Note: Sorry about the delay. Wrote a chapter that wasn't fitting, and then lost my focus. Hopefully back into the game now

A plasma charge. She couldn't believe it.

Implanted in her head, intended to be used if she ever became a threat or if she betrayed the Enclave―

Lillie felt betrayed, herself. She knew how this game was played. She knew she'd been thrust into the world for a purpose. But she'd expected more honor from President Eden―her only friend in the world, for so long, now showing his hand as blackened as―

Colonel Autumn. Her knight... wasn't a true knight. Not if he didn't ascribe to an honorable code, not if he hadn't made her aware of the full danger. Not if he'd―let something like this happen. The thought that he could be complicit in something so awful made her want to curl up and die.

Lillie refused to believe that he'd known about the bomb. Even if he'd lied about her father―to imagine that he'd led her on in such a horrible way, working with President Eden instead of against him like he'd told her―

It was the same as before. She was a puppet, made to please. Her sole purpose was to ensure the Vault inhabitants joined with the Enclave, and to return to Raven Rock for further missions. Because the President had manipulated them all and she was just another pawn. Just another piece on the board. A sacrifice.

How dare he. How dare he!

There had to be something more; something she wasn't comprehending. President Eden wanted her to go to the Vault, but... maybe he'd expected she would fail. Maybe that was why she had the bomb in her head. Maybe... he was going to kill her in a show of power. It made as much sense as everything else did, right now.

Maybe he had expected her to die. She didn't even know anymore. It was confusing. She had the sword and the shield. She should be able to fight against this―

The only conceivable way she was going to survive this―chicanery―was to keep playing along. To ensure the Vault people joined the Enclave. But it wasn't going to be easy―

She didn't want to be angry. But she was, and she knew her limits.

To hell with manipulation. It was time to force a result.

"You're a blackguard, Jericho," Lillie told him, as they stepped out of the clinic.

The old man screwed up his face like he'd just stepped in shit, and stared at her. "The fuck, now?"

"A blackguard." She turned her head to stare back at him, smiling a little to herself when he dropped his gaze.

"The fuck is a blackguard," he muttered. "Jesus fuckin' Christ, you and your goddamn stories." He coughed a little, and spat a wad of snot onto the floor.

"A scoundrel," she clarified, walking away from the clinic. "A... bad man. I like that."

His eyes lit up. She'd figured he'd appreciate a little flattery. He wasn't dumb; he was just... wise. You didn't get to be his age without knowing something, she knew. He knew why she'd started the fight with Butch, that was why he hadn't stepped in and broken it up until Butch laid a good hit on her nose.

It was all a game, and it was a game they were both decent at playing. Jericho was willing and able to catch any slip-ups she might make when talking to people. She felt like... almost like she was apprenticed to the ex-raider. The wisdom of the sages, like in her stories. Every hero needed a mentor.

Hers just happened to be a little shadier than the rest. A grimy old man, teaching her how to manipulate and skew situations to her desire. Learning to manipulate him, too, even if he didn't want to think she was. She always was a quick study.

Morality aside, Jericho was turning out to be an adequate character in the story. She counted on his surliness, his predictable reaction to her dad's nature, to keep her angry. She also counted on his being intimidated by her and knowing that she could kill him at any time.

It was the only satisfactory relationship she had right now, especially given all the other frustration she'd faced. Like how the Overseer treated her as if she was crazy. Lillie frowned and rubbed her nose, thinking.

"Jericho," Lillie said, turning to look at him. She curled her hand near her chin; acting coy, again. It was the best she could do at the moment, to keep him on his toes and watching her. "I have a plan. Are you game?"

"A plan for what?" Jericho cracked his neck, staring at her grumpily. "Last fuckin' time you tried anything, you got that pop in the face. Need to quit askin' for that shit."

"Come on," she said. Closed her hand up, motioning for him to follow, and saw him curl up his lip. He didn't like being treated like that. But he put up with it.

It was fun to pretend. To pretend she wasn't scared out of her wits, to know that she was nervous but not let it show. Everything about the situation―beyond the plasma charge and her position with the Enclave―

The Overseer treating her like she was mental; Butch agitating her into a fight; her dad talking to her like she was still a child. Amata was the only person in the Vault who didn't treat her like an idiot, and Lillie was half-convinced it was because she wanted the same as her.

Opening the Vault. That seed was in place before Lillie'd arrived, she'd figured that much out. Amata didn't like the status quo, and she was in a position to change it. Her upbringing, being taught how to command people... it was clear to Lillie that Amata had been in training to replace her father as Overseer.

It was a shame that Lillie couldn't let her fulfill that familial obligation.

"What the fuck is this plan," Jericho was saying. Lillie opened her eyes and blinked away blurriness, focusing herself. Hadn't realized the punch to the face had affected her that much.

She looked up at the sign leading to the reactor, wondering when she'd managed to walk all that way from the clinic. She must have been distracted...

"There's..." she sighed and rubbed her eyes. "A way to figure this out, yet."

Jericho considered her for a moment. "Right," he chuckled. "Oughta leave that shit be. Ain't gettin' you nowhere, anyway."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Come on, Jericho."

