Heroine for Hire

FALLOUT 3 – Heroine for Hire
By The Great Shaggy

WARNING: Contains the following offensive material - Female/Female sexual relationship (FemSlash), Fingering, Language, Oral Sex, Sexual Toys, and Yuri.

Readers Discretion is Advised.

Chapter Characters:

Female
Anastasia – Former Vault 101 Dweller; also known as Anya
Jessica – Former Vault Dweller and slave; also known as Jessi
Kelsey – Mercenary
Sarah Lyons – Commander of Lyons’ Pride, Brotherhood of Steel
Rebecca Yearling –Order of the Scrolls Scribe, Brotherhood of Steel
Cherry – Megaton Resident

Male
Owyn Lyons – Elder of Lyons’ Pride, Brotherhood of Steel
Rothchild – Head Scribe of Lyons’ Pride, Brotherhood of Steel
Stepien – Paladin, Brotherhood of Steel
Hoss – Paladin, Brotherhood of Steel
Pek – Knight, Brotherhood of Steel

Chapter Four: Reconcilement

Ninety-five percent of the world’s population is sheep; the other five percent is either Sheep Dogs or Wolves. The Wolf preys upon the sheep, while the Sheep Dog protects the herd from the Wolves. – Unknown Philosopher


The skies of the Capital Wasteland grew dark and cloudy, opening up in a torment of sheets of pelting rain as bolts of electricity shoot through the sky. It wasn’t unnatural for rain to fall on the parched landscape surrounding the shattered capital, rarely averaging about four times a year. Most people used it to mark the changes in the seasons; winter was cool and dry, spring warm and dry, summer blistering heat, and fall going back to warm and dry. But when it did rain, it poured for days, turning the dry, sun baked ground of the wasteland into that of a muddy swamp. Only the most brave or foolhardy ventured out in the wasteland during those days and only the Brotherhood of Steel was the exception to that rule.

The wind was howling as it tore at the ankle-length Brahmin-hid trench coat that Sentential Sarah Lyons had worn to protect herself from the stinging rain. Making her way down the slippery slope, she lost her footing and fell onto her backside, sliding the rest of the way down the hill on her back end. Cursing, she accepted the offered hand of one of her Knight Sergeant escorts and tried to wipe off some of the mud that was plastered to the back end of her ass. Grabbing the bat wing size collars of her coat, she gave them a quick jerk, causing her face to be assault by a shower of water droplets. She didn’t know why she even bothered. She was already soaked from head-to-toe after walking like what seemed like eternity through the sheets of gray rain that pelted the wasteland. Wiping a strand of wet hair away from her eyes, she glanced back behind her to make sure the three Brahmin that were carrying the large drums of Aqua Pura were safely coming down the slippery slope and was force to wait as the slow, lumbering two-headed creatures had to be coax down the decline.

When she first announced that was she going along on the weekly Aqua Pura caravan escort duty to Megaton, Paladin Stepien thought it was a joke but when she showed up he was a little bit taken back by her arrival. She just stated that why the Lyons’ Pride Commander should be any different from the rank and file troops and was taking Knight Captain Colvin’s spot since he was down with the flu. Of course she had a much different reason to be going to Megaton than on escort duty but it was the only way not to raise her father’s suspicions. He didn’t approve of his daughter still being friends with the Lone Wanderer and even warned her about placing too much trust on outsiders.

As of recently, her relationship with her father was starting to become strain over their opposing views on Anya. After the destruction of the Super Mutant stronghold at Vault 87, her father extended an invitation for Anya to stay on with the Brotherhood, offering her the rank of Paladin and command of a company stating that her continuing service would be invaluable to the people of the Capital Wasteland. Sarah didn’t know if her father was either surprised or appalled when she turned down his offer and left to become a mercenary in the wastelands. His resentment against her only deepen when he started to hear stories of the cold nature of her recovery business and she was no longer placing the interest and safety of the denizens of the wastes above her own as she once did. He ordered a fact finding mission to conclude if what he was hearing was true and when he read the report, he informed Sarah he was going to strip the rank of Knight from Anya and brandish her an outcast of the Brotherhood.

She had argued with him that her friend had just lost her way in life and wasn’t turning into a cold, heartless mercenary that the fact finding report had stated. He related only when word got out to the rank and file members of the Brotherhood of his intentions. Even although she’d turned her back on the Brotherhood, the Knights and Initiates still held her in high regard, even almost taking on a legendary status with the stories they spun about her tendency and resolve in battle. Sarah had decided to remain quiet on those stories, not wanting to dispel the fictionist nature of the embellishments since they were good for morale. But she was only one of a handful of members of the Order that knew that Anya wasn’t as immortal as those stories like they claim she was.

Sarah could recall nearly a dozen or so times that Anya was wounded while fighting alongside the Brotherhood, but she had came close to death on three separate occasions that she could remember; after taking a sledge hammer to her abdomen by a Super Mutant by Falls Church only to be saved by Paladin Hoss, when a plasma round managed to pierce her power armor during the battle at Andrews Air Force Base against the Enclave, and when she went toe to toe with a Super Mutant Overlord while covering the demolition team inside Vault 87. Each time she was spared death by the armor she was wearing but was laid up for weeks recovering from her wounds afterwards.

Running another hand through her wet hair, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she glanced down at her chronometer. It was half past midday, making the delivery three hours behind schedule. She was glad they had decided to forgo wearing the power armor, which would’ve bogged them down considerable more on this trip then the Brahmin did. Standing in her soaked clothes, Sarah allowed her thoughts to drift back to her friend as she stared out into the blanket of gray before her. She wondered if she was all right. It had been nearly a week since their miraculous escape from slavers’ compound at Paradise Falls that rescued over eighty people from slavery, but the cost was high. Lucy West, one of Anya’s enslaved friends that was the main reason for her to launch that daring attempt, was killed during the escape.

