The raider bosses and their retinues had been gone for over an hour, by Rachel's count. She could feel Piper's incensed gaze burning into the side of her head as she sat on the bed of the Grille and cleaned the removable components of her bionic eye with a soft cloth, skimming out as much as she could of the dust and blood spatter which had accumulated after both her trip through the Gauntlet and her meeting with the bosses. "I know what you're thinking, Piper," she said without looking up, "and I'm not going to apologise. I did what I had to do."

Piper appeared abruptly in front of her then, having crossed the room in the time it had taken for Rachel to speak. "Did you, Blue?" she asked as she stood in front of her, arms folded. "Was taking control of these raiders part of your honeymoon plan as well?"

Rachel sighed, put the cloth down on the mattress and plugged her eyepiece back in. She blinked as her vision restored itself, getting that increasingly-familiar momentary sensation of her brain adjusting its sense of perspective, and then looked up at Piper, her artificial eye softly whirring in its housing. "You know it wasn't," she said, a tinge of exasperation in her voice. "I'm just doing what I can to make sure we stay alive long enough so we can get out of here with our insides still on the inside." She motioned for Piper to sit down next to her, patting the mattress with her hand, and Piper reluctantly obliged, a disbelieving look still on her face. Rachel took hold of one of Piper's hands for a moment before it was snatched away, Piper's expression turning sour in an instant. Rachel raised her eyebrows. "Okay, I guess I deserved that." She ran her fingers through her hair and took a deep breath to steady her thoughts. "Look, these guys were going to hang us out to dry by our guts if we didn't show them we were tougher than them. That big redhead alone would have killed us in a heartbeat if I hadn't shown him who was boss."

"I get that," Piper replied slowly, "but did you really have to stab him through the hand and burn him like that? Looked to me like you really did give him a reason to hate you."

"Maybe," Rachel said, "but at least he respects me now. And you saw how that Nisha woman reacted when I did that – I think she was pretty impressed."

"Couldn't you have made friends with those Operator guys instead?" Piper asked. "They look much less creepy." She shuddered. "And much less likely to skin you for fun."

"Somehow I think they're already on board," Rachel said. "Although maybe I should keep an eye on William. Mags seems to be the one who does all the talking, which makes me think he's the one who does all the real dirty work."

Piper pursed her lips thoughtfully for a second. "Seems like a fair assessment to me. He was way too quiet. Raiders aren't supposed to be quiet, not unless they're getting ready to stab you." She shuddered, before she glanced over to the ramshackle external elevator. "Speaking of which, are we going to do anything about that? Any of those guys could come up here in the middle of the night and –"

"I get the picture, Pipes," Rachel cut in. "I'll ask Gage to disable the ground-level elevator controls tomorrow. That way the only button's on the cradle, and we can keep it up here unless we absolutely need to use it." She nodded towards the elevator doors at the far end of the room. "That elevator will have to do from now on."

"Honestly, Blue, I'd feel safer if we just had the stairs. At least you could booby-trap those."

Rachel laughed. "If it makes you feel better, I'll set up a turret outside the elevator doors. Anybody who comes through them who isn't us will end up as nothing but hamburger." She reached for Piper's hand again, and this time it wasn't snatched away, which she was grateful for. "We'll be okay, Pipes, I promise." She lifted Piper's hand to her lips and kissed it gently. "I think for now we should at least try to get some sleep, though. I have a feeling the next few days are going to get very busy…"

Rachel looked over a ragged-edged promotional map of the park, its bright colours and overly enthusiastic descriptions of each individual area's themes not exactly full of information about their respective contents. She let a sigh of disgust slip from her lips as she tossed it dismissively onto the dresser next to the bed, glancing at Piper as she slumbered peacefully, seemingly without a care in the world.

She supposed that would not last for very long once Piper opened her eyes, however, so she opted not to wake her wife up for now. Better to let her sleep and avoid the unpleasant reality of their situation for as long as possible.

The intercom on the wall crackled abruptly, and Gage's gruff voice spoke up. "You awake, boss?" he asked, a touch of urgency in his words.

Crossing the room after pulling on a t-shirt and underwear she brushed her fingers against the response button. "Morning, Gage," she said sourly. "What can I do for you?"

"Don't want to push you, boss, but the gangs are already gettin' impatient. They want to get this place under control as soon as possible, which means you gotta get down here and get started givin' out territory before they get started on each other."

"Got it," Rachel said. "We'd better do something about that, then – gather the gang leaders in the centre of Nuka-Town and we'll decide who gets which park first. See you in ten minutes." She took her hand off the button and walked back to the bed, her hand hovering over Piper's shoulder for a moment before she drew it back and instead threw on her Silver Shroud coat, not bothering with the matching fedora, waistcoat and pants. Sometimes elaborate theatrics were unnecessary, but the coat's heavy armour most definitely was, even if it was in dire need of repair following the ordeal of the Gauntlet.

