Ten Years Later

"Hey, Lydia…who's is this, anyways?" Russel asked. A worn leather journal was held up for the other woman to notice, who marched over quickly to snatch the filched book from her hands.

"Where the fuck did you get that?!" Lydia snapped at the ginger-haired woman lounging languidly on the common room couch. "Did you go in his fucking room?!"

A half-hearted shrug. "I was just looking for him…he didn't happen to be inside, and it was just lying on the table, so, I…"

Lydia gently checked over the notebook in her hands for any noticeable damage, and then threw the newest member of their team a scathing glare. "He'll fucking kill you, if he finds out you read this."

A psh, and Russel waved her hand without so much as a care in the world. "Why?" She then sat upright rather excitedly, putting on a high-pitch tone. "Does the big baby get all sad talking about his pwetty lady? Is that picture in there her?!"

"Keep your fucking mouth shut," Lydia snarled, threatening the woman with a single finger lashing at her face. "Forget you ever read this thing, or he'll skin you alive. Don't ask him about it, don't talk to him about it, don't even fucking think about it. He's not into you, Russ, so put your fucking hard-on back in your pants and leave him the fuck alone."

Russel held her hands up in mock surrender, her lips curving into a mischievous smile. "So touchy…fine. I'll let it go." She then laid back down in the lumpy cushioning of the sofa as Lydia stalked away. "…for now."

Lydia ran a hand through her dark, pixie-cut hair. If Cross found out someone had taken Evelyn's journal from his room- she shuddered to think of it. The ghoul was already meanly tempered most days, but something like that would be nuclear. She would have to keep a better eye on the rookie recruit, lest they go through another applicant for the third time this month…it was simply cursed timing. Especially on a day like today.

Thank God for herself, Cross was still out working on that business deal with Dino-mite and Charon, so it was her luck she could slip inside and quickly replace what had been previously taken. She opened the hatch to the ghoul's room, very sparsely decorated, and set the faded journal on the nightstand where she was sure Russel had found it. Her fingertips glided over the smooth leather for a moment, and she hugged her arms around herself as she set to leave.

It was cold.


Charon cracked his knuckles as he flexed his hands into solid fists, the snapping reverberating loudly around the enclosed space.

"Look, I can do 7,500 by the end of the month, but that's it." A man in a faded pin-stripe suit refitted his collar before leaning back into his seat.

"Only 7,500?!" Dino-mite laughed incredulously from beside Charon. "That's some fucking-"

Cross held up a hand, and his subordinate instantly clicked his mouth shut. Still, it wasn't enough to quell the pissed-off fire Dino-mite had in his eyes as he stared at the man that had requested them.

The former bounty hunter pocketed his hands into his bomber jacket, his voice outwardly calm and collected, but there was an underlying sinister tone that made the client's hairs stand up on end. "You're not sittin' here, tellin' me you're not goin' to pay the full amount you agreed to, after wastin' my fuckin' time comin' out here."

The client smoothed back his slick black hair, licking his lips in apprehension. "Look, you're just too fucking expensive, alright? I got other deals I'm trying to-"

Cross took a few steps forward, ignoring the gun brandished at him from the hired thug on the right. He placed his large hands flat on the desk, and leaned forward enough for the man to feel suffocated by his sheer, enormous presence. "I don't give a fuck about your other deals. You made a deal with me. If you're not lookin' to pay me or my crew, I'll ensure that your other problems are nobodies' problems…am I fuckin' clear?"

An audible gulp.


"Do you think he'll rehire us, boss?" Dino-mite pulled his cap down his head as the rain began to drizzle outside.

"If he wants the job done right, he will." Cross rummaged through his inner pocket, frowning in displeasure. A green carton was held out to him, and the ghoul took it with a nod of appreciation. A stick of gum was dispensed from it, and the leader of the Black Cazador's mercenary group popped it into his mouth. A bubble was blown, and then burst. "Did ya get that thing Lydia asked for?"

Charon looked back down from the clouds; it was going to be quite the storm they would catch themselves in if they continued on their journey. "I have not. I recommend we stay local for the night; I can find it before we return tomorrow."

