~ Hello dear readers! (Sorry had MAJOR writer's block) Welcome to another chapter in Memory. This is a pretty lengthy chapter and I hope to keep it this long from now on that why you guys have more to read and enjoy from this story. Also for those who have more ideas or suggestions etc... please send me a pm and we can talk about whether it would be a good idea for them to be in the story or who :) For now enjoy the story, and don't forget to check out the note at the bottom. Also I've gone back and updated some the chapters keeping them spaced out so it won't be so hard to read or lose place, and fix grammar errors in them. Also if you don't know some place(s) or character(s), Keep Calm And Google It ;). Enjoy Chapter 6!~

Disclaimer: Nothing but my OC(s) for this story, everything else belongs to Bethesda & Co.

[ Speaking In Thought; * And Italicized]

[Places/Misc; " And Italicized]

[Displayed Words/ Letters/Notes/Info; - And/Or Bold]

'Fated Memory'

3rd Person P.O.V.

Goodsprings had some it's welcoming joyful folk attitude taken from them, but not by much. Their friendly welcoming demeanor that welcomed venturing wastlanders with open arms into a town of cautiousness and vigilantes. Arc had went around the small town trying to help and apologize to them for bringing trouble.

Chet was more or less concerned about the town, just glad that his store hadn't been blown to smithereens which Arc scowled at him inwardly. Chet's thinking made Arc feel a bit of annoyance with him. He went on to help Trudy clean up her saloon, which to his surprise Trudy insisted that she felt it was her fault for feeling weak and helpless, but Arc reassured her that she wasn't weak and she did what was she could do best at the moment. Trudy walked up put her arms around him with her head to his chest, hugging him and thanking him for his kindness for helping keep in trying people in Goodsprings alive. Arc was felt awkward from her gesture, but he knew she meant it with kindness.

He felt a wet streams go down his vault suit, looking down at her, he saw that she was smiling as well letting tears stream down her face. A small smile appeared on his face and he wrapped his right arm around her and returned the hug back. After they finished cleaning up the place Trudy asked if there was anything she could do to repay for saving her life. Arc thought about it, but nothing could come to mind at the moment, so merely he told her just to keep a watchful eye out, to which she nodded and said he needed to make right with what he's done wrong with the others and left to make amends.

Just outside, in front of the saloon, Sunny was sitting in a chair wiping down her hunting rifle with Cheyenne resting in front of feet. She was in a cautious state of mind now and she wasn't going to let the the recent incident repeat twice, not while she breathed and held a weapon in her hand. Arc stepped out of the place and she looked up to him as he looked down to her. They merely started at each other for a few moments before she was the first to break contact. He was still looking down at her unsure if he should say something, but no words were needed. Sunny had tapped twice onto the wood of her rifle, followed by Cheyenne's grunting, with a nod. Arc patted on her shoulder and walked off going person to person, in the town, apologizing.

Most of the them accepted his apology, but a few hand full were to angered or saddened by the few would never see again and they blamed it on him or Ringo, claiming if they just told victor to leave him for dead in they grave and never took Ringo in, then maybe all of this could've been avoided. Arc felt it was his fault and felt content to redeem himself anyway he could, but they wanted nothing to do with him and asked him to stay away from them and their families.

He did just that seeing how they felt the grief and pain, he apologized one last time before turning away back to where he was staying.

Only a day had gone by since then, Arc hadn't even left the town yet find his answers, yet the only reason why was because of Karma. She hasn't awoken yet since coming out of the shack leaving only a now dead Ringo tied against a post and then passing out, which annoyed him even more as he ran his hand over his head again patiently sitting in an old metal chair right across from where she was laying on the mattress.

After picking her up and carrying her to get checked out by Doc Mitchell, again, he couldn't look at her at the moment so he told Arc to take her to one of the town houses across from the saloon. He had carried her inside the town house and set her down on one of the beds that weren't occupied. He looked over her still seeing that she was covered blood that had dried on her arms and face while some of it had started to mesh with her together with her own hair.

Arc hadn't thought on any ideas on how to get her to cleaned off and come to since Doc still had his handful himself, and hasn't really had time to come and do a full check-up on her so he sat there rubbing his chin thinking with having only two liable options in mind.

*Ok so I can either, A. . . get her cleaned up myself, risking the possibility of her waking up to someone no to her liking, cleaning her up and possibly ending up with the same fate as Ringo. . .*

A chill shot up the back of his spine causing him to shiver at the thought.

*Or option B. . . I can go to the bar and ask simply ask Trudy and Sunny to do it and saving my skin in the process. . .*After a few minute of weighing between the two options and came down to a decision as he stood up and walked out of the town house.

