Begin Author's Notes
*Camera turns on.*
*In front of the camera is Kyle and Aria, looking ready as they focus on the camera.*
Kyle: "And welcome back! The latest chapter is ready to go."
Aria: "And the console's fixed…"
Kyle: "We will also start the chapter right away, since the notes we got for this one told us to hold off on saying anything till it was shown, just the other two."
*Camera switches over.*
*Chapter 28 starts.*
Chapter 28: Commonwealth Legends
The next day, inside Aria's tent...
The Courier was adrift in sleep before his dream ended and he woke up. The first thing he ended up seeing was Aria, still sleeping.
Despite the fact that he would like to return to that dream somewhere within him, he focused on looking at Aria instead. The more he looked at her, the more he thought about her.
As she started to stir, he looked away while he still thought about how much he loved her.
Once it was clear for him that she was fully awake, he just turned around to say, "Good morning, Aria. Did you sleep well?"
Aria replied, smiling, "Very well, thank you for asking…"
"... ...That's good to hear. Uhm...I need to ask something just in case. Do you still love me very much?" Kyle asked rather nervously.
Aria replied, "Of course, why would you have to ask that?"
"... ...I ask because you're the first girl I'm deeply in love with, so I...I'm not experienced with all these emotions and feelings I have when I'm with you." Kyle admitted as his answer.
Aria just giggled in reply.
"... ...Is it really that funny hearing me saying something like that?" Kyle retorted, albeit more neutraly then nervously.
"No, no...I'm...just a bit flattered I'm your first…" Aria replied.
"Then what about you, Aria? Am I the first love you ever had?"
"I...I believe so…" Aria replied, racking her brain for information.
Kyle smiled after hearing that as he retorted with, "And even if I wasn't...I'm still beyond glad that you love me back."
The two eventually got off the bed and settle some things first before they ended up heading off to different locations in the camp.
The Courier brought a few items with him from his tent, with one such being a weapon repair kit. And besides that, he also just had a few rolls of duct tape and two packs of wonderglue.
The Tactician was carrying a spare Thoron tome, in addition to a Thunder tome, that was taken out from the storage tent.
The two then met back up at Aria's tent, which they both entered as Kyle set himself up at Aria's table to begin working.
"First off, I'd like to see the spare Thoron tome, so can you please hand it over, Aria?" Kyle asked as he laid the items he had on the table around.
Aria nodded and complied.
The spare tome was moved to the position Kyle wanted, before he cracks open the damaged tome and looks through to see where the damage was.
"If you want, you can help me out by getting that weapon kit over there opened and take the items out of it." Kyle mentioned to Aria as he kept checking through the tome.
Aria nodded and got to work.
Once he was done checking over the damaged tome, Kyle placed it below the spare and then collected that to scan it over quickly.
The spare was then done being scanned as he looks to Aria, saying, "So I have two methods I can do to fix this Thoron tome. I can either fix it with the spare or try to fix it with a similar type of tome instead. Which method do you think I should do?"
Aria blinked, before asking, "You really think the second option is possible?"
"I've repaired armor and weapons that were more advanced than the items I used as parts...I think I can do the same with tomes." Kyle retorted. "If you don't mind, hand me the weaker tome if you have it."
"...Alright…" Aria replied uneasily, before pulling out a Thunder Tome from her cloak.
The Courier accepted the Thunder Tome and then placed it in front of him a bit to his left. From there he moved the damaged Thoron Tome to a bit to his right.
The spare tome was then cracked open and made sure it was above the two lower tomes as he began the repair, with the Tactician watching from nearby.
Pages were flipped through slowly in the damaged tome as Kyle stopped on pages ruined by the bullet. He then began searching through the Thunder Tome pages and carefully ripped them out one by one.
The ripped pages were then coated in wonderglue and duct tape and carefully set nearby as he then began ripping out the damaged tome's pages. With those spots open, he moved the glue and tape pages into them as he checked the spare tome and see how it looked.
He kept doing this to the point where the Thunder Tome had almost all of its pages removed and placed inside the damaged Thoron Tome. And once the last replacement page was added, he closed the two other tomes.
