October 25th, 2281, 12:05 a.m.

The Lucky 38, New Vegas

Cold. He was so cold. With a start, he found his body was unable to move – unable to breath. Almost in answer to the realization, warmth began to spread across his chest and his lungs filled with air. A smooth voice broke through his stupor.

"Hello."

"H-hello?" He stammered.

"How do you feel?"

"I feel… fine."

"Do you know where you are?"

"No."

"Do you know what day it is?"

"No…"

"Do you know your name?"

"I… I don't. I'm sorry."

"It's alright. Do you mind if I keep asking you questions?"

"Yes… please."

"Are you tired?"

"No."

"Do your eyes hurt?"

"A… a little."

"Can you raise your right hand?

"Like this?"

"Yes, very good. Put it down, please. "

"Ok."

"The sun has long since passed. Would you like to rest?"

"Yes, please."

"Rest."

He was asleep before his eyes finished closing.

.

.

If nothing else, he's better at conversation now! Yes Man quipped.

Denn chewed painfully before he responded, his newly fabricated teeth feeling odd in his mouth. 'The procedure appears to be a complete success. We'll move forward with the rest of the Fiend leadership.'

I'll get my sutures!

'I don't think-'

The Courier's thought was interrupted as Yes Man received a report from the Hoover Dam and relayed it directly to him, forgoing the formality of conversation. Denn's eyes widened in alarm as he processed what had just occurred.

'Restrain them.'

Understood.

'Get in contact with Julie Farkas and tell her we're going to the Dam.'

I could try and get a hold of Daisy to see if she is available to fly you there?

'Do it. While I'm gone, fill in everyone on the state of the Mojave.'

What about the Spring Pass massacre?

'Leave that out... I'll tell Veronica when I get back.'

Alrighty then!

.

.

7:05 a.m.

"Why does the sun have to... 'be' today?" Veronica lamented, rubbing her eyes wearily.

"It'll always be as its ever been, your eyes are just more sensitive," Boone stated.

"Yeah, maybe you should try and get some more sleep," Cass murmured, putting her arm around the former Scribe's shoulder and hugging her from the side. "You could use your beauty rest."

"Are you insinuating I didn't get enough?" Veronica asked, frowning up at Cass' smiling face. "How do you know I didn't sleep soundly?!"

"Because we all slept well," A gravely voice answered from behind them as Raul entered the room, yawning as he did. "It's amazing what peace and quiet can do for a resting body."

Veronica scowled at her gathered companions who all smiled back in response.

"I'm so happy you all made it!" Yes Man exclaimed, his caricature appearing on the room's main screen as the companions took their seats.

"Not all of us," Cass replied, "where are Ganon, Lily, and the Courier?"

"Lily and the Courier are headed to the Dam to get things settled with the survivors of Caesar's army," Yes Man answered, his smiling emoticon flicking slightly "and I believe Ganon is sleeping!"

"Wait… what?!" Veronica asked indignantly. "How come he gets to sleep!"

"Something about staying up the past four days!" the AI replied enthusiastically. "I couldn't really tell exactly what he was saying, but since he's a doctor, I'm sure he knows best!"

"Oh… well… what's this stupid meeting about anyway?"

In response, a map of the Mojave appeared as Yes Man's countenance moved to the bottom corner of the screen. "Just a quick rundown on the state of our little slice of the wasteland! Every major community in the area has decided to join the United Mojave! Goodsprings, Primm, Novac, Freeside, and Westside," as the AI listed the communities, they became highlighted on the map with green pinpoints of light. "Most of the minor communities have joined as well, with only North Vegas Square abstaining.

"In return for the benefits joining the United Mojave provides, each community will provide a percentage of their population to be trained as soldiers in a standing army. Additionally, the super mutants at Jacobstown and the Boomers from Nellis will serve as auxiliary forces should the Mojave be attacked."

"How large is the army going to be?" Boone asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.

