Sitting before a dim campfire, 'Rex Praedator' starred deep into the fading embers. He didn't know how he came to be here, but that was the way it always was: wherever he went, life or fate dragged him somewhere else. The man wasn't unique to the controlled chaos of the world's whims, however. Like many others, it was difficult for him to let go.

"Christ, baby, look at the mess you got yourself into!" A smarmy voice said.

The tall man looked up at a checkered suit-wearing fool as he walked out the infinite darkness and into the dying fire's flickering light.

"What? You ain't got nothin' to say?" Sitting down, the phantom clucked his tongue. "Do you want me to start from the beginning or way farther up the time table of events? Let's start closer to the present, the past is a cold bitch; you fucked the brains out of that sweet piece you have in the Strip, headed over to crummy Westside, and proposed to the sweet crazy piece you have there not even a day after banging the other chick before you banged her night away." Fancy Pants snapped his fingers in the brown-skinned man's direction and laughed. "I swear, if I had known you'd do something like that back when I was still alive, I would've shook your hand before I busted those caps off in your skull!" Lowering a hand, he shook the other. "I would've known you deserved it though."

"Do you have anything meaningful to say or are you here to annoy me even after your long, agonizing death?"

A withered breath swept into the Swinger's chapped lips as the rest of his body thinned. "You did me dirty, baby, dirtier than that poor broad you widowed, blackmailed into fucking, and killed all to prove a point. Couldn't you have just taken me out with that knife of yours? You know, the one you dug up from a grave? I actually knew the poor bastard it belonged to, did him in myself, man was better off dead. Anyway, you chose to have me crucified by a bunch of crazies in sports gear and scrap over facing off with me like a man… Aren't you a piece of work?"

"Even in death, you can think of no one but yourself."

The corpse collapsed into the campfire, igniting it once again into an impossible bonfire.

"True, but you know I'm not wrong. See you on the other side, ya fink."

'Rex' rolled his eyes as the fire burned away the world around him.


The honored man awoke with his red-headed love, naked, clinging to his bare side.

A moan purred in the woman's throat.

Yawning, 'Rex' kissed his fiancé's forehead.

Death would claim them both, as it would everything in time, but they had each other until then. Many others would be discontent with that fact. They, on the other hand, accepted death into their being a long time ago. Whether or not there was an after was irrelevant.

He snaked his hand down Lucy's back, grabbed her rump, lifted his hand, and brought it back down on her soft backside in force.

A surprised gasp swept in-between the red-haired women's lips as she awoke. Her pain mixed with pleasure as 'Rex' massaged her reddening skin, drawing moans from her again. "Oh my bold hunter."

"The morning has stirred my blood."

Lucy's eyes moved down his face to his loins. "I can see that, but mine needs more stirring."

"Then let me stir you."

As the sun rose, the two enjoyed each other to their delight.


Veronica, in a growing trend, didn't know how long she walked until she collapsed on the outskirts of Goodsprings. The feeling of something being pulled from her head, and the clicking sound like that of a bolt-action firearm awoke her.

A woman in leather, aiming a 'varmint' rifle at her head, stood above her beside is a teeth-baring dog. "We don't have any energy weapons, high-tech farming equipment, or pre-war schematics, so you can just stand up and walk away before I put one through your skull."

"…Um, I'm actually not with the Brotherhood."

"And I don't have a rifle aimed at the space in-between your eyes."

"Did one of u— them come in and take something from you folk or?"

"No, we just know better than to trust anyone coming to town in a tin-can that can probably take an entire stick of dynamite and still move who also worships technology and kills for it."

"I'm not with the Brotherhood… They're all dead, actually, so you won't have to ever worry about them ever again."

"And why should I believe you?"

"I stole this armor from them and found them all dead myself." Veronica's eyes widened. "Also, I think we might have a mutual friend: about 6'6, brown-skinned, occasionally talks in Spanish, two bullet-hole scars on his head, built like a super mutant, killing machine, last name is Cazador of all things?"

"You know that crazy sonofabitch?" The woman lowered her rifle.

