"I don't believe I ever thanked you."

Josephine turned a little in her seat to hear the younger woman better when she began talking. Everyone else in the truck was asleep except the two of them, Mara having been unconscious for hours, and Josephine was far too busy driving.

Mara had awoken here from being shot in the chest and dying in a brick building, to being back in the War Rig from earlier, except with two strange women sleeping next to her. Leliana had still been awake and had explained everything to her, and she felt extremely grateful to everyone.

"You don't have to." She said simply. Her eyes were still firmly locked on the road, but she could see the raven-haired woman behind her out of the edge of her vision. These people needed help and, to her, that was all she needed to save them.

Mara smiled. "I think I do." According to Leliana, the two strange women beside her, Hawke and Merrill, had saved them from the men in that office, and Josephine and Cantis had saved them from the streets afterwards when they were fending off the battlegroup. "I owe you my life twice over, now." A moment's pause as she thought. "I never thanked you for the first time, either."

"I think the first time, you were still scared of him." She motioned to the slumped over sleeping Cantis, a smile playing across her features. ""I don't believe I ever apologized for his behaviour, so I believe that makes us even."

She chuckled. "Well, he did pull a gun on my wife."

"Sorry." Josephine turned away from the woman, paying attention to the moonlit road in front of her. "He means well, he really does. It's just that he's... a troubled man, and we've... had a hard life."

Mara nodded emphatically. "I've noticed that any time anyone asks anything about what he's doing, he dodges the question."

"Mm-hmm." She nodded solemnly. "That he does. I'm sorry, it's nothing personal against you, but he just doesn't allow himself to think about the past." She turned a little, meeting Mara's eyes. "As long as he's asleep, go ahead and ask anything you want to know. I don't mind like he does."

She leaned up and forward onto the console, lowering her voice so that the sleeping man in the passenger seat didn't awaken. "Well," Her voice wasn't a whisper, the engine was much to loud for that, but it was just a breath above the noise. "I don't know. What's your story?"

Josephine thought for a moment, thinking and chewing on her lower lip. "Well," Her voice was slow, careful and measured. "To understand that, you have to understand the world before it ended, back to when the world was powered by black fuel, and the deserts held cities that were the jewels of civilization, more people packed into a street than you've ever met in your life." She turned to Mara. "Do you know anything at all about the old world?"

Mara shook her head. "I'm only sixteen." She said simply, as if that was all that had to be said. The world had gone to hell twenty years prior. "And Leliana's only twenty-three, so she doesn't remember anything from before."

She nodded again. "That's what I thought." She turned to Mara, knowing the road ahead to be perfectly clear. "The world didn't just end overnight." Her face was grim and thoughtful. "It was hell before then."

Mara nodded emphatically. She had figured as much before, considering that, if the world has been a paradise before it died, no one would have destroyed it. "What happened?"

She sighed heavily. "Everything." Josephine glanced at the road, turning her head back to Mara moments later. "The world ran out of Petrol. Oil."

Mara raised an eyebrow, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't understand. What's that?"

Josephine thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to explain the old world to someone who hadn't an idea of what it was. How did she explain that the whole world was powered by an invisible force that you couldn't see or touch, but every facet of their lives revolved around it? Or that she once had a tiny box in her back pocket, that could be used to access any information known to all of mankind, and used it to look at pictures of cats?

Finally, she spoke. "It's not easy to explain." She said slowly, thinking every word over in her head. "But oil was this black liquid that powered... everything." She shook her head at the ridiculousness of it in retrospect, a black sludge that powered the world. No stranger than electricity or the internet, she supposed. "It made our fertilizer for food, it powered the machines that we used to clean water, it gave us heat in the winter and cold in the summer."

Mara's eyes shot open. "It did all of that?!" She couldn't believe it. Surely that couldn't be of this world, a black tar that managed to build the world like that. Food and water out in the wastes were scarce and rare, and the weather was a constant concern. There couldn't be anything like that in this world... could there? "And you ran out of it?"

