The alarm clock busted out in the now common god-awful noise. I slammed my fist down on the top of it, slamming a bunch of different buttons. I don't know what button did it, but it shut off. I threw my blankets over my head so that I could continue to engulf myself in darkness.

A knock on the door, "Go away!" I yelled at the door

Another series of knocks. The fumbling of the knob and the creek of the door slowly opening, "Come on. You told me to wake you up at four thirty. Come on, everyone is ready."

"No, Arcade! Just five more minutes!" I pleaded with my friend

A sigh came from Arcade, "Alright, you told me to do this. Don't get angry when I do!"

Arcade walked away from the doorway and I jumped up out of bed because I knew what would happen if I continued to linger in bed. Rubbing my eyes, I made my way to the kitchen. Walking past Arcade with a bucket of water in his hands, I sat down. "Happy?" I asked

"Very." Was his response and he walked out

I grabbed a bowl from one of the shelves and poured in my favorite cereal, Sugar Bombs. Pouring in the milk, I took a big spoonful from the bowl to my mouth. A whistle was the only thing that broke me out of my lovely breakfast.

Looking at the open doorway was no other than Rose of Sharon Cassidy. While I was pondering why she whistled at me, I realized that I was still in my underwear. I brushed it off as I took another bite of Sugar Bombs.

After finishing off the cereal and putting the bowl in the sink, I entered back into my room. Turning on the light, I walked over to my wardrobe. I had picked and narrowed down my options to two different outfits I could wear.

One was a business suit with a red tie. The other was the armor that Ulysses gave me as I left the Divide and the same armor I wore at Hoover Dam. I decided to go with the armor. My arms would be cold, but it would be fine, I handled a lot worse.

Things had gone wild ever since the end of Hoover Dam. Yes Man is in control of New Vegas and in about three or four months, the entire Mojave should be under our banner. The fiend's power was broken and all there is now is simply a few stragglers. Same with the Powder Gangers. But…not everything ended happily ever after.

Lily had left after in order to find the remnants of her past, and find the fate of her grandchildren after I convinced her to take her medicine at half-doses. It was a pretty hard hit, as Lily took care of everyone and was basically our team cheerleader. "Didn't your mother ever tell you it's polite to help an old lady carry her bags?"

Boone wasn't angry that I had stopped the NCR. But he wanted to give the Legion a last goodbye present in the form of picking off their officers and taking out a hell ton of their troops. Whenever I heard of dead Legion majors being killed by a sniper…I knew it was Boone. His loss was hard to me…after he told me everything that had happened at Bitter Springs…I just hoped he really did get over it. "You take out a debt, it's only a matter of time before someone comes collecting. Things just finally caught up with me."

After I convinced Raul to take up arms again, he helped me at Hoover Dam and left shortly after. But now there are legends all over the wasteland of ghost-vaquero who hunts down those who prey on the weak. I laughed and had good memories when those stories came to mind, "I'm an open book, boss. Granted, the book's in Spanish and some of the pages have fallen out, but I'm an open book."

Now there are a few of my friends that decided to hang along with me still. Arcade comes in here to sleep and talk with me sometimes. But now he spends the majority of his day out in Freeside helping out Julie and the Followers. I thought he would leave when the Enclave Remnants wanted to tour all over the American Wasteland, but he declined.

Veronica hangs around too. But once a week she packs up and heads for Hidden Valley to talk with her family and her friends. She eventually got her wish, and with the threat of the NCR gone, the Brotherhood opened up and now they guard Helios One and the I-15 and Highway 95.

Cass just spends all day at Gomorrah and comes home drunk. I'll go with her sometimes, but it often ends with a bar fight and a horrible hangover. But she's mostly gone at casinos and gambling all of my money away.

Now there's only Rex and ED-E that hang around me. Rex will always be my faithful companion after I replaced his brain with one of Old Lady Gibson's dogs. ED-E is now completely decked out with a whole bunch of new options after all the upgrades he got from the Divide and the Followers.

And me…I just hung around the Lucky 38 all day. I became a celebrity after I made New Vegas independent and the publicity got a little too much for me. However, I also became a diplomat and I often check on the allies that helped me at Hoover Dam and make new associates as well.

Now today was the meeting that I had been dreading (although I was the one that set it in motion). I was forced to face down Legate Lanius (or Caesar, or whatever they're calling him now) and the new (and scarily close to fascist) NCR President Enrique Salazar.

From everything that I gathered, I was right about Caesar's Legion. It would eventually fall apart, and that was what was going on. Many factions split off from the Legion and all vary in strength and size. Lanius/Caesar turned what remained of the Legion into a nation ready for war.

