The Waters of Life

by Liam G

Forced to leave her home, Tia Halibel embarks on a quest to find her Father James Halibel and find out the truth behind her existence. Once outside of the Vault, she learns the bitter truth of her new life, the Wastelands are a place only the strong will survive in, lucky for her she meets the perfect guide for this new world her first day, Ichigo Shiba, Regulator of Megaton.

1. The Escape

Disclaimer insert here: I don't own or have ever owned Bleach or Fallout. Please buy the manga and game to help support those poor, hungry souls that they may continue to producing real good stuff for us to write about later.

All characters and ideas belong to their rightful owners, except any OC monsters/characters I make up. As usual an M rating is for future violence, dismemberments, gore, language, very foul language, and of course lemons will be in, but don't expect a ton of them. Again enjoy your time here.

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As always, all stories are now edited by regfurby. I can't really say enough about how much his works mean to my stories since he became my beta. Also to Kiwifan7 who always gets a first look at my chapters to help me bring you the best stories I can.

AN and Response to Reviews will be located at the end of each succeeding chapters. Translation guide will be included for each chapter. See you then.

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WARNING: THIS STORY TAKES PLACE AFTER WORLD ARMAGEDDON; THERE ARE NO STANDING ARMIES, NO LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES, AND NO REAL SYSTEM OF LAW OR ADHERENCE TO MORAL CONDUCT. IF HUMANITY HAS NOTHING TO HOLD ITS DARKER SIDE BACK, THEN EACH OF YOU CAN IMAGINE THAT THE WORST ATROCITIES ARE POSSIBLE. THOSE THINGS MAY TAKE PLACE IN THIS STORY.

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This is for all you Fallout fans! I decided to release this one day early for you all!

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"Speech"

'Thoughts'

'Memories'

"Yet to be determined?"

XXXX

'The Great War started and ended on Saturday, October 23, 2077 when nuclear weapons were launched by all the nuclear-capable nations of the world; mainly from the United States, China and the USSR. The exchange lasted for approximately two hours, according to most survivors' accounts. Once the last atomic bomb and nuclear warhead had fallen, the world fell into the deep darkness of a nuclear holocaust.'i

Citizens in the United States had a variety of options available to them unlike most of the world. They ranged anywhere from the small single-family fallout shelters that would keep them safe for sixty days up to two years. Or those lucky enough to have bought inclusions in one of the many shelters built by Vault-Tec before the war.

However those that had survived and made it to their expensive shelters wouldn't learn of the truths behind the Vaults until it was much too late or in many cases, never. Across the lands, thousands of Vaults sealed their doors as the bombs fell, many never to reopen as there was no one left alive to open them from the insides; dead from the experiments performed on them from the executives of Vault-Tec and the surviving military hierarchy. One such Vault that survived opened their blast door when a young man and an infant arrived and promised the Overseer a deal he couldn't refuse. This is her story, the story of that man's daughter and her search to find her missing father: Tia Halibel, citizen of Vault One Oh One.

XXXX

Tia slams her hand down on the alarm clock as it rings loudly in her small room. Twisting to look at the ancient, yet still functioning device, she tries and fails to find the snooze button as her father knocks on her door loudly.

"Wake up Tia; you have school in an hour. I don't need to hear your teacher Ms. Ochi calling me about your tardiness…again." James Halibel adds as he walks away.

"Yeah, yeah Dad! I know, I know." She adds softly as she finally silences the annoying device and throws her legs over the side of her modest bed.

Standing up and stretching her arms high over her head, she looks in the mirror and groans slightly. 'Damn bed hair…'

Turning, she looks down at the three plushie dolls she owns: the last few reminders of her mother, Catherine Halibel. Picking them up, she hugs them tight to her chest. "Morning Mila, Sung-Sun, Apacci. Time for another day in Hell. Wish me luck that I don't have to beat the snot out of one of them dumbass Tunnel Snakes today."

Stripping out of her sweaty night clothes, Tia walks through the living room and heads straight for the shower. One of the few perks of living in a room for higher level functionaries of the Vault: your home comes equipped with its own shower and kitchenette. Many lesser families had to share facilities or eat in one of the numerous dining halls.

Knowing her father is gone for the day, Tia doesn't fear walking around their small home in the nude; piling her Vault uniform and toiletries on top of the sink, she runs the water briefly in the shower before steam rises. Stepping under the hot spray, the blonde-haired teenager silently moans as she lets the water run over her tanned and fit body before she quickly turns to washing her body of last night's dreams and shampooing her hair. Fifteen minutes later, she turns off the water with a satisfied sound and makes her way to the mirror which is covered in condensation. Wiping the moisture away, she frowns at the sight in front of her, spotting the dark bags under her eyes from worrying about her future.

At sixteen, she knows she'll soon have to make a decision as to what she wants to do with the rest of her life in the Vault. Will she allow the numerous tests she has taken over the last six months and the Overseer to pick a job for her, or beg her father to let her apprentice with Higa Shūhei down in the Vault Reactor and become an engineer? The tattooed young man had shown a great interest in her mechanical skills and aptitude with the antiquated electronics running the only power source for their Vault. Brushing her hair quickly when she finds she's lost time daydreaming, Tia braids her hair in her usual style and pulls her uniform on quickly. Picking up her two books and grabbing a piece of toast and a cup of instant coffee in a wax-lined paper cup, she is out of her home and running down the long hallway towards the shuttle station that will take her to the section of the Vault where her school is located.

Catching the shuttle from the residential zone, she looks down at her homework and finds she missed one of her problems when doing them last night. Cursing softly under her breath, she quickly figures out the calculus problem in her head and writes a brief but legible formula for the teacher to follow. Glancing up, she sees her stop is coming up next forcing her to finish her coffee before she gets to her feet with a few of the other students traveling in the same direction she is. She can't help the smile that forms when she sees her friend Amata Almodovar waving at her as she exits the shuttle. Grinning as she walks up to one of the few teens that she can call a friend in this place, Tia quickly sees trouble walking up to them from behind her best friend.

Not wasting time, Tia slips one arm around Amata and pulls her behind her as the resident bully Butch DeLoria fails to sneak up and grab the firm buttocks of the dark-haired daughter of the current Overseer. Pissed that his hands aren't filled with the tantalizing flesh of the teen he was aiming for, the leader of the youthful Tunnel Snakes finds himself staring into the hostile face of his only true rival.

"Bitch, why don't you mind your own business for once? This is between Amata and me, so get lost freak. Or maybe you're one of 'them' types." The greasy-haired teen says menacingly, then he holds his hand out and smirks as his gang cheers him on, some slapping him on his back and his outstretched hand, until the blonde speaks.

"How many times do I have to say this Butchie, you know I can beat you down any day of the week. You forget I am half Japanese and my father has taught me for years our ancestors' ways of fighting. So if I have to demonstrate that fact a few more times for you and your ball-less Neanderthals again, I'd be more than happy to do so in P.E." The green-eyed teen smirks when fear flashes across the gang leader's eyes.

"Fuck you Tia. One of these days your hotshot daddy-o and you will get your just deserts. Come on Tunnel Snakes, let's go find us some smokes."

Tia keeps a watch on the gang of boys until they fade around a corner, the sigh behind her reminding Tia she isn't alone. Turning with an apologetic smile, the blonde blurts out the first thing that comes to mind when she sees her friend's furious gaze.

"At least I didn't have to actually beat him up…again, Amata." She rubs the back of her head nervously.

"Yeah, lucky you." Amata sighs as she puts her arms through her best friend's arm. "Oh crap we're gonna be late because of them dorks!"

Looking at the clock on the wall, Tia screams in frustration as she and Amata sprint for their school.

"Now I'm so gonna kick his ass in P.E.!"

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James Halibel glances nervously around himself as he studies the pre-war blueprints of Vault One Oh One. Finding the ancient drawings by luck a few years ago when Tia got lost down in the lower sections, he and his partner, Jonas Palmer, have been steadily exploring the vast Vault in hopes of finding their exit from the underground shelter. The tall light-haired Doctor and his dark-skinned assistant both had agreed to leave together once their preparations had been complete, now all he has to do is safeguard his only child's future. He knows that once his defection along with Jonas' is found out, his little girl could possibly bear the brunt of Overseer's anger. His only hope to avoid that scenario is to make her become indispensible to the Vault, and the only way he knows to do that is to make Tia an expert in nearly every facet of Vault-Tec's mechanical and electrical equipment and components. Not even Higa knows anywhere near the amount of tech his young daughter understood by the time she was eight.

"Doctor Halibel, I think tonight's the night." Jonas remarks as he finishes prepping the last two backpacks.

Folding the blueprints, for the final time he hopes, the former scientist nods his head in agreement. "You're right Jonas; there really isn't anything left for us to do. Make sure those packs are hidden away by the main exit, we'll only get one shot at opening it and making our escape before anyone realizes what we have done."

"Understood." The younger Doctor pauses before speaking again. "Do you really think she'll be okay once we're gone?"

"Tia is the smartest young woman in this entire Vault, the only ones that come close to her are you and I, and maybe her best friend Amata. Other than that, I don't hold much chance of this Vault surviving much longer without her skills and knowledge. Higa says that at their current rate of consumption, the reactor will fail in less than twenty years. Tia will have to force the Overseer to see it her way, and they'll have to open up that blast door and send out teams to explore the surrounding Wastelands in search of spares and fuel. If things go well, maybe, just maybe they'll realize the world isn't completely dead and they'll want to leave this god-forsaken place once and for all." The older Doctor remarks candidly.

Grunting his agreement, the younger man hefts the two heavily laden packs and makes his way down one of the long-forgotten passageways. "I hope so for her sake…and yours, Doctor Halibel."

Waiting until his younger assistant is out of hearing distance, James Halibel sighs softly to himself and pulls out a picture. Staring at it, he sees a younger version of himself smiling with a blonde-haired woman flashing the famous V finger pose at the camera.

"This is for the best Cathy. I can't have Tia running around out there with me trying to fulfill your dreams. Please forgive me."

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Sweat slowly trickles down the side of the young teen's face as she bounces on the balls of her feet, hands held in an unorthodox fashion as she faces the largest male member of her class. Scott Winthers is by no means a pushover, but he, unlike most of the boys in her class, had chosen an academic life instead of joining the Tunnel Snakes. His smirk tells Tia he is ready for anything she might be planning, so she decides to oblige him by streaking towards him, her hands shifting into fists which draws the young male into a defensive posture, just like she'd hoped he would. At the last second, she shifts her center of gravity and falls immediately to her knees, skidding past the two grabbing arms of the much taller teen male. She grins as she sees his eyes widen in surprise as he looks at her passing figure.

"Oh shit!" He voices out too late as Tia suddenly stops behind him and one foot shoots out to the back of his knee, her foot stopping just shy of an actual strike. "Gotcha Stevie."

The sandy-blonde haired teen rolls his eyes and turns to the young teen woman. Bending down, he offers her his hand and easily lifts her to her feet when she accepts. "One of these days you are seriously gonna have to teach me your family's way of fighting."

Smiling sadly, Tia replies back to one of the few people who treat her normally. "I can't Steve, my Dad made me swear our techniques would only pass through our family and my children."

"Does that include…husbands?" Tia's eyes widen as she sees a blush forming on the young male's face at his question.

Sputtering, the blonde-haired girl replies hastily. "I-I don't think I'm ready…for that…yet Steve! I-I mean we still have to graduate…and apprentice in our jobs for a few years before…before even thinking of asking for permission to start looking for…for a spouse."

Steve laughs lightly as he stares into Tia's emerald orbs. "I'm not ready yet either. I'm just saying…you know when and if you decide to start looking…that I might be in contention for your hand…when you're ready of course."

Blushing deeply, the blonde nods her head slowly. "I'd like that…Steve."

"Oh looky here guys! Stevie and Tia getting all lovey dovey! What a pisser! The Gentle Giant and the Freaky Bitch are thinking of getting married!"

Both teens turn to see Butch and several members of the Tunnel Snakes gathering around the two. The dark-haired gang leader smirks as he walks up to the blonde and the sandy-blonde students. Flicking his light cigarette at Tia, he is about to laugh when she catches it by the filter and flicks it right back into his face, burning him with the cherry-red tip and causing him to yelp.

"Fuck! That's it you cunt! Now I'm gonna have to put you in your place!"

Tia stops Steve from interfering by placing a hand on his chest. "We need to settle this once and for all. Please stand back."

Frowning at her request, the taller teen doesn't, but instead walks towards the other gangsters and folds his thick arms across his chest. "Let's make this a fair fight, whadda say?"

The one and only time Steve Winthers had actually had to fight, it had made a lasting impression when several former Tunnel Snakes ended up in Tia's father's hospital sporting deep bruises and a few broken bones. The smarter ones backed up immediately, the slower thinking ones need to hear his knuckles cracking in anticipation before they catch the hint and back away.

Both the teens look around to make sure none of the teachers are around to stop them this time. Tia sees a worried looking Amata clasping her hands and violently shaking her head as a means to make her stop. Shaking her head in response, the blonde-haired martial artist turns back to face her foe only to feel her face snapping to the right from a vicious sucker punch, the taste of blood filling her mouth instantly as she falls to her knees.

"So Bitch, what do you think now!?" The greasy-haired gang leader says as he shows the downed girl the two sets of metal knuckles he has on his hands. "Not so fucking tough like I thought, eh."