Josephine nodded. "Now that the world doesn't have any of it, I appreciate just how much it did for us. It provided everything for us, but we used it too much." Her eyes glazed over a little, her memories taking her to a time and place far away. "When we began to run out, people started to fight over what was left of the oil. Eventually... you know how big the Tevinter tribe is?" Mara nodded, they ruled over much of the American Southwest and the northwestern parts of something called a Mexico. "Imagine some group of people ten times as big. That was what we called countries, and eventually, the two biggest ones went to war over the oil."

"And we lost." Mara nodded, the rest slipping into place. That was the way these things always went, wasn't it? Two groups of people fought each other, with one coming out triumphant and on top of the world, while the other lay dying in the dirt. And the where she was must have lost.

But Josephine shook her head. "I don't know exactly what happened. I was only a little girl while this was going on, you understand, and little girls should be more interested in dolls and books than war and peak oil." Mara nodded, understanding. "But we all suffered for it, even if whatever details are beyond me."

"I can tell you."

They both jumped when they heard the soft voice say, and they turned to see Hawke sitting beside them, her eyes shut, but she was apparently awake. "I-I thought you were asleep." Mara stammered, caught by surprise.

Hawke smiled a little. "I've never slept well in cars, I'm afraid." Her eyes remained close, but her breath now said that she was awake, something Mara should have noticed earlier. "How old are you, Josephine?"

Josephine swallowed hard, her heart settling from the surprise. After so many years on the road, she had learned to be ready at any moment something wasn't right. "Twenty-Nine."

"Twenty-nine." Hawke repeated slowly, her smile fading. "Nine years old, when the world ended. So young."

"How old are you?"

Hawke drew a deep breath. "Fifty."

"Fifty?!" Mara exclaimed, taken aback. The woman looked closer to twenty-five, maybe thirty, and an awkward silence filled the air for a moment. "Well... you-you look great."

Hawke chuckled. "You don't have to patronize me. I know the world's left me looking like battered shite." She sat up a little and opened her eyes, pushing Merrill's sleeping form off of her shoulder. "The old world's more familiar to me than the new." She looked down a little. "Although at this rate, that might eventually not be true." She thought off whatever dark thoughts had clouded, and looked back up at them. "The way I see it, no one 'won' that war, but, technically, we won."

"What happened?"

Hawke thought a moment before speaking. "The other country, the one we're not in right now, started hoarding what was left of the oil. We, the one we're in now, didn't like that idea, so we invaded." She shook her head. "So many people died in that war, and it didn't matter in the end."

Mara raised an eyebrow at her. 'So, if we won, why are we in this apocalypse? Why'd the world go to hell?"

"We started to lose." Hawke's eyes glazed over in much the same way Josephine's had, and Mara wondered if that was just a trademark of remembering the old world. "And when they started to drive us back to the States, we used our nuclear bombs."

"Nuclear bombs?" Mara asked, confused. "What are those?"

"Hmm..." Hawke pondered, finding the same problem Josephine had earlier. It was hard to explain these things without the other person having prior knowledge. "Imagine the worst thing possible. They were a thousand times worse. It was a gigantic explosive, like a grenade, only huge. And when it went off, it consumed entire cities." She shook her head. "They could kill millions of people in moments, and the country you're standing in right now dropped more than a dozen of them."

"An explosive can do that?" She asked, stunned by all of these fantastic tales of the old world. These couldn't all be true, could they? Hawke nodded. "And we just killed all those people?" Hawke nodded again.

"Yeah. We did." She shook her head. "It gets worse. You see, the other people, who had hoarded the oil, had almost two-thirds of what was left in the whole of the world." She shook her head. "Those bombs blew up their stores, and we lost everything everyone had died for. Millions of people died in that war, and we destroyed the reason we started fighting in the first place."

And then it clicked again. "And then we didn't have any more, did we?"