Cross peered up at the angry heavens overhead. "Yeah…guess you're right.

They entered the local bar. Charon ordered a bottle of scotch, and brought it back to their table with a few tumblers hooked between two fingers and a thumb. Dino-mite raised his glass in a mock toast to the two ghouls', and then stared openly as Cross took a drink from his own.

"I didn't know you drink, boss," the Hispanic man commented casually. In all the years he had been with the gang, he had learned the grey ghoul was as dry as a desert plain. Didn't smoke, didn't drink...didn't even fool around with women.

"I don't," Cross mumbled. And he didn't offer anything more on the subject.

Charon refilled his own glass, nearly to the brim- something Dino-mite was used to seeing. Bastard was so damn big though, it took nearly an entire bottle before he started numbing away whatever it was that ate at him.

The silence at the table was stifling, and Dino-mite stood from his seat, giving the ghouls' a nod of his hat. "Well, if you need me, you know where to find me."

The two companions were left to themselves, and Cross stared at his hands on the table. "You think it ever gets better?"

Charon peered down into his half-empty cup for a moment, before draining it back in one kick. He didn't answer the question, but then again, there was not much need to. This time of year was always hard.

"I think she would be disappointed," Charon confessed quietly. Disappointed in us. But he didn't have to say that aloud, either.

"Hmm." Cross reached for the bottle, and decidedly poured himself a second round.

The ferryman eyed him warily. The last time the merc had gotten drunk was a week after Evelyn's death…he had pulled a gun out, and put the barrel in his mouth. If Charon had not been beside him at that moment, he was sure his life would have taken a much different path than the one he was walking now. It was the first, and only time the ghoul had attempted in taking his own life…and now he never went past the single drink he always had on this day.

Until that moment.

The glass met his nonexistent lips, and he emptied it, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand. "She'd probably just bitch, and smack me upside the head." The merc gave a pointed look as Charon kept a steady pace with his alcohol. "She would fuckin' hang you up to dry."

A chortle, and a shrug of broad shoulders. "She would."

The ferryman then looked up, and swept his gaze around the room. He never saw her apparition as he once had with Adam's…but he wondered if the drinking was the cause of that. In a way, he was glad he did not.

He did not wish for her to see him in this way.


"I swear to God, this fucking thing-" Bap bap bap. "-I knew it wasn't worth the caps-oh shit, there we go."

The scavenger held up the restored beam of light at his partner's face, who gave a delayed reaction in shielding her eyes from the burst of light burning her retinas. "Fuck, Jay, watch where you're aiming that thing!"

"Oh, sorry." The man gave a sheepish shrug, making a sweep of his torch down the narrow hallway they had successfully tunneled into. "How's the rads?"

The woman glanced down at her Geiger counter with her own flashlight. "Nada. Place is clean."

"Sweet…let's see what this baby has then, huh?" The man threw her a yellowed grin, and she only rolled her eyes in response.

"I fucking hate vaults."

The man gave an ugly snort in the back of his throat as he cautiously began his descent in. "You won't after we pull some good loot."

"You've been saying that ever since we got to this shithole," the woman grumbled, ducking low to crawl through a thin space of where a doorway once was. "This city is a fucking ghost town, there's probably nothing here worth scrounging."

"It didn't use to be," her partner retorted. "Used to be a city for ghouls, years back. Guess there was a fire, or something, I dunno."

"So- pwef!" A speck of dirt had landed on her tongue, and she spat. "Why the fuck are we here then?!"

"I told you- that fucking ghoul that runs that shop was telling me there was something buried beneath the city, and fucking look-" They came to a small intersection, the light sweeping the dirt at their feet. "-no one's been here for who knows how fucking long. There has to be something down here." He rolled his shoulder to the left. "I'll take this side, you take the right. Holler if you find something…and don't go too far."

"Yeah, whatever," she muttered under her breath, but she took the designated section. Fingertips scraped along the walls as she carefully navigated around the caved-in portions, her flashlight illuminating a room. There was sizeable debris everywhere…and something glowing from farther inside. She stuck her head back out. "Hey! Get over here!"

