Snowflake in the Sand

Chapter 26

Old World Blues

Diary entry number(?): Weiss, I miss you. If this message reaches you, it means that my experiment succeeded, I don't know what to expect from the Big Empty but I know that this message will reach you.

Winter nodded as she finished writing the message and took another bite from the sweet roll that she had packed, her resources where not running low any time soon. She rested her head on the small pillow she had brought along with her and stared at the distant light that was the strip.

It was definitely a unique experience to stare at things from the other side of the wasteland. The city of lights nothing more than a glimmer in distance barely visible in the cave she had taken refuge in for the night the Yaoguai was not pleased at first with sharing but after Winter took off his head he didn't seem to mind all that much. The fire caught her attention as it started to fade, she stood up once again and with some leaves and branches she kindled the flame. The warmth made her yawn as she looked down at her PipBoy one last time, it had been a while since she updated her notes, she needed to retake the habit.

Every piece of information could help Remnant, Sarah had managed to share with her some of the data on stimpacks and auto-doc units but the lather was incomplete, power armor was another thing that she was still on the fence. The NCR had some of it but according to them they had just stripped the exoskeleton, they could not get the mainframe to work as they needed. So it was just glorified armor, not the Power Armor of legend that the Brotherhood of steel used, the armor that had won the Great War… for a time anyway.

Another topic of interest to her to share back home was history, the twilight of the story in this world was coming. It didn't matter who won the war, or what was still out there in the wasteland, the control of the dam meant want thing in the eyes of Winter. A new beginning, the NCR was not the old world, Legion was a brutal mockery of what had come long ago and House wanted to build an economic empire from one cities because he knew that out there new nations would sprout and the old war that some still clung on was giving is last breaths.

Remnant was not there, maybe staying in this world had made her realize that her world, no matter how much the Grimm wanted to destroy it, had unity. People willing to work together for something good, hunters and governments could change things around. The wars where history and the frictions between kingdoms was solved without violence… for now, so what was better than an example to never walk in that path?

Satisfied with her thinking she looked at her PipBoy one last time and smiled, just a couple more days and she would be there, hope made her feel at peace and so sleep came easily to the specialist.

Days flew by like this, the Mojave wasteland long gone and there was only cold winds and rocks, but Winter did not care the cold wind was a welcome change and even the tall mountain that she had to climb was hardly and issue. Rock tried to cut her palms but her aura kept it at bay, as she continued her climb she heard it. Machinery in the distance, orders being yelled with renewed vigor she kept climbing only stopping when she reached the top as the sun set behind her. There it was in all its glory, the Big Empty. Red cristals and blue machinery adorned the landscape of the huge crater and so she started the slow descent towards the answers she needed.

As she passed by some pylons a strange feeling of uneasiness came over her, she was being watched. Slowly drawing her sword she prepared a glyph just in case, as she began to walk into what looked like to be a construction site a large crackle in the sky made her duck towards a rock. The entire afternoon sky became blue as something was flown towards a structure that she could not fully see off in the middle of the Big empty, the area was quiet for a moment but as she kept walking and the huge dome of in the distance was finally visible a horrible scream pierced the air.

Someone was being butchered and whatever was in control was broadcasting it for the entire mountain to hear, then the pylons that once had been dormant buzzed with power and the entire mountain became alert, it seems like the screams of a living human had made everything on the place…

"Kill them, let God sort them out!" Winter gasped as plasma bolt smashed her against the rocks, quickly sending the glhyp towards it to distract the robot she expected the Mr. Handy unit to just fall over and die; but to her surprise it quickly spun around and with a buzzsaw shattered her creation. "Your commie trick won't work on me!" the name of the machine shone brightly as the night descended on Big MT, Mr. Gutsy units from the war.

"Oh shit…" Winter started to say but was launched from her cover as a protectron destroyed it with his metallic claws "Please remain calm until law has been restored" Winter was under fire from two positions and so she jumped towards the safest bet. A powerful slash hit the protectron making it stumble back for a moment Winter felt something grab her hair and pull her to the ground. A large orange protectron looked down at her as his weapons prepared to fire, with her hair undone she could barely see what was in front of her but she could see the gutsy unit getting closer and behind it more protectrons.