Quickly testing that her teeth on that side of her face are still in place, an enraged Tia mentally rejoices that nothing is missing or loose. Setting her orbs on the laughing gangster, Tia rises swiftly to her feet in a single fluid motion and her foot snaps out, catching the other combatant in his rib cage with a sickening crunch that tells her she's broken at least one, possibly two ribs from the way the male jumps back while cursing up a storm and wrapping an arm around his broken ribs.

Spitting out blood, Tia takes a stance she has never shown anyone before. "This time Butch, I don't care what happens to me, I'm going to send you back to your Mother in a full body cast!"

Pushing her body weight into the forward foot, the furious teen is about to strike when an older man's voice stops everything.

"Butch DeLoria! Tia Halibel! You will cease fighting immediately!"

"Dad!?"

All the teens involved turn to see the blonde's father walking towards them with a stern look upon his face. Stopping before his daughter, he tilts her face to one side and grimaces. Twisting around until he faces the cowering younger man his daughter was about to use a lethal foot strike on, James Halibel's hand snakes out and crushes one of the wrist's of his daughter's assailant. Forcibly bringing the arm upwards, a dangerous gleam forms in his stormy light-green eyes as he sees the instrument that marked his only child's face.

"I should let her kill you Butch, but seeing how your parents have some influence within the Vault, I think I'll speak to the Overseer myself and maybe we'll come up with a better solution for your 'excess' energy. Perhaps a few months scrubbing the muck that collects in the sewer tanks and larger pipes might stifle that temper of yours."

Butch blanches but doesn't dare to argue, knowing the Doctor holding his wrist in a vise-like grip could easily snap it if he says the wrong thing. "I…understand….Sir." He forces out through gritted teeth.

"Good, now give me those and anything else you have hidden on you. That goes for the rest of you as well, hand it over and I'll forget mentioning this in my report to your principle and teacher, Ms. Ochi." Tia's father voice carries both a subtle command as well as a threat in his statement.

After several minutes, both James and Tia both quirk an eyebrow in surprise by the small arsenal of weapons the boys had managed to secret under their P.E. clothes on their bodies. Once the last item is fished out and handed over, the older Doctor dismisses them with a yet another stern warning and a not so subtle threat that he will not interfere the next time they decided to fight his daughter. Amata and Steven both stand a short distance away to give both father and daughter some privacy to talk.

Sighing as he faces his blonde-haired child, James says only one word. "Tia?"

"Yes Father." She fails to see the flinch that one word illicit from the elder Halibel.

James frowns when he hears the one word Tia uses when she is angry with him or when she thinks he is angry at her.

Gently placing his hands on her shoulders, he asks what happened to cause the latest fight to occur. At first she haltingly starts speaking, but as she gains both speed and anger in her words, he smirks as she describes her day starting from keeping her best friend from being molested to defending her honor. When she tells him of the sucker punch with the tin and pewter knuckles, his smile fails him and his anger joins that of his daughter. He stops himself from saying anything, knowing that tomorrow her world will be a much different place that it is right now. Deciding to give her some peace of mind, he kisses the top of her head.

"I'll speak to the Overseer this afternoon Tia. Don't worry, I won't mention you by name, but this nuisance of a child's gang is getting out of hand. Why don't you and your friends get back to class and I'll join you for dinner after school." He smiles when she stares up at him in wonder.

"R-really…Dad?"

Kissing her head again, James gently guides his daughter towards her waiting friends. "Really Tia. I'll even make your Mother's favorite dishes for you."

Tia nods her head in acceptance and slowly walks away from her father, never really taking her eyes off of him until Amata slips her arm through hers and leads her back to the girls' locker room.

'Why does Dad look so sad?'

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Alphonse Almodovar stares at the door, now closed, with his head resting on his folded hands. In front of him are numerous homemade weapons that the Doctor confiscated from the local youth gang and a warning that the next time they assaulted his child and more importantly, the Overseer's daughter, James Halibel would turn a blind eye to his own daughter's reactions. Glancing at the file of Tia Halibel, the Overseer knows he is in a difficult position. The young blonde-haired teen is a genius in not only Vault-Tec mechanics, but her knowledge is far superior to anyone in his Vault in both electronics and electrical fields of study. Not even his own engineers know more than half of what is in the mind of the young emerald-eyed teen, and the worst part is that she and his daughter are the best of friends.

Studying reports of the young woman's years in school, two things stand out prominently: her readiness to fight back against oppressors, and her readiness to come to the aid of the few friends she has, his own daughter among those few friends. Tapping the desk and pushing a few of the weapons around as he looks at the picture of the teen Halibel, he turns to look at his most trusted confidante.

"I thought you had a handle on Butch DeLoria and his gang?"

The security guard in question, Steven Mack, is the newest member to join Chief Hannon's detail. Widely known for his sadistic behavior, his unwavering loyalty to the Overseer became a hot topic for rumors before he even left high school. Fairly impressed by the young man sitting in his office, he has promised the security guard his place at the top of a very short list as a potential suitor for Amata's hand in marriage once she reached the legal age, and his would-be son-in-law now bows slightly.

"I can't explain it Sir. They usually outnumber Halibel five to one, or even ten to one, but each and every time they fight, she wins. I have never seen anything like it before Sir. Her fighting style, her strength, and hell even her ability to heal quickly is freakishly abnormal Sir. In short, Tia Halibel is unlike any teen, let alone any human I've ever seen. I also suspect she has something to do with the sudden stopping of attacks on women in the lower regions of the Vault Sir, but I just can't prove it." The frustrated young man seethes out.

Tapping a button under his desk, the wall nearest him and Officer Mack recedes to reveal rows of monitors that switch every few seconds to show different sections of the vast Vault complex. Nearing one of the shuttles, the Overseer watches as the young blonde and his daughter take it home to their exclusive section of the residential district. Switching to the nearest camera, Amata's father and the feral-eyed security guard watch as the two friends separate from each other and walk in opposite directions. Just as he is about to turn off the screens, the Overseer sees James Halibel speaking to his assistant and if he hadn't been watching as closely as he had, he might have missed the secret exchange.

"Find Jonas Palmer and bring him here without anyone seeing you." The widowed Almodovar orders his watch dog.

Standing up and leaving by the hidden passageway out of his office, the Overseer misses the rabid light forming in Officer Mack's eyes as he leaves.

'Now to make sure I'm the only one on that list.'

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Tia slowly sips her miso soup while sending curious glances at her father as he stares vacantly into his bowl of ramen. Since their near simultaneous arrival home, her father has been unusually quiet ever since she asked him why his assistant was waiting for him. She didn't even bother to mention seeing the two of them passing something between themselves after he told her rather quickly to forget seeing Jonas. Ushered inside their home rather brusquely, she was told to take her shower and finish her homework quickly so they could enjoy their dinner without worries.

Picking up some of her pickled vegetables, she decides to break the silence. "I got my projected job placements today."

Tia stuffs some food in her mouth, chews thoughtfully and speaks again after she swallows. "They have me down as being qualified in any of the domestic fields, cooking, sewing…etc…"

"I'm sorry dear, what did you say?" The elder Halibel asks remotely, not really paying any attention.

"I said I'm gonna become a lady-of-the-night and make a living working from my back Dad." The green eyed teen replies with a pout.

"That's good right?"

Tia stops and turns to look at her father. "Are you even listening to me Dad!? I just told you I was going to sell my body and you tell me 'that's nice dear'!"

James Halibel swivels his head at breakneck speed after hearing his daughter's declaration. "What!? What do you mean you're…you're gonna be a…whore?"

He slows down to a stutter at seeing how angry his green-eyed princess is looking at him. "I'm sorry Tia…I've just got so much going on right now."

"…Yeah, you and Jonas from what I've seen so far." The young teen says as she suddenly loses her appetite.

Realizing he has upset his daughter, the older Halibel sets down his utensils. Steepling his hands, he hides his face behind them as he contemplates his next words. Watching as she picks at her food, but not eating anything on her plate, he decides he should speak.

"Tia."

"Yes Father."

"Do you like living here? In the Vault I mean?" The salt and pepper-haired man asks.

Shrugging her shoulders in a noncommittal way; the young blonde replies absently to his question. "Not that I mind it here Dad, but I can't help but wonder if there is more to life than just these steel and concrete walls. It's always the same thing, everyday the same thing for me. Get up, go to school, beat up a few Tunnel Snakes, do my homework, eat dinner and then bed. Nothing changes for me. So, I guess my short answer is yes, I like it here, but I want something more than just living. I want; no I need a reason to live…Does that make any sense to you?"

James gives his daughter a small smile. "You are just like your Mother when I first met her. She wanted more from life too when she was your age Tia. It's funny really, that is how we met, she was working on a new type of…water purification system, and I was a young Doctor, fresh from my studies. Our initial meeting was when I was asked to lend her team a hand, and that is when I first saw Cathy. Young, beautiful and brilliant in the sciences, she is the reason why you are so smart young lady; you got your brains from her, not me. From me, you got your bad habits; your brashness, your obstinance, and your fearlessness, those all come from me." He pauses as he sips from his glass.

After setting down his glass, he glances at a section of their home. Taking a deep breath, he motions for his daughter to follow, which Tia does. Stopping in front a small picture, Tia glances at the familiar item with a hint of melancholy.

'I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life, freely.'

Revelations 21:6

"Mom's favorite." Tia says as she lets her hand ghost over the Plexiglas covered passage.

Her father startles her when he takes the framed verse off the wall and blows gently across the surface underneath of where it hung. Her eyes bulge when she sees numbers starting to glow faintly upon the wall. Looking up at her father, she sees him smiling at her.

"A holographic keypad Tia. No matter what happens to me, I want you to know about this. If anything should ever happen to me and you need help, this will give it to you. I won't tell you what is inside, but only open this if your life is in danger Tia. I have to stress this to you: once you open this panel, there is no going back for you." Her father says as he places the framed passage back in place.

"The code is…easy." He taps the Plexiglas.

Tia is still staring at him with some kind of muted horror. "Why…why are you showing this to me Dad? Is there something wrong with you!? Or…"

A fingertip stops her from continuing. "It's insurance, your insurance Tia. I didn't mean to frighten you, but I felt it was time for you to understand something…"

Father and daughter stop when an incessant knocking of their door begins. Gently pushing his daughter into a corner and covering his mouth with a single finger to ensure she keeps quiet, the older Halibel proceeds to the door and opens it with caution.

Tia keeps hidden and tries to listen in to whoever is talking to her father, but other than a few murmurs of unintelligible words, she has no idea of who is even at their door. Minutes later, the older Halibel returns, gently taking her by her shoulders and looking her in the eyes with an expression she doesn't recognize.

"Stay here Tia, no matter what happens, stay here." He looks back when a throat clears again, causing him to grimace.

She can't even reply as he kisses her forehead and leaves their home, quickly following whoever it is waiting outside. Standing in the corner, Tia stares blankly at nothing for close to an hour before she finds it in herself to move to the living room. Sitting on the old worn couch, she looks up at the clock and frowns at how late it really is. She doesn't move for another two hours, playing the words that her father spoke to her over and over again in her head.

'… once you open this panel; there is no going back for you.'

Finally realizing her father isn't coming home until morning; Tia stands up and haltingly makes her way to her room. Undressing, but not bothering to shower or put on her usual nightclothes, she falls into her bed and lets sleep overtake her.

Her eyes snap open when someone is roughly shaking her shoulder and an all too familiar voice begins whispering to her in desperation. "Wake up Tia! Please wake up!"

Groggily rolling over, the blonde-haired teen blinks her eyes and tries focus on the face over hers. "Amata? What are you doing here? I'm not late to school am I!?"

Amata jumps back when her best friend surges upwards, anxiety clear in her eyes. "No you fool! But you are in serious danger!"

Tia leans forward and tilts her ear towards the dark-haired teen. "Why are you whispering?" Tia whispers back.

"Because I don't know if they are coming for you or not yet." Amata whisper again.

Before Tia can ask who, the other teenage woman stares over her shoulder and doesn't answer the unasked question, instead she asks. "Tia, tell me you didn't know what your Dad was planning."

"Huh. What are you talking about Amata? My Dad left for some type of emergency. Why? What's going on?" Fear grips the green-eyed teen as the events surrounding dinner begin to flood back into her memory.

The Overseer's daughter turns to her and tells her. "Your Dad escaped the Vault over an hour ago. Jonas Palmer is dead; they say your Dad tried to stop Security from taking Jonas, but somehow in the scuffle, Jonas was killed by Officer Mack by accident. I heard your Dad then tried to shoot one of them, but somehow in the firefight, an old passage way became compromised and now there are thousands of RadRoaches running around the Vault. Security and every able bodied person is out there right now trying to kill them. I came here because I heard my Father and Officer Mack discussing what they were going to do to you when this was over. Tia, they mean to take you into custody and let Officer Mack get his information any way he can, that means torture…and…"

"No…" Tia's eyes widen in horror at the insinuation.

"Get dressed now! I'm…I'm gonna get you out of here!" Amata drags the shocked teen to her feet and pushes her towards her closet. "Get dressed!"

Reaching for her closet, Tia freezes when the very words her Father spoke ring in her ears. Rushing out into the living room, she begins to freeze as she reaches for the framed words with indecision as whether or not this is a life and death emergency, until an explosion rocks the room.

"W-what are they doing!?" Amata screams as dust plumps out from the numerous ceiling vents.