Hawke nodded. "Exactly. The world ran out of oil within the year, and... well, society collapsed." She shook her head. "We had built a house of straw. The cars and planes sputtered and stopped. The world's leaders talked and talked and talked, but nothing could stem the avalanche. Without our Black Gold, the world crumbled."

"We relied on it for everything." Josephine explained, having long since turned back to the road. "And it killed us."

"...Wow." Mara replied in a stunned silence, unsure of what to say in response.

"Hey," Hawke said after a moment. "Didn't cars use oil too?" Josephine nodded her head. "How is this one running? How have I seen so many cars even all these years later?"

Josephine shrugged. "Most cars these days just go without it. Does terrible, terrible things to the engine. But this," She tapped the fuel gauge. "The War Rig runs on an engine that people made after the world died, specifically not to use oil."

"Oh?" Hawke smiled, looking intrigued. "What's it used instead?"

She shook her head. "You do not want to know."

"Oh, come on." Hawke teased, leaning in. "I'm curious."

"Fine." Josephine shook her head. "It uses dead animal fat."

"Ew!" Mara cried out, before clapping a hand over her mouth in realization that there were sleeping people in the car next to her.

"I warned you."

Several minutes passed in silence, before Mara spoke up. "So, what did all of that have to do with you and Cantis?"

"Ah," Josephine blushed a little, grateful she had turned back so that no one could see her. "Right. Well, you see... he was one of the soldiers that we sent to war. He saw... terrible things while he was there. His friends and family were killed, and he himself was horribly, horribly injured, to the point where they sent him home because he couldn't fight anymore. When we destroyed the oil that he had suffered so much to save, that twisted the knife even deeper."

"I'll bet." Mara murmured, reflecting on that. To see so much death and suffering, only to have it rendered pointless...

The driver nodded. "When civilization fell, only those willing to scavenge, those brutal enough to pillage, survived." She turned a little to the sleeping man, imagining the pain he must have suffered. "He was one of them."

"Oh."

Josephine shook her head. "I'm afraid it gets worse. You see, one day he lost a gunfight, but one of the Tevinter tribesmen saved him from death's door, having seen how well he fought and how easily he scavenged what he needed." She shook her head again. "When you were fighting them, did you notice that they weren't... terribly smart?"

Mara nodded. They were clearly untrained, but there was a certain... single-mindedness from what she had seen. Except for that woman who had talked to them, they had barely made anything beyond grunts, and were extremely inaccurate from what she had seen. Also, they might have thought to go and get their trucks to flush them out of the fountain, instead of just sitting their like idiots.

"From what I understood, Tevinter was founded when someone, maybe Alexius, took over a massive settlement in Arizona to see if he could find people who would help him scavenge, and almost everyone volunteered." She turned back to Mara. "Except he needed them to be utterly loyal to him, whether to know they wouldn't turn on him, or out of some sick sense of control, I don't know. So, he decided to break them."

Mara quirked an eyebrow. "And how, pray tell, did he do to accomplish that?"

Josephine shook her head. "I don't know exactly, but I doubt it was hard. They were people completely without culture, no books, music, internet..." She remembered who she as talking to, and shook her head apologetically. "All they had was the detritus of the past, and I'm sure it wasn't hard."

"That's horrible." Hawke called out, and the other two women nodded in agreement.

"It was." Josephine concurred. "And he wasn't the one who did it." She reached her hand over the console, and touched Cantis' hand as gently as she knew how. "It was him."

"Him?" Mara asked in disbelief, and Josephine nodded. "He... broke these people, brainwashed them to the Tevinter cause?"

"Please," Josephine pleaded, turning to her. "Don't judge him too harshly."

"These are the sorts of things I joined on with the Wardens to stop!" Her voice wasn't a shout, or a yell, but more an angry whisper over the engine.

Hawke put a hand on her shoulder. "This is a past-tense story." She said quietly and calmly. "Wait for the end."