She was almost out of the Grille's door when she heard Piper's voice, still a little fuzzy around the edges from sleep. "Hope you're not planning on leaving without me, Blue." She cursed under her breath.

"That was the general idea," Rachel replied, truthfully. "I didn't want to wake you if I didn't have to."

"Well, I'm awake now," Piper said, folding her arms across her chest. "Hope you don't mind a little company."

Rachel pondered the point for a moment. "You know," she began "that doesn't sound like such a bad idea after all. I could use the back-up."

"I know you can. I've saved your ass enough to know you need me more than you care to admit."

"Don't tell anyone else that," Rachel replied, jabbing her finger in Piper's direction. "I have to keep at least some mystery about me if I'm going to be the big bad Overboss. The less these people know about me, the better."

Piper smiled and touched two fingers to her brow in a brief mock salute. "You got it, boss. My lips are zipped."

"Good," Rachel said, before she jerked a thumb at the elevator. "Shall we?"

Nuka-Town was very different to the last time Rachel had seen it. When she had been here with Nate there had been cotton-candy stands, vendors serving up ice-cream sundaes and as much Nuka-Cola as a person could drink, even a few people walking around dressed up as Nuka-Girl. Now it was a dusty relic, raiders milling around its dilapidated buildings simply smoking, drinking and fighting each other, as well as partaking in some target practice. Clanking around aimlessly was a miraculously still-functioning robot shaped like a giant Nuka-Cola bottle. Rachel recognised it as the park's resident tour guide who had been so helpful to both Nate and her when they visited before the war. She wondered if perhaps it might have information about the current state of the park's various areas, and might be able to give her something else to work with.

As she approached it, it began its standard greeting. "Hi there!" it exclaimed cheerily. "Well hello there, young lady! I'm N.I.R.A, your friendly Nuka-World Informational Robotic Assistant. Is this your first visit to Nuka-World?"

"No," Rachel replied, indulging the robot's preprogrammed curiosity, "but I haven't been here for a very long time. Can you tell me if anything's changed? Any new rides I should know about?"

"I'm afraid we haven't had any new rides installed recently," N.I.R.A said, "so I guess you'll have to make up for it with what's already here! Now, before you set off on your grand Nuka-adventure – ERROR. SYSTEM MALFUNCTION." Rachel took a step backwards in surprise as the robot visibly altered its posture, its voice becoming harsher and colder as it did so. "You're boring me, scavver," it snarled. "Get out of my face!" It raised one of its comically-oversized hands as if it was getting ready to strike before it twitched again. "SYSTEM RESTORED," it barked, before resuming its friendly tone. "I'm sorry, I have been having problems with my program for a while. I submitted a tampering report to the park engineers but they haven't been around for quite a while. But don't you worry, I'm still operating at an acceptable level!"

"Acceptable" is a relative term, Rachel thought sourly. "Thanks for your help," she said. "I'll see if I can get someone to fix you later."

"Why thank you!" the robot exclaimed. "You have a great day!" Then it resumed its ambling circuit of the town set, its gears grinding noisily as it did so.

"Well, that was… interesting," Piper said, scratching her head. "What else do you think these guys have messed around with?"

"Not much, I hope," Rachel said, before she saw the four bosses standing apart from the rest of their gangs with their backs towards her, with Gage stood before them and presumably keeping them from tearing each other's throats out. She had hoped this neutral territory would prevent that, but then again, if she had learned anything over her first day in Nuka-World it was to never take anything for granted. As she approached the small gathering Gage noticed her and quickly beckoning her over, a relieved expression crossing his haggard, lined features.

"Mornin', boss," he said, his voice not conveying any of the anxiety she knew he had to be feeling. "Ready to go?"

"Absolutely," Rachel said, before loudly cracking her knuckles. It was purely for dramatic effect, and she was sure the bosses all knew that as well, but it made her feel a little better. "Which park do you want to reclaim first?"

"We were hoping you could decide that," Mags cut in, her silky tone barely masking her impatience. "Each of them is a… unique challenge. The Operators have sent scouts into each park but most of them either return wounded or don't return at all."

Mason blinked in surprise. "Wait, you sent scouts into the parks, and you never shared any of it with us? Why not?"

"I didn't see the need," Mags spat back, annoyed. "If all we got back was chunks in a box, why would we tell any of you?"