"RadRoaches are probably using the ductwork to move from space to space! There won't be anywhere safe if they don't contain them and kill them soon!" Tia shouts as she quickly blows on the hidden keypad and punches in the numbers.

A loud hissing sounds out and both teen women watch as a section of wall slides out to reveal the contents hidden inside the void. Both hesitate before looking inside, Amata gasps at what she sees.

"Are…are those…guns? I've never seen those kinds before." Amata rushes out.

Tia doesn't pause as she allows her fight-or-flight reflexes kick in. Pulling out the unusually heavy Vault suit, she sees a letter sticking out of the top-front pocket. Quickly opening it, she finds a letter addressed to her from her Father.

'Tia,

If you are reading this, then it means my and Jonas's escape has put you great danger. I'm sorry, I can't tell you why I left, but if you are forced into fleeing, follow the map located in your Pip Boy's memory. The maps will become available after you pull up your First Grade homework assignments and then you must open your Geography project from your last quarter. There are files in there that will guide you to safety. Put on the Vault Suit; it's made up of several overlapping layers of composites and Kevlar. The backpack has seven days of survival gear and rations, and lastly the two guns. Once is a Colt Nineteen Forty Five, the other is a Heckler & Koch MP Seven modified to fire standard Wastelands rounds. There are four clips for each of them. Remember your target practice in the Reactor Rooms with Higa and his RatCatcher and you will do fine sweetie. I'm sorry for not telling you the whole truth, and remember your Mother and I will always love you forever,

Dad.

'What the hell!?' Tia thinks as she pulls on the bullet resistant Vault suit.

"Hurry up Tia!" Amata urges with sincere worry building in her voice.

"Hold on! Just…just one more thing." Tia quickly runs back into her room and stuffs her three precious memories into her bag.

Clipping the lock through the pack's zippers that she alone knows, she runs back out into the living room and holsters the MP Seven into a slot on the back of the pack, while she puts the Colt inside of her jacket for quick handling. Just as she is about to speak to Amata, another explosion occurs, this time outside in the hallway.

"There's more over here! Quick throw another one!" A man's high pitched voice screeches out.

The green-eyed teen grabs her best friend and throws her and herself over the small metal island in the kitchen. The outside wall burst inward, smoke and heat quickly filling the room as well as the sounds of numerous clicking sounds. Peering around the corner, Tia spies a two foot long RadRoach scurrying inside and straight for her. Pulling out the Colt quickly, she pulls the trigger and…nothing.

"Fuck!" She quickly remembers to unlatch the safety and aims wildly at the approaching mutant insect.

"Boom!" The loudness of the shot rings both of her ears as well as those of her friend, who is screaming in terror from the explosion and the now the loud noise that sounded off next to her ear.

Not wasting anytime, Tia pulls Amata to her feet and dashes out into the hallway and into a living nightmare. RadRoaches by the dozen are scurrying around, a few though have stopped and what both women see beneath them causes them to violently gasp and turn away lest they vomit. Looking in the opposite direction, Tia sees that there is a way clear, the blonde-haired teen pulling her best friend behind her and making their way to an elevator. Hitting the call button, she quickly notices the lockdown light is on, the same one that activates in cases of fire. Swearing, she looks right and left and berates herself internally at how panicky she is acting. Calming herself down quickly, she moves to her left and, after running her hand over the surface of the steel wall, finds the two hidden release levers and pulls them at the same time, and can't help herself smiling when she hears the clicks.

Opening the access panel, she pushes Amata inside first and follows behind her friend while closing and locking the panel. Scanning the junction tube, she makes her way slowly to the first intersection hub and after careful study, sighs in relief that the RadRoaches haven't yet infiltrated the small access hallways.

"We're safe for now Amata." Tia says as she turns around, only to see Amata staring at her in disbelief and confusion. "What's wrong?"

"You…you are part of it aren't you!? You knew this was going to happen didn't you!?" Amata tries to back away, only for the blonde to snatch her arm and pull her forward.

"NO I DIDN'T!" Taking a deep breath, the blonde-haired teen begins to speak normally. "I swear to you I didn't know Amata. My…my Dad spoke to me earlier at dinner and showed me that panel just tonight. I didn't ask why, he just told me that it was for an extreme emergency…I think…I think he was planning on leaving, but something went wrong tonight with Jonas. Your Father must have found out and tried to stop them, but why I don't know. Did…did your Father tell you anything Amata? Why would my Dad want to leave the Vault to begin with?"

Amata stares into her best friend's eyes for several long moments before she lowers her head. "Sorry Tia…I'm just scared right now. I…I saw Jonas's body when I ran here to get you. He didn't die by 'accident', I think he was murdered. And yes I did overhear my Father saying something, but it doesn't make any sense. Something about 'never should have let him in with that screaming brat'. That's all I heard before I snuck away. If he does know anything our best place to find it will be in his office, if he isn't there. Any chance of us getting there without going through all that?"

Both stare back at the access panel when several muffled sounds are heard rattling through the metal wall. Nodding her head, Tia turns on her Pip Boy and quickly finds her First Grade homework. Tapping the old Geography project, she and Amata watch as blueprint after blueprint loads up on her screen. Quickly scrolling through them, she finds the one indicating their current location. Tapping on the Overseer's office, she waits as the Pip Boy creates a map for them to follow.

"Stay behind me Amata…I can't risk losing you too." Tia says as she moves forward, the MP Seven now in her hands at the ready.

Amata snorts a rebuttal. "I'm not the one who learned how to shoot with the boys."

XXXX

Looking over the carnage from his spatial office, Alphonse Almodovar watches in stunned horror as RadRoaches run rampant in the courtyard below his office.

How could this happen?' He thinks again in disbelief as he watches a young woman being taken down from behind by several of the radioactive bugs, her screams of anguish mercifully cut short when one of the beasts bites into her head in a spray of blood and brain matter.

Unable to hold it in, he dashes for his private bathroom and vomits repeatedly into the sink. Leaning over, he pushes the button and water begins to flush the evidence of his weak stomach away. Once the offending remains of his dinner swirls down the drain, he washes his face and rinses his mouth out from the same spigot. Gripping the sides of his sink, he keeps his head down until he finds the courage to look at himself in the mirror.

What he sees is a rapidly aging old man who witnessed the brutal beating to death of a young man at the hands of another young man who also wants to marry his only daughter in a year or two. And he had agreed to it. He had never known such violence to still be lurking about in the minds of the Vault citizenry. He had thought the years of careful subliminal messages would have curbed that particular trait out of human consciousness, but he was reminded that not all of man's inborn traits could easily be subjugated by a simple message to the subconscious mind. Officer Steven Mack has shown how true that was during the interrogation of Jonas. The young man never stood a chance, and died when his nose cartilage was driven into his brain after he spit in the face of the enraged Security officer.

That is when things went from bad to worse as James Halibel stormed the interrogation room and witnessed the results of the murder. Unlike the men in armored flak jackets and Visored helmets, the man he allowed to enter the Vault all those years ago proved that those who lived in the Wastelands were indeed warriors of a different caliber. The moment the man's light-green eyes found Jonas slumped over with blood covering the front of his clothes and hearing one of the guards declaring the young assistant dead, the Wasteland Doctor flew into an unstoppable rage.

His first palm strike shattered the jaw of the guard closest to him, while in the same motion, the flat of his boot caught the guard opposite of the first and crushed the helmet covered head against the steel wall, the reinforced protective gear caving in along with his skull under the force of the blow. Moving forward and twisting at the last second to avoid the downward swing of the third guard's baton, James Halibel wrapped one arm around the man's neck in the same movement and in a vicious jerking motion, snapped the man's vertebrae. As the dead guard crumpled to the floor, the fourth guard tried to take out a Stunner, but as his hand pulled the device from its holster, the Doctor grabbed his wrist and brutally snapped it backwards, using his second hand to disarm him of the non-lethal weapon and shoving it into the guard's mouth before pulling the trigger. The stench of charred skin still permeates the Overseer's clothes even now, the memories of the screaming guard as he was literally cooked alive refusing to leave his mind.

The only reason why he and Officer Mack are still among the living is that just as the former Wastelander was moving in to finish his rampage, the Vault shook from a tremendous blast as the Second Primary Reactor unexpectedly blew apart from the lack of maintenance and spare parts. All three turned to see the panicked face of the blonde technician on the screen on the emergency monitor, Izuru Kira screaming that the outer Vault wall had been breached through a previously unknown void and RadRoaches by the thousands were now pouring in from the gap created by the explosion. Then those cold words he would never forget were spoken to him by the terrifying Doctor.

'You aren't fit to lead Alphonse, you never were. As soon as I help them get this under control I will be back to finish this.'

That was the last thing he heard of the man, other than a report stating that the Doctor had been forced to evacuate the RadRoach infested Reactor Room despite his efforts to trap the man down there and that he somehow made it through the Primary Vault door he had forced open by unknown means. By that point it no longer mattered, however, as he had armed the arriving backup with small-arms, the invasion by the mutated descendants of those once common household nuisances forcing everyone capable of fighting to wield any type of weapon in an attempt to hold back the rampage. His once organized and quiet Vault is now a raging warzone as he can only sit and watch the struggle play out before him through his large viewing window.

"For the last time, I'm telling you Amata I had no idea my Dad and Jonas were planning anything at all!" An exasperated voice declares loudly from outside of his office door.

Turning slowly to face the person whose voice he hates with all his passion, ever since the first day his daughter brought her to his home, Alphonse hits a secret buzzer alerting the Security Guard to return at once just as his daughter and Tia Halibel smash in through his office door.

"F-Father! What are you doing here!?" The younger Almodovar squeaks out as she stops short at seeing him.

"I am maintaining control of MY Vault Amata. I should be asking why you brought her to my inner sanctum, she is a wanted criminal as well as a co-conspirator in destroying our only home!" The Overseer ends with a raging scream as he slams his fist down on the table.

"I didn't know anything!" Tia desperately tries to plead to the highest authority in the Vault, only to see him narrow his eyes in disgust and distrust.

His next words though slam into her like a bad dream. "I should have left the two of you to die out in the Wastelands fifteen years ago."

"W-what? What do you mean by that!?" The blonde-haired teen asks as she stumbles back and into the waiting arms of the just-arriving Officer Steven Mack, who kicks the released weapon away from her numb hands.

"Gotcha you bitch! Now why don't you and I have a private…AARRGGGHHH!"

Both Amata and the Overseer step backwards in shock when Tia slides a small dagger out of the man's groin. Blood drips from the end of the small steel blade that snaps back into the sleeve of the long-sleeved Vault Suit. Pulling the pistol from inside her suit, and steadying her nerves once more, she keeps it aimed at the pale-faced older man as she walks over to his main control station. Looking down quickly, she snaps her eyes back up at the Overseer and then over to her best friend.

"Password! What is the password for your personal logs and data files!?" The blonde teen barks out.

A snort is her answer, followed by his declaration. "You'll never get them you dirty Wastelander bitch. Just like your Father, you are nothing but trouble; nothing but a rabid dog that needs to be put down."

"Last chance Overseer, what is your…" Tia pauses as she sees his eyes barely travel in the direction of his daughter. "You have got to be kidding me."

Typing in the word she thinks it is, she smirks when files by the hundreds begin to open up for her. Deciding she doesn't have the time to read them all, she dumps them into her Pip Boy by way of a special cable her father had designed years ago to allow him quick transferring capabilities into his own Pip Boy as well as hers. As she waits for them to download, she glances at the sobbing Security Guard and the puddle of blood now spreading out from his wound, his hands clutch futilely at his ruined manhood.

"Did you mean to kill Jonas you prick?" She demands of the Security Guard.

The man somehow manages to turn a hateful glare in her direction before he spits at her feet. "Fuck you, you cunt! You cut my…my…off! I'll fucking kill you when this is over!"

"Wrong answer." Tia shoots the prone man in his kneecap, ignoring his bellow of anguish as he tries to use one hand to try and stem the blood loss from a second wound.

"I'll ask again, did you mean to kill him?"

"No." The Overseer cuts in. "It…it was an accident."

"Accident huh? That's why his nose was shoved into his skull cavity. I stop to check on him before coming here Overseer. I wanted to see for myself if what I heard was true, it seems it was." The blonde narrows her eyes after hearing the blatant lie, until suddenly she sees something familiar flashing across the small screen of her Pip Boy causing her to widen them again.

"Amata. Amata!" The weapon wielding teen shouts out to her dazed friend. "In his files, I saw something I want you to bring up."

"Okay Tia." Amata keeps her eyes trained on the now fetal-positioned man as she gingerly moves over to her best friend. "What do you want me to find?"

Pointing with her free hand, Tia touches the screen under the icon for Personal Files. "Open it and look at your file Amata. I want to see what he thinks of his own daughter."

"Don't!" Both teenage women turn to face the Overseer's frantic face as he tries to move towards them, the sound of the pistol's hammer cocking again stopping him dead. "There's nothing in there for you to see Amata, I swear!"

Sneering at his pathetic attempt to keep his daughter from his secrets, Tia opens the file and motions for Amata to read it for herself. Several minutes pass before the dark-haired teen turns to face her father with rage in eyes. Pointing at the screen, she screams at him.

"I'm only good to be the next Overseer's wife! Only good enough to marry and be a common housewife! To stay home and take care of the children! You really expected me to marry that murderer!?" Amata shouts out as she points to the bleeding and whimpering Security Guard on the floor.

