Ruby continued to wipe away her own tears from saying goodbye to Maggie as her and Dogmeat traveled along the Potomac River. When they reached the Super Duper Mart parking lot Ruby stopped and stared at the building for a while, remembering the cocky girl she was back then when she first entered. "That feels like years ago now…" she whispered as she saw the sign she had placed near the mutilated pile of flesh from the raider corpses she stacked up that day were still in place although the stench of decay was fresh. She could also see that various animals had stopped by and devoured bits from the pile leaving lumps of decomposing flesh and coagulating blood. Ruby quickly shook her head from her memories and continued towards what looked to be a large office building.
From there they began to hear gunfire, both her and Dogmeat were on alert as she searched around for its source eventually seeing three Super Mutants in a brutal firefight near the ledge overlooking the water as they were firing at several raiders across the river. "Shit…" Ruby whispered as she checked her ammo and grenades, from her vantage point she could see that the Super Mutants were exactly like the armored brute she encountered near Arefu except only one of these horrific beasts was carrying a minigun while the other two carried assault rifles which almost seemed comically tiny in their hulking muscular hands. Ruby touched Dogmeat's head as she looked at him, "Okay here's the plan we are gonna let em fight it out while we sneak past them its their problem not ours." Dogmeat's eyes only pointed in the direction they were heading in acknowledgement.
Ruby smiled as she slowly stood up keeping low as she began to sneak past the Super Mutant's position using the minigun's noise as cover with Dogmeat at her heels as they quickly ran away hoping the Super Mutants wouldn't turn and see the young girl and dog that had snuck past them running away. They stopped seeing a shack along a shore dock with some decayed abandoned boats. Ruby stepped onto the dock walking towards the shack seeing an old woman sleeping in a chair with a hunting rifle in her lap. Umm…I wonder if I should wake the lady up I mean she should probably know about the shoot out going on right now Ruby thought as she crept towards the woman about to tap her shoulder.
Suddenly the old woman sprang up shoving the rifle in her face. "Freeze ya sonuva bitch!" and then broke out laughing as Ruby grasped her chest trying to calm herself down from the sudden shock. "Scared ya didn't I youngster?" She asked laughing as she sat back down. "I'm Anna Sparkle most folks around these parts call me Grandma Sparkle. What's your name you pretty little thing?" She asked with a toothy grin as she held out her hand in a handshake. Ruby was resisting every urge she had in her body not to shoot this woman in the head for scaring the living shit out of her by pointing her rifle at her face. She threw on her best crooked smile as she shook the woman's hand. "I'm Ruby I'm just a traveler passing through." She was about to turn and continue walking off when Grandma Sparkle called her back over.
"Hey don't worry about a thing Miss Ruby you look famished come and sit on down here fer a spell'." Ruby and Dogmeat immediately perked up when they heard her talk about food and she decided to sit down next to the woman. It was at this time that Grandma Sparkle noticed Ruby's tattoo partially exposed from the outfit she was wearing on her lower back. "Them markin's…you're the Ghost ain't cha?" Ruby's eyes went wide as dinner plates as she said that. "I'm sorry miss but…Ghost? Me?" She asked tilting her head, Grandma Sparkle nodded as she grabbed a flask of whiskey drinking some of the liquids inside. "Word along the Potomac spreads like wildfire kid, and I've been hearin a lotta talk among traders, caravaneers, shit anybody that walks through here really, that raider tribes have been getting wiped out like a bad rash across the wasteland. Sayin a ghost be comin in and killin em at night." She looked at Dogmeat as she continued. "Even sometimes torn to shreds like something sunk their teeth into em." She then got up and began grabbing food for Ruby and Dogmeat beginning to cook them a meal on an old grill.
Ruby thought for a moment as she looked up at Grandma Sparkle. "Grandma Sparkle? I don't mean any disrespect but what makes you think I'm this ghost?" She asked as she took a sip from a bottle of Purified Water. Grandma Sparkle only glared at her as she put her hand on her hip "Missy I've been along these radioactive waters enough to know these things! I maybe old but I'm not blind to see that you're the one that's makin' all the raiders shit themselves the minute they hear about ya! And I'm not dumb to know that your hound dog there has helped you do it!" Ruby winced expecting that to be the sort of retort she'd get from Grandma Sparkle. She had to admit, she liked the woman, to Ruby Grandma Sparkle was the one relative you'd want to go fishing with in the summer. However she also noticed that Grandma Sparkle's loneliness out here on the dock had kind of left her a little bit insane, not psychotic like Ruby was but just enough for her to be slightly sadistic from boredom but at the same time friendly and sociable.