Mason was about to retort before Rachel stepped in, placing her arm between the angry brute and his smaller target. "It's a fair point," she began, "but the next time any of you finds something out that everyone else can use, you tell me first, and I promise I'll pass it along." She folded her arms across her chest and gave them all a disapproving glare. "And I do mean any of you. I don't care if you have no loyalty to each other – you have a loyalty to me now. Do as you're told, and everything will be fine. Do you understand?" There was a brief moment of silence while the gang leaders looked tersely at each other, clearly weighing up their options, before unanimously agreeing, their voices muted. "So, as I was saying," she continued, "which park do we take back first?" She drew the small map of Nuka-World out of a pocket of her coat and tapped a finger over Dry Rock Gulch. "I don't know about you, but I really want to see the Old West."

"Don't you want to send someone else in your place, Overboss?" Nisha asked, sounding surprised at Rachel's intention to lead the expedition. "We have more than enough raiders to overwhelm those parks without putting you in harm's way."

"No," Rachel said flatly. "I never let anyone take risks I wouldn't take myself. All I need is a decent-sized squad to back me up, and that park will be under our control in no time."

Nisha shrugged. "As you wish," she said simply, although the same kind of appreciative tone she had displayed at their initial meeting seemed to be behind her words regardless.

"I do wish," Rachel said, before turning to Gage. "Gage, police up all the heaviest weapons you can. I want everybody coming with me to be as well-equipped as possible."

"You got it, boss," Gage said. "So who gets to tag along with you?"

Rachel thought for a moment, and then pointed towards Mags and William. "I'll take the Operators. Mags, William, tell your men to saddle up." She chuckled despite herself – the reference had been impossible for her to resist. "I'll meet your men outside the Parlor in an hour. Don't keep me waiting."

"Of course, Overboss," Mags said. "You won't regret this, I assure you." She turned on her heel and sauntered away with an obvious spring in her step, her brother quickly following in her wake. As the two of them did so Mason snorted in disgust and stalked away without another word, but Nisha lingered a little, her lips twisted with anger.

"You better not rip us off," she hissed, jabbing her finger directly in Rachel's face. "Those rich brats aren't worth the shit on my boots."

"You'll get your due soon enough," Rachel reassured her. "I have the Galactic Zone earmarked for you. The Pack will get Safari Adventure. As for the other two parks, I haven't decided who'll get those yet." She shrugged. "Relax. Like I said, just do what you're told and I promise everything will be peachy."

"It better be," Nisha said. "Don't get killed."

"Concerned that I won't survive?" Rachel asked. "I'm touched."

"Don't be," Nisha said derisively. "I'm only concerned that you might not be around to give us what we're owed. Don't let us down." With that, she turned on her heel and headed in the direction of Fizztop Mountain, her fists clenched.

When she was out of earshot, Gage said "Well, that went better than I was expecting. Good work, boss."

Rachel closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose with her fingers. "If you say so, Gage. Get those guns as soon as you can. I don't want to waste any time that I don't have to."

"They'll be with you in an hour," Gage promised. "Mind if I tag along with you? I ain't seen much real action for months since we've been cooped up in this circus – these old bones a'mine are just itchin' for some blood and guts."

"Sure," Rachel agreed. "I could use all the help I can get."

Outside the entrance to Dry Rock Gulch, a small, compact number of Operators were doing a final check of their weapons before beginning their cleansing of the area. Meanwhile, Rachel was carefully inspecting the ammo feed on the brutish gauss rifle Gage had scrounged up for her when Piper appeared at her side, her pistol drawn and ready, while Gage was obsessively loading and ejecting his rifle's magazine as if it was a yoyo. Rachel had also managed to remember her Silver Shroud hat and coat, since she was determined to show Piper how the protectrons in the park would react to her. She hoped that the raiders would not tamper with their programming as they had with N.I.R.A., since she liked hearing the lumbering droids' clunky digital drawl spouting cowboy jargon. If anything could put a smile on her face it was eccentric robots.

"Getting to know your new friend a little better?" she asked, with only a touch of sarcasm rather than the usual large serving she usually used. "He looks pretty high-maintenance to me."

"You'd be surprised," Rachel replied, rubbing the weapon's electromagnetic coils with a soft cloth. "Keep him clean and well-fed and he'll be good as gold." She laughed. "Most men usually are."

Piper looked nonplussed. "I guess I'll have to take your word for that," she said sourly. "I don't have much experience in that area, you know."

"Well, I guess we'll find out just how far we can push this thing together," Rachel said, slipping her finger around the trigger and standing up, before raising her voice so that the raiders could hear her. "Operators!" she exclaimed. "Let's move out!" She walked with purpose towards the entranceway, her raiders following behind her obediently and her rifle slung securely across her back. She wanted to take a peaceful approach if – she had plans for the protectrons later, so leaving them as piles of scrap was something she would prefer to avoid.

