Snowflake on the sand
Chapter 16
Helios One had been a resounding success, the power went to those that needed it the most and Winter had found hope for the future. Now Six wondered how they were going to get to the place that the file said but he really did not want to say anything. Winter looked so happy there was no need to bother her with his questions and she would eventually come to the same questions that's what he liked about her. She always seemed to think of a plan, they were similar in a way.
Six as much as he seemed to be a man of action, always tried to be one-step ahead and these quiets moments before the sun rose always gave him time to think. Winter liked to stare at the moon, but to Six that got old quickly there was nothing to be admired there, he preferred to look for bugs in the sky or listen to the sounds that creatures made there was a sense of realism to him one that could only be appreciated on the night.
Novac was quiet and that was the way he liked it, maybe that is why he insisted that they rested there for the night before returning to Nelis. Winter had hit the hay as soon as the sun disappeared on the horizon and Six had managed to catch some sleep but his body disliked staying still for long. So here he was now, a long way to go before the sun rose and nothing to do.
A door was opened from behind him and Six quietly brought out a gun, but before he could turn a familiar sigh reached his ears "What the hell are you still doing here"
"Boone! I missed you buddy how are you?" Six said with a bright smile, to which the sniper replied with a frown "You didn't answer my question"
"Stopped to rest, Novac has a certain charm to it you know" The Courier said as he motioned Boone to sit down, but the sniper rested his back against the wall. Six chuckled at him and handed him a beer to which the sniper shook his head "No, I only stopped by my old place to pick up extra ammo. Tonight I got hunting"
"Legion, so close to Novac?"
"How do you know, maybe I saw some Radscorpions and decided to do my old place a favor" Boone commented but Six saw a small frown form on his mouth "With that type of caliber must be one hell of radscorpion, they must have mutated when I wasn't looking"
Boone gave him a look "You don't want to get involved, this is NCR business"
"And I am part of the NCR in a way, besides you said it yourself snipers work best in pairs" Six said making Boone grunt but the sniper could not help but look at Six confused.
"Why do you want to fight the legion so much, what do you have to gain from making an enemy of the biggest monsters on the wasteland" Boone asked making Six sand up and check the ammo on his weapons "I have something of grudge now, you could say"
"Did they get to your friend? I'm sorry" Boone said sadly, a pain in his eyes that Six could not place.
"No, Winter is fine. But eventually she won't be safe around here. You know how the Legion is, their ideas will never change as long as Caesar lives. So what needs to be done is to start to pick them off and lessen their hold in the Mojave, we all now the battle for Hoover Dam is coming so we cannot let legion have anything" Six said making Boone nod.
"I can see the wisdom in that, a small NCR outpost has been hit and I believe that they took some hostages, we need to be fast. I can take some of them out but if I do that they might kill the hostages"
"Don't you worry about that, they will be distracted" Six said cryptically but Boone nodded, he was planning on doing this alone anyways. The walk was not that long and they arrived in time to see legion roughing up some of their prisoners, Boone took a position that would give him the advantage. As for Six he gave a nod at Boone and threw a grenade at the legionaries.
To his inmense surprise only one of them died, the others ignored the pain of their wounds and opened fired on him. Six cursed and launched himself at them with maria on one hand and on the other the ghost of she, blood splattered on the red armor of the legion, the blood of Courier Six.
Desperate Six took out his grenade launcher and used it point blank, exploding the legionaries in front of him but ripping some chunks of his own flesh off. The pain was almost unbearable, but with Boone working on sniper duty he knew it was just him down at the camp with the legion. There was no time for pain.
Six stabbed himself with as many stimpaks as he could and used all the drugs he had been storing; a legionnaire saw this and smirked "Look at what a filthy wastrel has to do to match the legion"
Machete in hand the soldier brought it down trying to cut Six in half, but he only got a couple of inches deep into the courier's shoulder before his arm was brutally ripped off. With the ghost of she in hand Six launched himself at the rest of the distracted legionnaires that where trying to shoot Boone. The first one died in a lucky hit, but the other legionnaires where not so easy to down, guns and machetes removed most of the courier's armor and some of his flesh but with aid from Boone they managed to down everyone but one legionnaire who laid dying next to the hostages, but before he went down he sank his machete deep into Six's side. Boone made his way next to Six who was vomiting blood and desperately trying to keep his organs inside his body.
Boone used to the sight grabbed some stiches he had saved for himself just in case and got to work. From what he saw there was not much he could do for his shoulder, that required a doctor and he was not one of them so for now he would focus on saving his life so he could reach said doctor.
Moving Six's hand aside he started to patch him up as best as he could "Reckless but effective, you're one of the few crazy bastards that I have seen taking out legion hand to hand. But I recommend that you don't do it so often, maybe I won't be around to help you next time" and with one last painful pull Boone was done.
Six groaned as his eyes burned and his vision refused to focus, signaling Boone to pass him something from his backpack. Boone reached inside and found a lot of alcohol and Buffout, frowning but knowing that it was necessary he passed the entire thing and Six downed almost everything quickly.
