36: Deal with the Devil

"THAT FUCKING GHOUL! I WILL SLIT HIS ROTTING THROAT!"

John threw Courier onto the floor of the Tampico Theater just as a flash of red laser shot overhead, grunting when she shoved him off of her. They had made it to the Tampico, gone to grab the sheet music to a Vera Keye's song and Dean had appeared overhead on the gantry, with said sheet music in hand. Apparently the ghoul had been a bit pissed that they hadn't been catering to him because he had refused to unlock the backstage wings and activated the holographic security.

'Taker was also on his belly, crawling over to them and peered over an upturned chair, cursing when he seen the holographic guard approaching slowly. "Where's the shut off box?"

"Fuck if I know, go look." John ordered, shooting the other man a look.

"Behind the bar." Courier pointed, her eyes narrowing in on the tiny box that would deactivate the holograms. She took aim and fired a series of rounds into it, cursing when nothing happened. "Fuck, we'll need to find the terminal!"

"We're going to have to split up." John said, rolling out of the way as the guard approached and began firing, letting out his own string of curses when a shot went straight through his right arm, dropping his sniper rifle instantly.

Rolling his eyes, 'Taker scrambled to his feet and literally tossed the ex-NCR solider over his shoulder, running to dive over the bar counter and if John's head wound up knocking over some of the glass liquor bottles, well… it didn't overly bother him. He looked up when Courier came sliding after him, snagging whiskey on her way and quickly began opening it. "Look, you stay here and bandage him up, 'Taker. I'll make my way backstage and get that disc."

"What the hell do we need it for anyway?"

"Elijah wants it."

"Well fuck Elijah." 'Taker reached out to grab her collar, dragging her towards him and examined it. "I could probably-"

"I don't think so, I'm not giving you the satisfaction of being the one to kill me. I'm quicker and lighter on my feet, I'll go backstage. Will you watch him?" She demanded, finishing pouring the whiskey over John's wound, not surprised that he had passed out. It was a clean hole, but a hole and he wouldn't be using that arm for quite some time. If they didn't get him medical help, he might actually lose use of it altogether. "I need to know I can trust you."

'Taker watched as she injected a Stimpak into John's throat, looking down at his bloodstained hands and put them to use, applying pressure to John's shoulder front and the back of. "What's in it for me?"

"Are you fucking kidding me?" She hissed, peering over the top of the bar to check where the hologram guard was, not surprised that it had returned to its post. The things were deadly but thankfully only as smart as they were programmed to be. If they had been A.I. she would have been fucked. "This is not the time for negotiating."

"Sure it is. If you want something from me, then I want something from you, River." He said in a very reasonable tone of voice, his green eyes glittering wickedly.

"What?"

"What do you think?"

"A fight? We can scrap right now if you like, but when I beat you again-" She swallowed those words when he gripped her collar, hearing it beeping faster.

"This thing thinks it's being tampered with. I bet I can run before it explodes." He said softly, not liking the reminder that she had tried to kill him and only sheer luck had saved his ass. Luck and being able to swim. "We will fight, River, one of these days we're going to have us a little stand-off, and that time, one of us will go down permanently, but today ain't that day."

"I'm not fucking you, 'Taker."

"Why? Afraid you'll like it? You know damn well I'm the best you'll ever have, even better than that doctor you've taken up with, or soldier boy here." He was enjoying himself, letting go of her collar, not surprised when she automatically held her gun directly to his temple. "You do that and you'll never get out of this deathtrap, not with him down like this. You. Need. Me."

"Commander, Mr. Undertaker is correct." Yes Man said from her Pip-boy. "I have calculated your chances of survival with Mr. Cena down and you have less than a 20% chance of succeeding."

"What was it before Cena dropped?"

"40%, Commander, and that is with the Undertaker in the equation. If you like, I can remove him and-"

"No. Don't." She glared at 'Taker, wondering if he was serious and knew he was. The only two things they ever had in common and were good at together was fighting and fucking, it made sense he wanted them both, on his own terms.

"I can leave, there's nothing stopping me from getting the fuck out of here. I'm just here for the ride."

"It is the logical thing to do, Commander, unless of course, you find him unattractive? I would then recommend closing your eyes and fantasizing."

Courier smirked at the look on 'Taker's face, gleaning a small bit of satisfaction from Yes Man. "Thank you for the suggestion, I'll take it under advisement."

"Certainly, Commander, that's what I'm here for!"

He stared intently at her, the corners of his mouth turning upward into a smirk when Courier finally just nodded. "Good girl, you always did make the rational choices."

"Fuck you."

"As soon as those holograms are out of the way, then I'll fuck you." He growled, his hand burying itself in her hair and dragged her across the paper littered floor until they were face to face. "I'll fuck you so hard you'll forget your goddamn name, again."

She slapped him.

Laughing, he let her go.

~!~

"The terminal to deactivate the holograms is to your immediate left."

Following Yes Man's instructions, Courier instantly turned, unsurprised to see the terminal. She began hacking through the network, with the A.I.'s assistance, and then began transferring the data from the terminal to her Pip-boy, sending it back to New Vegas.