As the group advanced on the entranceway, a protectron wearing a comically small stetson and a sheriff's badge waddled up to them, giving them a jaunty greeting and introducing itself as "Sheriff Hawk". One of the raiders to Rachel's right took a potshot at it, the bullet pinging off the robot's thick armoured carapace and thudding into the dirt. Rachel looked at the man and aimed a single forefinger at him without a word, her searing half-mechanical glare making him shrink backwards involuntarily. She stepped up to the robot expecting it to retaliate, but instead it just said "Well hello there, Silver Shroud! Not often we get a celebrity here!"

"The Silver Shroud follows the trail of justice wherever it leads!" Rachel replied, slipping into her theatrical Silver Shroud voice almost automatically. "I am the night's dark protector, the fury of vengeance! I bring you aid, fair sheriff!"

"Boy," the robot began, "am I glad to hear that. We have a problem with bloodworms. Can you help?"

Bloodworms? They don't sound very appealing, Rachel thought, annoyed. Figures. "Of course, my friend!" she said aloud, letting her cartoonish bravado hide her misgivings. "The Shroud never abandons those in need. Remain here, stalwart law-keeper, and this town shall be cleansed!" She raised her right hand and ushered her motley crew forward into the park.

"Mind tellin' me what that was all about, boss?" Gage said as they advanced. "I ain't never heard nobody talk like that 'cept in comic books."

"Long story, Gage," Rachel replied, not taking her eyes off the street in front of her. "Maybe I'll tell you about it later. For now just keep your mind on the job, okay?"

"Got it, boss," Gage said, falling silent again.

Rachel guessed the eerie quiet of the Gulch was too fragile to last, and moments later she was proven right when the earth underneath a hapless Operator burst open and a slimy, limbless creature with a cylindrical, slobbering fang-ringed maw clamped itself onto his leg and began tearing a huge chunk out of it, thrashing aggressively as it did so. Rachel had never seen anything like it before – even the Commonwealth's indigenous wildlife was not as savage or grotesquely mutated – but she wasted no time in putting a round through its head, messily splattering the unfortunate man it had been chewing on with its brains and a huge splash of blood. Once she was sure the thing was completely dead, she knelt by the man, who was clutching at his thigh and trying to hold the jagged edges of his wound together, his face twisted in pain. She was no field medic but even she could see he was not going to be able to carry on. Glancing up at Gage she said "Dress his wound and take him back to the Parlor. Wait for me there."

"You sure about that?" Gage asked. "Be easier to just leave him here for that dumbass robot to take care of."

"Yes, I'm sure," Rachel snapped. "I'm giving you an order and I expect you to follow it, get me?"

"Yeah, okay, I get you," Gage said, before he knelt at the Operator's side and started binding his injured leg with a crude tourniquet formed from fabric torn from the young man's own sleeve. Gage was clearly nothing if not resourceful. "Come on, kid, let's get you back to base," he said as he threw the man's arm over his shoulder and began helping him retreat from the Gulch.

As the two of them moved away, an Operator took a hesitant step forward, her weapon lowered in respect. "Thank you for that, Overboss," she said, sounding a little nervous. "Colter probably would have had him killed."

"So I hear," Rachel replied. "Thank me later. We have a park to clear out first." She had barely drawn breath before the earth broke open and four more ravenous bloodworms erupted from the dry ground in front of the Operators, writhing and hissing as they did so. Another four emerged behind them, one of the larger worms launching itself bodily through the air and engulfing an unfortunate man's face in its huge, drooling maw. As it fell, it wrenched its mouthful clear of the man's body with a sickening crunching sound and fell to the ground beside the headless corpse, its body pulsing as it swallowed. Before it could do anything else, though, Rachel had put two shots in the back of its head and made it crumple into a slimy heap.

Around her the Operators were panicking and firing indiscriminately into the ground, any illusions of discipline having vanished. "Hold your fire!" Rachel yelled, struggling to make herself heard over the crackle of rifle discharge. "Hold your fire, goddammit! You're not hitting anything!" She grabbed the shoulder of the nearest Operator and pointed at the nearest rickety building. "Get inside! They can't get through the floor!" She almost dragged the woman into the saloon, followed by a rushed shambles of bloodied, dishevelled gang members who were visibly terrified.

"What are we gonna do?" one of the raiders said, his voice shaking, a far cry from the smug bravado this particular group had previously exhibited. "Those things are everywhere!" He almost jumped out of his skin as there came a thumping sound from beneath his feet, which Rachel thought sounded uncomfortably like one of the worms trying to smash its way through the floor.

