Chapter Summary: The companions have their first encounter with the Legion and Beth refocuses her attention to the man who put two bullets in her head. Boone learns there's a lot more to his new traveling companion than he previously thought.

Chapter 2: I've Been Everywhere

During her investigation, Beth had heard from some people in Novac that the Legion had taken over a nearby NCR settlement. Since it was so close, it seemed a pressing threat that couldn't wait.

They walked east down the dusty broken road and Boone stole covert glances at his new traveling companion. She wore minimal armor and a wide-brimmed hat that kept the sun off her somewhat pale, freckled face. Dark shades covered her eyes. From what he could tell, she probably hadn't been out of the vault for very long.

At some point soon, he felt he should caution her about being so trusting of strangers. She had asked him to come along with her, even though she barely knew him. Obviously, she was foolish, having offered to go after the Legion. Had she ever even killed anyone before?

"The Mojave is going to eat this girl alive unless someone is around to protect her," he thought to himself.

As they approached the town, Boone tapped the Courier's shoulder to get her attention. "We're getting close to Nelson. Any closer, I'm shooting any legionary I see," he warned to give her the opportunity to turn around. "Is that a problem?"

Beth turned to look at him. "No, that's not a problem. That's a solution."

"Guess you and I, we're just a couple of problem solvers." Unexpectedly, she chuckled at his response. It had been a long time since someone laughed at something he said.

They came upon some NCR troopers guarding a barricade in the road. There, the companions were stopped by a Ranger Milo who informed them that some NCR soldiers had been taken prisoner by the Legion. He thought it was best if the captives were taken out from a distance before the rest of the troops stormed the town.

Boone disagreed.

To him, this plan seemed less like "mercy killing" and more like the easy way out, to make the NCR recruits less hesitant to attack the legionaries. As soon as they were out of earshot, he said to Beth, "I don't give a shit what he says. We're getting those guys out of there."

She drew the handgun holstered at her side and nodded. "We'll have to be careful, though. The legionaries will be on their guard, waiting for the NCR to make a move."

Together, they crept up on the settlement. From the hill looking over the town, they spied the three soldiers crucified up on a platform in the center, along with at least a score of the crimson-wearing bastards. The NCR soldiers all appeared to be alive. The sniper looked over at her with an eyebrow raised inquisitively and whispered, "You ready for this?" He had expected her to rethink the offer she made back in Novac once she actually saw the Legion and the whole thing became real.

"I'm ready," she whispered back. Rather than seeming nervous, her face had a steely resolve and her hand was steady as it gripped her weapon.

Boone kept his distance on the hill, using his scope to pick off the enemy one by one. Instead of following suit or sitting by more passively, as he had anticipated, the Courier snuck in close. Making her way through buildings and debris, she kept behind cover and ambushed the enemy while they were distracted by the unseen sniper.

He focused on taking out the more heavily-armed targets first, shooting them between the eyes or in the back of the head. Suddenly, he heard an explosion and saw a legionary flying backward from behind one of the ruined buildings; his front and face were a unrecognizable mass of blood and charred skin. When he fell to the ground, he didn't get up again.

The sniper wasn't used to fighting like this, but he had to admit it was somewhat effective, although he did miss having a spotter. Surprisingly, the kid knew how to use a gun and seemed to have some familiarity with grenades, as well. Who the hell was this "courier," anyway?

In the corner of his eye, he saw that Beth continued to navigate through the remains of the town. While she dashed between buildings, a legionary with a machete came up behind her. Screaming something Boone couldn't fully hear, he took a swing at her head. "Shit!" the sniper thought as he readied his shot on the moving target. Luckily, she managed to move quickly enough to where the weapon only slashed her in the left arm, rather than injure her more seriously. Before the legionary could raise his hand again, Boone's sniper bullet pierced the back of his skull and he dropped face-first into the dirt. She gave a quick nod and thumb's up of appreciation in her companion's direction. Then she reloaded her weapon and ducked behind some more ruins.

