Snowflake in the Sand

Chapter 22

Dead Money

xAs she crawled on the cold Stone Winter realized how weird the air around her tasted as if there was blood on her mouth; with each breath her nose burned and her lungs felt as if they were being squeezed by and invisible hand. Six stirred next to her once she was close enough, Winter quickly placed both her hands on his face as she tried to look at him "I… must have really died, I see and angel" Six said as a week smile made its way onto his face. Winter gave a sad smile as she stared into his eye, not finding the courage to look into the hollow socket that had been his other eye. "You're seeing things Six" Winter said as her gaze wondered towards his leg, there was nasty bite there but it seemed to have healed already. "Six, do you…do you think you will…" Winter trailed off, as she didn't have the courage to say it.

"Do I think I'm going to live?" Six finished, he looked down at his body and did a double take at his leg "I'm in agony and a little sleepy, but that's a good sign if I didn't feel anything I would be really worried… my eye, really fucking hurts". There was silence as Winter held his hand tightly and Six understood as he let out a sad sigh. "Well…I… think that… it's not there anymore is it" Winter felt herself hold back tears as she buried her face in his neck, not caring about the collar on his neck.

"I'm sorry"

Six hugged her back with shaky hands "Fuck…" was all he could say.

There was so much Winter wanted to say but there was no way she could say it "Winter the fountain" Six said as he tried to reach for a weapon that was not there, Winter jumped and almost stumbled on her faulty leg. "Can you hear me?" a raspy and cruel voice said as the hologram of an old man came into view.

"Who are you?" Winter said as she glared, but the old man didn't seem to care about her questions. "Good, you are awake so listen to me. If you do not listen if you try to leave and even if you talk back, the collar goes off" Winter felt as if electricity slithered across her neck.

"… then what do you want us to do?" Six said as the hologram turned to look at him "So you survived, seems like the FEV reject found you too disgusting to eat. But that does not matter now, you will listen to me now" the hologram said as he waited for a second before he resumed "Do you see that structure above the fountain, the Sierra Madre? You're going to open it, a heist too many years in the making… far too many years, a place from the old world a place to begin again its gran opening held the meaning of hope; but it never came the war froze it in time. A lightbulb that never got the chance to shine and now you will make it open and reveal its secrets to me"

There was a pause as both Winter and Six swallowed all that information "How do you plan on opening it? And where do we factor in all of this?" Six asked but the hologram didn't respond at first but it did let out an amused snort "You? If I could I would have killed you, but your collar is linked to hers for some reason, maybe the proximity caused the frequencies to link but it hardly matters so you just try not die. As for her… well, the only way inside the casino is to trigger an event but one person alone cannot activate it, so she will need to find the other three collars" the hologram said as both their PipBoys updated automatically.

"You should we able to find them by tracking them with your PipBoy and yes. I have access to that little device on your wrists, it was simple enough after all it's just a little bit of old world technology" Winter frowned as she saw how there was a map of a new area simply called The Village; from what her PipBoy showed the closest signal seemed to be the one coming from the police station. "Any one in particular do you think she should go to first" Six commented as he placed his shoulder on the fountain to stabilize himself.

"Yes, the FEV reject. He is the most docile and obedient given that his stomach his full, thanks to you I think that would be the case" Six grunted as he looked at his leg "You keep saying FEV like I know what it is"

"The forced evolutionary virus, the cause of the disgusting super mutants with a long story that does NOT matter to you right now" the hologram said as the electricity started to dance around their necks, Winter stood up as best as she could and leveled a glare at the hologram. "Then I need to get going"

The hologram remained quiet for a second "I would advise you do, the village inhabitants they might not wait for you to come to them, even if you manage to defeat one in combat they would just get back up… they are unnatural like that so be ready"

Winter gritted her teeth as she took the first steps forward, a hand reached for hers before she left, Six grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. Winter grimaced as blood fell from his body, he was normally much taller than her but because he could not use his wounded leg correctly she was almost face to face to him.

"Stay safe, I will stay here and collect all I can from around the fountain. Maybe chat with our new friend… good luck Winter" Six said as he began to limp away but Winter stopped him, there was so much she wanted to say. So much that there was brewing on her heart but there was little she could say, but maybe she did not need to say a thing. She always believed that action spoke louder than words so she placed both hands on his head and placed a soft kiss on his lips "For luck"

Six smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder giving it a soft squeeze "Lady luck always smile at me…" his smile disappeared when from behind Winter he spotted two green orbs staring at them before disappearing into a red mist, looking at the fountain he spotted a bizarre looking weapon close to them now that the red fog did not cloud his eye. "… and it hasn't stopped yet, take this thing" Six said as he reached for the weapon carefully looking at the ammo type, frowning slightly he placed the weapon on her hands "It uses micro-fusion cells but it feels like my grenade launcher so here's what you need to do, try to be as stealthy as you can because the reload on this is not going to be fast… and you only have twenty shots". Winter felt a sense of dread creep into her heart as she realized just how little shots she had, but there was no time to feel fear.

