Earning the loyalty of the Great Khans was a difficult task. It required the removal of Papa Khan in order to sway them away from the Legion and over to an independent New Vegas. Angelique certainly did not reveal her NCR Ranger background as it would incite a violent reprisal for the things her nation did to them after the tragedy of Bitter Springs. Knowing they wouldn't fight alongside the NCR, perhaps they would do better if they fought alongside someone else, but not Caesar's Legion - they were a force that did not accept any tribe to exist under their rule. Memories of her past actions against the Legion had resurfaced after years of departing that hell hole that was once called Hopeville. It was certainly a pity that she couldn't try and save that place from being destroyed - the NCR's logistics for the Mojave went to the shitter after the event.

The courier approached the perimeter of Camp Golf to see it far more livelier than she expected. As she continued to make her way towards the entrance of the camp, she ignored the signpost above her and noticed there were more soldiers than she expected in the camp - many who wore different uniforms than the standard NCR one. Her search to find her people did not go far as Angelique saw a girl with her scars and a Brotherhood scribe in her robes. The latter waved at her and called out her name. "Angelique! Over here!"

She hastily walked faster and met with her companions and smiled with joy to see they were still together. "Hello Veronica, I see Artyom managed to get his message to you. Is he also here?"

"No." The scribe answered. "He kinda disappeared after he spoke to Christine; however, we did meet with Cass and Pavel along the way. What's with this special rendezvous that we're doing?"

"I'll tell you once we all find a private place to talk about it." Angelique stated while her plasma rifle rested upon her shoulders.

"Is it finding dangerous technologies just like the Sierra Madre?"

Her lover began to intervene on the conversation. "Veronica, we talked about not talking about that in public spaces. You know how people could start asking questions? I'm not comfortable about that topic floating around."

"Alright." She admitted. "I may have opened my mouth too many times, but I need it to explain why my girlfriend has all these scars on her."

"Be considerate." Angelique stated. "I wouldn't be comfortable if any of you started talking about my past that gave me painful memories either."

"Thanks." Christine replied. "Now we did try to get Pavel and Cass together, but it appears that they're meeting someone important in the camp. I don't know who it is, but his guards told me that they're having a personal conversation about someone dear to him."

"Really? Did any of them tell you?"

The Brotherhood assassin shrugged her shoulders. "No, they said it wasn't any of our business."

Out from the busy activity of the camp came a young man with a goatee on his face and a cap on his head. The stranger walked up the trio of women while he lugged around a strange makeshift submachine gun. In fact, it almost looked like one of the weapons Artyom once had. "We got company, I wonder what this could be about?"

"Likewise. I hope it's not another one of those catcalls Veronica and I have gotten ever since we got here."

When the man in the strange green shirt had arrived, he took a quick glance at the trio before smiling. "My commander wants to have a word with you."

"Who are you?" The courier asked.

"You can call me Eugine. I'm not much, but I am part of a big outfit in this camp."

"Are you part of all these foreign soldiers here?" She wondered.

He shook his head. "Not all of us. Most of them hail from the Red Line or the Fourth Reich in the Metro." The young man said in his Russian accent. "Some of them might even be Polis Rangers, but the rest are from independent stations who have nowhere else to go. Just curious, do you know anybody who goes by the name of Cass?"

"Yes." The trio said in unison.

"Huh?" He seemed puzzled by their response.

"Is there something wrong?" The courier wondered.

"Artyom seems to be making friends with a lot of women."

Veronica was quick to speak up. "Just so you know, Christine and I won't swing your way."

"Oh? That's still a lot of lady friends though."

"Enough talking, just take us to her right now. We got something important to deal with."

"Okay, okay. I'll bring you over to Sukhoi."

The trio of women were quick to accompany the Russian as they strode deeper into the camp. Their arrival did not go unnoticed by the others, but their attention went returned back to their daily lives while Eugine brought them into a small tent atop of a hill. Angelique was surprised to find Cass drinking from her cup alongside an old man at a table. The old man turned his full attention towards the women that entered his presence and expressed a warm comforting smile. "So these must be the women my boy has befriended. After speaking with her, I'm happy that he's in good company."

The courier returned the favor with her smile before a curious question came up. "Cass, who is he?"

The caravaneer finished drinking her cup and placed it on the table before her. "Ladies, meet Artyom's adoptive father - Sukhoi."

"Please introduce yourselves, a friend of Artyom is a friend of Exhibition."

Angelique stepped forward as she slipped her energy weapon over her shoulder. "My name is Angelique Richmond, I'm a courier and also an NCR Ranger."

He nodded his head in approval. "After being in the company of your ranger commander, it's good that we're both on good terms." Then he turned his full attention on the two women.

