Ned Kelly was a very practical man.
He was not one for fleets of fancy or daydreams. His favorite stories were those that had a lesson to learn at the end and he hated listening to the radio. His drink of choice was a glass of water and, when he was feeling adventurous, a room temperature bottle of Nuka Cola. He didn't drink, wasn't one much for swearing, and mostly kept to himself.
It seemed to be a miracle then, when he married. Those that called themselves his friends, were astonished when sunny Ms. Gretta Jones accepted his offer of courtship. Evidently, the friendly Ms. Jones saw something in the quiet Mr. Kelly.
Ned's friends were, of course, downright flabbergasted when the two decided to get married, and nearly beside themselves when Ned announced they were expecting twin boys.
Through it all, Ned seemed unchanged. As practical as ever, they thought. He dutifully fulfilled the responsibilities of an expectant father.
First, he retired from his post in the Brotherhood of Steel. This was a bit unexpected. No one just retired from the Brotherhood of Steel. But, Ned reasoned, he was getting old, and he had a wife and soon two baby boys to look after. He was no good at science and didn't want Gretta to worry whether she'd be a widow when he went into the field, and so he retired. He claimed a little plot of land just north of the Citadel and settled in to make a home for his new family.
Constructing a little two room shack on the edge of an empty field, the Kelly's took up farming. It was tough work, and they never really produced all that much, but they were close enough to the Citadel to be safe from Raiders and Mutants and close enough to Megaton to have a market for their produce and easy access to anything they couldn't scavenge for themselves.
It was a quiet, hard life, but that seemed to fit Ned Kelly just fine. He toiled away at his mutfruit and corn all by himself until Billy and James were born. When they were old enough, they joined him in the field, and he built another room onto the shack to accommodate the growing boys.
Time passed on the Kelly farm. The wasteland remained harsh, but their meager existence was enough to keep themselves reasonably fed and sheltered. Not long after Billy and James, or Jimmy as he quickly took to being called, were born, Gretta was pregnant again with her third. Another boy, Teddy, necessitated another room on the shack, and Ned quietly obliged. Ned and Gretta agreed that three was enough, and so for a time it remained just the five of them out in that field between the Citadel and Megaton. Sometimes, travelers would pass by the farm and chat with the ever kindly Ms. Gretta, and wandering traders that routinely brushed the farm would note how quickly Billy, Jimmy, and Teddy were getting. Ned would just keep to himself, and as far as any outsider knew, the graying, bearded man didn't talk.
Ned talked, of course, but hardly ever to strangers, and even then it was brief and straight to the point. He was never rude, just concise. A man of few words.
The boys grew older and so did Ned. He was a big man, at least six foot, which is giant compared to most wastelanders. His beard had gone gray and his hair had thinned, but he didn't mind. Gretta always said that it made him look more distinguished, like Elder Lyons. Life was hard on the farm, but they made their way and never wanted terribly or starved. Soon the boys were becoming men and getting to that restless teen-age that always spells trouble, but the Kelly's dealt with that just like they always had.
It was a few years before the Vault Dweller emerged from a hole in the ground when two big changes occurred on the Kelly farm.
The first was that Billy died.
He had been wandering and looking for trouble, as boys his age often do, when he fell and cut himself on an old rusted pipe. The wound became infected and before long, the sickness took him. It happened quickly and he lasted only a week. The doctors at the Citadel told Ned there was nothing they could do. The infection had spread to his blood. They buried him behind the house with his favorite book and marked his grave with a cairn of the best stones they'd pulled from the field.
Things were dark at the Kelly household for a while after that. Ned seemed somehow quieter, if such a thing were possible. He spent a lot of time walking the fields he'd worked with Billy and did his best to carry on. After all, he still had two other kids and a wife to feed.
The second big change was equally unexpected: Gretta was pregnant again.
Though they hadn't planned it, and were still grieving from Billy, the family eagerly awaited its new member. Prematurely, perhaps, Ned built another room onto the house and filled it with toys. He bartered his old shoes for some paint and together him, Gretta, Jimmy and Teddy painted murals on the walls of the home. He salvaged an old crib from a destroyed house but, judging it insufficient, decided to build his own, better bed for the baby to sleep in.
When the day finally came for the baby to be born, Ned and the boys rushed Gretta to the Citadel and she gave birth there. They'd done it at home three times before, but after Billy, Ned wasn't taking any chances with his family.
