O – o – o – o – O

Note: English is not my native language, therefore expect mistakes and wonky grammar.

Disclaimer: Fallout New Vegas belongs to Obsidian & Bethesda

O – o – o – o – O

Chapter 17

O – o – o – o – O

Always the same thing. Pop-out of the Sink, and end up half a Mojave away from home. But hey! She had no room to complain after hooking up that transportalponder to the Madre's Vault central unit. It didn't get fried and she could still move back and forth – and in one piece, thank you very much. She got some decent shuteye, food, a detailed medical checkup, and a much-needed change of clothes. And the toaster didn't try to murder her in sleep! Now that's what she called a successful trip to the Big Mt.

And, with all the other little errands out of the way, an easy walk to Vegas is what she needed.

Her hand found the dial of her Pip-boy for the radio and twisted it. It hissed white noise, shuttered, clicked, and finally, the air around her swelled with music.

:It's me again, Mr. New Vegas, reminding you that you're nobody 'til somebody loves you. And that somebody is me. I love you.:

"And I love you too." Guilty laughed. She couldn't express the joy she felt to hear his voice again and to stand in the open air of the wasteland! And there – in the distance, she could see the lights of Vegas, Lucky 38 towering above all.

The Strip, New Vegas, for a moment she stood and stared down at it. Even from distance it always left her in awe. Buildings towered into the night sky, glittering and gleaming with the promise of a better life. She could easily, vividly imagine people laughing as they stumbled in, drunk on luck and bad liquor. Others walked out of the guarded gate with their shoes in their hands, wandering down to get a room they could actually afford at the Atomic Wrangler or maybe just find a safe space to sleep outside.

Vegas never looked so good to her. No place did.

Only briefly she wondered if Mr. House would dare to use the Cloud as a preservative, but no. House took risks but he was not suicidal enough to poison his city with toxic air. There was more than enough of that coming from regular radiation plaguing the wasteland. She could see it being used on old vaults that were still in 'more or less' pristine condition. Of course, people living there would likely mutate, go mad… It was easy to imagine what it could do to the NCR… and how that much more it would make the Mojave a more interesting place!

But why think about that now? She just got back and she had places to be.

Throughout her life, she had hated the Mojave blindly and she had loved it unconditionally. Now, at the ripe age of twenty-eight, a year she never thought she'd live to see, she simply accepted it. The Mojave was a dangerous mistress, a murderous one to those who tried to take advantage of her, but Guilty had lived in it long enough to know how to survive.

The heat of the Mojave was simmering down, leaving the air pleasantly cool. She took in a deep breath and the world smelled like fire, like gunpowder and sweat. A smile of genuine happiness spread across her face and she gasped in pure excitement. Pushing her awkward and messy bangs out of her face, she continued forward.

Towards Vegas.

O – o – o – o – O

"Bo-OSS!"

The familiar, wholly electronic, voice calling out from the distance, the sound of a tire rolling over bones, and the recognizable cloud of dust with a square light bobbing up and down. With a perpetually happy smile plastered on top. She couldn't believe it. Well, she could. This was Yes Man, after all.

"You're back!" He rolled right up to her, stopping just shy of running her over. Cloud of dust enveloped the both of them, and her lungs objected heavily to another blatant invasion of unwanted particles.

"I am…" she managed after a cough or two. "Why are you out here?"

"You're being silly." One of his large pincers reached out to touch her hand but moved instead to very gently pet the top of her head. "I'm always out here!"

"I know that. But a welcome wagon wasn't something I was expecting."

"You're the one who told me not to disrupt the Strip."

"…just what kind of welcome were you planning…?"

"Soooo…" He fully ignored the question, choosing instead to sway side to side and hum, "did you find it?"

"All that and more." Slipping her heavy backpack and rubbing her aching shoulders, she let her neck lull to the left, then the right, and she groaned – God, it felt good to get that off her – before she opened the top flap and pulled the emitter from between the mix of her rations and water bottles and grinned to herself. "And I bring gifts."

"Shiny!" He caught it in one of his pincers and expertly scanned it with his sensors. "Oh boss, we are going to have fun with this!"

"We absolutely are. Can you install them?" Eternally pleased, she shrugged her backpack back into place and stretched out her arms.

"It'll take some work with the shielding. You know how stray bullets are here in Vegas."

"And you know Vegas' policy regarding those exact same stray bullets, Yes Man."

"'Return them to their rightful owner' boss, I know." He rolled from one side to the other, circling her, like an impatient youth. "What about the other thing though?"

She laughed, reaching over to hand him the holotape. "We're back in business."

"This puts us in control of the drug flow in Vegas. Pretty sweet!" He laughed along with her, the sound careless and open. And utterly unnerving for the uninitiated.

"We do not deal in drugs."

"Highly addictive substances, mainly used for medical purposes." He continued as though he hadn't even heard her.

"Technically true." She sighed. Drugs were that one vice Guilty had never allowed herself.

"Still sweet."

"At least we no longer need to rely on the Khans for the basic chem-…"

A shadow of one massive securitron leaned over her, all but boxing her in a figurative corner, and in the open area at that. "YES! Can we kill them now?! Can I roll over their camp?" His pincers came together almost like a prayer. "It would be so much fun! Please say yes!"

Steadying herself on her feet she squared her shoulders and looked at the securitron. "You'll roll over my reputation if you do that. There are deathclaws in the quarry. Think more creatively."