"As long as that floor holds you're safe. Right now, you stay put while I figure out where these things are coming from," Rachel replied shortly. "Shouldn't be too hard. I can track them with this." She reached into her coat pocket, drawing out her infra-red optical module and holding it up for the rest of the gang to see before she exchanged her normal eyepiece with it. Blinking twice quickly she activated its extrasensory mode and her vision was engulfed by blooming blotches of colour, and she saw that the ground beneath her was criss-crossed with tunnels full of red-tinged heat and the slithering bodies of the worms, and they all seemed to lead in one direction: towards the Mad Mulligan''s Mine ride.

Bingo. "I have a target," she said. "Stay here while I go check it out."

"Alone?" Piper said, incredulous. "Are you nuts?"

"Maybe," Rachel began, "but I'm also the only one who can see the worms before they can get me." She pulled Piper towards her and kissed her briefly before she hefted her rifle and patted its coils. "Don't worry, Old Painless here will keep me alive."

"Not funny, Blue," Piper said sourly. "Stay safe, you hear me? If you die I'll kill you."

"You keep saying that but it never happens."

"So let's keep it that way."

"Deal," Rachel said, cupping Piper's cheek for a moment. "See you soon, honey."

Resolutely, she left the building and began walking slowly towards the ride, trying to keep one eye ahead of her while also tracking the criss-cross pattern of tunnels beneath her feet. She had barely moved more than six feet before she caught sight of a large worm moving towards her at breakneck speed. She tensed as it started to rise toward the surface and, as it broke the earth, threw herself backwards while pulling her trigger three times. The worm was still in mid-air when it was cut in multiple pieces by her trio of shots, and it fell to the ground in a heap of blubbery meat, which was instantly set upon by a swarm of other worms that surged out of the ground and started greedily gulping down chunks of shredded viscera.

Rachel tasted the bitter tang of vomit rising at the back of her throat, but she choked it back down and kept going, reaching the entrance of the mine-cart ride only to find the door locked tight, its lock so thick and reinforced that it couldn't be disabled with a single shot from anything short of a rocket launcher. Taped to the door was a hastily-scrawled message about getting a key from a safe, the code for which was held by the three protectrons stationed at various points around the Gulch.

I knew things were going too well, Rachel thought with profound annoyance. Looking around her she saw one of the robots milling around outside a barn. She sprinted over to it, jinking from left to right to avoid any stray worms that might have been planning on ambushing her. As she approached the robot it began a programmed speech, calling itself One-Eyed Ike and challenging her to a shoot-out. She rolled her organic eye in annoyance and ignored it, instead simply plugging her Pip-Boy's cable into its chest-mounted interface socket and demanding its portion of the code, which it then gave up without any further delay. The next two protectrons holding portions of the safe combination were dealt with in a similarly brisk fashion – she didn't have time to waste on silly challenges meant for little children.

Finding the safe, she entered the code and grabbed the key before running back to where Piper and the surviving members of the Operator squad were taking shelter. "Get yourselves ready, people," she said as she stood in front of the group. "We're moving out. The mine-cart ride is where those bloodworms are coming from, and we need to kill every last one of them."

"Why don't we get the traders to do that?" one Operator suggested scornfully. "I don't want to risk my neck in there with those things."

As she heard the man speaking, Rachel narrowed her eye and walked swiftly over to him with her fists clenched. One right hook later and he was lying on the ground with a bloody nose and a stunned expression on his face.

"Those traders are a valuable resource, that's why," Rachel snarled. "You don't waste resources unless you absolutely have to." She jerked a thumb towards the door. "Congratulations, you get to take point. Get to it."

The man visibly blanched, but pushed himself to his feet nevertheless and made his way to the door, cautiously stepping out into the street with his rifle braced against his shoulder. Raising her hand Rachel motioned for the rest of the gang to follow him, keeping her infra-red vision focused on the ground to watch for any opportunistic worms looking for a quick lunch. As much as she wanted to teach her unruly soldier a lesson, she also wanted to keep him alive if she could. Demonstrating that she was willing to forgive and forget was important in winning trust as much as being able to lay someone out solely to prove a point.

The movement of the gang triggered the worms' burrowing to increase its pace. Rachel could see at least three converging on the centre of mass, so she yelled "Scatter!", forcing them all apart as the worms erupted through the surface, to be cut to pieces by a hail of bullets. As the worms died, one of them thrashed so hard that it caught Piper in the head in its death throes and made her trip and fall, face-planting onto the ground and bumping her head on a rock. Rachel cried out her name and ran over to where her wife lay with a bright scarlet stripe painted across her forehead where the worm's spiny, needle-sharp teeth had sliced through her skin. She was alive, thankfully, but her eyes were hazy and she looked confused, as if she didn't quite know where she was.