"Oh damnit I knew I shoulda got some of that Mirelurk salt out, wait right here dearie while I go inside and get it." She said as she entered her shack. Ruby quickly took this opportunity to grab Grandma Sparkle's hunting rifle as she set down her own M4 and begun quickly checking the rifle doing maintenance. The weapon itself was in surprisingly good condition, Ruby suspected that someone may have helped her with it or she could have done it herself which had her amazed. The old hag sure does know how to defend herself that's for sure. She thought as she lifted back the bolt of the weapon looking into the chamber seeing only one fresh 32. caliber round. "She only had one bullet left…?" Ruby took out the bullet as she looked around remembering when the old woman had jumped out of her chair shoving the rifle in her face. If I had been hostile towards the woman like I was going to slit her throat while she was asleep. She'd have been close enough to jump out of her chair and put a bullet right through my skull. The reality of that thought made Ruby shiver in fear.
She heard movement in the shack come back towards the door as Ruby quickly put the bullet back into the chamber and sat the rifle down where Grandma Sparkle had left it. The woman had come back out and began finishing their meals walking over to them with plates of Mirelurk Cakes and two Brahmin Steaks. Ruby and Dogmeat stared at their food drooling in anticipation as Ruby giggled happily while Dogmeat panted heavily. Ruby quickly thanked Grandma Sparkle as she sat down Dogmeat's plate and the two began devouring the food rapidly Ruby eating with a fork and her combat knife while Dogmeat happily wolfed down his meal. "My! My! Ain't you two full now!" Grandma Sparkle said with delight at her two guests, her and Ruby talked a while longer long into the afternoon. Ruby had liked the woman even more given that she was learning a lot more about the area she was in including the squad of Talon mercenaries Grandma Sparkle mentioned passing through the area.
When Ruby finally saw the sun going down as day turned into night she realized. Shit! I spent too much time here! Now I have to find somewhere to camp out quick! She thought as she stood up. "I'm terribly sorry Grandma Sparkle thank you very much for the meal but I have to get going." Grandma Sparkle chuckled as she waved goodbye to her. "It was nice talkin' to ya Ruby! Go haunt some mo' raiders for me ya hear?" and walked inside most likely to turn in herself and go to bed. This gave Ruby a quick chance to spring into action, she went over to the refrigerator where Grandma Sparkle was keeping the meat she had stored and picked the lock on the handle opening it up.
She resisted the urge to steal all the packs of Brahmin, MireLurk meat and some strange big meat that the woman had evidently labeled Yao Guai meat, Ruby wasn't sure what a Yao Guai was and she figured that some day she'd probably find out but for now she reached into her pack digging through her ammo and pulled out some packs of 32. Caliber rounds and stuffed them in among the meat as she grabbed some paper from an empty journal she grabbed from Vault 106 stuffing it inside writing a note for her. Ruby then shut the refrigerator door and continued on her way with Dogmeat. It didn't take her long to see the large collapsed bridge up ahead with cars strewn about along the collapsed piece of the road making a ramp up onto the rest of the bridge. As she got close she could hear footsteps coming from beneath the other disconnected half of the bridge. Damnit more raiders…! She thought as her and Dogmeat immediately got down low sneaking around the side of the camp along the concrete supports of the bridge as she peeked around the corner seeing a male lone raider taking out a cigarette and lighting it with his lighter as he seemed to stare out across a small red bridge towards a large structure.
Ruby turned to see the direction he was looking and realized why there were raiders camped here. HOLY SHIT! that's the Citadel! Ruby thought as she fought to contain her own excitement at the chance at finally meeting the Brotherhood of Steel at last silently praying they were a lot nicer than the asshole Brotherhood Outcasts she had encountered during her travels. Ruby purred as she took out her combat knife and slowly licked the blade tasting bits of Mirelurk meat and Brahmin meat on it as soon all modicum of stealth she was aiming for vanished as she unsung her M4 in her other hand running up behind the guard giggling as she slit his throat before he could react to her presence as he turned around towards her. This sparked up the whole camp as the other raiders sprung up from their poker game and their sleep grabbing weapons only to be cut down quickly by Ruby's M4 assault rifle carbine shooting from the hip. As one last sole surviving female raider tried to vault over the other side of the camp to escape that was when Dogmeat dove in snarling biting into the woman's shin and dragging her back down amidst her kicking and swearing. She was quickly silenced as Ruby grabbed hold of her and bit into her neck feeding off her chem tainted blood causing the woman's swearing to turn to screams of agony and then soft moans until finally the woman lost consciousness dying in Ruby's arms like a tragic bride. Ruby smiled grinning from ear-to-ear as she looked out at the large fortress that was the Citadel. "Starting tomorrow Brotherhood of Steel… oh yes starting tomorrow…we are going to be the best of friends!" She said giggling licking her own lips free of blood as she walked towards one of the camp beds and crawled onto it curling up mewing once before she went to sleep.