"Stay safe Six please" Winter said as she followed the marker on her PipBoy her leg aching as she tried to walk, the only sound around was the horrible noise of static from long dead machines. As she left the fountain area the air seemed to get thinner or there was simply more of that red dust in the air, Winter could not tell. She accidently kicked something that felt like a coin making her stop her slow walk towards the Police Station "What is this?" she muttered as she picked it up, the small golden chip had a great amount of detail to it depicting a woman with a flower on her head. The words SM where carved into it, the Sierra Madre Winter assumed.

As she looked at the collapsed buildings and broken monuments a sad feeling came over here, frozen in time the skeletons held bottles and Sierra Madre chips, their last thought on a good time or hitting big at the casinos, Winter felt small and the feeling of nausea begun again, she was the anomaly here.

Among the dead and "…the inhabitants of the casino have found you" the old man's voice said from her pipboy, as the green eyes of a masked figure lunged at her with spear in hand. Winter cursed as she barely avoided the weapon truly hitting her but it did draw blood she hit the creature with the butt of her riffle as she put some distance with the creature, taking the shot she hit him square in the head the blue light startling her but it made the creature falter for a second. She produced a sharp piece of ice and launched it towards the creature piercing its torso and sticking him to the nearest wall.

The creature let out a hiss, but it did not seem to care that much as he slowly pushed towards her, its body dripping green and translucence blood that made Winter blink in confusion "What the fuck are you?"

The creature did not answer but it did raise his spear again, Winter covered her entire fist in ice and slammed it with all her strength against its face. The glasses cracked and more blood oozed but the creature refused to die. Winter raised her fist as she slammed her fist over and over again until a large splat was heard and her face was covered in green blood. Swallowing hard she took a shaky step back as her lungs burned as the red cloud entered her body, her hand bled as the ice shards started to melt with her warm blood. She stumbled away from the carnage trying to recuperate a little, as a way to distract herself she read the words carved on the walls.

"God?" she mumbled as what seemed to be rambles where spread all over the walls leading to the police station, graffiti also was on the walls but the graffiti was more coherent, a clear message of greed and a warning to all to those unfortunate enough to read it. "The treasure is mine and mine alone" she read to herself as she resumed her walk towards her objective, hearing the wailing of the ghosts that now inhabited the villa Winter opted to stick to the shadows. As she looked down at her bloodied hand she knew there was something wrong with her, her aura was not kicking in. Every time she tried to feel it or even trigger it a sharp pain came over her body.

She could not risk an injurie, not with how battered she felt already. The creatures had gathered close to a fountain and they were guarding the police station, a faint noise reached her ears. Metal hitting metal reputedly, coming from the police station. The FEV subject as the old man said, was making way too much noise for her to sneak past the creatures. Looking for other option she spotted the familiar green glow of a terminal. Moving as quietly as she could Winter made its way towards the computer, with a couple of buttons and fast hands she felt a small smile make its way to her lips as she successfully managed to hack it.

She finally understood why technology on Earth seemed to not have progressed more; they made their machines to survive a nuclear holocaust and for that, Winter was grateful.

The machine had limited access to information but Winter gathered that the machine that she had seen as she walked the villa seemed to be kind of a big deal, a dispenser of drinks and fresh food. So she doubted there would be anything that had not rotten away a long time ago, but for now she moved on to the hologram control.

"A distraction would be nice" she muttered to herself, as she activated the hologram a faint blue light illuminated the small plaza, Winter heard the creatures hiss and flee at the sight of the blue light, once she checked there was no one around she walked next to the hologram as it stared at her. It was creepy she concluded in her head, she waved at it hoping for a reaction but it simply stared ahead, waiting for an order that she could not provide.

But for now all she needed was to get the other person with the collar and get out of here, so with that in mind she moved towards the door of the police station stopping only for a moment to read the last message carved on the wall. "See me below, where God lies so we might talk and the Dog can't lie" Winter raised an eyebrow at the message but shook her head. Edgy poetry would have to wait because the door opened as the dusty inside of the police station came to view, the first thing that Winter noticed was how some radios seemed to be on, projecting the same song over and over again. The music did not bother her until she felt electricity dance around her neck again "It seems that the radios interfere with the collars, stay too close and the bomb will activate find a way to disable that old world junk" the old man said as he took over her PipBoy. Winter frowned as she tried to pinpoint the radios forming sharp icicles to launch at them.

The first was easy to find, sitting on a desk with its light slowly flickering that made it easier to shatter into pieces "… begin again…" was the last thing that the radio managed to transmit before it died. Winter let out a sigh as the electricity stopped around her neck, she briefly wondered if her aura would be able to tank an explosion strong enough to blow her head off, she also wondered if she could freeze the bomb but she did not want to risk it.

The rattling of a cage was heard as she wondered deeper into the police station and to her surprise a massive Super Mutant was in cage, shaking the cage as it muttered over and over how hungry it was "I only took a bite, I didn't get to eat him" was the one comment that made Winter narrow her eyes. She needed to get this beast to work for them, but she could not see any way to open the cage.