Veronica shifted upwards, minding herself around the still somewhat hostile stranger. "Don't you? He said something about taking care of some Powder Gangers for Goodsprings once." She flinched. "Also something about a small-time wannabe hunter…female dog thought he didn't know how to survive in the Mojave."

"He said what now?"

"In complete fairness, he once made me eat some cooked gecko intestines and it was one of the tastiest things I ever had in my life."

Scoffing, the unidentified woman shook her head. "I knew he had that look on his face for some reason."

"Actually," Veronica said, bending down to pick up her T-51 helmet, "his face always has that look. Only ever seen him smile when someone was suffering or dying, most of the time because of him."

"With or without a machete? When he was making people suffer and die, I mean."

"…A lot of things actually, with and without; why?"

"Because when we were about to have a showdown with a gang of Powder Gangers, Cazador ran straight to the bastards and cut them up with a machete. It made me think he was Legion, but the name made me realize he was a southerner."

"Eh, knows too much about the west to be from the south. Maybe somewhere north?"

Hefting her rifle over her shoulder, the stranger held out her free hand. "Name's Sunny Smiles."

"I'm Veronica." Blinking, the former scribe shook the previously violent stranger's hand as gently as she could.

"What brings you towards Goodsprings?"

"…Well, I thought I could make it there before I passed out, but I overestimated my stamina. Thank you for not killing me while I was out and in general."

"You're welcome. Where you headed after?"

"East, through the long way north."

Sunny's raised an eyebrow. "Haven't you heard the Legion's taken Hoover Dam and is headed for Vegas? I know that armor can take a hit but numbers will wear you down, especially without a gun."

"I've heard, it's why I came this way and part of the reason why I'm going east actually. The cazadors and khans won't be a threat so long as I'm wearing this. "

"Alright, I won't stop you. Hell, some of the settlers back in town might go with you for protection: news of the Legion's got them scared and they don't want to be paying taxes further west, so they figure the north might somehow have a future for them."

Veronica hummed. "There is actually one town up in the mountains to the north that might be safe."

"Really?" Sunny tilted her head.

"Yeah." The Brotherhood survivor nodded and blinked. "…It's populated almost entirely by super mutants though."

The huntress scoffed. "That's the worst joke I ever heard."

"I wish I was joking, there actually is a town of super mutants in the mountains up north. Cazador brought me there once looking to fix an adorable cyberdog's brain. We also ended up helping a human and ghoul scientist with their research into fixing nightkin super mutant schizophrenia, probably one of the best yet questionable things that man has ever done."

"Huh… Well, I guess some of those idiots are desperate for anything. A town of those behemoths would be safe from outsiders, which could mean them though."

"Yeah, they're a bit iffy around humans. However, I think they'd welcome me back happily since I helped out."

Sunny laughed. "Sounds like you've got a perfect job set up for you."

Veronica blinked again. "What?"

"Some of those idiots looking to find a paradise north would give you anything they have, and, looking at that armor of yours, you can probably carry a lot more than you already are. They're farm boys and girls so they can fire a shot. All you'd need to do is take the lead and the brunt of any attacks while they take your attackers out from afar."

"That's… actually a really good idea." The former scribe shook her head. "No, I've got someone to meet up with, and I don't know if they'll be at the place I expect them to be if I don't make it there as soon as I can."

"Fair enough, it's just a suggestion." Turning around, Sunny walked back towards Goodsprings. "But, if you change your mind, head to town and go to the Prospector's saloon! Tell Trudy I sent you and ask any of the scaredy-cats if they want to head north!"

"I will! I mean, if I do!" Veronica shouted back at the increasingly distant hunter, fitting her helmet back on.

The lonesome girl in power armor made it past the Goodsprings cemetery before turning back to visit the saloon.


Squads and squads of legionaries marched past Boone's rifle crosshairs. He was tempted to take on the entire army, as his other friend would, but he knew the folly in killing foot soldiers. Even assassinating the commanding centurions would accomplish nothing in the long run.

"You need to learn how to play things smarter. Your 'kill everything' approach got you into that self-destructive pit."

A sigh grunted past the sniper's lips as he skulked across the towering ridges above the Mojave.

