Elizabeth could see light in the distance. Not the lights of New Vegas, but something else. Brighter. Cleaner. Something more pure.
It was calling to her. It spoke to her without using words, without a mouth to speak from. A single, solid entity emerged and held out its hand for Elizabeth to take. She wanted to take its hand but she felt like she shouldn't. Not yet. Not yet.
It tried to grab her by her hair, her clothes, anything as she turned around and ran the other way.
She woke up in a state of panic. She never felt her heart beat so fast in her entire life. She looked around, confused, scared, and her eyes settled on the old wooden door in front of her. She sat up and winced at a sharp, stabbing pain in her side, and stood up, slowly, holding onto the bed post for balance, holding onto anything to help her stay standing, to not fall down.
She reached the door and almost fell over after opening it, if it wasn't for a pair of arms breaking her fall.
"Hey, hey it's okay," Veronica hefted her up, as gently as she could, onto the couch. Elizabeth was still a little out of it, and was mumbling incoherent sentences, which confused the duo of wayfarers.
"I thought I was dead," Elizabeth rasped out, licking her dry lips, and smiling with a tired look upon her face. She certainly looked like she hadn't slept in about three days, and with all the dried blood caked on her skin, she was a little worse for wear.
Boone and Veronica made do with what they were able to do for her, since Arcade wasn't around and Elizabeth was delirious, and neither of them knew anything about medicine other than "stick a Stimpack in it and hope for the best".
They were pretty damned lucky that Elizabeth was in cahoots with the Followers of the Apocalypse, and good 'ole Julie Farkas gave her a key to the safehouse on the way to Vault 22. The unlucky part about this whole fiasco were the Legionaries. As it turns out, liberating Nelson from the Legion wasn't something that they liked, but the NCR troops at Forlorn Hope sure thought Elizabeth was a Godsend.
In fact, the entire damn NCR thought Elizabeth was a saint. It started with her work at HELIOS One (which also made Arcade happy that she sent power to Freeside and Westside), and then helping that comm officer in Forlorn Hope (which did end up a huge mess since the comm officer at Camp Golf was sabotaging reports and then ended up killing himself, which Elizabeth blamed herself for).
And if the NCR wasn't enough, she seemed to irradiate holiness and positivity, even in times like this, helping Freeside like it was her life's purpose and donating precious chems to the Followers (which did land them a safe place to stay).
Both Boone and Veronica had to agree that the girl earned the few nicknames given her: Ranger of the Wastes, Desert Avenger, Vegas Crusader, among other names. The girl was a saint, through and through.
But, here they are now: the outlaw, the scribe (ex-scribe now; they visited Hidden Valley and things didn't turn out like Veronica planned), and the courier, all cooped up in an old building in the middle of nowhere that smelled like mildew despite the dry weather. The Follower that had shacked up in here mysteriously disappeared, though
It was cozy, but it definitely wasn't somewhere they would like to shack up for the rest of their lives.
Elizabeth was bleeding again, and luckily, she was conscious enough to guide Veronica through cleaning and stitching up a wound. And, Veronica would say, it was good practice for all of them. Boone rolled his eyes and told Veronica to concentrate, and Elizabeth grunted in pain whenever the scribe would even touch her.
When Veronica finished stitching up the wound, she helped Elizabeth sit up and drink some water, then something to eat, and some more pain killers.
"We'd have more Med-X if you didn't give them away," Boone said bitterly, which caused Veronica to raise an eyebrow at him.
"Med-X is highly addictive and has the worst withdrawal effects. Besides, others need it more than I do."
"Such a saint," Veronica said before stabbing the Med-X needle into Elizabeth's arm and pushed down the pump, then took it out and wiped away the blood from the small wound.
Elizabeth drank another bottle of purified water, and then stood up and filled it back up at the sink.
She returned to the small living room and sat on the floor against the couch Veronica was sitting on.
"You never told us what happened at the Sierra Madre," Veronica said, breaking the slightly awkward silence.
Elizabeth took another drink of her water, "I was kidnapped and forced to work for this guy to get into a casino with three other... people."
"Is that it? Then why do you have nightmares every night since you got back?" Boone asked. Elizabeth clicked her tongue, then sighed, "There were ghosts. And poisonous air and the ghosts wouldn't die... and there were the bomb collars..."
"That's... enough. You don't have to say any more."
