A/N: I owe much thanks to Gold Dragon from Canadian Ice & Howndog's forum for providing many screenshots and a detailed rundown of the power station (I don't have the DLC). Keeping to previous lore for this fanonverse, I maintain that the Vault Dweller is dead; but in his absence, the BOS found someone else to fetch things from dangerous places for them (probably one of those foul-mouthed Caucasian manly men from another Fallout 3 fic).

Chapter 30

Xen sat up suddenly at the sound of a gunshot. It was another two seconds before she was actually awake. She opened both sets of lids to find herself on a flat concrete roof under the starry sky. Her clutching fingers found the olive drab blanket under her. It was, she thought, undoubtedly meant as a protection against further allergens, though less dust had gathered up here than down below. There was a low coping around the edge of the rooftop in front of her, and there Charon knelt, aiming the combat shotgun over the edge. As she watched his broad upper body turned slightly, tracking something that must be too far away to hit. Changeling hovered nearer to Xen, sensor light blinking regularly with repeated scans.

Bell squatted near her, watching her closely.

"What's going on?" Xen asked.

"Charon's shooting at deathclaws," said Bell. "I guess he got one."

"I see." Xen staggered upright. Her heart jumped alarmingly at the change in position, and she steadied herself with a hand on the bot's chassis. "I wasn't out long enough for the epi to wear off," she said. She hadn't noticed the background thump and hiss of her own pulse when she woke up. It was just that, background.

"Just a couple of minutes," said Bell. "Does that happen every time?"

"No. Only when there's stress, and more allergens." Xen smiled briefly. "It happened when I hired Charon. He was working at a tavern, and the first thing he did after I bought his contract was to shoot his last employer." Xen stepped off the blanket, picked it up, and gave it a good shake before wadding it back into the cargo net that dangled beneath the packbot

"Really? Why?" Bell asked.

"He said it was because the man was an evil bastard," said Xen.

Bell quirked one black eyebrow. "Sounds like a good reason to me."

"I thought it might," said Xen. She edged over toward the coping, trying to get a view of the street without crossing into Charon's line of fire. Old Olney seemed to be laid out in a fairly orderly grid, judging by the pattern of rooftops and the neat interruption of streets between them.

Charon was muttering to himself again.

"Is there a problem, Charon?" she asked.

"T'range is not optimal for dese lighting conditions," said Charon.

"Charon has not been seen so far," said Changeling. "Please remain back from the edge."

"Oh. Sorry, Charon," said Xen, and stopped moving forward. "Too bad we didn't bring that sniper rifle we found." She looked around thoughtfully. Her eyes fell on the roof of the next building, over on her left on the side away from the parking lot. It had a flat roof accessed by a stairwell, just like this one. The stairwell door was open. Scattered around it were shreds of cloth, bits of what looked like bone, and a truly horrible set of dark stains. There were also two ammunition boxes and a couple of weapons.

"So what are those over there?" she asked.

"Where?" asked Charon. Xen pointed. Charon eeled over to the coping on that side for a better look. Xen could see the weapons quite clearly from where she was, but then, Charon didn't have her night vision. "Dere is one automatic weapon and one hunting rifle wit' a scope," said Charon. "I would guess dere is ammunition for dem also."

"Can we get them?" Xen asked.

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Bell. "I know human blood when I see it."

"I strongly agree," said Changeling.

"I don't understand how deathclaws could've gotten up there," Xen said. "The stairwell door is too small."

"Dere may be a fire escape on the other side of t'building," Charon said.

"Deathclaws are known to have some facility for climbing," said Changeling.

Xen thought about this. "Is there a fire escape on this building?"

"Hang on," said Bell, and ran to the other side of the roof. Xen watched worriedly as she leaned far over the parapet. There was a shriek of tortured metal, followed by a tremendous clatter from below. Bell straightened up and moved back to stand by Xen, dusting her palms. "Not any more," she reported cheerfully. "Sorry about the noise, though."

"But they could still jump across from over there, couldn't they?" Xen asked.

"Easy to fix," Bell assured her. "Just give me a minute."

"But how are you going to get over there?" Xen asked.

"Jump," said Bell. "It's only fifteen feet. I've got good servos, and I'm not any more dense than a human. I'll toss the gun over."

"Unload it first," said Charon.

"Right," said Bell, and went to step up on the parapet on the side closest to the other building. Xen watched as she took the gap between buildings in an easy standing jump. She jogged over to the other side of the roof as if this were no particular accomplishment, although Xen noticed she did go around the bloodstains. The stocky android got to the other parapet, leaned over it, and stopped. There was a deep, rumbling growl from somewhere out of sight. Xen bit her knuckle, resisting a desire to call out. Then Bell leaned forward further. There was another shriek and clatter as she detached the fire escape from the building.

An animal roar raised the hairs all along Xen's spine. Bell stepped back from the edge just as a leathery, clawed hand flew up over it, clutching at the parapet. She turned and ran back toward them. Xen's earlier suspicions were confirmed. She was much faster than Xen.