Together with ED-E, the three of them explored the mountainous range. He wasn't used to the terrain but Cazador was. It was almost like he was born in the mountains with the way he climbed up and slid down on his feet. More than a few times, he fell on his ass attempting the same, much to the brown-skinned stranger's amusement. Boone did eventually learn how to glissade and climb up mountains without much issue, greatly benefiting him now in his evasion of marching Legion forces.

He watched as the 188 trading post fell.

The four or so heavy troopers defending it were quickly overwhelmed, stripped of their helmets, and decapitated or shot in the head. Michelle and Samuel, the father-daughter cook team Cazador looked down on for serving food he thought was subpar, were tied up, likely to be made slaves. As for the former NCR trooper arms merchant, she fought back and was beaten before being raped for her resistance. Veronica, the Brotherhood of Steel scribe who apparently left the insane organization, would've likely suffered the same fate if she had never met him or that man. Every other person he didn't recognize were put in the same position as Michelle and Samuel, with the exception of the kid who lived underneath the trading post bridge.

Narrowing his eyes, Boone shifted his crosshairs back on the child, free of his 'medicine,' now being fed and looked after by a genuinely concerned legionary.

"Do not look at it in the eye. Do not think of it in any pleasant manner other than a beast. If you see the ghost of someone you once knew, scatter that disgusting creature's foul brains. I don't care if it's a child. I don't care if it doesn't understand or if you don't understand. Kill it if it takes off that contraption."

Cazador saw something in that kid. He didn't know what insanity his friend was talking about until they parted ways on bad terms. The sniper was curious, so he asked 'the Forecaster' what he did.

He lowered his rifle with a shake of his head.

Clay, the Forecaster, spoke of things he had no way of knowing about: a massacre, the haunting memories, her mercy killing, his acceptance, their fight, and what awaited both of them in the future. He saw or heard the lingering echoes in old world junk. It helped him block out the 'noise.'

When he asked about the hunter, the boy froze. He spoke of an old giant, a cultured swordsman, a mad old man, a reborn priest, an ambitious brother, old world gods, the Devil in Black, and the other courier bearing a message intended only for him. It was practically nonsense, but a part of the former NCR sharpshooter knew the courier would know what he was talking about, likely already having encountered those people.

Boone turned to Vegas, his thoughts returning to his plan. "Cut off the head and the snake will die, but its body will linger for a time."

Caesar was likely far out of his reach by now, but there was one person that answered only to him that would brazenly show his face.

"If I can't take out the head, I'll have to settle for its neck…for now."

The sharpshooter continued on his way by mountain to the city where his love had grown up, above the sights of the legionaries.


Standing on top of a platform below a sewer grate, Red Lucy observed three fire geckoes fending off three nightstalkers with their fire. The Thorn was filled with cheers and jeers as the fire-breathing lizards fended off the rattlesnake DNA spliced coyotes. Usually, the genetic abominations performed better against the naturally mutated wildlife, but the opposite was in play this match.

'Rex' Cazador sat on the edge of his lover's platform, staring at what many considered a spectacle with half-lidded eyes.

"Oh fuck! The Legion are here!" A voice from above yelled loud enough to be heard through the grate.

The brown-skinned man didn't need to hear anymore words before he sprung up and began walking to the underground complex's main entrance and exit.

"Hell yeah, our best man's going up to handle those slaving fucks!"

Another guard cheered the hunter on. "Leave some for the beasties, you monster!"

By the time he was climbing up the ladder, he was already thinking of ways to make sure they'd all get crucified.

"Under no circumstances are any of you to fight back!" The Thorn's most faithful servant declared. You may run into the sewers if you wish, but do not expect to be welcome if you return!"

Just like that, more than half of Lucy's guard ran to the sewer entrance. Far more 'citizens' of Vegas followed them, trampling each other to death. Several remaining guards felt ill at the sight of the bodies but still kept their place.

The red woman stood guard in her rightful position.

Like the beasts tearing each other apart in the battleground below, the cowards and the weak were sacrificed.


'Rex' rose from the Thorn's manhole into the world above.