"Blue?" she mumbled. "Are you there?"

Rachel nodded. "I'm here, sweetheart. Take a couple of deep breaths, okay? We need to keep moving."

"'Kay," Piper said in a woozy tone, her head lolling a little. "Feel sick…"

It was only then that Rachel noticed the marks on Piper's skin radiating from the wound on her face. They were dark, ugly tendrils that were turning the skin around them purple with irritation.

Something clicked. The worms were venomous.

Shit.

"Don't let those things bite you!" she shouted, stowing her gauss rifle across her back before gently helping Piper to her feet and slinging one arm over her shoulder. "Come on, Pipes, let's get you out of here." Had she any faith that the raiders would get Piper safely back to Nuka-Town she would have asked one of them to do so, but she didn't trust any of them not to take advantage of her. Raiders were raiders, after all – no matter how much they tried to disguise it – so at this point Piper was safer by her side. She adjusted her grip on Piper slightly as the two of them started moving as quickly as she could towards the ride's entrance. She slipped the ride's key into the door's heavy lock, ushering her lead raider in with her hand before drawing her pistol and thumbing the hammer back instinctively. She wasn't exactly sure how effective pistol rounds would be against the worms, but she wasn't going to give them an easy meal if she could help it.

The ride was dark, but her enhanced vision gave her a far clearer view of her surroundings. Up ahead she could see a couple of worms curled around each other in what looked like some kind of twisted embrace, but it wasn't until she got closer that she saw the two of them were in fact hiding inside the mouldering carcass of a brahmin, the stench of it masking the worms' own pungent sour-milk scent. "Stop," she told her point-man. "Shoot that brahmin."

"What?" he said, incredulous.

"Just do it," Rachel snapped. "There are worms hiding in that body." The raider looked confused for a moment before he put a volley of rounds into the brahmin's corpse, spraying decaying meat across the floor and causing the worms to burst forth, hissing and enraged with blood dripping from fresh wounds in their sides. In the confines of the tunnel they couldn't outflank Rachel's crew, but neither could her crew spread out far enough to avoid them, so she knew she had to put them down quickly. As the raider fired wildly she loosed a few shots at the creatures, aiming as carefully as she could given how her stance was being affected by Piper's weight. Most of her shots went wide, but a couple of them hit the creatures full in the face. One of them took a lucky bullet down its gaping throat and flopped to the ground stone dead, but the other needed a second burst of rifle fire to be put down for good.

"Hurts," Piper grunted, shaken by the abrupt movement.

"I know it does, honey," Rachel reassured her, before holstering her gun and wiping her handkerchief across Piper's brow gently, "but we won't be down here long, so you hang in there, you hear me?"

"'Kay," Piper mumbled. "Love you."

"I love you too," Rachel said, tucking a stray lock of Piper's hair behind her ear. "Your hair's getting long. I think you should get it cut when we get out of here, don't you?"

"'Kay," Piper said again, clearly too disoriented to properly acknowledge anything that Rachel had just said. The bloodworm venom was clearly extremely potent, even if it wasn't totally fatal. Gage had told her there was a doctor back at Nuka-Town's market, so that would have to be their first stop when they had secured this place.

A large source of heat bloomed in her vision as she rounded the next corner, and she was faced with a huge, pulsating worm, surrounded by countless soft-shelled eggs that occasionally wobbled in place, as if they were close to hatching. As she watched, several more eggs were added to the pile, sticky with mucus, and she realised that this was the source of the entire infestation, the queen of the hive. "Okay, people," she said loudly so that every last raider could hear her, "let's finish this. Focus all your fire on that thing and we can get the hell out of here." Her gang spilled out of the tunnel, weapons at the ready, and killed the queen with a scathing rain of bullets, its shredded remains coating its eggs in a thick, suffocating layer of fat. Rachel didn't trust that to be the end of things, and resolved to send at least two or three raiders down the mine armed with flamethrowers so they could properly cleanse the place and render the Gulch completely secure.

After the Operators' flag had been raised and the park claimed for the gang, Rachel opted to leave her former troops to their celebrations and headed straight for Nuka-Town's market with Piper still draped over her shoulder, where she was directed to the resident doctor., a woman named Mackenzie. "Doc, I need you right now," Rachel said urgently, the woman visibly stiffening up as she realised who was talking to her.

"Of course, Overboss," she stammered as she turned around from her shelves of medical supplies, before an involuntary gasp left her lips. "Oh my God," she said breathlessly. "What happened?"

"She got poisoned by something in Dry Rock Gulch," Rachel explained. "It doesn't look fatal, but she could definitely use some TLC if you've got any going spare."

