Disclaimer – I don't own Fallout 3 or any of its extensive insane or confusing content.

Chapter Ten

Marisa had spent the last hour trying to find a way to the roof, and with no held from the Brotherhood, she had to do it on her own. She gazed off, into the distance, just admiring the Wasteland.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" A voice asked behind her.

She spun, and had her Assault Rifle pointed right at Kylar, who, by the way, didn't even flinch. She re-holstered the gun. "Yes. Yes it is." She sat down on the edge, feet dangling over.

"You should be more careful." Kylar cautioned. "Coming from you? Thanks, but no thanks." She said sarcastically. "Don't blame me when you fall to your death." He said, joining her. "Or for mine."

The two sat in silence for a while, just enjoying a friend's company, and the horizon. The sun started to lower, and Marisa got more and more worried. "Kylar?" She asked in a small voice. "What's happening?"

He looked at her, and realization dawned upon him. "Ooh, right. You've never seen a sunset. Well, you know about Space, the Earth is round, revolving around the Sun, right?" He asked.

She just nodded.

"Well, when the Earth rotates to a degree before it's night, but after the day, it's called dusk, or twilight. The sun's rays come in at an angle, and they color the sky beautifully. Just watch."

They did, and the more the sky changed color, the more tightly Marisa clutched Kylar's hand. Once it had passed, and twilight had come upon them, Marisa asked him a question. "How do you know so much?" She asked.

"I mean, not to insult you or anything, but you're just a Wastelander. How do you know this stuff? Back in the Vault, we learned that stuff after years and years of school."

Kylar winked, and stood up. "You'll find that out when we get to my house." Marisa sighed, and followed him down.

********

Hours later, in the middle of the night, Kylar couldn't sleep. It wasn't that he was already rested, but that his thoughts were tearing across his mind almost too fast to understand.

The first and foremost were along these lines;

…Causing trouble…remembering buried memories…going soft....dam nit. She's far more trouble than she's worth. I should leave her. Yes. Go over the Contract, find a loophole.

"I'm tracking my dad down, and Three Dog knows where he is. He won't tell me until I fix a radio dish at the Washington Memorial. Says there's one in the Museum of Technology, so that's where I'm going. I'll pay you four hundred caps."

He went over and over those words. He remembered them because they were his contract, and one always needed to know what their contract entailed.

But he couldn't find a loophole. The words at the beginning, "I'm tracking my dad down," were the most important. Kylar doubted Marisa meant that he had to help her find her dad, but you never knew.

He looked over the common room to see Marisa's sleeping form, calm and at peace. He felt happy, happy that somebody could be so content with just finding their relatives.

And with that he fell asleep.

********

Early in the morning, Kylar woke up, sweating and panting from a nightmare. He glanced wildly around the room, as if trying to make sure he was where he was. It wasn't until he wiped the sleep out of his eyes that he realized Marisa was staring at him.

"Umm...Kylar? Are you alright?" She asked concerned.

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine." He said slowly, blinking. He stood up, and stretched. After shaking the sleep out of his muscles, he went over his weapons, food, and clothes.

His duster had found itself a small tear in the left armpit, and one on his back. A chunk of mole rat meat had gone bad, so he tossed it onto a nearby fire. It didn't smell good, but it burnt for a long time.

His weapons were in as good condition as they had been when he'd left G.N.R the last time, so he shouldered his things, and lead Marisa to the door.

"Where did you find all this stuff?" Marisa asked. "A tranquilizer pistol? A fancy knife like that? An M-"

"It's a Tanto, Marisa." He said tiredly. "A Tanto."

"It's sharp, and causes pain and lots of blood. It's a knife." She said. Three Dogg had decided to walk down for breakfast, when he saw the duo at the doors. "What?!" he cried. "Leaving so soon? Why do you come and go like this?"

"I can't stand your company." Kylar explained. "Nice seeing you!" The two then walked out of the building, leaving a slightly startled Three Dogg in their wake.

********

Author's Note: I hate, HATE, subways and D.C. So if the story lead the GS and LW through a non-story related tunnel, expect it to be gone.

********

"I can't see why we have to keep going." Marisa complained doggedly. They had been walking for hours, and were somewhere around the Chryslers Building, and heading steadily South.