"I'll never ever trust you again…Overseer." With that declaration, the teen backs away from her former father towards his private console.

Reaching under the lip of the desk-like center, she motions to her best friend to join her. "This will help you escape Tia. Through here is an emergency exit to the main Vault door. You should be able to open it and get out to find your Dad. Hurry, once I open it, Security will try to rush down there and stop you."

"What are doing Amata!? You…you can't help her get out! It's impossible! Once she's gone, she can never return! Is that what the two of you really want!?" The Overseer sees the hopes of his Vault's survival diminishing. "You can't do this Tia Halibel! You'll be sentencing this Vault to its death if you leave; your Father was right about you, only you have the means to keep our home viable!"

"Then you shouldn't have thought about torturing me and…and…" Tia turns to look at the man on the floor in disgust.

"He'll never be able to use it again to hurt women again." Her second shot finishes what the blade started.

Ignoring the screaming man, Amata touches a series of buttons and steps back as the console reveals its secret, a set of stairs leading downwards in a spiral. Tia peers into the darkness for a moment before turning to her friend and pointing at the opening.

"Why don't you come with me?" She hopes for a positive answer, but knows she won't get one as Amata gently takes her hand.

"I'm not like you or your Dad, Tia. I don't have that adventurous attitude, nor do I think I could survive…out there. Go Tia, please. Hurry and get out of here while you still have the chance. And don't you worry about me, I'll…I'll be fine. I have friends who can hide me when this does end. Now hurry, Security knows something is going on."

Tia reluctantly steps downward, her hand gripping her best friend's hand until the very last moment when Amata pushes another button to close the emergency exit. Looking up with tears streaming down her face, the daughter of James Halibel yells out to her friend.

"Don't you die on me Amata! I will come back for you!"

"I know you will…"

Blinking back her tears as the doors slam shut, Tia wipes her eyes with her sleeve before turning on her penlight. Breaking through the void of the darkness, she goes for broke and runs down the spiral stairway. Not even pausing when she thinks she hears shouts coming from above her, the blonde-haired teen runs downward using only one hand to guide her as she shuts off her only source of light. She jerks suddenly when there are no more stairs and stops herself from falling forward by allowing her hand to scrap against the wall.

"Dammit." She grouses out. "Now where am I?"

Risking exposure, she quickly turns on her penlight and finds herself in a large storage room. Judging from the amount of dust on the surfaces, she concludes no one has been here in years. Quickly locating a light switch, she flips it up and turns back to see what she can use.

"Hell's yeah!" The teen shouts out as she recognizes the multitude of storage containers and more importantly what is written on them.

Quickly opening up the first, she grabs three dozen each of Vault-Tec's cure alls of Rad-Away and Rad-X. The next container has crates of purified water bottles which she grabs a dozen of. The last two containers contain more ration bars and boxes of small-arms ammunition. Grabbing a second backpack off the wall, she throws her loot into the bag and then shuts off the light. Cracking open the hatch, she looks outside and sees no one standing guard at the control room for the large blast door. Sliding back the receiver of her PDW, she cautiously scans the room through her Reflex Sight as she makes her way to the main terminal.

Looking out into the great entrance way, Tia scans the controls and sees that a password is needed to open the electronic locks. Pounding the terminal board in a fit of anger, she glances down when a piece of paper floats out from under a loose keyboard.

'Halcyon days.'

'Are you kidding me?' Tia thinks to herself as she types in the password and is startled when the large door begins to screech and scream as it opens.

Walking towards the slowly-opening entrance in wonder, she nearly misses the shouts and movements from the other end of the great hallway. Twisting around, she quickly takes aim and shoots at the feet of the pursuing members of the Security forces. She can't bring herself to kill another human being that she isn't sure deserves it or not, but driving them back into the smaller hallways is the lesser of two evils as she keeps her back to the still moving steel behemoth. Thinking she's gonna make it without too much trouble, she chances a look over her shoulder before a round hits the concrete near her face.

"Shoot her! Don't let her escape! Her staying here is vital to our survival! Shoot her in her legs!"

"I knew I should have shot you Overseer!" Tia screams out as she brings her modified weapon to her cheek.

Seeing the first head that appears around a concrete corner, Tia prays for the man's soul before she pulls the trigger and two rounds slam into the man's head. Looking at her selector switch, she pushes it to the semi position and aims again. This time only one round is fired and another head is thrown backwards from the force of impact. Then the sound of several pistols firing all at once has her ducking into the concrete trench that leads the stairs of the now open Vault. Setting down the backpack her father left her, Tia quickly opens it and digs around hoping he left her with something more powerful than what she is currently using. That's when she sees the glimmer of green glowing near the bottom of the bag.

'Is this what I think it is?' She begins laughing crazily as she pulls out a plasma grenade.

Looking at her escape and then at her pursuers, she looks around the great cavern-like room and spots what she needs. Hoisting the backpack once more onto her back, she slings the second one protectively around her chest like a bulky apron. She pushes in the primer and counts down from five in her head before tossing towards the now blinking grenade at a series of pipes running through the walls.

"RUN! SHE'S THREW SOMETHING AT THE OXYGEN CONVERTERS!"

Tia jumps up and makes a dash for the exit, keeping her head down as bullets whizz past her head from the retreating guards. Diving through the now closing blast door of the Vault, she rolls to her feet and turns to see Amata staring at her from far, with her hand pressed against the thick glass of the observation room.

'Amata…'

Then the concussive force of the grenade goes off and the resulting force of the explosion, funneled through the narrow gap of the almost-closed blast door, slams into her and sends her flying through the air before she crashes into a rough-hewn wall and blacks out.

XXXX

Perched high above the old Springvale School, a man and his animal both turn to the sound of distant thunder. Turning on his scanning lens in the direction of the booming noise, his visor sweeps the area and finds nothing out of the ordinary. Grimacing to himself he hands a large piece of Brahmin Steak to the hellish looking animal lying by his side.

"We'll go after them tomorrow night with the new moon, Kon. They're the last ones if they're here." The man remarks as he gently strokes the horned head of his family's life-long companion.

XXXX

Tia blinks her eyes open and stares up at the dark ceiling of the rocky tunnel as it comes into focus. Slowly forcing her body to respond, she holds back a groan as she feels a slight trickle running down the side of her face; touching it and glancing at her fingers, she follows the red liquid to its source only to find she has a small gash on her head. Looking around slowly so as to not aggravate her throbbing head, she finds both of her backpacks still on her body, though the one on her chest is now soaked from nearly half a dozen ruptured bottles of water. Taking the pack off, she opens it and begins to pull out the split or crushed bottles, realizing she is now down to five bottles and whatever water she has in her canteen in her first pack.

"Dammit." She says as she pulls out several ruined boxes of Rad-X and Rad-Away along with most of her rations, the damaged supplies now spilling out of their once-sturdy cardboard containers. Her only saving grace is that her ammunition seems to be fine.

Opening her second pack which is miraculously undamaged, she pulls out a small bottle of pain killers and swallows them using the leftovers of one of her leaking bottles of water. Checking the rest of her pack, she sees her three dolls are safe as well as several changes of underwear and socks. Looking back at the Vault-Tec blast door, she knows no one will be following her now if it is still closed. Laying out the contents of her two packs, she takes a quick inventory and finds she has at best five days of water and seven days of food, some basic medical supplies and ammunition.

Tia then notices a large, strange envelope mixed in with her medical supplies. Picking it up, she hears metal clinking together lightly. Slowly slicing the top off, she opens it and finds several hundred bottle caps inside.

'What is this about?" Then she turns the envelope over and sees a few words written in her father's handwriting: 'Wasteland currency'.

"Currency? Do they still use…money?" Tia's mouth twists as she speaks the unfamiliar word as she stares at the bottle caps in confusion.

Putting the envelope back into her first backpack, she quickly organizes what she has left and in short order manages to get everything into one single pack. Zipping it up and locking it, she hefts it onto her shoulders and stands up. Taking one last look at the blast door and its faded paint, the teenage woman turns her back on her old life and makes for the light at the end of the tunnel. Remembering that she is no longer safe behind thick walls of steel and concrete, Tia slips the MP Seven into a ready position as she moves forward. Several minutes later, she stops before a kicked out wooden gate.

"Well, this is it, the start of my adventure." She remarks as she pushes the gate the rest of the way open.

XXXX

Light-green eyes flinch as the light-brown-haired woman finishes putting in the last stitch over his eye. Watching the woman as she puts away her surgical kit, James Halibel can't help but feel the regret that pulses through his veins as he stares at the beautiful woman he helped all those years ago. His own wife wasn't as strong as the motherly woman of three, who now turns her scolding gaze back down at him.

"Thanks Masaki." The tired looking man says as he touches his bandaged head.

Shaking her head ruefully, Kurosaki Masaki sighs as she bends down and looks him in his eyes. "That's all I get after you disappeared on us sixteen years ago James, 'thanks Masaki'? Really? And another question, where is she? You didn't leave her behind in that place did you?"

Lowering his head to avoid looking at her, knowing she will get mad when he tells her the truth, the former Vault Dweller tells her what happened. Starting from when he first found the Vault and then deciding he needed to keep her safe while he did his research in secret using the Vault's resources, James pauses before he tells the attentive woman everything that happened to the little girl she helped raised for the first twelve months of her life. Shifting gears quickly, he then tells Masaki of how fast Tia grew up and how she found her own place within the community of isolated humans.

Then he pauses and fidgets under her hard glare as he finishes up with the events that lead to his hasty exile. "I had no choice but to leave her behind Masaki-chan. That fucking bastard started sealing bulkhead doors quicker than I could reach them, if I hadn't prepared a way out beforehand he would have trapped me in there to die."

She lightly smacks him on top of his head as she glares at him. "You better pray she's okay James Halibel; Catherine was my best friend and I know she would forgive you for doing the right thing, but I do know she would worry everyday until she could lay her hands on her Musume-san once more."

"You're still mixing your Japanese with English?" He tries to divert the conversation, he is only half successful judging by the unimpressed look in her eyes.

"Hard not to Halibel-kun, seeing that over fifty former members of the Brotherhood of Steel do reside in Megaton. Now tell me, exactly how did you ensure your Musume-san's safety?" The Kurosaki matriarch demands.

"…You're not going to let it go are you?"

A laugh fills the room when Masaki's husband walks in along with a fifteen year old sandy-blonde hair teen. Kurosaki Yuzu is the spitting image of her mother at her age, while her fraternal twin Karin inherited the Japanese features of the laughing man, Kurosaki Isshin, formerly Shiba Isshin of the Shiba Clan of the Brotherhood of Steel, San Francisco.

"Not when it comes to Tia-chan. Yuzu, place James-oji's dinner there and go find Karin and Senna. Tell them that dinner is done and I want them both in before it gets dark. There are reports of Raiders near Springvale, and I don't want them outside if there is a raid tonight." The former soldier gently asks of his youngest.

"Hai Tou-chan. Haha-ue, James Oji-san." Yuzu bows politely before scurrying out the door.

"Teaching them the old ways Isshin? I thought you wanted a clean break from that life?" The light-haired man remarks just as he takes his first bite of the food. "Damn, she's almost as good as you Masaki!"

The named woman beams with pride. "At least one of my Kodomo took after me."

Isshin wilts under the sudden and dramatic shift in his wife's demeanor as she turns on him. "Unlike my other three who took after this barbarian."

"Three?" James pauses the shoveling of food into his mouth. "Did you and Isshin have another one?"

Husband and wife share a brief and silent conversation between them before Masaki bows to her old friend. "I'll be back in a few minutes with some tea James."

Watching his late wife's best friend leave hastily, the light-green eyed man starts to eat again when he figures out that Isshin would be the one to fill him in on the details.

Still remaining standing, the Kurosaki male gazes out of the window of the small dining room, his hands folded behind his back. A heavy sigh leaves Isshin's chest, causing James to stop eating again and look at him in confusion.

"Isshin, you didn't have another child did you?"

A head shake is followed by a very low voice. "In case she comes home unexpectedly James, I don't want her to be reminded of the most horrible day of her life. Senna is our adoptive Musume. She came to us around three years ago when she was…"

XXXX

Pulling out his custom-modified SCAR, the black uniformed man perches on his hillside blind and begins to scan the old school through the electronic scope after switching to thermal imaging. Counting out in a near whisper, he starts listing off his targets, looking for one person in particular.

"One of the roof. Two in the hallway on the second floor. Two near the locker room bathroom. Dammit show your face you fucking bastard."

So intent in his hunt, he nearly misses the blue-clad woman making her way around the back of the semi-demolished building like an oblivious idiot.

"What the fuck is she doing? Does she even know where the fuck she is!? Wait! Is that…a…SHIT!" The man scrambles back down the hillside and pulls out a long metal tube from among his packs.

Moving back up to the crest of the ridge, he quickly opens the tube and pulls out an extremely long barrel extension. Once he hears the locking bolts slam down, he snaps the powerful rifle up to his face and watches in horror as the ambush unfolds for him to watch. His mind threatens to lock up as the memories of a similar story he is intimate with floods his raged filled brain. It is only when he sees the tall lanky male standing up in triumph, his face and intention clear, does the man regain control of his volatile emotions, clamping down hard on them with the suppressed fury of a hunter meeting his long-sought prey.

