I've added that disclaimer to the first chapter but I'll repeat it here: reveals from the Amazon Fallout show might or might not be included. The broad outline of this story was thought up before its release and, uh, the show takes the setting in the direction I don't want it to take in this story.

At the time of writing I'm halfway through season 1 and thoroughly spoiled myself on the rest of it and I am still not sure if I like that bloody series or not, to be fair.

The Ds and Haru marched down Freeside, towards the east gate, the one they used to enter it. "Alright," Eddie said, "there are two debtors to deal with. I do the talking, and you just stand around menacingly."

"Understood," Haru nodded. "Can I ask you a question in the meantime?"

"Hit it, Floof."

"When I asked Miss Farkas about your backgrounds, she used Dee's and Eddie's first names, but not 2D's, for some reason."

2D sighed. "It's… a bit of an unreasonable superstition among the Followers."

"One Follower with that name ended up starting shit on a large scale," Eddie explained. "And even though he doesn't use that name anymore, and you can't really tie him to the Followers, they're still kinda eh about it."

"He displays a degree of knowledge of ancient history, who else but the Followers could have taught him?" 2D countered.

"Maybe he found a book somewhere?" Eddie shrugged, then glanced at Haru: "Since I don't care about that, I can tell you – his name is Edward Maria Sklodowski."

"Isn't Maria a girl's name?" went Haru.

"Yes, that is correct," 2D explained, his weariness demonstrating it's not the first time he had to. "Giving men such middle names is an old tradition of my ancestors, dating to even before the Great War, as far as I am aware."

"Right," Haru nodded. "And hey, my name's used for both guys and girls. It's all arbitrary."

"But seriously, the Followers are dumb about this," Eddie went on. "Apparently the assholes that took over the prison near Primm are led by a guy named Eddie. Will you give me shit for that? Is that a bad omen too?"

"There's a difference, Eddie," 2D explained. "We have given quote-unquote 'our' Edward an education and sent him out into the world, and he then proceeded to set said world on fire. There's a certain level of collective guilt about it among the older Followers."

"How bad can it be?" Haru asked. "What did he do?"

"I would rather not say," 2D muttered under his breath. "Should that man's identity and past affiliation with the Followers become common knowledge, my organization's reputation would take a dive that it cannot afford."

"There's no Daniels around though!" Dee said. "I'm one of a kind!"

A quartermaster in Camp McCarran, a Fiend deep in Vault 3, and a missionary in Utah all sneezed at the same time.

Back in Freeside, Eddie patted his friend on the back. "Sure you are, Unibrow."

The group turned a corner and then walked straight ahead some more, going past the road leading back to the east gate. Behind the ruins of a building standing by said exit road was a man, wearing a dirty beige suit and leaning against a chunk of the wall that was still big enough to lean on. For what it's worth, his hair was passably done, and he had a neat soul patch and mustache.

"This is Santiago, one of the debtors," 2D exposited. "Something of a smoothtalker, puts on a persona to wriggle out of financial responsibilities. His debts add up to the equivalent of 212 bottle caps."

Haru raised an eyebrow. "Equivalent to what?"

"We've got three currencies floating around," Eddie explained. "Bottle caps, that the water merchants in Cali exchange for water, Legion denariuses, denarii, whatever, made outta silver and gold, and Republic dollars, which are worth the paper they're printed on, but the NCR pretends they have value so people use them too. Caps are most common so people usually default to that. One Legion coin equals four caps equals ten NCR bucks."

"Ooh," Haru remarked, interested. "So you have, uh…" Her private English lessons included a few units on economy vocabulary. "…representative, commodity and fiat currencies all circulating in the same area. Fascinating."

"Now that you said it, it is remarkable," 2D agreed.

"You are both nerds," Eddie commented, before turning towards Santiago. "Hey, sharp-dressed jerk!" he shouted. "We came to collect!"

"Oh?" Santiago glanced at the group, straightened himself up and adjusted his tie. "Greetings, Mr. Parker! How are you today?" There was a bit of a fake accent in his voice. "Because Santiago is fabulous!"

"'Parker'?" Haru asked.

"That's me," Eddie remarked. "I thought it's cool how 2D has many names, so I picked some myself. I'm Edwin Stanley Parker." He smirked. "Sounds cool, doesn't it?"