"Commander, I can start work on holograms here in the laboratory beneath the casino. Have you been down there? The equipment was ahead of its time."

"I've seen it. Don't activate anything until I return."

"Yes, Commander. Also, Doctor Michaels is trying to access the elevator up here, do I deny access?"

She blinked in surprise, wondering what Shawn was doing back in New Vegas so soon, and then began doing the math in her head. She and John had been gone for roughly three weeks already, and checked her Pip-boy log for the date, cursing herself for not realizing she could keep track of time this way sooner. "Let him up, but don't let him anywhere but to your platform, I don't want him snooping."

"Yes, Commander."

"Yes Man?"

"Yes?"

"Don't hurt him."

~!~

What the hell had Katy done, Shawn wondered as he was escorted down the marble stairs from the elevator to the lower floor of the penthouse, his eyes narrowing as he took in the extremely posh surroundings. This must be Mr. House's room, and he wondered if he would finally get to see the reclusive bastard.

"Hello, Doctor Michaels, it is so good to finally meet you."

Shawn nearly had a heart attack, looking around for that quite annoying cheerful voice, frowning when he seen the monitor, larger than anything he could imagine, and the beaming face staring down at him. Face was too kind, this thing was just a set of eyes and a smile on a screen. "Mr. House…?"

"I'm Yes Man, the Commander's personal A.I."

"Where's House?"

"I am not authorized to tell you, Doctor, sorry."

"Who's the commander?"

"The woman you know best as Courier."

"Katy is a Commander?"

"Katy, alias given to her by you, also known as the Courier. Courier being her old job. Also known as River Brooks, her birth name and then followed by River Colon, her married name. Courier, Katy, River Brooks, River Colon: also a former commander in the NCR army though her given rank was Chief, which is inaccurate. She ordered several units of men, including sniper units, ground troops, and a special tactical force."

He knew all this already, mostly, and hearing it again was making his head spin. "Do you know where she is?"

"I- Please hold, incoming transmission."

"Shawn? Shawn, are you there?"

He let out a sigh of relief when he heard Katy's voice, even if it did sound tinny and faraway. He had just gotten back to Goodsprings with the caravan and had this… feeling, and it had been a bad feeling. Knowing it had something to do with the woman who was for some ungodly reason stealing his heart, he had left Sunny Smiles to deal with the goods and headed back for New Vegas. By himself it hadn't taken very long, though each step closer to the city of sin made the feeling worse, like he was going in the wrong direction. "Honey, where are you?"

"Sierre Madre."

It took him several minutes to process that, the background noise of her breathing and cursing flickering in and out of his head. "It doesn't exist."

"Tell you what, you come visit me and we'll discuss it then. Until that moment, I say it exists and I sure as hell do not recommend it as a vacation spot, this casino gets half a star as far as I'm concerned."

"You're… in the Sierra Madre? What's it like?"

"Dangerous. There this red gas, cloud like shit that poisons everything, it's mutated regular humans into some kind of fucked up thing… they're quiet, smart and really keen on propane tanks and hooks. Look, I'll give you the coordinates for where I'm at, but I do NOT want you venturing down here, I want you to remain topside and wait for us to come out. You'll need to wait for Jeff though, and I'll have Yes Man send security with you."

"Commander, at this exact moment, sending out the Securitrons wouldn't be advisable, unless you want to give up the element of surprise?"

"Fuck… well, David then, he'll loan you some Chairmen to bring out, some of them are former Khans that were integrated into that tribe. Or maybe some of your Apocalypse folks."

"Is someone hurt?"

"John is, badly. Once he's topside, he's going to need immediate medical attention and I don't have the time to haul him back there. I know there used to be an NCR camp around this area but they might've moved and I don't trust the NCR anyway."

"You don't have time? If he's hurt that bad, you need to leave now and meet-"

"Can't leave, not yet. It's a long story."

"Where's John now? You can describe his condition and-"

"Can't do that either. Hold on. COME OUT DEAN, LET ME BLOW YOUR GODDAMN FACE IN!"

"Catch me first, cunt!"

"We're trapped here. Trying to get out." She was breathing heavily and Shawn surmised she was running, chasing after whoever this Dean was. He flinched when he heard more gunfire. "He's with 'Taker."

"WHAT?"

"Don't ask." More gunfire. "I got you now, you traitorous bastard!"

"No, don't, we can-" Dean was shut up and Shawn waited impatiently for the next burst of shots to end.

"Look, it's complicated. I don't like him being here anymore than you obviously do, but I can't send him packing either. He's got his uses, sadly."

"Why is he there?"

"Sick fuck has been following me." Courier's voice grew louder over the frequency. "Holograms are down, Dean is down. Theater has been secured."

"Why can't you get out there?"

"Because if I try, this explosive collar some sick former Brotherhood of Steel member put on me, will go boom, and so will I."

"What's he want?"

"No idea, but you've heard the legend of the treasure here I'm sure, so I'm guessing that." She sounded sad when she spoke again. "I don't want to be here Shawn, I'm actually afraid we're not going to make it out and everything seems to be getting harder… even if we do find whatever Elijah's looking for… he's not going to just let us walk away."