Relieved as the last Brahmin cleared the decline, Sarah motioned with her arm and the caravan was off moving again through the remains of Springfield and towards the settlement of Megaton. It took another forty five minutes to reach the gates of the settlement having to coax the lumbering pack mounts up the incline pathways that lead to the town from Springfield.

“Didn’t think you’d make it this week,” said Lucas Simms as he and about a dozen other residents came out to offload the water from the Brahmin. “I’m surprised that you even made it with the weather being this bad. Worse I’ve seen it in over ten years.”

Sarah couldn’t argue with that fact. “Well at least it’ll provide the Purifier with more water. I hate to be a bother and all, but me and my men are beat, you got a place for us to spend the night?”

“Sure do, the Common House has been pretty much empty so we can put you and your Brothers up there if you like?”

“That’ll do. Also, is she still here?”

Lucas sighed and nodded his head sadly. “I’m afraid so. She hasn’t come out of her dwelling since she got back and hasn’t spoken to anyone. Hell I nearly ran her new companions out of town when I found them in Lucy’s house. Poor, Lucy, heard about what happened from Moira, damn shame she had to die like that. She was a nice girl, too. She’ll be missed here.”

“Thanks again, Sheriff,” she replied, offering him her hand which he took.

“No, thank you and the Brotherhood. If you need anything during your stay just come and find me.”

Tipping his hat, he made his way over to the Brahmin to oversee the unloading as Sarah waved her hand to Paladin Stepien.

“Got us a place for the night,” she announced as he drew closer to her. “Once the off load is completed bring the Brahmin to the pens and you guys go dry yourselves off in the Common House. We’ll head out at first light tomorrow, rain or shine.”

“You think that’s a good idea, Commander?” asked Stepien. “We’re supposed to be due back at the Citadel tonight.”

“It’ll take us too long to get back, besides in this weather with night coming soon and none of us wearing power armor I don’t want to take any chances. Don’t worry, I’ll tell Cross it was my judgment call.”

“Okay, Commander, it’s your call,” he replied and then grinned. “At least it’ll give us an excuse to check out this Moriarty’s we keep hearing about.”

Shaking her head, Sarah slapped a palm on his chest that send a shower of rain droplets into both of their faces. “Don’t get too tipsy that you guys can’t travel tomorrow.”

“Where are you off too?” he asked as she turned and started through the gates of Megaton.

“Got to check on someone,” she replied and left it at that.

She found Anya’s place easy enough after asking a few people for directions. Standing in front of the door, she knocked on the metal with her knuckle and waited. When the door didn’t open she knocked again, louder this time with the same results. Testing the door knob, she found it to be unlocked, and went inside. The interior was a mess with buckets that had been placed to catch the rain water dripping in from the various holes in the roof overflowing, strewn clothing that smelled like shit tossed haphazardly over the chairs, and set of combat armor that has seen better days laying at the bottom of the stairwell.

Hearing the sound of paws hitting metal, Sarah glanced up to see Dogmeat coming down the stairs. She knelt down and greeted the four legged, gray and white fur canine. “Hey, Dogmeat, how’ve been. Where’s Anya, she here?”

Dogmeat whined as he lick Sarah’s face and then trotted back up the stairs, pausing at the top to bark down at her before laying back down just off to the side. Walking up the stairs, Sarah stopped as she saw Anya slumped into a chair, spend bottles of whiskey surrounding her along with cartoons of half eaten food. She looked up at Sarah, but said nothing as a pistol dropped from her waist to the floor.

“Anya, if you blame me for what happened I understand,” Sarah started, finding it difficult to get her words out which she found strange since she rehearsed this speech in her head all the way here. “I’m sorry about Lucy. I know she was a good friend and all to you, I just wish it could’ve turned out differently is all. No plan survives first contact with the enemy.”

Oh that’s great, start talking like a military tactician when you’re supposed to be consoling your best friend over a close personal death. Why don’t you help her some more by saying it could’ve gone off better had you lead it, she thought to herself as Anya looked away from her. Can’t you see she’s hurting, damn it say something, something useful this time?

“I’m…I’m sorry.” That’s it, you’re sorry, God am I pathetic when it comes to this. “I wish I could’ve done more for you, damn it I should’ve. You were right when you said I was ‘gung-ho, let’s kick ass and not wait attitude’ person, I haven’t changed from that it’s just I let my reasoning get in my way of my better judgment. I shouldn’t have listened to my father.”

Smooth move, blame Daddy for all of it, I am pathetic!

When Anya didn’t say anything, Sarah felt as if her heart was getting crushed by her silence. “Damn it, Anya, I’m your friend, talk to me! If you want to blame me for Lucy’s death then go ahead and say it, but please stop this silent treatment towards me. Please?”

And still she said nothing.

“I’m so sorry,” Sarah said softly and turned to leave as Dogmeat let out a whine.

“Sarah, I don’t blame you or your father or the Brotherhood,” Anya’s voice croaked. “I blame myself.”

Turning back around, Sarah saw Anya had her face buried in her hands, weeping loudly which caused Dogmeat to rise and go over to her side, nudging the sidearm that had fallen to the floor over the side of the balcony to the ground level below, before rubbing his head up against her legs. Dropped her hands to the dog’s head, Anya gave him a reassuring scratch behind his ears as she looked back at Sarah with her tear filled eyes.

“I blame myself for Lucy because I couldn’t pull the trigger when I should’ve and I let that motherfucker live. You were right then when you express your concern that he may one day return to cause trouble. And he did.”

She had to think back to remember what she was talking about. When she did recall the memory, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Colonel Autumn killed Lucy?”