Winter jumped as high as she could and dispatched more glyphs, the gutsy units focusing their fire on them but the large protectron was not having any of it with his weapon fully charged he fired a devastating blow to Winter who was still in the air, Winter gasped as she was blown back towards some crystals her aura had thanked the blow and she was thankfull that they did not use their claws to punch her. Everything on earth was strong, the strongest capable to shatter aura in two or three blows, the super mutants came to mind and not even they dared to come here and so she was in a lot of trouble.

"Show your face you commie bastard, I will show you how we do it around here" The gutsy unit called out as it was silently flanked by the protectrons their orange paint slightly faded, construction workers it said. Winter crawled as best as she could, sweat started to form on her brow as the machines tried to search for her… or at the very least what remained of her, but just in case she reached into her backpack and pulled out a plasma grenade. She was silently hoping no one detected her but fate was not on her side, as she turned she bumped into a peculiar looking gnome with the number six written on it. There was a moment of quiet but then the gnome fell over and knocked the others making one shatter.

"Found you!" the gutsy unit yelled as she was once again bombarded by laser fire, cursing she threw the grenade she had in her hand, the construction site shook as pieces of protectons fell from the sky the bomb doing way more damage than expected. As she shakily stood up she was met with a horrifying sight, the gutsy unit was still alive and it was moving towards her with only buzzsaw activated, Winter felt her aura falter as the machine tried to cut her repetedly but what worried her more was the large rptectron charging its weapon. A gamble was made as she grabbed the gutsy unit with all her might ans pushed it towards the upcoming blast.

The machine exploded and with the dust all around her she jumped towards the last remaining robot and with her plasma weapon she tried to make an opening the protectron stumbled back but when he knew his machinery was done for it made a quick decision. Charging towards its attacker it deactivated the laser weapon and used all its energy in one punch, Winter felt her aura shatter as she sank her sword deep in the head of the protectron. The machine fell dead but Winter stumbled backwards taking a knee as she tried to recuperate, construction workers almost killed her it was a worrying thought the gutsy unit was the only one in the group that was made for war.

She briefly wondered if there were more units like it around, shaky breaths where the only thing that could be heard on the construction site as Winter pushed herself up to look around night had fallen and it seemed like it was more alive than ever before. "Oh think thank! You're too quiet for my taste don't forget that I, DOCTOR MOBIUUUUUS is always watching you… uh is time for my mentat break" a voice announced over the intercom as Winter looked around confused.

People lived here?

Doctor Mbius he had called himself, what was his deal? As she walked she looked down at her stomach and to her surprise she saw how part of her stomach was now exposed. Her specialist outfit was torn she realized in horror, her aura barely managed to save her but her quiet inspection was cut short as she heard the distinct sound of something being fired her way "Alert hostile detected" the cold voice of a sentry bot was heard amongst a rocket exploding near her. Winter frowned as stone cut her exposed stomach.

With no other option she tried to run, the sentry bot opened fire on her bullets grazing her torso and arms, as blood erupted from her form Winter gasped in pain sending out a glyph to distract the sentry bot. The sentry bot focused only on destruction changed its target and fired another rocket breaking the ice construction loosing Winter in the process, it started to scan the area searching for his victim but Winter was long gone, she only stopped once she passed a small caged off camp. Bleeding a lot, she realized that she needed to heal herself if she wanted to survive reaching for a stimpack with shaky hands she injected it near her more severe wounds.

"What… is this place…" she wondered out loud as her body begged for respite, the moment she had set foot on the Big MT she was attacked, was everything here designed to kill? For a second she briefly considered resting in what looked like the abandoned camp but a flash of blue light stopped her from thinking, a ghoul with a weird axe missed her by a hair as Winter retaliated and stabbed him on the gut, what she had not realized was that I was an ambsh the other ghoul jumped at her with his own axe slamming it against her ribs. A horrible crack filled the air as her bones gave in and blood erupted from her side, hopping to the side as she held her wound Winter drew her plasma pistol at him landing two shots on its head, but the ghoul didn't seem to care that his face was melting off.

