Chapter IV

Who Wants to Live Forever

They had returned to where this had all begun, or rather where it had all begun for Scarlet. Since she didn't really trust Mr. House she had been forced to find a decent place to stash the loot she had accumulated throughout her adventures across the Mojave. She supposed that she could sell most of it, but deep inside she was a packrat and tended to hang onto a numerous amount of objects "just in case." Nipton had provided the ideal hiding spot due to the stigma that surrounded the place since Vulpes had destroyed it. No one came near it anymore, least of all the NCR, who she believed didn't want to ruin morale any more than it already was by throwing a bunch of their soldiers into a lost town just to see what happened.

Excusing herself she ducked inside the main house she used for storage. It was across from a fallen tree and on the right side of the street looking towards the town hall. She hurriedly collected every plasma and pulse grenade she'd ever found and dumped them into her bag, happy that they would finally be used. As a rule she tried to ignore any kind of robots, but she knew that would be easier said then done considering what they were about to do and she didn't want a repeat of the bunker incident and planned to go armed to the teeth with the appropriate measures. By the time she emerged Vulpes had already transformed into just another wastelander, changing out of his Legion uniform into some kind of retrofitted leather armor.

As she swung her bag over her shoulder he regarded her with something close to curiosity; it was the most friendly she thought she'd ever seen him – if you could even call that friendly. "I am surprised you would use a place like this as storage. It does not frighten you?" She believed he was baiting her, seeing what she'd say, but it would take more than that to get under her skin.

"Why would I be afraid of this place?" She asked him, making sure her face was blank of any kind of emotion. She wanted to give the impression that it was the stupidest question ever and a silly thought.

"Not many would be able to return to the site of such a massacre."

"Well, I've never been one of the many and the last time I checked this was just a ghost town. Wasn't it even you that told me I had nothing to worry about, that I would not end up like these men?" She waved one hand towards the now decayed and shriveled bodies of the crucified. "Unless you're the kind of man that doesn't keep his word I would say that fear would be ignorant on my part. And regardless of your promises or not I've never been one to be afraid either, for fear is the mindkiller, and does nothing by cloud judgment and lead to ruin."

Vulpes made a thoughtful noise before turning away from her and striding towards the back exit that opened to the road leading to Novac. "Yes, you did seem quite comfortable as you picked your way through the town. Being alone in that kind of environment makes most skittish, but you seemed untouched with your surroundings."

"Wait what?"

With his back to her she could not see the small curve of his lips as he hit his mark. Ah, there it is, the unease. She had no idea she was being watched that day. "After we left I sent my men on their way but I stayed, up there," he pointed absently, still remembering the place he'd crouched with a pair of binoculars as he had followed her movements. "I admit, after our conversation I was a little curious as to what you were going to do."

"You wanted to see if I'd put them out of their misery in other words." Scarlet said dully. Part of her stomach was twisting into a sick, sour feeling. How could she have not known she was being watched? If he had been some kind of raider sniper or the like he could have picked her off and she would have been just another dead body in this town. Now she felt like an idiot as she trailed behind him, because she'd been so intent on putting up a professional, almost veteran front, and he'd had her in his sights since day one. Crafty bastard. Now she saw why he'd been named after the fox.

"Why didn't you?" Vulpes slowed his pace to allow her to catch up to him, matching hers as they came side to side.

"Th-that's personal." She stammered. She didn't have time, nor did she feel like getting into some kind of psychological expedition for the sake of his curiosity. It was none of his business why she did or did not do things. "But if you really want some kind of answer they were all just powder gangers, just a bunch of thieves and scum."

"If they had been anyone else?" He inquired, his smooth voice almost an inquisitive purr.

"Who else would have been up there?" Scarlet was confused now. She really wanted him to stop playing with her head, because if he didn't it was going to be a long trip to New Vegas. "Are you asking me if I would have pulled a townsperson off or something? From what I've heard – and read – Nipton was a town made up of the lower than low. And yeah," she turned her head to look at him, "I read the mayor's journal entry about the deal he'd made with you and how he'd planned to get even more caps out of the Legion at a later date. He'd fucked over a lot of people in the name of greed and from the sound of his fellow citizens none of them seemed much better. I still stand by what I said that day. They fucking deserved this."

Vulpes said nothing more on the issue and Scarlet was thankful for the quiet. She didn't want to talk about it anymore. She didn't want to play his mind games. She just wanted to get back to Vegas and take care of House and maybe by the time all of that was over she'd know what she would want to do.