As she looked around for a door or a lock that she could lock pick she destroyed most of the radios, but the FEV subject did not seem to mind the beeping coming from her collar or his… even if Winter could not see it, she could hear it. A cruel reminder of what was to come if she did not cooperate. As the last radio fell silent, she spotted a lone terminal on the desk.

"NO! He lives there!" the prison cage rattled under the strength of the super mutant as he launched himself towards Winter as she approached the terminal, making her jump away with a small yelp of fear, the scared look on the mutant's face as his bloodied teeth chattered gave Winter pause. "Who?" she managed to squeak out as the super mutant held his head "The voice, it's always angry only and yells at Dog, it doesn't care that Dog's hungry" the super mutant, Dog she assumed started to rock himself back and forth as his nail dug into his head and blood started to fall to the floor.

Winter gulped as she resumed her walking towards the terminal, but she found nothing of note only a simple audio log "Go to the basement, if you are who you think you are, then you're here for Dog. I won't let that happen… not until I talk to you"

Dog covered his ears and whimpered, as his clawing grew worse and blood fell to the ground more quickly, Winter looked away from the unpleasant imagery and towards the basement of the police station. She could try to lock pick it but she really doubted she could negotiate with the beast inside, even if she had a command on her PipBoy, recorded by the man that was controlling them.

But she just couldn't bring herself to trust this… thing, a super mutant was already a menace, but an unhinged super mutant was not something she would place her trust and her life.

So with her mind made up, she walked towards the stairs with images of another massive nightkin waiting for her at the bottom. But to her surprise there where only a room full of broken machinery, a radio and something that scrambled her PipBoy. Winter frowned as she walked towards a small data log sitting on the table, as she played the audio log it contained she was met with a deep and unfamiliar voice.

"There you are, so you came to me at last. Maybe you saw what I carved on the villa walls, but it does not matter… if you are who I think you are, then you have como for Dog. But I cant let you that, not yet. I am in control here and that beast won't leave until I see you… just play the command tape to the beast that is all I ask and then… just you and I, we can talk"

Winter felt her hand drop as she let out a large sigh, another order to follow. Not seeing anything else she would amuse the voice and so she headed back and prepared to play the audio, Dog was now quietly sobbing as he bit his own hand "I'm so hungry" a small pang of pity hit her hearth as she played the audio and the small phrase changed the creature in the cage.

"Dog, back in the cage"

The biting stopped and an annoyed growl came from the creature as it stood to its full height, placing a hand on his head. Winter swore she heard his teeth almost crack as his face twisted in fury.

"You… are not who I was expecting, why are you here"

Winter raised an eyebrow "You… I see, so you're the other voice. The one who commands Dog"

"Clever… and you are wearing a PipBoy, maybe you are of use to me. It would seem that you really are working with HIM, or maybe for him would be the correct way to say it. Seeing that you have a bomb strapped to your neck, how foolish of you to let greed of all things control you"

Winter glared at the creature "I did not choose to come here, I was dragged to this hell by that old fuck"

"The old man, the one who tried to hold the sun in the palm of his hand. Elijah, the old man… I should have known he would not have come in person, Dog would come running if asked but me, God… I could wait a bit more"

Winter shook her head "No, there's a way out of here. We just need to work together and…"

Chuckling made her stop mid-sentence as God let out something similar to a chuckling noise "And why would I follow you anywhere? You're nothing more than a pawn just like Dog, you have no real control" Winter narrowed her eyes "Because whether we like it or not, you and I need to work together. The bomb, which I know you have, will kill us if we do not play the role of pawn for now"

God simply stared "I could escape you know, break every limb in your body and live you perched towards the Sierra Madre so you know just how close you were to achieve your goal… only to die slowly and painfully. And worse for you I walk away as my collar goes quiet at last"

Winter walked up to the cell bars and stared up at the super mutant "You wouldn't be able to put a finger on me before I rip you to shreds and besides… you would not be in control of your body, you have the key I know you do. You activated the alarms around the police station, you activated all those radios, because you're scared of him, he can control the beast while you can't and I have just the thing"

Winter raised her PipBoy "I have a command here, from the Old Man. And I can make sure you go back to the cage God" the steel cage almost broke under the strength of the super mutant as he pushed and gritted his teeth at her "Don't do that, you do and I will kill you… you have no idea how much pain the human body can go through before it dies!". Winter looked at the bars and then back at him "You sure picked out a strong cage, guess Dog really needs to be controlled, lucky for me you're also Dog… in a weird way"

Winter let out a sigh as she lowered her PipBoy and rubbed her eyes "Look, I know you don't trust me and you have every reason not to but we need each other and… I can show you that you can trust me"

God released his deadly grip from the metal bars as he took a step back "And how would you do that?"