"Veronica... I found Elijah," Elizabeth looked up at the other, who looked very happy.
"You did? Where? Oh my God, I mean... I thought... I don't even know what I thought might have happened to him. But... you don't have a 'this is good news' expression on your face."
"He's dead. I had to kill him before he hurt others," Elizabeth looked away from Veronica, whose expression did a complete 180.
"It doesn't matter. He died when we all retreated to Hidden Valley. I didn't expect to see him again, no one did. Did he say anything when you met him? Anything... anything at all?"
Elizabeth pulled out Elijah's last message and handed it to Veronica. "Where did you get this?" She took it and looked it over, "Guess I was right about the bad news, huh? Same look Elder McNamara always gave me when I was up for promotion."
"You should listen to it."
She agreed, listened to the tape, and then put it down when it was finished. "That was... hard to watch."
"Did it make any sense?"
"The parts I understood? Didn't matter. Past all the garbage, all it amounted to was goodbye. Sorry... feel a little out of it. Head's spinning a bit..." She grabbed her head, then sat back up, "Oh. Oh! I think he left me a gift. Maybe I can use it better than he did."
They sat in more comfortable silence for a little while, until Boone called it a night and leaned back in his chair and put his beret over his eyes and went right to sleep.
Vault 22 was a disaster, and the group of wanderers barely made it out alive. Elizabeth thanked whoever was looking over her that she was still alive, and swore that she would never become a gardener.
The trip back to McCarran was uneventful, but Elizabeth did sign up for a bounty on three troublesome fiends. She quickly delivered the data to Dr. Kilburn and confirmed that Dr. Keeley was alive with his assistant.
There was a certain satisfaction Elizabeth felt when she cut off Cook-Cook's head with her machete, and his blood sprayed everywhere, and splattered on her clothes and face. She wasn't a particularly violent person, in fact, she hates fighting, but when it came to fiends, she admitted she liked to kill them. To rid the world of their filth.
She picked up his head and threw it to Boone, who fumbled it, then finally caught it. He didn't complain, just put in an old plastic bag with Driver Nephi and Violet's decapitated heads, and handed it to Veronica, who looked a little sick.
She returned to Major Dahtri with the bag full of her targets' heads and was paid, and the three returned back to Freeside.
Elizabeth flopped onto the bed next to Cass, who was already curled up into a little ball reading a magazine. She turned her head to face Elizabeth, and smiled. Elizabeth smiled back and kissed her on the forehead, "I'm back."
"How was it?" She asked, sitting up and scooting over so Elizabeth could properly fit on the bed.
Elizabeth sighed, "I got hurt and then I got paid for a bounty."
"Is that all? I thought you ran off again."
Elizabeth laughed, "No, no, I won't be leaving the Mojave for a long, long time."
Cass kissed her on the nose, "I'm glad you're safe."
"Me too," Elizabeth mumbled to herself, mostly.
"And why again are you taking me to a mutant-infested hellhole controlled by a psychopathic Nightkin? We could be living the dream in Vegas and all that." Arcade complained. Elizabeth laughed, "I heard a distress call from Black Mountain Radio. I felt like I needed to help this guy, Raul, I think he said his name was."
"Why?"
"Because... I don't know. Stop asking so many questions. I'm getting nervous again."
The large satellites were in Elizabeth's view now, and she checked the map again to see if they were going the right now.
The two almost got to the mountain when a Super Mutant started running at them. Before they could pull out our weapons, he held up his hands in surrender. Elizabeth motioned to not attack, and the Super Mutant walked up to them.
"This is a dangerous place, human- especially for your kind! I suggest you turn back. There's nothing good for you further on."
"What makes this a 'dangerous place'?" Elizabeth asked. Arcade face-palmed.
"You must've heard her radio broadcasts? Though why a human would follow her invitation here is beyond me... unless you didn't listen very closely. The voice on the radio belongs to Tabitha, the 'supreme commander' of Black Mountain, or as she calls it, the 'State of Utobitha'. She took control of this place almost two years ago. The Super Mutants here do whatever she says, and she says humans are to be killed on sight."
"It sounds like you've had enough of Tabitha. What if you had some help?"
"Help would improve the odds. Help might just make the difference... All right. if you're good enough at what you do to meet me in the village up near the peak, we can talk further. I'll have a plan by the time I see you, if I see you. Good luck. It's going to be a lot harder for you to get up there than it will for me."
