Scene 2: Theatre of Blood

Tom

"Yet we are the Ghosts of the Great Bear, victory is at hand."

-Edward Sallow, Caesar

2282, January

"Wait." Arcade said, Tom, hearing the doctor's steps pause behind him turned to find the spectacled man frowning back at him, "A chip? We're at the heart of legion territory for a chip?" He shook his head, "What's going on here, Tom? Am I playing Dante to your Virgil?" Tom sighed; answers would take time, beyond the confused doctor he saw the spectacled legionary eyeing the pair who had come at the top man's request, Tom's own hands being tied at that point. For now, the man who wanted to meet him had his blood-hungry jacks baring their teeth, holding still until their master commanded otherwise.

The Courier came close, grabbing the doctor by his arm and pulling him close, Tom spoke, his eyes scanning the large metal door and the few red-clad men who guarded it beyond, "Listen, I'll explain", he looked on, those shale green eyes still not budging as Tom went on, "Trust me, I'm just gonna talk to him but I will explain things, I promise." He saw Arcade relax a bit, though his arm was still taut under Tom's grip.

"Fine, but if things start heating up, do give me a heads up. Would be good to know when the shooting starts." Arcade grinned, giving him an accusatory look, mostly in jest.

"Don't worry," Tom chuckled as he spoke, taking his arm off the doctor and smiling a bit as he replied, "It won't come to that."

Once their talk was over, Tom took them along the winding path around Fortification Hill, the road twisting around a narrow packing of dirt that was mostly empty still early into the morning when he had approached from a Cove that hadn't been hostile at their arrival. Beside their path were grim-looking crosses dug into the earth, lining the street. Like quiet street lamps with fly-ridden bodies still rotting upon them, a few among them still moaning against the heat and harassment provided by the merciless insects feasting with abandon.

He saw women then soon after, slug over with heavy packs under spines straining through the endless days of toil under the sun, some of them much older women with pained faces, graying ones who were barely keeping it together. Just then Tom saw a youth fall over herself; for a second the girl remained lifeless on the ground, Tom walking slowly over to her to his right when he saw her frail form draped in dirty rags twitch, shake and visible muscles under her tanned skin flex as she pushed herself up on her arms, getting up slowly on her knees as the others passed her by wordless and without a second look, "Are you okay?" Tom asked softly, trying to get the girl's attention.

She looked up, dark pools bordered by a trellis of blood running her tired ovals; face expressionless as fear soon left her when she realized him to be not among the Bulls. The heavy pack rose as she found her feet, balancing up with her arms first as she got up with visible pain. No words to give, Tom saw; her face defiant against him for some reason; a knowing blame she placed on him, and everything else under the cruel sun. He realized slowly in her eyes that did the same then, you can't save her, move along Tom, just move along, he quietly told himself, his eyes forcible detaching themselves from her hopeless stare.

Arcade came up, the woman moving down behind them as she wordlessly exerted herself under the early rising sun, no doubt the work would soon grow harsher under the still warm January sun that would only grow hotter into the day, "Hey, you okay?" the doctor came up to him and asked, looking genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, it's fine. Come on" Tom said, being brought back to the present as they moved on ahead. The last of the path that wound back higher into the hill, soon the main gate of the Fort emerged before them, turning around for a second Tom could see the same dark specs on the guard below who had interrogated them both and taken all of their guns and arms. A few well-placed words and he had at least been allowed to bring along his medicines, at least. An outright assault would be a fool's errand, he wondered, gazing across the northern banks that were walled off, the only entrance to the old Fortification Hill that had been repurposed into the Legionary beachhead for their conquest into the Mojave, and ultimately New Vegas.

Once Tom showed them the mark they were quickly given passage through, the main sections of the camp sounding the bustle of grindstones and men jogging around the great encampment all around them, the early camp teeming with activity; rows upon rows of dark tents with mostly armed men in mostly uniforms who skulked or worked around the camp. Before him, past a few rows of the bedding installations, he saw the small Arena set up in the middle, turning his eyes to the man stood at its gate; a keen Legionnaire eyed him with a devilish smile, his two muts on his either side discharging a low growl Arcade's way.

