Welcome back puppers, we have a new chapter of From the Remnants, and let me tell you Bahl and I are having some talks about this story right now. But you'll see the content of that soon enough, for now enjoy a chapter that's been done for several months that I apparently forgot to upload.

GOW

Colwell was not happy. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck in Raven Rock, knowing Navarro was out there alone, but Colwell knew this was the punishment he'd earned. He also knew it could be worse if he tried ignoring his house arrest conditions… Thankfully, he had an easy outlet for his anger.

"Come on, you pathetic shits! I dare you to try and fight against the might of the Enclave! " He shouted down the mutant-infested halls of Raven Rock. Although Colwell extensively enjoyed the bloodshed, clearing these halls had become more tedious than fun. These mutants, as the cowards they are, were getting good at hiding or running around, making this whole thing take far longer than he wanted to.

*BARK*

"Pleas-" a weak-voiced freak attempted to speak before Colwell gave it a light slap and knocked it out. With ease, he picked it up and lugged it over his shoulder before dropping it on the automatic trolley that they brought with them. Then, securely placed an explosive collar around its neck.

"Good boy, Sandy!" Colwell gave his dog some scratches, which he preened at the touch.

"Yeah, announce where we are. Who needs surprise?" Argos, the Devil Dog's personal armorer and a long-time friend of Colwell said. His canine companion sniffed the area around them along with the other cyber dogs that were brought on this mission. As usual, each of the Devil Dogs had theirs with them.

"Why would we need a surprise? They're stuck in here. It's not like we can ambush them. Hell, if they ambush us it would make this so much easier." Kraken, the Devil Dog's designated aquatic expert and sailor said.

"I'd rather not have to have several hours of work to fix whatever damage they cause whenever they get lucky," Argos argued.

"Pfft, damage? They have no guns, not even shivs. They can't do anything to us," Kraken said with some mirth.

"Or they could avoid us," Greyhound muttered, he didn't speak too often but seeing as it was only Devil dogs here it seemed he was making an exception.

"How? There's not many more places they can go in here, let alone hide. We closed off the entire sector with guards on each exit." Kraken said.

"Yea, but that just means the few that remain are smart enough to avoid us," Argos pointed out.

"Or just lucky we haven't checked for them yet," Colwell said.

"Either way I'd appreciate it if we could keep any tactical advantage over them," Argos finished.

"You say that like Fen won't just find them, run in, and beat the shit out of them," Kraken said with a chuckle.

"The General is here, and we are the Devil dogs, even if it's only half of us if the mutants attack us we don't have anything to fear." Cerberus agreed.

"Yeah yeah, I'm remembering why I don't go on as many field missions with you guys anymore." Argos sighed in defeat.

"Not having as much fun anymore Argos? I can fix that." Colwell said, no one's face was visible from under the APA's that they were wearing but everyone in the room knew Colwell enough that they could hear the evil smile on his voice.

"But you won't if you want me to keep your armor as nice as you like it." Argos countered.

"The betrayal, and here I thought that my fourth in command would show me more kindness." Colwell joked, his hand gripping his chest plate, over his heart.

"Tell you what General, you can either have nice armor, me on patrol, or I could make sure that oversized toy of yours has ammo, two out of three only, which would you like." Argos's remark caused the other Devil Dogs to glance at one another.

Colwell reached a hand to his side and felt a familiar handle poking into reach, it was an old revolver pistol with a wooden handle and shining silver barrel that he cleaned regularly. Argos typically made the bullets for it since the gun was too big for the regularly found ammunition, but in his mind, the trouble was well worth it.

"I'll take nice armor, and ammo, and you're on doggy duty for the next month," Colwell said, causing the other Devil Dogs to chuckle around him.

"Yes sir," Argos sighed, shaking his head.

"Make sure to wear protection when picking up after Angus, he's been trying to shit something out for a while and it doesn't look pretty," Kraken said with a laugh. His dog barked in joy at his side.

"Give him the special orders later," Colwell said, the group stopped behind him, a couple of rooms and a split in the hallway were in front of them making a T shape.

"Right now fan out and see what we can find, if you need back up yell so I can make fun of you."