And so, on a bright Spring day, little baby Mary was born, named after her grandmother on Gretta's side.
Mary was as wonderful and full of life as the day she was born on. She had fat, pink cheeks and a bright and frequent smile. Her eyes shone with wonder like they were full of all the stars above and her laugh could have made a deathclaw coo.
Ned adored her. Maybe it was because he was still looking for some way to fill the void that Billy had made, or maybe it was just that she was that delightful. Maybe it was that she was so different from the rest of the Kelly's. Where Ned was reserved and shy, Mary was eager and outgoing. She learned to talk and then never stopped. Always asking questions, always wondering, always singing, and laughing, and telling nonsense jokes like toddlers do when they haven't yet grasped the concept of comedy.
She breathed new life into the Kelly household, like a puppy giving an old dog a new lease on life.
Mary loved to play with her two big brothers. From Jimmy, she learned to read, tearing through his worn comic books like it was her job and then reading them again. Soon, she was reading even better than him despite being several years younger.
From Teddy, she learned to tell a story. His brother had taught her to read them, but Teddy taught her how to tell them. The younger boy loved chatting with the travelers and traders that passed by their farm. He learned their stories and jokes and practiced them over and over until he'd memorized every word and perfected his delivery. Mary would watch him in rapt attention, and before long she was repeating what she'd heard Teddy saying and soon after making up her own little stories. You'd think this would drive the introverted Ned mad, but he never once complained, and only chastised her once when she unknowingly repeated a naughty word.
Mary loved her family, but it was Ned she loved best of all, and Ned in turn loved her completely. They always made for an odd sight walking into Megaton. Mary, eager and curious, practically bouncing up and down with excitement as she walked beside him, and Ned, calm, reserved, deliberately making his way to the Moira's, one big calloused hand firmly grasping Mary's small one, making sure to never let her out of his sight. When Mary would wake in the middle of the night from a bad dream, it was always Ned who would get up, his old joints creaking and groaning the whole way, to kneel at her bedside, kiss her forehead, and hum her favorite song until she went back to sleep.
Life continued much the same after Billy's death and Mary's birth, but there was a certain liveliness to it that had been missing for a while. Days passed a little easier, even if life wasn't any less difficult. Harvests came and went. Some Winters were harder than others, some easier. Some scientist left Vault 101 and then not long after his kid had followed after, and life continued all the same.
That was until Mary went missing.
It had been a typical market day for them. Ned had made the trek to Megaton to sell some scrap, and Mary, now eight years old, had insisted on coming with him. Never able to say no to her, Ned obliged, and together they went into town and made their way to Moira's General Store. The eccentric shopkeeper had been running some sort of experiment having to do with radiation and fusion cells.
Wisely determining that such an experiment had no business being near his daughter, Ned had ordered Mary to wait just outside the door for him while he conducted his business. When Ned was done, he exited the store and found Mary gone.
Now, Ned didn't panic. Not yet anyway. He was above all, a practical and rational man. Mary was a curious girl, and it was understandable that she might wander off. That was his mistake asking her to wait outside. He chastised himself, promised to chastise her when he found her, and set about looking for her.
When she didn't immediately answer his calls, he began to look more earnestly. First he checked that she hadn't gone into the store, but no, Moira and her guard hadn't seen her. Next he checked the buildings around the store, and still found nothing. Next he checked the outhouse, the bar, the clinic, the water filtration plant, and even the church, but still he couldn't find her. This was about when he began to panic and went to the closest thing Megaton had to the authorities: Lucas Simms.
Simms earnestly apologized; he hadn't seen her. Fortunately for Ned, the sheriff's son Harden had. Harden and Mary were similar in age, though Harden was a bit older. Ned liked Harden. He was a good kid and when Mary asked to play with him, he often obliged. Mary, Harden said, had walked off with a seedy looking gentleman in a nice red suit. He didn't hear what they were talking about, but Harden thought he heard the word 'Paradise.'
Ned went pale, and Lucas Simms grimaced. The Sheriff offered to help him look, and Ned agreed. Readying his ancient laser rifle, Ned went looking for his daughter.
They searched high and low, followed every road and checked every house but found no trace of Mary or the man in the nice red suit. After several hours of fruitless searching, Sheriff Simms apologized and excused himself. He had a town to police, and it was getting late. The makeshift lawman pledged to shoot the man in the nice red suit if he ever saw him in town again, and Ned thanked him. He was going to keep searching.