The outside ruins of Westside Vegas were deserted as they once were after the far yet again. Much could be wondered about how the Legion would change the slums. Its pathetic population would be slaughtered, enslaved, and lord over as it's about to be, but the ruins couldn't stand: their continued decrepitness would cast shame on the people the Legion could become from settling at last.

Cazador shook his head free of fantasies before turning to see the advancing force of legionaries.

It was good he forwent his weapons, there was a good chance he would've been shot already otherwise.

"Name yourself, profli—"

A decanus raising his arm stopped the fool from finishing his sentence. "State, this man is Kimball's assassin."

"Vero?"

"Yes, vero." The respectful man nodded.

'Rex' rolled his eyes at the fusion of Latin and English.

Intermixing languages, Spanish or otherwise with English or any other, always made a horrible, confusing abomination serving only to confuse and annoy everyone. He had no idea what possessed Caesar to adopt Latin but never make its use mandatory. A language could be a connecting identity when there was nothing else.

"Who and where is your centurion?"

"Aelius, he is in the tunnels beneath our feet to prevent any profligates from escaping."

The hunter looked back towards the Thorn. "Clever and inconvenient. The fools will keep him busy, but I suppose I can wait a little while longer."

"Amicus?"

"Follow your orders and close off escape from the ground." Cazador returned his attention to the soldier. "Your centurion is already in a position to close off escape from below. Mind the big green mutant creature, however: he's likely to tear his way through more than a dozen of your men if you attack anyone. Follow customary procedure, enslave most of the commoners and let the officials be for further judgment. Make your intentions seem mostly peaceful, and the watchdog will relent as much as one could."

"Are you sure of this?"

The hunter stood in silence. "…On second thought, it's better if I came with you."

"Without any weapons?" The decanus looked down at the bare gun belt strapped around his waist.

"Don't need them." 'Rex' turned around and began walking to the Westside entrance. "Follow my lead and don't attack unless I give the order, no matter what happens."

"By your order, amicus."

The legionaries behind the decanus gave one another doubtful looks before following their commander regardless.

Cazador opened the Westside door and met the barrel end of a shotgun. "Ah, the old Vegas welcome."

"I-It's you!" The militia guard shouted and stepped back.

"Yeah, me." Blocking the doorframe with his body, 'Rex' examined the various nervous guards lowering their horribly kept guns from his frame. "Do you have any idea how terribly equipped you people are for a Legion invasion?"

"Offering to help?"

"No, a way out. Where's Mean Sonofabitch?"

"Somwan call fo me?" A colossal green man wearing a makeshift vest, carrying a pneumatic hammer the size of a woman, walked out from behind the fallen battlement that greeted everyone who walked through the south Westside entrance.

A female militia member nudged her elbow in the direction behind the hiding spot. "Go back, Sonofabitch, you're our ace in the hole."

"The phrase is 'ace in the sleeve,' Denise."

"Oh shut the fuck up, Jack!"

The man to Cazador's left held out his gun and free arm to his sides. "I'm just saying."

"You all need to shut up and listen." 'Rex' sighed before walking forward, letting the troops behind him enter Westside as well."

"Ah fuck!"

"Like I was telling you all earlier, I have a way out for you all. You'll either be citizens living under the rule of the Legion or remain free after this."

Denise scoffed, leveling her gun at the nearest legionary. "Shove your words up yours, you fucking mail man! No way in hell am I giving up my fine ass without a fight."

"…Huh." The hunter tilted his head to get a better view of the woman's form. "There's not much to speak of."

A crack filled the air as a bullet bounced off the man's leather shirt.

"Jesus Christ! What the fuck was that!" Jack yelled at his fellow militiamen.

"….What in the actual hell?"

"Here's the deal you're all going to agree to because it's the best chance any of you idiots has of getting out of this alive." Grabbing the barrel of the legionary to his side's rifle, he raised a hand as he lowered the gun. "Me and Sonofabitch, one on one, no weapons, no holds barred, and finished when one of us can't stand or dies for this pathetic slum fit for rotting mole rats."

Silence fell over the Westside entrance until the militia broke out into a fit of laughter.

