Hey guys, this is my first fan fiction so criticize harshly. (I apologise for the use of swearing, but I thought it added effect.)

Chapter One

New Vegas was burning. Thick smoke rose from behind the city walls.

"What the actual [censored]?" The Courier couldn't even think properly.

Boone and the Courier circled around the city. Westside was deserted, a ghost town. They slipped through the streets, looking for someone, anyone, a single person who could explain what was happening.

The Courier pushed open an unlocked door with the barrel of her pistol, and jumped when she noticed a hulking shape in the corner, facing the wall.

"Thresh, is that you?" she asked. "What the [censored] happened here?"

"Mm," he said. "O-boss."

"O... boss?" she repeated, perplexed.

He shook his head. "W-wh-wo-boss," he explained.

The Courier blinked at him. "Right," she said. "Okay. Thanks."

She was almost out the door again, but turned back. "Get somewhere safe," she said to the super mutant.

They circled around the city, giving the walls a wide berth. The neon Freeside light was off, even though the light was already fading from the sky.. And the bright neon arrow that pointed to the gate was gone completely. She could feel her muscles tensing. This was wrong.

They approached the entrance to the North Vegas Square. They'd have to get in somehow. They walked cautiously down the old road, empty brick buildings on either side.

They were almost at the gate when the shelling started.

The first missile hit the ground less than ten feet away, almost before she realised they were being fired on, pelting them with tiny hot shards of metal and chunks of concrete.

"Move!" yelled Boone, but she was running already, back to the abandoned buildings for cover. Missile blasts buffeted her as she ran, deafening her. There was no pattern or rhythm to the assault, just a constant, heavy barrage. It seemed to come from all angles.

She nearly fell as her foot skidded on loose rubble, but managed to catch herself against the wall and rounded the corner.

She looked around. Boone. Where was Boone? Panic flooded her as she looked around wildly, twisting to see if he'd been hit or fallen or-
A stone hit her shoe. She stared at it. The next stone bounced off her arm.

She looked up to see Boone at the corner of the building opposite the one she was sheltering behind. He held up a hand. She waved back. He pointed at her, stood up, and stepped out of cover cautiously.

Nothing happened.

He walked across the open ground and crouched next to where she was sitting.

"Out of range?" she asked.

"Maybe," he said. "Could just be they wanted to scare us off."

"Who the [censored] is it?"

He shrugged. "Boomers? Seems familiar."

It did. Fond memories of sprinting in between ruined buildings, leaping over the corpses of those that hadn't made it.

"If Pearl has [censored] me over I'm going to make her eat that entire bomber," she said.

"Still kind of surprised we didn't get hit," said Boone, looking back at the cratered highway.

"Luck," she said absently, then turned to look back at the road. He was right. They hadn't been hit. At all.

He narrowed his eyes. "Seemed to me that the Boomers aren't the 'friendly warning' type," he said. "Could be wrong though."

She chewed on her thumbnail. "Who does that leave?"

"Who can you think of who wants the city but doesn't want to kill you for it?"

She laughed. "You mean Benny? Benny would kill me for it. First person I eliminated."

"Who else?" he asked. He tilted his head towards the east. "Come on."

They broke cover tentatively, tense and poised to retreat. Nothing happened.

"Doesn't really seem like NCR tactics," she said. "Brotherhood?" She paused. "Could be."

"Not enough explosive collars," muttered Boone.

She grinned, delighted. "Pity," she said. "I was getting kind of used to them, too. Kind of comforting, you know, knowing that someone's got their finger on the button just for you."

He laughed quietly. "I think they know we're out here," he said. "Is there another way in? Sewers?"

She shook her head. "No, they're sealed weirdly. Because of the Fiends. There are entrances all through the ruins down the I-15, they were blocked off ages ago to stop them popping up in the middle of the Strip all at once."

He sighed. "Always gotta do things the hard way with you," he said, but his smile made it into a joke.

"Let's get into the city through the north gate," he said. "That old highway overheard should provide some cover from missile attacks."

They skirted around the buildings, and crouched in the dust behind an overturned car skeleton, some distance away from the north gate to Freeside.

"Got any stealthboys?" Boone asked.

She handed him three. "I don't know why I always carry around so many. They're so heavy."

He took one, smiled at her, and activated the stealth field. "See you inside," he said.

She activated her own stealth field and set off towards the gate. The short stretch from the car to the gate seemed immense. The Courier expected a hail of missiles to come down on them at any moment.

Opening the gate was tough work while trying to stay hidden – the gates were large and metal and heavy. Boone grasped one, crouched, and swung it open, using it as cover for anything that might be inside.

The Courier's first glimpse into her city nearly broke her heart. So many of the buildings she'd spent so long on restoring were destroyed, charcoal husks that smoked gently in the evening air. There was what was possibly a body lying just outside the entrance to the Old Mormon Fort.

She saw Boone's flickering form back away from the entrance hurriedly. A moment later, a securitron rolled out of the gate. There was something odd about it, but she couldn't figure out what.

She approached the gate as quickly as she could without attracting attention, grateful for the growing cover of darkness.

She slipped behind the securitron and through the gate, narrowly avoiding walking straight into another securitron that was following the first out the gate.

She headed up the street towards the Fort. The noise of tyre treads on the rough concrete seemed to be getting further away, and a glance over her shoulder showed her that both securitrons were outside the city walls.

Right. This was probably as good a chance as they'd get. She tugged on the huge wooden double doors, but they wouldn't budge.
Boone was a flicker next to her, pulling on the door alongside her. "Damn it," he breathed. "Locked."

