Screaming-Eagle's first sensation upon awakening was a splitting headache. Gods, it felt as though her head could fall apart if she so much as dared to open her eyes – which might have been gouged out of their sockets, for all she knew. All her muscles felt stiff, sore. She groaned her pain and groped numbly for her staff, but she only found… what was it, ice? The air was arid like in the middle of the Alik'r Desert, or the Mojave at this point, but the plate was cool to the touch.
Without thinking, she huddled closer to the source and pressed her head against it. A sigh of relief escaped her lips at feeling of blessed cold against her scales. Oh, damn that backstabbing snake House and damn his army – or rather, large platoon – of robots for having forced her to use that spell. Hadn't it been for Maria bolstering her Magicka pool, she may have very well killed herself with the effort. The cold helped her recover a little from the fatigue. Right, she could power through it, put her thoughts into a semblance of order once more…
She noticed she was halfway between sitting and laying down, for one. Her neck and part of her back were resting against something hard, something metal, and it sure as Oblivion wasn't helping with the ache. One of the wrecked robots, she supposed. The floor, on the contrary, was rather soft. It had to be carpeting. This couldn't be the same place in which she had lost consciousness, there had been no Securitrons there. She had been moved; it came to reason they had won the fight.
Someone chuckled impishly close by. A little girl, by the sound of it. Maria? Why would she giggle like that? "Naeera's right, you're really cute together!"
Wait, what? Cute? What did that even mean? She was clinging to something cold, what was-
Oh. Oh, Gods. This couldn't be happening. Not to her. The cold made too much sense for her to feel comfortable now. It wasn't metal, it wasn't any form of technology or magic, nothing.
It was Stalhrim.
Screaming-Eagle uncertainly pried her eyes open, only to find her worst fears confirmed. Keram-Rei was fast asleep to her left, and anyone watching the scene might have thought she was holding on to him for dear life. Still, she found something reassuring about his presence at her side, about his athletic physique clad in that armor, about his-
She mentally slapped herself. No, the only thing she found in the situation was embarrassment.
She pulled away from him in the opposite way as fast as she could – that is to say, at a painful crawl. After making sure there was at least a full foot between them (which to her muscles felt like a thousand), she sat properly, dusted her arm and tried to blink the bleariness away. A pair of intense blue eyes met hers, surrounded by ginger tufts and soot-stained skin. That was about everything that stood out against the blurry mist that was her vision.
The room was the same in which she'd fainted. She supposed it was the casino floor of the Lucky 38, although much more damaged than before they had set foot inside. There was little she could focus on, everything was too far and much too hazy, so she decided to go for close.
"Maria?" Screaming-Eagle called. Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper. Divines, how could her throat ache, too? "Please… tell me you're the only one who's seen this."
"V and Becky are out, and Naeera and Mr. Wolf are downstairs, don't worry." Maria told her in a hushed tone, unable to keep her smile from surfacing. At least, that white stripe on her face had to be a smile. She was probably sitting cross-legged in front of her, almost as if to make guard.
Screaming-Eagle nodded, trying to understand what the little girl was saying and at the same time not breaking her neck with the movement. Something important must have happened. Perhaps they truly had won – and there was no way an eight year old like Maria could know exactly what. Instead, she glanced briefly to her left and raised a brow. "Why is Keram-Rei unconscious?"
"Oh, he shouted this thing and started glowing!" Maria answered excitedly, clapping her hands once. It almost looked like she had been waiting for that specific question. "Before you made that fire thingy he did that, and they hit him, but he didn't get hurt! He beat the robots because he shot magic lightning from his hands!"
Eldritch glow? Amazing resistance? Increased magic capabilities? Oh, right, he had used Dragon Aspect. She remembered it now, the idiot's gambit. But… why was he lying senseless? The Shout was extremely taxing on energies, true; she usually came out exhausted after its effects faded. However, she had never been knocked out completely. Could it have something to do with his particularly strong soul? Was feeding its great power too much of an effort for him? She brought up a hand and stroked at her nostrils first, then she found her target and caressed her chin. A question to ask him later, when her body and mind would function properly once more.
"Say, where is my staff?" Screaming-Eagle asked the little girl. She shifted into a more comfortable position and wrapped her robes closer about her. She was feeling a little naked without it.
Maria didn't answer. She reached behind her, took something in both hands and presented her the black Hist staff – perfectly immaculate crystals gleaming and little chains rattling. The mage snatched it, almost viciously, and instantly placed it across her knees. Then she sighed, closing her eyes and slumping her shoulders. Much better.
After little more than a few seconds, wood creaked and groaned dangerously somewhere ahead of her. She saw horns, spikes and white scales appear from behind the railings. They were soon to be followed by a blood-drenched armor, bestial feet, and a couple of green, long-necked bottles held between brown-black fingers. Screaming-Eagle instinctively quivered a little. He was a giant to her when she was on her feet. Now he was twice as towering, and thrice as intimidating.
Of course, the werewolf being himself, he reached down to ruffle Maria's hair with his free hand. His quicksilver eyes focused on her as he flashed her a grin. She was glad she could start putting things in focus. "I am glad to see you have awoken so soon."
His impossible bass rumbled like distant thunder, making her insides tremble slightly. She couldn't help but return the smile. "Eyes-Of-Silver. I take it the ambush has been averted?"