"Oh my god! Did you fucking hear that?!"

"One on one, no holds barred!"

"Oh man, Sonofabitch is going to rip his fucking head off!"

Rolling his eyes, the courier frowned at Mean Sonofabitch's confused face.

The lives of these worthless men and women now lay with the literal gentle giant following through with his plan. He didn't like the thought of hurting what was the equivalent of a loyal dog, but he would if he had to. Everything in life never happened without someone getting hurt for it.

"We going to stand around hollering like Fiends tripping on psycho or are we going to get this started?"

"Alright, it's your death wish, man." Jack led the other militiamen through the opening past the supermutant. "Come on, Sonofabitch, you've got a sellout bitch to take out."

'Rex' followed them to the opening but stopped and turned around. "Decanus, have your men guard the exit. Follow me with a token force."

The legion officer nodded and carried out his new orders.

Several minutes later, more militiamen plus Westside residents and the decanus with his handful of men crowded around Cazador and a super sledge-less Mean Sonofabitch.

A whimper-like grunt emanated from the super mutant's throat. "Me no rike fight bu will so no mo pepple ge kill."

"People die no matter what you choose to do." The hunter clenched his fists and breathed deeply. "And I love fighting."

The green giant stepped forward and a deafening slam thrummed through the air not a moment after. Sonofabitch had to pause at the sharp pain flaring in his jaw. It was the first time a human had ever hit him so hard with just their bare hands.

Grinning, 'Rex' kicked at the side of the mutant's knee.

Mean, reminded of the fight by the added pain, move his large arms to grab the inhumanly strong human.

A laugh escaped the hunter's lips before he moved to the large green man's side and kicked him far harder in the already wounded joint.

The mutant sonofabitch fell on to his other knee for support.

Cazador took a few steps behind the downed giant, ran and lunged at him, grabbed the back of his head, and slammed the poor creature's skull against the asphalt with all his weight put behind him and all the force he could muster. He didn't stop there. Taking advantage of his momentum, the inhumanly strong man hopped back around the giant and more than a few steps back.

Mean lifted his head back up just in time to see a boot collide with it full force, the heel of which shattered his teeth.

Adrenaline filled growls emanated from both men as they prepared for their shared final moments of the fight.

As Sonofabitch lifted his upper body off the ground, 'Rex' jabbed him in the right side of his chest with his left hand, transmitting much of the impact into his liver.

The mutant's already wide eyes grew in size at the blow. He didn't get to move before another liver shot made his eyes look upward. One more made them retreat inside his skull. The last and most brutal blow to one of his most vital organs sent him unconscious frothing.

Cazador took a deep breath, waved his limp hands, and began walking back to the Westside south entrance past his still audience. "Decanus, I'll tell the men at the entrance to enter. Begin enslaving and purging these wastrel junkie filth."

"Y-Yes, amicus! Legionaries! Corral the women and lower men!"

The few soldiers there began following orders with no difficulties, their target populace's morale devastated.

A sigh escaped 'Rex's' lips as he walked through the crowd of pouring in legionaries to the Thorn.

It was quite the disappointment.


Half an hour passed until the Courier was face-to-face with a centurion in highly effective scavenged armor and several of his soldiers.

"My decanus, Maximus, told me of how you faced a great mutant in single combat barehanded and won flawlessly for control over the ground. Odd that you're here, however, instead of in Vegas to help secure Caesar's hold on the city. Has Camp Golf been dealt with?"

Cazador nodded. "Slaughtered to a single squad and a single crippled ranger. I would've killed them, but someone needed to bear witness what happened there and spread word."

"Understandable and a wise move." Aelius turned to Red Lucy. "Who is this woman that stands at your side and before me bearing arms on her back?"

The huntress grabbed hold of her lover's arm and closed the distance between them. "I am his wife to be, and I have a gift of mine to share with the Legion."

"What is this 'gift?'"

"Follow me." Lucy moved from her position underneath the circular grate overhead towards the Thorn's cages.

Aelius and his men turned to 'Rex.'

"You heard the woman, didn't you?" He walked behind his fiancé. "Come on."