She took a quick glance at her companions, only to see Veronica shyness come forth. "I'm Veronica and my girlfriend is Christine - we're both from the Brotherhood of Steel. It's nice to meet new people, I say."

Sukhoi laughed. "Indeed, but you shouldn't say both of you are together. Although my people are not Nazis or Reds, it's a topic most Russians generally frown upon."

Then Christine spoke her mind. "If that's the case, they can go fuck themselves. I love Veronica and if they have a problem with that I'll introduce them to my fists."

"I don't think starting a fight would be… productive to change their mind." He said. "It's more like a something worth informing as most of us don't like it. The people of Exhibition station tend to be more welcome that most back home, but not all of us tolerate same-sex relationships."

"Man, you sound like my family - always yapping about how wrong it is." Veronica commented. "So what brings and old guy like you around here?"

"Blame the Legion." The old man answered. "Ever since they pushed us out of Exhibition, my people and I were forced to become refugees. Thankfully, Colonel Miller and the Polis Council took pity on us and decided to resettle us over in a place called Vault 3. In the meantime, we make up for the cost by sending volunteers to help fight this war."

At the mere mention of Vault 3, Angelique recalled that the place was occupied by a group of chem-addicted raiders. "Wait, Vault 3 is currently occupied by the Fiends. That's completely suicide."

"Was occupied by the Fiends." He corrected her outdated information. "The Metro Coalition and the NCR started a joint operation to get rid of the zjulik living there."

"How? The NCR wasn't able to get rid of them for a long time."

He shrugged his shoulders before it was followed by a response. "I'm not the person you should be talking to. Colonel Miller knows more about that operation more than I do. My job is to just get my people to a safe place." Then he glanced at the caravaneer. "More tea?"

"Yes please." Answered Cass.

"Now then, what brings you young ladies in a place such as this. I know it's not because of my son, is it?"

The courier smiled. "Actually, your son and I were supposed to meet here after we get done with our tasks."

"Really? It would be good to see him after his disappearance."

Artyom slowly opened his eyes to see the bright bright light shine through the windows. After being drugged to sleep to not feel the pain, the stalker felt sore throughout his entire body as he felt the urge to itch his wounds.

A man spoke to him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The stalker raised his head to look around, only to find himself in a busy room. "Where am I?" Then he was met by a doctor with blonde hair and green eyes. "Did you patch me up?"

He smiled. "Yes I did. My name is Doctor Gannon, but you can call me Arcade." The medical professional introduced himself. "The Followers of the Apocalypse found you outside of Old Mormon Fort. You're lucky. House was looking for you and I was the one who brought you to this place for your own safety."

"Thank you. You have no idea how much you saved me from that guy."

Then a question came at him like a gunshot. "So what did you do to be hunted down by Securitrons?"

"Well… Mr. House - my former boss - wanted me to undermine the efforts of my heroes." The Russian answered. "His response was a gun to my face. I was lucky that the kevlar saved my life, but it hurts like hell."

Arcade grabbed a chair from nearby and sat beside his bedside. "Now that you mention it, the armor is messed up."

"What?" He wondered.

"That armor you were wearing seems to have been worn down at this point. If I were you, I'd invest in some new armor because it doesn't look like it'll protect you any longer. It's encounter against House's securitrons have shown it's on its last legs."

This was the armor that Hunter gave to him. Sad how he was going to discard a memory of the man who threw himself into danger just to save his people. "I guess there is so much it could handle." Artyom stated. After his adventure in the wasteland, he thought of that armor which was once worn by another person whose ghostly figure still haunts the valleys of Zion. "Shit!"

"Is there something wrong?" Arcade asked. "Do you need any pain medication?"

He shook his head. "No, some of my belongings is still in New Vegas. I think I left it behind or the Van Graffs took it."

"Damn, you are really in a pickle. Wish I could help, but I am a doctor."

"No worries, you fixed up so that should count."

The doctor smiled as he rose up from his seat. "In the meantime, I'm going to see if Henry can help you out a bit." Then he departed from the bedside and made his way towards the old man and the ghoul working alongside a nightkin with a funny hat.

The wooden floorboards ached with the heavy weight of another entering the room. A green giant walked up to him, but the Russian recognized him immediately. "Marcus? Is that you?"

He nodded his head. "Yes. The last time we spoke to one-another, you still had weapons and a bag. What happened to them?"

Artyom chuckled at his own situation. "I angered somebody powerful and I'm grateful to have escaped with my life. As for the weapons, hopefully nobody runs off with them. Some of them were gifts from good friends."