He was met with sounds of understanding and the group fanned out into the nearby rooms accompanied by their cyber dogs while Fenrir stood frowning at the walls. Sure this was important work that could require some killing but Navarro was still MIA and only half his dogs were out leading the rescue mission, it felt wrong that his friend was out there and he wasn't helping.

While he was lost in thoughts, his cyber dog began sniffing the air, inching forward until he was up against the wall of the corridor, a dead end for all purposes. Colwell focused on him, confused, the wall didn't have anything special on it that he could see, it just looked like a section of wall at a glance. Getting closer to inspect it he noticed a large protrusion bulging out of the wall. With some fondling, he opened a camouflaged lid revealing a keyboard and screen. The General poked it, and the screen flickered to life requesting a username and password, confused he put in his information.

"Access granted, welcome General Colwell," the wall said, then a loud pop and hiss echoed through the hall causing his dog to bark. Colwell took a glance at his onscreen map that Eden made sure was up to date with Raven Rock's interior.

"Devil's back to the hall now!" he yelled, he accessed the interface in his APA once more, tapping into his Pipboy, it was second nature by now to call for one of the many weapons he kept digitalized and by the time his hands closed around the Plasma Caster he called. His soldiers were at the ready with weapons drawn and cyberdogs teeth bared.

"What's going on sir?" Greyhound asked, rifle shouldered.

Looking ahead, Colwell could see what used to be a solid wall now jutting out slightly ajar, he hooked the edge with the Plasma Caster and opened it revealing a thin hallway with dim lights turning on from the walls.

"You all have new orders. Each of you finds one of the generals and bring them here now," Fenrir said. His soldiers picked up on the tone of his voice through the APA's speaker and started running, he waited until they were down the hall where their footsteps weren't audible anymore.

Fenrir cracked his neck and proceeded to walk down the unknown hallway that appeared out of nowhere, he never was good at waiting for people, especially when he just found a path that shouldn't have existed.

GOW

Navarro was frustrated, he managed to get the Fusion Core out of his suit and managed to jury rig the remains so that it should work to power his radio, with emphasis on should, but he wasn't an engineer by trade, and the process was taking longer than he'd have liked it too.

"You still in there?" Vernal called from outside.

"Yea, come on in," Navarro said, she walked into his tent, and he stopped when he looked at her, the girl had a broken lip and fresh bruises all over her body, not for the first time he wished he had a stim pack but he pushed the thought out of his mind and grabbed the medical supplies she gave him last night, moving to treat her wounds before she swatted at him.

"I don't need help, I just don't want to bleed at home," she said, causing Navarro to stop.

"Did Raven do that to you?" He asked, his slow and even tone hiding the cold fury running through his veins.

"Nah, my dad did it while training me this morning," she replied.

"Well, I can't really say I disagree. Better to feel pain now than nothing later." Navarro begrudgingly lowered and returned the medical supplies, his rage subsiding, but the concern remained.

"What?" Vernal looked at him, confused.

"It's better to feel pain than to be dead." Navarro reiterated.

"Oh. Right, you feel nothing when you're dead. Heh. Nice one." Vernal realized with a smirk as she sat down on his bed. Navarro 'hmmed' in agreement as he re-examined her injuries. The only concerning one was her broken lip, some blood still slowly seeping out only stopped by her occasional lick or sucking on her lip.

"You should really put something on that lip of yours. At least some disinfectant. It's a pretty big cut and if it's not given the bare minimum it may get infected." Navarro grabbed a bottle labeled disinfectant and pointed it towards her.

"No thanks. Dad said I need to deal with injuries not getting looked at after a day or two. It's not like they're gonna be a hospital or a shaman nearby if I ever get seriously hurt. All we got is whatever supplies we get from our raids." Vernal tapped her cut with a finger before giving it another lick.

"That's…actually a good thing to learn, huh. In any case, that's the worst injury to have for this type of training." Navarro said, surprised at the lesson, as he uncapped the bottle and got some cloth to put some of it on.

"How would you know?" Vernal asked him, at her words Navarro turned to her and then waved him around his body, his scars, presenting it.

