A few gentle prods from Savannah was all that it took to shake Lucy out of her deep and dreamless sleep. Groggily, she lifted her head off her sleeping roll and looked around. "Eh? What-"

"Good morning," Savannah greeted her. "How are you feeling?"

Lucy blinked and shook her head, trying to shake off the exhaustion left over from sleep. There was a certain irony to the fact that she had started to feel more tired after she began sleeping regularly again, at Savannah's insistence. Of course, her exhaustion had little to do with sleep and everything to do with the ongoing crisis of thought that plagued her.

Taking a brief moment to get a drink out of her canteen, she did her best not to slur her words together as she answered, "Ask me again in five minutes."

Savannah gave her a small smile and nodded, no doubt sympathetic to the difficulties that most people suffered from while waking up. "I've already heated up breakfast, it'll be ready as soon as you are."

"Thanks," Lucy replied. It was already fairly warm, and so she wasted no time in climbing out of her sleeping roll and stretching out her stiff muscles. Her mind was far from peaceful, consumed from her first waking moment with stray thoughts about all manner of things. Big Mountain, Veronica, Christine, Kyle, the NCR, Caesar's Legion and the camp of soldiers that they'd killed, Zion-

She shook her head clear at that last thought, and instead looked at her Pip-Boy. She fiddled with the various buttons and dials until she arrived at the large-scale map that she and Savannah had been following for the last two weeks. Her suspicions were confirmed at a glance; likely by midday today, they would arrive at Zion Valley. Their journey was nearly at its end, and yet, in a way, Lucy felt as though she'd just barely started walking.

As she had learned, it was often easier to simply ignore one's own issues than to spend the time and energy to fix or even alleviate them. In her case especially, ignoring those internal issues was frequently necessary. Self-doubt was perhaps the best example, as while a bit of caution was healthy for a normal person, a lack of confidence could mean the difference between life and death for her allies and herself in a battle.

Ever since she dodged death in Goodsprings, she'd been doing just that; postponing the inevitable confrontation with her own feelings, with only brief moments to stop and vent her thoughts. Veronica had been her most frequent assistant there, although Arcade and Kyle in particular had also helped her a lot in the past. Christine had also done so once, in the Sierra Madre, although at the time she hadn't been able to talk back thanks to her damaged vocal cords.

With the NCR's victory at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, however, Lucy started running out of excuses she could use to ignore her problems. Reuniting Veronica and Christine had been her only real true distraction, since for the most part, she was no longer being constantly caught in deadly situations.

Getting into trouble wasn't something that she even consciously did, it was just… natural, for lack of a better way of putting it. She had to be moving, had to be looking for something to do, a way to be helpful. It was why she got up in the morning, and now that the people of the Mojave were largely safe and Savannah was almost home…

What was she going to do then?

"Lucy?" Savannah spoke, snapping her out of her thoughts, apparently her expression had betrayed her mindset. "Talk to me, what are you thinking about?"

And then there was Savannah; had Lucy known that she was going on a pilgrimage with the closest thing that the Wasteland had to a psychologist, she would have at the very least made an effort to prepare herself for the inevitable inner struggles. "I'm wondering what I'm going to do once we get to Zion."

"Stay for dinner and say hello to everyone, I hope!" Savannah teasingly remarked. "In all seriousness, why don't you take some time to rest? It's well-earned, and you would certainly be welcome in Zion if you don't want to attempt a journey home."

"Getting home isn't an issue," Lucy replied, reaching into her rucksack and pulling out the Big Mountain Transdalportalponder. "I can get back to Big Mountain at the press of a button with this teleporter beacon."

Savannah raised an eyebrow. "Is that… safe?"

"For me, yes. All of this tech does have its perks," Lucy answered. "It's a long way from being ready for use by normal humans though… or anybody but my dog, actually."

Savannah nodded. "I'm sure that you use it responsibly. What do you think, up for breakfast?"

Lucy looked down at the fire and saw that Savannah had clearly gone the extra mile with the cooking, turning one of their pre-packaged caravan lunches into something that actually smelled appetizing.. While her anxiety was still doing numbers on her artificial stomach, she couldn't deny that it looked good. "Yeah, thanks."