It muttered something in a language that she did not understand and lunged forward ready for the kill but to her surprise a missile was fired their way and it blew the ghoul to bits and threw her towards the sentry bot had found them and he wanted blood. Seeing that he had two targets to play with and one was lost dead he shot at Winter once in the shoulder shattering two bones in shot Winter screamed in agony making the sentry bot pause, as if thinking. It fired another round into her left leg just to satisfy its programming and with that he charged towards the ghoul that was running deeper into the big MT.

Winter crawled on the ground for a second as she tried to reach into her bag for more healing supplies she stopped the bleeding on her leg and rested against the metal fence on the abandoned camp, she had to move fast there was another wound that needed her attention but as she reached for another stimpack a hand from the dark grabbed her and ripped of her backpack another pair of hands grabbed her neck choking the life out of her. Winter desperately tried to escape the howls of the ghouls behind her the stuff of nightmares they tried to drag her inside the camp, the metal ripped her skin and clothes in a desperate attempt she used her last strength to create an ice explosion, a raw manifestation of her power. Her limp body crashed against a bunch of stairs as she blinked in pain she saw how her explosion had sent one of the ghouls flying outside the fence, she had freed him and now it was going to kill her she thought. But to her surprise the ghoul screamed in fear as it desperately clawed at his neck trying to take a familiar looking collar off.

With one last accusatory glance the ghoul's head exploded, leaving only a lifeless corpse behind. Winter coughed up blood as she tried to move but her shoulder was to broken to move, her legs had suffered damage from the ghouls and her stomach had deep cuts, with her only good hand she reached into her pockets to see if she had anything to help her.

Healing powder she had crafted out of curiosity greeted her, applying some and then swallowing the rest she felt slightly better but as the moon reached its peak she realized that she was only delaying the inevitable, death was coming for her and she had no way to stop it. Her vision blurred and in vain effort she applied more healing powder, she refused to go.

"Weiss… Six…" she muttered as she begged to anything to save her, but when nothing came fear overtook her. What would happen to her? Was there an afterlife?

She swallowed as a tear ran down her cheek, the other eye closed too tightly for even tears to escape, a wave of pain hit her and to her surprise as she looked to the horizon the sun had risen. How long had she fought death for? Her aura had not kicked in yet her body too damaged for it to do so, but the healing powder granted her time and so she remembered the pecualiar man from Zion valley.

"Please… save my soul" Winter muttered as she tried to come to terms with what was happening, but no answer came and so her heart sank, alone was how she was going to leave the world. What a cruel twist of fate.

Noises caught her attention, the sentry bot had returned the head of the ghoul on one of it large metallic claws, tossing it towards the camp he turned to Winter and prepared to fire. Nodding she closed her eyes and prepared for the worst but a large alarm made everything stop "Alert, hostile detected commencing…" the machine cracked as a powerful blow from a saturnite fist ripped off some of it head, Winter opened her eyes as she could only stare in disbelief as the mad man that had attacked the machine flipped it over with inhuman strength it then pounced on it landing blows over and over again.

Ripping off the head, a familiar laugh reached her ears. standing there dressed in only a patient gown, his ass for all to see, Courier Six kicked the head of the machine towards the construction site. Winter coughed as she tried to scream, but her little gargle was enough Six snapped his head towards her and walked over, she felt herself like crying but to her surprise there was anger in his eyes, he slammed his fist against the stairs as he stared at her in ager then he looked at the skies "I KNOW! Please… I know… I failed her…" it was bizarre for Winter to look at the man she had feelings for break down in tears. He kept repeating words, begging for forgiveness and telling her how sorry he was, he mentioned God a couple of times but her mind was slowly fading and so Winter did what she had done for her sister back when everything got to her.

She reached for his hand and softly caressed it, Six snapped out of his crazed state for a moment looking down at her hand and then back at her. With a sigh he picked her up and placed his forehead against her head "I know you're not real, but it doesn't matter I will save you" and with those lingering words he ran towards the dome, Winter was sure she heard gunshots and blood that was not her own fell on her face. There was a scream as axe was thrown but Six kept running and as he opened an elevator her vision finally faded.