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh. I know all about what certain injuries can do. Even got a few infections of my own. Put me out of commission for a month one time. Knowing you, the little I do that is, I don't think you're the type of girl to sit in bed all day doing nothing." Navarro walked closer to her, the wet cloth in hand.

"Hell no, that would be worse than losing my arm." Vernal agreed, glancing at the cloth and then at him.

"You gonna put it on, or am I gonna do it?" He asked.

"The cut. You said it's the worst to have one there. Why?" She was visibly hesitant to accept the cloth. Navarro would have to guess she didn't want to anger her father.

"When anything gets infected it generally starts near the general area of a wound. In this case it would be your bottom lip. If not treated correctly or on time it would be your whole lips. Best case the swelling goes down and after some sick days you get better. Otherwise, you may lose your lips entirely cause we would need to cut out the infection before it gets anywhere near your brain cause if it does you are dead, there is nothing we can do after that." Navarro explained, his voice stern expressing the seriousness of the matter. Vernal blinked her eyes wide before grabbing the cloth and crashing it onto her lips. She flinched at the burn but kept it there.

"You think…you think my dad knew that could happen." Vernal grew a glare at her question.

"Considering the fact there is no healer, as you said, he should have a general idea of what could happen." Navarro went back to the medical supplies and brought a cream from within and handed it to her.

"Fucker," Vernal whispered as she grabbed the cream and some onto her hand before placing it onto her lips.

"That should help the healing and add another layer of protection from infection." Which is what Navarro secretly hoped. He examined the medical supplies thoroughly when they arrived, reading any and all labels for instructions or ingredients. Having spent a lot of time in an infirmary as well as having an old friend and family that were a part of the Science Division made him have a higher than average knowledge of medical ingredients and treatments. He did not recognize a single ingredient on the bottles given. That said, they all still worked as he was used to, but the smell, the touch, and even the taste were completely off from what he was accustomed to.

"So, your father trains you. What else does he do?" At his question, Vernal raised an eyebrow.

"You want to know about my dad now? Here I thought you were gonna ignore everything outside this tent." Vernal smirked at her insulative question while Navarro puffed some air in laughter.

"I wish I could, but I still hear things. The sharpening of metal, the yelps of what I can assume are captives, and the occasional groan. The last one I'd prefer the hear the least during my stay here." He mumbled that part but still loud enough for Vernal to hear.

"Prude," she said with a larger smirk.

"Not a prude. Merely conservative on subjects of intercourse." Navarro argued back, with a finger pointed towards her.

"Still a prude, heh. Anyway, you asked about my dad, right? My Dad's one of the regulars I guess. One of the big timers actually in the tribe, and got a reputation for being good at smoking people out. Luring them in with false pretenses and promises. Real silver tongue. Probably how he got shacked up with my mom, and I mean that in both ways." Vernal rose two fingers up with a laugh. Navarro groaned at her implication but smiled all the same.

"Your mother, what about her? She trains you to?" Navarro asked, deciding to sit on his cluttered table instead of standing around.

"Sort of. Teaches me how to trick guys into traps with my body. How to make armor that both protects me and shows off curves and tits, to distract them during a fight. Plus the sex ain't half bad either. Plegh! This taste's weird." Vernal exclaims as she licked her lips while being covered in disinfectant cream. Missing Navarro's eyes widen in horror.

"E-exuce me, but I must have misheard. Did you say you have sex with your mother?" Navarro stood from the table in visible shock, uncertain at this admission. Vernal, for her part, looked entirely nonchalant about it.

"Uhh, yeah. How else was she gonna teach me about sex."

That was wrong, on so many levels.

"How…How long has been…teaching you?"

He can practically taste the acid in his throat for just saying that

"Since as long as my dad, so since I was five."

"Oh sweet Jesus, please no."

"Has she been your…sex training since then as well?" Navarro was visibly disturbed to even udder the words and the implications along with it.

"Nah."

"Oh, thank god." Navarro lets out a small sigh of relief. It was still bad, horrible more like, but it-

"I remember her touching me since I was four. No actual sex stuff till I was 8, I think." Vernal finished with a finger on her chin.

There was the horror, realizing the gravity of the…depravity of the situation.

"Raven. The tribe leader, does she know about this? Allow this? For the matter, does your father!" Navarro asked with gritted teeth.