The Courier then got his hands on the 'repaired' tome and then turned to Aria, only to say, "There. I'm all done with the repairs, so it should work now."
Aria looked at the tome for a moment, before taking it to a target, and giving it a test fire.
The magic forms together, creating the Thoron Bolt as it gets launched out and strikes the target inside Aria's tent. The target gets damaged and burned from where it was hit after it lands.
Aria looked surprised at that. "Wow, it actually works…" She then turned and smiled to Kyle. "Thanks a lot!"
"And I didn't even have to resort to using the spare in the repair, so for the loss of one Thunder Tome, we got a Thoron Tome back. So, I do very much appreciate the thanks." Kyle retorted back.
The Courier cleaned up the table and moved the leftover tomes around before he ended up getting his Ballistic Fist placed down on the table.
"But now that is over, you want to keep helping me out and learn a few tricks, Aria?" Kyle asked as he got the weapon repair kit items Aria got out moved over to him.
Aria smiled. "Sure, I'll help out…"
The two sat next to each on the table and began working together as they worked on repairing the Ballistic Fist. They also made sure to shut off the barrels as a precaution...
A few hours later…
The search for the last group of Einherjars led the group to head to a point of interest that was west of the field of metal. The map of the island that Aria had showed that a forest littered with fruit bearing trees was located in that direction, so it was agreed searching there first was a good idea.
As the group advanced through the large collection of trees, they stopped in their tracks as they reached a large opening where the ground was filled with improve barricades that dot it.
That set off alarms for everyone given the last two groups were fought in areas like this, allowing the go ahead to get their weapons and anything else ready before they advance any further.
The Wastelanders took the lead as the group kept on advancing, stopping when they hear noise coming from beyond the barricades.
The noise gets louder as they see what looked like a green Super Mutant rushing towards them armed with a modified sledgehammer with lots of electrical parts on it. Travis loudly sighed as he saw the Super Mutant get closer and closer.
The Super Mutant then blurted out, "Strong smash puny humans!" as he tried to strike the nearest target…
...Before he ends up getting blasted onto his back from Kyle's hunting shotgun and gets filled with more lead.
With the Super Mutant taken care of, Kyle looks to Travis and notes his earlier reaction with, "Let me guess, you know who this big guy was, Travis?"
"Yes, you guessed right. That is Strong, a Super Mutant I've met and managed to convince to live with others back in the Commonwealth. Suffice to say, If he is here and with the way he acted...We found the Einherjars." Travis responded as he mentally noted similarities from the previous groups.
"Do you have any idea who the other Einherjars could be?" Aria asked.
The Sole Survivor sighed again as he quickly told Aria about his other friends. Their names were Piper, Preston, Curie, John Hancock, MacCready, Danse, Deacon, Nick, and Dogmeat.
Aria blinked. "...Is Dogmeat a common name in your world?"
"It seems so. But where the Dogmeat with us looks as he is, the Dogmeat I know from the Commonwealth is a different breed of dog called a 'German Shepherd'. So you'll know right away which one is a Einherjar." Travis retorted back.
"...I see…" Aria replied, "... … …'German Shepherd'?"
"Like I said, it is what the breed or type of dog he is called. And I… ...I just realised there's technically a 'Shepherd' we will be fighting against." Travis responded back with, before slightly grinning.
Taking the humor aside, the battle was going to be underway as Aria took the information and formed a battle plan to be relayed amongst the others.
And once the whole plan was known and the pairs were formed, they split off and advanced forwards into the landscape of barriers.
Kyle and Aria were being backed up by Leon and Veronica as the Tactician made sure to stay low as she could with her Pegasus. The two pairs end up running into three opponents already hiding in cover.
The two robots in cover moved up and sprayed out fire and lasers, stopping the paris in their track as they had to dodge. This allowed for the third person in hiding to poke their rifle out of cover and begin firing as well.
Leon and Kyle ended up switching to their energy weapons and opened fired on the two robots. Kyle struck the one with the flamer with his Gauss Rifle and Leon landed a series of shots on the one with the laser.