"Oh, absolutely." Eyes-Of-Silver chuckled. He deposited the two bottles between her and Keram-Rei, then folded his arms across his chest and added raised eyebrows to his scarred expression. "Every single machine has been destroyed, me and Veronica have vanquished any that may have been lying in wait for us, and Robert Edwin House is no more." He pointed at one of the large flasks. "Before we proceed to inform you about the situation in detail, though, I believe you should drink that philter. All of it, I may add."
Screaming-Eagle glanced at it. It was a deep forest green. A vigor elixir, and a potent one at that. She didn't need him to tell her twice before she scrabbled the cork away with her fingernails. After the first gulp she had her confirmation: the thickness of Netch jelly, the consistency of powdered mammoth tusks, and the gossamer sensation of wisp wrappings.
It tasted absolutely awful and almost made her retch it out, but once she'd drained the flask the effects were immediate. Her headache simply disappeared as though it had never been there, her eyes shot into focus, and her muscles regained every lost ounce of energy. She aided herself to her feet with her staff purely for her unstable balance, certainly not for lack of strength.
The first big lungful of air brought dust, burned carpeting and fused metal with it. She saw a sofa still intact, surrounded by destroyed furniture, and the little jagged shapes of broken bottles behind a cracked and splintered bar counter (how she hadn't noticed it in the first place, she didn't know). There were three Securitrons scattered about, probably Keram-Rei's handiwork, and behind her two of them had been stacked to serve as a backrest. It could only have been Eyes-Of-Silver.
"Yes, now you may proceed." The werewolf said cheerfully, beaming. He motioned vaguely towards the sleeping form of Keram-Rei as he knelt down and took the other potion in hand. Maria immediately bounced over close to him. "I shall awaken him shortly, do not worry. Feel free to go downstairs and ask Naeera about the current situation."
Screaming-Eagle nodded out of politeness – it wasn't like she was going to intentionally talk to Naeera. She planted her staff to support herself a little better. Then, she half-limped over to the stairs and down each step. As she moved closer to the ground, she saw more and more of the robots she had sheared in half with her Destruction skills. Her forces all but failed her at the thought of the spell she had unleashed.
It wasn't common fire she had used. It was pure heat, as strong and boiling as the depths of the Red Mountain, as powerful and relentless as the blazing sun. The simple fact she had devised such magic, that she had exerted her control over it for a few seconds, was enough to make her smirk with pride. She'd like to see any mage try and do what she had done without failing or outright dying. It did have its drawbacks, of course. Unless she found an ailment for it, she could forget about using any form of spell before she drank a gallon of Magicka potion or slept for twelve hours straight.
Well, she guessed she was going to ask Keram-Rei for such a draught later. He was almost certainly going to accept, maybe grow a little nervous around her in that amusing way of his, but the thought he might have crafted those potions with his hands like he did with food-
Oh, for Mara and Dibella's sake, not again! She had simply forgotten to buy her own elixirs before falling into this cesspool of a world.
She clenched her teeth down onto her thoughts as she got into the casino's main floor. She was greeted by upturned slot machines, shattered tables, more broken automatons, and wall edges very nearly pulverized by bullet holes and laser marks. Most of the carpets had been burned; the ones that hadn't were filled with either wood splinters or glass shards.
Some of the lights were missing. It didn't help in the slightest with sight, since the red lanterns hadn't provided much illumination in the first place. It all added up to the eeriness of the place – which now looked much more suited to the post-nuclear world it belonged to. A nice thing, that they had managed to ruin even this little untouched haven in the Mojave wasteland.
Standing amidst the destruction on the wide lowered space between the elevator and the exit, toying with her daggers and tapping a tune on one of the wrecked Securitrons, was the thief. Screaming-Eagle was careful to avoid looking Naeera in the eye. Always in her scales-tight suit, always happy, always averting her eyes whenever the two of them were in the same room. Only when Keram-Rei had been wounded had they ignored the other's presence in silent truce. Now that Keram-Rei was fine, that thieving little rat had absolutely no reason to address her personally.
"Good to have you back, by the way." Naeera said in her high, sharp and mildly loathsome voice. Their eyes locked for a second – a second in which the mage was more than glad to glare back and snort. The thief looked away with a shake of her head. "Or your magic, anyway…"
"A shame the same cannot be said of you." Screaming-Eagle growled out in greeting. She felt her fingers tighten uselessly against the staff. Oh, she would have gladly blasted her away with anything painful enough to be remembered. "Tell me, did you cower behind a wall while we fought for you?"
Naeera cracked her knuckles and started towards her, teeth bared and eyes narrowed, before she stopped just one step away from her snout. Snout which was a good head over the thief's own. She held up a hand, sighed, and stared levelly at her. "You know what? I'm not falling for any of your stupid shit again. You want to act high and mighty? Fine. Not my problem." Her eyes hardened. "And my 'cowering behind a wall' saved Keram-Rei. Pretty sure I've done my part in the fight."