Haru politely nodded.

"Back to you, Santiago," 2D said, "we have come here on behalf of Francine Garret, on account of your debts."

"Debts?" Santiago didn't seem bothered. "Santiago owes nobody. Santiago is a Freeside VIP!"

"Really?" Haru asked. "The guys didn't say anything about VIP status."

"Because he doesn't have any!" Eddie protested.

Haru turned to him with a beaming smile. "Now, Mr. Parker, l know I am a newcomer here, but I would rather hear his side of the story before doing anything rash."

Dee leaned towards Eddie. "I think she has a plan," he whispered.

"I am the plan guy here," he grunted back. "But fine. The stage's yours, Floof."

She spun back towards Santiago. "Right, where were we…" she said, still with that innocent smile. "You mentioned something of a VIP status?"

"That is correct, young lady," Santiago nodded. "Santiago is very important. I even have a discount at Mick and Ralph's!" He gestured at the nearby store, with the cobbled-together sign showing its name hanging above the entrance. "Santiago could share it… for a price."

"Wow," Haru said. "You know, that could be of use to me." She raised her weapon to display its blade, covered in flaking dried blood, to Santiago. "I have this axe here, but it has gotten so dull recently because of excessive use," she announced, still smiling innocently. "With that discount I could buy something to sharpen it."

"Oh," Santiago remarked, somewhat bothered by the dissonance between the weapon in front of his face and the expression of its wielder. "W-well, Santiago cannot give you the discount password for free. Normally I charge fifty caps, but for such a- such a nice young lady, I shall part with it for twenty-five."

"What a bargain!" The smile on Haru's face seemed less and less innocent by the minute. "Mr. Parker, could you lend me some bottle caps, for the passphrase and for some, what you call it, sharpening stone?"

"And what if he's lying?" Eddie asked, seeing where this whole scene was going.

"Well, that would be a problem," Haru replied, then turned to Santiago, still smiling, "but I would have a sharpened axe on me, which would make it less of a problem."

Santiago mustered one last bit of courage he had left. "Pah, you think Santiago is susceptible to such threats?" he scoffed. "Santiago laughs at your silly bluff!"

Haru gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh my, you have seen through it. Perhaps I should walk back to Fiend territory and inform them that I was merely bluffing," she glared at Santiago, "so they can put their guts back in their stomachs."

The shift in her voice startled Santiago enough to recoil, and his back hit the wall behind him. "Uh, erm, ah-"

"This will end the moment you pay up, Santiago," Eddie remarked.

"Alright, fine!" he protested, losing his accent. "Jeez, I didn't think this whole 'Santiago' bit would get me threatened by a psychopath with a fire axe!"

Haru giggled in response, lowering her weapon. "Truth be told, it was as much of a performance as your act, sir." After a beat, she added. "The Fiends really died though. It was self-defense."

"Sheesh," Santiago said, pulling out a sack of caps and tossing it to Eddie. "Here, that's all the money I have."

"Remember, Eddie, we are debt collectors, not thugs," 2D reminded him. "Take the amount he owes and not one bottle cap more."

"Fine, shoulder angel." Eddie glanced inside the bag of caps and felt its weight in his hand. "There's 256 caps inside, right?"

Santiago stared at him, shocked and impressed. "Well, yes, but how…"

"Call it a natural talent." With a grin, Eddie poured most of the caps into his own sack, and tossed what remained back to Santiago. "Here ya go, 44 caps of change. By the way, if you're looking for a job, James Garret's looking for cough escorts. Smooth talkers, specifically."

"Really?" Santiago asked. "Man, that sounds marvelous!" He put the accent back on. "Santiago would be honored to work in such a wondrous den of vice!"

"Yeah, yeah, just tell 'em Eddie sent ya so I get paid for it."

"Will do. For now, Santiago bids you adieu, Mr. Parker," he bowed his head slightly and left the scene.

The group watched him depart, before Haru glanced at Dee. "By the way, do you have a family name I should know?"

"Not really," Dee shrugged. "Dalton sounds cool though. Like, Daniel D. Dalton."