Anya nodded. “I don’t think he killed her on purpose, I think he wanted to kill me and Lucy just happened to get in the line of his shot when he pulled the trigger. That motherfucker,” she suddenly shouted as she threw an empty bottle across the room where it shattered as it impacted the wall.

Her sudden raged surprised Sarah and Dogmeat, who barked at her. For the first time Anya realized that her hands were trembling which caused her tears to start flowing from her eyes once again.

“I got no one,” she softly said. “Moira won’t talk to me, I think she blames me for everything. My parents are dead and Lucy was the closest thing to a sister I had and she’s gone too.” She looked back at Sarah and asked, “Why me, Sarah? Why did fate have to pick my family to play savior to these lands? I didn’t ask for it, I didn’t want it. All I wanted was to find my father and in return I became something I didn’t want to be.”

Taking a deep breath, Sarah went over to her friend. Kneeling down in front of her, she took both her hands into her own as she gaze at her. “Fate is something that doesn’t decide what we do or what we became, it only shows us the path and it’s our choice if we either decide to walk down it or forge our own. You’ve always had a hard time finding your place in this world, haven’t yea?”

She nodded her head but said nothing.

“But you realized something at your age that others haven’t, you found what your true worth is by forging that path. You weren’t destine for an ordinary life, Anya, like me you felt like you were meant for something better, something special. You can either face it,” she said as she reached down and picked up an empty whiskey bottle, raising it to where Anya could see it, “or you can run from it.”

Releasing the bottle, Anya watched it fall and erupt into a dozen pieces as it impacted on the metal floor. Fate and destiny, never did she really believe in those two superstitions for she didn’t like the thought that some higher power had full control over her choices. She didn’t feel like she was running away from the choices she made, just regretting them. Never before had she wished she could go back and change one event in her life that was until now.

“I don’t want to be anyone’s savior anymore, Sarah,” she said. “People have to find their own answers to their own problems. I’m not going to fix them anymore.”

“No one is asking for you to, but losing yourself in a bottle isn’t going to help you either.” Sarah squeezed her hand softly. “And you’re not alone, Anya. You still have friends, friends that care deeply about you. And Lucy will always be there for you right here,” she finished by clinching a fist to her heart.

For a second, neither of them said a word, and then unable to hold back the tears anymore, Anya collapsed onto Sarah, wrapping her into an embrace. Sarah took the crying woman into her arms, gently rocking her back and forth. There, now how hard was that, she thought to herself.

“You're my best friend, Anya,” Sarah whispered, “and I’ll always be there for you, no matter what.”

Anya looked up at Sarah and said, “Thank you.”

The two of them locked eyes and stared at each other, both breathing heavily the sorrow that they felt. Then Sarah surprised Anya and herself by leaning forward and locking lips with hers. Anya’s eyes went wide as Sarah slipped her tongue into Anya’s mouth, wrapping her appendage around her own. What the hell am I doing? I don’t have these types of feelings for her, do I, Sarah thought to herself, but her emotions said otherwise as she relaxed her body. Still embraced, Sarah eased her hand downwards and slipped her hand inside Anya’s tank top shirt and cupped her smooth breast. She squeezed gently, noticing the woman’s sudden arousal by the hardening of her nipple.

Suddenly realizing what she was doing, Sarah broke the embrace and rose to her feet. “I’m sorry…I don’t know what came over me. I got to go, I’m sorry again, Anya.”

She turned to leave and was halted by a sudden grasp on her wrist. “Please don’t,” Anya said, standing. “Don’t leave me alone tonight. Please?”

Do I really have ‘those’ types of feelings for her? Is that why I had to come so badly when I heard what happened? Am I really infatuated with her?
Summoning her courage, Sarah turned back around and embraced the girl again, allowing her other hand to stroke the base of the Lone Wanderer’s neck and down to the small of her back where the edge of Anya’s shirt lied. With a gentle pull, she tugged the loose piece of clothing up and over Anya’s head and tossed it off to the side. Dogmeat, watching the display, let out a snort and went back downstairs.

Sarah’s other hand found its way to Anya’s other breast and pinched the hardened nipple. Her effort was rewarded by a muffled whimper from Anya’s locked mouth. As Sarah’s hands explored Anya’s sensitive nipples, one of Anya’s own hands found its way between the other woman’s legs. With a finger, she probed Sarah’s womanhood through the thick fabric of her rain soaked trousers, teasing it with quick prods and jabs. Her eyes widen and she stopped her fumbling with Anya’s nipples, her hand automatically moving to intercept Anya’s probe. However, she ceased her hand’s downward movement and returned to the young woman’s supple mounds, giving in to the sexual flame that was burning brightly between the two women.

With their tongues tiring, the two women ceased they’re wonderful dance together and broke the embrace they shared. Anya gave Sarah a quick peck on her lips as she leaned back smiling. A wicked smile crept onto the Sentential’s face and she hoisted the younger woman off her feet, carrying her into the office room, and sat her on the desk’s edge. Moving forward, Sarah sat a calming hand on the younger woman’s thigh and moved her other hand towards the woman’s love area.
Slowly and with great care, Sarah made circular motions with her finger through the dirty fabric of Anya’s underwear, teasing Anya’s shaved pelvic region. Anya let out a deep sigh and arched her head back, her tangled mane of hair cascading behind her as her breathing came in quick, excited breaths. Moving her hand down, Sarah pressed a full digit against Anya’s love lips and slowly caressed them until Anya’s slit was oozing with her pre-honey dew through the thin fabric material. Grasping the underwear’s edges with both hands, Sarah removed the final piece of clothing from the former Vault Dweller and gazed in astonishment at the young woman’s gleaming love lips.