Screaming-Eagle couldn't help but blink at that. Part of her hostility boiled away, replaced by surprise. That was… unexpected. Well, not really, she had been friendly enough with Keram-Rei in the last few days to explain such a thing, but still. How was she supposed to react now? She hated her, oh if she loathed the tiny harlot, but she had saved Keram-Rei…
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Naeera snorted bitterly. She took a couple of steps back, and sat onto the Securitron wreck she had been rapping her knuckles on. "Anyway, Eyes-Of-Silver killed Mr. House. Something big happened, because there's a lot of people outside, and that NCR soldier, Banner, got here to give Phoenix a letter or something." She stroked at her jaw, then snapped her fingers as though she'd remembered something important. "Oh, and Phoenix and Veronica are out to kill this Benny guy. I wanted to come, but they didn't want to draw even more attention."
Oh, if there wasn't any reason she could hate the thief for at the moment, at least Screaming-Eagle could feel annoyed by her gab. She leaned against the closest wooden table which, miraculously enough, hadn't been annihilated, and sighed. Good thing Keram-Rei had been trying to keep a low profile, with the importance of not being noticed and all… instead they had apparently destroyed the status quo of the entirety of New Vegas – something that the populace had mysteriously found out about, if Naeera's words and the muffled voices from outside were any indicator. The backs of her eyes began to throb dully with the beginnings of yet another headache. Naeera had enough sense to keep quiet and leave her to her brooding.
This wasn't her idea of not getting involved. Things had gone wrong the very moment Keram-Rei had accepted to help Phoenix. Not that she hadn't needed their help, the poor girl had and still did. But the more they grew attached to a world that wasn't their own, the harder it was going to be parting from it. How stupid of her to have thought about new starts and all that, this place was just dreadful. People fought for the most basic of needs such as food and water, there were raiders everywhere, madmen, war, radiations, and to top it all, she was in the middle of a ruined city in a desert.
Great, just great. She had no idea how it hadn't occurred to her they had to get away from this concoction of dust and death that was the Mojave wasteland the moment she saw it. She'd take a trip to the Deadlands any day. Dagon's anarchy… no, by Oblivion, Sheogorath's whims made more sense than this place.
She hated it.
The mage looked up shortly afterwards at the sound of creaking steps. Eyes-Of-Silver was coming down the staircase, accompanied as always by Maria and followed by Keram-Rei. Astonishingly enough, the battlemage still looked bleary after drinking their stamina elixir. He rubbed at his eyes, slowly descended the steps, and yawned.
Screaming-Eagle observed his sluggish, confused movements with a little puzzlement of her own. Okay, something was wrong with him. It wasn't possible for Dragon Aspect to have left him so drained.
"So, I suppose our duty has been discharged, eh?" Eyes-Of-Silver began with a clap of his hands and a grin, glancing towards each of them amiably. "Or rather, given our current position, we may be the ones who have been discharged for the time being. What shall we do now?"
"We stay here." Screaming-Eagle announced, hitting the ground with her staff to punctuate her words (and vent her outrage). Was there even a reason for them to discuss where to go? The only calm place in three days, save for the little office building by Lake Mead, and he was no doubt already thinking about marching and hunting through the wastes again. "This tower will be a great asset. House is dead, he won't need it. We, on the other hand, have finally found a place to call our own."
"That part was pretty obvious, Screaming-Eagle." Keram-Rei grunted. He chuckled at her scowl and raised a brow. "He didn't ask where we had to stay, he asked what we're going to do."
Screaming-Eagle drew in a deep breath. "Give me a week. By then, I will have analyzed the Overseer's memories and found a way to return to Nirn."
As Maria huddled closer to Eyes-Of-Silver, Naeera let out an incredulous laugh, wide-eyed. "So let me get this straight: we fuck House over, create a vacuum of power that might start a civil war, and you suggest we just go away? Are you out of your gods-damned mind?"
"No, I simply do not care for this 'New Vegas'." Screaming-Eagle admitted bluntly, heedless of her reaction. It was true: why would she care? Moreover, she disliked the city. A gambling den, where dishonesty and violence were the only means of rising above the crowd of milling idiots. She'd had enough of that in Skyrim. Here, the feelings were amplified tenfold. "This is their problem to solve. Elect a new leader, found a council, follow the strongest warlord - they have options, it's their fault if they sit around and fight. These people have been striving for over two centuries, what is some unrest for them? What I care about is returning to a world that's alive."
"That won't do, we have to set things right at least." Keram-Rei objected, cementing her image of a rather handsome idiot. He casually picked at the tips of his horns with his fingers. "Say, what about the NCR? They've got a government, and an army. They can take care of Vegas. They can defend Nevada from the Legion, right?" He shrugged. "Leave it to them. We can help if they want."
Screaming-Eagle considered his words. It wasn't a bad idea, and it would appease those who didn't want to leave New Vegas leaderless. Yes, it may just work. Left them a great deal less problems to cope with anyway, and time for her to find a way back home.
"Fuck it, they're going to be just as bad as House." Naeera protested as always. She clenched her fists in anger and glared over to him. "I know it, I grew up in Riften's Ratway. The poor won't notice a different ruler, things will always go bad for them. There's always going to be people starving to death, or living on the streets, NCR or no. They're greedy bastards, they just want to line their pockets, everyone does. They're going to place the city under martial law, they've only got an army here." She nodded to herself, and looked up, around the casino. She grinned. "But hey… we've already got money, in gold. And with House out of the way, with his place, I bet we could make a difference."