Lillie walked down the stairs toward the reactor, trailing her hand along the wall and humming to herself absently.

Five minutes later, she stopped and turned on Jericho. "Do you never shut up?" she asked, frowning at the ex-raider.

"You're the fuckin' tour guide here," he said, making a face at her. "I got questions, is all."

"Stop talking," she muttered. "You're going to get us caught."

"I ain't keen to see my skin rot off," he muttered, looking around at the room with a paranoid look on his face. "All this fuckin' radiation."

Lillie opened her mouth, her brows drawn together. "As long as you don't touch anything, you're fine," she hissed at him, angrily. "So stop making noise!"

"All this equipment and shit," he growled, waving a hand out. "If I grow a fuckin' third arm standin' around here―"

Lillie snapped out a hand and grabbed him by the front of his jacket, pulling him down to stare him right in the eyes. After a moment she released him, gagging slightly at the smell of his breath. God, the man was foul through and through―

"If I didn't know better," she said, meanly, "I'd think you were trying to sabotage me."

"I ain't that fuckin' smart," he replied, crossing his arms.

Lillie stared at him for a moment, saw the shifty look on his face as he refused to make eye contact. Something was going on. He was trying to sabotage her. And doing a poor job of it―

She shifted her weight and casually flicked a hair out of her eyes, putting her hand up to her chin.

"Don't you start that shit with me again," he warned her, narrowing his eyes at the wall. "I ain't in the mood for no fuckin' games."

She thought for a moment, watching his face. So far, as long as she kept her wits about her she could convince him to do almost anything. If he was doing anything else, while he was supposed to be gathering information about her―she suspected it was for one reason alone.

The only thing Jericho wanted for that she wasn't able to offer him to his satisfaction... the only reason he would do anything, was money.

"How much did Moriarty pay you?" she asked him, in a curious voice.

"None of your fuckin' business," he said, staring out over her head. She had him on the ropes, now. Lillie grinned a little, then controlled herself. Wouldn't do to show her hand so obviously.

"He employed you, though. To find out what I was doing, trying to get in here. And you know, now, so I don't see why you can't talk about it."

"Already told you all that," he said, pointedly. "You gonna be a bitch about it, I'll leave your ass here. I don't gotta do this stupid shit." His eyes swept over the reactor level again, worriedly.

Lillie kept staring at him. "Moriarty's got something on you, doesn't he?" she asked, gently. "Something you don't want people to know about."

Jericho reached out and hooked her by the back of her neck, pulling her closer. He was strong, but she wasn't worried. He put his mouth near her ear and spat into it, angrily. "You best be forgettin' what you're about to say, little girl."

"Maybe it's about those raiders you're so scared of," she said, ignoring the hot breath on her ear. Jericho's hand tightened on the back of her neck, then loosened. Probably remembered what she'd done to him the last time he'd tried to mess with her―

Maybe it was time to try a different tactic. Give him a little bit of trust, even. She couldn't afford for his nonsense with Moriarty to come back and bite her, even if she finished her mission.

And like Colonel Autumn said... knowing who the enemy was, was something one desired. The more she knew, the easier it was to defend herself.

"Look..." Lillie started, placing her hand on top of his. "Jericho. I know... I'm playing a game." She removed his hand without any resistance and turned to face him, pursing her mouth. "But this is a game I want to win. You know as much as I do, about what's going on. Maybe more. I don't like being at a disadvantage."

He snorted, acting like he didn't want to listen. Lillie sighed, calculatedly. "I'm not going to be able to win, at this rate. Everyone else is playing the game better than me. And I have no idea what to do," she ended.

Jericho turned his gaze back onto her, finally. Stared at her for a moment, then rolled his eyes. "Welcome to the fuckin' wastes," he said.

"You want to win as much as I do," she said, watching him. "If we teamed up, we could―"

"I'm only here for the caps," he interrupted, jabbing her in the chest with a dirty finger. "You ain't got any."

"Between your... wiles, and my know-how," Lillie pointed out, "there could be more."

Jericho pulled out a cigarette, musing on that. Went to light it, but stopped himself, looking around again. She could almost see him accepting the idea, as he pretended to think. He'd already made up his mind. He wasn't that hard to figure out.

"Yeah, alright," he finally muttered. "Sayin' I trust you enough to think about it. What the fuck you want from me?"

Lillie stopped herself from grinning in triumph. She watched him putting the cigarette back in his pack, before she spoke. "I want to know what's going on. Why you don't want me to mess up the Vault." She paused for a moment. "I'd also want to know why you're so scared of the raiders."

"Askin' for the fuckin' moon," he grumbled. "It ain't that easy, kid."

"I know," she said. "But I need to know―"

"Your old man got a plan," Jericho snapped, looking down at her. "I ain't in the know about all of it. But we ain't staying in this fuckin' Vault forever. He's paying me what I want to get you to that purifier shit he was on about, before."

Lillie nodded, slowly. That made sense. She was mildly surprised that her dad would even bother to strike a plan with the ex-raider, but―

She was satisfied that Jericho would trust her over her dad. "Alright," she said, smiling. "But I'm still doing my plan."

Jericho grunted, and looked up at the ceiling. "Whatever, kid."