"There you are…Nnoitra." He growls out along with the now heavily breathing creature next to him. "Kon, go to the roof. Leave the girl in blue alone, but don't let the others get near her."

The creature growls out in understanding and quickly dashes down the hillside towards the unsuspecting Raiders who are now hooting and hollering in feral excitement at the upcoming entertainment. The man presses a button on his wrist and his black and grey-uniform disappears as light bends around his muscular frame rendering him invisible. Standing up, he takes a long moment to line up his shots, then he hits a selector switch and fires his weapon in three rapid rounds. He smirks when all three non-lethal rounds find their targets, before switching to depleted Uranium rounds for the rest of the gang.

XXXX

Tia sips lightly from her first bottle of water as she observes the largest structure she has found so far for any signs of life. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she slowly uncrouches from her hidden spot and begins to make her way cautiously to the back of the ruined building; most of the lettering is still visible, announcing that this place was once a school. Pausing, she once again looks at the skeletal remains of the houses on either side of the crumbling street to see if she can spot anything of value. Earlier on she had found items of interest every now and then and had put them in her second backpack, but as she picked up more and more, she realized the weight was becoming an issue. That is why she was now making her way to the large building, hoping to find shelter for the night and to take some time to sort through her backpacks. Moving forward again, she treads carefully around the building until she finds a large section of collapsed wall leading down to a possible basement or boiler room.

Gingerly stepping through the rubble, she fails to notice her hidden watchers until it is too late, a woman's voice shouting out gleefully.

"Got you!"

Her head snaps up at the sudden and frenzied outburst of people jumping out from various spider holes and before she can even raise her weapon, she feels several pinches in her neck. Instinctively trying to lift her hand to her neck, her eyes widen in shock as she realizes she can't, not only losing the feelings in her hands but also feeling the numbness spread throughout her body. Her small rifle clatters to the concrete floor as she topples backwards, unable to keep her balance with all of her muscles turning to jelly.

"Whoohooo! We got her Big Brother! We got the Bitch for ya!" A small blonde haired woman shouts as she struts up to Tia's paralyzed body.

Trying desperately to move, Tia watches in panic as three individuals form a rough semi-circle around her paralyzed body. The immediate detail that sticks in her mind is their filthy skin conditions and the tattered condition of their clothes that are crudely patched with different materials to form some kind of basic body armor on the three. Her mind actually categorizes the pieces in detail. A lid from a garbage can, several long pieces of steel-threaded rubber, and the tall man wears what looks like bones and cut up tin cans that partially cover his bare chest.

The smallest blonde has some type of animal skull covering the right side of her face; the darker-haired woman has the other half of the skull covering the left side of her face. The two grab her bags and start emptying the one without a lock, the man who is handed the second bag kicks her violently when he realizes it is locked. Tossing the bag aside, he pulls out a rusty sickle-shaped blade from his back and kneels down next to her.

"You'll open that bag up for me bitch, but first you and I are gonna have a good time." He leans down and licks her face with a disgustingly slimy tongue while his hand grabs the zipper of her suit and pulls it down, revealing her bra-clad chest.

"Wow Nnoitra! Look at 'em tits! She must have been popular where ever she's from!" A man's voice shouts from one of the exposed second floor walkways.

"Dumbasses, she's a Vaulty! Look at her clothes! No one but Vaulties wears fucking blue out into the Wastelands!" Loly shouts back up at the man with a sneer on her face.

Nnoitra though isn't paying much attention as he roughly grabs one of the tanned mounds after slicing open the front of her bra, squeezing the supple flesh hard enough that Tia would have screamed out in pain, but only managing a distressed whine. "Oh, don't worry baby, that's only the beginning for you tonight. You and me are gonna have a real good time as soon as my sisters get 'em clothes off of you. By the time I get done fucking all three of 'em holes, you'll be begging for more. Then the real fun begins when my two sweet sisters get their turn before turning you over to the boys. Melony, Loly get dis bitch out of that suit and you can spilt her clothes between ya."

Picking up the two bags, Nnoitra tosses them to the closest gang member. "Put them with the rest of our stash. I'll get her to open it tomorrow, right now though, she and I need to 'get better' acquainted."

Tia watches as the two women begin to bicker between themselves over what parts of her clothes they are going to get, but it's his mad grin that has her futilely trying to move as he begins to undress in front of her. Her eyes thrash wildly in their sockets as she sees him discarding his clothes piece by piece until he is standing naked over her body. When she spots the 'weapon' he is going to violate her with sticking skywards at a shallow angle, her mind begins to shut down and bile threatens to well up in her throat at the sight of what the man's penis looks like. Yellowish ooze leaks from the tip, the shaft is covered with red angry blisters, and the final thing she realizes through the sheer panic running rampant in her mind is the absolutely repugnant smell coming from his groin as he squats near her face.

"Oh my. Big Brother, I think we've a virgin here! Look at her eyes! I don't think she's ever seen a guy's cock in her entire life by the way she's staring at yours!" Melony screams out in malignant joy, the dark haired woman starting to pant in excitement at the soon-to-be defiling of her fellow woman.

Tia sees his eyes widen considerably before he points down at her. "I told you to get that shit off of her you two. Hurry it up dammit! If she is one, I'm gonna take her dry, make her bleed and use that to lubricate her cunt and asshole with. See sweetheart, told ya I'd take good care of ya. I ain't had a fresh one in nearly three years and you will do nicely tonight. "

Still unable to move, the blonde-haired teen screams frantically in her mind that this is all a bad nightmare; that she asleep in the Vault and she is going to wake up from this dream soon. Feeling the two hands starting to tug off her jumpsuit only confirms it in her mind that she isn't dreaming and she is going to be gang raped violently, tears of despair starting to well up in her eyes when without warning, the dark-haired woman on her left is thrown backward by a sudden impact.

"LOLY!" The blonde shouts out as she stands to her feet, only for her body to get hit by the same unknown force and sent flying.

Nnoitra screams out to the rest of the gang. "It's fucking Shiba! Kill that motherfucker before…" The would-be rapist's rant is cut off as his head is snapped back violently by the third unseen blow, joining his two sisters on the floor.

Tia hears the other men and women still hidden throughout the collapsing building shouting and screaming to each other as they desperately try and find this 'Shiba' the black-haired Raider called her unknown savior even as they are put down one by one. Uselessly trying to scan her surroundings with her eyes without being able to move her head, she finds herself looking helplessly back up at the darkening sky when she first sees it. The large monstrous form silhouetted against the dark blue sky as it breaches the edge of the roofline, twin eyes gleaming down at her from a horned skull. Stunned by a creature she has never seen before, even in her books, the blonde-haired teen watches with morbid fascination as the massive beast drops down silently behind the filthy gangster on the second floor balcony with an ease that greatly belies its size.

Before the Raider can do anything, a claw snaps out and grabs the now hysterically screaming fiend, a second claw joining its fellow to tear the man's body in half just above his hips. Still screaming as his legs crumple in a puddle of blood and intestines, the upper half of the Raider is then used by the creature as a projectile weapon to kill the next closest Raider.

"It's a fucking Deathclaw! A FUCKING ALPHA!" A woman's high pitch screaming joins in with the growing chorus of dying cries of mercy and prayers as she identifies the beast.

The same woman dies rather gruesomely when her back is blown out from a shot that pierces the small section of brick wall she was hiding behind.

'I hear…it finally.' Tia now knows what is being used to take out these filthy people, a suppressed long-range rifle, but a sudden cry alerts her to more present danger.

"Get the bitch! We'll use her as a hostage!"

Before she can even start to panic, Tia feels something wet splashing onto her exposed skin and the sound of something heavy crashing into the ground next to her body just moments later. Tilting her head sideways slightly and inwardly rejoicing at slowly regaining control of her body, she finds herself staring into lifeless eyes of another woman before she sees a mottled claw grab the head and toss the body aside. Two more thumps shudder through the air, and then the air grows suddenly still. At least, until she feels heavy breathing on her face and a pair of inhuman eyes peering down at her from above a fanged maw.

'It's going to eat me!' She screams in her head as the 'Deathclaw' bends down over her body.

She is not ready for what the creature does next when its long tongue darts out and starts cleaning her face and her exposed skin. Frozen both by terror and the whatever the Raiders did to her, she doesn't dare move as the creature's snout moves down between the heaving valley of her chest while licking her skin before stopping suddenly, and her face turns crimson when she feels it sniffing and nuzzling at her womanly area.

"Kon knock it off, she ain't for you to mate with you dummy." The mechanically distorted voice of a male fills the air right next to her.

Swiveling her eyes in the direction of the voice instinctively and blinking when she sees no one there, her eyes swivel back as the monster stands to its full height of three and half meters before lowering its head and a cooing sound begins to vibrate out of the creature's chest. Watching in fascination, she tries to figure out what is going on when a man begins to slowly reappear out of thin air. His black and grey suit armored with plates of light armor over vital areas does little to hide his well-defined physique. She looks towards his face, but he makes no motion to remove his mask in her presence, focusing instead on scratching the head of the beast.

Finally, his hand stops scratching the head of the beast she now knows is named Kon, and he turns to look at her. Walking the short distance to her prone body, he bends down and looks her in her eyes through two glowing red lenses.

"Listen to me carefully Vault Dweller, first thing I'm gonna do is zip you up. Blink twice if you understand me." Left with no other options, Tia does as she is instructed and she feels his gloved hand take hold of her zipper, pulling it up until it stop just short of her throat.

"Good. Now as to why you can't move, it's because you got hit with four of these." She sees his hand reach for her neck and she feels a pulling sensation on her now recovering nerves.

"Tranq Darts. They are pretty devastating to those that don't have a built-up immunity to their effects. In your case, they took hold right quick because you lack that immunity." He shows her a small projectile that looks like a small dart with fiber tails at the end of a small hollow tube, before negligently tossing it to one side.

"Okay, now I am going to…" He stops when a loud groan comes from behind him.

Swiftly getting to his feet again, she sees him slide a long, flat device from the side of his uniformed leg. He utters a word she can't understand and again finds herself watching in surprised fascination as the device transforms in the man's hand. When it stops its metamorphosis; Tia sees him holding a long black bladed weapon in his hand that she remembers her father describing them to her a few times; a daitō. She hears him walking away and an anguish woman's voice begins shouting out pleas of mercy again only for the man's voice to harden in her ears.

"Sorry, but I'm lacking in compassion towards anyone who is member of Santa Anna. You signed your own death warrant the moment you became one and don't deny that you didn't join willingly, that is the only way they gain women members, they have to join of their own free will. Besides you're worth a hundred caps while the two sisters are worth five hundred each, but him, your old boss, he's worth two thousand." Her last scream for mercy is suddenly cut off in a gurgle, with a soft thud following soon after.

Her face pale at his callous execution of a defeated opponent, Tia hears him walking back to her, the black weapon no longer in sight as he crouches down next to her again. "I'm going to move you somewhere safer until I finish here. I…need to finish keeping my promise to someone I love Vault Dweller. Blink again if you understand."

Once again, Tia blinks twice, then a feeling of vertigo fills her as the man lifts her easily with one of his arms under the middle of her back and the other under her knees. He shifts her so she can't see anything but his armored chest and when he stops after only a short walk, he gently places her on a soft surface with her head and upper body being supported by more soft items she can't see. She notices him suddenly take an interest in her Pip Boy.

"I haven't seen one of those in that good a condition in years. It looks well maintained there Vault Dweller…and it works." He says in mild surprise when he taps the screen and it comes back online.

"Well, let's find out your name, really can't keep calling you a Vaulty now can I?" Unable to stop him, the teen watches as the man's fingertips rapidly glide across the screen of her Pip Boy with ease and familiarity until she hears him speaking again.

"Ah, here we go. Tia…Halibel. Why do I remember that name? Ehmm, maybe Goat-Chin can tell me when we get to Megaton. So Tia, here's the deal, I'm going to leave you here…whoa don't freak out on me!" The masked man quickly rushes to reassure her when he sees her eyes beginning to blink frantically and tears forming in them.

"Let me finish first Tia." He quickly lowers his voice soothingly. "I'm leaving you here with Kon while I clean up this mess and disarm any booby traps left lying around. I can't have anyone getting killed if they scavenge this place. Besides, there are a few things I must do before I can even think of going home, you okay with that? I promise I won't be long."

She relaxes quickly and blinks her eyes again in answer, the man giving her a nod in response. The young woman sees him stand and walk over to the towering animal. Using a series of words she can't understand, the Deathclaw moves towards her before it flops down in front of her, his tail swishing the ground lazily as it watches his master move among the rubble of the old school building before he jumps down out of sight.

'What is he going to do to the…?' She wonders before her adrenaline finally runs out and she passes out before finishing her thoughts.

XXXX

Gasping as water splashes over her face, Loly Gilga sputters out a spew of profanities at the sudden wetness. "Fucking asshole, you're gonna fucking die you fucking piece of shit. I swear to…"

She stops when she finds herself staring back at the infamous black mask of the Shiba Ichigo.

"You…" She whispers out quietly.

"Yes, it's me Loly. You know what this means don't you?" The distorted male's voice asks just as quietly.

The dark-haired woman begins to tear up as she quickly speaks to the man she's known since he was a young baby. "Please Ichigo! I'm begging you! Please don't do this! We…we're friends aren't we!?"