"I can bring out Dog, I have power over you… but I wont, I choose not to" Winter said as God gave her a look, a tense silence followed as the massive Nightkin studied Winter. "No, you wouldn't… even if Dog is so much more easy to control, you might regret this you know he is more vicious than the creatures here. To have him on your side would be a great advantage"

Winter frowned "I really don't care for that, I rather deal with you"

God laughed as he retrieved the key and pushed the door open "No… you don't belong here, I really don't think you belong here. I will follow you for now so lead the way clever one"

Winter took a step back as the super mutant's shadow covered her completely. With his back straightened he was easily the biggest sentient creature she had ever met, shaking her head she looked towards her map and decided it would be best to return to the fountain. So with her new companion she retraced her steps only stopping to aid Gog as he was attacked by a bizarre resident with what looked like to be a bear trap on his hand.

Winter waited for God to land a massive blow to the creature before she intercepted it with an ice spike to the throat, God saw an opening and dug his fingers in the wound that Winter had made ripping off the head entirely.

"Disgusting creatures, to think that the idiot could not eat one of this and swallowed his collar" God muttered as Winter turned to look at him in surprise "The bomb, is inside… won't the acid… you know"

God shook his head as he made a gesture towards his chest area "It's stuck, I can feel it… that idiot, he needs to think before he does… chew before he swallows, to him the bomb looked like a radscorpion and now here I am, I almost got away and then the idiot swallowed"

Winter shivered "Yeah, I don't regret working with you instead of him. Come I need to make sure that Six is ok" as she approached the fountain she immediately noticed that something was different, there was a lot of blood on the floor but it was distinct green ooze like substance of the ghost people, Winter narrowed her eyes as she spotted a lone figure ripping of a spear from a dead body.

"This things, they sure can take so punishment" Six said as Winter approached him, he leveled a small glare at the dead body "It's hard to loot around the place, if I have ten of this things on my ass" Winter felt hope rise in her chest as Six rose to his full height and armed with his new weapons he gave her a wave.

"But even they can't heal a missing head" Six made a punching gesture as the bear trap made a loud clang noise, Winter walked up to him and gave him a small hug "How are you holding up?" Courier Six returned the hug as he felt the stare fo the super mutant on him.

"Better, the Sierra Madre chips they can be exchanged on the machines for almost everything, I stopped the bleeding and got some food, here you go" Six said as he placed a small sandwich on her hands, Winter raised an eyebrow as Six grinned "Come on give it bite"

"Six this is two hundred years old" Winter said as she inspected the sandwich, half expecting to see a spider crawl fron underneath the lettuce, but her brain quickly made a small click. Lettuce would have never last that long, no matter how artificial it might be and the cheese looked as fresh as if she had ordered it from a restaurant.

Hesitantly she took a bite and small moan escaped her lips "What… this is amazing, how is this possible?"

Six shrugged as he tossed a can of water towards God, who simply glared at him "I have no idea, the machines I have yet to understand but I am sure we will figure out more when we get into the casino, so who is your friend?"

God approached Six and glared down at him "The clever one I can tolerate, but you. Stuck in hell and still trying to go on like nothing happened, Dog should have destroyed your body and devoured you"

Six snorted as he raised his hands in a mock surrender "We don't need to fight you ugly son of a bitch, I am not your enemy and besides to me this is no hell…" God moved his hand as if he was swatting a fly. But to Winter's and God's surprise Six ducked with his injured leg and jammed his fist on the stomach of the super mutant, God gasped as he stumbled backwards.

"My hell is a dark hole from the old world filled with pulsating flesh, eyes that stared at my soul and hundreds of YOUR kind. I have killed so many of you I know where to hurt you, no matter what you think you're still just flesh and bone Father" God gave him a look before he started laughing. "I see… I have heard of you, was it not enough to burn your own home? Now you have to burn a new place, following the Bear like always it makes sense that you're here with me, in hell. Because make no mistake no matter what you think, the Madre will break you soon enough little hero"

Six glared for a second but stopped as he shook his head and extended his hand towards the super mutant "For now, who the fuck cares about the past or the future. Let's just get the hell out of here"

God took the hand and yanked Six to the floor as he stood up "You can't hide forever that you're dying, how much did that punch take out of you? But I respect the courage"

Winter relaxed as Six flipped him off but did not try to retaliate, seeing that the fumes had died down she looked down to her PipBoy "Elijah said that there were three signals, God is the first and now we have two more to go, Six I hate ask but…"

Six raised his hand "No need to worry, I can manage" he then turned to God as he grinned "Now more than ever after all I got a new friend to watch my back, the sooner we finish this the better. My leg still kind of hurts and so does my… only eye, but Med-X can take care of that" Six said as Dog snorted at him, muttering something about addictions. Winter for her part stared at Six as she tried to see any lies on his face, but there was none that she could see. He had fought many of the creatures, he should be able to handle himself with God by his side, stealth was not an option for either of them from the looks of it.