The rest of Lucy's morning routine went by very smoothly, and before long they were on the road again. The steady pace of their marching offered her some peace, although the silence weighed on her quite heavily. Thankfully, Savannah was seemingly just as eager to break it.

"Do your friends know about everything that you're going through?" Savannah asked.

"Arcade does, wherever he is," Lucy solemnly answered. "But so does Veronica, Christine, and Kyle… wherever he is as well."

Her companion raised an eyebrow. "You mentioned Kyle earlier, what happened to him?"

"I asked him to travel to California and hunt down some old Pre-War documents for me… but I regret sending him so far away," Lucy answered. Given that Savannah was clearly making an effort to help her, she considered opening up a bit more, but decided against it. Enough of her feelings had been brought to the surface already, the last thing she needed was more on her metaphorical plate. "I… hope he's okay.

Lucy knew that Savannah was perceptive enough to notice her pause, and probably what was unsaid, but she was also kind enough to let it go. "I do as well, and I am sure that he'll return to you safely as quickly as he can manage."

Eager to shift the topic, Lucy took a deep breath and continued with her answer to Savannah's first question. "They don't know everything, not even Veronica and Christine. I told them a lot but…"

She trailed off, There were some things that she'd seen that she really didn't want to talk about; not with Savannah, and not even with her friends. The atrocities that the Legion had committed, similar acts by the Fiends and Powder Gangers. Veronica and Lucy's other companions had accompanied her through most of her adventures, but none of them had been with her the whole way through. Boone likely knew the most, and had seen a lot of things that even she hadn't… but that didn't mean that she was ready to talk. Not yet, at least.

"But…?" Savannah prompted her.

Lucy shook her head. "That's… for another time, Savannah. I'm not ready to talk about it."

"I understand all too well," Savannah replied, a pained recognition in her tone. "I would encourage you to remember that I will always make time for you. You've been a good neighbor to me and my people. I would be neglecting my duties as a Missionary if I did not return the favor however I could."

Words briefly evaded Lucy as she tried to think of whether or not it would be appropriate to decline the notion that Savannah owed her anything. Ultimately, however, she figured that Savannah was the kind of person to help anybody that she could, regardless of any debt owed. "Thank you," she finally said, though the words felt wholly insufficient.

"Anytime," Savannah said with a smile. "And don't forget your friends either. From what you've told me, they might be able to help you better than I can."

A familiar feeling of reluctance found its way to Lucy's stomach. "I don't want to be a burden."

"A burden? Lucy, the very fact that we're standing here at all is evidence enough of what you've done for the world," Savannah gently, but decisively, crushed her argument. "There is nothing shameful in relying on those we are close to. Indeed, you should hold onto them as closely as you can, and not let go."

Again, Lucy found it hard to speak. Even if she could, what would she say? Savannah was right, and deep down she knew it. But it was hard to accept, for reasons that were beyond her.

"I know what you're going through. That doubt, like a bitter cold in the soul," Savannah said, her tone thick with frustration, though it was clearly not aimed at Lucy. "Some people turn to temporary and corrupting measures to keep themselves warm; money, power, lust, chems… But all of those fires will eventually die out, leaving them worse off even than they started. Love, however, is a fire that no cold will ever conquer."

Lucy wanted to answer, to show that she was listening and hearing every word, but the terrible lump in her throat stopped her from speaking. Breathing itself was becoming somewhat more difficult, and it was everything that she could do to keep steadily walking.

"I know that confronting our demons is… challenging," Savannah said, clearly having some difficulty looking for the right words herself. "But like with any battle, we cannot hope to win alone. You can count on your friends, Lucy, just how they can count on you."

A battle.

Lucy's mind wrapped itself around the metaphor. Was there really any more honest way to depict a confrontation with one's own thoughts? With memories that wrought harm in a manner that might've been different than a physical weapon, but could kill just as assuredly?

It was something that Savannah had said, be it her metaphor, her simple but well-founded logic, or simply the fact that she had taken the effort to show compassion to somebody that she'd only known for a couple of weeks. Whatever the case, Lucy felt the ability to breathe once more as the lump in her throat ever-so-slightly subsided. "I'll… talk to Veronica and Christine once I get home."

Savannah nodded and gave a warm smile. "Thank you, Lucy. For trusting me."

Echoing Savannah's own words, Lucy replied; "Anytime."