Anya let out a gasp as the Lyons’ Pride Commander used two fingers to spread her pouting vaginal lips apart and inserted her probing finger into her juicy hole. The Lone Wanderer shuddered briefly from the intrusion, the lining of her tunnel squeezing to halt Sarah’s advance. But she wouldn’t be detained and she pushed her finger forward through the woman’s tight lining, causing Anya to let out a girlish whimper and then a moan as Sarah slowly withdrew her finger, only to slam it back in again, starting a frenzy of finger fucking.

Moaning with intense sexual desire, Anya grabbed her nipples and fondled them in her fingers as her hips squirmed under Sarah’s punishment. Licking her lips, Sarah bent down, her tongue slithering outward to meet Anya’s clitoris. She wrapped her tongue around the sensitive swollen nub of Anya’s cunt, bringing forth a powerful scream from the young woman as her hips ceased their squirming.
Withdrawing her finger, she grabbed both of Anya’s legs and planted her entire mouth squarely on her shuttering cunt, her tongue slipping into the loose folds of pink flesh. Groaning, Anya reached down and took hold of the woman’s head and pressed it firmly into her aching cunt, sighing in deep ecstasy as the other woman’s tongue abused her moistened love tunnel.

A deep fire rose inside Anya, its intensity increasing with each flick of Sarah’s tongue in her pussy. Gritting her teeth, Anya gasped for air as the fire within her threatened to burst loose, yet she refused to let it control herself. She managed a few minutes longer, but soon her whole body was aching and calling for the eruption.

“Oh my! I can’t hold it!” Anya gasped. “Oh, I’m cumming! I’m cumming!”

She let out a high pitch shriek as the boiling love juices deep inside burst loose from her pussy and into Sarah’s waiting mouth. The young woman’s spastic orgasm seemed to last for eternity, coating the Sentential’s face with her hot, sticky honey. Sarah hungrily lapped her juices up with her tongue, savoring the taste.

Gasping for air, Anya leaned forward and pulled Sarah’s head away from her dripping cunt and up toward her mouth. With her tongue, she tasted her own juices on Sarah’s lips, and they once again shared a passionate kiss.
As their tongues danced mindlessly in a state of lustful grace, they’re hands were soon undoing the fasteners of Sarah’s clothing. When she had managed to shed the upper portion of her uniform, Sarah leaped on top of her friend, their bodies pressing firmly into each other’s as their hands hurriedly removed the remaining portions of clothing on the older woman.

When she was as void of clothing as her friend, Sarah wrapped her hands around Anya and they embraced. One of Anya’s hands slipped down to Sarah’s moist cunt and slipped a digit into her slippery pink folds as her other hand reached back and pulled open the top drawer of the desk. When her hand returned, it held a slim plastic piece of rubber tubing. Seeing the older woman’s expression, Anya smiled as Sarah lay flatly on her back and spread her legs to receive the probe. Moving forward, Anya straddled Sarah and lowered her pussy toward her face. She stroked the woman’s cunt with one hand as she maneuvered the rubber tubing toward it with the other. Reaching up, Sarah gripped the sides of Anya’s firm ass and drew the younger woman’s cunt towards her waiting mouth. Both women entered each other in unison, both letting out a whine of pleasure.

Sliding the make shift dildo through Sarah’s love tunnel, Anya caressed the woman’s clitoris, while Sarah did the same for Anya’s with her mouth. Both women had never before shared such passion as they did while they fuck each other’s cunts. With Sarah’s slick honey coating the reddish-brown object, Anya wrapped her lips around it, licking eagerly at the device.

With her cunt aching for release, Sarah nudged Anya off of her and edged away from the Kid from Vault 101, sitting up in front of her. Smiling wickedly, she interlocked her legs with Anya’s and pressed her cunt to the younger woman’s. Breathing through gritted teeth, Sarah started to sway her hips back and forth, grinding her sensitive clit against Anya’s. Trying not to be out done, the younger woman ground herself down fast and hard against her friends’ pussy, causing the older woman to return the favor. The cunt fucking continued, with neither the Lone Wanderer nor the Lyons’ Pride Commander wanting to relax their constant motion.

Anya, feeling a sudden flicker from Sarah, instinctively reached up and grabbed onto the older woman’s legs while Sarah rode her cunt wildly, thrashing with all her strength, until her body seized up in the explosive throes of a long awaited orgasm.

Anya smiled as she felt Sarah’s sweet nectar splashing against her aching cunt and belly. The Lone Wanderer held onto her legs while she recovered, even as she bucked against her slippery cunt, trying to get the same release that Sarah had just experienced. Feeling this, she rolled over onto her stomach and faced the younger woman’s pussy, the sweet aroma of her juices filling her nostrils as she slid her tongue back into Anya’s aching folds.

It didn’t take Sarah too long to send the girl screaming and shouting as she experienced her second orgasm of the evening rippling through her body. Anya’s whole body convulsed and Sarah opened her mouth waiting in anticipation for her hard-earned reward. Anya’s pussy spasm and a hot, sticky jet of sweet nectar poured into her Sarah’s waiting mouth. The older woman drank in the Anya’s juices, savoring every drop until all that followed was a slow, steady stream oozing out of the folds of the young woman’s quivering pussy.

Licking the Lone Wanderer clean, Sarah pulled away and smiled at the naked woman, who motioned to her. Complying, Anya snuggled up next to Sarah, her hands gently rubbing the older woman’s breasts as Sarah’s hand caressed the younger’s cunt.

“I miss her, Sarah. Sometimes I think this is all just a bad dream and I’m going to wake up one day and there she’ll be,” Anya said softly.

Sarah pulled her head closer to her shoulder and softly stroked her hair. “She’ll never be gone entirely, Anya. As long as she is remembered, she’ll life forever.”