"Fine, I will go to the residential district. No Six is not up for debate, find whatever medical supplies and lets meet back here, please be careful" Six let out a sigh as he turned to God "Follow in my footsteps" the mutant told his as he made his way towards the medical are. Six brought out a small rag as he wiped his remaining eye, Winter felt a pang of worry as she noticed how bloodshot it was, his green iris seemed to dim and it seemed to be changing to an almost blood red. Six noticed her staring a and gave a sigh "There's denser clouds of the red thing around the place, they burn if you stay too long on them, I don't feel poisoned but man did it fuck up my eye, be careful Winter. The residential area will be crawling with this things, stick to the shadows"

Six grabbed her hand and gave it a short squeeze, before he moved to her PipBoy "Father Elijah mentioned something about how we could intercept the signals of the collars, he gave a half assed explanation the asshole but I think I can… there!" Six grinned as a faint signal came on as if she was listening through a radio.

"It's small but I think that we can use to communicate between PipBoys so need anything, just tune in to radio Six. I might not be mister New Vegas but I think I can be cool from time to time" Winter smiled as she nodded at him "I will, don't die yet you promised to get me home remember?"

The courier snorted "Don't worry, I'm almost immortal" he said with a wink as he started to walk towards where his PipBoy marked the location of the next collar, Winter looked down at the Sandwich and gave it a another bite a small pat of her remembered the sandwiches that Klein used to make for them behind her father's back. A small smile made it's way to her lips as the image of her little sister giggling as they ate past their bed time as she held her baby brother on her arms, who even if he could not speak was more than happy to partake in their little escapade to the kitchen.

"How long have I been here?" she muttered as her internal calendar tried desperately to make sense of the past events, it scaled to months she realized. Two or three, the battle of hoover damn seemed to be a cloud over everything on the Mojave just like the red cloud hung above the Sierra Madre.

A horrible feeling made her realize that her family had probably declared her dead, another soldier fallen to the enemy in an endless war. Would Weiss be ok without her? She wanted her little sister to keep fighting for her dreams, had she participated in the festival like she planned? Winter hopped that Weiss had not stopped because of her, or that her mother blamed herself and sunk deeper into alcoholism.

Winter entered a torn down house as she avoided a patrol of ghost people, the building to her surprise looked lived in, a hot plate was on as the water boiled so Winter carefully shut it off so it wouldn't burn everything as she looked around. There was a small suitcase bellow the symbol of a hand, carefully hidden on the wall, Winter felt a sense of relief as a stimpak, a doctor bag and small pistol fell to the ground as she opened the suitcase.

Quickly tending to her wound Winter breathed a sigh of relief as she felt the bandages and the stimpak work its wonders. The specialist felt rejuvenated and did a couple of practice kicks and punches, she felt good enough to try to summon her aura again but to her surprise it felt as if nothing happened. The glow of it seemed to flicker as if weak, but Winter did not understand she felt physically fine, was her sould weakend or something akin to that.

She pondered on that for a moment, but she didn't think so. She still had her resolve, her will to fight Atlas might have made her into a soldier but she always had an unbreakable will. There was something missing something that she couldn't put her finger on, as she put on a new piece of armor she found. one worn by the Sierra Madre guards she was surprised by something, red particles danced in the air against her bare skin making it so that faint golden lights danced across her body.

It hit her like a lightning bolt, this thing was corrosive and radioactive, eating away at the body of its victims, that's why Six felt so sick. Why God and Dog felt nothing, they were super mutants, born with ticker skin and resistance to radiation. Her aura was working just fine, it was just too busy stopping the cloud from eating away at her body. Any attack would face through "Not good, that's not good at all" Winter muttered as passed a hand through her hair.

She briefly checked to see if it was still white and to her immense relief it was, it seemed that the cloud preferred skin and eyes.

The rest of her walk was long and spent deactivating a concerning a mount of traps, the ghost people seemed far to concerned with the screams of their kind coming from the other side of the villa. Seems like Six and God where having a battle on the other side of the villa, she mentally made a note to tell Six that noise attracted the creatures so he should try to keep it to a minimum.

The marker on her PipBoy told her that she was close as she approached a tall apartment building, so wasting no time she crouched down and gently tiptoed her way towards the entrance. The door had already been torn to shreds by something big but the body parts told her that the traps had taken care of whatever was trying to break inside and so she walked up following the beeping collar, as she approached a torn down building she spotted a dense cloud that Six was talking about. She held her breath and ran as quickly as she could and to her surprise her skin felt as it was being pierced by a thousand needles at a time, her aura flared and it flickered violently as small rays o light escaped her body.

As she managed to pass the cloud, the feeling of her lungs being squeezed by an invisible hand returned. She spotted a nearby chair and sat down to recuperate, the window gave a good view of the villa. The mountains seemed familiar to her, she had spotted some of them when they had passed the river to meet with Caesar.

"A day of walk at most" she muttered to herself as she felt she was good enough to continue, so she walked towards the other collar and to her surprise a beautiful view of the casino left her speechless for a second. One of the few building untouched by the bombs, shielded from scavengers and raiders, the cloud both a blessing and a curse to the abandoned villa.