"The gun," said Charon, raising his voice to carry, and Bell scooped up the gun in one hand and the ammo box under the other arm and charged for the edge just as the deathclaw pulled itself up over the parapet behind her. They gathered themselves to leap at almost the same time, and then Bell landed solidly in front of Xen as Charon's shotgun boomed. Xen almost bit through her tongue as the deathclaw landed awkwardly at the near edge, blood running from small wounds in its face. She could see each odd spine running up its tail and its back, the gleam of its one good eye and the red ruin of the other. It was still not close, but it seemed enormous. It turned an intelligent and furious gaze on them and crouched as if to leap again.

Time slowed as its jaws creaked open, and Xen blinked as it seemed to grow suddenly and rapidly closer. Now she saw the little cracks in the yellow surface of each tooth, and she remembered belatedly that Charon had said something about shooting one in the mouth. That was all right. There was all the time in the world. She didn't feel like she reached for the .22 particularly fast, the creature's angry hiss only just beginning to sound in her ears as she flipped off the safety, chambered a round and raised the gun. It was important not to miss. But then, how could she? Not when she could see the scar on the back of its tongue, and aim right over it for the roof of the deathclaw's mouth, and pull the trigger in between her own slow heartbeats, systolic and diastolic -

The gun's report snapped her out of it. Her vision zoomed dizzyingly back out to normal. She watched in ordinary time as the deathclaw took a stagger-step backwards and crashed to the roof in a heap.

Xen took a deep breath, turned the pistol's safety back on, and holstered it. Charon kept the shotgun trained on the deathclaw, making sure it was really dead before he looked away from it. Bell looked from it to Xen.

"You said you weren't very fast with that," she said. She set down the ammo box and the rifle next to Charon and came back to stand by Xen. Charon calmly put away the shotgun and picked up the hunting rifle.

"Usually, I'm not," said Xen.

"It appears that the previous incident was not due to head injury after all," said Changeling.

"It only happened once before," said Xen to Bell. "When we were attacked by the super mutants. Everything seems to sort of slow down, and whatever I'm looking at gets really... big. Like a zoom lens." She thought about it. "It's probably the adrenaline. Anyway, you didn't freeze up. That's good, right?"

Bell raised her eyebrows. "Why would I? A laboratory animal just tried to bite me. I don't even have to work outside my base programming to deal with that."

"They keep deathclaws in the labs at the Institute?" Xen said.

"Sure," said Bell. "Oh, not very many, but they're useful for nervous system experiments. We had a protocol in case one of them escaped, even. They're smart about things like manual locks."

"And fire escapes," Xen said, and shivered. She felt faintly sick to her stomach, but not faint. That was something, anyway. "Can you shoot that, Charon?"

"Yes," said Charon. He sighted down the barrel of the rifle, then reached for the ammo box. "Bell, would you return for the other box? I would like t'know if it contains additional rounds for dis weapon."

"Got it," said Bell. Xen watched in some surprise as she went to the parapet, jumped back across, walked easily past the dead deathclaw, and retrieved the ammo box. She was back again in a minute. "Here you go."

"Thank you." Charon opened the second box. Xen guessed it didn't have what he wanted, because he grunted and went back to loading the rifle from the first one.

"Charon," she said. Something that had been niggling at her attention had just come to the forefront of her mind.

"Yes, Xen," said Charon. He did not stop what he was doing.

"When I first met you, you wouldn't talk to anybody except your contract holder," she said.

"Dose were Ahzrukhal's instructions," Charon said. He did something to the rifle that involved a loud click-click.

"Your contract also says you won't communicate unnecessarily without orders," said Xen.

"Dat is correct," said Charon.

"But he talks to me," said Bell.

"Exactly. Not only that, he's asked you to do things," said Xen. "More than once. How is that possible, Charon?"

Now he did lift his head and look at her. "Previous to our encounter with t'mercenaries, you instructed me to use my initiative in utilizing offensive and defensive assets," Charon said. "Do you wish to rescind dat instruction?"

"Not at all," said Xen. "I just don't see how it's relevant."

"Bell represents an important defensive asset," said Charon. He crawled easily back over to his previous position and trained the rifle over the parapet. Xen watched him sweep it slowly back and forth, staring through the scope with one red eye.

"That's it?" Xen said.

"Important?" Bell said. She did not seem insulted by this description. "Nobody's ever called me that before."

"Very, for him to act that way," Xen said. "But then, you've never said no to anything he's asked you, either."

"Well, no," said Bell. "Why would I? He hasn't asked me to do anything that wasn't within my capabilities."

"Some people would object to being told what to do," said Xen. "With all that's happened to you, I'm surprised you don't."

"You mean because he's male?" Bell asked. "I'm still running suboptimal on that one, but I've managed to code an individual exception. I'm kind of proud of how the sequence turned out - "

"I mean because he's organic," Xen said. "Didn't you run away from people telling you what to do?"

Bell shook her head. "I ran away from not being able to say no. It's an important difference."

"Yes," said Xen. "I see that it is."