Having not much else to do, the Legionaries followed the odd couple to the Thorn's cage rooms.

The first cage before them had a table with dead ravens resting atop plates before it. Inside, annoying insects and their eggs populated the rather spacious domicile.

"Here, we start with giant mantises." Lucy walks to the cage, takes out a key, and opens up the big green creatures' home.

Aelius' men lift their guns but are signaled to back down by the Courier.

Six of the mantises approached, making odd croak-like squeaks.

The beastmistress grabbed and handed out about four raven corpses.

Quickly tearing the relatively fresh meat apart, the mantids feasted on their meal and scattered bits among the younger, smaller of their kind.

"They're really quite useless. Good for feeding the other beasts though." Exiting the cage, she locked the gate, and moved to the next one filled with fire geckos. "Now these adorable creatures are at least capable of putting up a fight. Good for burning out prey, making a fire, or scaring away other animals."

Rex had to laugh at the table holding up mantis bits by the holding cell.

As Lucy opened the cage, a few geckos approached and chirped, obediently waiting inside the cage for their meal.

The little fire-breathing reptiles happily received some mantis legs and head-pats before being locked up again.

Radscorpions populated the next home made from entwined steel with no table in sight.

"These irradiated scorpions are savage. I don't need to feed them anything because they eat each other." Opening the cage, she held out her hand.

A little blue-carapaced insect skittered over.

Lucy stroked its tough shell and cooed as it refused to attack her. "They've all known me since they were hatchlings. They understand their place. I can't think of much use for them beyond their poisons but they make for good company when others are too loud." Retracting her hand, she closed the cage door and locked it.

More than a few nightstalkers were slithering their tongues by their steel home's entrance when they arrived.

The Thorn's most faithful servant opened the locked door, letting the creatures circle around her feet and jump up at her. "There, there." She pet one, grabbed a cut of meat from their table, and threw it back into the cage for some space. "Nightstalkers have a dog and a snake's sense of smell. You can harvest poison from them, have them stand guard, and track down your prey. Really quite helpful. Possibly the most helpful of beasts that live in the land."

Blood-curdling buzzing occupied the next cage with an odd assortment of plants on its table.

Even Cazador had to step back as his woman opened a cage of Cazadors.

Not many of the winged death dealers flew to Lucy, however. The bodies already in the cage occupied most of their attention.

"Cazadors are the most fascinating of predators. Their men aren't predators at all but scavengers." Grabbing a pod of honey mesquite, the woman guided the plant into the giant wasp's mandibles. "Beyond being deadly in combat with their poison, I wonder if they could be used as scouts. Sent to fly high and observe before coming back down to report." She pet the creature before shutting the door.

The finale exhibit was somewhat tame in comparison but still horrifying to everyone except two incredibly odd people that were intimate.

Red Lucy opened the cage and entered without fear.

Four baby death claws approached and cooed in her presence.

A giant, darker-toned fully grown one darted over and bellowed above her pups.

The woman head out her hand to the concerned mother.

It sniffed her once before lowering its head and nuzzling the Thorn's most faithful servant.

Cazador was the only one grinning as the Legionaries stared dumbfounded at quite possibly the most effective beast tamer that ever lived closing up her Deathclaw cage.

"That is my gift to the Legion, if Caesar would allow it. I will tame the fiercest beasts and pass on my knowledge as best I can. My faith in my groom to be ensures my complete loyalty."

"I… You must speak to Caesar himself about this. Let Rex Praedator take you to him and introduce you, you are his woman. I will come with you and back your claims with report of my success in conquering Westside."

Lucy furrowed her brow. "Will my men be allowed to remain free and guard the Thorn?"

"My own men will secure it and help feed the beasts if necessary. You have nothing to worry about, beastmistress."

"Good. Then we should depart to Vegas at once." She turned to her lover and smiled. "Shall we?"

He grasped her hand in his, smiling as well. "We shall. From there, we'll look upon the future, our future, as one."

Aelius ordered one of his decani to manage the Thorn as respectfully as possible before setting out with the hunter couple alongside a guard of his own men.