AN: Based on this Wikipedia article, I'm aware that the medical information presented in this chapter may be inaccurate. But Fallout's never been medically accurate, so I'm going by Hollywood logic for drama's sake.


Mercury's Messenger

Synopsis: Sage helps resuscitate a thirteen-year-old legionary and realizes the Legion is fighting with child soldiers. (T)


Mojave Wasteland, July 2283.

Sage threw her body weight down on her arms once, twice, again and again. She ignored the tears pricking at her eyes. She shouldn't be getting emotional now, not after everything.

"Remember to breathe," Arcade murmured beside her.

"You breathe," Sage retorted, but sucked in warm, stale desert air all the same. She heard her heartbeat in her ears, the clicks and snaps of Veronica's deft hands jury-rigging scrap behind her, the wind on sharp boulders, and the occasional hiss of Arcade performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the dead boy.

He was thirteen, by Sage's estimate. She had never killed a child. (Not so young. Not face-to-face, not intentionally.) Lucius was still sending assassins after her, but they seemed to be getting younger and younger.

The Legion was running out of reserves.

She was lucky she'd brought her two idealists. The others might have been saddened, but they wouldn't have tried to resuscitate their enemy, or had the technical skill to do it anyway. His heart had stopped, but a stimpak had prompted his still-oxygenated cells to stitch themselves back together, and Veronica had set to work on a makeshift defibrillator.

"His chances of survival are pretty slim, Courier," Arcade reminded her for the eightieth time. Sage drowned him out by humming Big Iron in time with the compressions, ignoring the way the child's broken body popped under the pressure.

"Give me one more minute!" Veronica called. The girl was a wizard; at least Sage had Elijah to thank for something.

Arcade and Sage switched stations. He had more upper body weight and was less shy about using it; Sage heard one of the boy's ribs crack. Arcade didn't let up. Sage readied another stimpak to fix it once urgent matters were attended to.

She heard a final click and a shout from Veronica. "Ready!" Arcade made way and helped her position the electrodes on the boy's chest. Sage sent up a silent prayer, unsure who exactly was on the other end of the line, but confident Someone was listening.

"Clear." Veronica connected a wire to a fission battery, and the boy's muscles seized all at once.

A checking of the pulse, and a second attempt at defibrillation. Arcade moved his fingers to the boy's neck again, but was stopped by a twitching in the young legionary's face.

They breathed a collective sigh of relief. "Keep it handy. He may flatline again," Arcade warned them.

The child's eyebrows crinkled, and he turned his head as if reluctantly waking up from a deep sleep. He breathed, gasping for every painful breath. Sage administered the stimpak, and his eyes flew open as the burn marks faded and his chest morphed back into its original shape.

"Hey, kiddo. How are you feeling?" asked Veronica gently. The kid sat up, or tried to, and batted their hands away frantically.

"Slow down there, Spartacus. You need to rest," said Arcade, pinning him down firmly with one hand. "What now, Sage?"

"Dunno. Didn't expect to get this far." Sage stood up, shaking out her frenzied nerves. "We take him back to the tower, I suppose. Or maybe the New Vegas Medical Clinic. But I feel like this one will be a handful once he's up and moving again."

"Let me go," the boy said weakly. "I — I feel strange. What did you do to me?"

"Killed you!" Sage thundered dramatically, "And then brought you back again."

He blinked and made eye contact. "No."

"Yep. Wasn't easy, either."

The boy just breathed through the strange feeling, eyes drifting uncomfortably from person to person. He didn't seem to be in much pain, at least.

As the boy rested, they laid out bedrolls and moved the bodies of the rest of Lucius's hit squad. The fallen legionaries were older than the little revivee, but not by much.

Everyone took a four-hour shift monitoring the kid. Half of the job was just stopping him from getting up. They tried to explain what had happened in the most rudimentary terms they could, but most of it seemed to be lost on him. He especially had trouble comprehending why they had done it, and assumed they wanted to torture him for information. But, gradually, he let himself rest.

The next morning, the kid felt ready to walk. It was inadvisable to move him so early, but far less advisable to stay out in the wilderness with four rotting corpses to attract wildlife. They outfitted him with a bloodstained undershirt from one of his comrades and were off.

He was still suspicious of them, but not actively afraid. He set a slower pace than they were used to, and Arcade had him drink most of their water to recoup his lost blood. Before the hit squad had interrupted, the three had been on their way to Searchlight to check on rumors of a ghoul settlement cropping up. That would have to wait, for now.