Then, there was acceptance of it. The reality and reminder that this was a raider camp, and raiders were less than human even before radiation got involved.

"My mom actually wanted him to join in a few times, but he always said no. Said my ass wasn't big enough yet. About Raven though, there are only three actual rules in the tribe. Whatever or whoever you kill, you keep their shit, don't fuck with each other enough to where the Chieftan has to step in, and if you want to be the Chief, gotta kill the current one. Other than every other rule are more guidelines than anything else."

Finally, there was the rage. The hot rage that he hadn't felt in years. Not since before, when he was disillusioned by the Enclave's total discrediting of all human outsiders. With a growl, he walked towards the table and grabbed his machete, sheathed.

"Vernal, come with me." Navarro ordered as he walked towards the exit of his tent.

"What? Where?" Vernal responded, confused.

"To Raven." He answered, opening the tent flap, lifting it for her.

"Huh? Why?" She got up from the bed with her answer.

"We're all gonna have a chat about your family situation." He answered, anger bleeding into his voice.

"The fuck? Why the hell are we? You have no claim ov-"

"Vernal. Come." Navarro interrupted her, his voice yielding nothing for argument, but it was no yell. It was low, growly, and dark with every syllable filled with tempered festering rage.

Navarro ignored the flash of fear in her eyes. The movement of her throat as it gulped in fear. Nor how her skin paled slightly. He was not going to let her go near those creatures ever again as long as he breathed.

GOW

Autumn was worried, he believed he had every right to be when Lucy ran up to him and told him Colwell was sending for the other generals for an emergency meeting. He became concerned when Lucy led him deeper into the bunker instead of their conference room.

They arrived along with everyone else on one of the floors Colwell was assigned to clear. It was primarily filled with labs and a handful of containment cells for the experiments, it was filled with escaped test subjects during the loss of power they suffered after the activation of SHIELD.

"You're kidding me, right?" Razz exclaimed, astounded at the situation.

"He called us here for what's in the room or?" Cornagi remarked, confused.

"He just called for us to get you after opening the door, I'm not sure why," Lucy said. In Colwell's absence, she was the highest-ranking Devil Dog here. The other generals were used to talking with her regardless, as Colwell usually sent her in place for meetings. Autumn let those thoughts slide out of his head as he turned his gaze to the pip-boy on his arm. While the Enclave was always short on supplies, they managed to find a couple of caches through the years. One of which was a shipment of Pipboy 3000s with the experimental digitization technology. With the versatility of this technology along with numerous other features, primarily the communication and topographic simplicity, the pip-boys were given from the highest ranking officers and then down the ranks. Autumn opened the overlay and went to the maps of Raven Rock Eden downloaded for all the generals. He frowned after a moment of examination.

"This passageway isn't on the Raven Rock maps," Autumn stated clearly.

At his words, Bruja and Cornagi went to their own pip-boys, the Devil dogs around him pulled their 2000 model out of their pockets and began checking as well.

"Impossible," Razz said, craning his head to see Kraken's pip-boy 2000, him being the only general who didn't keep his pip-boy on at all times, and his eyes widened upon seeing it.

"It's in front of us," Autumn said as he took a cautious step towards the dimly lit hall, hand fondling the grip of his custom laser pistol.

"Shouldn't we wait for- ah, who am I kidding that bastard already went ahead," Razz said before following the Generals into the hall. A few minutes of cautious walking later, they found themselves in a large room, cabinets littering the walls while documents were spilling off tables and littering on the floor. One of the walls was filled with screens of varying sizes, most of which seemed to be cameras in the main lab rooms that they've been using, while the largest had a game of Red Menace playing with Colwell tapping away at the controls.

"Just when I thought you'd be doing something important, I find you doing this," Autumn said, annoyance clear in his voice, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Not my fault you guys took so long. I scouted out the room already, and it looks like some kind of central laboratory, the screen shows what experiments we have going on, somehow, but that's not the only thing here. There's a floor map that I found on the computer when I logged in. It's not only this room but an entire network of sub-stations deeper and deeper into the mountain. Most of them aren't labeled except for the ones we already have access to, and, get this, those rooms are labeled Outer Barracks, Medic Bay 1, and Sky-Bay 1. That means there's more! "

"This is insane. I can't believe we've had all this hidden away for years now." Cornagi breathed out.