Screaming-Eagle stared at her as though she had just proposed to marry a Dragon and live happily ever after on some desolate crag in the Jerall Mountains.
"Bah, I am no politician, nor have I ever let myself be entangled in such affairs." Eyes-Of-Silver waved her off. At least he was showing a modicum of common sense, much to the mage's relief. "I have little interest in your proposals, although I have to say, Naeera's intrigues me. 'Tis true, I may not be a nobleman nor a man of state, though there is four of us." He grinned. It wasn't as amiable as before. "Who would dare rise against us? With our might, we shall strike fear into the hearts of any foolish enough to attempt to rebel."
Apparently, Eyes-Of-Silver would have made for a fine best man. Kudos to the Dragon.
"Have you two lost your minds and forgot to look for them, taken as you were by your insanity?" Screaming-Eagle blurted out in amazement. She had made the thief untrustworthy and capable of no good advice from the beginning, but the werewolf had appeared rational to her. "Do you even know what ruling a small community means? It's hellish; and here we are talking about an entire city! There may be thousands of people in New Vegas and the surrounding slums. Have you any, any idea how hard it is to consider the resources, needs, mood and requirements of so many people?" She gasped at the weight, at the sheer implications of such a thing. "This is ludicrous!"
Keram-Rei hummed pensively. When he noticed their eyes were on him, he cleared his throat and blinked. "Oh, ah, well… I'm not saying we should do this, but technically, we did have to consider the morale of our troops, their movements, their equipment and all that when we were Legates, Screaming-Eagle." He looked to the thief and werewolf. "Unless you weren't-"
"My cohorts and I took Windhelm in a single day of battle." Eyes-Of-Silver proudly stated, beaming and clasping his right fist to his breastplate. "Orcish berserkers and Nordic shock troops. Ulfric's whelps could not stand a chance against us."
"Scouts, infiltrators and assassins." Naeera chuckled impishly. "The Emperor's daggers, they called us."
"Alright, that just further proves my point." Keram-Rei picked up again, wiggling his fingers together nervously. "So… take away the discipline, most of the fighting, and make it full-time… yeah, I mean, it's not all that different, right?"
Screaming-Eagle gawped at him.
"Well, there certainly is no place for executions on the basis of insubordination." Eyes-Of-Silver helpfully added. She barely saw Keram-Rei flinch. "Nor can we order them around, or expect them to fear and respect us immediately and solely upon our rank. But it does sound quite similar, yes."
"It's going to be like Skyrim all over again." Naeera interjected smugly, her arms folded across her chest (and under her unnatural breasts). "We help people, make a name for ourselves out there, and we're golden."
Screaming-Eagle felt her mouth slowly hang open. Did they even know what they were saying? She had no idea how any of them hoped to accomplish anything this way. She worked her jaw, lips and tongue into motion until she managed to make a sound. "What?"
Keram-Rei scratched at his feathers. "It's not really going to be that easy… but we could try."
"Excuse me, what?!" Screaming-Eagle barked at last, wide-eyed and aghast at each and every one of them save for Maria. The more she listened to all this, the more she wanted to plunge her staff into her hearing canals to stop hearing such atrocious idiocies. "There is no trying with a ruling body! Do you seriously believe four non-human military officers from another world could possibly rule this city? We don't have the capabilities nor the mindset to do such a thing! A city isn't an army. And even if we did, this is not our world, this is not our problem, this is not our purpose! We come from Nirn, and I surely don't intend to waste away into this Gods-forgotten desert. We don't belong here." She glared at them in turn. When none replied immediately, she thrust her staff's bottom into the carpeted floor. "We have been here for three days, we don't know how in the name of the Divines we even got here, and you are already thinking about settling down and ruling the land? What is wrong with you?!"
She blew out a snort, clenched her jaw, and narrowed her eyes for any of them to reply to that. Sure enough, Eyes-Of-Silver and Keram-Rei exchanged an uncertain glance. Naeera looked down, suddenly interested in her talons.
"You wanna go away?" Maria broke the silence. Her voice was little more than a hushed whisper, full of worry and sudden sadness, her bright blue eyes focused on her. "Already?"
Screaming-Eagle felt an acute pang of guilt in the pit of her stomach. Which she normally shouldn't, because she had known Maria for less than three days, and yet that betrayed expression still punched her. She… was her student, after all. Her eight year old student. Ah, damnation, had this happened a year before she would have probably ignored the child, or slapped her away. Now, though…
"Pfft, no way." Naeera reassured the little girl, hopping off from her perch on the Securitron and going over to ruffle her hair. "But she's kinda right, you know. We come from far away, and… our home is just so much better than here. We just miss it, that's all."
Yes, and I want to get back to it instead of living here. Screaming-Eagle added as a thought, narrowing her eyes ever-so-slightly on the thief.
As Maria seemed to take some reassurance in Naeera's gesture, Eyes-Of-Silver knelt down in front of the little girl to brush her displaced hair from her eyes. "Oh, do not worry, you could come with us if you wanted."
Maria's eyes lit up at that. "Really?"