“I never took you for the psychiatric philosopher sort.”

“Best not tell that to Rothchild, he’ll probably try to make me transfer from the Pride to the Order of the Scrolls.”

“Nah, you’ll be stabbing all the scribe apprentices around you in a matter of hours with your quill.”

Both women laughed at the remark.

“So shall we go again?” asked Sarah.

A curt smile crept onto Anya’s face as she leaned closer to the older woman’s lips. “Depends on how much time with have before we either fall asleep in each other’s arms or until you have to leave?”

“Oh, I think we have plenty of time before that,” she replied, kissing the younger woman before rising to her feet. Reaching down, she heaved the naked girl to her feet and guided her off towards the bedroom.
*******


Closing the door quietly behind her, Sarah step back into the rain soaked early morning day. With her arms folded across her chest she started to walk away but then stopped suddenly. Glancing up into the rain swept sky for a brief moment, she turned back to gaze at the dwelling she just came from, surprised to feel a sense of longing. She had thought that the feelings she had felt last night was only to help in consoling her grieving friend, but the feelings she had felt hadn’t left her and it was starting to make her wonder if she did in fact have more imminent feelings towards Anya then just being a friend.

It was strange really, she never thought she would have these types of feelings for another woman, but there was something to Anya that was almost messianic. She had first felt it when she watched her step into the irradiated chamber at Project Purity with all intent to sacrifice herself to save everything her parents and so many others had died to accomplish. The second was soon afterwards when she picked up the gravely injured girl from Andrews Air Force Base as the last bastion of the Enclave was destroyed. Since then every time she was around her she felt it, even after they had finished exploring each other when they just laid on the bed together draped in each other’s arms she’d felt it. The feeling was almost like she’d nothing to fear or worry about, that everything was going to be okay. It was as if she was….

Shaking her head at the thought, she turned and started to walk over to the Common House to gather up Paladin Stepien and the others to start the trip back to Citadel. But as she walked the thought returned to her. She couldn’t be having those feelings with Anya. Could she?
*******


“You know I’m not complaining one bit for the lull in business and I do like sleeping under a roof in my own bed, mind you, but I’m just starting to get downright bored!”

“So we don’t you go over to Moriarty’s and see if you can out drink Jericho again,” replied Jessi as she threw a rolled up sock at the Nuka Cola machine and was rewarded with a glass clang sound as a frost covered beverage fall into the receiving tray.

Reaching over, Kelsey retrieved the drink and tossed it over to her friend who had plopped herself up onto the top of a filing cabinet. “That was only a one time occurrence, besides won me five hundred caps that night.”

“Do you remember anything else that happened that night?” asked Anya as she leaned back in the chair behind her desk with a smile.

“Not really, I…why are you two grinning like that?”

“Nothing,” replied Jessi as she took a pull from her soda.

But Kelsey wouldn’t relent. “Oh come on, tell me. What did I do?”

Anya couldn’t keep a straight face as she started to chuckle. “It’s not what you did, it’s who you did.”

“Oh no, I didn’t, did I?” Kelsey exclaimed.

Jessi nodded as she started to giggle. “Why do you think Jericho keeps giving you those looks in passing?”

Letting out a moan, Kelsey collapsed her head into her hands as her two friends started to laugh.

“Look on the bright side, Kelsey,” said Anya. “You could’ve fucked Gob instead”

That was too much for Jessi to take as soda shot from both her mouth and nose as she hunched over laughing uncontrollably.

“I hate you girls,” murmured Kelsey.

It had been two months since their fateful escape from Paradise Falls and most of the wounds, both physically and mentally, had healed for all of them. It was touch and go for awhile with Jessi, who was suffering from blood poisoning from her infected wounds, but she managed to pull through and after four weeks of rest was back to her old self once again. After Sarah’s visit and the night spent in each other’s arms, Anya had finally come to accept the fact that Lucy was gone and she shouldn’t be blaming herself for the events that transpired. She even had reconciled with Moira and the two were back on speaking terms together.

However since that one night together, Anya hadn’t seen Sarah since falling asleep that night and waking up in her bed to find her gone. She was a good friend, probably the closest now with Lucy gone, but she felt that during that night together there was a connection between them that she’ never felt before. She dismissed it out on hand, figuring it was just a onetime occurrence of a friend helping console another over the death of a close, personal friend. But if that was true then why did she feel that she wasn’t whole since that night and that something was missing in her life?

Business had slowed down to a trickle, not because of a lack of offers but because she was now a bit more choosy in which jobs she took. The talk with Sarah had help her get her priorities straight, she still didn’t want to be the Messiah of the Wasteland again but she was more in tune to help those who needed real help and didn’t charge them an arm and a leg as she once use too. On the plus side Three Dog on GNR had finally stopped complaining about her, even going as far as to welcome her back to the ‘Good Fight’; on the down side caps were starting to get a bit more scares and she only ran with Jessi and Kelsey, not that Charon didn’t mind telling her it was good to finally get a break from bailing her ass out of trouble.

Hearing the approaching spurting of jets, Anya wiped a tear from her eye as Wadsworth appeared in the doorway. “I say, what is all the commotion up here? You three are so loud I thought my servo gyros were going to fall off.”

“What’s up, Wadsworth?” asked Anya as she calmed down.

“Ma’am, there is a Ms. Cherry at the door requesting to see you?”

The room went suddenly quiet except for the ignition noise from Wadsworth main propulsion jet. Having been spared being left behind by Lucy before she was killed and with no place to go, Cherry had come to Megaton, taking up residency as well as a job position at Moriarty’s Saloon and Club. Although they resided in the same town, Cherry had made sure to keep her distance from the three of them when she could. Now they were a bit surprised as to why she would come and seek them out?