"If every community provides the lowest required number of soldiers, just over two thousand, but Denn is counting on there being a number of volunteers after the first round of soldiers go through training."

"And he's probably right in that assumption," Cass replied, shaking her head incredulously. "I don't know if you guys have been to Westside recently, but Denn's something of a legend over there. Hell, he could probably have a thousand soldiers from that city alone in a month."

"Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that," the ex-NCR Sniper said.

"Boone is right!" Yes Man continued happily. "The first wave of training will be over the course of three-months and take one hundred of the most capable volunteers from each community. These soldiers will in turn serve as the command structure for the rest of the training periods, of which there will four, each lasting an additional eight-weeks."

"So the Mojave won't have its standing army 'til about nine months from now?" Raul asked, crossing his arms and frowning at the screen. "What, are we expecting the NCR and Legion to just wait for us to train all those soldiers?"

"Both the Legion and NCR believe that the Mojave has twice the number of Securitrons available that we do," Yes Man replied. "Individually, it's unlikely the Legion can rally a significant enough fighting force to be a threat within those nine months, and the NCR is dealing with their political upper-echelon imploding, so as long as we keep tabs on their troop movements, we should be fine!"

"What about the raiders already in the Mojave?"

"Most of the surviving ones are actually working for us already!"

That's a pleasant thought," Cass deadpanned.

"What about the Brotherhood," Veronica asked, her voice quiet.

"They took Helios One during the battle at Hoover Dam, but once they saw NCR being escorted by Securitrons, they hightailed it back to their bunker!" Yes Man replied. "Latest reports have the dust-storm blowing constantly. At some point they're either going to have to join up or get out of Dodge!"

"I guess…"

"Speaking of guessing, I wonder if anybody can figure out what the Courier has planned for the Strip?!"

"Re-open the Lucky 38 as a casino," Raul stated, absentmindedly picking at his cuticles.

"Right you are!"

"You're joking..." Cass said, staring first at the emoticon, then at the elderly ghoul as Yes Man's countenance, unsurprisingly, revealed nothing. "How is he... what is... for fucks sake, why is he doing that?"

"Hell if I know," Raul muttered, winking at the flustered red-head. "I just know he's had me running up and down this rickety tower making sure everything from heating to sewage was up to code. I might not be the brightest, but I can put two and three together."

"He's using it to attract NCR citizens," Boone interjected, leaning back and crossing his arms. "Half of the appeal of New Vegas compared to New Reno was the mystery of the Lucky 38, as well as the army of robots keeping order compared to the constant infighting of Reno's families. With the Second Battle of Hoover Dam and his handling of the NCR, a lot of citizens would be leery about traveling here. Opening up the Lucky 38 will bring them rushing back, just for the chance to take a look inside."

"You're not wrong," Cass admitted, thinking back on the myriad of rumors bordering on folktales she had heard about the Lucky 38 before she had met the Courier.

"But how's he going to keep this place secure?" Veronica asked, frowning at Yes Man. "If anybody finds out what the lower levels of the building contain-"

"Oh, he showed you the factory floor?" Raul smiled at Veronica as her mouth dropped open in surprise at his question.

"You knew that was there?!" Veronica all but shouted, glaring at the much too happy ghoul while his teeth began to show as his smile widened. "And you didn't tell me?!"

"You know how it is, getting old and all," Raul replied, waving his hand in a poo-pooing motion. "Sometimes these things slip my mind."

"What are you guys talking about?" Cass asked, doing her best to contain her grin as the former Scribe made a lunge at the elderly ghoul, who in turn skittered back out of her reach on the wheels of his chair.

"Denn has a manufacturing assembly in the lower levels of the Lucky 38 that puts anything I have ever seen to shame," Veronica answered, still glaring at Raul as he smiled innocently at her. "If the NCR found out what he has, they would stop at nothing to take it."

Cass' eyebrows rose. "It's that impressive?"