"Yes, of course!" Eyes-Of-Silver jovially assured her. He lifted her chin with an index the size of a police baton to look into her eyes. "There are countless sights to see, the landscape is truly beautiful and diversified. Not only a scorching desert, mind you." He shrugged one shoulder. "Well, there are two all right, but…" He grinned. "Do you know what a jungle is? A marsh? A thundra?"
Maria shook her head, eager for an answer and open-mouthed.
Before the werewolf could explain her the beauty of Tamriel, a noise from the door drew her attention. Each of them focused on the four panes of smoked glass at the end of the room. Phoenix and Veronica would have known how to come in, and they sure as Oblivion didn't need their permission to do so.
So who was knocking?
Screaming-Eagle stood up from the table, shared a curious glance with the rest of the Dragonborn, and frowned. Keram-Rei was the first to move towards the door; at this point, she decided to follow at his shoulder. Eyes-Of-Silver, Maria and Naeera fell in shortly after, until they spread out at roughly ten feet from the entrance.
Screaming-Eagle sighed at their sudden hesitation, deciding to step ahead and place her hand on the handle. She scowled at them. "It's way too early for someone to want our heads already."
Pulling the door open, she was greeted by a crowd standing just beyond the steps of the Lucky 38. There were dozens of people, mostly men and women in worn-out jackets, shirts or dresses. She spotted a couple of NCR soldiers amidst them, too. Two Securitrons waited at each side of the staircase, in front of the railings, doing absolutely nothing.
Of course, with her being an Argonian and having showed her teeth in a small fit of annoyance, most people in the crowd gasped loudly in surprise or shock. Some of them screamed, while a few of the braver (or dumber, depending on the point of view) took aim with a revolver or a similarly small weapon. She even saw a young woman or two faint. Quite coherent with their initial reaction, she may add.
The two men immediately in front of her, of course, caught her eye. One was well over his forties, with a lean, almost feminine face and cold gray-blue eyes. He was dressed in old brown trousers and jacket, under which he donned a white shirt and a black bow-tie. A dark fedora covered his short-cropped chestnut hair. The other fellow looked much younger, definitely in his early twenties, dressed in the exact same way – save for the lack of a hat, leaving his shoulder-length blonde hair unrestrained. He had green eyes, very close to the bottle green shade of Phoenix.
The older man gave her a chilly, self-satisfied smirk and tipped the brim of his fedora in salute.
The younger recoiled at her sight, his eyes wide with fear, but soon regained his self-control and simply nodded.
Behind her, Naeera let out a nonplussed snort. "What the fuck do you want?"
For once, Screaming-Eagle agreed with her. She had never seen the likes of them before. They both had a military air to them, evident in their upright posture and disciplined stance, in how they carried themselves. Neither of them was particularly imposing, but the older one's gaze gave her an idea of danger, a sparkle of rational insanity she mistrusted, almost feared.
The man's smirk turned into a smile as his fingers left the fedora. It was as cold as Solstheim's winter nights. "The eyes of mighty Caesar are upon you."
The half-whispered words made Screaming-Eagle's blood freeze in her veins. Keram-Rei all but choked on the news, Naeera hissed like a trampled rattlesnake, Maria gave a strangled cry.
The Legion? How? The Legion was in Arizona, well beyond the Colorado River, the Hoover Dam and the NCR forces stationed at the border. Unless… well, unless these were some form of spies. How hard could it have been for them to sneak by at some point left undefended or unknown to the Republic? Why, if she were Caesar, she would have established a network of informants and agents to find out everything the enemy's movements. These two had known where to find her group. How long had the Legion been observing them?
Then she noticed something that, quite possibly, chilled her more than these men's presence.
Eyes-Of-Silver had fallen silent.
"His admiration of your skills is second only to his curiosity." The legionary continued in his low, unnervingly calm tone, his eyes fixed on them. It was the voice of a man who could have throttled an infant and kept his cool all the while, maybe even enjoy the kill. "Still, however unnatural your very existence may be, my Lord sees much potential in you. As such, he bestows upon you the exceptional gift of his Mark."
He took a gold medallion from his breast pocked and held it out in front of him. Screaming-Eagle hesitated at first, then tore it from his fingers to avoid prolonged contact with him. The thing was as heavy as a gold coaster the size of her palm should be, attached to a leather lace and rough-edged like an ancient coin from the times of the Empire of Reman Cyrodiil. She felt the back of it was plain, whereas the front was decorated by a prancing bull and a High Tamrielic engraving: Honor Caesaris – the Mark of Caesar.
Bah, like she needed the approval of a megalomaniac lunatic, or she was ever going to do his bidding. Screaming-Eagle resisted the urge to spit on it and throw it in the legionaries' eyes. Instead, she narrowed her own and showed her teeth in a grimace. "Who are you?"
"I am Vulpes Inculta, of Caesar's Legion." The older man presented himself with a curt bow. The smile never quite left his thin lips. "I serve my master as the greatest of his Frumentarii. This beside me is Titus, who wished to prove himself in the eyes of great Caesar."
A frumentarius, of course. A member of the secret services as she'd suspected. The Empire had its spies, too, comprised of the most despicable and untrustworthy personalities she had ever had the disgrace to meet. A necessary evil, though. Their utility far surpassed their tolerability. In any case, his name was familiar – and he must have been fairly infamous, if Maria's whimpers were anything to go by.