"It was hidden behind the wall. At a dead-end at the ass end of the entire compound that we knew of at the time. It was my incredible luck, and Sandy, that I found an access panel that needed a login. You're welcome by the way. My codes worked, but I'm not sure why Eden didn't know about this and open the door for us." Colwell explained, with a smug smirk playing at his lips.

"I agree. This is certainly something President Eden should have informed us about or, at the very least, mentioned in passing. Razz and I will go through any files we find on the computers here. Colwell, I expect you to lead a scout team with yourself and only with your men. I don't want any of this getting out until we know what's going on. That should make this without it needing it to be said, but I'll say it anyway. No one mentions this to anyone until we have any answers, understood?" Autumn asked.

"Got it, but I want Bruja to come with me though. This will go a lot quicker if we got two scout teams on this than one." Colwell requested, getting a nod from Bruja.

"Granted, Cornagi, you'll be in charge of keeping the base running in the meantime. Call us only if something important comes up. If anyone asks where we are, tell them we have a meeting with President Eden, and you drew the short straw. If he asks where we are, make something up." Autumn ordered. He was met with a chorus of agreements as Colwell left with his Devil Dogs into one of the other corridors while Bruja radioed her squad with directions to her location. Cornagi wordless left while upping the volume on her pip-boy radio filled with com-traffic on the day-to-day activities of the base.

"What do you think this means?" Razz asked, sitting on one of the dusty chairs and tapping at the terminal controls in front of him.

"I'm not entirely sure. I'm just hoping whatever is over here is more of a boon than a curse," Autumn grimly answered as he tapped at his own terminal.

GOW

Honestly, I didn't think he had it in him. He always had this good-two shoe's act about him since she had met him. Showing concern for her whenever she showed up. Being so nice to her. Giving her some of his food when she asked. Almost pegged him to be trying to get into her pants. Wouldn't mind either, those scars may have fucked his face up so bad that he's never gonna be considered handsome or even hot, but damn, it does give him that sexy 'I've killed a bunch of people, and your next if you don't give me respect" look.

That idea went into the trash pile with how he reacted to her mom touching her. He looked…honestly concerned. It was annoying, unnecessary even. She can take care of herself.

Besides, what's so bad about fucking your mom?

Apparently, he thought it was so bad to get Raven's involvement. Which is against rule number two, which I had just got done explaining to him! Seriously, what the fuck is up with this guy?!

…And why does he keep wanting to help her? Why does he help her? That whole infection thing was totally unnecessary. She wouldn't have died like that. That's a pussy's way out, and she ain't a pussy! She just accepted cause he had this puppy dog look in his eyes. That's all.

Those puppy dog eyes of his are nothing compared to his growl. Fuck, that was both terrifying and hot. That shiver down her spine was definitely more than just fear.

He had only said two words, but it sounded like he was going to chop her up, cook her, and eat her with each breath. With the few stories he's told her, it wouldn't be the first time he ate what he killed.

"The large one at the end of camp, that's Raven's tent, correct?" Navarro asked her, marching towards the tent, machete in hand.

"Yeah, that'd be it." She responded, trying to match his speed.

"Good," Navarro simply said.

After a minute or so, they arrived at the chieftain's tent. Navarro didn't even bother calling out that he was coming nor asked permission. He just opened the flaps, machete first, and stomped in.

The balls of this guy.

She wasn't far behind, only hesitating for a second before entering as well.

Once entering, she avoided glancing at any of the Chieftain's trophies or property, of which there were many. Typically, when you do stare the owner would get the impression you're gonna want to steal it, and that's just causing problems down the road. Better to just do what you need to do and get out unless you want to make problems, then stare, grab, or grope all you want.

Shit

Raven wasn't in her tent, which isn't really a bad thing, but the fact she could hear running water outside was. There were no showers or sinks here, only wilderness and tents, yet as she and Navarro marched through the other side of the tent. They found her sitting in the large bathtub she had the tribe made for her, which was directly linked to the water tower, elevated to allow hot coal or wood to heat it up, and standing in the clearing behind her home.