When an answer didn’t come right away, Wadsworth spun around and started out the room saying, “I’ll tell her you’re busy and can’t be disturbed.”

“No,” Anya suddenly called out, “let her in, Wadsworth.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he said before saying softly. “And I’ll go get the mop and bucket. I hope blood doesn’t stain.”

As the robotic butler disappeared, Kelsey gave Anya a quick glance and asked, “So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” replied Anya as she tried to compose herself.

A few moments later, the redhead woman appeared in the doorway of the office, her hands clasped in front of her. She glanced around to take in that all three of them didn’t have weapons ready in their hands before she nervously stepped into the room. Fidgeting as she stood there, she opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. Anya wasn’t surprised at all to see her nervous, after all having being one of the contributing factors to her friends’ capture and subsequent ordeal at the hand of Eulogy Jones at Paradise Falls, to be standing in front of Anya in her own dwelling where she could anything to her took a lot of guts.

“Um,” she finally managed to say, “I’m not sure if you’re going to believe what I’m about to say and all. But, um, I wouldn’t blame you if just wanted to put a bullet in my head for what I did.”

“You got that right,” muttered Jessi.

The younger woman’s comment was barely audible but Cherry heard it and shifted nervously on her feet. “But I would like to say directly to you that, um, I’m sorry for everything. And I’m extremely sorry for Lucy. I guess…well I’m just sorry.”

With what she came to say finally out, Cherry stood there unmoving. When Anya or the others didn’t say anything, she just lowered her head and nodded softly as she turned back around to leave.

“Cherry,” Anya suddenly said.

Slowly turning back around, she looked meekly at the women behind the desk.

“If you came to me two months earlier to say this I would’ve blown your head clean off your shoulders just you came around the corner.” The redhead nodded her head, but said nothing. Anya took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I can’t forgive you for what you did, but I accept your apology.”

“So you aren’t going kill me for what I did?” she asked softly.

Anya shook her head. “No, I’m not.”

When she said nothing else, Cherry allowed herself a weak smile and nodded her head in acknowledgement before turning and leaving the office.

“Well I guess I didn’t need these after all,” commented Wadsworth from outside the office. “Oh well, so much the better.”

“I’m surprised at you,” said Kelsey as the tension left the office with Cherry’s departure. “After everything she put us through I’m was certain you weren’t going to allow her to walk out of here alive.”

“Killing her won’t bring back Lucy,” replied Anya. “Besides, she wasn’t the one who murdered her.”

That person was Colonel Augustus Autumn, former commanding officer of the Enclave Armed Forces in the Capital Wasteland. From the bits of information from her past dealings and those gathered from the few surviving Enclave personal that had deserted during the war and was living in various settlements across the Capital Wasteland, Anya had learned that he was the son of a high-ranking Enclave scientist who upon receiving orders from the new President, John Henry Eden, telling him and all surviving Enclave troops to relocate to the Raven Rock military base on the opposite end of the country, gathered his troops and their equipment, and led his men through the post-nuclear United States. Upon the Enclave's arrival to the Capital Wasteland, he was the only one privy to the fact that John Henry Eden is actually a ZAX unit that has achieved self awareness. Prior to his death, he passed that knowledge to his son, Augustus, who by that time became the leader of the Enclave's military.

Autumn followed Eden’s orders as a good soldier, although the Colonel indeed had his occasional disagreements. Autumn overtook Project Purity and seemingly died when her father flooded the project's chamber with deadly radiation to keep it from falling into the Enclave’s hands. She thought he had died, but somehow he lived and later captured her in Vault 87 once she managed to retrieve the GECK from its irradiated storage chamber. When she was brought to Raven Rock for interrogation, Autumn tortured her immensely, trying to gain the actual code to Project Purity and even threaten to kill her if she didn’t only to be stopped by President Eden. She later discovered that he and Eden were at odds over what to do with Project Purity; while Eden wanted to use it to spread the FEV, the Forced Evolutionary Virus, into the Purifier to kill all contaminated humans in the region, Autumn was opposed to Eden's delusional visions with his main objective seeming to be to increase the Enclave’s power, as he intended to use the purified water as a means to make the people ‘flock to the Enclave’ rather than killing them.

The tension between President Eden and the colonel finally snapped Autumn’s loyalty, as he disobeyed the President’s orders and usurped command over the human contingent of the Enclave forces and relocated them to the Jefferson Memorial, to make their last stand against a coordinated ground assault by the Brotherhood of Steel. She confronted Autumn just outside the Purifier control room along with Sarah. It was there that she could’ve killed the Enclave commander for killing her father and almost her, but in the end she spared his life allowing him and the remainder of his loyal forces to withdraw. That was the last time she saw of him until she caught a glimpse of him at Paradise Falls lowering a rifle that she suspected had been used to kill Lucy. Why did he want her or to kill her, she didn’t know, but want she did know was the next time their paths crossed again she wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice by letting him live.

Jessi looked at her friend and asked, “You think we’ll ever run into him again?”

“I don’t know, but I hope we do. I got a score to settle with him.”

“Excuse me again, Ma’am,” Wadsworth apologized as he hovered in front of the office doorway again. “But there are two gentlemen here to see you.”

Before she could ask who, two men in dull gray power armor pushed past Wadsworth and into the office. Anya found herself rising to her feet, grabbing the lead man’s offered hand with her own before embracing him.

“Hoss, damn it’s been a long time,” Anya said as she broke the embrace. “And Pek, damn they finally promoted you to Knight? Don’t tell me you’re still having trouble with repairing your own equipment?”

The Paladin let out a laugh at hearing the remark. “No, he took his repair lessons seriously after the events at Falls Church so long ago.”