It was around midday when Lucy finally led Savannah down one last sandstone ravine, arriving at long last in Zion Valley. At a glance it didn't seem to have changed all that much since the time that Lucy had last been through. She surmised that if there were any changes to be seen, they would be a bit further ahead at the Dead Horses camp, and further north in the Narrow where the Sorrows lived.

Savannah followed closely behind her all the while, although her occasional misplaced footstep and mildly anxious humming made it clear that she was distracted. Over the last hour or so she'd been relatively quiet, no doubt spending the time thinking before she reunited with her people.

She did, evidently, have at least one more question left to ask. "Did Daniel and Joshua ever tell you how many of my people survived the fall of New Canaan?" she muttered quietly, her voice hardly carrying above the sound of their footsteps in the dirt.

Lucy opened her mouth to reply, but paused as the two of them rounded one final corner. They finally took in the sight of the mouth of the Eastern Virgin River leading into the Dead Horses Camp. Just down a short hill from them was the river itself, and standing on the shore were a pair of familiar faces.

With a jovial smile, Lucy turned to her companion and replied with a question of her own; "Why don't you go ask them yourself?"

Daniel and Joshua looked just as unchanged as Zion itself. Joshua's bandages had clearly been recently changed, and although it was hard to gauge his mood thanks to his concealed face, he visibly relaxed a little bit once he saw Lucy and Savannah. Daniel, by contrast, seemed to have made an effort to clean up his facial hair a bit, making his broad smile plain to see.

For a moment, Savannah stood in stunned silence, before crying out in joy and relief and taking off towards the other two New Canaanites as she laughed with delight. Lucy watched with a smile as she practically tackled both of them into a group hug, and while Lucy wasn't surprised at all to hear Daniel laughing along with Savannah, she was taken aback to hear a few chuckles out of Joshua.

"Savior be praised, it is such a relief to be home!" Savannah loudly declared as she reluctantly broke off her hug and looked over the two of them. "Lord above, I was so scared when I heard about the attack…"

Daniel nodded, his own tears of joy and jovial smile giving way to a more somber acknowledgment of past events. "It's good to have you back, Savannah. I was worried about you… even if Joshua said I didn't have to."

Savannah turned to Joshua with a mock sense of hurt. "Joshua!"

"Worries are one thing, but I would never let Daniel feel fear for your sake, Savannah," The Burned Man explained. "You are one of God's most capable servants. I assured him that you would return home to us in due time, dangers or otherwise, and here you are."

Lucy had been content to stand back for a moment and let them reunite in peace, but now Savannah turned to speak with her. "I couldn't have made the journey alone."

"Quickly," Lucy corrected. "You could've done it, just not quite as fast."

"We're grateful either way," Daniel said, looking her over in a way that made her suspect he was worried about something. "I didn't expect to see you again, Lucy."

She shrugged. "I didn't expect to be back, at least not so soon. But I was looking for one of my friends in the Old Mormon Fort back in New Vegas and found Savannah. She hadn't heard about the attack on New Canaan, but once she did, she decided that she wanted to come and help rebuild, so I offered to come along."

Daniel nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Is that all? I was expecting worse news, but I'm happy to be wrong."

"As am I." Joshua added. "We've heard of the New California Republic's victory at Hoover Dam. There are those amongst us who fear that either they or the Crimson Caravan may select us as their next target, but I find that hard to believe."

"Likewise." Lucy agreed. As eager to expand as the NCR was, they would have their hands full with New Vegas for many years to come.

"I'm just glad to be home." Savannah happily said, the smile on her face hardly dimmed.

Her smile was infectious, and Daniel couldn't help but regain his own before long. "And we're glad to have you back. Joshua and I figured that we'd come out and greet you ourselves, before we bring you up to our new settlement… we're still working on the name."

Lucy, however, picked up on one detail in particular. "How did you know we were coming?"

"The Brahmin gave you away, and as I said long ago, the Dead Horses are capable scouts." Joshua explained. "They also mentioned that the Brahmin were carrying Legionary equipment; I take it you had trouble?"

Lucy and Savannah both winced, but Lucy felt like she had to speak up for what had happened, as it had been her decision. "We came across a Legion Raiding Camp a few days ago, and I decided that we needed to attack them before they could attack anyone else."

