After moving Jeannie-Mae's body to a less compromising position, they set down the road towards Boulder City. This is where Annie realised that Boone was not going to be the kind of person to talk her ear off. This suited her fine; enabling her to think of all the things she could do to the man in the suit.

There was a pot of oil on the stove of her soul, bubbling and hissing as time passed on - fuelling a disgusting hatred of the man that had basically ruined her life. She would find him, gut him and hang his skin around his own bathtub like a shower curtain.

Finding out that she had been a Khan was a little bit more than liberating. This made her feel strong, more confident in her ability to fight. If she couldn't shoot a gun, she could more than likely throw a decent punch. The memories Manny had unlocked had birthed a whole new level of excitement in Annie - she knew that she wasn't as completely useless as she had grown to think. Once she found McMurphy and whoever else had helped that asshole in the suit, she was going to beat them to death in front of their families.

The road beneath her feet felt like snow; the sound of her crumbly leather boots against rugged bitumen almost as velvety as the soft twangs from her pipboy radio. It felt good to be on the road again and not cooped up in a tiny hotel room, counting the rot stains on the ceiling. Annie was beginning to remember how much she loved the smell of the desert, like burnt soil and cigarette smoke.

Her daydream burst when the ping of a shot whizzed past her ear, forcing her into a clumsy crouch. Boone was behind her with incredible accuracy, taking out two Vipers and wounding one. It didn't take him long to reload and finish the woman off.

"Wow, you're good at that." Letting her breathing slow down, Annie staggered to her feet with an awkwardly apologetic grin. "You could shot my face off." She joked shakily, looking up at the strong man with wide eyes.

Okay, so she wasn't as brave as she let out to be. Not even having time to get her gun out, she had proved very a very ineffective comrade. The man huffed at her, obviously unimpressed with her shameful display. "I'm sorry. I should have been paying more attention."Giving his shoulder a light punch, Annie grinned up at the man tiredly. "Good thing you're here, huh?"

"How good are you with a gun?"

"Huh?" She perked up, excited to hear his voice. "Oh, uh, not very good actually. Wasted at least a third of my ammo up at Repconn just blindly shooting. My hands get really shaky and I can't hold it still enough to get a decent shot."

His eyes narrowed at the possibilities for her shaky hands. She didn't look like she had had the life sucked out of her by a chem stint, but he could see the rings of fire in her eyes as she thought over her obvious weakness. Maybe she was more messed-up than he had originally pegged her.

She snuffed at herself, tapping the gun that sat unhappily in its holster. She had swung raided it from Jeannie's safe just hours ago and it already felt just as useless as the last one.

Boone let the thought cross through his mind – maybe she was an idiot. There was no other explanation as to why she was so blatantly naïve about the whole situation. There he was – travelling with a less-than-prepared woman – and he had to pick up the only person in the entire desert who didn't know how to shoot a gun.

She clicked onto the situation soon enough, noticing the corpses twitching up ahead. Excited, she jumped into action. Watching her scuttle over to strip the dead bodies, he realised that there was a lot more to his situation than he thought. Had he just signed himself up for a babysitting job?

The woman was just as quiet as he was that morning, and he hadn't let himself stare at her long enough to really get a good look at her. As far as he knew, he could have been travelling with a handicapped raider. The only thing he knew he had to watch out for was that smooth voice of hers that had lead him into their current situation – and he made note not to fall for it again.

Straddling the body of a dead young man, Annie rifled through all of his pockets, checking under his shirt and behind his ears. She was siphoning Mentats out of his boots, finding caps taped to the underside of his belt and a knife holstered to his ribs.

"There's nothing like a good haul, hey?" She called back to him, "Thirty caps all up! Rich fools." Pushing herself up on the dead man's chest, she hoisted her pack onto her shoulders and slid back over to the sniper. "Mentats." The case was still in her hand, holding it out to offer it to him. "Hmm?"

"No."

"Suit yourself. We can sell these." She pointed up at him, returning the box to her pack. "Burn-outs go mental over this sort of stuff. May only be a few caps but something's better than nothing, right?"

He could have felt sick, but his brain told him to nod his head instead. She wasn't stupid, just callous. Then again, he had no ounce of care for what she wanted to do - the only thing on his mind was the scene of a bullet through Caesar's brain. And considering they were tracking down a useless gang and not a foaming army, that scene was only contained to his wildest fantasies. What had he gotten himself into?

She was ignoring his reaction, gaze focused on her pipboy. "I think it's just over this hill." She cooed from three feet in front of him. "And look at that! Sunrise!" She whipped around, eyes blazing. "Great!"

He was concerned with the idea that she was dragging them into Boulder City. The buildings that had been previously destroyed disallowed any shelter. It was a ghost town, other than the small fence that had been pulled together from scraps to guard the city's heart.

"Hey." He frowned, not catching her attention in the slightest. The only thing that Annie could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat in her ears, throbbing heavily and causing her vision to sharpen. It was here that she'd have all the answers - it was here that she would find out where Benny was.

"C'mon then!" She called to him. "Let's go!"

They took about 20 minutes to make it over that hill, Annie still fatigued from the whole shot-in-the-head thing. She began to wheeze a little, vision slightly spotty from the physical exercise.

"Hey! Civilians aren't allowed to be here." An NCR grunt spat at her when they breezed into town, Annie resting her hands on her knees to catch her breath. She held a finger up at him for a second; trying to show him that she wasn't a threat by holding up her hands in surrender.