“Yeah, thanks for reminding him,” gripped Pek.

“So what brings you two to our neck of the wastelands? Don’t tell me they still got you on water guard duty, Hoss?”

“Fortunately they finally pulled me off that assignment a few months ago. We got enough newer Squires and Knights to give us Paladins a break. The reason we’re here is that Elder Lyons is requesting an audience with you at the Citadel as soon as possible.”

Snorting, Anya lowered herself back into her chair and cupped her hands behind her head. “After what I said to him the last time I was there I surprised he would want to talk to me. You know what it’s about?”

Hoss shook his head as he said, “Don’t have a clue. All I know he wants to see you soon enough that he dispatched me and Pek on a Vertibird to come and get you.”

Now that was strange indeed. Vertibirds were the most prized of all the acquisitions the Brotherhood had acquired from the spoils of war against the Enclave. To dispatch one to pick up a citizen in the wastelands was very intriguing.

Glancing over to Jessi and Kelsey, she grinned as she asked, “So you girls up for your first flight?”

Jessi shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, why not, beats hanging around here.”

“As long as I can get away from Jericho the sooner the better,” added Kelsey.

“What about you, Dogmeat?”

Her canine friend let out a bark and quickly jumped up to lick her face.

“Okay, looks like its settle then. Give us five to get our gear and we’ll meet you guys outside.”
********


One of the two Knights that stood on either side of the archway opened the door for Anya as she walked past them and into the very same room where two months ago she had pleaded for help with Elder Lyons to help rescue her friends from captivity at Paradise Falls. Her cries had gone unheard and if it wasn’t for Sarah’s intervention she would’ve left the Citadel to storm the slavers’ complex by herself if need be. Inside there were three others besides herself, her friends having to wait in an adjacent room; Elder Lyons who had his back to her and staring at the wall to the far side of the meeting room, Senior Scribe Rothchild seated at his normal spot, and Scribe Rebecca Yearling of the Order of Scrolls who was rummaging through a mound of books and files that she had brought with her.

Anya had first met Scribe Yearling when she went to the Arlington Public Library as part of her research for Moira’s Wasteland Survival Guide. Just like anywhere else she went that was occupied by members of the Brotherhood of Steel, she was interrogated as to her purposes for being there by Yearling and had to explain why she was there. Of course that was the first time she’d run into a scribe from the Brotherhood during her wanderings and was extremely interested in knowing what they actually did for the Brotherhood. Yearling had rebuked of course, only telling her that she was there for field research as per her superiors’ orders although she didn’t know why since she was more of a scholar than a fighter. It wasn’t until much later that she learned from Scribe Bigsley that she was assigned to the Arlington Library because she clashed with her superiors, most likely Scribe Jameson or Elder Lyons.

As the Knight closed the door behind her, she stood unmoving, folding her arms across her chest and waited for Lyons to speak. When he didn’t, Anya found herself breaking the silence in the room. “I’m here, Lyons, now what’s so damn important that you needed to speak to me about?”

Elder Lyons’ slowly turned around to face her and Anya was shocked at the bags that hung underneath his eyes, his iris bloodshot from the lack of sleep. When he spoke, his voice was crack and horse, not its usual booming and commanding she knew it to be.

“I’ve asked to speak to you here because I have no one else to turn to. Do you recall that conversation we had a few months ago?”

Anya snorted as she looked away from him. “How could I forget? You flatly refused my request for help after everything I’ve done for the Brotherhood.”

“But with good reason, Anya. You were right to accuse me of hiding information from you. You remember that android that you brought to us?”

Where was this going, Anya wondered. “Yeah, I do. What about it?”

Rothchild answered, “After a great amount of studying and researching we were able to finally get the android operational. Although most of it cognitive functions were damaged or corrupted, we were able to learn much from it including the sophisticated computer data used to program it. However I’m afraid it’ll no longer act seamlessly human as it once did, but with everything we’ve learned so far has greatly impressed the High Elder and the ruling council at Lost Hills.”

“So you got the walking fleshy tin can to move, big deal. What does this have to do with me?”

Lyons let out a sigh as he lowered himself into a chair. “Approximately eight months ago upon a month of the android’s reactivation and our reports back to the High Council, we received orders to search out and locate this Commonwealth and Institute. Thanks to Scribe Yearling’s research at the Arlington Library, we were able to confine our searches to selected areas within the states of Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. These states boosted high technical and scientific schools of study prior to the Great War. Drawing up a potential target list from pre-war records, we began sending out Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrols to these locations to map out and search for the existence of the Institute.”

“I thought you didn’t take orders from the West Coast?” asked Anya.

“The technology fields of robotics, science, and mathematics is the most advanced we’ve seen before anywhere across this land,” explained Rothchild. “We agree with the High Council that we can’t allow it to fall into the hands of the Enclave. That is why we must find it first and secure it.”

“Whoa, hold on. How do you know the Enclave is looking for this Commonwealth?”

“We don’t,” replied Lyons, “but we must assume they are.”

Anya couldn’t hold back a chuckle as she shook her head. “Excuse me for saying this candidly, but that is a very big assumption on your part.”

Rothchild leaned back and folded his arms. “So please explain to us why you think so?”

“Because they have no knowledge of its existence, that’s way. The scientist from the Institute was Mirelurk bait and you already had your hands on his android even before the Enclave came out from underneath that rock they were hiding under.”

“So why does Colonel Autumn want you then?” inquired Lyons. “Don’t look so surprised, we know that he is behind that contract to capture you and you are the only one with knowledge of the Commonwealth and Institute besides us. They would be foolish to try and assault the Citadel to retrieve that information, but for you well place a high enough price and every mercenary and slaver in the Capital Wasteland will come calling. No need to send in any strike force or commando group for you to raise our suspicions.”