"When he showed it to me, it was building laser rifles... from scratch. From my time spent looking through the system itself, it can also create organic material."

Boone whistled lowly, meeting Cass' eyes as she glanced at him and shrugged. "She's not wrong," the former NCR Sniper admitted. "Something like that would be just as desirable as any tech found in Brotherhood bunkers, and the NCR takes those when they feel the need to."

"At ten to one losses," Veronica stated, almost defensively.

"Which is acceptable for the NCR," Boone replied, a pang of sympathy running through his chest at Veronica's impulsive reply. "The brass knows the cost of taking Brotherhood positions, as does every soldier they send down there, but every last one of them is willing to pay it. Wouldn't be much different taking the Lucky 38, though I wager the Courier would bleed them as much as he could."

"Actually, if it comes to the point that somebody finds out about the factory's existence, the Courier is going to make the technology open to the public!" Yes Man stated happily.

Raul's smug expression froze mid-journey on its way to shock and settled on confusion. "So why all the secrecy?" the elder ghoul asked. "If he's just going to share the technology anyway, why not do it from the get go?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong, that scenario is about as close to a complete disaster as we have prepared for," Yes Man continued, just as ecstatic as before. "If the NCR gets their hands on this technology, there's no telling how far they'll spread, which will only make the eventual fall of their society all the more disastrous!"

"Wouldn't this technology solve all of the NCR's problems?" Cass interjected. "Not saying we should give it to them, mind you, but what makes you think they would still fall?"

"The NCR has had access to multiple G.E.C.K. devices, and still is having trouble feeding their population," Yes Man answered. "Even with incredible pre-war technology, they would still be unsustainable."

"Especially due to the power requirement the matter-transformer has," Veronica added, nodding her head at the AI as she began to work through the Courier's reasoning. "The energy required to feed the entire population would be outright impossible for any existing system to output. Short of a full-sized pre-war Fusion-Generator... it couldn't be done."

"Not to mention there is no way the NCR would limit it to foodstuffs," Boone continued. "You said it was creating laser rifles? The military would keep that technology close to their chest to keep it from being used against them."

"Much like the Courier is doing now?" Cass asked, sighing slightly.

"Much like the Courier is doing now," the former NCR sniper admitted. "And he's right to. It's not like anybody in the NCR is close to dying off right now..."

.

.

Hoover Dam Visitor Center

25 miles South East of New Vegas

Denn stared down at the corpses of more than a dozen former Legion slaves.

"Without doing autopsies we can't be sure, but my people think the cause of their deaths was poison," Julie Farkas stated, moving from her kneeling position beside one of the bodies to stand beside the Courier. "Do you think Legion loyalists are taking revenge on others?"

"No," Denn responded quietly, his eyes tired. "I think they did it to themselves."

"What?"

"My Securitrons found them like this, after forcing their way past other survivors who were caring for them. Broc Flowers covering some of the bodies' eyes, uniform apparel, I believe this was some kind of ritualistic suicide."

"But... why?"

"Because they chose to die," a voice answered from behind them. The Courier and Julie turned to face the leader of the former slaves, Mara, and her interpreter. The old woman's eyes were hard as she frowned at the two newcomers.

Denn nodded quietly at the confirmation of his theory while Julie frowned at the two women. "You are free from the Legion," the leader of the Followers stated, anger and confusion apparent in her voice. "My people provided you everything you needed and did everything in their power to heal you. We were here to help you, and you let these women die."

"We did more than that," the interpreter admitted, not looking away from Julie's frustrated gaze, "we helped them do it."

"How can you throw away life so thoughtlessly?"

The interpreter's eyes softened, and glanced at the older woman beside her. The leader of the Legion survivors nodded silently, motioning for the woman to continue. The former slave moved past the Courier and Julie and knelt beside the body of one of the older slaves who had chosen death, her eyes still uncovered by flowers.