He searched all night and then some of the morning but still found nothing. Finally, bleary-eyed and dog tired, he went home to his family to tell them the news.
They were devastated. Gretta broke into pieces, hardly able to stand. Ned watched the tears well in his boys' eyes as they tried to stay strong for their mama and it nearly sent him to the floor with her.
Ned, practical as ever, gathered himself up and resolved to find his baby girl. He told the boys to watch over their mother, gathered his things, and set off in the direction of the only place in the wasteland that called itself Paradise.
The big slaver camp was just over a hill in an old shopping mall about a day or two's walk from the Kelly home. From above he could see the cages of people and the men on the walls with big, imposing guns. With no other choice, Ned knocked on the front door.
The man guarding the gate, a nasty looking fellow with an automatic rifle, stopped him before he could enter. Ned didn't look like the kind of man who would buy a slave, but here he was anyway. He was looking for a girl, Ned said, around 8 years old with blond hair and green eyes and a birthmark on her right cheek. The gatekeeper said that they might have something like that, but it would cost Ned extra because she was so young and healthy.
Swallowing the bile that built in his throat, Ned tossed the gatekeeper a bag of caps. The gatekeeper held the baggy in his palm and jingled them in his ear curiously. After appearing to think for a moment, he tossed the bag back and said, "Not enough."
Ned huffed and made to argue, but the click of the gatekeeper's safety stayed his tongue. He was, after all, a practical man, and he couldn't save his daughter if he was dead.
And so Ned made his way back home empty handed again. Upon reaching home, he took up his shovel and dug a hole near the edge of the mutfruit field where he'd buried a box full of caps. This was the Kelly's entire life savings. Everything they'd built and scrimped and saved in nearly two decades. Ned gathered it all up, and without a word to his family, turned around and headed back to Paradise Falls.
Again he repeated his request of the gatekeeper. He was looking for a young girl, eight years old, blond hair, green eyes, and with a little gap in her front teeth that gave her a slight lisp. Again, he tossed the hefty bag of caps at the slaver and watched as he weighed them with his mind. The gatekeeper smirked and tossed the bag back.
"Not enough, old man."
Ned thought about ending the man right then and there, but he knew all it would do was leave his wife a widow, his boys without a father, and his daughter still in chains. So, he did the practical thing and left.
He again stopped by the homestead, and still without a word, gathered up all his belongings, then all of Mary's belongings, and made his way to Megaton. Gretta begged him to speak and his boys demanded to know what was going on, but he remained stoic. He had a job to do.
Ned left Megaton with nothing on his back but a bigger bag full of caps, his rifle and enough food and water to make it to where he was going and back. He must have looked a sorry sight when he finally made it to the slaver's camp, because the gatekeeper laughed at him when he saw him.
"You alright, old man?" he asked through peels of laughter, "Sell a couple years off your life for those caps?"
Ned didn't respond, he just tossed the slaver the bag of caps and waited. Again, the gatekeeper went through the ritual of listening to the caps jangle and weighing them in the palm of his hands. Ned waited impatiently, but still did not speak. He didn't want to do anything to jeopardize this transaction.
Finally, the gatekeeper looked at Ned and smiled meanly. "I'm sorry, old man, but she's not for sale anymore. Seems Eulogy's taken a liking to her stories and wants to keep her around."
Ned stood like a man who'd just been slapped in the face. It took him a moment to understand what he was hearing.
"I'll be keeping these caps, by the way," the gatekeeper sneered, "And don't let me catch you bumming around here again, or I'll blow your head off."
By the way Ned slinked away, the gatekeeper must have thought that he'd beaten him. That he'd swindled this gray old man and then broken his spirit. It was a fair assumption to make. After all, the gatekeeper didn't know Ned.
Even as he walked away in stunned defeat, Kelly was already thinking of his next move. There might be those in the wasteland who could help him.
First, he went to the Regulators. The arbiters of justice in the wasteland heard him out, but regretted that they were in no position to help. You see, they were not a mass organization. They were a collection of lone wolves that sought to balance out the evil in the wasteland. They could not organize an all out assault on the Slaver Fortress even if they wanted to, and no one man was strong or skilled enough to take down the place by themselves, though many had tried. The Regulators gave Ned their condolences and a hot plate of food and sent him on his way.