“I don’t know its location. If I did the Brotherhood would already be there.”

Lyons nodded his head in agreement. “Yes, but the Enclave doesn’t know that.”

“But you said you’ve been searching for it for nearly a year now. Have you found anything?” Anya asked as she took a seat by the table, intrigued by this conversation.

“Unfortunately most of the LRRPs came back with negative results except for one. We managed to get a bit of data form a mainframe computer which memory had been purposely erased at the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology in Philadelphia.”

“Which you suspect was the work of Enclave?”

“No,” Rothchild answered. “Whatever was used to erase the mainframe was far more sophisticated than what we’ve seen in the Enclave’s technology that we captured.”

Anya nodded at seeing the pattern developing. “So you’re suspecting that the Institute is raiding other technology school campus for information or data and then erasing all records once they have it?”

“Preciously. From the little bit of information we retrieved we were able to suspect that the Institute was seeking information about the whereabouts of the New York Technical Institute of Technology.”

When Rothchild failed to continue, Anya asked, “Which means what?”

It was Yearling this time who answered her question. “During the two decades leading up to the Great War of 2077, the New York Technical Institute of Technology grew to prominence as one of the leading research centers in particle and meson collider acceleration, dark matter generation, and plasma distribution systems. Their research was to be used exclusively with future space exploration endeavors that were to commence once funding was again available after the conclusion of the Resource Wars.”

Slowly nodding her head, Anya gave Yearling a blank stare. “Okay you lost me when you started to name scientific acronyms that I’ve never heard of.”

“Neither has anyone else in the last two hundred years,” replied Rothchild. “This technology we suspect was the most advance at its time. I hypothesis that everything was still undergoing research and testing when the bombs fell. That is why we haven’t seen any of this technology before.”

“So where is it? That is if it survived the fallout.”

“We suspected that it resides somewhere in the ruins of New York City,” Lyons said. “Sarah and the best of the Lyons’ Pride were dispatched to establish a foothold in the ruins and begin a systematic search of the city for this technology center. We received daily reports and updates on the progress of the search until last week. Since then we’ve heard nothing.”

Anya felt her chest tightening upon hearing Lyons’ words. “What do you mean you haven’t heard anything form Sarah in a week?”

“At first we thought it was just a down transmitter so we dispatched a Vertibird with a repair crew. The last check in we received from them was when they were fifteen miles from the city then nothing.”

This is starting to sound a lot worse than a down transmitter, thought Anya. “And I take it you want me to go in and find out what has happened to the Pride?” And Sarah she unconsciously added.

Lyons nodded. “If there is anyone who has a chance to succeed it would be you.”

“So just go in, find them, and call in for extraction?”

“Correct.”

“Who’s going with me?”

“Paladins Stepien and Hoss have volunteered to go with you as well as Scribe Yearling who will be documenting everything about the surrounding outskirts and the ruins of the city themselves as you travel. You may also bring whoever else you want, but I’m afraid that is all the Brotherhood can spare.”

All Anya could do was nod her head, wishing she could’ve gotten more from Lyons but Stepien and Hoss she’d fought beside before and knew them to be reliable and dependable when the chips were down. However she wasn’t to kin on Yearling going, what she needed was another shooter, not a historian to watch over.

She looked over at Lyons and said, “I'll go, but not because you ask me to, Lyons, but for Sarah's sake."

The Elder looked visibly relieved when she agreed. "I know we've had hard feelings towards one another this past year, Anya, but I thank you for you nonetheless."

"What do we know about New York City?” Anya asked.

Rothchild shrugged his shoulders. “Only what was reported before we lost all communications with Sarah’s unit. Even then it was sketchy at best, this is the first time a chapter of the Brotherhood has pushed that far north.”

It was then that Anya remembered that Kelsey and Jessi once came from that far north. “Would you please excuse me for a minute?” She returned a few minutes later with Jessi, Kelsey, and Dogmeat and after a quick exchange to bring them up to date on the discussion she asked, “Do you know anything about the ruins of New York?”

Jessi shrugged her shoulders. “Got me, never been there. She found me further down southwest of there.”

“Kelsey?”

The blonde mercenary frowned as she shuffled nervously on her feet which was a first that Anya had seen her do. Between her and Jessi, she’d figured Kelsey to be the more solid and unnerving of the two. To see her fidgeting nervously about the mere mention of the city actually started to have Anya worrying more for Sarah than she had been before.

Finally Kelsey answered in a slow, steady, almost warning tone of voice. “When I was coming south through the river valley, I came across a settlement of not more than a hundred people. They were kind enough to allow me to spend the night and give me some food for some items that I’ve found along the way. When they ask me where I was going I told them I was just following the river southward. They told me not, under any circumstances, to go into the ruins of the large city to the south, telling me to bypass entirely from the western bank of the river.

At first I wasn’t going to pay any attention to them. A large city was full of supplies and maybe even permanent settlements, maybe not in the ruins themselves but possibly on the outskirts. As I drew closer I could see the outline of the ruins on the horizon and was amazed that it stretched as far as the eye could see but I as lay eyes upon it I just got this feeling, a feeling of cold dread. As I got closer to the city itself, I didn’t run into a single settlement, just remnants of them and that feeling of dread were growing so much that I decided to follow the settlers’ advice and stuck to the western bank.”

“So you never step foot into the ruins?” asked Rothchild.

“There is something about those ruins that cried out to anyone not to go there. The feeling you got when you see them is as if the Grim Reaper itself was staring straight back at you peering into your soul.”

Yearling leaned forward in her chair. “Did any settlers tell you anything about the city?”

Kelsey nodded her head as she looked at Anya. “Yeah, they said that place had nothing to offer the living but death.”