"Iana," she said quietly, pulling a pair of Broc flowers from a pouch on her waist and placing them on the corpse's eyes. "She was taken by the Legion when she was young, forced to bear a child as soon as she was able. The one who claimed her trained her son himself. He allowed her to be with him, allowed her to treat the wounds the boy received from his training, and allowed her to watch him turn from a boy into a man. She thought him kind for giving her the opportunity.

"When her son reached the rank of Centurion, his instructor gave Iana to him as a gift. He used her as he had been trained to, and her next son came from him. That son did not survive his training, neither did the third, and her daughter died by the hands of her son's instructor - a gift to his father." The interpreter looked up to Julie, her eyes hard. "That is the life she chose to end. She is finally at peace, and her torment is finally ended. Her nightmares cannot find her anymore."

"We... we could have helped her," Julie said quietly, hopelessly. "We..."

"It was her choice, doctor," the former slave insisted. "When her life was finally her own, she decided to end it, as did the rest of them."

Julie's mouth opened and closed repeatedly, her arguments falling flat before she gave them voice. After a moment, she turned towards the Courier, finding his eyes locked with that of the older woman.

"I could stop this," he said quietly. "I promised to keep harm from befalling you."

"You promised to let us live as we chose to live," the interpreter said from behind him, her voice hard and angry. "This is not your choice to make, Courier."

The older woman just stared at Denn, her lips tight.

Seconds passed in silence, and it was the Courier who looked away first.

"Do what you will," he said, bowing his head and stepping out of the room.

Julie Farkas followed after him, tight on his heels. "You can't just let them kill themselves," she said angrily. "You told me you would do everything in your power to protect them!"

"Even if that protection is from themselves?" Denn asked quietly.

"Yes."

"I also promised I would not make their choices for them. They would not trade one master for another."

"We can help them! We have medicine, psychologists, people who-"

"Did you see the child?" the Courier said quietly, interrupting the doctor. "Couldn't have been older than fourteen."

Julie's anger dissipated instantly, her gaze turning to the ground. "She was pregnant..."

"Every woman I saved from Caesar has a similar story to those that lay dead in that room. Every single one has lived with their lives no longer their own in the name of a man who was convinced of his own divinity, willing to sacrifice innumerable others to see his designs fulfilled. He raised boys into vicious, devotee soldiers, convinced their lives meant nothing compared to their god's will, and I killed them for it."

Denn reached the exit to the Dam and pushed through it. A group of Securitrons were moving pieces of wood from the NCR's fortifications at the center of the Dam and placing them in a small pile between the two battered statues at the Western edge of the pre-war structure.

"What are they doing?" Julie asked.

"Providing kindling," the Courier answered. "We can't let the bodies stay in the Dam with all those people near them. Will you help me build the pyre?" Without waiting for a response, Denn moved down towards his robotic soldiers.

"We can't just ignore this, Courier," the Folllower leader insisted, but she followed him towards the growing pile of wood.

"We won't. Tell your doctors to do their best to connect with the slaves at a personal level and watch for suicidal tendencies. Identify the signs, offer what aid you can, but you cannot interfere at this point in time. The oppression of Caesar is too recent of a memory for any heavy-handed policies, and if we prevent some of them from their... 'choice,' we could lose all of them."

"I can't imagine what would bring people to allow their friends to do that..."

"Which is why you don't have the right to stop them; nor do I. Their own sister's helped them do it, Julie. Their culture, such as it is, had one's life so far removed from one's rights that they didn't even have the power take their own life. We're not going to save all of them. All we can do is save as many as we can."

Julie remained silent as the two continued working on the funeral pyre.

.

.

Mara led her followers through the funeral proceedings as a Shepard would a flock of lambs, which was, Denn realized, because many of the women had never been able to send one of their own from this world to the next. Every slave had her story told - her losses and victories given to the air freely - whereas in the past they had been whispered in secret, the memory of the dead kept hidden from prying Legion ears.