-X-

The Strip looked exactly the same way it did when she had left for Cottonwood Cove. As she passed through the gates she was overcome by the feeling that it had been another lifetime ago instead of just a few days. A part of her remained ever wary of their surroundings despite Vulpes' disguise. The presence of the NCR soldiers wandering about the place brought a jagged guilt crashing to the surface of her psyche. Or maybe it wasn't guilt so much of a strengthened awareness. By herself, without ulterior motive, she had no reason to worry about the NCR, but walking next to a Legion soldier, on their way to destroy a man that was over two hundred years old and was a pivotal part in the goings-on of the Strip she had a gut-wrenching fear that they'd suddenly all turn on her, point at the betrayer and attack.

Of course, none of that happened, and the two walked casually up the steps of the Lucky 38 and towards the entrance. "Something's wrong." She noted as they arrived at the top. "Victor, one of House's robots, is usually stationed in front of the building to greet me. He's gone."

"House isn't foolish." Vulpes said. "He has realized by now that you are most likely his enemy."

"It was foolish for him to have counted me as an ally." She said, more to herself than to him.

"Once we enter this building we do not leave until House is dead."

Scarlet nodded. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

-X-

Ting! BOOM!

The plasma grenade decimated the closest securitron with a force that Scarlet was shocked didn't completely atomize the robot. She didn't use plasma weapons very often, not only because she wasn't a big fan of the higher tech stuff, but also because they were so hard to come by. It was a shame really because there was a type of joy in watching the annihilation such things caused. Frags had nothing on these little balls of destruction. "Ha! You big bucket of bolts!" She shouted at the collapsed heap of junk and had to duck her head back behind the half-wall again to avoid the shot from the other securitron. It had been partially damaged by the blast and was missing part of its side. Unfortunately for her it was only a cosmetic wound because it seemed to be working properly enough to attack them.

Her eyes flickered over to the other wall where Vulpes had been crouched and found him gone. Confusion lit her mind until she saw a flash on the other side of the room moving through the dim casino floor. He had circled behind the robot and was now coming up for an attack, the ripper that he used as a weapon in his hand. Scarlet leapt to her feet and launched herself over the wall, providing a distraction so that the securitron would concentrate its attention on her. "Your mama was a toaster!" She insulted, knowing these robots didn't have personalities, much less feelings, but it sure made her feel better to say things like that.

The securitron fired a few laser blasts at her, but that was all it had time for. Vulpes jammed the ripper through the hole she'd made in its side and tore through the gears. Its lights flickered and dimmed and then went completely off. He shoved it over onto the ground with a look of disgust and strode over to meet her at the elevator. She touched the control panel and for once it allowed her to choose her floor without the aid of Victor and she pushed the Penthouse option.

"Your mother was a toaster?" Vulpes inquired as the doors closed and the elevator jerked into its upwards journey.

"How do we know it wasn't?" She replied. There was always something about death and carnage, especially the possibility of impending doom on her own life that brought out the worst – or perhaps the best – in her sense of humor.

Vulpes didn't have time to answer as the doors slid open once more and the pair were greeted by not one, not two, but a small horde or angry securitrons. Oh we are so fucked. Scarlet ducked under a laser blast but another caught her in the arm. She cursed and lobbed a grenade at the group and was sorely disappointed when "Jane's" protective shield soaked up most of the damage. "Goddamnit." She leapt from the elevator and rushed towards the hanging curtain that separated the entryway to the room that held Mr. House's terminal. "This way!"

This room was less frightening. There was only one securitron in there at the moment and it turned towards them, giving a robotic warning that Scarlet ignored. She spotted the smaller terminal under the stairs catty-cornered of their position and pointed. Vulpes charged down the stairs and thrust the ripper into the overgrown tin can, shouting at her to throw him a grenade. She fumbled with one and tossed it down to him. As soon as it met his hands he shoved it into the hole he'd created and got out of the way. It exploded into bits.

Nice.

"We don't have all day." He snapped up at her, pulling her from her impressed reverie. Behind her she heard the other securitrons rolling their way and she headed down the stairs to meet him. They took position under the stairs next to the terminal. Scarlet accessed the options and read through them. One of them seemed to open a hidden doorway to the right of the terminal but Vulpes stopped her before she chose it. "We don't know what's behind that wall." He told her. And he was right. She could have opened a doorway to their deaths all she knew, unleashing another small army of securitrons upon them. They still had a chance to take the ones that were after them now but if they added anymore to the mix they would be in trouble.

"Okay. We take out the rest of them first then." She nodded, reaching into her bag and shoving a plasma pistol into his hands. At first she thought he'd argue because most of the Legions seemed to have a problem with technology like that, but he showed no sign of liking or disliking it and had enough time to check the ammo before the securitrons came rolling in towards them.