"The alliteration's neat," Eddie commented, not willing to walk into a 'who's on first' joke. "Right, we've got one more schmuck to deal with, and it's in the section of Freeside Floof hasn't seen yet." He marched back the way they all came from, in the direction of the Mormon fort entrance. The other three followed. "2D, infodump while we're on our way."

"The last debtor calls herself Lady Jane," 2D said. "She is a caravaneer that occasionally cooperated with my faction. I have heard reports that she also dabbles in prospecting. The sum of total debts is equivalent to 250 bottle caps."

"Caravaneer, like, someone moving goods through the desert?" Haru asked.

"Correct," 2D nodded. "She was one of the few remaining caravaneers operating mostly on her own. Nowadays larger outfits control most of the traffic, and prices."

"And she's also prospecting, apparently." After a pause, Haru asked: "Is this a euphemism that went over my head?"

"In this context, it is a polite term for scavengers," 2D explained. "It's fascinating how, two centuries after the War, you can still find valuables in ruins of the past."

The group reached a junction, but instead of turning right towards the Mormon fort or the north Freeside gate, they turned left and faced a barricade made out of large chunks of reinforced concrete, with a gate in the middle, made out of sections of a destroyed bus, complete with folding door allowing passage.

They went through the barricade gate and out the other side. They found themselves approaching another intersection. On the far left corner from their point of view was a building with a guitar-shaped neon sign reading "THE KING'S", followed by "SCHOOL OF IMPERSONATION" on the sides of said building. A few folks wearing the same jacket Eddie was were lollygagging around the area. Above the road leading right was a large street sign reading FREESIDE, and by each of its pillars stood a crier – on the left side, a casually dressed guy displaying his energy weapons to passers by, proclaiming where you can buy things like these, and on the right side, a skimpily dressed young woman, not older than Haru herself, advertising some bar-cum-casino-cum-brothel.

"And on your left you see the headquarters of the Kings faction," 2D proclaimed, watching Haru scan her surroundings.

"After House booted us out of the Strip, the leader of our tribe found this place," Eddie continued. "Inside it was a bunch of getups we're wearing now, a metric ton of hair gel, and some barely working holotapes with the voice of that King guy. We think it was some place of worship."

"The more likely theory is," 2D butted in, "the King was a distinct pre-War celebrity or folk hero whose appearance and mannerisms people wanted to emulate."

"One from before my time, I think," Haru muttered.

"Yeah, he just said he's from pre-War," Eddie proclaimed. "And 2D, wanting to wear the same clothes some guy wore and act the way he acted doesn't sound like worship to you?"

"Not in a strictly religious sense, no."

"Hey, axe girl!" the female crier called for Haru. "Wanna get lucky?"

"I would rather not press my luck today," she replied, missing the innuendo.

"Sounds like a bad day." She gestured behind herself. "Head on down to the Atomic Wrangler and get a drink or two!"

"And get an energy weapon beforehand!" the other crier proclaimed. "Silver Rush offers a wide variety of laser and plasma weaponry."

"Not a fan," she scowled.

"She's on the clock, buzz off!" Eddie shouted at the criers and gestured at the group to keep moving. As they went through the crossing, Haru spotted two signs hanging in the distance, over the road to her right, with the names of the respective establishments.

"So over there's the bar and the energy gun store," she said.

"Yep," Eddie confirmed. "Atomic Wrangler might seem seedy, and that's 'cause it is, but the owners, the Garret twins, run a tight ship and don't want trouble."

"They're as ethical as peddlers of addictive substances can be," 2D continued. "Julie complains about them, not without a point, but they are the lesser evil of Freeside. Should you want to relax there over a soft drink, nobody will lay a finger on you."

"And they never send assassins after people," Dee remarked.

Haru glanced at him, slightly confused. "That's a non sequitur."

"It alludes to our past experiences with the owners of the Silver Rush, the Van Graffs," 2D said. "Their approach to competition in the energy weapon business is quite literally cut-throat."

"Bandana tried to sell a self-made energy weapon to one of his contacts," Eddie continued. "She then proceeded to go to the Van Graffs to buy ammo for it, and friggin' told to their faces that she's getting the gun from someone else. The assholes sent an assassin to kill 2D and make an example of him."

"So you killed him?" Haru asked.