On the other hand, the NCR's economy has grown and strengthened to an astounding power. Their military has also grown under the leadership of General Hanlon (who I was surprised to see, but I figured he deserved it, as I deeply respected him) and the people are shoved away to work long hours and unfair pay. Any state that tries to secede are threatened with military occupation and no economic support.

So basically we have the Legion that's falling apart and a growing army, while the NCR is forcing states to stay and still have a strong military. I've been getting nervous actually, the NCR has been placing troops to the East and all three of us have been arguing over Zion and New Canaan.

…The NCR wouldn't declare war over that…would they? I mean, they've been expanding fast into Mexico and to the North and East…But they surly wouldn't throw their troops at something like Zion?

Walking out of my room, I bumped into Arcade, "Sorry, Arcade. Is the meeting area ready for the meeting? In the penthouse?"

Arcade nodded, "Ready for the barbarians and the fascists? Good combination."

I laughed, "It's true actually. Well come on and get everyone in there, they should be here very soon. I have to check with Yes Man on a couple of things."

"Got it, Luke." He said and walked on

Everyone just calls me Luke, short for Lukas. I was the "Hero of New Vegas" after I kicked both the Legion and NCR from Hoover Dam at the age of sixteen. I was twenty now, and trust me that I've received my fair share of battle scars.

First off was the huge and deep scar on my head where Benny had shot me. It was stitched up, thanks to Doc Mitchell, but it was still abysmal and ugly. But don't worry, I shot Benny in the head too…with a shotgun.

But now that I'm in the Lucky 38 most of the day, I stay nice and clean. But back when Veronica began coming with me I was covered with dirt and dried blood and junk in my hair, she always called me a "ragamuffin".

The elevator went up floor by floor to the penthouse where the formal Mr. House resided. At first when I began my mission in the Mojave, the scar on my face was the only scar I had. But after countless battles, my chest and back were covered with them.

Ding! The elevator doors opened as I stepped through into the penthouse. Walking around the corner, I was met with the huge round table where the meeting would take place. Yes Man was on the huge screen with a huge smile like always.

"Well, hi! Hope you're having a super day!" He said in his cheerful voice

"Yes. Thank you, Yes Man. Do you have any word on the meeting today? Any movement from the NCR or Legion?"

"Well…the NCR is still massing their troops on their eastern border! They must be planning to expand again! And the Legion's numbers are growing rapidly. But both leaders have agreed to the meeting, and they should be here within a few hours!"

"Good! Very good! Everything should be ready…now all we have to do is wait!"

I walked to my small coffee table near the large meeting table. I poured a steaming cup of coffee in my mug. I licked my lips and poured in some creamer that I found scavenging one day. All I really did like was creamer, sugar made it too fattening.

I took a large drink and sat down on the table. Arcade walked in and took the seat next to me, "So, Arcade. You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be."

I looked through the multiple files that I had in my file. Veronica came in next and took the other seat next to me, "Veronica, how are you?" I asked

She nodded, "Good, could be better. I'm just worried about their demands, they're complete wild cards and we don't know what they want."

I chuckled, "Don't worry a bit. We have everything under control."

As confident as I tried to sound, I completely shared Veronica's worries, I really didn't have an idea of what they wanted. I mean, Salazar would probably want something to continue the NCR's streak of a strong economy.

I had no idea what Lanius wanted. I didn't even expect him to come for the meeting, but he did. I could only suspect it had something to do with the Legion falling apart, however.

Cass entered the room with the common bottle of whiskey in her hand. She sat next to Veronica and took another swig, "Hey Cass." I said, but she simply nodded and went back to her whiskey

Now all we had to do was play the waiting game. The Legion and the NCR should be here within a few hours and then we can get meeting underway. It was five o' clock and I was still getting my papers ready. Looking down at a map, I looked at the large expansion of the NCR and the decrease of the Legion.

I took a couple of notes in my file. Many people in the wasteland couldn't read or write, and I couldn't either. But Arcade has been giving me lessons once in a while, and though I can't write completely clear I could still get my message across.

I've also been reading a lot more of Arcade's books as well. Some of the words are pretty hard, but Arcade helps me out and I've been learning a lot from these books. For example, did you know that Caesar's Legion is based off the Roman Empire? Which surrounded the Medderteranian (?) Sea and a lot of Eurup (?). And they used their piss as mouthwash…fun fact.

And that Salazar and the NCR are strong supporters of Capitolizem (?) and that they have a free market and people pay taxes and invest in the economy. And that big businesses make jobs for people and they pay them, so the people can go and buy things from the store…

And get this, there are some letters that you aren't supposed to pronounce in the word! Like you're not supposed to say "tee-am" you're supposed to say "teem". And some words can be pronounced different ways, like there are two different ways you can say "toemateoe". Who the hell came up with this crazy language!?

Oh well, what can you do? Just wait here for, as Arcade said, "…the barbarians and the fascists? Good combination."