The black masked man only shakes his head once. "We…were friends Loly, right up 'til you and Melony sweet talked me into letting your older brother go after I caught him stealing from the Simms Family. That was the day my naiveté cost me. You lied to me and what Nnoitra did a month later to that caravan utterly changed me forever Loly-chan. That good-natured young teen you and your sister teased during our childhood died when he came across the wreckage your brother and his Santa Annas left behind."

He paused, his voice growing bitter. "I found her among the dead, barely still alive from the brutality of what Nnoitra did to her; I will never get that image out of my head for as long as I live. The attack she had to live through on that day is the main reason that I died inside partially too Loly-chan, changing from what I was, to what I am today to keep that very same thing from happening to someone else."

He pauses as frantic tears flow down her dirty face, then he hits two buttons on either side of his mask and allows Loly to see his face for the first time in years as the metal plating flows back behind his head. His cold brown eyes hold no remorse for what he is about to do to her.

"Today marks the end of her living nightmare for all of us Loly-chan. The three of you will finally vanish from the Wastelands, a nightmarish memory that will only haunt the few survivors of the raids and me. I have to thank you again though. I went from being a well liked young teen to a man whose very name instills fear in people like you and your brother. Many of the civilized places have small places set aside for me so I am never in need or want. I am welcomed with open arms in Megaton, Rivet City, the Underworld and of course….them. So once again I must thank you, Melony and Nnoitra for making me what I am today, a protector of life. Now that that is over with, it's time for me to pronounce judgment upon you and your sister. If it makes you feel any better Loly, your death will be cleaner that what I have planned for Nnoitra; him…I'm going to draw out his suffering. Did you know that underneath this school there is a colony of ants?"

The dark-haired woman starts to hyperventilate. "NO ICHIGO! Not them! Please just finish him off! You…you know he can't…"

"…That's exactly why I'm going to use them to do it Loly-chan, because I do know about his fear of ants. I already have him downstairs prepped and ready, and as soon as I'm done with you two here, he's next. If you have any last wish to ask of me, now's the time, but I won't be sparing any of you." Finally realizing that there is no way for her to escape this fate of her own making, she makes her request. After accepting her request, Ichigo pulls out a syringe and injects her with it.

"It's a new type that Oji-san made just for me, for this sole purpose today. You won't be able to move, but your nerves will feel everything. It is only fitting you die in the same manner as so many of your victims did." Brown eyes stare into pink as the drug quickly takes affect.

Loly sees him pull a small knife out of his boot holster and the sounds of her clothes being cut off soon echoes off the walls of the old ruins. She tries to beg when she guesses what her execution will be, but the drug he injected in her neck stops her vocal cords from moving, preventing her from even making the same distressed sounds that her paralyzed victims made. Tears leaking freely from her eyes, she feels her body being lifted and carried over to a different spot. Her executioner unintentionally adds to her mental anguish when her head lolls back momentarily allowing her to see her naked sister already set up for her execution, her frantic screams going unheard in her mind at seeing Melony strung out over a foot high base of flammable materials with several empty cans lying on their sides, exactly like they had done so many times to their victims in the past, and knowing that she too will die the same way. Loly sees Melony looking helplessly over at her with tears streaming down her own face as she too has her wrists, ankles and limbs lifted and bound to posts sticking out of the ground, keeping her slightly suspended spread eagle over her own pile of flammable material. The dark-haired sister now understands the drug's true purpose, feeling her joints pulling apart but stopping shy of actually breaking; it's cruel purpose is to ensure that she feels every last second of pain before death comes to claim her.

Both sisters hear Ichigo offering prayers to his gods before he speaks to them both, his cold voice now sad and sincere. "I wish we never changed from who we were back then, Loly, Melony; but you chose your brother and his band of killers over the common decency your family gave you in Megaton. Because we were childhood friends, I will forgo the taking of your ears as bounty, but Nnoitra…I'll be taking his head as proof, if it's still there to collect when the ants get done with him."

He stands up and disappears from their sight, followed moments later by the clicking sound of a remote igniter followed by a brief flash of orange light in her peripheral vision. Smoke soon wafts around her and her sister's prone bodies, letting both women know that their execution has begun in earnest. Loly looks up at the sky when she feels the heat of first flickering licks of flames against her nude back, tears rolling down her face as she too wishes she was still that fifteen year old girl she was before letting her brother talk her and Melony into leaving Megaton all those years ago to join his gang.

'I'm sorry…Mommy, Daddy.'

XXXX

The young blonde-haired woman's sudden stop causes the older male walking next to her to stop with her; he follows the direction she is gazing to. He too observes the same billowing stack of smoke rising up against the darkening sky from several miles away.

"Dad isn't Ichigo and Kon supposed to be coming home from that direction?" The Deputy asks of her Sherriff father.

"Ehmm, Isshin did say they were supposed to be coming back by way of Springvale, Lilynette." The taller dark-haired man says with a frown on his face as he continues to watch the smoke climb higher into the air.

"Should we send someone to check it out?"

The man shakes his head no. "This is Ichigo we're talking about Lilynette; I doubt anything can harm that boy anymore. Besides we can't be sure it's even him out there."

Coyote Starrk's daughter grins slightly. "Yeah, even if it is Ichigo, he can take care of himself. Come on, we need to finish before they get to fixin' to lock the gates for the night."

Watching the column of smoke for a longer moment, the Sheriff mutters softly. "What did you find out there Ichigo?"

XXXX

A hard kick to his ribs wakes Nnoitra up rather rudely. Moaning for several minutes as he tries to shift his arms and legs, the former resident of Megaton feels tight bands around his wrists and ankles constricting his movements as well as a cold substance covering his naked body. Lifting his head up, he begins to thrash as he sees the tops of several familiar tunnel entrances blocked by metal reinforced wooden coffer dams. Extreme panic begins coursing through his body as he hears the scraping of the insects he knows all to well coming from behind the only things that keep the nightmares of his youth away from him.

"What the fuck is going on!?" He yells as he thrashes against his bindings.

A voice he hasn't heard in years but one he can never forget answers him. "Judgment day."

Slowly twisting his head back as far as he can, Nnoitra sees his sisters' old friend squatting on a high ledge behind him, several lengths of rope in his hand. Following the lengths of rope the man is holding, his panic begins to climb even higher as he sees them going through several makeshift pulleys in the cavern ceiling above him, leading back down to the wooden doors keeping the ravenous foot-long ants at bay.

"Whatever you want, I'll give it to you Shiba! Just…just don't fucking let them out!" The wretched leader of the Santa Anna screeches out, but noticing no change in the younger man's unmasked face, he starts to beg. "At least fucking shoot me first you fucking asshole!"

To his disbelief, Nnoitra watches the younger man's eyes narrow at him before he begins to speak with a slightly depressed tone.

"Do you remember what happened three years ago Nnoitra? When you and your gang swooped down on that lightly armed caravan coming back from the West? I do. I remember because I was the first person to find what was left of it, what you had left behind. One survivor, who started her first year of womanhood Nnoitra. The recipient of your 'special' attentions that morning. Do you remember her now? She survived and I made her a promise that day: I swore I would kill the man who stole her innocence because I was the young man who foolishly let her rapist go free weeks before, all because I had a soft spot for his sisters. Just like I thanked Loly before I executed her and Menoly, Nnoitra, I want to thank you for changing me forever. Because of you and your sisters, my name brings fear to any Raider, Merc or bandit that I come across, and when I let the news of your death spread out, I know your kind will be thinking more than twice before they do something in my 'lands', especially when news of how you died becomes a gruesome legend in the years to come." As he finishes, he begins to pull on the ropes in his hands.

Nnoitra's eyes roll wildly in his sockets as he struggles against his bindings. "Fuck you Shiba! I do remember that cunt now! Hahahaha! You'll live knowing ya failed that 'ittle bitch! You'll 'ave to live with the fact that you cut me loose when you had the chance to turn me in to Starrk! Hahahaha Shiba! Ya ain't ever gonna be able ta look at her without seeing the blood from when I took her, the blood I caused when I took her precious virginity! Fuck you and I'll save ya a spot in Hell Shiba you fucking pr…..AAAHHH!" His scream fills the air as the first of the flesh eating insects sinks its mandibles into his body that is covered by a paste of sugar; whether by fate or divine intervention, the first part to be consumed is his diseased genitalia, the 'weapon' that had inflicted so much pain on countless victims, especially the closest to his heart.

Watching the ants feast for twenty minutes and listening to Nnoitra's screams as they eventually fade into silence, Ichigo never blinks or turns his head away from the punishment he passed down upon his late cousin's best friend. The ants seem to respond to his mood as they leave the desecrated corpse behind, leaving his head still miraculously intact with fear and pain in his glazed eyes staring up at the high cavern ceiling. Once the last of the ants leave, the orange-haired man jumps down into the pit with ease and yanks the loosely clinging head away from the rest of the eaten corpse. Holding Nnoitra's head up by his greasy hair, Ichigo looks into those dead eyes and finds nothing looking back. Satisfied, he stuffs the head into a lined canvas bag and clips it to his waistband. Jumping back up the side of the pit, he leaves the rest of the body to be consumed by scavengers.

XXXX

Tia eyes slowly blink open as she hears the approaching footsteps; looking down, she sees Kon still sleeping at her side much to her relief. In the short span of time since she was ambushed, she now feels safer in the company of a creature she has never seen before than in the hours spent alone since she left the Vault to find her father. Discovering her head is now able to move side to side, she lets a soft cry out to express her relief that she is gaining movement once more, then she hears the footsteps draw near. Wanting to see the person who saved her from a gruesome fate earlier, she begins to wonder what he might look like, if he was scarred, old, a…

"Hey there Tia." A young man's voice says as he crests the collapsed wall to the place he had placed her earlier for safety.

Her eyes widen and a blush forms as the first thing she sees is a head covered by bright orange hair, surrounding a face that reminds her of the pictures of chiseled granite depicting the ancient gods of Mythology, and then she sees his eyes for the first time. His sad but intense brown eyes drinking in her soul, or at least she feels like they are.

"W-Who…are…you?" She stutters out haltingly when she realizes this person doesn't have a mask on.

The young man stops and looks at her in confusion before he slaps a gloved hand to his face and shakes it back and forth for a few seconds. When he finishes it, she blushes again as he gives an embarrassed and apologetic grin. "I'm sorry Tia Halibel, I forgot to introduce myself from before; I am Shiba Ichigo. I'm a Shinigami."

She stares at him for a few seconds trying to remember what that word meant when a story her Father told her about the different deities. "You…you…are a…death…god? You…you don't….look…like a ghost."

He chuckles as he bends down in front of her and his hand begins to scratch the sleeping Deathclaw's chin, earning him a low rumbling purr of appreciation. "The Shinigami is a special branch of the Regulators, the group I'm an unofficial member of, and we're all still living humans. I'm not able to join yet because of personal circumstances, but I'm pretty well known around these parts for the work I do. But right now isn't a good time for us to have this conversation however; we need to try and get you to Megaton before midnight. Once the gates lock, they don't open until sunrise, no exceptions, and I for one want a hot bath and warm covers tonight if possible. Kon and I have been out in the Wastelands for over three months and I miss my Kazoku."

The blonde teen's eyes widen slightly at the term he uses for his family, and she looks more carefully at the young man in front of her. "You…you are Japanese?"

"Mostly, my insane Otou-san is one hundred percent, but my Kaa-chan is only half Japanese, she is also part German. Something to do with her Kazoku's origins in Europe or some place over there. Not that any of that matters anymore, everywhere is pretty much the same as everywhere else. So, here is what is going to happen. I'm gonna secure you to Kon, because if something happens to me, he knows to go straight to Megaton at my command. I'll be right next to you both, but I need to keep my hands free and my mobility can't be impaired by carrying you. You okay with that?" The orange-haired male prods carefully.

"Yes…Ichigo." She sees him look at her briefly before he shakes his head for some reason.

"Good. Ah, I need to collect a few things and it would be best if you don't watch. It can get a bit messy."

She asks before thinking. "What do you have…to do now?" She inwardly grins as she realizes her slurred speech is returning to normal.

Ichigo replies absently as he checks his weapons. "Collect ears…shit…didn't mean to tell you that…not so soon…" He stops and gestures with his hands awkwardly hoping she understands, which she does by nodding her head.

"Take…your time. Not like I have…anywhere to go." She tries to end it with a smile but her lips fail her.

"Give it some more time Tia, you did take four doses. I don't know if they knew who you were yet, but four is the usual number it takes for those who have built up an immunity to the Tranqs to be affected by them, and you had none I'm guessing. You are already doing far better than most." He ends with a curious look in his eyes before he gets up again and walks away.

She makes the mistake of glancing down and sees Kon's one open eye looking back up at her expectantly. "What?"

The beast seemed to take it for an invitation because within moments his head is lying on her lap and his eye looking back up at her. When she doesn't respond at first, the Deathclaw lifts his head and once again she finds herself getting an unwanted bath of saliva. But what ever it is he is doing, she swears she can move even more within seconds. Struggling, she fails a few times before the creature senses her distress; using his snout, Kon burrow his head under her hand until it is resting directly between his horns. She finds herself looking down in wonder as Kon begins a low rumbling again, but his tail beats the concrete faster this time as she ministers to it needs with her barely flexing fingers.

Not realizing how much time has passed, Tia and Kon both look up when Ichigo's voice interrupts them. "You keep that up Tia and Kon's liable to fall asleep on your lap."

