent in the bar. It was a little shocking to everyone, so not all the patrons really loosened up; must have thought it was one of his dirty tricks. The first thing he had done when he woke up was ask did I have any good news for him. I had told him unfortunately no because I had yet to find a way to these locations he had pointed me to in only two days. He still didn't seem that bugged, so now I was wondering what was up.

"I don't. . .hey, you ok?"

I looked up at Alex, eyes slightly wide. "Uh. . .yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

He shrugged and rasped his knuckles on the arch way he was standing in. "You just lookin depressed lass, are you ready to go?"

I sighed and pushed myself to my feet. "Yeah, come on lets go."

He nodded and followed behind me out of the old gift shop. I looked around the area of the Mall we were in and sighed, kicking at the dirt, hearing Super Mutant cries, the discharge of a Gatling laser and the hiss of wind through the buildings. I had never seen the ruins so calm, so quiet and. . .almost peaceful. But there were still noises in the distance, still the feel of death and the blood soaked into the sand. I don't understand how this place could have been so full of life and so green. ...it seems like just a skeleton now, it doesn't look like this place could have ever been so full.

"What was it like here…ya know, before," I muttered.

"I don't really know what this place was like. . .I assume it was like most cities, always moving, buzzing like a hive day in and day out. The closest I ever got to D.C. was Adam's Air Force Base and the stuff people told me about what was going on in the Vaults and the other facilities around here. . .I think everyone living around here were really trapped in a fantasy world of safety."

I nodded, looking down at the ground. "Some of them had to know what was going on in those Vaults."

"Oh there were some people, I met every one of them that knew."

"What do you mean?"

Alex stopped his pace and so did I, looking over at him in curiosity. He sighed. "They brought all of them to the base and we were to sort them all out into the cages in an old hangar, age, height, race, knowledge. After that the people were shipped off to several different places around the states. Some were sent specifically to Vault 87, some were sent to Point Lookout for an underground lab, but most were sent to Big MT near New Vegas."

"Alex. . ." I stared at him with wide eyes, my stomach doing flips.

He shook his head and waved a hand. "I didn't want to do it, Nevaeh. I had no control over any of it, the way my superiors put it was we couldn't erase their memories and we couldn't relocate them with the war effort so we mine as well put them to use in. . .other fields. I don't want to talk about what happened to them after they were shipped away, I can only say that the U.S. Government did some rotten things."

I nodded slowly, strangely numb. "Alex, I don't feel right."

He looked me up and down. "Well. . .in what way to you not feel right?"

I shrugged a little and pressed my fingers into my stomach. "Maybe it's just nerves. ...I don't know, let's just ignore it and get back. I'm sure Charon is completely spazzin out back in Underworld."

Alex laughed and threw an arm over my shoulder, dragging me down a little because of the height difference. "I'm sure he is. . .he worries about you too much."

I chuckled. "It's a part of the contract, it's what he's supposed to do. If he didn't, then we would have a problem."

"Ya know. . .I knew people like him. Before the war, saw what they were capable of, and you should get rid of his contract."

I stopped abruptly and pushed Alex away from me. "Shut up Alex," sudden temper flare? Why?

He raised a patchy eyebrow at me. "I'm just being honest with ya Nevaeh, I don't think he's safe."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "He can't hurt me, Alex."

Alex stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Nevaeh I can't explain what I know to you without him here, I have to talk him into it and you know how that is with him. What I know could mean him being able to injure you, not on purpose of course."

I stared at him a moment longer, my eyes narrowing further. "I can just order him to tell me."

"Nevaeh. . .do you really want to be like his previous employers? I didn't know them, but I did know plenty of the soldiers trained like him and the hands they fell into over the years and I have to say, it is only something they would do. To force a fellow humans will in such a way is decisively dark."

Could he read fucking minds? I stared at him with widened, skeptical eyes. He spoke what I had been thinking since I had Charon's contract. I would never order him to do anything really, I would never force him to tell me something he didn't want to talk about or anything like that. I think freedom of speech was in the constitution and stuff like that. I would be one of those people that were against people being independent beings and I don't think I could live with myself if I became someone like that. If I became someone like the Overseer. He was always pushing his will on us, never taking in our opinions or preferences. I didn't even want to join the baseball team but he told me everyone joined and slapped a number on me.

I never wanted to feel so out of control with my life and I wouldn't out someone else in the same position.

But, Alex was kind of doing that right now. He was trying to convince me that his opinion was best for everyone. He didn't know shit, I wouldn't let him try to convince me of this anymore. Bringing him was a bad idea, I should have just come alone.

I swallowed thickly and looked down at my feet, then I grit my teeth and pulled my gun from my back. "Don't wait up," I mumbled, starting to walk towards the actual ruins of D.C.

"Nevaeh where are ya going, lass?"