He took the second option simply because he feel it as the right thing to do, that and he also opted to keep his skin intact the way it is now. As he went out side, he looked up, viewing the night sky for a moment as it was as clear as day with the distant stars shimmering above.

The air was at a cooled temperature that most wished for the heated days in the Mojave. Arc finally reached the saloon, walked to make this quick to avoid any awkward talk, but as he went inside he was instantly put on edge with tight grips on his pistol and the hand axe.

Trudy was sprawled on the floor out cold, but still alive seeing her back rise and fall slowly. Sunny was standing in front of Trudy gripping tightly onto a pool stick causing he knuckles to turn white and her dog, Cheyenne, growling and sending hostile barks to another dog across from her. The person standing in front them was another another woman in a pink two strapped dress and a large metal collar around her neck that seemed a bit odd for a person to run around with a heavy thing like that on their neck with her hands on her hips.

She had company as well which was another dog similar to Cheyenne, but it was a male with a slight bigger build and his fur was lighter then Cheyenne's. They weren't the two who put him on edge. There, stood a ghoul, who was unusually taller and had more mass then the common ghoul or feral ghoul, but he had a neutral look about him, even dressed in full leather armor with a shotgun that was visibly strapped to his back, he didn't give a hostile vibe though something told Arc it would be best if he just tried to keep calm state away from this guy.

Arc didn't see why the supermutant with them was in the bar, let alone around humans and not trying to butcher them. He stood over everyone wearing a torn blue vault suit, mainly shirt part torn in the front exposing his breathing audible as his hulking mass rose up and down with each breath. Arc had fully brandished his weapons and pulled back the hammer on his pistol. The sound had gained the attention of the group, "Sunny, what the hell is going on?" he said in a nervous calm tone.

Sunny turned her head back towards Arc and to his surprise Sunny's nose was bleeding, but her face dawned the expression of a focused anger. She opened her mouth to speak but the women in the pink dress spoke up first. "Well, now why don't you let sweet little Clover explain huh?" the woman named Clover said then point at Arc, his weapons mainly. "Without with all the bloodshed of course."

"If your asking me to lower my weapons, I'll be damned if that'll happen. The last time a stranger came through here, things. . . things didn't end well for them and now more walk through here, hence you and I really, REALLY, don't like the situation I'm seeing right now." Arc let out a quick breath and finished, "You'd better have a good explanation as to why my friend here is on the ground. Pick your words carefully." he spat the last few words with a cold tone. Clover let out a sigh and shrugged her shoulders.

"Ok, big boy." she chuckled then started slow pacing back and forth. "See, we traveled these wastelands for quite sometime now, just to find our. . . dearly beloved friends because. . ." she stopped pacing, looking spaced out for a few seconds, ran her hand through her hair with a smile plastered clear as day on her face, and finished off with something that sparked a small amount of rage within Arc's body.

"Well the reason doesn't really concern the likes of you, but seeing that you look like you've traveled a lot, even from a vault I can see. So you could have possibly saw them. . . have you ever heard of or seen people with the names of Ringo or Karma?"

Arc had given it away all to easy as Clover's face light up even more confirming her guess. "Oh honey, is something wrong you seem a little, angry" he narrowed his eyes. The sarcasm in her voice fueling the small fire within him. *Not again, I'm not going to have this happ-* His thoughts had faded away as wood had splintered and flew out everywhere from the pool stick Sunny was holding a moment ago.

Now broke in half, she had aim for Clover's skull, swinging hard, but the supermutant was quicker as he moved quicker then her swing taking the blow against his left arm, then instantly Grabbed her throat and lifting her slowly in the air above him. Sunny kicked and squirmed to get out his grip, but it was futile. Cheyenne gave a ferocious bark, seeing her owner was in trouble jumped at him, but she was down on her back as the other dog and her down on her back with his jaw clamped over her neck keeping her down, but not killing her, while his paws kept weight on her.

Clover's demeanor wasn't moved at all, except for the ghoul getting ready, who removed his shotgun from the holster behind his back and placed it on the pool table then cracked his knuckles, pulling out a large combat knife from his right thigh, then grounded his feet down onto the floor. That was a bad sign anyone could see coming a mile away. The was only sounds of Sunny straining to get out of the mutant's grip, the whimpers of Cheyenne and Clover who was chuckling again.

"Uh uh uh, see If you'd just listen first darlin' and heard what I had to say then maybe we could've avoided this little predicament that where in now, right?" Clover said to Sunny who struggling to get out, but was dangling helplessly within the supermutant's giant grip. "Now my dear boy, would you care to listen now, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?" now Clover had a wolf's grin on her face, but she was a bit thrown off by the way he was looking at them. . .no emotion.