"What?" Kylar asked over his shoulder.

"Why can't we stop? We've made it out of Downtown, and then some, and it's getting late. Shouldn't we stop for the night?"

Kylar stopped walking, and looked back East. "We can't." He said slowly.

"We can't? Why the hell not?" Marisa said irritably.

"We're being followed." Kylar whispered. "Get down. Shit."

"By who? Or what?" Marisa asked. She unslung her sniper, and took up a prone position.

"That's up to you to find out." Kylar said, loading his Mp-5. "You're the one with the Sniper, you figure it out."

Marisa was about to protest, but bit the words back. She sighed, and steadied herself. When she was about to look through the scope, she noticed small words on the sides of the gun.

"Hmm. Victory." She murmured.

"Say something?" Kylar asked.

"No…just noticed something."

"Something important, I hope?"

"No, not really."

"Ah. All right then.

"……."

"Mind finding anything out about our pursuer?"

"Right, sorry." Marisa peered through the scope, surprised to find the world in a kind of green glow. She jerked her head backwards, and mouthed a question to Kylar.

"Oh, right. Night Vision. It takes a little getting used to." He said apologetically. Another brief pause ensued, and he gestured to the approaching figure. "Take your time, I've got all night!" He said sarcastically.

This was true, as night descended quickly on the Wastes of D.C. Moments ago it was light enough to see the horizon. Now, only to a few hundred feet in front of you.

"Sorry." She said again.

For the second time, she peered through the scope, and fought back an impulse to jerk away from the odd sight. She started describing the figure as she saw it more clearly.

"It's a man, first of all."

"Damn." Kylar swore. "They usually fight harder."

"I'll ignore that." Marisa snapped. "He's wearing some kind of armoured suit…oddly familiar."

"Some kind of pistol, not heavily armed." She said comfortingly.

"Well, that's good." Kylar said softly. "Makes my job easier."

Marisa shot him an annoyed look, and went back to her observations. "He's very…pale. Not very exposed to the sun. He reminds me of somebody I kne-"

Marisa gasped, for two very important reasons. The first;

She had an idea of who this was, and was very shocked.

The aforementioned figure had just started shooting at them.

"Motherfucker!" Kylar muttered, taking aim at the man who'd just fired a bullet past his hear, with more on it's tail.

Marisa grabbed Kylar's arm, stopping him from taking the shot. "Marisa, what the fuck are-"

"Don't shoot him!" She begged. She was clawing at his clothes. "Don't kill him, don't! You can't!" She almost cried.

Kylar looked down at his employer in confusion. She'd never been in a state like this, not once. Her being in this state, and his employer, he decided to listen to her.

He dropped the gun on the ground, and fired a single shot at the figure in the distance with the tranquilizer.

The figure dropped to the ground.

Marisa was nearly frantic. "Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod." She was hyperventilating, and panicked. "Marisa!" Kylar shouted, ignoring the fact that he was endangering them all. "Marisa! Get ahold of yourself!"

Despite his best efforts, she was still hysterical. Kylar stopped trying to appease her, and groaned. "Tourists." He muttered bitterly. He picked the automatic weapon from the floor, and fired a shot past Marisa's ear.

She stopped moving, and stared at Kylar. Moments later, rational thought was enabled in her mind. "Kylar…I…it's just that.." She trailed off there and started walking towards the downed man.

"I know, I know." He said slowly. "I don't know why you flipped out like that, but you had a damn good reason."

The two reached the unconscious man, and Marisa almost broke into tears right then and there. Kylar watched her like a hawk as she ran up to the man, and got onto her knees next to him.

She brushed the back of her hand across his cheek. "Micheal."

There's Chapter 10 for you all! I'm extremely sorry for the long wait, and am working avidly on the next Chapter.

Review Responses

Mike bent tone -- *raises hands* Alright, you caught me. I read that trilogy four times, ans is my favorite series ever. (Night Angel Trilogy, first book is The Way of Shadows) I've been meaning to look for names that I like, and I've come across one or two that stand out, but Kylar just kicks ASS. Shift's name before the Incident was Kylar, but he forgot it and named himself Shift. Glad you liked my work.

Peace.

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