"Nah, just scared him off," Eddie explained. "None of us like killing people, it's a messy thing."

"Tell me about it."

"After that the Van Graffs decided buying us off would be easier," he continued. "2D won't make any energy weapons ever again, and they toss some caps at the Followers every week."

"It's a pittance," 2D added, "and Julie griped about taking 'blood money', but we take them anyway because we cannot afford to be picky."

The group marched past a bunch of car carcasses, towards a barricade with a gate in it, not dissimilar to the one leading to Freeside, except the flashing neon sign on top read "Welcome to the Strip". It also looked more coherent than the Freeside sign, in that every word was in a different font as opposed to every letter. The gate was surrounded from the sides by a metal barricade, designed to funnel people in, and guarded by a bunch of one-wheeled robots with CRT screens on the front displaying a cartoon drawing of a stern-looking cop - you'll recognize them as Securitrons mentioned earlier, but Haru was seeing them for the first time and found herself somewhat intimidated, gripping her axe a bit firmer. The Lucky 38 was standing right on the other side of the wall, towering over its surroundings by a wide margin.

On the side of said gate and barricade was a patch of empty ground that, judging by the crumbles of the sidewalk around it, was a parking lot some centuries prior. There were a few benches around it and a campfire spot in the middle – some singed planks resting on top of a bunch of bricks brought from somewhere. By said campfire spot on one of the benches was sitting a woman with a fancy hairdo and a muddy-green cotton dress reaching below her knees.

"Hey there, lady," Eddie greeted her. "Jane, isn't it?"

She raised her head and saw the group approaching her. "Oh. Greetings. Am I being mugged?"

"No, no, no," 2D reassured her. "We are merely here vis-a-vis the debt you accrued at the Atomic Wrangler."

"In that case, I do not speak to commoners."

"You can speak to my friend with the axe, then." Eddie glanced at Haru. "Floof, do your magic."

Haru mulled it over for a second, then a thought bloomed in her brain. She handed the axe over to Eddie, who took it from her, somewhat confused, and then she bowed. "Greetings," she proclaimed. "I am Haru Okumura. From those Okumuras."

Jane was confused. "Uh, beg pardon?"

"Right, the name doesn't tell people anything in these parts." She smiled sheepishly. "But back where I'm from, my family controls a large chunk of the low-end restaurant market. I'm just a bit… down on my luck right now. Just like you."

Gears turned in Jane's head. It seemed ridiculous, but at the same time the weird girl had a certain je ne sais quoi to her, marking her as someone that did not belong there, in the same way (she believed) she didn't belong there. "I see. A fellow entrepreneur going through hard times. I can sympathize." She gestured at the empty spot on her bench. "Sit down. What happened to you?"

"Well," Haru sat down, "I was minding my own business back in my hometown when…" She paused, trying to come up with a plausible story; nothing came to her head so she decided to skimp on the details. "Honestly, I'm not sure. I might've been drugged. All I can tell with certainty is that someone kidnapped me and dumped me in the middle of Fiend territory."

"Oh my," Jane gasped.

"They probably didn't expect me to survive," Haru continued. "But I did. Even if I had to carve my way out." Her fists balled up for a second as she took a breath to calm herself down. "But that's in the past. For now, I need to gather money to either get back home or contact my family, and, well… here I am, collecting debts."

Jane sighed. "Right. Miss Okumura. I will admit, I have some money on me, but not enough to cover my obligations and survive the next few days." After a pause, she added: "Can I offer you something instead?"

"As long as it's not a password to Mick and Ralph's," Eddie snarked.

Jane chuckled. "Santiago was also indebted, I assume. No, I mean the location of my last caravan. When heading north, I attempted to avoid a Legion raiding party and went off the beaten path, straight into a bunch of mole rats. My brahmin, carrying most of my caps, ran into some cave and I was unable to chase after it. If you find it, you can have whatever's left in it."

Not knowing what a Legion or a brahmin was in this context, Haru glanced expectantly at the Ds. "There is an abundance of caves in the Mojave," 2D pointed out. "Can you be more specific?"

"It was south of Novac, I believe. There were a lot of Broc flowers growing by the cave's entrance."

"Uh, Novac's far away," Dee pointed out. "And south of that is even far-er."