I growled and whipped around, actually raising my gun to Alex. "I swear if you and him try to follow me, I will shoot you both."

He stared at me in bewilderment but raised his hands and backed up slowly, his eyes showing something I could almost understand as concern. I let out a shaky breath and lowered my gun, walking down into the metro. I wanted to get away front them, I wanted to stay away from them for a little bit and I couldn't just do that. Of course I couldn't, I had to run away and get somewhere they didn't know. I had to pretty much hide from them, I couldn't go into a settlement, I had to stay away from everything until I got to the tower and then I would get a few supplies and run away again.

I kicked at a piece of rubble and started mumbling to myself, jogging down the steps into the tunnels. I wanted to get away, needed to get away. That's all I could think, it would repeat itself over and over again in my head. I just. . .I was beginning to feel so suffocated. I don't know what it was, maybe it was my father, maybe it was the fact that Alex and Charon were hiding something from me when they weren't supposed to. Well. . .now, that wasn't true. It wasn't like they were supposed to be my best friends, but they were almost all I had. It was different than Gob and Nova and the others in the tower. Alex and Charon traveled with me now, I don't know how to explain it but it was supposed to make the bond tighter, but it felt like there was no bond there.

I had been on my own for so long out here after I left the Vault. Up until I moved all of the people into the underground, Gob and I hadn't been close at all, Nova was just a passing face, Lucas was the technical Overseer of Megaton. I was all by myself. I had no friends, no family, Hell even my gun didn't like me. I burnt myself more times than I can count and the recoil was a bitch. All I ever did was get drunk, stumble around town and then go pass out in my bed. Wadsworth had hated me, he still does but he's happier with all of the room to move around with inside the tunnels.

Before now, I had never tried to get close to anyone. I had planned on finding my father and that would have been the end of everything. I was just going to find my father, give him a piece of my mind, and then I was done. I was going to go exploring, I was going to run around half naked in the Wasteland, I was going to go to Point Lookout, to this Mojave place I had heard so much about. I wanted to be everything I couldn't in the Vault. I wanted to be an amazing person, I wanted to be carefree and happy, I wanted to rake in all of those treasures waiting for me out there. I heard of all of those places from scavengers and other treasure hunters that had passed through the Wasteland so many times. So many had passed through Megaton, and so many I had found almost dying of dehydration and hunger in the Wasteland while I wondered. I wanted to do all of those amazing things that they spoke of, I wanted to do those things, make a memory of myself. I wanted to make my mark in this world, and that seemed like it would be the only way to do that.

"Help. . ."

I froze mid step and looked over my left shoulder. There was a man laying face first on the metro floor, wearing clothes very similar to Wolfgang. I raised a brow when he lifted up a shaky hand and the tips of his fingers tapped against the toe of my boot. He groaned and the hand went limp. I crouched down and poked the side of his head. He groaned and rolled his head to look up at me. He smiled a little weakly and laid it back down, eyes closing.

"Help. . .I need water."

I rolled my eyes. "Well your shit out of luck, I don't have anything."

He groaned. "Fuck. . ."

"Can you walk," I looked him up and down.

He nodded and I grumbled, helping him to his feet. He swayed and then smiled, holding onto my shoulder. "Thank you," he breathed into my neck. "I owe ya. . ."

"Whatever, I'll get you to Rivet City and then your fucked you got me?"

He chuckled. "Yeah. . .yeah I got that. Thank you for the help."

I grumbled and started, him following beside me. "So what's your name?"

"Bill. Bill Canning. I was trying to get to Underworld when I passed out."

"Why the hell would you want to go to Underworld? You know it's full of ghouls right?"

Ben laughed. "Yeah I do, my wife lives there."

I stumbled for a minute. "Your wife?"

"I know, weird right? I'm married to a ghoul, and before you say anything she has been a ghoul for as long as I've known her."

I smiled a little, my mind wandering to things I didn't think it would. "I'm not a judge. . .that's real sweet. I would have offered to take you there but I'm kind of running from there at the moment."

"May I ask why?"

I tensed up. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Well that's fine, you have helped me enough and I will not ask anymore of you."

We grew silent, walking up to the platform and out into the moonlight. I stared at the sky for a moment, seeing the clouds curling over each other and amplify the rays. I didn't understand anything that was going on right now, I didn't like anything that was going on now. My father is gone, hidden from me, my so called friends tossed me out into the world I didn't know, and on top of all of it I'm a twenty year old alcoholic with a lust for death and nothing between my head and this world besides a mess of quantum colored hair. I wonder how many other Vault Dwellers emerged after the bombs and got as backwards as I did.

We walked up the platform to Rivet City, me pausing at the start of the ramp. Bill stopped and looked back at me in curiosity. "Ain't gonna come with me?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm not. I was just bringing you here and now that I've done that, I'll be on my way."