Joshua, predictably, seemed totally unfazed, but Daniel's brow furrowed as he looked towards Savannah. "You attacked them? Without provocation?"

"It was my decision," Lucy reiterated, stepping forward and doing her best to keep a straight face. "I made it clear that I was going in with or without her."

"I wasn't going to let her fight alone." Savannah added, her arms hanging weakly by her sides.

"And you were right to," Joshua interjected. "As uncomfortable as it is to acknowledge, they were likely looking for me."

For a moment, nobody answered him, and an awkward silence set in. All of them knew that Joshua was likely right, but one possibility occurred to Lucy that sent her stomach churning. What if they were just trying to run away from the dying Legion, and just needed somewhere to go?

Mercifully, if anybody else was having similar thoughts, they didn't voice them.

"Don't worry about that, Joshua." Savannah spoke up, a renewed determination in her voice. "You may have been Caesar's Legate, but you're still one of us… I'm glad you came back."

She wrapped him into another hug, and Lucy couldn't help but notice how some of the tension left Joshua's shoulders. "I wish I could believe that I deserve your love, God's love; but it is not my place to judge myself."

"We'll always have our disagreements Joshua, but I'm glad that you're here with us," Daniel added, before turning to Lucy. "Thank you, for bringing Savannah home to us. I wish I had something to offer you, but we're struggling for every cap as it is."

Lucy shook her head. "I don't need a reward, and I wasn't planning on keeping these Brahmin either, they're all yours."

Daniel breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "Thank you. I wish that more gentiles had your generosity. The world would be a better place."

Sensing Daniel's momentary sorrow, Savannah took one of his hands in her own. "That's why we're here, Daniel. So that we can teach them."

Daniel cast his gaze to the ground. "I tried to teach the Sorrows and the Dead Horses…"

"And you have," Savannah reassured him. "Lucy told me about some of the difficulties that they've been having, but everybody stumbles and makes mistakes. It is our job to guide them through those periods of darkness."

Daniel stood in silence for a moment, before letting out a long breath. "I'm really glad that you're back, Savannah."

"I'm glad to be back." Savannah happily remarked.

The two hugged once more. After a few seconds, Joshua spoke up. "As much as I hate to interrupt, it would be wise to get the Brahmin into shelter before they attract the Yao Guai."

Daniel nodded. "Joshua has a good point, and it'll be good to show you what we've got built so far. And Lucy? I've got something quite interesting to show you."

Lucy raised an eyebrow, but offered no protest as she followed the New Canaanites down the river.

One of the most defining aspects of Zion to Lucy was the murals that adorned the sandstone walls and caverns. The Dead Horses had made some, as had the Sorrows, and a few of them had even been made by Tribes that Lucy had never gotten the chance to know. Joshua even believed that a few may have been Pre-War. Whatever the case, they varied drastically in their nature. Some were simply chalk paintings, others were complex and colorful depictions of various scenes, places, and people.

But since her last visit to Zion, there was a new one, which easily dwarfed all of the others in its scale and complexity.

It depicted a great battle taking place at the Three Marys Caverns. On one side were the White Legs led by Salt-Upon-Wounds, and on the other were Sorrows and Dead Horses. They were led by a few familiar faces. Joshua firstly and foremostly, but also Waking Cloud, Follows Chalk, Kyle… and herself. The mural depicted her firing at Salt-Upon-Wounds with Medicine Stick, delivering the final blow that had ended the cruel War Chieftain.

Daniel had led her, Savannah, and Joshua to the mural before they went to dinner. The New Canaanites and Tribals had assembled a massive feast in celebration of Lucy and Savannah's return, along with the bounty of much-needed supplies that they had brought with them. Predictably, the large social occasion had left Lucy feeling a bit more drained than even the battle with the Legionaries, and so she'd taken the opportunity to return to the mural for some peace and quiet, and to inspect it in greater detail.

The sound of footfalls on the soft dirt was a giveaway that she was no longer alone, and she turned to see Savannah walk up to join her. "It's impressive, isn't it?"

Savannah nodded. "Certainly. I personally find it a little bit graphic in places but… I suppose it's best to depict the events as they happened."

Lucy turned back to the mural and couldn't help but nod in turn. "Trust me, they've done a good job of that."

Savannah came to stand beside her and raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean you think that they've depicted you honestly as well?"