"… your cheek against mine… where did I go wrong… begin again" a soft lullaby awoke Winter as she darted awake looking for danger, but there was nothing only her bed and some sheets on top of her. It felt cold and much to her discomfort and her embarrassment it would seem that she was without clothes. Quickly using the sheets as a makeshift dress she followed the singing and found her target.

Six was drinking, not unusual but there was something about him that made her feel uneasy. He was a wreck a large axe sticking to his stomach and a sad expression on his face. When he turned to look at her there was no happiness, not even a joke about finally getting to see her naked. Only a deep look of regret and longing "God why, why did you make me immune to alcohol now. I cant even get drunk anymore"

Winter raised an eyebrow as he set the bottle down and looked at her "I know, go on. Say it like all the other ghosts, I failed. And here I am stuck in purgatory for it, the robots think its funny the brains downstairs laughed… but I know what this is, purgatory" finally she had enough and walked over to him and slapped him, Six didn't stop her he let it land and looked down again. Winter grabbed his head with both of her hands and made him stare into her eyes "Look at me Six, I don't know what is going on with you but remember. I am Winter, your girlfriend. You promised to help me remember? I am here in the flesh, why is it so hard to belive"

Six snickered "Oh so I will have to admit it then? Fine it makes sense God… I am sorry Winter when you left for Big Mountain, I didn't tell you the truth the doctors gave me days to live. But I gave money to one of the docs to change the records so you would leave on your trip… I wanted to tell you really but I didn't want anyone to see me die and so I ran like a coward to Nipton and then… I died, I felt my heart stop… there I said" Six said as he opened his eyes fully expecting Winter to no longer be there but when he opened his eyes a furious Winter slammed her fist into his face "WHAT?! What's wrong with you?! Why on earth would you hide that from me? From everyone? You idiot we could have helped you, we would have searched the entire wasteland for a way, do you really think I care so little about you that I would not mind that you died?! YOU FUCKING…"

Six looked in shock as he was yelled at, standing up quicker than a normal human could he touched his cheek and then looked back at Winter "I felt that… what? No way… but I… I really died, I felt my hear stop so there's no way… Winter, are you here? I am not in hell?"

Winter had to swallow the curse words and let out a long sigh "Yes, I am here. Where you not listening to me?" Six looked down at himself and then ran to another room, Winter followed quietly entering a room next to where she was sleeping and to her absolute disgust organs floated in jars as Six stared at them in a trance "Oh my God, those motherfuckers really took out my organs" he said as he placed a hand on what looked like to be a heart Winter felt her breathing stop as she stare at it, there was a hole in it as if something had exploded outwards. His hear had exploded, she turned her gaze towards him and the large red scars on his body told her something "That scream yesterday… it was you! They cut you open like a lab rat"

Six snapped out of his shock and turned to look at her with his red eye, the green removed by the brains replaced by the most abundant color that was on his eye at the time of the operation. "They really changed everything about me, but could not give a new eye… assholes" Six said but Winter could see that he was trying really hard to not smile, he looked taller and healthier. His muscles barely concealed by the patient gown, finally he broke into a laugh "Big mountain! I really am here… and what was that about being my girlfriend?"

Winter blushed as she pressed the makeshift dress tighter against her "I don't think I need to explain what happens when to adults have feelings for one another, I do hope that you know that I have the highest standards, the finest restaurants are merely the beginning if you think that I will forget that…"

Winter was raised from the floor as Six lifted her up in a tight hug, smiling at her "Whatever you want and more" he lowered her just enough to give her a kiss and to her surprise she kissed him back, there was no worries hell she even forgot that he still had an axe stuck in his stomach.

From the shadows a tiny securitron cried "I will never find anything like that, the mug don't love me back. WHY DO I EXISSSSSSSSSSSSST?!"

A/N: I love Old World Blues, is just so funny and creative. It gives us a glimpse at how the old world was and oh boy it sure was… interesting. Don't worry Six has not done any main mission from the DLC just collected the personality modules like a madman because he was feeling lonely. See you around!