Through it all, the Courier stood silently and witnessed the proceedings. Miles away, a detachment of his Securitrons were sifting through the scorched remains of the Mojave Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel. Those bodies were desecrated beyond recognition - beyond the dignity of any ceremony he could imagine easing their passing.

Hours passed, and as the sun finally began to set, the former slave's songs drifted into silence. Mara moved forward, a single torch in her hand and bowed her head in a final prayer. The rest of the women followed suit, and as their eyes closed, Mara turned her own towards the Courier. In her eyes he saw anger, a profound agony, but most of all, acceptance. The old woman bowed her head once more, this time in thanks, and Denn responded in kind.

A moment later, the fires were lit, and the bodies of those freed from the Legion began to turn to ash.

.

.

"Courier, I would speak with you."

The flames of the funeral pyre burned low, but still Denn stood watch, his attention split as he continued constant communication with the Lucky 38 and Yes Man.

"I never asked your name," the Courier responded, turning to look at the interpreter.

"Kira," the young woman responded, her eyes meeting his for a moment before turning back to the fires. "We would take our own's remains and give them to the river, if you will allow it."

"Of course. There is a pathway leading to it through the dam. I will have my Securitrons show you the way."

"Thank you."

"I do not deserve your gratitude."

"Why not?"

The Courier stood in silence for a moment, his mind replaying his walks through the Legate's and Caesar's camps - corpses frozen in eternal agony.

"How many of your sisters died by my hands?" he continued finally. "How many of their sons did I murder? Thousands? Tens of thousands? My kindness to you is a penance."

Kira glanced at him, but Denn did not return her gaze.

"Not all of my sisters share my outlook," the interpreter began after a pause, "but I do not see the existence they have as life. They lived for another - one other - and he dictated their survival as surely as the need for food, water, or air. Their lives had been taken when Caesar used them as tools for his future." The former slave gestured to the side, where hundreds of slaves still stood in silence, waiting for their chance to collect the last remains of their sisters. "As many of those half-lives as you killed, you gave me and my own life as surely as our own mothers and fathers. Without you, we would be as slaves - not truly alive."

Denn nodded, his chest tightening as he allowed himself to experience the responsibility such a position implied. He had freed these people, but also had the power to become that which had enslaved them to begin with. Cold, unfeeling logic had driven Caesar's hand. He had taken advantage of humanity's flaws, twisting the people he touched into entities that would ensure the species survival, at the cost of what made humanity worth saving.

However, wasn't the survival of humanity his goal as well? Did it not better suit that goal to put the survivors in shackles and force them to live? He had a responsibility, he had a purpose. He was meant to bring these people a future. Was that future allowing them to end their own life?

A warm hand touched his arm.

The Courier started and realized more time had passed during his disconnected thoughts than he had thought. The survivors had finished collecting the remains of their sisters, and Kira stood at his side, her eyes hard.

"I said not all of my sisters share my outlook before, but many of them do, and it is in their behalf that I must ask something more of you," she said quietly.

Denn nodded, indicating for her to continue.

"Many of my sisters lost their children to you," Kira said, "many more lost them to Caesar, but some of them still live. My daughter is a slave, not yet old enough to bear children, and now that I am free, I will do anything I can to free her. I know you are worried about the Legion taking us again. I know we are not only here for our protection, but also so you can keep us controlled, but you will not stop me, Courier. As long as I have breath I will fight to save my daughter, as will my sisters to save their own children. However, we are not soldiers. Any who struck out against those who enslaved us were maimed or killed. We do not know how to fight, so I ask you to help us.

"I know you fear what the Legion is capable of. I know your position here is not as strong as it should be, which is why you decimated the Legion as extensively as you did. I know you fear they will come back and defeat-"

"Come with me," the Courier interrupted, moving past the bonfire and making his way towards the Dam proper.