This was the beginning of his revenge on the legion, but while he would have expected to feel excited or elated, he didn't. Instead, he just felt empty. Was it because he knew there were thousands more out there and this wouldn't even put a dent in their forces? Was it because he knew this wouldn't bring Carla back? Or was he just incapable of feeling anything anymore except guilt and bitter anger?

Now that he thought about it, he hadn't really felt anything when he killed Jeannie May, either. No joy, or relief, or justice. It was just...over. He didn't even feel particularly shocked that it was her. Even reading the proof the Courier had given him only raised up cold disgust. It should have made him sick.

If it had been Manny she brought in front of the nest, would he have felt something then? He couldn't say.

When they had finished clearing out the Legion threat, they met up at the platform where the NCR soldiers were tied. The Courier wiped the sweat from her eyes. Blood from her wound soaked a spot in the sleeve of the brown cotton shirt she wore under her light protective vest.

"Hey, give me a boost," she said to him, pulling out her knife sheathed at her side. Wrapping an arm around her legs, Boone lifted her to reach each of the captive troopers. She cut their bindings and he helped her ease them to the ground, one after the other. When they were safely freed and making their way back toward the barricade, she pulled out a stimpak from her back pocket and injected the medicine just above the wound in her arm. She took out another and injected it into her neck, which her companion found strange, since she didn't seem to have any other injuries.

Boone spoke up, "Good that you recognized we had options." They started walking back to the barricade where they'd left their packs. "The Legion likes to torture their prisoners within sight of NCR positions. We snipers get called on to end it. Some of them, you think, maybe you could've gotten them out. Maybe it's not the Legion that got them killed. Maybe it's your orders and you following them."

"Not today," she responded.

He considered her words. "No. Not today."

As they walked away from the town just before dawn the next morning, Beth turned to her companion. "Listen, Boone. I know I promised we would go after the Legion, and we will, but I have some pressing business I need to attend to." Seeing the note on Manny's terminal had rekindled the fire for revenge in her. She had promised herself she was headed straight to Boulder City as soon as possible.

He looked skeptical and slightly annoyed. "What kind of 'business'?"

The Courier rubbed her forehead, the pain still persisting, despite the med-x she had taken only a couple of hours before. "Personal business. Someone stole my last delivery from me and I need to get it back. I got a lead on where he might be and if I don't go now, I might miss my chance." She didn't really feel like explaining the whole thing right then. "I understand if you don't want to come along."

At first, he seemed hesitant, but then he said, "You helped me out with my 'personal business', I guess it's only fair for me to do the same for you."

She flashed an appreciative smile at him. "Thanks. And don't worry, the Legion will still be there in a few days." As much as she wanted to help Boone take down more of the Legion, she didn't want to lose track of Benny. She couldn't give two shits about that Chip; what she really cared about was revenge.

Dusk was falling as they came upon an old abandoned gas station with a few bedrolls and a spot to build a fire. The companions took a quick look inside the building, but found that not only was there not enough space to sleep, it was also extraordinarily hot in there, so they were better off outside. Beth did manage to salvage some caps and an old 10mm she said she could use for parts.

Outside, she tossed her pack on one of the beds, puffing up a cloud of dust. She plopped down with a fatigued sigh and observed, "Well, it's not exactly the Ultra-Luxe, but it's better than anything else we're going to find before dark." She stretched her back, seemingly relieved to have the heavy pack off. Boone didn't know how she managed to carry it for so long, since she seemed to stuff it full of almost anything salable. "You get the fire going. I'll see what we have for food," she said as she switched on her Pip-Boy radio and tuned it to Mojave Music Radio, which was half-way through playing "Johnny Guitar." After a moment of rummaging through her pack, she mused, "You think anyone has written any new music in the last 200 years?"

Boone dropped his own pack on another mattress and got to work on the fire. "I dunno. Probably."