Tom figured it had been a good idea to leave Rex behind, he couldn't guess how the Bulls would react to a half-robot dog walking in with their own mongrels, past that was the road around that wound up to another small hill at the center of the main camp, the large pale tent with thick flaps guarded on both sides. A hand was raised against his chest as Tom reached the mouth of the opening, "Halt, no one but you beyond here" the superior of the two guards spoke, eyeing the doctor to his back, "He stays here." Tom nodded back to Arcade and turned to the guard before the passage, frowning as he moved through, Caesar's Tent coming into the fore before his eyes.

"You're the Courier that caused so much trouble for my Legion, and you dare come before me?" The balding master of the hill before him asked with a slight rise of his brow as he leaned forward, one displacer gloved arm over his knee, "The Garrison I established at Nelson has been wiped out." he went on darkly, "So tell me this, because I really want to know," shaking his head with a growing smile over his aged face, Tom could makeout out some of the malevolence behind the old man velvet voice, ambition and rage burned brightly behind those eyes still, "I am feared, with good reason, but you, of all people, dared to come here and stand before me. The mighty Caesar, what were you thinking?" He asked, somewhat bemused, leaving silence behind for the half a dozen Praetorians and the newly arrived Courier who looked on wordless at the words asked of him.

Tom slowly reached into his pocket, the guards around him confident in his lack of any weaponry, well, they didn't need to see his flip knife just yet. Tom raised the token before the man who sat on the two-horned throne who spoke once having leaned back, "The mark, yes but you're not dumb enough to just walk here. Tell me, what makes you think I won't cut you in half where you stand for just Nipton alone." He asked seriously, the other shaded guards surrounding him looking on, eager and just waiting for their signal to pounce, he could feel, "You have something I want," Tom said slowly, no expression on the youthful face of eighteen as he started down the man probably thrice his age, face a mask of light wrinkles mapping his saggy skin, the armor once housing a powerful body, now seemingly loosened up and only partially filled the broad furs that lined his red coat.

"Yes, the Chip." he went one, remembering as he leaned in, interested again, "A man nearly kills you so you track him across the breadth of the Mojave?" He asked with a smile, not waiting for an answer as Caesar went on, "You arrive in the Lucky 38 and waltz in like someone left you a key under the doormat. You visit the Tops, and the next thing you know, the head of the chairmen is fleeing the Strip like a whimpering little pup." The man straightened, looking keenly at the youth and no doubt trying to weigh his alliances and agendas behind those aged eyes, "When you set your mind to something, you get results. I like that." His mouth however spoke, "The question is…" He began then, having made his decision, "are you ready to get started?"

Tom was taken aback for a while, his eyes had rarely seen someone behind his back, someone following him over the weeks he had been alone was a worrying thought, even with companions to switch out for guard duty through the night had shown him little, "You following me?" Tom asked.

"I have eyes and ears everywhere, Courier." The older man explained, "It behooves me not to invade the west blind and deaf. You've been causing a ruckus these past few weeks, kid, it wasn't that hard."

The Courier nodded, speaking plainly then, "I'm only here for Benny." Tom said, shaking his head, a hand on his hip. Seeing the crouched man quietly watching the two of them talk from the side. Hands bound and on his knees, look how the tables have turned, ya fink bastard, smiling a bit at the angry man looking over to the side, going back to the old man slowly.

"Don't worry," Caesar smiled as he watched Tom keenly, "you'll have your revenge, and the Chip too." He hardened, "And then you'll use the chip how I tell you to.", Tom looked questioningly at the man, starting to figure out some of what was going on, the man before him spoke on, however, "There's an old bunker down the hill west, it was here when the fort was captured after the first war, inside it is a hatch and inside that are two reinforced steel doors." he went on, leaning back, "Even more interesting, there's a slot about the same size as the Chip on the console that opens the hatch. And you know what I think?"

He leaned in, "I think that Chip I got off Benny opens those steel doors, doors that can't be pried or drilled or blasted open, because all that, I tried." Huh, Tom wondered, are they both sending me to the same place?

"And once I'm inside?" Tom enquired expressionlessly.

"Destroy whatever you want, I want you to blow it all up, doesn't matter how - just get it done. You can keep the Chip after," he ended with a smile.