"Yes, of course," Mackenzie replied, before she turned back to her shelves and picked a long syringe off them and then returning her attention to her new patient. "This is Med-X," she explained. "It'll neutralise the poison and stabilise her a little, but she'll still need plenty of rest for the next day or two. If you can stop her from leaving her bed that would be ideal."

"I don't know about that, doc," Rachel said. "Piper doesn't follow orders well."

"It's either that or I give her a general anaesthetic, I'm afraid," Mackenzie told her, before her eyes shifted slightly to either side, as if she was worried about being overheard, and her voice turned almost to a whisper. "I'm glad you're here, though. I have a… proposal for you."

"Oh?" Rachel said, intrigued. "And what's that?"

"Well… this is your show now. You can run this place the way you want to. You could keep things as they are and be like Colter, or you could, um, get rid of the raiders and let us go back to just being a trading post."

"Are you out of your mind?" Rachel said, her eye widening. "Do you not see how many raiders are in this place?"

"I know, boss, but you wouldn't have to kill all of them, just the gang leaders. Once they're gone the gangs will collapse and we'll all be free."

"You should probably stop talking," Rachel told her. "For your own sake."

"Of course, boss," Mackenzie said, lowering her eyes and picking up a clipboard before starting to scribble something on it.

"Give me that," Rachel told her. "I need to… check your inventory." Mackenzie cocked her head in surprise but handed the clipboard over without any protest. "And the pen," Rachel added, clicking her fingers to hurry her along. When she had the pen in hand she quickly scrawled a message on it. I'm going to free this place, she wrote. You'll just have to wait a little while longer. Destroy this when you've read it. Don't incriminate yourself. "This looks good to me," she continued as she passed the clipboard back, watching as the doctor struggled to keep a smile from spreading across her face. "Carry on."

The interior elevator suddenly began clanking, its car clearly on its way up to the penthouse. Rachel silently cursed herself for forgetting to ask Gage to turn away any visitors after a certain hour, and then picked Piper up off the couch she had been lying on since returning from Dry Rock Gulch and carried her hurriedly into the old restaurant's restroom area despite Piper's deflated protestations. "Stay in there," she said quickly. "Don't come out until I tell you it's safe."

"There's no way I'm going to leave you alone with whoever is on their way up," Piper insisted. "You need me."

"I know, but right now you're in no shape to help me. I need you to stay quiet," Rachel said. "Something tells me whoever this is won't want an audience anyway."

Piper snorted in disgust, but lay flat on the restroom floor anyway. Rachel supposed she would have to make it up to her later, but until then she had business to attend to. She ran her hands through her hair and took a deep breath as the elevator car came to a stop. When the doors opened, Rachel saw that Mags Black was standing alone in the centre of it, her arms folded across her chest and a confident, almost predatory look on her face. "Forgive the late interruption, Overboss," she purred as she stalked out of the elevator and into the wider area of the old restaurant, "but my brother and I wanted to collectively offer our gratitude to you for giving the Operators the first of the parks. We won't forget that."

"I'm glad you feel that way," Rachel said, moving a couple of steps closer to the shorter woman and meeting her gaze directly, "but now you've said your piece, I think you should leave. I don't like surprise visits."

"Forgive me," Mags replied, "but I have another matter I'd like to discuss with you."

"Is that so?" Rachel said, cocking her head slightly. "What would that be?"

"I know you're still new to this place," Mags began as she virtually swaggered into the Grille, "and I'm guessing that Gage hasn't told you everything about how Nuka-World was run before you got here. It's a lot more complicated than it might first appear. For instance," and she stepped forward and began tracing her fingertips up Rachel's arm, "the previous Overboss and I had an… arrangement: he'd look the other way while we did outside deals with common raiders for arms and armour, and in return he would get a cut of the profits and I'd warm his bed whenever he wanted me to. I'd be happy to continue that arrangement with you, if you'll let me."

"What's the catch?" Rachel asked bluntly.

Mags held her hands out to either side for a moment. "No catch. Just… continuity. I would think that would count for a lot in a place like this, don't you agree?"

"There are worse things than continuity," Rachel said thoughtfully, before she sat in the nearest chair and hooked her right leg over her left, steepling her fingers as she did so. "It sounds like you and Colter had quite the arrangement."

"Oh, it was very beneficial to the Operators," Mags said with a satisfied smirk, "but not to the slave Colter called his wife." She chuckled, examining the immaculately-manicured nails of her right hand for a moment. "Poor girl was eaten by a pack of wild dogs only a few weeks after Colter and I finalised our little deal. Terrible tragedy. Just dreadful."

"Was that you?"