Both robots ended up crashing to the ground, unable to keep fighting as their systems crashed and went inactive.
As for Veronica and Aria, the two were laying down a coordinated set of fire on the male sniper still hidden in cover. Veronica kep firing her triple barreled laser rifle to keep the opponent to stay down till she ran out of ammo for the clip.
Once the laser shots died down as Veronica had to reload, the male sniper moved up out of cover, getting his rifle aimed on Veronica. He focused on her, getting ready to fire…
...Only to face a face-full of Thoron...
The male sniper got sent flying back, landing on the ground with no movement coming from him.
The pairs reorganized themselves before advancing onward, with the males reloading their energy weapons as they kept pace.
Elsewhere on the battlefield was Cait and Travis, being backed by Leon's Dogmeat. The trio ended up reaching a split path where they got attacked by two male opponents and a dog.
Travis recognized the dog as a German Shepherd and was about to shoot it when the Capital Wastelander with them beat him to the punch. The Capital Dog got his Commonwealth opponent down into one of the paths where they fought it out.
But that still left the two male opponents able to fire upon Cait and Travis. So as they took cover, Travis took out his silenced pistol and fired upon the male wearing the older looking outfit, landing a few shots on their arms and legs.
Cait, meanwhile, fired shells onto the other one male sporting a nice set of hair and shades, who took cover at the right time. They exchange fire until Cait switches turrets and nails two shots on the male wearing the old outfit.
He collapses to the ground as his odd hat falls off, allowing a better view of his lack of skin. The Ghoul remains face down in the ground as he stops moving.
Travis reloaded his pistol and then sent a barrage of fire towards the shaded male, landing all of the shots as he ends up falling as well. The shades fall off as he stops moving, unable to do anything else.
While those two quickly reloaded, they moved up the path the Capital Dog took to see him land a finishing bite on his opponent. The Commonwealth Dogmeat just falls to his side, unable to keep on facing the pain as he stopped moving.
The Capital Dog looked back to see Cait and Travis, before barking to get their attention after they pause from seeing the other Dogmeat they knew going down.
The two snap out of it and get back to moving down the path they were on...Only to find a dead end that held all of the missing green ammo boxes.
Meanwhile, on a different area of the battlefield, the two pairs saw that the path they were taking went into two split paths up ahead. Kyle and Aria said they would take the left one, while Leon and Veronica called the right one as their pick.
The pairs then split off into their path, each reaching a area where there was more places to take cover.
For Leon and Veronica, they ended up running into a man inside a large suit of Power Armor that looked like it was similar to what Travis had back at camp. Near him was what looked like a man, save for the missing bit of what looked like skin around his neck that showed metal bits beyond that.
Leon ended up getting his plasma rifle ready, calling out the man in Power Armor and getting his attention. Those two opened fired on each other as they moved, leaving Veronica to face off against the metal man, who pulled out a very large revolver and started opening fire.
Leon used the cover to his advantage as he aimed his plasma shots on specific spots of the armor, causing them to take damage till they ended up breaking apart. The armored man kept firing back with his laser rifle as that went on.
But eventually, Leon managed to land the defeating hit after landing a shot on an exposed weakpoint on the armor. The ground shook as the armored man fell to the ground, unable to keep in the combat.
While that ended, Veronica kept on the moving and weaving from cover to cover as the metal man tried to pick her off with a well aimed shot. She closed the distance and ended up pushing the revolver away before punching her opponent again.
The metal man tried to punch back, but got countered and then uppercutted with the gauntlet, sending him flying into the air as the metal inside him made noises.
The metal man shut down as his systems collapsed internally, ending any actions he had left in terms of combat.
The two partners then caught up with each other as they advanced onward, only to reach a dead end, except this one didn't have anything worthwhile in it.
While those two rounded back, Kyle and Aria ended up running into two opponents as well, except these two were one female in a red trench coat and brown cap with a pistol and a male in some sort of old duster and brown hat...armed with a Laser Musket.