"Quite the view isn't it, even after staying here for so many years I still find this place so attractive… oh so captivating" a voice came as Winter turned to the side as a ghoul gazed at the building its voice held no love for the place, rather a desire and a need. Winter felt as if the voice was familiar but said nothing as she approached the ghoul "Please have a seat then we can have a chat" the ghoul said with a neutral face as he gestured to the seat next to him "I rather stand" Winter said but the ghoul simply shook his head. "No need to do so, call me old fashion but I refuse to talk before my guests are seated."

Winter narrowed her eyes at him but sat down nonetheless as she felt soething peculiar under the cushion of the seat, the smile of the ghoul changed into a grin "Now, I believe that we have things to discuss"

Winter frowned "You placed a bomb, really?"

The ghoul laughed "Looks like you have done so blue collared work on your days well done my dear… but that doesn't change the fact that I have control"

He raised a control "Move, or do something that I don't like and I will blast your ass so far up into the sky that it will turn the moon cherry pie red, is that understood"

Winter felt a small smile make its way onto her lips, ah so he didn't know.

"Then by all means, go on" Winter gestured towards him as the ghoul smiled "And that's what I missed a rapt audience, so here is the situation my dear. I have been here for a very long time, but then you tourist came here and ruined everything I was so close I had finally figured it out, the great Dean Domino would finally break the Sierra Madre and break Sinclair's little castle… But something happened to me, I don't know who or what hit me in the back of the head and placed this bowtie on me and seeing that you have it too, I want answers"

"Bowtie is a weird way to describe a bomb" Winter started as she placed a hand on her collar and pointed at the red lights "This things are linked. The man who made it, Elijah, needs us to work together to open the casino. A heist to acquire everything that the casino has, sadly none of us volunteered. If we disobey or if we try to leave or take this off, the bombs go off and even worse if someone else dies we all die" Winter's smile widened as Dean's own disappeared.

"No… that's no way. This is no mere heist, this would be the heist of the millennia there is NOTHING like the madre and I wont let an upstart take it from me and oh why on earth would I work with you? Tourist who is here against her whill and the first chance she gets she bolts out of the Madre. I refuse" Dean said as he glared at her but Winter simply shrugged her shoulders "You can say no but that won't change a thing, I don't think you want to die. What you want is right there" Winter said as she pointed towards the building "So fall in line and carry out the plan, because I won't tell if you run off with everything the Madre has to offer"

Dean let out a sigh "You say that, but how can I be sure you won't betray me?"

Winter gave him a look "There is no way to prove it, you will have to trust me" there was a moment of silence but Dean shut off the bomb as eh stood up he gave her a look "Looks like marriage finally caught up to me then, lead the way then partner" the sarcasm was so palpable that it was almost comical.

"We sneak out of here; I think our conversation attracted the locals so follow my lead" Winter said but Dean stopped her "No need to take the scenic route, I know of a shortcut allow me to lead the way"

Winter nodded "Sure, the sooner we get out of here the better" before she left she raised her PipBoy and tuned in to Six's signal "Six, I'm on my way to the fountain. Is everything ok on your end?"

There was silence but soon enough a loud booming noise came from the other side of the villa, then Six's voice responded through her PipBoy "How the fuck was I supposed to know that he also had a bomb fuckk off you mutant f…oh hey Winter sorry I was busy could you repeat that"

Winter rubbed her eyes "I asked how is your operation going"

"Ah yeah, we are just outside the hospital the locals in the area are all dead I think found many stimpacks and doctor's bags, but I found something even better. Get this, the Madre chips create food and resources out of air and particles from the cloud I don't really know how yet but what I do know is that it was made on Big Mountain" Winter stopped her pacing as it clicked "Do you think we can find more of Big Mountain inside the casino?"

"Positive, our best bet is the casino archives, records or hell even information brochures but there has to be info on the thing there. I wont break my promise don't worry" Six voice came softly as Winter felt her heart do a little skip.

"I got to go, God says he won't enter the hospital. The walls are too small for him or something; I will send him back to the fountain with the supplies I will rendezvous when ready"

Winter frowned but time was short "Be careful Six… and thank you for the information, maybe we can find something good in this hell. I'll see you in the fountain"

"Sure see you there" Six said as he turned off the radio, God grabbed the last bag and gave Six a look "The ghost people refuse to enter this building, something is in there that they fear"

"Don't worry trust me on this" Six said as he looked at the untouched building, God snorted "Trust is such a strong word, I would prefer if we use mutual need to survive. Don't die just yet, the NCR would hate lose their lap dog" Six rolled his eye "I'm more on the side of New Vegas buddy but sure whatever"

God gave him a look but shook his head "I too would have liked to forget my past, if the past was forgotten Dog would stop being so subservient to the one he calls master"

"Elijah? Is he slaver as well, he really is a piece of crap isn't he?" Six said as he handed God more of the Stimpaks he had managed to scavenge, but God never took them. He was too busy staring at his scars "No, master is a word that Elijah exploited. Dog used to serve not a master but The Master, it commanded an army of super mutants when the NCR was just an idea. But when he was gone Dog wandered with a hunger that could not be sated or that he could understand, Elijah somehow exploited this and got perfect muscle for his operation"