"Thank you." Josephine said, her tone serious and grim. "He built the War Rigs, educated the settlers and the children, took care of people..." She turned to Mara. "He did some bad things, none of us will deny that. But he did good too, and he was happy."

"So what happened?" Mara asked, calming down a little, reserving judgement for when she was done hearing the story.

Josephine gave a heavy sigh. "I did."

Hawke laughed. "Girl problems, I see?" Josephine smiled at that, in spite of how serious the topic was. "Most common problem in the world, even after the world ends."

"Oh, do be quiet." Josephine scolded even with a smile across her face. "The truth is a little more more complicated than that." She bit her lip, thinking. "I worked as a cook for the Tevinter people for a long time. One day, I guess he must have done something that pleased Alexius who also must have thought me a... prize, because he ordered me to... take an hour of my time for him."

"That's horrible!" Mara enthused, sitting up, completely enraptured with the story. Whatever he may have done, this was fascinating to hear, especially if it taught her anything about their enemy. "What did you do?"

She shrugged, her eyes firmly on the road, and Mara thought that might be for her benefit as much as theirs considering what painful memories this must be dragging up. "What could I do? The idea was... revolting, something I never would have considered, but I didn't have a choice. Without them, I'd have nowhere to go, nowhere to get food and water. I... had to do it."

"I'm sorry." Hawke murmured sympathetically. "How did you go from... that, to being together?"

A smile playing against Josephine's lips. "If it had been anyone else, it would not have, I can assure you. But he... wasn't interested. Apparently it was all Alexius' idea, and had simply assumed that he wanted this. You see, he's... a terrible romantic, but not interested in... you know." She turned back and smiled. "Alexius would kill me if he walked out, so we just sat and talked for an hour." She reached over, and touched his hand, very gently so as not to wake him up, looking at his scarred and burned face with admiration. "And I found just what a charming, kind man he was."

Mara and Hawke both smiled too at she sheer love in her face. "If you ever have kids," Mara teased. "That's going to be one hell of a 'how I met your mother' story."

The smiled melted from Josephine's face, and she looked back to the road, taking her hand back, and Mara's veins filled with ice at that. What had she said wrong?

"Yes, well." She said after a moment, her voice totally normal, but Mara knew she had said something wrong. "In any case, Alexius must have figured he enjoyed our time together, because he ordered me to set aside more of my time for Cantis, and then more the next week, and more, until eventually I just began seeing him of my own accord, realizing he was my only friend." She looked down and blushed. "Eventually, he told me 'I love you'."

"Aww." Hawke smiled, leaned forward and clapped her on the shoulder. "And what'd you say?"

She smiled so far they all thought her face might crack open at any moment. "I love you too." Hawke laughed, and Mara smiled even wider, a hand slipped and touching her wife's leg. "Unfortunately," Her smiled faded a bit, although it still remained dancing across her face. "That's where it all went wrong."

"Oh yeah?" Hawke's voice was less jovial to coincide with the lower mood. "And what happened?"

Josephine shook her head. "Alexius found out about us, somehow, and forbid him from ever seeing my again, and he... send someone to kill me."

Mara shook her head. Of course he had. "That's awful."

"Whoever it was he sent, came up dressed in armour, a knife in his hand. Before I could so much as scream, Cantis came from behind him, tackling him to the ground and killing him on his own blade. He told me that he couldn't just let me die, and asked for me to run away with him. Knowing I didn't have another option, that we would both die for this, I agreed."

"And you've been running ever since."

She nodded. "We stole one of the War Rigs, and we ran for it. God, we must have killed a hundred people trying to get out of there." There was remorse in her tone. None of them liked killing, but she seemed to have a special disdain for it.

"War Rigs?" Mara asked, putting an emphasis on the plural. "There's more than one?"

Josephine nodded again. "They were his pet project." He gestured to Cantis. "There's three of them in total, counting this one. We stole the best one."

"Shite." Mara swore. Their plan was to attack Tevinter, and she did not need to face down one of these in battle, even if they had one of their own.