"Hello, I'm Annie." She wheezed, straightening up to take a look at the makeshift fence "This is my friend Boone," Gesturing blindly to her side, she swatted her hand at what she assumed was her companion. To the grunt, it was just a pile of garbage. "What's going on in here?" She stretched her back, adjusting the sticky arms of her leather armor.

"Sorry, you can't go in any further. We've got a hostage situation with some Great Khans right now." Annie shot him a blank look, trying to grasp the situation. "The Brass at McCarren has ordered me to lock down the ruins until it's been resolved."

She needed to get in there, and fast. If the NCR managed to kill the Khans, they would also be effectively killing her trail.

Boone finally showed his face, leering out of the darkness of a broken home with the glint of the sun in his glasses. The soldier blanked, watching as the scowling man stood behind the woman.

"He with you?" He asked, instantly snapping into a more refined stance when he saw Boone's beret.

"Yes." Annie stood tall beside Boone. Having him around could have been a good thing, what with that beret of his and everything. He was the oil in the struggling cogs of Annie's social situations. "I need to get in and see those Khans."

The soldier scoffed.

"And what makes you think you can just waltz right in there?"

"Because I'm a Khan too." She answered with a smile. "Or was. I'm actually looking for them. They stole something from me and I want it back." Placing her hands on her hips as if she was actually some sort of authority, Annie beamed harder at him. "And I'll get your men out, free of charge."

The soldier grit his teeth, his eyes shifting towards the stalemate through the gate. They were getting nowhere fast, and if it went on any longer he knew the Khans would get restless and then that would be a whole other story. He didn't question her motives, but simply nodded, causing Annie to nod back.

"Boone, stay here." She ordered flatly, the man shooting her a look. She had no right to order him around like that. "They'll kill us both if you come with me." She flicked out a pack of cigarettes, lighting a match on the side gate. Drawing in the first breath of a fresh smoke, Annie pushed through the gate.

"If I hear gunshots, I'm sending my men in."

The girl grinned. "Sure thing."

"Hello boys!" She slapped her hands on the door, smiling at the blood-shot eyes gazing at her through a set of holey curtains. "McMurphy!" Annie almost sang. "Let me in!"

"Mc—" The voice inside sputtered back at her. "Who- who is it?"

"It's Anna!" She replied, slapping the door again, cigarette bouncing between her teeth. "Remember me?"

"Anna..?!" It almost shrieked. "You're dead!" Quiet washed over the battleground before the voice started up again. "Am I going fucking crazy? Do you hear that too!?"

"I hear it, Jess." Another voice replied.

"Yeah she's out there, Jess." The third voice added, the eyes in the window shifting nervously.

"Remember me, Jess?" She called through the wood, turning to make eye contact with the person in the window. She waved at him and he shrunk back. "Can't-shoot-for-shit Anna? You-shot-me-in-the-fucking-head Anna?" Quieting herself down, this time she knocked. "Let me in. I'm unarmed."

"She is unarmed—"

"I don't care if she's unarmed!"

"You owe me a fucking favor, Jess. Let me in. Or, let those soldiers out and then let me in."

"Wh—what? Soldiers? You want the fucking soldiers?"

"I don't like talking through a door," She told him sweetly. "I can barely hear you! Let me in!"

"Am I dreaming right now? Am I in a fucking nightmare?"

"She's real." The second voice droned.

"I just wanna know about Benny. Benny is the one that shot me, right?" She slapped on the door again. "Let me in, tell me where he is, let the fucking soldiers go, and I'll leave you alone. I promise I won't do anything to hurt you, Khans honor. Right?"

A moment of silence sunk into the air before something rustled behind the door. Someone was shuffling a barricade out of the way. A lock clicked, and the handle turned – slowly letting the outside light in. Annie was greeted with a gun, and on the other end was a man she had never seen before. Behind him, however, was Jessup.

Jessup was someone in her head that made her comfortable. It was hard to keep the straight face of a monster, but Annie managed to hold onto it just barely. He was a family member - not a blood brother but a brother all the same. He had a fierce sense of loyalty, which made her heart hurt when she remembered the shovel in his hands at her shallow grave.

He went a ghostly pale at the sight of her, backing himself into the wall.

"Listen, we didn't know it was you! All Benny said was that you was a courier. There was no name, just a destination and the moment we all saw you we knew that we were in too deep." He stammered, trying to straighten himself out to not look like an absolute baby in the face of danger. "How were we supposed to know you grew out your hair and turned into a model citizen?"

Her nostrils flared. "Where is he?"

"The Strip! He's some slimy hotshot from one of the casinos in there." Jessup told her, throwing himself forward to rest his hips against the counter. "He fucking stiffed us too! After all of that shit."

"Where's McMurphy?"

"Dead. Shot by one of those NCR fucks."

Annie sighed, rolling her shoulders before taking a long, dramatic drag of her cigarette.

"Where are they? They said you had some captive." Her words came out smothered in smoke.

"Whaddyou care?" He snapped at her.

"Well, to get my ass in here I had to trade if for their lives, didn't I?" She snapped back. He flinched, hands balling into fists. "And if you let them go, you might just walk away from this with your lives."

"Fine. Fuck off then." He bit at the three captives that were ducked in the room behind him. "Go on, fuck off. All of you. Quickly!"

A spare Khan bent down and nicked the ropes around their ankles and wrists. The shivering recruits all jumped up, making the room flinch. Blood-shot eyes at the door swung it open for them, two filing out easily while the last woman struggled with her limp.

"Wait." She caught the woman by the arm. "Tell your supervisor I'm staying a little longer. They're calm. We're all gonna walk out together and no one else is gonna fucking die. Good?" The woman nodded shakily. "And tell my friend not to go anywhere without me."