"Well, I hope I don't intrude on your moment of rest, but there is a guest of yours that has brought a particular attention to me." Stated Marcus. Then he stepped aside as a tall dark creature stepped into the room. Those working had paused their time and observed the abomination greet them with its lengthy arm before approaching the bedridden stalker.

"How on Earth did you manage not to attack the Dark One on sight?" He wondered. There was nothing wrong with having a curious mind, but the young man was confused after being exposed to them for quite a time. What even made him curious was the fact that nobody in the room has drawn their weapons on them.

"I have spent hundreds of years in the wasteland fighting all sorts of creatures mother nature could bring up, but never have I seen these before. It helped us out when the night stalkers came from the caves and attacked the brahmin pens." The supermutant answered. "In all of my experience, it was able to have an entire pack kill itself - making our lives much easier. Strange as these Dark Ones are, my brothers and I were able to let them go. They even impressed the nightkin that they don't want to hurt them without knowing how to disappear into thin air. Which now begs me to question, what do you know about them?"

"Back in Moscow, the Dark Ones were a threat to my home and my people." He explained. "Then they tossed me into this place and here I am. Over time, we were able to understand one-another and I was able to find out that they were trying to find me. The casualties were the result of failed communication on both our people's parts."

"Interesting. Given that this creature doesn't have a mouth, how do you communicate with it?"

Artyom turned his full attention on the Dark One standing before him. "Do you mind helping me with the demonstration?" Without a single word, the Dark One gave him a curt nod of its head and slowly raised its hands.

Reality slowly faded from memory as they slowly closed their eyes. Marcus slumped to the floor while the Russian waited for his moment to leave reality and meet the mind of the giant stranger through psychic means. He found himself in his deepest thoughts, only to hear the supermutant shout within the darkness. "Artyom, where are you? What's going on?" Turning around, he found Marcus looking frantically at his surroundings. Then his gaze found him standing before him. "Artyom?"

"It's okay." He assured him. "At the moment, we're unconscious and managed to communicate to one-another. Had the Dark Ones tried to communicate into your mind, you wouldn't have survived first contact."

"Then how are we able to communicate with one-another?"

"When I was young, I was exposed to them. They gave me their gift and kinda gave me the watered down version of their power." Came his explanation. It was perhaps the simplest way to state it without complication.

The Dark One immediately appeared beside them - surprising Marcus and catching Artyom's attention.

"Now that he has experienced this for himself, let's finish this up."

New thoughts from the creature had revealed itself and it's intentions. 'No… we need to talk… Marcus knows things from a past long ago…'

"What is it talking about?!" The supermutant demanded. "Did you lure me into a trap?!"

"No, I didn't." Artyom replied before he confronted the Dark One. "What the hell are you doing?"

It's gaze turned towards him and a moment of silence fell between them. Then it continued. 'Showing you the Master… and your mother…'

Then the trio found themselves caught into a simple memory that was not theirs. Artyom looked at the surrounding scenery to find man-made living space deep within the confines of the Earth. Bright and active machinery whined to life by processing data throughout the facility. Yet, these byproducts of mankind were covered in strange goo that was littered everywhere. "What the hell are these?"

Marcus spoke in a calm tone. "That's FEV - the forced evolutionary virus - the strains that created me and my kin."

He turned towards him and recognized how much he knew of this odd memory. Then it played out with sirens blaring to life as supermutant soldiers stormed out of a single hole in the wall, only to be gunned down by a hailstorm of gunfire. A woman shouted in the distance as three individuals stormed past their fallen foes. "Max, take point!"

The first to enter through the whole in the wall was man wearing a suit of armor that Artyom had never seen before. Meanwhile, Max's gauntlets lugged around a minigun in hand as he huffed behind his helmet. Then his two other companions followed after him - one was a blonde man with bandages on his arm as he fired his submachine gun at their assailants. "Natalia, do you have the data?!"

Then the last person to have joined them was the woman who shouted earlier. No matter how young she was at this point, the stalker knew who it was. That face of hers was very difficult to erase from his memory, but it was clear that the woman in the vault uniform was his mother.

Author's Note: Ever since the inception of this crossover idea, I have often wondered whether or not I should include the possibility of Artyom being related to a Fallout 1 character. This decision became settled when I realized I had included hints of this in earlier chapters and with one of the recent chapters. Now that this story has reached this point, it fills me with hope now that I found a way to have Artyom's fate intertwined with the Fallout universe from the very beginning.

To those who are curious about Artyom's mother, her name is Natalia Dubrovhsky - one of three characters the player could choose in Fallout 1. What also helps is that the Metro's depiction of Artyom's mom in the comic kinda matches with Natalia due to the hair style they both share.