Next he tried the Brotherhood. That noble organization that he had once been a part of. Surely they would help. He met with some of his old friends that still held sway with the leadership and tried to persuade them to help. Just a single Brotherhood strike force, he argued, would be able to take down Eulogy Jones and his ilk.
The assembled Brotherhood Paladins heard him out, but apologized. They were in no position to help right now. You see, there were bigger things going on in the wasteland right now. Problems more existential than some band of slavers in an old shopping mall. They were trying to bring clean water to the wastes and were in a war with a group that wanted to prevent that. Maybe after they helped the kid from Vault 101 restore the purifier could they help him with his problem.
Throughout the conversation, Ned had gone from anger and frustration to some kind of calm peace. It was unnerving, but those that knew him just chalked it up to Ned being Ned. He thanked them for their help and said he would wait for after the purifier had been activated for his daughter's freedom. Oh, and one other thing, could he at least restock his rifle from the armory?
Ned left the Citadel with a grim resolve, a new plan, and a pocket full of ammo.
His family rarely saw him after that. Ned moved out of the house and into the old Red Rocket gas station down the road where he sealed himself in the garage. His wife brought him food daily and begged him to return to the homestead but he calmly and politely declined. He was working on a project, and didn't want to disturb them with the noise. His boys tried to coax him out with Nuka Cola and other enticements, but Ned steadfastly refused.
All day long he hammered and he screwed and he worked and he welded. All day, every day for a week his family heard the noise of construction coming from the old Red Rocket. At night, he would venture outside to the ruins around the road, scavenging for unknown parts, leaving the garage locked behind him. Every day they tried to coax him out or get him to explain what he was doing, but again and again he would repeat the same line. "I am working on something important, and I cannot be disturbed until it's finished."
One day, the noise suddenly stopped, and his family looked in to find him gone. On a workbench was a note that read:
I've gone to get Mary. We'll be back for dinner tomorrow.
The gatekeeper probably didn't know what to make of the hulking, iron-clad individual in front of him. The metal monstrosity looked like some kind twisted medieval knight with a helmet fashioned from a welder's mask and chest piece forged from a stop sign. The setting sun flashed brilliantly against the jagged contours of the makeshift armor, and it looked equally intimidating and ridiculous.
The gatekeeper didn't get a chance to laugh, though. Before he could even turn to his friends on the wall, his head exploded into a fine red mist. The slaver guards on the battlements hardly had a chance to react before a grenade rocked their flimsy walls and sent them tumbling into the dirt.
The Metal Knight picked his way through the slaver camp with a methodical vengeance. Moving through the den of evil like a punishing angel through hell. No one escaped his mercy unless they were wearing a slave's collar. Buyer and seller and guard alike fell before the righteous beast's fury. The liberator never said a word, never even grunted in pain as bullets ricocheted off his thick, makeshift armor. He simply moved through the storm with calm determination and practicality. He never overextended, never placed himself in more danger than he already was in (which was a great deal). He was an unstoppable force, and the slavers of Paradise Falls were a very moveable object.
He hardly seemed to react when Eulogy Jones was cut down not even a few steps outside his lair. The Slaver King hadn't even known what the hell was going on when he fell, but if an observer could peek inside that plated warrior, they would see the small look of satisfaction that passed over the old man's face when the man in the nice red suit died.
The ruckus attracted a crowd. Some nearby traders witnessed the carnage from a nearby hill and were stunned to see the cancerous fixture of the wasteland being utterly and totally destroyed. They would swear up and down that the Metal Knight was an avenging angel, or perhaps a robot built by former slaves to destroy their oppressors. Some even speculated that the Knight was a prototype of Liberty Prime, after Liberty Prime had been introduced to the Wasteland.
For all these larger than life fictions, there was only one person that knows the truth of the Metal Knight. When the deed had been done, and Paradise Falls had been destroyed and its slaves freed, the Metal Knight knelt at the side of the little girl who was around 8 years old, had green eyes and a toothy grin and a birthmark on her right cheek and removed his helmet. The little girl's eyes widened, and though he had been worried her spirit may have been broken by her time in that horrible den of evil, she still flashed the same smile she always had as she embraced the old man clad in metal.
Ned kissed her on the forehead like he always did after a bad dream, and together, hand in hand, they walked out of that place humming her favorite song.
A/N: Wrote this in a day. Feedback very much appreciated. Thinking about doing more of these little one-offs.