"The Master…" Six muttered as something in the back of his fought to come out, a fear that he did not understand, Six grunted as he forced the memories to go away. God gave him a look "They say we remember our lives when our time is coming up, please make sure that you die once we all live the villa"

"Yeah, meet up with Winter I will get the person inside of this place" Six waved him off as she walked inside the building immediately noticing how something was off in the room, it was cold. Far too cold and too well-lit for an abandoned building "Seems like someone redecorated wouldn't you say Kurt" Six said as he started to fiddle around with a terminal. When no one answered he laughed "Ah yeah, it's just a voice in my head"

He laughed it off but it worried him, he wanted his head to focus on the present but it kept dragging him to the past and more specifically to the Divide. There where screams and damnation, he did something. He felt guilt, Courier Six had done something there that he wanted to change. But his mind refused to answer and instead started to whisper things with voices that did not make sense. Faces fading into ash as they expressed hate, love and admiration.

Cold sweat covered him as the words on the terminal refused to focus. Six felt as if he was going to faint so in a desperate attempt he sank his fingers into the hollow eye socket as pain flared up and his body focused in the present.

Gasping for air Six cursed as he felt the pain roll through his body "I really… hate the Legion" he muttered as he looked around the front desk for something to use for the pain. There was a stimpak and some code for the machines on the villa, Six quickly pocketed it and made a mental note to give Winter the codes for the stimpaks later on when they reunited in the fountain, but for now all he needed to do was stab himself with the stimpak and carry on with his job. So with his health sorted for the moment Six returned to reading the terminal "Hologram control?" he wondered what it meant so he changed it to be on the floor that he was and with just a flicker of the lights a security guard stood in the middle of the room.

"Look at that seems like they really wanted this place to be safe" Six said as he saw the hologram turn red and he fired at his direction, Six doged to the side and changed the parameters again "Ok, I'm an enemy to them. Cool whatever"

Looking down at his PipBoy he took a turn to the side as he tried to track down the last collar, but there was something off his collar started to tick but there was no radio on sight "What?"

Elijah's voice came on his PipBoy "Damn those speakers; that old world junk just refuses to die. The speakers on the villa will interfere with the collars, some you can destroy. The damage of time has made the lights dim and give off a blue light, now the ones that have a red light are built to last so don't even try to destroy them. You do not have a rocket launcher so avoid them at all costs"

Six raced back to entrance as his collar started to beep faster, once it went silent he let out a sigh and prepared a spear. "Speakers, destroyed the blue ones and avoid the red ones" Six muttered as he looked for the speaker, the collar burned his skin as the electricity danced on it and the noise drowned out everything else. Six grunted as the smell of burnt flesh reached his nose, but all of it came to a sudden end when the speaker was pierced and it exploded.

"Man those things really are on their last legs" Six muttered as he looked around the rooms for anything that could give him an edge and soon enough he found a room with his predecessors, Six shuddered as he saw what would happen to Winter and him if they didn't finish the mission. There was some bodies whose faces where only partially blown off and other that their faces only looked burned off.

"A process of trial and error" Six muttered as he thanked the heavens that Elijah had perfected the formula for head explosions. Sitting neatly underneath a pile of mummified body parts Six spotted a peculiar set of clothes. Swatting the pieces of bodies away Six whistled as the black set of full body armor came into view, the knives and a small police gun still attached to it "Seems like someone was on a mission, bombs finished the job for him I assume". Six said to himself as he started to undress, now fitted up with a proper outfit he patted the pockets and pulled a couple of bullets, some metal string and best of all med-X. Injecting himself quickly he shuddered as chills went all over his boy "That's the good stuff, perfectly preserved" a part of him briefly wondered if he could use some of the alcohol in the hospital to make something to drink but he shook his head.

"It would probably taste like shit" he told himself as he resumed his walk, the area he needed to go was blocked so he had to get creative. Moving the hologram security once again he made his way to the upper floor, grabbing everything that was not bolted to the floor. He came across a peculiar note, on how there was a certain Dean Domino who wanted the voice of a girl named Vera to be as perfect as it could be for the night the casino opened.

He had given wine to the doctor, the wine ended up in the thrash. Six walked back for the wine and then returned to read "So, piece of shit really took and auto-doc. The name Dean sounds familiar for some reason" the wine was a of a strong flavor and the years that it had spent on the cold floor made Six let out a soft sigh everytime he drank straight from the bottle.

"Fuck me this is good" he muttered as he took the last bit of it, trowing it against the wall when he was finished, once he spotted a key and a note next to it Six knew that he had a new plan. Get to the basement and stop the power to the speakers, then deal with whoever had the collar and was being too quiet for his liking. So with his new plan, he changed the holograms once again and raised downstairs to get to the basement the buzz of Med-X and the wine giving him focus and drowning out the voices.