The spot under the stairs was a good defensive area, and protected them from many of the laser blasts, but that wouldn't last long once the robots got closer to them. Realizing this Vulpes made a decision. "I'll distract them before they can get any further. When they've turned to follow me you attack and start taking them down."

She nodded. Part of her wanted to tell him to be careful, but it would have been an insult to him probably. He jumped out from behind their cover and ran forward, dodging attacks and skirting around the robots, forcing them to have to turn to continue their attempted assault on him. Scarlet pulled a pin out of another grenade and rolled it across the floor, catching the last two in the blast radius. There was no time to celebrate however, because there were still more of them to take care of, so she followed his path.

Halfway across the floor she heard the rattle of a wheel and looked up to the balcony just in time to see another securitron take aim at her. The laser blast hit her in the shoulder, and between the sudden pain and her forward momentum she was thrown against the large computer station. She ducked and avoided another that hit the terminal behind her, causing the panel to erupt in flames. Without waiting for it to take another shot she rolled over against the wall beneath it, knowing that it would have to come around and probably down the stairs to get a good angle at her. Digging through her bag she found a handful of mines she'd been saving and tossed them strategically along the stairs. If it came down at her it would have to roll over them and—

Her lips quirked into a wicked grin. Take that.

Her victorious joy was short lived as she saw Vulpes appear through the curtain up top again and to avoid running into the securitron she was trying to trap he turned onto the stairs. "MINES!" She screeched, barely having enough time to warn him, but he leaped over them and landed on the floor below.

The two of them scrambled back under their haven beneath the stairs and only looked out when they heard the mines exploding, one after the other. When she dared peek she noticed that they'd seemed to pile in like idiots and all get caught in the domino-effected blasts. Only one seemed undamaged (Jane), but she was stuck on her fallen fellow robots and Vulpes wasted no time firing a few shots into her.

"I believe that takes care of this area." He announced.

Scarlet was relieved. "Good, lets get going then."

Finally she opened the doorway into a back passage. There were only two securitrons here, but between Scarlet's grenades and Vulpes' surprisingly good marksmanship they made short work of them and continued on to Mr. House's chamber.

-X-

Mr. House had to have been a ghoul, or some other kind of creature, or at least that's what she had always thought. Looking upon the glass-domed structure that contained Mr. House's shriveled body told her she was not only wrong, but understood very little about how long the human body could endure in the right settings. "My god." She whispered. "This is…"

Madness?

She wasn't quite sure what it was she was looking at, or how to even feel about it. She was aware than many people feared death and would go to great lengths to make themselves immortal. Over her lifetime she'd seen so many different and unique attempts at prolonging life, but never had she seen something so elaborate. "I don't know how anyone can live this way. Trapped in a metal can."

"It is unnatural." Vulpes agreed. He would have rather died than live in such a pathetic state. Why House believed he had some kind of miracle of science was beyond him. It wasn't just because he was Legion and they viewed such things in a negative light, it was also because men weren't meant to be frozen in time.

What was it that Scarlet had said earlier? Fear was the mindkiller. That was perhaps true here, for House missed one important part of his attempt to continue living. Surviving in a glass tube was not living, it was merely just hanging on.

"You don't understand what you are doing!" Mr. House was angry. "How dare you do this to me."

"Really?" Scarlet was sneering now, one hand on a hip. "I could say the same thing to you, you bastard." She pushed up the bandanna she wore around her head and for the first time ever Vulpes saw the scar that adorned her head. "How dare you do this to me."

"I did not shoot you. Benny did." House barked, his pompous tone indicating he thought she was a fool for even making that connection.

"Yeah, but it was your fault. If you had just died when you were supposed to none of this would be happening. You made a big mistake trying to manipulate me." She lifted her gun – Benny's old gun – and aimed at Mr. House's head. "I'm through with you. I almost considered putting you back in your tube and forcing you to just sit there, powerless, as the world moved on without you. Figured it would be your own personal kind of hell seeing how much you like being in control of things. But you've lived long enough."

She didn't give Mr. House a chance to say one more word and put a bullet through his skull the same way Benny had done her. The only difference was that House would never wake again. In her opinion that was a giant step for the world. "Its time for us to put aside the old world." She told House's dead body. "Holding onto the past – it just leaves you dead inside."

This was a fabulously fun chapter to write. I never really thought I was that good at action, although I think I'm getting better, but its always a blast to try and write it. R&R, kiddies.