Rustled footsteps and the bob of a flashlight hurried over to where she was standing. "What, what'd ya find?!" His own beam of light brightened the room she discovered, landing on the multiple arrays of pods lined around the room. "What the fuck are those things?"

"One of them is glowing." The woman pointed, her eyes widening as her partner stepped inside. "Wait, what are you doing?!"

"Going to see what's inside, duh." He cheekily grinned. He suddenly stopped, and turned to her with his flashlight held under his chin, bathing his face in an eerie glow. "You're not…scared, are you?"

She glared, and then shoved him forward. "Hurry up about it then, jackass."

Jay kept his light trained on the yellow glowing pod, maneuvering around a few rocks as he came to its other side. "Oh, jeez, thing gave me a fucking heart attack!"

The woman hesitantly lifted her torch, shining the light over some skeletal remains sitting against the side, a boulder having crushed one leg completely. "Man, shitty way to go."

"Looks like some pieces are missing, maybe giant ants, or molerats, probably."

She swept her light like a safety blanket around the rest of the room in search of the mentioned creatures, anxiety gripping her chest at the thought of being trapped below ground to be picked clean by wild creatures.

Jay sidestepped the corpse and placed his flashlight against the viewing glass of the pod, swiping the layer of dirt to his feet. "…I think there's someone in here." He turned to the panel beside it, and took a guess as he pressed a button. "Shall we say hello?"

Ten Years Ago

The merc's begging eyes were the last thing she saw, and she blew a sigh of relief when they disappeared from view. Charon would follow through- he always followed through. They would be safe…they would live-

And they would learn to live on without her.

A strangled cry erupted from her throat, and Penny's bloodied hand slapped down on her shoulder. "Hey, you need to go."

The room was growing hazy, and an electrical wire sparked somewhere down the hall.

Evelyn would have laughed at the absurd notion if she wasn't so shattered. "Go? Go where?"

The rosy ghoul took her hand, pulling her along with the little strength she could muster. "There's got to be a way."

Evelyn glanced behind them as the light from beyond the window suddenly darkened; the ceiling had caved in on the other side. Please, God, let them make it out.

She followed along blindly behind the ghoul, being tugged in every which direction as she coughed loudly, waving a hand trying to dispel the smoke.

Penny's short strides were choppy as she limped along down the creaking corridor; the warm hand of Evelyn's in hers forcing her to place another agonizing step after the other. Roman could have easily made that shot at her forehead…but he didn't. Something kept him from killing her right away, and she had a gut feeling he was counting on her to do something.

Take her to the pod. Was all he told her before he fired his gun, and she had been so distracted by his hushed words that she had lowered her guard. Pod?! What pod?!

A room was passed, and she craned her head to the side, finding a lining of human-sized machines filled with some form of liquid. One of them was open, and glowing in a strange bath of internal light.

"You're going to have to get into this thing. We're not going to make it to the exit," Penny wheezed through her labored breathing. "Hurry, go, go!"

"Wait, what about you?!" Evelyn's hand halted the pod from closing after stepping inside, but Penny shook her head with a patient smile.

"I'll be getting in the one right next to you- it's alright." Another rumble shook the ceiling in a gut-twisting fashion. "Hurry! Or I won't have enough time." It was enough for her to release her grip, and she gave Penny an anxious glance as the pod began to submerge her in a strange liquid. "…I'm right behind you."

Another seep of blood trickled to the floor, and she hissed. With a slow turn to the control panel, she pushed the button she assumed was the right one (it was the only green one), and there was a hiss as the pod began its operation. The viewing window fogged over, and the rosy ghoul lifted her palm, leaving behind an ominously bloody handprint.

"Goodnight, smoothskin."

She sat down, and leaned with her back against the side of the machine, eyes closed and thoughts adrift to another time. The ceiling had begun to cave in.

"Sweet dreams."


A/N: So, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, sorry if there are some typos and errors, I just hastily uploaded this from AO3 to archive on a different site. Anyways, if you're interested in the sequel, Submerged, I will definitely be posting the chapters to that as well to my profile. It's currently incomplete with sporadic updating, but it is in the works! I hope you liked it enough to continue! :)