Keram-Rei appeared at her shoulder, fangs bared and growling. "You're the bastard Phoenix told us about! You destroyed an entire town and killed everyone to prove a fucking point!"
Screaming-Eagle took a disgusted step back, followed by a snarl. The battlemage was right, it was him. That was the monster Phoenix had talked about, the man who had slaughtered countless people only to show what the Legion was capable of. She felt her gorget rising at the thought of facing such a being.
In all this the younger man, Titus, was failing to keep his calm mask in place. Sweat trickled down from his hair and into the neck of his shirt. His breathing had quickened by… either looking at Keram-Rei, or by the horror of what had just transpired. Probably the latter. If he was new as a frumentarius, perhaps he couldn't keep his feelings in check just yet. Besides, what could he possibly fear from Keram-Rei that Eyes-Of-Silver wasn't capable of?
Vulpes Inculta tut-tutted, although his grin broadened in stark contrast. "Oh no, that is where you and your Courier friend are wrong." He flicked his wrist. "You see, out of the seventy-eight profiligates living in the city, one won his freedom by grace of Mars, another had the permission to live and crawl like the worm he is, and three more will now be able to redeem themselves by serving Caesar as slaves." He chuckled smugly, as if discussing a successful game of poker. "After all, that is what those vermin are good for. As for the rest, they did not deserve to live."
Screaming-Eagle wanted to strike him down, but she had neither the Magicka nor the stupidity to do so. She settled for a low hiss, in tune with Naeera's. If they so much as lay a finger on him and his friend, then the entirety of the Legion was going to know it. Caesar was bound to have more spies to replace their loss, and a perfectly good reason to actively hunt them down instead of seeking their help. Something like Vulpes Inculta's death may be the spark to light the fires of war. At the very least, if that was not the case, the Legion was going to redouble their war efforts and increase its presence everywhere in Nevada.
They couldn't touch him. And the bastard knew it. He knew it and just stood there, taunting them, within arm's reach and yet so far away… in time, he was going to pay. She knew it as she held her staff as though she wanted to strangle it instead of him, as she glared daggers at the flagitious monster, as behind her Keram-Rei and Naeera struggled to stay back. Good thing Phoenix wasn't there, and they were all being rational. Furious, outraged, murderous – but rational. Things might have been even worse for them if-
A shove made Screaming-Eagle lose her balance. She fell to the ground with a yelp of surprise, while her staff's clatter was silenced by the stuffed floor. Naeera landed with a roll and helped Maria keep her footing. Keram-Rei crashed face-down into the carpeting with a muffled curse.
A second later, Vulpes Inculta and Titus had been dragged into the Lucky 38 and thrust against the railings. The open door slammed closed, rattling on its hinges.
Eyes-Of-Silver stood over them.
The werewolf didn't howl, didn't growl, his breaths weren't heavy with rage. He seemed perfectly calm. She noticed with growing disquiet that any expression had vanished from his face, leaving only the dead eyes of a savage beast behind. Keram-Rei was about to shout at him, but fell silent before he even started. Their eyes, however, were now entirely focused on the towering Dragonborn. She couldn't even stand up, paralyzed as she was.
The younger legionary tried to stand up and take something from the depths of his jacket. When he was already on his knees, Eyes-Of-Silver's backhander across the man's chest sent him sprawling back with a chilling crack of broken ribs. He moaned and found it wiser not to stand up again.
Vulpes Inculta didn't even attempt it, either too dazed or too pained by the throw to do so. Eyes-Of-Silver took a slow, deliberate step towards the frumentarius and bent, grabbing him by the throat. He struggled and kicked at the two feet of air underneath him, trying to pry the werewolf's metal fingers open with his own. Some increase of pressure made him abruptly stop. His eyes were fixed into the two quicksilver orbs, his breathing labored and rasping.
"Greetings, Vulpes Inculta." Eyes-Of-Silver spoke. His tone never quavered with emotion, it was as calm and cold as the whispers of the dead; his features never betrayed any unspoken feeling. "I am Lupus Vorax. Tell me, spineless worm, why did your arrogance bring you here?"
Vulpes Inculta might have said something, anything, but apparently understood silence was his best chance of earning a quick death. There was no surviving the werewolf now, Screaming-Eagle knew it.
"As I thought." Eyes-Of-Silver sighed, impassible. He dropped the man to the ground and, while the frumentarius wheezed and coughed, took his crossed battleaxes from his back. "Slaughtering you without a chance to fight me back, fitting though it may be for subhuman scum like you, brings me no honour." He paused for an instant, in which he clasped his axes together. "Not that a creature such as you would know anything of honour. To your feet, maggot."
Screaming-Eagle found herself horribly fascinated by the exchange. The man was about to die, and yet Eyes-Of-Silver was toying with him, taunting him before delivering the final blow. Why? In the other two or three fights she had witnessed, he had been much more straightforward and much more brutal. She used her staff to stand up, noticing how Naeera, Maria and Keram-Rei were already on their feet.
Vulpes Inculta climbed to his feet; unsteady, but determinate. He unbuttoned his jacket, took it off and left it on the railing behind him. He threw a defiant snort in the werewolf's direction. "Kill me, and ten more will take my place. The Legion will hunt you down, Wolf." He let a ferocious smile touch his lips. "You, and your pathetic group of degenerate lizards and weak women."