Kyle immediately tried to divert attention to himself with both opponents, but only got the female to follow. He swapped his weapon to his Ranger Sequoia as he fired at his opponent, missing as she took cover at the right time.
Those two kept on the move from cover to cover as they traded fire and reloaded, leaving their allies stuck to deal with the other.
The male opponent dove for cover before cranking up the musket, until it was ready. He peeked his head above the cover, only to duck at just the right moment to avoid the Thoron Blast sent to him.
He then poked up again, aimed his musket and opened fire at Aria specifically…
...Who saw the attack coming and moved erratically to mess up his shot. The laser soared by her, leaving the musket to be cranked again for another shot. The man ducked back down and cranked up another shot to go.
He ended up standing above the cover, firing right away...
...Putting him in full view of Aria and a Thoron Blast...
The Laser and Thorn Blast speed past each other...as the laser ends up missing Aria by a bit. The Thoron Blast, however, landed where it was aimed, striking the male in his torso.
He ended up collapsing to the ground after dropping his musket. The man tried to get back up, but ended up lacking the energy to do so as he fell for the last time.
With that taken care of, Aria looked around for Kyle as the gunfire between him and his opponent stopped. Both of them had to reload while they took cover and once they were done, they both went up out of cover.
The two exchanged quick gunfire, with the female missing the Courier by a few inches as he ended up shooting her pistol out of her hands. He then followed it up by landing a torso shot, which knocked her back onto the ground.
The moment she landed, she tried to get back up before the pain stopped her and she had to lay back down. She then closed her eyes as she felt weaker and weaker.
The pair check the area quickly with their eyes, finding no more threats ready to attack them as they moved closer to each other.
"You alright, Aria?" Kyle asked, sounding tired from all the moving he had to do.
Aria nodded in reply. "Yeah, I'm fine…"
"I think that was all of them..." Kyle
Aria thought for a time...before saying, "...Not yet...I have a BAD feeling it isn't over yet…"
"How? There isn't anyone here except us…" Kyle retorted, but before he noticed something felt way off.
"It feels like… … ...something...or someone...is watching us…"
The two kept their weapons handy, but that didn't help out much…
… ...As a figure who was hiding near the man with the laser musket aimed his rifle at Aria's mount. They would have seen him, but they couldn't do to the figure being invisible from a device activated before these two showed up.
He held onto the rifle as he held down the trigger…
...Causing multiple blue lasers to shoot out and struck the Pegasus multiple times..to the point it ended up turning into blue ashes, causing the Tactician to plummet to the ground suddenly.
The Courier tracked where the shots came from and unloaded every bullet there as fast as he could. And once that gun was empty, he switched over to his Ballistic Fist and sprinted over to land a massive hit on the now visible figure on his face. The barrels went off, but missed the figure given that the figure fell out of their range.
The glasses the figure was wearing broke apart and fell to the ground before he was then slammed to the ground and Kyle kept punching him in the gut, with each hit setting off the barrels on the gauntlet.
Once it was beyond clear this figure wasn't getting back up, Kyle rushed back over to Aria, helping her up as he quickly scanned her over for any possible wounds.
"Please tell me you're not hurt, Aria...That… that heatless freak could have gotten us both..."
Aria wasn't entirely paying attention, instead staring at where her Pegasus's ashes landed.
The Courier looked to where she was, seeing the ashes as well. He turned silent...unable to find anything to say. But what he did was made sure to keep Aria up and be there with her as she processed whatever was going through her mind.
The other pairs found their way to these two, but stopped in their tracks as they saw the ashes and Aria without her Pegasus...They quickly figured what must have happened.
It took Aria some time to change from looking shocked and deeply saddened like she was… … ...and when she did, it became anger as she marched right up towards Travis...and once he faced her...punched him in the face. "You forgot someone! Another Einherjar attacked, and now...now…" Her anger gave way to tears as she began sobbing.
The Sole Survivor felt the pain go away as Kyle walked up and explained who the last Einherjar was. He noted the all black suit, glasses, and general facial appearance of the Einherjar, which brought back long forgotten memories for Travis.