The assassin surveyed everything in Freeside with a mixture of interest and disgust. He seemed to want to explore further, but didn't quite have the energy. Veronica thought he was adorable, until he started shouting slurs at Grecks and had to be escorted to the Strip's gate.

Yes Man rolled up to them, grinning obliquely. "Hi there! I'm so glad you're back! Before I let you in, I just need to clear up one little thing — if that's alright with you!"

"Yeah, what's up?" Sage assented. The kid was staring at the securitron with wonder, and a little revulsion. Sage reminded herself to shield his eyes when they passed Gomorrah.

"I'm sure you know this already," Yes Man continued, "but you're traveling with a legionary, and he's not on the Strip's guest list. Oh, but you always know what you're doing! So you'll just have to give him executive access, or I can shoot him for you instead!"

"That won't be necessary. Give him access to the Strip, and to the Lucky 38's presidential suite."

"Whatever you say! I'm sure a weaker person would pay more attention to security — not like you!" Yes Man gushed. His face then flipped back into a generic security guard, leaving no room for comment.

They herded the legionary into the Lucky 38 and up the elevator (this he was most fascinated with by far). Rex and ED-E greeted them at the door, and Sage kissed both of their cold, shiny foreheads, cooing, "Aw... it's been so horrible here with all these hats, hasn't it? Don't worry, I'm home. Did you two get along? Circuitboards connecting okay?"

Cass came in while Arcade and Veronica were unpacking. "Who's the pipsqueak?"

"He's a legionary who was sent to kill us on our way to Camp Searchlight. They haven't given him a name," Arcade exposited. Cass peered at the kid for any signs of legionness and seemed satisfied.

"So, what, he's just our pet now?"

"He needs somewhere safe to stay while he recovers," said Sage. "We had to resuscitate him."

"And... why'd you do that? Don't mean to be harsh, but if he tried to kill you once, he'll turn around and do it again while you're lookin' the other way."

"Cass, he's just a kid," Veronica muttered, as if he couldn't hear them.

Boone showed up then, insinuating himself against a wall. He observed but didn't intrude as they told Cass the whole story.

"Anyway, the moral of the story is," Sage finished, propping a hand on the kid's head, "The Legion has lost too many men to send a proper hit squad after us. I don't know why they're still trying."

"No," said Boone.

The others turned toward him when he didn't elaborate.

"They're messing with your head. You think he's really the best they've got? You think they don't know you wouldn't wanna kill a kid?"

"That's a lie!" protested the kid. "I was chosen for my skill in battle."

Boone didn't look at him. "They'll keep sending 'em younger and younger until you hesitate enough to get a bullet in your eye."

Sage huffed, not wanting to believe him but starting to think she didn't have a choice. "So, what. We just have to shut off everything that makes us human so the Legion won't exploit it as a weakness?"

"Don't see how we've got any other options. They won't stop sending them until they know it isn't working."

The others looked supremely uncomfortable (including Raul, who had manifested sometime during the conversation). "That's... not good," said Veronica.

"Not happy about it either," Boone concluded sullenly.

"Oh, relax. I'll figure something out," Sage muttered. "And you're gonna help me," she added, grabbing the kid by the arm and shoving him into her room.

She shut the door behind them. "He's wrong," the kid insisted.

"You need a name."

"I'd have gotten my name for killing you."

"Right, that thing no one's ever been able to do before. Really fudged the numbers on that one, didn't you?"

The kid sulked and gawked around at her various knickknacks. Sage gave him free rein for a bit, let him feel out the area. She didn't know jack about child psychology, but she knew she was always more comfortable when she could explore the unfamiliar.

He gravitated toward her collection of unique guns, but stayed a few feet away, respecting his own status as a captive. He was a savvy kid. She began her interrogation as he examined them.

"So what's it like growing up in the Legion?"

"I don't know. What is it like growing up a profligate?"

"I wouldn't know either. I was born fully-formed a couple years ago. Erupted right out of the ground like a cactus."

"That isn't true," he spat. "...it isn't, right?"

"It totally is. Ask anyone." It was true. Metaphorically.

He glanced at her, unsure once again. "The soldiers say you're a daughter of Mercury."

"Wouldn't that make me Caesar's cousin? Should I go claim my throne now, or wait for an invitation?"

"Stop."

She let him cool off about the heresy for a minute, then continued. "So? Growing up in the Legion?"

"I don't know. We're taught loyalty and virtued behavior. We become soldiers at ten. Most don't see battle until much later, but I was deemed worthy." He was still bristling at Boone's analysis of the situation. He turned fully toward her. "You brought me back from the dead. You must be of the gods."