Screaming-Eagle growled in unison with Naeera at the last sentence.
"Good, let them come, I could do with the practice." Eyes-Of-Silver answered casually, distractedly. He turned and walked up to an amazed Keram-Rei, offering his natural hand. "Your sword."
The battlemage looked at him as though he'd asked for him to undress himself, but an insistent repetition of the gesture was more than enough to make him part with his sword. The werewolf held the blade like a dagger and cast it in the direction of the frumentarius, who eagerly took it by the hilt and held it curiously, sideways. He didn't adopt Keram-Rei's one-handed, flexile stance with it. He instead brandished the sword two-handed. It was something she had never seen anyone do in Skyrim. But then again, she wasn't a swordswoman nor did she particularly care for such a thing.
Eyes-Of-Silver took position some fifteen feet away from Vulpes Inculta, his battleaxe held in both hands, and thrust his chin towards his opponent. "Now we may begin."
Screaming-Eagle had many adjectives to describe Vulpes Inculta, and 'stupid' certainly wasn't one of those. He knew he was doomed, it showed in his sneer, in his clenched jaw; but he didn't charge headlong into the werewolf. They circled around, waiting for their respective opponent to move.
Less than five seconds passed before Eyes-Of-Silver apparently got bored and pounced towards the enemy, but Vulpes Inculta sidestepped and successfully landed a blow aimed at one of the armor's joints – only for it to be deflected by the thick plating of the bracer.
Eyes-Of-Silver elbowed the blade away. The frumentarius saw it coming and rolled to the right, his sword held at the ready for the following attack. The werewolf charged a downwards chop with preternatural speed and thunderous force, which Vulpes Inculta narrowly evaded, wobbling a bit as he caught his footing once more and as a one-foot long gash was opened in the carpeting.
At that, Eyes-Of-Silver swung the axe low and sideways. In an attempt to deflect the blow, Vulpes lost the blade and was left unbalanced, unarmed and undefended. The werewolf dropped his battleaxe to the ground, too, as though he were actually trying to give his opponent a fair chance. He simply stalked forwards, staggered him with a clout on the ear and gripped his hapless opponent by the throat with his ebony arm as he had in the beginning.
Screaming-Eagle wasn't even surprised at this point. She just found it a little cruel on the werewolf's part, but if anybody deserved being toyed around, it was Vulpes Inculta. Especially after the comment on lizards and women. That had just made it personal.
"I win." Eyes-Of-Silver calmly asserted. He gazed back at the other Dragonborn and Maria. The mage shivered when his eyes met hers; to see the merry and mirthful light completely extinct in them sent chills down her spine. In a moment, he turned his head to focus on the half-unconscious legionary not too far from him. The frumentarius writhed feebly under the metal fingers, half-heartedly, in defeat. "I have bested this man in single combat and have not assassinated him with cowardice. Does your debased Legion hold honourable duel in account?"
The young man, Titus, was holding at his chest as though his ribs may fall to the ground if he let go. He managed a weak nod. "Y-yes…"
Eyes-Of-Silver grunted his acknowledgement. His eyes went back to his victim. "If we had it my way, I would have shattered your wrists and ankles, hamstrung you, skinned you alive, devoured your heart and kept your head as a personal trophy for all to see on my hip."
Screaming-Eagle felt this morning's cantaloupes lurching in her stomach at the mention of all those charming little things, especially the part about devouring his heart. It reflected on everybody else's face – especially on Vulpes Inculta's.
"However, I shall not do so." The werewolf continued in his low monotone. "There is a child here. But you have fought decently for a worm, and you have earned a quick death. May Arkay deny you any peace."
His fingers clenched with a crushing noise, Vulpes Inculta's neck snapped. The man's head lolled after the crack, and his body went limp. Eyes-Of-Silver dropped the dead frumentarius and spat on the corpse, then dragged the injured legionary to his feet and stared into his unfocused eyes. The younger man groaned in pain, but he kept him firmly in place. "Go back to your Caesar. Inform him that I have challenged his prime frumentarius to a fair fight, and he has succumbed."
Titus cried something that might have been either a confirmation or an insult. In the way of a reply, Eyes-of-Silver lifted the injured man by the scruff, opened the door and flung him outside like a dead weight. The screams of the crowd outside confirmed he had rolled down to their feet.
Screaming-Eagle blinked. She shook her head to recover from the whole thing, let out a sigh she only then noticed she had been holding and shared a worried look with Keram-Rei and Naeera. The battlemage grimaced, the thief shrugged.
Maria managed to extricate herself from Naeera's hold and trotted up to the werewolf. She took his pinkie finger in her hand and pulled to earn his attention. She was frightened out of her mind, her wide eyes on him in fear he might go feral. "Mr… Mr. Wolf?"
The huge Argonian paused for an instant. Abruptly, as though what had happened before had all just been a dream, Eyes-Of-Silver dropped to his knees and hugged the little girl tight. Screaming-Eagle felt disturbed by his sincere smile. How could his mood change so suddenly? "Hush, little one. Everything is going to be all right."
Tiny arms tried to hug him back and failed, only reaching halfway over his sides. "You scared me, Mr. Wolf!"