Tom wondered for a while, speaking just out of common sense then, "There could be things there for the coming war, you sure you wanna just get rid of it all?" Raising an eyebrow, Tom questioning the old conqueror's ways in his own abode, for now, however, Caesar entertained him.

He began with a knowing smile, "You still don't understand what I've done here, do you?" He asked, not waiting for an answer, "The weapons I forge are of blood and bone, flesh and sinew, mortal stuff, fragile even." he went on slowly, looking directly at him then, "Anything that's down there, whatever it is, its rivets and bolts, son. House's machines, what are they but mindless robots and morality lacking automatons? They provide a path without pain, victory without suffering, and change without change within."

He trailed off, looking intently now as he continued with his words, "We are at an important time in our species' history, Tom" The Courier losing some of his composure at hearing the warlord use his name, "how we wade through these times will define the path for mankind moving forward, we will need soldiers in the coming age, not gadgets." he explained in his own twisted rationale, Tom not giving the man even a hint, his face passive all through most of it, however inside Tom's mind was in a flux questioning himself against the logic and lines of thought belonging to the newly met man before him. Tom saw the man look down and reach into his pockets, the wide hand coming before him as Tom reached for the object offered to him, the cool chip in his hands now, reminding him of an older self the last time he had wondered upon it back in the Hub. Reaching it behind his coat he looked on, nodding to the man, and accepted his proposal, Okay, here goes.

He was turning to leave when the man called out once more, "Talk to Benny first. He already knows you'll decide his end, still, wouldn't hurt if you reminded him." He saw the old man smile wickedly, the few behind him like daylight shadows who joined in, Tom nodded lightly, the madman drew blood freely and even for sport seldom, he figured. Turning around and seeing the still breathing casino boss who didn't seem that worse off if he were being honest, his eyes finally falling on those burn marks down his chest, mostly hidden by the clean suit over him, no doubt the fabric had come off before the torturing had begun.

Tom walked right; moving to the kneeling man and meeting the man who had come so close to kill him and slip away from his fingers after. He couldn't help it too, a smile rose over his face as rage rose like a warming ember inside him.

"Ah, there you are, took your precious time", the man on the monitor commented when he walked down the hall, the large monitor appearing a smaller version of the one in the Lucky 38.

"I came as fast as I could" Tom replied, turning left and saw the hallway extend down into the earth and then left, a slight hum of the rad meter spiking evenly; a spillage somewhere then, well, no matter, his work here shouldn't take him too long, he figured. House came to business soon enough, explaining to him his plan and the true function of the chip that had shifted the rails of his life off track, becoming mired among men and agendas greater than himself, "Fine, I'll get it done." He said to the terminal.

His voice came almost instantly, "Good, meet me at the casino once it's done, your compensation for your due delivery still awaits." The large "Connection Lost" buzzing over the green screen as the digital man had decided to speak his last, Tom sighed and got ready, looking down the stairs that led down into the 'barracks' as the man on the screen had put it, well, Tom would find out soon enough what the fuss was all about.

He was back, Caesar elated with the supposed accomplishment of the task the man had appointed him for, well, he would never go down there anyway, nobody will know until they do. After moving out the inner tent halls at the back he came into the main room with the two-horned chair again, smiling slowly as he felt the day won, coming before the checked suit man now, finally done with everything else that had hindered his chase for the man before. Fingers twitching, he rounded the man; head hung low, eyes closed and cast downward, not having heard the quiet Courier walk up and back to now circle around him.

Tom spoke up, letting the resting man know of his arrival. Benny jerked up at once, turning as he saw the brown flaps appear from his left, the man visibly relaxing upon seeing the youth he had shot in the head, "Hey, kid, it's you." he said wearily, smiling bravely then at the face of abject death, "So what did you find down there? He whispered, trying to raise a bit as Tom rounded around Benny, coming face to face as the youth knelt before the tied up man, his hand reaching into the other's black and white coat, finding a familiar 9mm from within as he remembered the same from a cemetery he had been temporarily buried in.

"I knew he'd put this on you." Tom smiled quietly, mostly to himself, reaching for the mag out of it, and wasn't really surprised to find it fully loaded, "Baldie's a poet too, huh?" He chuckled inward, Benny eying him narrowly; eyes trailing from Tom's face to his gun again back to the one wielding it, understanding some of the young man's words. For a second he just stared, and then fell back, accepting his face.