"I just did grunt work. Arcade and Veronica were the brains of the operation."

"Are the gods displeased with us?"

"Not that they've told me. I'm just a courier."

"But... they say you can disappear in a flash of blue light. That you know who's approaching before you see them. You impressed Caesar." He said this last fact as if it were on equal footing with the other two. "They say you know the Burned Man," he whispered finally.

She leveled an unflinching gaze upon him rather than confirm or deny, waiting to see where this was going.

"You're a courier. You must be appointed. To send a message."

Sage was uncomfortable with the deification, but she was the type to catch opportunities as they came. "How can I, if the Legion never listens?"

"You killed Caesar."

"Ah, no. That was one of my associates. The Legion and I had friendly negotiations for a time, but they more-or-less forced my hand. In the end, I figured I had a better claim to Vegas than anyone else."

The kid was a little worked up over the subject matter, but he understood. And he wasn't about to argue with a demigoddess, even though she'd multiple times denied being one. "You do have a message, then?"

"Of course. If I wasn't so sure they'd have you executed for failing to kill me, I'd send it with you."

"They... wouldn't. I was expected to kill you or die trying. I... died. My king can't ask any more than that." She noticed he referred to Lucius with less reverence than legionaries would use for Caesar.

Sage found herself smiling at him. "I like you, kid. You need a name."

"You don't have the authority—"

"You go relax. Don't touch any weapons and don't use the elevator. Take whatever you want from the fridge. I'll have a letter ready for you once you've recovered."

The boy, dismissed, stared apprehensively at the door. Sage put a hand on his shoulder and herded him out.


Once every few weeks, maybe more, someone (typically Sage) would suggest that the tower's inhabitants sit down and eat a meal together. ED-E would buzz curiously around their heads, and of course Rex would be under the table, begging politely. The rationale was that the suite had a dining table meant for gatherings, and they needed to bond as a comprehensive unit (and, Sage knew, the day they went their separate ways loomed ever closer as each of them found a purpose that didn't revolve around her).

This was one such night. Someone had invited Molly, or she had appeared by chance (she lived in Sage's room in Vault 21, but she was always welcome in the 38). And then there was the legionary. When Sage shepherded him into the dining room, he stopped to gape at Lily in abject horror, reaching to his waist for a weapon he didn't have. Sage maneuvered him to a seat and propped herself in the chair beside him.

"So I've come to a decision about our buddy here," she announced. "Or rather, the two of us have come to an agreement. Hopefully it'll make things right. 'Til then, I want anyone going out to take the Compliance Regulator with them. Good for nonlethal takedowns, if it comes to that."

"Gotta say, it must be nice in that head of yours, boss," muttered Raul, deep within the pages of a scavenged magazine. "Always a handy solution for everything."

"If you're calling me naïve, I'd prefer the term 'strategic.'"

He looked up at her flatly. "I would never."

So, yeah, dinner was going to be tense. They were a bit low on food at the moment, and Sage had been last to the table, so she was stuck with a particularly suspicious package of Instamash, while the kid ate the last of the food he'd brought from the Fort. His eyes roved among his tablemates, frequently pausing on Lily.

"WHAT IS IT, DEARIE? HOW ARE YOU LIKING GRANDMA'S COOKING TONIGHT?" the Nightkin asked him good-naturedly.

The boy leaned back, putting a few more inches of distance between them. "I don't know what you're talking about. Beast."

Molly piped up, "Well, I can hardly keep from eating it all up at once, Grandma." She'd had no trouble adjusting to life as one of Lily's many grandbabies.

"NOT SO FAST, LOVIE. YOU'LL HURT YOUR BELLY, AND YOU WON'T HAVE AN APPETITE FOR THE SWEETROLL I MADE." There was no sweetroll, and Molly's appetite was never spoiled, but she nodded politely.

"Don't be scared of Lily. She's harmless, normally," Sage muttered to the kid.

"I'm not scared," he scoffed, and to prove it he stopped being rude, though he still snuck nervous glances at her.

"So the kid needs a name," she offered during a lull in the conversation. "How about... Lazarus?"

"In the Legion? I'd have gone with Orpheus," said Arcade.

"Orpheus," the kid murmured, savoring it. He seemed pleased to be called by a name, despite his earlier insistence that they weren't allowed to give him one.

"Sure, that's settled, as long as he likes it," Sage concluded. "Now, since Yes Man and I are still working on a functional prison system and none of us has the time or ability to safely deprogram our friend here, I'm going to let him go once it's safe, with a message for Lucius."