To his surprise finding the terminal was easy, he just avoided some radios and decimated the speakers that he could break once done in the basement he raced back to the room he was supposed to be and saw something that was a gift to his eyes.

An intact auto-doc with its terminal still on, quickly removing his clothes Six entered the machine and asked for a general scan "Warning, damage found on: brain, liver, lungs digestive tract; there are several lacerations and burns on the skin. Spine, ribs, legs and arms under risk. Unable to repair damage done to organs, transplant needed. Cure surface level wounds only?"

Six stared at the report sadly, seemed like even the old world could not fix everyrhing. He selected the yes option and gritted his teeth as the machine dowsed him in alcohol removing the cloth he had used to cover the wound and forcing the eyelids open, it cleaned out the remains of his eye. The pain almost made him pass out, but to his surprise the process ended quickly as he was pushed out of the machine, as he landed on his knees trying to stabilize himself.

"Feel better soon!" came the chime as the machine opened a small compartment and a black eyepatch came into view, it looked like leather. Six grabbed it as the machine went back to standby mode, he shrugged and put it on. It felt weird but it was not like he could see out of that eye anyways. So with that sorted he re dressed and headed to the signal. When he entered the room he cracked his knuckles "All right you fuck time to…" when he realized there was only an empty room with an auto-doc humming as it did a reset Six looked down at his PipBoy in confusion "… listen, wait what the fuck?"

He stood in silence as he wondered if the signal was off but a soft knocking made him stop, Six narrowed his eyes as he looked around the room and then back at the auto-doc as it performed an operation. There where no screams of pain, but there was a noise he regonized, nails scratiching against metal and someone trying to break out of a cell.

Cursing Six moved quickly and canceled all operation "Command accepted, feel better soon!" the doors opened and a small woman was ejected, she only managed to avoid being thrown face first into the floor because Six caught her in time. The woman was breathing heavily as she tried to stand up on her own, when Six saw that she could stand on her own he took a step back and let go of her, a part of him wanted to say something to lighten the mood but there was little he could say. The woman was scarred from head to toe, the auto-doc was trying to "fix" whatever defect it had detected over and over again, the large scar on her bald head made him shudder.

"Are you ok, can you understand me" Six asked gently, making the girl squirm away as she tried to analyze him, she tried to speak but quickly decended into a coughing fit she touched her throat and let out a silent scream of fear. Six watched quietly as she tried desperately to speak but it seemed that something was wrong, the courier quietly made his way towards the machine and asked for its records. Removal of vocal cords it read "Oh dear"

He briefly wondered where the machine had stored them but he had to wait little as it opened a compartment and Six stared at the red flesh neatly bagged and packed. The scene would have been comical if it wasn't for the fact that the auto-doc let out a hiss as it died and the girl grunted as she grabbed the fleshy bag.

"Right, I guess it's not the best moment but… who are you?" Six said as the woman tilted her head to the side and pointed at her, then she raised an eyebrow and pointed at him. "Ah sure, I am Courier Six my dear mute girl we are both here because some crazy bastard named Elijah" Six noticed how she tensed up but continued anyways "put this lovely things on our necks, a bomb that can blow our heads clean off if we don't do what the old man wants. And what he wants right now is that we work together to open the Casino, the Sierra Madre seems to be the reason we are all still alive"

The girl shook her head as she placed a motioned to her and then to him and then made an X, Six chuckled "Trust me, I don't like this either but the thing with this collars is that if I die you die, we are all connected and if we want to survive we're going to have to work together… trust me on this, when we're done here we can fly like the wind back to our homes" Six said with a grin as the girl let out a sad sigh, she nodded and motioned for him to lead the way.

"Sure thing, can you write or something. I would like to call you by your name and not just by girl" Six questioned as the girl shook her head and made a motion to the auto-doc and then to her head "Jesus, Elijah really hates your guts huh? Making someone forget how to write is very up there on my list of fucked up things" the girl glared as the name was brought up again and did a strangling motion.

"So you hate him too, what did he do to you?" Six wondered as the girl put both hands together and made a separating motion "He separated you from someone, a husband?"

The shake off her head was quick, Six grinned "Ah, your girlfriend" the girl nodded as she raised an eyebrow at him "Come on, I might not look like it but I have a pretty girlfriend. Speaking of her, we need to get to the fountain. She's waiting for us there, so that we can do whatever the hell is needed to open up the casino"

The girl stared at him sadly "Yeah I know, I also don't like her being here. But fate's a bitch and I still don't know your name"

The girl motioned for him to move up his arm, Six shrugged and let her work on it she entered her collar frequency and with a few words a name came into view "Christine huh? Lovely name, what do you say ready to get out of here?" Christine nodded as she gave one last look at the auto-doc before leaving her steps fasters than Six's as the headed towards the red cloud outside.

A/N: The Sierra Madre opens it's doors only to those ready to begin again. Thank you for reading and sorry for the wait, the famous virus got to me at last. Hopefully I will release the next part soon, see you around!