Arc wasn't listening anymore gone into his blank state again, his mind now moving on instinct. He put his pistol back into his holster, spun his axe around once, looked straight at the ghoul with no emotion to express and simply charged at him.

"Please! I'll do anything, just. . . don't hurt them. . .take me! Take me instead!" she begged and begged, hoping no harm to come to them, for them to leave her life now, life would be empty, a shallow shell of what use to be and she didn't wish that nor did she want it. A rough hand grabbed onto a handful of her hair, yanking her up with a pained yelp to meet eyes of dark hatred and sorrow. They were a deep red crimson staring down to her with no hint of remorse, just cold and calculating.

A voice called out "GET YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF HER!" the shouting continued with death threats and harsh words, but was ened until it was drowned out by the sounds of stomping and kicking with the sound of a few bones crack.

Laughter and jeers surrounded her, then pain struck against her head, as if she was hit by something hard as a rock, doubling over hitting the cool ground, but another struck against her head as a warm stream slowly descended down the right side of her head. The laughter continued as darkness closed in around her with the looming threat of unconsciousness slowly waning over her mind. Struggling to get up to her knees, straining to keep her eyes open, but it was futile she fall back down on to her stomach feeling the strength fading away until call her name "Karma! Karma come on now stay with me. Focus on my voice and just look at me." the voice strained out in pain.

She focused searching for the voice with a ringing pain in her head and the loud yelling and laughter, until she found it and looked towards the person with heavy eyes "Look at me, just look at me!" The voice cried out to her "'It's ok, everything will be alright ok. No matter what happens you do not give up, you keep moving like you always have and you don't give up." the voice said, but then it turned into grunts and screams of pain. "Please. . . stop. . .leave them be." her voice in a strained whisper was all she could mange to plea out for their safety. She couldn't do anything as someone forced her up off the ground to her knees and she saw the same eyes and another person she'd seen before, but couldn't place a name on him, they both were staring down at her until she heard the person with red eyes speak, "Take them to the west, they'll meet you about half way and take them from you, just take your pay and move along. But if I EVER catch around me or my men after the stunt you pulled. . . your life is mine, Ringo."

Nothing but a cold hostile tone came through his voice , but now she could place a face to the familiar person. Ringo, nothing but hate and anger came when she thought of the name she wanted to help the ones she cared for, to end them all, but was unable to do anything but listen to their moans and pain-filled cries. "I-I understand, but what about her. . . can't take her with you she'll break out the first chance." Ringo said to the to stranger. "Yes. . . we can't can we, but we can put her for a nice long nap. . . six feet under of course" A wicked grin grew on their face intensifying the red eye filled with nothing but evil.

Though they bore down into her own, they where the last pair she'd see as a voice screamed "NO!" and the blackness finally took over as her eyes shut with the last images of eyes red, red as blood.

Karma shot up from where she was laying, her head aching in pain while she felt her entire body covered in cold sweat. She looked down to see looked down to see that her hands, legs, and body where covered in dried blood mixed with dirt and grime, and she smelt awful.

She was going to go and see if she could do something about getting this gunk cleaned off of her until she felt her stomach growl. *Great I Need to get this mess cleaned off and I need food as well what a wonderful. . .wait, where the hell am I?!*

She thought to herself for a moment finally realizing she wasn't in a familiar place. It was dark in the space she couldn't see directly in front of her in so she looked to her Pip-Boy and turned on the area light. As the light flicked on, not everything lit up but enough to find that she wasn't alone, to which a small yelp escaped her, trying to keep calm. A giant hulking figure stood up from leaning against the far wall and walked towards the bed. Karma started to panic, as she shot straight up onto the bed now standing in a defensive stance as it came closer.

As It came into view Karma was became shocked and stunned, it was a supermutant, but instead jumping off to kill it, she jumped off and hugged him. He let out a laugh patting on her back. "It's good to see you again, my friend." he told her. Karma was laughing and bursting in tears, but at the same time she now became slightly angry. "Fawkes! what are you doing here you damn fool!" she asked him after letting go and wiping away the few tears that came.

"Well. . .Ya see. . . " Fawkes scratched the side of his head, "Um, I came with your friends seeing how I had nothing holding me back in the ruins and as w-"

"Friends?! Huh, Who?!" She asked cutting him off

"It was girl in the pink frilly dress, with white hair, the tiny dog and the tall ghoul."