"And until then, you're just gonna keep him here. Where we sleep," Cass drawled.

"He's injured, unarmed, and like six years old. If you're scared, sleep on a different floor."

Veronica cleared her throat from the other end of the table. "Not that I want to make this any worse, but isn't he going to have a lot of trouble... getting along? The Legion hates all mutants, women, and NCR. Last I checked, that's all of us, except for Arcade."

"Don't be so sure," said Arcade. "They have a particularly robust dislike for... doctors."

"We don't hate women," Orpheus muttered.

Sage sighed. "Boone, you've been glaring wordlessly this entire time. What's your take?"

Boone crossed his arms at the attention turned his way. "He's a soldier."

"A child soldier."

In lieu of a response, Boone got up to leave. Sage half-rose to stop him, but he turned back and jerked his head, beckoning her to follow. The others let them go; no need to interfere while the two of them reconciled their own personal brands of crazy.

He stood in the hallway waiting for her, lips tight. Now that they were alone, she could see that his agitation was more anxiety than ticked-offedness, and she relaxed. "I know you're not ecstatic about this, but it's my call. Anyway, Yes Man won't let him leave the building without me. He's not stupid enough to try anything."

Boone grunted, slightly appeased. "Still. You're playing with fire. Don't like it."

"Isn't it better he gets a second chance?"

"To do what, go back and grow up to be another one of Caesar's dogs? Better if you'd left him for dead."

"So what's really your problem?"

"Legion training's not something you can fix. Much as you want to help him, he's gonna be one of them in a few years, and die when he's not useful anymore. Probably take a few good people with him. None of those kids they're sending after us can be saved."

Sage let this information sit for a few seconds. "Are you gonna kill him?"

"You think I want to kill him?"

"I know you don't want to. I also know you always do what you think you have to."

Boone sighed, long and low. "You're right," he said. "I don't want to."

"Then leave it to me." She put a hand on his shoulder. "I just want to help him. Show him what mercy feels like. He thinks I'm a messenger from the gods. So I'm sending him to Lucius with a proposal for a cease-fire."

Boone scoffed bitterly. "That won't get you far. We're the ones who put Caesar in the ground, case you forgot."

"Yeah," Sage agreed. "And we put them in a pretty awkward position. We have the upper hand and they know it. It wouldn't have been possible with Caesar or Lanius in charge. But... maybe now they'll be willing to listen. It's a chance."

"Still don't like it... not that easy. But..." he frowned. "Guess if there's a chance I don't have to take on any child hit squads, I can't say no."

Sage smirked. "Plus I'm your boss. You can't tell me what to do."

He smirked back. Just a little. "Yeah. But what would you do without me?"

They both knew the conversation was over. Satisfied, Boone boarded the elevator up to the cocktail lounge, and Sage went back to dinner.


Dear Lucius (and Vulpes, if you're reading this. You probably are),

First off, I got your little hit squad. Smart move, sending kids, really classy. Yes, the kid colluded with me to be my messenger boy, but if you hurt him, I'll rain fire on you so fast that no one will remember the Legion ever existed within the year. Also, his name is Orpheus now, so put that in the books.
By now, I'm sure you've realized that this whole thing is stupid. You're fighting a dead war in service of a dead man. The only casualties on my side are robots, while you're losing men faster than you can sustain. You can't go on like this.
I know honor and retribution and whatever are a big deal in your culture, so you don't want to let this thing go. I get that. But you know better than I do that I've knocked out a good chunk of your command structure. This is me holding back. If you give me a reason, I have the capability to wipe you out. Simply put, you have to let go. Begin again. Or you'll die.
I'm willing to meet on neutral ground and discuss terms. You pick the time and the place. You'll know where to find me.

Signed,
Courier Six


2266-
January - Distance, No More
2267-2276 -
2277-
January - Sage destroys the Divide
February - First Battle of Hoover Dam
July - The Mummy Returns
August 17 - Aniss leaves Vault 101
The Prodigal Son
September - To Set the Record Straight
November - The Burned Man Walks
2278-
April - James dies (Purity War begins)
June - Guide Her Through the Night
Bitter Springs
September - Project Purity activates
2279-
Adams Air Force Base (Purity War ends)
2280-
May - Dogmeat's Vacation
August - Boones are married
2281-
New Canaan is destroyed
October 11 - Sage is shot in the head
October 19 - Sage wakes up
2282-
ED-E, My Bud
2283-
January - Second Battle of Hoover Dam
February - To Have and To Hold
April - Awake, O Sleeper
May - Worst-Case Scenario
July - Mercury's Messenger