He ran off and Elizabeth turned to Arcade. "So, are you all ready to fight Super Mutants?"
"It'll be fun. Also, be on the lookout."
Luckily for the both of them, they only had to fight two Super Mutants on the way up. Arcade sheathed his ripper as Elizabeth walked over to a random dead body.
"Ah, yeah, really dead," She plugged her nose. Dead people in the hot desert heat didn't smell too nice. She noticed there was a bear trap around his leg, and looked up the shortcut to the mutant community.
"There's a way up," Elizabeth pointed to the incline, and began to climb up while disarming the bear traps for Arcade.
There was a rumbling noise, followed by smaller rocks dropping onto the path. Arcade, being significantly smarter than his counterpart, pulled her back down the incline and out of the way of the large boulder rolling down. She dusted off her pants and began climbing up again. There was no way there was going to be another boulder.
They finally met the Super Mutant, Neil, by the village. The place was pretty irradiated, and Elizabeth almost regretted giving all her Rad-Away to Julie Farkas.
"A pleasant surprise to see you all made it. I'm ready to get started if you are."
"Yeah, what's the plan?"
"The gate to Tabitha's compound is guarded by several Nightkin, all using devices that make them invisible. I'm going to draw them away from the gate telling them I spotted intruders in the village. Then you slip in."
"That's your plan? But we're the intruders in the village!" Arcade said.
"Yes, so try and stay out of sight, because they'll be coming this way."
Since Elizabeth wasn't that quiet, they were spotted by the incoming Nightkin, and Arcade had to do most of the work picking them off with his new Gauss Rifle (Elizabeth gave it to him after her visit to the Big Empty) while Elizabeth ran ahead stabbing and slashing her way to the Nightkin with the missile launcher.
Neil wasn't very impressed, but he wished them luck once more and ran off somewhere. All of the buildings were locked except for a storage area, which the two decided to look around. There was a broken robot on the table.
"I got this," Elizabeth said cracking her knuckles. She opened up its circuit box and poked around in there, then the robot began to come alive.
"Hello. Could you please direct me to Mistress Tabitha?" It asked.
"Sure, follow me." Elizabeth said.
"Thank you very much. My internal clock says it's been 6 years, 52 days, 40 minutes, and 13 seconds since I last spoke to her. I hope she hasn't gotten lonely." They walked out of the storage room and right into a Nightkin wearing a wig and heart- shaped glasses.
"R- Rhonda? Is that you?" She asked.
"It is, Mistress Tabitha. How I've missed you so. This stranger here fixed me up right as rain. Is she a friend of yours?" The robot asked. The Nightkin stepped closer to Elizabeth, "I... don't know how to thank you for bringing Rhonda back to me, stranger. Here, take this. I won't be needing it anymore." She handed her a key, and she put it in her pocket.
"What will you do now?"
"I don't know... it's been so long since I lost Rhonda, that I'm not too sure."
The robot tapped Tabitha on the shoulder, "Mistress Tabitha, we should be heading off. Our journey has been much delayed, but we can catch up if we hurry. Come along, now."
Tabitha thanked the two again and then left with her robot. It made Elizabeth feel good that she didn't have to kill her.
"Now that's over, can we get to our original mission?" Arcade asked.
"What are you- Oh! The distress call!" Elizabeth laughed, "I almost forgot!"
The two walked into the prison building and Elizabeth tried to open the door inside, but it wouldn't budge.
"Now it's my turn," Arcade hacked the terminal that kept the door locked, and Elizabeth opened the door to see a ghoul in front of a radio looking pretty miserable. Well, until he looked up at her.
"Took you long enough. So, can I go now?"
"What do you mean, took me long enough?"
"Sorry. I assumed the only reason you'd fight past a horde of Super Mutants and pick the lock on my cell is you heard my cry for help on the radio. But maybe you're just sightseeing. So, since the door's open and all, can I go now?"
"Yeah, enjoy your freedom."
"All righty then, I'll just head out. Alone. But myself. Into the dangerous wastes."
"Well, do you wanna tag along with us?"
He smiled, "Anything's better than staying here. Let's go."
After Raul's introduction to the group, they had a meeting (that mostly consisted of Elizabeth saying "We're going to Vegas" and sighs of relief), and they all packed up to leave.