Karma figured out who the ghoul was, Charon of course, she figured that he'd eventually get tired of waiting in megaton since he did tell her "I don't want you straying to far, I don't want to have to haul back a the dead body of my last contractor knowing I wasn't able to protect her." She knew that Charon really didn't want her running off so far, especially since she held his contract, the tiny dog she figured it was Dogmeat, but was in no way tiny, to her at least. The last person was the only one who didn't come immediately to her mind. Who was the girl with the frilly pink dress? She went on tapping on her chin, thinking for a moment, then it hit her. "Fawkes, did this girl have a big metal collar around her neck?"

"Yes." he said bluntly, as if it where a minor thing. Karma wasn't all too excited, but she knew there was only one girl who would walk around with a slave collar on her neck as if it were high fashion. *Oh boy, Clover is here.* She thought with a bit of sarcasm.

"Where are they she asked?" curious and somewhat nervous about their whereabouts, Charon would be fine he never bothered anyone unless someone attempted to kill him or his contractor so he was less likely to bug anyone, but Clover,she was kind of a loose cannon on the other hand. Clover had a mean attitude, around most people when she was sober she would be mischievous and sly, tricking or convincing most people into getting the things she wanted and how she wanted them, but some not without consequence. Then when she was drunk off her ass, she'd get into bed with any man who had the largest amount of caps whenever she and Karma went into well populated areas like Megaton or Rivet City, but the next day they'd end up dead or near death so a lot of people some how suddenly became poor when she was around.

"They sleeping against the wall, all four of them."Fawkes said yet again in his blunt mood killing manner. She was about to hop off the bed to until she just caught onto what he said. "Wait, you only said you came with three of them? Who's this fourth person?"

"That's what I was hopping you could tell me, friend." Fawkes moved out the way, Karma got down from the bed back onto ground level and approached the still group. As she got close she looked at them and she became more shocked then before. All of them where injured save Dogmeat of course since he was slightly grunting in his sleep. Charon had badges wrapped around his torso and right arm his upper armor sitting next him. Clover, who sat in the middle had the least amount of damage only a patch to her forehead and a few bandages wrapped around her left forearm and wrist. When she looked over to the last person on her right she saw that it was Arc, the person who had, man-handled her to which she slightly flushed with embarrassment as that was her first thought looking at him, and he helped save the town, but he had an entire bandage covering both his arms as his vault armor selves had been torn off at the shoulder's seams and part of the left side of his neck. Her heart rate had started to increase into a rapid pace. She turned on her heels quickly facing Fawkes.

"What the hell happened! Why are they like that!" She nearly yelled causing Dogmeat to look up and see that his owner had finally woke up. Fawkes was about to explain as Dogmeat came up next to Karma, after stretching, getting a joyful scratch behind the ears, until the sound of the door to the building they where in opened, a two pairs of feet and tapping could be heard as the came closer to the room.

"Well, well look whose wake from their short seasoned hibernation." Trudy spoke as she entered the room followed by Sunny and her dog Cheyenne to which Karma's surprise Cheyenne and Dogmeat began to growl at each other until Sunny called Cheyenne off. Karma noticed that Sunny had her right bandaged as they walked into the room. "Okay what the actual hell is going on?! What happened while I was out?!"

Sunny rummaged through a bag she brought in with her and pulled out a box of sugar bombs, a bottle purified water, a can of Pork N' Beans, and a spoon, handing them over to Karma. "Here, you might wanna get something in your stomach first, this is gonna take a minute." Trudy had went near walked into the near dark corner and turned on a light that light up the room, making everyone visible.

Karma looked at Fawkes who merely nodded to her and went back to his spot leaning against the wall. She looked down at the items given to her, letting out a tired sigh * I really hope this doesn't sound too bad* She thought inwardly but Fawkes, had to open his giant mouth. "Oh and there happened to be a disagreement, between us." As both Cheyenne and Dogmeat barked. Karma her still grimy hand to her forehead rubbing her temples, guessing that this was probably going to be an annoyance.

*. . .Why me?*

~ Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as the other ones. On that note, I would really love to see more reviews to reflect on how well I'm doing with this story, It would really help for some insight, and I don't know if it's doing well or not If I don't have any insight, so tell me what you think about it so far. Also I am thinking about looking for possible Alpha N Beta readers to help out with grammar errors and to make the story have as much possible depth and 'Pop'. Still thinking on the idea but if your interested just pm me even if it's an idea I'll respond as quick as I can and on a last note I've got the details ready for about close to another one of my other stories I listed on my profile. Take a look if your interested, But can YOU guess what it's gonna be (o_O)? Yes? No? Maybe So? If you get it right you might get a significant role into it! Hope you all have a pleasant rest of the Morning/Noon/Afternoon/Evening/Night. Good Day! ~