Kira glanced towards her sisters for a moment before following, two steps behind and one to the right. A pair of Securitrons joined them as they made their way across the Dam and towards the Legate's camp. As they approached the charred gates, the Courier led Kira to the side and began to climb up the cliff face. His motions fluid and practiced, Kira's eyes widened as he scaled the sheer rock as easily as he had walked across the Dam. Once he reached the top, Denn pulled an intricately knotted coil of fine rope out of a pouch on his belt and began to unwind it . Once the material was completely unwound, he tied a small loop in one end and threw it down to the former slave. The Courier gestured for Kira to put her foot into the loop, and once she had done so, began to pull her up the cliff-face.

She had seen the Courier's destruction of Caesar's camp as she and the other slaves had been escorted from there to the dam, but the complete scale of the atrocity as it was, spread across the land like a cloak, seared itself into her mind.

"You partially mistake my caution," the Courier said quietly, drawing Kira's attention back toward himself. "I do not fear the Legion because they can defeat me, I fear what such an action would cost. Caesar's death will plunge the East into chaos, yes, but warlords will carve out territory with the soldiers they have, declare themselves Caesar, and rule as they will in their fields of influence.

"If, however, they were to learn of my position - of my 'weakness' - it's possible they could see it as an opportunity to strike out in revenge at the killer of Caesar, gaining more power as a result. I do not fear this action because I could be defeated, but how much death would be caused by it. Make no mistake - the Legion as it is has no chance at defeating me, but I have no real way of breaking the soldiers from the hold Caesar's indoctrination has on them. Given the order, they will fight, and they will die. All of them. I will kill them all. I do not mean this as a boast; it is a fact. I have the means to kill every single slave soldier Caesar created - the single largest loss of human life since the Great War.

"That is what I fear. The decimation of the entirety of the East, and the damage its destabilization would cause. Caesar's fall will already cause a great deal of disorder and loss, but it is necessary. The Legion will tear itself into pieces, but those pieces will retain relative order. I do not wish the Legion's destruction. I need it to survive in order to influence it."

"Influence it?" Kira asked disbelievingly. "A society based entirely on the enslavement of anybody deemed too barbaric or too much of a threat? You would let countless women be raped, tortured and-"

"Where would they go should I intervene now? I cannot support them here, and the wasteland cannot sustain the number they have grown to. I know you see the lives they have as incomplete - to the point that death is preferable to the horrors they are put through - but I cannot allow myself to see it like that. They are not only themselves, they are the children they will have. They are the future. The human race needs as much help as it can get, and survival, no matter the cost to those who do, is preferable to complete destruction.

"That being said, I will help you save your child. I cannot allow you to leave on your own, and to do so would almost certainly lead to the failure of your mission, but with training and the technology I have available, you can save your daughter. Potentially, you could lead a rebellion and save the rest of the slaves as well, but it would only lead to chaos. The Legion is at a crucial point in its societal development; the death of its god. To destabilize it further in the next few years would cause it to fall entirely into anarchy. I cannot allow this. I know they are your sisters, and they go through hell on earth on a daily basis, but the human race needs them alive. You can save them, like I saved you, but it will take years."

"And during that time they will continue to be tools to the Legion," Kira stated. "You ask me to sacrifice their bodies and minds for your 'future?"

"They deserve the choice of how to live their lives, no matter how long it takes. Freeing them while the Legion is unstable is condemning them to death, and dictates how they live as surely as their current masters do. Some might wish to kill themselves as your sisters have, others may see their lives as half of what they should be as your do and welcome death, but some might wish to live. They will be given that choice, unless you take it away from them."

"You're talking like its a certainty I could succeed in freeing enough slaves to make an impact."

"With the training I can provide, you and whoever chooses to follow you will be capable of saving hundreds, if not thousands of your sisters. That is a certainty. Their fate after that is likely death. If you work with me, however, we could save every slave in the Legion. The question is, how much are you willing to sacrifice for them?"

Kira stared out over the scarred landscape, he lips pressed into a tight line. "Everything," she answered finally. "I would sacrifice everything."

"I'll hold you to that."