"You have a point. That's good thinking." He snatched the bag off her back, and she was left with her holorifle. Guilty gave him that side-eye look. It wasn't that she couldn't carry it but he must be pretty happy to dig up his 'gentlemanly' protocols. "And it would be a fun way for them to go. Better than my idea with the radscorpions!"

"You thought me getting shot was funny." She stretched her arms once more, rubbed her biceps, and glanced at the bandage. The blood had seeped through the cloth, drying over. She must've strained her arm a bit too much before it fully healed. Wasn't the first time. Ignoring the leftover wound, knowing it would heal up just fine on its own, she reached into her pocket instead. Dean and his chain-smoking were such a bad influence on her.

"Yeah, but that was before I got to obey only you!" The sheer amount of suggestiveness filling the electronic voice was impossible to miss or mistake for anything else.

Guilty rubbed her eyes in exasperation. "Lucky me."

O – o – o – o – O

The pair walked back to Vegas together, talking about all the places the holographic emitter could be installed and the best way to hide the fact that they had the access to near unlimited supplies from here on. They passed the gate to Freeside just as dawn was approaching on the horizon, but the sun was half-hidden behind the clouds of a brewing storm. Soon, it would reach the city, but the music still filled the air, twisting with the laughter that came from the back alleys where the gambling was still going down.

Passing the King's School she gave a passing wave to the greasers who stood out front blowing plumes of smoke into the air. They waved back. By now, everyone knew who the redhead was. Where she would usually stop to chat with the members of the Kings, flirt a little, and relax, she continued on. She was finally home, and she longed to rest her feet in the lounge. And there was Yes Man to think of.

The securitron watched her walk for a moment, her hair bouncing with each step.

"I can see that you're in a swell mood! You had a lot of fun then?"

Guilty cocked her head.

The Sierra Madre was said to be a dead city, mummified in the war, filled with riches and adventure. Ghosts of stories that promised adventure and excitement.

The Villa, crawling with the dead, filled with traps and smoke, built on spit and dreams. A city of ghosts. Buried beneath a blood-red cloud… a bright, shining monument luring treasure hunters to their doom. An exercise in human tragedy. The greed of one lounge singer, even though he was wealthy in his own right, helped lead to two broken hearts. And his own downfall.

The entertainer, greedy and manipulative. The broken doll, there for a personal vendetta. The monster, with a mind of a child and the heart of a philosopher.

What a team.

She pressed the back of her hand against her nose and mouth, smiling wildly. "I did. I met all kinds of people and had the best of time."

"Good, good, goodgood… Because – oh boy! – did we have a busy couple of weeks while you were away!"

"I'm guessing you had fun as well?"

"I did!" He bounced around. "But I suppose others didn't," Yes Man's bouncing subsided a bit. Yes Man. Oh, how nice and helpful he was. Until one took time to read between the lines and notice a sadistic streak wide as the entirety of the Mojave. He slowed down, falling behind her. "…golly, you are not going to like this…"

Any excitement she might have had felt settled heavily in her body. "Yes Man… out with it."

The massive construct twisted on its uni-wheel with something that could've been equivalent to a sigh. "The Followers… well you know how 'nice' and 'helpful' they are-…"

She gestured at the Fort behind them, "And you're telling me this right as we've walked past by their place because…?"

"I figured you'd be much more pissed if you got to the suite, heard about it, and rushed back down in murderous rage. Saves the time."

"In other words, you're doing me the favor by letting me can skip to murderous rage immediately?" Watching as her legs were bathed in the now dull glow of the Freeside, she rubbed the scar on the side of her forehead where the bullet had pierced her skull. She finally looked up. "What did Arcade drag in this time?"

It was an already established Arcade's 'thing' and she had absolutely no room to complain. One just had to look at the kind of company she was keeping, but Yes Man looked as uncomfortable as an immortal robot armed to the teeth could and that told her that not all was right. She readied her recently acquired weapon and stepped towards him.

"Show me."

Still holding her bag, the securitron gave a tiny shudder.

Less than half an hour later, at the Followers' compound, a very much abused Holorifle was held high and ready to be put to use, holding a patient at gunpoint. She took one look at the tied up man – tied up in bandages, that is. Pale eyes, pale hair, psychotic smirk rooted in that innate belief of superiority. Guilty felt her muscles twitch, her trigger finger itched.

She had spent sleepless days in the deathtrap of a town that wanted her dead at each and every possible corner, and nothing there had made her this angry. The storm was rolling in. She heard sand battering against the outer walls of the building, heard it seep its way in through the cracks and holes. It was almost enough to silence her voice.

"Arcade Israel Gannon." There was a fire in her eyes and she was like a bull the east dreamed to be, and one that was not going to stop the rampage.

"Six, please-"

"There's a fox in my city. Why does it still breathe?"

O – o – o – o – O

Fin

O – o – o – o – O

Quick Note:

Guilty: Level 40+ Courier
Big MT - Zion - Divide - post game/Independent ending - Sierra Madre

O – o – o – o – O

Yes! It's done! Fucking finally!

If there happen to be some edits in the future, it will mostly revolve around the proper use of grammar.

Once more, I thank you all for enduring this long. It had its ups and downs, and more downs than I ever wanted or needed.

O – o – o – o – O