Taking stock of the young man, she mentally berates herself for the redness she feels bleeding into her cheeks again. "I had…nothing else to do."

Hearing him chuckle brings a since of relief to her for some unknown reason. Seeing the bulging canvas bag at his waist though makes her curious. "What is in that?"

Tia can't believe how many facial expressions she witnesses on his face in that split second, before his expression settles on bone-weary exhaustion.

"The end of a long journey Tia. Hopefully this will end her silent suffering." He gives her a vague answer and a much weaker smile than from before.

"Sorry…for asking." She says while lowering her eyes, sensing it was a painful subject for the orange-haired man.

"It's alright Tia, don't worry about it. It's not your fault for asking" Ichigo remarks quickly at seeing her discomfort. "Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to make it to Megaton in time. Night is fast approaching and I don't want to risk us getting ambushed again. So, we are leaving for a safer spot about half way to the town. Just hold on for a few minutes and we'll be on our way."

"Okay." Just as he was about to turn away, she asks the one question that has been on her mind since she was saved. "Why?"

"Huh, why what?" He replies, unsure of the question.

"Why did you save a total stranger you've never met before? You could have left me to my fate, so why did you save me?" This time she looks at up at him expectantly.

"You want to know honestly?" When she shakes her head, he turns and squats in front of her. "Truth is Tia; I had a long history with the three that had you surrounded earlier. The guy was my Itoko's best friend and I grew up with the two girls. Something happened three years ago though and since then I've been hunting them down. I finally caught up to them today and was going to ambush them in their sleep, but…you showing up changed things. I saw what was about to happen to you when…well it doesn't matter anymore. I saw what was going to happen and I stopped it. Stranger or not, no one deserves that to happen to them. Does that answer your question?" Ichigo sees her studying him intently before she answers.

"Thank you Ichigo. I…shouldn't have asked."

He gives her a smile, but makes no effort to move. "Since we ain't gonna make to Megaton in time and you asked me a question, it's only fair I ask one in return."

"Okay."

"Why are you out here? I thought getting out of a Vault was near impossible." He asks of the young woman.

She laughs bitterly. "Do you want me to answer that now, or on our way to where ever you want to go?"

Looking up at the sky, Ichigo stands to his feet. "I guess on the way would be better. Right now though I better finish up and then get you situated on Kon."

Twisting away, she watches him drop off the edge and hears a soft thump at the bottom.

'How does he do that?'

XXXX

Forty five minutes later, Ichigo looks at the blonde next to him incredulously. "You've got to be kidding me!? Your Otou-san has had you studying Vault-Tec equipment before your tenth birthday, just so you wouldn't get a crappy job and marry a loser?"

Tia smirks as she shifts her head from her position on Kon's back as she talks to the orange-haired man walking next to her, her hand cradled protectively around the backpacks that Ichigo had thankfully retrieved for her. "Yeah. I think he wanted it so that I had something indispensible to offer the Overseer if something were ever to happen to him. But, as it turns out, it didn't turn out the way he thought."

"I'm guessing this is the part you tell me why you are out here?" The man stops suddenly and stares to the right for a second before catching up.

Seeing the flip-lens folding back to the side of his head, the blonde is slowly starting to understand how dangerous this new world is. "Actually everything started roughly twenty four hours ago…"

Ichigo listens intently to Tia's story, starting from the early morning run in with the 'Tunnel Snakes'; he calls them 'chunk meat' to any number of Wasteland creatures much to her amusement. Her voice dips sadly when she speaks of the impromptu confession she had been given after a spar during something she called P.E.; the term has him confused until she explains what it was an abbreviation for. When she begins to speak about her last meal with her father, he is able to hear the pain in her voice. He doesn't know why he did it, but he placed his hand on hers for comfort. Both blushed at the simple contact, but he made no move to remove his hand and she didn't ask him to either.

As she begins again, she tells him of the confusing events surrounding her Father's defection and then the invasion by RadRoaches.

"Yeah, nasty bastards, though their meat does sell well to the Ghouls." Ichigo comments offhandedly.

"Huh, someone eats…them?" She inquires with horror, her stomach turning at why these 'Ghouls' would even think they were edible.

"Well yeah, Ghouls, at least those that still have their minds, find them to be a delicacy." Ichigo remarks while trying to stifle his grin.

Seeing it, she growls at him angrily. "I knew it! You were lying!"

Ichigo waves her off. "Oh, come on. Just a bit of harmless fun, but seriously don't tell that joke to them, they do get highly offended."

"Wait, what are Ghouls?" She has to watch him stumble over an imaginary rock while muttering about noobs, before smirking at her.

"You'll learn all about them when we get to Megaton, but why don't you finish your story, we're almost at the safehouse."

Nodding, she continues her story from where she was rudely woken up by her best friend. How the two of them narrowly escaped the fighting in the hallway. How she confronted the Overseer and the man that killed her Father's assistant and what she did to the man. Tia watches as Ichigo's face contorts briefly, but moves on when he stays silent. Finishing with how she escaped by throwing a grenade at several oxygen filled pipes did elicit a response from her savior that she wasn't expecting.

"Are you fucking crazy!? Did you even think of what might have happened to you if that door closed a few seconds earlier!?" He stares at her with disbelieving eyes.

Narrowing her eyes, she snaps back at him. "Of course I did! But do you think for one second I was going to live as a slave or worse!? Amata told me what was going to happen to me if I was captured and I wasn't going to let it happen! So what if I died, at least I would have died free Ichigo!"

The two stare at each other heatedly before Ichigo closes his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he speaks. "Sorry, I shouldn't have yelled; we don't exactly know each other well yet and here I am yelling at you for exactly the same thing I would have done in your position Tia."

Tia blushes at his apology, knowing that a virtual stranger is showing more concern for her wellbeing than most of inhabitants of the Vault would have shown her. "It's okay…I'm sorry for yelling too. I've had a rough day and I'm tired." She replies sheepishly.

"Lucky for you then, we're there." Ichigo says as he leads Kon to a series of nondescript boulders.

Tia keeps her questions to herself as she watches from Kon's back as they follow behind Ichigo. Wondering where he is going, she is about to question his directions when she finds Kon going down a series of carefully concealed large steps with a large sealed door revealed at the bottom. She peeks around Kon's back to see Ichigo pushing aside a fake rock and punching in a series of numbers. He steps back as she hears the muted sound of gears moving, then the door silently swinging inwards as a series of low voltage lights start to flicker on.

"It's an old bomb shelter that used to be under some guy's house during the Great War. Nothing left of the place anymore except those boulders you saw that were used as camouflage for it. Inside there are a few beds, some food and more importantly some first-aid kits we can use to get you back to normal before morning. Also there might be some clothes you can change into, no offense but you stick out like a sore thumb around here." Ichigo ends with a grin at her blanching face.

"Sorry, we didn't have…what are you wearing by the way Ichigo? I…never heard of clothing like that, not even from my Father." Tia asks as Ichigo gingerly lifts from the makeshift litter he made for carrying her.

"It's a stealth suit with modifications my Oji-san Geta-Boshi made me. I guess he knew what kind of trouble I would find out here in the Wastes. But the basic theory behind it is rather simple, using Military tech it bends light so you are actually seeing what is behind me, no matter what angle I am viewed from. I can't use it continuously because the power source is limited, I just use it when I'm getting close to my target or need to infiltrate a heavily defended position. Against the Super-Mutants it's a bit iffy at best; they can smell humans easily, since…" He pauses as he looks down at her.

"…Because what Ichigo? If I want to survive out here, I should know these things right? So why can they smell us so easily?" The teen asks, fully attentive of his grimacing face.

Closing his eyes, he finally answers. "Because the Super-Mutants of the D.C. ruins eat humans. They're cannibals."

Her hands tighten painfully around his biceps. "W-what!? They…eat humans!?"

Gently prying off the fingertips digging into his arms, he nods to her. "Tia, the Wastelands has only one real rule to follow. 'Be thy predator or be thy prey.' There is no grey area out here; it's black or white, live or die, fight or flight. That is the world we live in unfortunately; even if there are a few dreamers like me who want the old ways to come back, we are few in numbers fighting against a way of life that has been in existence for the two hundred years since the bombs fell. This is the world your Otou-san didn't want to you to live in, much less find out about. Every other step could be your last if you ain't careful. Now come on and I'll get you some food and clothes. If we're lucky there might be some water for a quick bath. "

Lifting her again easily and ignoring her complaints about being able to walk, Ichigo takes her to a room where there is a metal container set into the middle of the floor that is large enough for two people. Using his foot, Ichigo pulls a small wooden stool out from a cubbyhole and guides it towards the tub until it is nearly touching the side of it. Gently placing Tia down on it, he lifts her one arm and drapes it over the edge then gingerly releases her.

"Can you hold yourself up until I get back with the first-aid kit?" The orange-haired teen inquires.

Feeling some movement in her hand, she smiles weakly at Ichigo. "I think I can, just don't take too long please."

She swears she hears him muttering about bossy princesses, but his voice seems too muffled for her to be sure and she doesn't think he is serious anyway. Quietly sitting on the stool, she takes a chance to move her head around and inspect the rather spacious room. Despite the relatively low lighting, she can make out a stand up shower and at least two sinks; however both mirrors are fragmented remnants of their previous glory. There also several lockers that are reminiscent of her old ones in the Vault, and lastly she spies several toilets behind makeshift dividers. The one surprising quality about the room is that there is no offending odor. The room just smells…vacant, she muses.

A soft knock alerts her to Ichigo's return and in his hand he has a rather large white square box with a familiar red cross covering it. Setting it down near her feet, he snaps the two retaining clips back and opens it, then she hears him humming to himself as he roots through the contents before he utters a soft curse.

"Shit…only one vial. Well, one is better than nothing." He pulls out a small bottle and glances at Tia.

Bouncing the vial in his hand, he gives her a sheepish look. "It seems I may have forgotten to restock the antidote used to treat Tranq wounds from the last time I was here Tia. This is all I have until we reach Megaton."

Looking down at the small container filled with the only quick remedy to her paralysis, she asks if it is enough.

"It will go a long way, but it will still take hours before you get any feelings or movement in your limbs. Sorry, I honestly forgot to restock this place from about a year ago. As soon as Oba-san and Kaa-chan hear about this, I am in serious trouble." The young man's brown eyes gaze into hers with a hint of fear.

"It's okay Ichigo, just give me what you can and then we'll deal with…that." She points her head down at the empty tub with trepidation.

Sensing this, he decides that honesty might be the best course of action to take right now. "Tia, we both need to wash the filth off of us, more so you than me, but I still have to scrub the stench out of my hair. I know you probably might take this wrong way, but we are going to have to share that bath tonight Tia. I'm going to have to wash you the best I can…but only if you say yes. If not, you'll have to wait until at least tomorrow and try to move on your own, the choice is yours. I'll be honest with you; this wouldn't be the first time I've taken a bath with a woman like you."

"Like me?" She lifts her eyes to look into his with a hint of challenge.

She sees him blush lightly. "You are beautiful Tia. But I don't want you to worry about your virtue, it will remain intact. I promise not to do anything that makes you really uncomfortable if you are willing to share, if not it takes twenty four hours for the water to recycle enough for the next bath. Think about it while I'm getting your injection ready."

Ichigo gives her a reassuring smile before he looks back down at the vial, missing her slight blush as she watches him work. Pulling a syringe out of the kit, he pulls the cap off and pushes it into the vial before pushing the plunger of the syringe. He pulls the plunger pack and removes the needle from the vial. Ejecting just a little of the fluid, he gently taps the syringe and sees that there are no air bubbles. She watches as he pulls a rubber band out of the kit and then he quickly ties off her upper arm and taps the veins near her elbow. Tia is fairly impressed by how quickly and professionally he has her vein sticking out and she watches the needle tip just stopping shy of piercing the bulging blood vessel.

"You ready?" He asks.

"I'm ready." She replies.

The needle enters her arm with a slight sting and when he stops, he plunges the liquid into the vein. Once he is finished, he pulls out the syringe quickly and caps it before placing it in a self-sealing container. Holding a piece of bandage over the spot he injected, he begins to speak again.

"So, do you want to wait or let me wash you tonight?" His eyes never stray from looking anywhere other than her eyes.

Looking at the inviting bath that is looking even more inviting after the exhausting day she has had makes her decision easy, but very embarrassing. "I trust you Ichigo…because at any time you could have…done anything you wanted and you haven't. So…if you don't mind helping me..."

"I don't mind Tia." He stands and starts to pull off his black and grey uniform top but stops when he hears the young woman's gasp. "What?"

Her eyes are traveling up and down his tanned frame with shock in her eyes. "You…why do you have so many…scars."

Looking down at his skin, he realizes he's never met anyone who didn't have a few scars of their own, save his two sisters and the other children born and living in Megaton. "Its part of my life Tia, scars go with the territory."

Quickly removing the rest of his clothing, he walks up to the now severely blushing teen and squats in front of her without any concern for his modesty. "I have to…you know Tia. I know this is embarrassing for you, but trust me this is just as hard for me too since I'm assuming you've never shared a bath with a guy before. Are you sure you can handle this?"

She nods her head quickly but doesn't meet his gaze. Lifting her chin, he looks her sincerely in the eyes. "Trust me, I'll only do what you want me to do."

Tia stares back into his warm chocolate orbs, then she finally nods again. "I do trust you Ichigo."