"Do not be afraid, I was… furious." Eyes-Of-Silver answered with unsettling softness. He unwrapped his arms from around her and grinned at her. "Now that the evil man has been dealt with, there is nothing else for you to fear."
Screaming-Eagle stared at the corpse with unease. Gods, the heartless way in he had cracked the man's neck was ten times more chilling than when he had charged the Fiends, laughing and disemboweling as he went. She could never have imagined he could be so cold-blooded one moment, and then comfort a little girl the next.
She was beginning to have the nasty little suspicion that maybe he wasn't as sane as he looked.
Keram-Rei sheathed his sword. Screaming-Eagle tried to suppress the dark thoughts. Eyes-Of-Silver retrieved his axes and remained in silence with Maria.
Naeera shrugged as if nothing had happened. "Guess we'll just have to wait for Phoenix to sort this mess out?"
As it turned out, they didn't have to wait more than ten minutes.
The central-left door opened without a creak. Phoenix strode inside with brisk, purposeful steps and hard eyes that softened up a little when the whole group looked at her. Screaming-Eagle noticed the spatters of blood on her chest, and a broad gray coin in her right hand.
"Benny's done for." The girl announced crisply. Behind her came Veronica, whose cheerful mood hadn't been abated in the slightest. "I have the Platinum Chip, and… and…"
She trailed off when she finally took notice of Vulpes Inculta's corpse. It had been left where it was, since Keram-Rei suggested she may have been pleased to see another of the men she hated dead. They had agreed unanimously – save for Maria, who had tried not to look at the frumentarius.
Veronica raised a brow at the sight. "Okay, I'm missing something. Why is there a dead guy on the floor?"
Phoenix looked up into Screaming-Eagle's eyes, searching for the answer she couldn't bring herself to find. As the girl walked closer, the mage observed the expressions chasing themselves on her face, from bewilderment to rage to glee, only for them to end with relief. She let out a liberatory laugh. Who knew how long that man had haunted her dreams with crucified bodies and a burning town.
"Is he dead?" The girl asked. Before any of them could reply, she kicked the corpse in the ribs. Another kick followed on the side of the head. "Yes you are, you fucking monster! Dead! Like Nipton! Did it hurt, huh?" She spat on it. "I hope it did!"
"Regrettably, he did not suffer any more than defeat and a broken neck." Eyes-Of-Silver recounted. He shrugged; he looked really, honestly sorry he hadn't torn him apart like he'd said he would have. "Yet he is dead nevertheless. I find it his vertebrae were particularly satisfying to crush."
Screaming-Eagle grimaced at the specification. That… wasn't a necessary addition. True, she had been in more battles than she cared to count, but she found it best not to dwell on the sort of damage caused to a body by weapons, magic or bare hands. Details like that weren't pleasant. Not at all.
Phoenix twirled around towards the werewolf. She waited for the moment it took to process his words before she ran in his direction and hugged him. Eyes-Of-Silver looked puzzled, but went with a comforting pat on the girl's shoulder.
"That is so heartwarming, even though you look so scary!"
Screaming-Eagle's head snapped towards the source of the synthesized voice. She fumbled with her staff, only for the thought of having too little Magicka left and a raised hand from Veronica to stop her. Keram-Rei subsided, too, but Naeera took a step back behind Eyes-Of-Silver. Hmph, cowardly rat.
It was a Securitron. Only, much unlike the others they had met, this one wasn't pointing all of its weapons to kill them. Instead, it was waving one arm with the claws extended like an open hand. Another detail that set it aside from the other machines was the visage displayed on the screen. It wasn't a cowboy, nor a policeman.
It was a goofy smiling face.
"This is Yes Man." Veronica kindly informed the party, grinning broadly. "We found him hidden away in Benny's suite, and we figured he might be helpful. As it turns out, Benny had a plan for the Strip."
Screaming-Eagle's surprise and curiosity slowly faded away into horror. She liked none of the possible implications the word 'plan' brought with it. "What… plan? What was Benny planning?"
"Oh, he wanted to kill Mr. House and use the Platinum Chip to copy my neuro-computational matrix onto the Lucky 38's mainframe!" Yes Man provided with impossible cheer and never stopping for a breath. Which made sense, since the robot didn't have lungs in the first place. "That would give me control over all of Mr. House's defenses, most prominently his Securitrons. And then I guess I just do as I'm told!"
Do as he was told… well, Benny might have had really good or alluring reasons – mostly greed and lust for power – to go as far as to try and kill a teenager to get what he wanted. If she thought about all the power-hungry nobles she had seen over the course of the years, she would probably imagine he wanted to-
Oh no. In the name of all the Divines, the Daedric Princes and the Hist, this was just insane.
Keram-Rei and Eyes-Of-Silver must have realized it too, judging by their smiles. Naeera laughed.
"And now that House is dead…" Phoenix continued after walking in the middle of the group. She beamed at them. "A change of leadership is in order, don't you think?"
Screaming-Eagle pressed her forehead against her staff as if to try and quell the umpteenth migraine she was going to have. Gods, she hated this with all of her heart. Worst of all, there was nothing she could do to change their minds. She could only go one way now, and that way was forwards. Where it may lead…
Better not think of that just yet.