Fuck, shit!

There was, technically, another rule besides the other three she mentioned—one specifically for Chief Raven Branwen.

"Don't bother her when she's taking a bath!" Her mind screamed in horror. It was too late to back out now. Raven noticed them, and she didn't look happy.

Naked, of course, she sat in the tub, her breasts barely covered by the water and steam. Her hair was heavy and wet, sticking to her face. Her arms rested on the tub's edge as she stared and frowned at the interruption.

"Leave," Raven growled out.

"From what I understand, whomever I kill, I have claim over their possessions." Navarro plainly spoke, seemingly unphased by the circumstance.

Vernal was about to take one step back before Navarro spoke, stopping her.

What was he doing!?

She gave us an out, you dumbass, take it!

"Yes, that is the law of this clan." She responded, momentarily confused but nevertheless intrigued by this line of questioning. The way she tilted her head and stared is evidence of that.

"Then, if I killed Vernal's parents, would I have a claim over her?" Navarro's words caused Vernal to gasp.

"What!" She yelled, her surprise causing her to shout.

Claim over her!? What for!? Is this another one of his 'good guy' moments? To protect her from the Oh so terrible mom and daughter sexy time or the tough life training from her dad? Fuck you, dude, I happen to like both!

Besides, the only one that gets to kill her 'parents' is her! They owe her! Plus, she called dibs.

Raven tilted her head the other way momentarily before a smirk crawled onto her lips.

"Yes, yes, it would, but only official members of this clan can. By declaring this interest to me, you have declared a challenge to them and declared, as a by-product, your interest in joining and becoming a part of my tribe." Raven's smirk grew into a smile, conniving and self-serving. She shifted in the water, moving towards the other end of the tub, closer to him. Her arms rested, crossed in front of her chest, as she leaned into the tub's side.

Navarro said nothing and merely stared at her, jaw tight and eyes cold, before grunting.

Vernal, her mind racing as to what was going on, watched in silence as he took steps forward, stopping a foot away from her face. In Vernal's mind, it almost looked like he was challenging her.

Raven, seeing the closeness, stood at full height, the water and tub no longer concealing her body, naked and wet and scarred. Her eyes met his cruelty and strength, her face into a scowl, and her height adding to it all as she stood a full head taller than him.

To Vernal, with a gulp of fear for standing between them, the battle of wills lasted for minutes in reality, it only lasted for several more moments.

"Agreed," Navarro's words came out like grinding gravel as he nodded his head. Raven's scowl shifted back to a smile, inviting.

"Welcome to the family. When I finish with my bath, we will have your duel." Raven turned to the other side of the pool and relaxed, shooing them away with a wave of her hand. Navarro grunted before glancing at Vernal, his eyes softening slightly at her expression, before tugging her along with him.

As they returned to his tent, Navarro did not allow her to return to her own, Vernal thought back to the tub. She noticed something very different from how it ended. Vernal didn't understand the implications of it all, but Raven certainly did, and she allowed it. That itself gave her goosebumps up her spine, out of excitement or fear, she wasn't sure.

As Vernal glanced at Navarro, sharpening his sword with what looked like a whetstone pulled from his armor's storage. Nothing of what happened the hour made much sense, but there is one thing she understood very clearly.

"He bowed his head, but he didn't kneel."

GOW

I did think about putting a warning at the beginning of that for what happens with Vernal, but I decided against it, the story is rated Mature for that reason. Either way, the Enclave general has plans to rectify this, and something's going on in Raven Rock… wow looks like the next few chapters will be interesting, wonder when they'll come out? Well, while you're waiting, you can always check out the Discord! Talk to other fans of this story and my other stories, you can even try and convince me which story should be published there, and I'll see it! Alright, I've shilled for myself enough as always if you enjoyed give me a fave/kudos if you want to keep reading a bookmark/follow would be nice, and if you want to comment, I love reading those, as mentioned I have a discord which I love seeing people in to talk about this story or any of my other ones or just talking in general, with the added benefit today of being able to read Sumi's point of view for today. See you all next time or on the server: 5B4kC2qSG3