"We'll be fine." Hawke assured her, laying a hand on her shoulder, knowing how much the thought must discomfort the young woman. "He built them, didn't he? We'll tear 'em apart if we have to." Mara rubbed her forehead, and nodded. There wasn't any point to worrying about it right now, and Cantis wasn't awake to tell her how, or if, they could take another one down. "So what happened next?" Hawke asked, trying to break the silence and keep everyone comfortable.

Josephine looked down a little. "There's more to the story." She led on. "But, you can't mention it to anyone else. At all." They both nodded, and leaned in so she wouldn't heave to speak as loud, lest someone hear her. "Listen." Her voice was almost smaller than the engine's roar, and they strained to hear her. "A while back, the two of us tried to settle down in a settlement, west of here."

They both nodded, knowing that this part of the story, judging from her tone and the seriousness with which she warned them, that they shouldn't speak up.

"We had a child. A little boy."

"Wait, really?" Mara ignored her earlier intuition, not having expected that. Josephine nodded. "But I thought he... you know, didn't want to touch you."

Josephine thought for a moment. "Yes," The word was slow, careful. "He hasn't been interested in sex before, it's true, but I... wanted it, and he wasn't adverse to the idea. He just didn't want to actively seek it out. For him it was like going for a walk, or out on a date. It was something to make me happy, not for his sake."

"Oh." Mara nodded, and remembered she should keep quiet.

"Life was perfect." Her voice was just the tiniest bit more ragged now, so small that they wouldn't have heard it if they weren't listening so intently. "But eventually they came for us." She could feel their eyebrows raise in the unspoken question. "We were... away, at the store, when they showed up." She sighed, her eyes fluttering shut. "They burned our house down, with our baby boy still inside."

"Oh my god." Mara whispered urgently, leaning up and throwing her arms around their driver. "Josephine, I'm so sorry."

She shook her head repeatedly. "It's fine. He was... only just a little boy, not even old enough to open his eyes. It... wasn't too awfully hard to move on, at least for me." She shook her head again, very slowly. "But not for him. He loved our little guy so much..." Josephine patted his hand. "And it still hurts him to this day to hear any mention of children." She gave a heavy sigh. "And that's our story, I suppose."

"That's, uh..." Hawke trailed of a little, unsure of the proper words. "Damn."

Josephine smiled at her. "You did ask, after all."

She nodded. "Fair enough."

She looked back at the two of them. "So, I've rambled enough on us. What's your story?"

Mara laughed. "After you, my life will seem quite dull."

"That's a good thing."

"Fair enough." She smiled. "My parents got killed in a riot when I was, what, eight, nine? After that, I basically, I decided there was too much evil in this world. So, I followed the Wardens."

"Who are?" Hawke asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hmm." Mara thoguth for a moment. "You see, the Wardens are a stabilizing force in the Wastes, at least out in the west, near what they call California, for some reason. They kill criminals, and help out their communities."

Josephine nodded. "I'd met a Warden once. Nice man. All he ever wanted was peace and stability."

Mara nodded. "That's all we want. They've sent me down south before, but never this far."

"And how about you and that redhead girl?"

She smiled, and laughed, touching Leliana's leg while she slept. "Oh, my dear, sweet Leliana." She shook her head, a blush dancing across her cheekbones. "We met back in California, where she was singing at some club or other. She has a lovely voice..."

Hawke threw her head back and laughed when she heard the love in her voice. It filled her heart that such sweetness still existed, even in this hell.

"I talked to her about her music, and where she lear-"

"Wait." Hawke cut her off, raising a hand. Mara looked at her for her question, but she was looking away, listening to something intently. "Listen."

Distantly, drums were beating. War drums.

She turned, looking out the car's rear window, and around the fuel tanker. In the distance, dozens of cars were moving in a horde.

"Wake up!" Hawke shouted, pushing Merrill while Josephine and Mara woke the others. "Wake up!"

"Ready up for war!"