"'Kay, kid, whatever floats your boat. But before you blow your load all over the joint, why don't you tell me what you found down there?" he smiled but Tom could see the pleading tone in the soon dead man's voice, oh what the hell.

Tom got up, the gun magazine coming up and locking in as he cocked the mechanism, the gun pressing down the weary prisoner's temple, the boy went on quietly, "Securitrons, hundreds of them, all under House's thumb." Tom saw the man listen intently as he spoke; the gun planted to his skull a side affair at the moment.

Benny brightened despite his current condition, "So the old man had an entire army stuck down here all this time?" He shook his head, "That sneaky bastard." looking up as he smiled a victorious one at Tom, "So? You know what to do now, kid. Follow the path, talk to Yes Man, he's a-"

Tom pressed in the gun barrel; cutting him off abruptly, "Don't worry about it" he said slowly, "I know that odd robot, actually." The Courier replied, remembering the strange securitron who had held nothing back once Tom had gotten it talking high above at the Tops.

The casino boss nodded sheepishly, trying to settle down his excitement, realizing the somber Courier holding his own gun to his head didn't really want to bandy words further. Benny tried, however, one last time with a smile, "We could knife it out, he said quietly with hope, the barrel trailing slowly from his temple and coming to the center.

His forehead kissing the round cylinder-circle that poked out the modified 9mm, "That's enough, Benny" He said softly, the gun now more firmly gripped, finger over the trigger, thumb cocking the gun-hammer as Tom went on, "This is where it ends, now, right here." He paused, softly before speaking his last to the man, "You may close your eyes."

"Nah," he said with a slow rise, a smile back up, fully ready to go where his own bullet took him, "I'd rather see it coming." Tom nodded; not waiting a second longer, the expressionless and somewhat surprised face of the dead Casino boss on the floor, steadily pooling deep crimson around him, his suit quickly soaking itself red before his eyes.

"Nice shot, clean" A Praetorian spoke up by the tent flaps that led to the exit east, "and weak. You feel sorry for the guy or something?" He asked with a frown, no doubt figuring Tom to have become a lackey for his boss by now. Tom didn't reply, dropping the silver gun around the dead man whose wrists were still bound before him as he walked away, the last time he would find the madman's tent so accommodating, he decided whilst moving out.

Arcade was waiting still when he finally got back, having to find the doctor who had was alone by himself in a corner overlooking Caesar's tent, the few words they bandied when Tom had come back had not been enough to explain the whole story, once quietly out the main encampments and onto the slanting road cutting into hill came up, Arcade spoke up again, "So, you got it?"

The Courier turned, smiling and tossing the chip over to the doctor who caught it just in time against his chest, the silvery disc glinting somewhat in the quickly setting sun against the raised token, the doctor keenly examining it beside him, "This little thing," be began slowly, "can't imagine what's so important about it." He went on, examining it with his specs off for a few seconds before passing it back, "You know anything about it?" Arcade asked finally.

Tom looked down at the disc himself, "No, not really." he said, "The chip's pretty useless now."

Arcade frowned, turning his way, "How come?"

"Well, it's been delivered, no?" He said with a smile, taking the chip behind his coat as he remembered Shora back in the Hub, the grouchy woman who'd handed it to him so unceremoniously along with its contract details all those months ago, the same memories feeling almost a lifetime ago now.

"You still haven't told me about that explosion back at the Fort." Arcade pointed out.

Tom turned to the doctor, finding himself in the present as he nodded and spoke, "It's a long way back, doc. You got the time?" He asked, reaching past the last of the Fort's gates and onto the wooden raft they had come here on.

"Well, what else are we going to talk about? Plus, now you've got me interested." He said, working on the rope tieing the vessel down, the dark creeping steadily over the horizon opposite. Once they were off Tom spoke again, the paddle slowly finding the riverbed for each push as Tom waded them through the still waters without much effort.

"Well, I guess I could tell you the important bits," Tom said jokingly, "I'll just skip the part where I got shot in the head and was medically coined dead for a few hours."

Tom only shrugged when he saw the man sitting before him turn back at him piloting the raft, a confused frown like the one from before, "What?" Arcade only asked.

"Exactly," Tom said, "I'll keep it short"