Ichigo starts by gently pulling her arms through her sleeves, then proceeds to lower the top half of her one-piece jump suit. Removing her ruined bra, he puts it to one side telling Tia that he'll have one of his sisters mend it for her, which she thanks him for. Both take a deep breath as Ichigo finally lifts her and maneuvers her jumpsuit off of her hips and over her buttocks. Slipping the suit off of her legs, he takes another deep breath and waits for her to nod her head before he lifts her again and removes her underwear, focusing on putting her clothes neatly to one side as she tries to control her full body blush.

"I'll set you in the middle and wash your back first Tia, and then we'll take care of the rest somehow."

"Okay…Ichigo." She gives a small squeak when he easily lifts her again, her heated skin pressed against his hard body, then he gently lowers them both into the hot water, and her grateful moan makes him smile.

"Yeah, nice and hot. Hold on a sec." He uses one hand to hold her in place while he reaches over the opposite of the tub and brings out a leather bag out, opening it and rummaging about in its contents. "Soap and shampoo, we're in luck."

She feels him moving behind her before she hears him speaking again. "Here we go."

She closes her eyes when she faintly feels one hand holding her steady while the other gently begins to clean her back first. As he finishes rubbing down her spine, he tells her everything he is going to do starting with her arms and patiently waiting for her to tell him she is ready. Tia notes he is very efficient in how he cleans her body, which makes her curious.

"Ichigo, you said this isn't your first time sharing a bath with a woman; how many times have you done this, if you don't mind telling me?"

"Four times before. First doesn't count because it was with my Oba-san during a rather long mission. She kinda snuck in just so she could have something to tease me with when we got home. I still hear about it now and then from the others back in Megaton. The second time was with a woman I fell in love with when I was sixteen. It only lasted half a year before we both knew our lives were too different to make it work. The third time was during a short term job I did in Rivet City, and the last was just before I left Megaton…A personal favor I did for someone." Tia hears the pain in his voice and lets the matter drop as he continues washing her.

Before she knows it, he is done washing her back and limbs, and now he hesitates at the next step.

"Ah, do you think you can move at least one hand well enough to finish Tia?" He suddenly asks her.

Shaking her head, she answers back truthfully. "Not very much, why?"

"Oh, boy. It's gonna have to wait then…" He replies awkwardly.

"…What can wait?" She waits for his answer and when he doesn't she asks the quiet male what can wait.

"Down there and your front." He says as he shifts behind her uncomfortably.

Confused at first, she thinks on what he means by 'down there and your front' for only a few moments before her entire body turns bright red. However, the need to remove any traces of that disgusting man's touch compels her to speak to him.

"WE…we've gone this far Ichigo and I…I want them to be cleaned too. I…I trust you." Her breathing grows somewhat uneven as she answers, her mind still unable to fully comprehend what she's doing. In less than a day, she went from living a safe and sound life inside a Vault, to literally entrusting her life with a man she has barely known for a few hours, and now he was washing her because she couldn't do it herself, even in her most private areas. Calming her breathing as best as she can, she squeaks for him to start washing her again, much to her embarrassment.

Having obtained Tia's agreement, Ichigo swallows nervously before bringing his hand around up front again and she stifles her moan as his hand first cups her left breast and cleans her thoroughly, before he moves to the second one, the gentle movements sending incredible heat through her body. After rinsing them off, she hears him take a rather deep breath then she sees his hand dipping under the water. She feels her thighs being spread slightly apart, and her eyes nearly bug out when his hand cups her womanhood and begins to clean it. Unable to help what she feels and knowing only her hands have touched her so intimately before, Tia relaxes limply into Ichigo's chest and closes her eyes from his ministrations, her hips involuntarily bucking slightly against his hand. Though it is short lived, she can't help the tingle that went up her spine at how gentle he had been with her genital area, as well as feel slight disappointment at how quickly and efficiently he had cleaned her most sensitive areas. Both let out the breaths they had both been holding when he announces he is done.

"Thank you." She breathes huskily, still leaning into his body.

"Y-you welcome." Ichigo responds, his entire body heated up to match hers.

After a period of semi-comfortable silence, he finally speaks up again. "Do you want your hair washed Tia?"

"Yes please."

The rest of the bath passes quietly until Ichigo reaches over her and flips a lever up. She hears the water running down the drain and she shivers suddenly at how cold she feels, then a towel is wrapped around her hair and another is wrapped around her body. Again she wonders just how strong Ichigo is when he lifts her easily from the tub and carries her over to the stool. Where the new set of clothes came from, she doesn't know, and they were clearly not taken from her backpack; soon she is dressed again in her new clothing and again Ichigo carries her to a new room. Placing her on a small bed, he pulls her covers up until only her head is exposed.

"I'll be back, going to make you something to eat and see what I have in the first-aid kits. Kon will be out in the hallway, so you are safe here." Ichigo says before heading out the door.

Lying in the bed, Tia closes her eyes and a blushing smile forms on her face. 'How did I get so lucky?'

XXXX

"Are you sure this is what you want to do James?" Isshin asks with his wife standing next to him, the gate just shy of closing. "At least wait until morning."

Thrusting his hand forward, James Halibel grins at his old friends. "Can't stick around Isshin, Masaki, the sooner I find out what's left there, the sooner I can start tracking down the materials I need. Hell, if I get lucky, I might be able to convince anyone left alive to come back with me."

Masaki leans up and kisses the man on his cheek, while Isshin clasps his hand in a firm handshake. "You better come visit James, no excuses."

"I will, promise. Tell Kisuke thanks again for the stuff." The light-green eyed man says as he hefts the heavy rifle to his back.

"We will. Stay safe out there." Isshin says as he watches the Doctor leave through the now closing gate.

Masaki wraps her arms through his as she listens to the heavy gates close with a loud boom. "Isshin, it's been three months…Ichigo still hasn't come home yet…"

"He's still alive Masaki. Trust me, he's alive."

XXXX

AN: Originally this was supposed to be a 2 part release, the second part is about half done and that's because I was suffering from severe Vertigo when I was writing it. That old saying 'when it rains, it pours' sounds about right with how things have been going for me these past 2 years with my ongoing medical problems. Still I'll keep writing for you guys and gals until I done all my stories. See you guys very soon with the second part to this new story.

i Opening paragraph is from the fallout wikia website under the 'The Great War'.

Ichigo's stealth suit inspired by the mod 'Reinforced Chinese Stealth Suit' created by gaijune.

Translations List: leaving as is because it's easier to copy and paste the same guide over then edit it for each story.

Honorifics

-san (さん) : Used to address people with a generic level of respect (equivalent to Mr/Mrs/Ms)

-sama (様) : Used to address people with a higher level of respect (equivalent to Master/Madam)

-chan (ちゃん) : Used to address people with familiarity (usually females)

-kun (君) : Used to address people with familiarity (usually males)

-dono (どの): Used to address people with great respect (equivalent to Lord/Lady)

-ue (上) : Used to address one's parents with great respect

Addressing people by their family name without honorifics can be seen as disrespectful.

Addressing people by their given name without honorifics implies a high degree of familiarity.

People may not always use the same honorific when addressing the same person; it depends on the situation and what they are feeling at the moment.

Special

-tachi (たち) : Used as a suffix to refer to a group

Family Titles

Chichi (父) / Otō (お父) : Father, usually addressed as Chichi-ue or Otō-san/sama (also written as Otou)

Haha (母) / Okā (お母) : Mother, usually addressed as Haha-ue or Okā-san/sama (also written as Okaa)

Ani (兄) / Onī (お兄) : Older Brother, usually addressed as Aniki or Onī-san/sama (also written as Onii)

Ane (姉) / Onē (お姉) : Older Sister, usually addressed as Aneki or Onē-san/sama (also written as Onee)

Otōto (弟) : Younger Brother, usually addressed as Otōto-san/chan (also written as Otouto)

Imōto (妹) : Younger Sister, usually addressed as Imōto-chan (also written as Imouto)

Sofu (祖父) / Ojī (お爺) : Grandfather, usually addressed as Ojī-san/sama (also written as Ojii)

Sobo (祖母) / Obā (お婆) : Grandmother, usually addressed as Obā-san/sama (also written as Obaa)

Oji (叔父) : Uncle, usually addressed as Oji-san (not to be mistaken with Grandfather/Ojī-san)

Oba (叔母): Aunt, usually addressed as Oba-san (not to be mistaken with Grandmother/Obā-san)

Itoko (いとこ) : Cousin (can be written with different Kanji depending on age, gender and which side of the family they come from)

Oi (甥) : Nephew

Mei (姪) : Niece

Kyōfu (教父) : Godfather, usually addressed as Kyōfu-san/sama

Kyōbo (教母) : Godmother, usually addressed as Kyōbo-san/sama

Ōoji (大叔父) : Great-Uncle, usually addressed as Ōoji-san

Ōoba (大叔母) : Great-Aunt, usually addressed as Ōoba-san

Sōsofu (曽祖父) : Great-Grandfather, usually addressed as Sōsofu-sama

Sōsobo (曽祖母) : Great-Grandmother, usually addressed as Sōsobo-sama

Keifu (継父) : Stepfather

Keibo (継母) : Stepmother

Mamamusuko (継息子) : Stepson

Mamamusume (継娘) : Stepdaughter

Relations

Otto (夫) / Goshujin (ご主人) : Husband, usually addressed as Goshujin-san/sama

Tsuma (妻) / Oku (奥) : Wife, usually addressed as Oku-san

Musuko (息子) : Son, usually addressed as Musuko-san

Musume (娘) : Daughter, usually addressed as Musume-san

Magomusuko (孫息子) : Grandson

Magomusume (孫娘) : Granddaughter

Ryōshin (両親) : Parents (also written as Ryoushin)

Sofubo (祖父母) : Grandparents

Keifubo (継父母) : Step-parents

Fūfu (夫婦) : Married Couple

Kyōdai (兄弟) : Brothers (can also refer to Siblings in general)

Shimai (姉妹) : Sisters

Itoko (いとこ) : Cousins

Kodomo (子供) : Children

Mago (孫) : Grandchildren

Kazoku (家族) : Family

Shinseki (親戚) : Relatives

Dōhōshu (同胞種) : Siblings

Nakama (仲間) : Comrades

Tomodachi (友達) : Friends

Senpai (先輩) : Senior (also written as Sempai, can be used as a suffix '-senpai')

Kōhai (後輩) : Junior (also written as Kouhai, can be used as a suffix '-kouhai')

Sensei (先生) : Teacher, Doctor, Respected Person

Deshi (弟子) : Student, Apprentice

Informal

Tō-chan (父ちゃん) : Dad (also written as Tou-chan)

Kā-chan (父ちゃん) : Mom (also written as Kaa-chan)

Nī-chan (父ちゃん) : Big Bro (also written as Nii-chan)

Nē-chan (父ちゃん) : Big Sis (also written as Nee-chan)

Jī-chan (父ちゃん) : Gramps (also written as Jii-chan)

Bā-chan (父ちゃん) : Granny (also written as Baa-chan)

Disrespectful

Oyaji (親父) : Old Man

Jiji (爺) : Old Geezer

Baba (婆) : Old Crone

Bō (ぼう) / Bōzu (ぼうず) : Boy (also written as 'bou/bouzu', can be used as a suffix '-bou/bouzu')

Boya (ボヤ) : Boy (literal translation, used as a suffix '-boya')

Insulting

Teme (てめ) : Jerk, Bastard etc. (can be used as a suffix '-teme')

Dobe (どべ) : Dumbass, Moron etc. (lit. Dead Last)

Baka (バカ) : Stupid

Hentai (変態) : Pervert

Chibi (チビ) : Midget, Runt

Gaki (ガキ) : Brat (can be used as a suffix '-gaki')

Speech

Yare Yare (やれやれ) : My my (exasperation)

Ara Ara (あらあら) : My my (surprise)

Maa Maa (まあまあ) : There there (comforting / calming down)

Moshi Moshi (もしもし) : Hello (greeting over a phone)

Hai (はい) : Yes

Ano (あの) : Umm...

Are (あれ) : Huh?

Yosh (よし) : Alright! (excited)

Yosh yosh (よしよし) : Good good (approval)

Itadakimasu (いただきます) : Let's eat (appreciative)

Gochisousama deshita (御馳走様でした) : Thank you for the feast (appreciative)

Arigatō Gozaimasu (ありがとうございます) : Thank you very much

Dōitashimashite (どういたしまして) : You're welcome

Ohayō (お早う) : Good morning

Konnichiwa (今日は) : Hello/Good day

Konbanwa (こんばんは) : Good evening

Nicknames

Geta-Bōshi (ゲタ帽子) : Hat-and-Clogs (refers to Kisuke's choice of clothing)

Yagi-Ago (山羊顎) : Goat-chin (refers to Isshin's scruffy beard)

Ichigo (苺) : Strawberry (a play on Ichigo's given name)

Ichi (一) : Shortform for Ichigo (一護)

Tats (竜) : Shortform for Tatsuki (also written as Tatsu)

Suki (好き) : Shortform for Tatsuki (also means to Like)

Hime (姫) : Shortform for Orihime (also means Princess)

Yori (ヨリ) : Shortform for Yoruichi

Ranks

Sōtaichō (総隊長) : Head Captain (also written as Soutaichou)

Taichō (隊長) : Captain (also written as Taichou)

Fuku-Taichō (副隊長) : Vice-Captain / Lieutenant (also written as Fukutaichou)