"Aria, I'm deeply sorry for missing one potential candidate for an Einherjar, but if Kyle is telling me who he saw… … ...I mean this with every ounce of who I am, but I completely forgot about him existing." Travis said to Aria, in his most sincere, yet also regretful tone he can muster.
"How could you have FORGOTTEN somebody?!" Aria asked between sobs.
"Because I'm still a human being… ...And I'm not perfect. There are some things you just can't remember at all unless it's staring you right in your face and then you just notice it." Travis responded back.
The Courier stepped in, making sure to say what he noted about the Einherjar with, "... ...There is also the fact that we had no idea where he was until he attacked. Not to also mention… ...I contributed by letting my guard down too soon. So if you want to blame someone, blame me Aria."
Aria just fell silent at that point.
Kyle also turned silent, as did the other Wastelanders. Things stayed that way as no one moved, till one of them did. He moved closed to Aria, moving his arms apart if she needed someone to cling to finish letting everything out...
...And Aria took the offer, sobbing in Kyle's arms, for her fallen friend.
The others had to leave, giving these two a moment they needed alone.
Some time later…
The Tactician and Courier eventually left the area where the fallen friend was and the other Wastelanders returned to collect the ashes. They stored it away carefully inside a temporary container for transport until they found a suitable replacement to store it.
The rest of the battlefield was picked apart, mainly for the green ammo crates as they were also taken along and added into the storage tent.
But the demeanor of the Tactician was still at a very low point, even with Kyle doing everything to help her, even as they stayed together through the rest of the day.
As the moon moved into the sky, the two moved to the bed inside her tent, but neither of them could sleep.
"... ...I'm worried about you, Aria. I...just don't what else I can say to help…" Kyle admitted as he ended up turning to look at her.
Aria just looked up at him, then back down. She was better than before...but not by much.
The Courier racked his mind for an idea...until one such idea appeared. He checked his Pipboy and hoped whatever was playing on the radio could do something.
The volume was adjusted so they could only hear it...as the next song started to play. It was 'Heartaches by the Number.'
Kyle quietly sang along with it as he looked at Aria, noticing she was looking up now.
Aria just listened to the song as it played.
And as time went by, the song eventually ended after its last line about when it will all end.
The Courier turned the radio off, before he said, "... ...I'm sorry if that didn't help you, Aria. I...I...just wanted to do whatever I can, like I said…"
Aria didn't say anything, but she did silently admit to herself: it was better than doing nothing...
"... … ...I still love you very much, Aria…" Kyle quietly said as he tried to get himself to sleep.
"... … ...I love you too…" she replied quietly.
The night passed by after that, as the Tactician ended up falling asleep as well. Her dream was replaying the memories she could remember from her past. And as they went by, she also found new memories that had Kyle in them…
...Seeing those in her dream gave her some happiness to at least mitigate how she still felt…
End Chapter 28.
*Camera switches over.*
Kyle: *Unable to say anything at the moment.*
Aria: *frozen in shock over what happened*
Kyle: *Finally able to start talking.* "... ...Well, the hunch we had on who the last Einherjars were turned out to be correct…"
Aria: *still shocked at what happened*
Kyle: "... ...Of course, not everything went well… ...A Invisible Einherjar managed to…" *Turns silent, unable to continue.*
Aria: *still shocked*
Kyle: *Finding something to say.* "... ...But after 'that' happened, I made sure that whoever did that was unable to do that again…"
Aria: "... … ...Who even WAS that, anyway?"
Kyle: *In response.* "... ...I have no idea. We would have to ask Travis, but he's currently not available at the moment."
Aria: "It'd be a good time for him to be here to tell us...except he isn't…"
Kyle: "So… ...I think we'll have to call it here because there is not much else to say. And while there may be more to say about what 'happened' in this chapter..."
Aria: "...I really don't want to even THINK about it…"
Kyle: "... ...That's why we need to stop. We'll see you when the next chapter is ready."
*The camera starts to turn off, catching at the last moment Kyle giving Aria a comforting hug.*
*Camera switches off.*
End Author's Notes.