I turned around towards the ramp, waving my hand in the air. I wasn't planning on joining a stranger, why do they always do that, think you're a new friend? I guess I have no room to talk, I did let Alex tag along. Alex was my friend, and so was Charon. But right now I didn't want that with me, I wanted to be alone. For the first time since I left the Vault I wanted to be alone. I started whistling that song Alex had told me the lyrics of, learning the tune in my own head. He said he didn't think those were the right lyrics, he said he and his army buddies had heard them on the radio when he was stationed in Hopeville, his old army base. I sighed and saw the memorial crawling with mutants again. I didn't want to fight anything right now, I just wanted to go home.

CHARON

"And you just fucking let her go?!"

I didn't care that they were all staring at us - every resident of Underworld - from the balconies and near the Chop Shop, I didn't care. I didn't give two shits. I glared at Alexander, saw the fear in his eyes; I had thrown him. I had thrown him out of Carol's Place and out here. I know he was injured from hitting the railing and rolling over to the ground, but I did not offer him oity like the others. I wanted him hurt, I wanted him severely injured. I hated him. He just let her leave here with nothing but her rifle. No Stimpaks or anything like that, just a rifle with no extra ammo. I wanted to hurt him, tear him a part with my own two hands. She was my employer, I was supposed to take care of her, she was my responsibility and he just came in here and said she ran off. She threatened to kill us if we followed. Well, we would follow, she didn't really have an option because she had not told me directly to not follow her. She didn't order me directly, I could do anything I wanted to do.

And I wanted to follow her dumbass.

He swallowed thickly. "Listen, what was I supposed to hold her back, drag her here?"

"Yes," I threw my arms at my sides and almost leapt towards him. "You are a fucking moron!"

"Charon, you know as soon as I would let her go she would just be running away again. It would do no good."

"But I could follow her then! I would know where she was going, she's too far away now!"

He swallowed again, his eyes flickering around nervously. "Why are you so mad at me, dammit? I'm not her babysitter, isn't that your fuckin job?"

My glare deepened and I almost hit him. For a split second I just wanted to beat him until there was no recognizable part of him left. But that was irrational. I wasn't thinking straight, my mind was fluttering around, confused without my employer by my side. I did not know how to act because this was not supposed to happen. This is not what I was trained to be like, I was trained to be cold and calculating, I was supposed to have my employer at my side at all times, this had never happened, only in trial's when I was in training. And then I was not as distressed because I knew no harm would come to them truly.

I took in a deep breath and then looked around at all of the faces staring at us, not even irritated or embarrassed by this negative attention. They had every right to stare. I looked back to Alexander and saw he had taken in my calm and he didn't look as scared and tense. I reached up and ran a hand down my face, patting my pockets for a cigarette. When I found it, I lit it and blew the smoke right into Alexander's face. He coughed for a minute and waved the smoke away.

"So what now," he asked.

I glared at him, then looked towards the door to Carol's Place. "You come with me," I mumbled, walking up the stairs.

I opened the door to Nevaeh and I's hotel room. I cringed when I saw Nevaeh's pack in the corner and stuck the cigarette into the corner of my mouth, picking it up. I set it on the edge of the bed and opened it, rummaging around until I found what I was looking for. I couldn't touch it, to be honest it fucking burned even looking at it. I was never meant to hold this thing in my hands, but here I was.. I looked over at Alex and saw he had grabbed his things while I did this, a serious look on this face.

"She left your contract. . ." he stared at it, the look in his eyes saying he knew all too well what this was in my hands.

"Alexander you are hiding many things from us, you tell me everything you know about my training and this piece of paper right now, before we go any fucking where."

His eyes flickered towards the contract and then back up and he sighed. "Yeah. . .yeah alright," he paused and seemed deep in thought; I tensed for something valuable. "Where Rex?"

NEVAEH

"Fucking, ass, tit, nut. . ." I mumbled, shrugging off the rifle from my shoulder.

It had been a whole day since I had seen Charon and Alex. I had just made it to the tower on account of several detours and some good cardio with a couple Talon Mercs. I stepped into the lobby of the tower, hurrying towards the elevator and I slipped inside into the darkness. When the elevator dinged on the top floor, I smiled in relief - the hallway was empty. My room hadn't changed, still spic and span with the faintest hint of something. . .burnt. I raised my rifle immediately, seeing Goddfrey powered down in the corner and Fluffy nowhere to be seen. I grit my teeth and swung my body around, making sure there was nothing near me and then I began to maneuver around the apartment. When I found nothing, I hugged my rifle to my chest and hurried over to Godfrey, flipping over his back panel I reconnected a few of the wires that were disconnected and he whirred to life, began flying around the room on high alert. When he saw me he zoomed over and I guess did a robot version of hugging me.