"Well, you'd never know it," she replied, pursing her lips and switching off the radio, getting back to the task of finding dinner in her pack. "Almost makes me miss the howlings of Galaxy News Radio. At least it would be a change."

"Where's Galaxy News Radio?"

"D.C. Capital Wasteland."

"That home?" It never occurred to him that she could be from so far away. So few people were, long-distance travel being both difficult and often dangerous.

"Not anymore," she replied in a flat tone that didn't invite follow-up questions. Pulling two fresh pears out of her pack, she handed one to Boone and set the other in her lap. She then set a bottle of purified water next to him.

"Thanks." He was able to light the existing wood in the pit easily with his lighter and the fire burned warm and bright.

What could have motivated her to somehow make her way the thousands of miles to where they now were? It was none of his business, he figured. He was far from home, too, although not as far. The NCR army had brought him out here. There wasn't really anything for him to go back to, which is why it had been so easy for Manny to convince him to settle in Novac after his tour of duty was up. Yet he often wondered what would have happened if he had taken Carla back to California instead. Could they have been happy there? He scratched his forehead, trying to dislodge the thought before he got too lost in it.

"Where'd you learn to shoot like that?" he asked, attempting to distract himself. "You serve?"

Shaking her head as she swallowed a bite of pear, she said, "Nah, nothing like that." She shrugged. "Out in the Wastes, you either learn or you die." Pulling out a box of Cram, she tossed it to him, which he caught with a nod, then she pulled out a package of BlamCo Mac and Cheese for herself.

Boone had to admit that he had underestimated the Courier. Taking one look at her fresh freckled face, bright blue eyes, and Pip-Boy on her arm, he figured she was just a "vault brat," as they called them in the NCR army. He assumed she was some naive delivery girl who had no business out in the Wasteland, a kid who thought hunting down legionaries was going to be a fun adventure, but it hadn't taken long before she showed him there was more to her than it seemed.

She wasn't a "kid," for one thing; he had originally thought she was somewhere around 20, but now saw that she was probably closer to 30. Savvy and aware of her surroundings, she had clearly spent a fair amount of time surviving in the Wasteland. While not much of a spotter, she had especially impressed him with her skill with a firearm.

Cutting off a brown piece of the pear with her knife and discarding it, she asked, "What outfit did you serve in the military with?"

"First NCR Recon, sniper battalion. They pick you out if you do well at the firing range. Pays a little better, so I said okay."

"That a First Recon beret, then?" She gestured to the cap on his head.

"Yeah. You can tell by the patch. Bear skull with crossed rifles behind it. Slogan behind it."

"What's the slogan?" she asked with her mouth full of pear.

"'Last Thing You Never See.'"

She smirked at the phrase. "Nice." Suddenly, she winced sharply and her face contorted in pain.

"You okay?" he asked.

Her eyes squeezed shut. "Yeah...I'm fine. Just...tired. I'm fine."

It was clear that she wasn't fine, but didn't press the issue. She obviously wanted to keep her pain to herself, which was fine with him. He would have done the same. "I'll take first watch, then."

"Thanks." After a few minutes, her pained expression started to relax.

"So, you gonna tell me who it is you're looking for?" Normally, he wouldn't inquire into someone else's personal business, but since he was going to be along for it, he figured he should know.

Her jaw clenched. "His name's Benny, apparently. I was making a delivery to New Vegas and he and some Khans thought the package I was carrying was worth killing someone over."

"Who'd they kill?" he asked, cutting into his pear.

"Me!" she spat, but then gave a light laugh at Boone's obviously confused expression. "Fucker shot me twice in the head." Pulling back her bangs, she indicated the fresh pink scars above her right eyebrow with her finger. There was also an incision scar along her hairline that ran from the middle of her forehead to her ear.

"Shit," he breathed. This explained some things, but he didn't comment on it.

The fury in her eyes burned. "I intend to return the favor."