"Unibrow has a point," Eddie said. "It'd take two days to get there and back. And if it was that easy to retrieve it, you would've done so already."

"There were… critters in the cave," Jane admitted. "Rodents of unusual size. I was traveling lightly and in no shape to fight them off but you seem resourceful enough to deal with them."

"Ma'am," Haru said, "I do not mean to accuse you of lying, but you have to admit it is too long of a trip to undertake based on one person's word."

Jane responded with a sigh. "It is the truth, but… I see why you would be skeptical."

A bit of silence followed before Haru spoke up: "So, you have lost your caravan, came here with nothing but the clothes on your back, and… what are you doing now?"

"I'm not sure," Jane admitted.

"If you require assistance-"

"Spare me your charity, Follower," Jane interrupted him. "I did not get where I am today by taking handouts."

"Penniless in the middle of the slums?" Eddie snarked.

A prideful one, huh? Haru thought, spotting an opening. "Ma'am," she tented her fingers, "I understand your difficult situation. I myself ended up doing things below my station to make some money. But as a proper businesswoman, an entrepreneur, you in turn understand that settling that debt is a matter of your reputation. Your honor."

Jane glanced at her with a subtle frown – not out of any malice, but because clinging to her standards would require her to literally put her money where her mouth was. "Fine," she finally announced. "Things won't get any better if I just keep sitting here." She reached into a dress pocket and pulled out a sack of caps. "This is all the money I have on me. Will it be enough?"

She tossed it at Eddie, who quickly inspected its contents. "Just a bit more than enough." He then pulled out six caps from it and handed them back to Jane. "And what will you do now?"

"I stashed a backpack with some goods I had on me when I lost my caravan," Jane replied, turning towards a pile of rubble near the barricade. "I held onto them, because they were the only thing I had left, but I have to move on." She reached into a space between two chunks of concrete and yanked out a red canvas backpack with leather straps. She then put it on. "The money I will get from selling it should be enough for a head start back to California to start anew."

"Good luck in your endeavors," Haru told her.

"Likewise, Miss Okumura. I bid you and your companions farewell." She then turned to Eddie. "The caravan's location was not a lie, by the by. I do not have it in me to go and retrieve it, but should you be in the area, feel free to pick its carcass."

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind," Eddie said in lieu of a goodbye.

The group watched her march north, towards the exit from the area, and once she went past the Kings' School of Impersonation, Eddie glanced at Haru. "I've figured you out, Floof, by the way."

"Oh?" Haru blurted out, repressing her fight-or-flight response.

"You're sheltered, but not dumb, you're not afraid to get your hands dirty, and you've got that outskirts-of-Reno accent," he listed out, handing her back his axe. "You're some sorta yakuza princess. Some assholes decided to kidnap you to get to your dad, and dumping you in Fiend territory would ensure there's no body to deal with, for convenience and for extra salt in the wound."

Haru mulled it over for a moment, wondering if she wanted to contest his guess, and coming to a conclusion of 'nah'. "Well, congratulations, you're clever enough to figure me out."

"'Course I am," Eddie grinned. "Now, let's talk payment," he announced, pulling out his cap sack. "Our total share is 300 caps, and we're gonna split it four-ways, so you get… eighty?"

"Uh, three hundred divided by four is seventy-five."

After a beat, Eddie announced: "That was a test and you passed it." He poured most of the caps from Jane's sack into his own, and tossed the remainder at Haru.

She barely caught the sack with her left hand. Seventy five caps… apparently you could rack up a debt of a few hundred caps in a bar, so what she had in her hand wasn't worth too much. "Right. Is there any other job I could do in the area? I could use a little safety net before planning my next move."

"Well, you have shown yourself to be resourceful and intelligent," 2D commented. "There might be, if you accept the meager pay that I can offer you."

"Will anyone pay me more than you can?" Haru asked.

"Perhaps, but my errand is constrained to Freeside – which for all its flaws, is safer than the wasteland outside its walls."

"Hm. Tell me more."

Jane's backpack courtesy of Canvas Backpacks - FNV - TTW and CIBS - Customizable Integrated Backpack System. I should've linked it one chapter ago because that's where Akechi's wearable duffle bag came from. Oops.