"Oh mistress, I am so sorry!"

I pushed him away a little bit and looked at him in concern. "Godfrey, who was in here?"

"A young woman, she picked the lock to the apartment and caught me with the lights off. She mentioned your name a few times before she disconnected my wires."

"Do you remember anything about what she looked like," I asked, my stomach twisting into knots as I unlocked Fluffy's cage.

"No madam, I am afraid that I do not."

I cursed under my breath as Fluffy scuttled across my chest then rested on my back like a pack. "Well, shit. . .I don't like that. I'll have to get Michael to stay in here. Listen Godfrey - Michael, Charon and Alex are the only ones allowed in here alright? I don't want anyone else in the suite while I'm gone."

"Where are you going, madam?"

I shrugged and grabbed my spare pack, stuffing all of the stimpaks and ammo from my safe into it. "I don't know, I just have to get away from everyone for awhile. Fluffy is staying here so watch her. Don't tell Charon or Alex that I was here, I'll talk to Michael about it to," I shouldered the pack as Fluffy ran her feelers over the bed sheet when I set her down. "I'm sorry Godfrey."

"Oh its' quite alright madam, I just hope you return safely."

I smirked. "Kiss ass, alrighty I don't know when I'll see you but I promise I will. Takes a hell of a lot more than what the Wasteland has to offer to kill me off and you know it."

He said nothing as I left the room; I ran into Michael as I exited out of the elevator. He looked at me with a shocked expression, a bottle of whiskey in his hand - big shocker.

"Nevaeh! Where the hell did you come from?"

I rolled my eyes, then thought better than saying a smart ass comment and just sighed, hanging my head. "I just got here, I just came for the spare supplies. Listen, I have to get away for a little bit and I don't know how much time I have but I want you to stay in my apartment while I'm gone. Charon and Alexander will probably be here any minute and I don't want them to catch me. I don't care what they say you stay in my apartment alright? And ignore the radroach, please."

He processed everything I threw at him rather easily and nodded. "Hope you make it back alright."

I smiled. "I do to Michael, I'll see you when I see you."

He raised his hand up and I grinned, smacking it with mine and then I passed him. "You better keep yourself alive dammit!"

I flipped him off as I stepped out of the tower; I needed to get away. I looked up when I heard a loud yip and saw a blue light waving towards me, and a flash of gray beside it. Rex and another mutt stopped beside me, panting and wagging their tails. I stared at them with the most dumbfounded expression I could muster and looked around before I crouched down to their level.

"Rex where the hell is Alex," he whined and pawed at the ground, looking over his shoulder. I stared at him for a minute before I understood. "Rex dammit you should have stayed with them," he whined again and pawed at the dirt while I reached forward, fumbling for the collar around the stranger dogs neck. DOGMEAT was burned into the rusted collar. "So Dogmeat. . .I guess you and Rex are my traveling companions now huh? We won't be meeting up with Alex for awhile probably Rex."

He whined and then barked, wagging his tail and I grinned, shooting up straight and started walking. I hope Alex wasn't freaking out too bad about Rex. I know if Rex was a decoy or something he and Charon would have already jumped me.

Now I definitely felt awesome.

"How can they send us to the Citadel," Carly grumbled. "Those assholes didn't want me and mom when we were on the verge of death trying to keep up with James, why should I accept their help now?"

"Because they caught the frequency on your Pip-Boy and wanted to catch you before the Outcasts did," Wolfgang explained as he helped the Brahmin over the steep incline. "You heard the message, the Outcasts have been raiding Vaults for unused Pip-Boys. Heard they even broke into the one filled with Gary and hearded them into the ruins."

Carly cupped her hands over her eyes, shielding them from the sun as she glared at the door to the Citadel. "What the Hell are they up to," she looked back at Lilith. "Need help?"

She shook her head and Carly sighed, stepping to the side so the guard could limp by in peace. They had run into some Deathclaws around Wilhelm's Warf, surprised by the pack of three before they got Grandma Sparkle and her grandson safely inside; the eldest was off hunting because the younger was sick. Deathclaws didn't hunt so close to the ruins, which threw them all off. But Grandma and her grandson made it, along with the Brahmin so everything turned out alright, Carly supposed.

"Just be polite," Wolfgang murmured. "We have to leave you here once Lilith is healed up, unless they say otherwise - and you're not gon a give them any lip, understand? You're mom put me in charge of you and I don't need you thrown back out here unless I'm already there to catch you."

Carly bit her lip a little, taking the Brahmin reigns from Wolfgang's hands; Bartram whines from her ankles. "Okay. . .I guess I can bite my tongue a little bit."

"Atta girl," Wolfgang slapped her shoulder. "Now, we all have to eat shit right now. But we do it together, as a family."