"Perish the thought," Mags retorted, looking mortified at the mere suggestion of her involvement. "I might be many things, Overboss, but what I'm not is stupid enough to endanger my own position. Colter, on the other hand, was nothing more than an idiot. Worse than that, he was an idiot who refused to learn from his mistakes – or to recognise when he was being played." She held up her right wrist, unbuttoning her sleeve to reveal a small tattoo on her wrist. Rachel recognised it as two female symbols linked together like a set of car keys. "Colter didn't know what this meant, and didn't bother to find out. I just told him it was a gang sign, and the imbecile believed every word I said. I fucked him during the night and fucked Lizzie during the day, to get the stink of him off me." She shrugged. "Don't act so surprised – I did what I had to do. He wanted me, so I gave myself to him… but I never lost control. He was a puppet on a string… but you, you're a different story altogether, aren't you? You know what this means. You know what I can offer."

"Why don't you show me?" Rachel asked, pursing her lips and extending a finger towards the other woman. "Strip."

Mags smiled. "I thought you'd never ask." She unclasped her chest armour, the metal shell falling to the floor with a clattering finality, and began slowly unbuttoning the blouse underneath, pulling it off her shoulders and tossing it to the ground before kicking off her boots and dropping her pants, letting her hair down, and finally casting her bra and panties onto the pile of clothes. Rachel took in the sight of her lithe, slender form for a moment, the noticeable lack of blemishes on her lily-white skin a clear sign of a life of privilege and elevation above the common men and women of the wasteland. Mags put her hands on her hips, completely unembarrassed by her nakedness. "Well? Like what you see?"

"I do," Rachel replied, standing and beckoning Mags closer. "Come here."

"With pleasure," Mags said, her eyes glittering with anticipation.

She brushed her fingers down Rachel's cheek before she stepped forward and traced the long deathclaw-talon scar which ran up the side of Rachel's neck with her tongue. As she did so Rachel could smell the delicate scent of honeysuckle on her skin, a stark contrast to the ripe, sweaty odour of so many raiders. It was a refreshing change. Mags continued to trail feather-light kisses up her jaw until her mouth was close to Rachel's ear. "I can be whatever you want me to be. All you have to do is say the word, and I'm yours." She moved again so that her half-lidded gaze met Rachel's own, their faces just a scant few breaths apart. "Only yours."

"I'm glad to hear it," Rachel said, smiling and running her fingers through Mags' thick blonde hair gently, a moment before her smile faded, her voice lowered to a hiss and her hand made a fist, yanking Mags' head forcefully to one side, "but you're still not getting anything extra from me. You go back to the Parlor and you tell that brother of yours that your little scheme didn't work. I'm not Colter. I love my wife, and I could never betray her." She met Mags' wide-eyed, abruptly frightened gaze with a steely glare and continued "Do you understand?"

Frantically Mags nodded. "Yes, Overboss, I understand," she said in a small, timid tone. It was a stark contrast to the sultry, ultra-confident voice she had used up until this point, and Rachel couldn't help but feel a little jolt of satisfaction at that. In an instant she had shifted her grip so that she held Mags' left arm up against her back, forcing her towards the elevator. She shoved the other woman into it so hard that she almost bounced off its mirrored back wall, still naked as the day she was born – although now she was self-consciously covering herself. "But – my clothes –" she began, before Rachel cut her off mid-sentence.

"I think they can wait until tomorrow. I'll have Gage drop them off," she said bluntly. "Until then I think you should go back to the Parlor before I change my mind."

"Of… course," Mags said, her shoulders slumping in defeat. She stepped forward tentatively to push the button on the elevator's control panel that would take her down to ground level, and then she was gone.

When Rachel was sure there was no chance of her being seen, she completely relaxed, her posture loosening in an instant, the hammering of her heart slowing to a slower, gentler rhythm and her knees ceasing their faint tremble. Behind her she heard Piper emerging unsteadily from the restroom and glanced over at her wife. The sight of her made Rachel smile through her exhaustion, and she crossed the room to embrace her, wrapping her arms tightly around Piper's slender form. "I love you," she whispered softly.

"I love you too," Piper said, leaning her head against Rachel's shoulder, "but I don't think I'll ever understand you."

Rachel frowned as she stepped backwards in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Was that really a good idea? That's two of the gang bosses you've made a fool of in two days. One more and you'll have them all united against you."

"I haven't made fools of them," Rachel replied, a little tersely. "I just gave Mags and Mason lessons they would understand. They have to fear me."

"Do they? We're not staying long enough for that to matter, are we?"

"I could be wrong," Rachel said, "but I don't think these people are going to just let us leave when we just got here. We need a plan, and that means we need time to make one." She ran her hands down her face, feeling the cold steel of her implant under her fingertips for a moment. "Until then, I have to be the monster they want me to be. I have to be the Overboss."