"I'd say so, although my shot wasn't quite that clean; There was another guy trying to throw off my aim-" Lucy began to answer, before Savannah gestured for her to stop.

"Not that one," Savannah clarified. "That one."

Savannah pointed out another part of the mural, far to the side of the battle. To Lucy's surprise, she'd managed to overlook a second depiction of herself, where she was providing medical treatment for one of the injured Dead Horses. "Huh. I'm surprised that they decided to include that."

"I'm not," Savannah said. "In fact, I would argue that the lives you saved probably had a bigger influence on the people here than the lives you took."

Lucy shook her head in doubt. While she saw Savannah's point, she'd taken an awful lot more lives than she'd saved, at least directly. "Even Salt-Upon-Wounds?"

"Well, I think they made their opinion of him pretty clear in that bit there." Savannah answered, gesturing to his own second depiction, where he was on his knees begging for his life in front of Joshua. "Did that happen as well?"

"It did," Lucy confirmed. "Salt-Upon-Wounds begged me to stop Joshua and save him, but I wasn't about to let him go, not when I knew he was going to go and cause more trouble for another tribe further down the road."

Savannah seemed confused. "So… you killed him yourself?"

"I told him to get up and fight," Lucy answered. "I won."

Savannah was silent for a moment, clearly a bit conflicted, and so Lucy took the opportunity to speak further.

"It was like with Benny, in Caesar's Tent. To just kill him like that, while he was on his knees, begging for his life… I didn't want to do it. Maybe that's selfish, but I wanted to kill a man who was fighting, not begging."

Savannah remained silent for a moment longer, before turning her head and raising an eyebrow. "Why let Benny live, then?"

"Well, to put it bluntly, I didn't rate his chances of survival being very high even after I let him live. All I was really doing was letting him pick between me killing him there, and dying fighting the Legion later," Lucy admitted. "If he did live, I've not heard a peep out of him since, and neither has anyone else in New Vegas."

"I think I get it," Savannah said. "You know, most people wouldn't forgive a man who-"

"I didn't forgive him!" Lucy snapped at her, before the rest of her mind caught up with her. "Ah, sorry, I-"

Savannah put a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, Lucy. I'm just… I'm proud of you. With all you've gone through, I think it's really no wonder you worry about as much as you do, and I hope that you can get some rest once you make it home."

For a brief moment, Lucy didn't really know what to say. But after a few seconds, her face of stoicism cracked, and a few tears made their way out of her eyes before she rubbed them away. "I… thank you, Savannah, for everything."

"You're very welcome Lucy." Savannah told her. "Don't forget that you can stay as long as you need to, and will always be welcome back."

Lucy took a deep breath, before slowly exhaling. "I'd love to, and I'll try to come back and check in at some point, but I've really got to get back to Big Mountain."

Savannah nodded, and briefly pulled Lucy into a hug, which she returned. "Stay safe Lucy, and get some rest."

"I will." She replied without hesitation, before taking a few steps back from Savannah and holding out the Transdalportalponder. "And uh, please don't tell anybody that I can do this."

The Missionary just smiled and nodded. "Your secrets are safe with me."

Lucy gave her a brief thumbs up, dialed the device home, and pulled the trigger. Within a second, a lattice-pattern of blue lights appeared around her, before there was a flash of bright white light…

And within the blink of an eye, she was back at Big Mountain, standing on the balcony to the Sink. Letting out a sigh of relief at the familiar sight, she opened the door leading into her home and found Christine and Veronica waiting for her around the Central Intelligence monitor.

"I thought I recognized that sound." Christine happily said, gently elbowing Veronica. "Told you."

"I never doubted you…" Veronica said with a smile, before her expression immediately faltered. "Lucy? Were you crying?"

Taking a moment to think of what to say, Lucy nodded. "It's a long story…"

Author's Notes: I meant to have this done quite some time ago, but I'm happy to finally have it done and released! While certainly not perfect, I'm quite fond of this story, and hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! A special thanks goes out to my friend Jason for the idea to write the story and for creating Savannah. As well I would like to thank my friends AlphaSpartan117, CT-5555, BrownCoat, and SardonicEffigy for being such capable editors. Finally, I'd like to thank JacobP117 for creating the story's cover art!

It's been fun, I hope we get the chance to do it again.

-Kpmh2001