"Fuck… those bastards, almost got me" Six managed to say once he was able to think straight, Boone nodded as he aimed at the dying legionnaire with his weapon but Six stopped him. Shoving a Stimpak on the dying soldier Six made him stand back up and glared at him "listen to me you piece of shit, I want you to take this words directly to that bald headed fuck you call your leader"
The legionnaire spat blood at the face of Six, the courier replied by digging his fingers deep into a wound on his arm. The soldier simple glared "When Legate Lanius comes he will wipe the earth clean of you filthy scum"
"When the time comes I will kill him too, but for now just let Caesar know this" Six placed the mark of Caesar on his chest and stabbed in place with a rusty switchblade "Courier Six rejects his offer"
Boone watched the scum that he hated run for his life with a frown "That was pretty stupid, now the Legion will be after you and not their common soldiers, you will have to face their elite assassins. I don't want to be negative but you barely survived when we ambushed them, you are a doomed man"
Six said nothing as he freed the hostages and wiped some blood that was dripping down his nose, the drugs seemed to be taking their toll on him. He tried not to cough because he knew he would just spit blood all over the poor bastards that he had just rescued and he didn't want that for them even if they were Powder Gangers.
Letting them go he finally turned around and vomited blood some more "Maybe you are right Boone, I am not match for legion YET, but we just gave the Mojave some breathing room"
Boone let out a sigh "It pisses me off that the legion can operate so far into NCR territory, we should have more checkpoints and patrols… but you're right we helped out the NCR and sent a large group of bastards kicking all the way down to hell, if only it was always this black and white"
"Want to talk about it?" Six offered
"No"
Winter awoke refreshed and happy, it had been so long since she had felt so driven and ready to take on the world. Taking a quick shower and eating some fruit she exited the room with a small spring to her step, noticing Six she approached him with a smile "Good morning Six!"
Six took some time to reply but he gave her a weak smile "Hello Winter, you look very happy today" Winter narrowed her eyes as Six could barely stand up, but managed to make it to the door without firing up any other of her alarms.
"We should get going, we need to make a stop at the New Vegas clinic I think I might have fucked up"
Inter tilted her head in confusion but followed her friend anyways "What do you mean, Six what did you do to yourself?" Six chuckled as he gave a raspy breath "Legion, they cut me up a little bit nothing serious but it's really annoying so we best get moving"
Winter saw some blood drip down from his closed jacket making her not buy the idea that he had simply gotten a little roughed up "Then let's run, I won't have you die on me because of an infected cut"
"Aww I like it when you care" Six with a grin Winter tried to smile back but his face was so pale, way too pale. Six always had a bit of a tan but now his skin was as pale as hers and for someone who had been living his entire life on the Mojave that was not normal. Winter tried to start some conversation but Six replied with mostly grunts or something along the lines of "We must get to New Vegas". Winter at one point wanted to rip off the stupid leather jacket and see the damage for herself but she stopped herself just because Six looked as if a strong wind could kill him. So for now Winter waited and walked that seemed to be eternal.
"Almost there Winter" Six grunted out as some blood dripped from his chin and Winter saw him stumble, reacting quickly she cached him before he could hit the ground "You're so sweet, you know that? Let me take you out for a drink after this"
"Stop talking, save your strength" Winter ordered, the courier on her shoulder chuckled "Don't make it sound like I am dying"
"You are dying! And you didn't even have the decency to tell me!" Winter yelled at him as she dragged him a little bit faster towards the clinic.
Six let out a sad sigh "I thought I could get here without you noticing, guess I'm not as strong as I thought" he said as Winter gripped him tighter ignoring the lump that formed on her throat.
Once they reached the clinic Winter kicked the door open "I need a doctor!" the followers of the apocalypse took some time to react but when they saw the wounded man quickly rushed to his aid. As they removed his clothes to see the damage Winter gasped as she saw the horrible looking gash on his stomach and the wound on his shoulder "This is serious, get him to the operating table" the doctor yelled as she pushed the door open leaving Winter alone on the room.
Not knowing what to do with herself she sat down and waited, from the room she could hear nothing but muffled voices and the occasional curse. After what Winter was sure were hours the doctor finally left the room followed by her companions, motioning Winter to come to the desk so she could write down something down "He's fine, are you close to him?"
"Yes" Winter replied as she wrote down her name and placed a generous amount of caps on the table "Good, then you need to hear this. The wounds that he received recently while worrisome where easily mended what isn't is the damage that his organs have been through"
Winter blinked in confusion, so the doctor elaborated "To put it bluntly, his heart is about to explode and the rest of his organs are not faring better either. He has a failing liver, coupled with a damaged nervous system and to top it all off we cannot understand how he is still walking and breathing, he should have died years ago" the doctor said.
"why are you telling me all this?" Winter asked in a shaky voice and the doctor let out a sad sigh "Because you're attached emotionally to him. So do yourself a favor and don't get closer"
Winter stared in shock unable to process what had just being said, she nodded dumbly and watched as Six walked out of the operating room with another doctor. Six was drilling the young doctor with questions "…so you're telling me that this implant can make me better in every way Doctor Usanagi?"
"It increase many of your abilities yes, but its and incredibly dangerous procedure and even more so in your… condition" the doctor said looking down at his newly recovered side and to the complete surprise of Winter the paleness was slowly going away and the man she knew was slowly coming back to normality.
Six spotted Winter and with a nod Doctor Usanagi let go of him so he waddled towards Winter, the specialist said a quiet thank you and left the building with her friend close to her. There was an eerie quietness that Winter could not bring herself to end it.
Six for his end was looking through his finances on his PipBoy as ideas swarmed his mind and his posture quietly corrected itself. Six no longer dragged his feet and little by little he outpaced Winter not noticing that he had left her behind.
"Six"
"Winter"
A slap was heard across the dessert as an irate Winter glared at the taller man in front of her "You deaf, irresponsible FUCKING moron!"
Six raised his eyebrows but Winter continued "I told you! Don't you dare leave me and what is the first thing you do? Fucking get yourself gutted like a fucking fish! Grimm are more intelligent than you at least they think before getting killed"
Six gave her a look "I had no time to tell you, Legion was near and we needed to save some hostages. Trust me, I also don't like getting as you put it, fucking gutted, but such is life"
Winter tried to argue, but she came up blank. Tired she rubbed her eyes as the stress kept mounting up "It should not be like this"
"I feel like we already had this conversation before"
"Because apparently nothing gets through your head, not bullets and not my words" Winter said coldly but she could not stay mad. Was it really Six's fault? If he did not have time to say anything then what was she supposed to argue. Was it fair to tell him to not rescue those people?
Noticing that Winter was in inner turmoil Six placed his hand on her shoulder and pulled her in for a half hug "Look thank you for worrying, I mean it and if it helps you I will probably think about telling you before doing anything dumb" he said with slight humor to his voice. Winter gave a small snort but hugged him back.
"You're dying, the doctor said that you have been sick for a long time" Winter told him as he rubbed her hair. The Courier gave a nod "Yeah, she also told me that. If she wanted she could have just called me a freak to be honest, but I think you both have missed something important"
"And what is that?"
"That If I should have died years ago, I think its safe to say that I might have cheated dead already. When have I looked sick since we met? Never, and I don't feel anything wrong with me"
"Or you might just drop dead any minute" Winter said as she looked at him with a small frown, to which Six replied with a shrug and a smile. "And that's the gamble of life isn't it? You take what the world gives you and smile"
"… when we go back to my world I'm going to have the best doctors look at you, so survive until then"
Six chuckled and nodded "Can do, but for now I think we should get back to Pearl and fix those panels"
For Winter the next few days flew by incredibly quickly, once the panels where fixed and Six managed to convince Pearl to let a caravan girl meet a boomer. Pearl and Loyal finally accepted them enough to tell the duo of the Lady in the Water, an intact aircraft on the bottom of the lake which they needed to recover.
The entire ordeal went by incredibly fast, Six swam and attached the ballasts needed and with a simple press of a button the plane was brought back from the depths of the cold water.
With the plane safely brought back to the surface the boomers had completely opened up and labeled them as one of them and the promise in their aid for the battle for hoover damn.
"Of course my child, we will aid you on the battle to come. I will have the young ones run drills and Loyal to get the Lady prepared for this momentous occasion. I cannot thank you enough, both of you have shown me that maybe it's time for us to finally meet the outside world"
Winter satisfied with her work with the Boomers returned to the lucky 38 to investigate on the computers there anything about big mountain. As the hours passed she felt her head start to grow heavy and searched for a cold glass of water. As she drank she was approached by Viktor "Howdy there miss, there's a young man calling for you outside the main door. Well he's actually calling for our friend the mailman but he said he needed to do some stuff and if anything came up to bother you"
Winter rolled her eyes and walked to the elevator "Thank you Viktor I will see what he wants", as the giant door opened she was greeted by one of the chairman from the tops. Winter gave him the glare she used to give to civilians "What do you need?"
"Ah cool, you're that Courier's girlfriend right? We have the things that he paid for, the suit has been cleaned and we also diverted power to Benny's room"
"The power?" Winter asked surprised to which the chairman shrugged as he handed her a bag with what she assumed to be a suit "Don't know why he wants the room of the dude he iced to have more power but he paid for it, can you let him know"
Winter gave a nod "Sure, I will tell him"
"Ring a ding baby, see you around" and with that Winter was left alone to her thoughts, reaching inside the bag she found a familiar checkered suit.
Winter put it back in the bag and returned to her search for information, not wanting to think too much about her… she didn't even know what to call him at this point.
Who was Courier Six really? What did he do, and what was he planning now?
A/N: I think the reason why I love Legion so much is because of how tough they are to kill, leagues above any raider and even the NCR. See you around!