She risked a glance over her shoulder. The securitrons had completed their examination of the area outside the gate and were returning to their posts just inside the doors.

"It's good though, right?" she whispered. "Locked means someone had to lock themselves in there."

"It means that someone locked themselves in there at some point," he said. "Don't forget, they've got missiles. Is it still all tents in there?"

She frowned, trying to remember the last time she'd read a report on the Followers' funding. "I think I built them a proper building to house the auto-docs," she said.
"That's good," he said. "You might want to get behind the sign just there."

"Wha-?"

She was cut off as he pounded on the heavy wooden doors. "Anyone in there?" he called.

"Oh what the [censored]?" She backed away from the gates, drawing what now seemed to be a woefully inadequate pistol.

The securitrons were rolling towards them, perplexed, raising their missile arrays for an attack. She squeezed off all the bullets in her pistol, aiming for the wheels. One of the shots was lucky and blew out the tyres. One securitron toppled to the ground, briefly delaying the second.

She could hear noises behind the door, wood scraping against wood as they tried to unbar the gate. She pressed herself flat against the wall, hoping the stealthboy field would be harder to see if she didn't move.

She jumped as a volley of laser fire seared the wall next to her head. That hadn't even come from the securitron she was watching. She turned to see a group of the machines converging at the end of the street. She raised her pistol, but didn't fire. She lowered it again. She couldn't possibly take on all of them.

The gate to the fort scraqed open, barely enough for a person to fit through.

Boone grabbed her wrist, still holding the pistol, and yanked her inside.

The door slammed closed behind them.

First, please change the font back to the default one. It's really hard to read on these boards as it is.
Second, please add lines between the various dialogues and narratives. Right now it's a wall of text.

Third, I LOVE IT! Excellent story premise, you created a lot of tension and mystery. Now I want to know what the heck is happening to New Vegas?

Fourth: Welcome to the forums!

I've edited it. It looks bigger yeah, but if it's easier to read.... and thank you!!!

I'm typing up the second chapter as we speak and try to have it up tomorrow.

Something to keep in mind: Its Tires, not tyres. Other than that, its pretty good . Keep up the good work!

Love what's happening, and welcome to the forums. This is pretty good, but it could take a little bit of touching up. I was very confused as to what was happening in Westside, I got a little confused there, but overall nice

Basically New Vegas and it's surrounding area are deserted because of the attackers, but thanks for your concern and I'll keep it in mind for the future.

Chapter Two

The Courier slid down to the ground against the gate, breathing heavily. She braced herself, expecting a missile attack over the walls or just straight through the doors, but none came.

"I was wondering when you'd show up."

She raised her head to see Arcade looking down at her, arms folded. There were ten or twenty people gathered in the courtyard behind him, watching.

"In retrospect," he continued. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you chose to make a dramatic entrance, but I must say, you left it a little later than I would really have thought polite."

She looked down at herself, the stealth field flickering as it died. She shook her head. "How long has this been going on?" she asked.

He tilted his head to the side. "You haven't been in New Vegas?"

"No." She shook her head. "Now what the [censored] is happening?" She climbed to her feet.

He sighed and let his arms drop to his sides. "We don't know," he said. "We've been trapped in here for over a week." He sighed. "On that note, you don't happen to have any food with you by any chance, do you? We're running extremely low."

She shrugged off her pack and crouched to search through it. "Oh yeah." She pulled out a stack on snack cakes. "It's mostly pre-war stuff I can't stand the sight of any more." She took out a handful of crushed boxes of Dandy Boy apples and dropped them next to the cakes, and then several cans of pork and beans.

"That'll... help, actually," said Arcade, eyeing the growing pile.

"Do you need stimpaks?" asked the Courier, going through her bag.

"No, actually," he said. "The auto-docs are sufficient for anything that comes up." He hesitated. "To be honest, none of us have been very badly hurt since all this started."

She turned to look up at him slowly, eyes narrowed.

"They've been," he continued. "Very insistent on us not leaving... But they don't seem to want to hurt us. You'll notice they stopped firing once you were inside. They're probably not too happy that you're in here, but..." he sighed. "But not unhappy enough to come in after you."

"Are they-" she began. "Are they worried about hurting the people in here? Collateral damage?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Could be. Like I said, we don't know who it is or what they want. When the shooting started, last... Monday? Last week, anyway, there was initially a large influx of people coming in here. And then silence. No one's made it in until you."

"So you've had no communication with anyone else?" she asked, horrified. She felt almost sick. "No contact at all? Nothing?"

He shook his head. "I'm guessing – hoping, really – that others will be holed up in pockets like us." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes wearily. "But I just don't know."

She looked up at the clouds as they passed overhead, purple in the twilight.

"Alright," she said, finally. "I want someone to get to the Dam and tell them to cut off power to the city, and radio to the El Dorado substation to do the same. There's a reactor under the 38, but hopefully the sudden power loss will give us a couple of hours to-"

"Stop," said Arcade. He held out a hand. "Just- stop. Why are you telling me this? We can't leave. If you want to head out again, fine, but we're not capable of running errands for you."

She blinked at him. "Right," she said. "Yeah."

Boone put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him, frowning.

"What we need," he said, more to Arcade than her, "is something to take them out with. Pulse grenades are probably a good place to start, but they're not going to get us far."

Arcade looked from Boone, to the Courier, and then back to Boone. He sighed. "If you bring me, say, five or ten pulse grenades, or pulse mines, and some copper wiring then I could maybe make something approaching an EMP bomb. Depending on how well-organised whoever's behind all this is, it might give you an hour or a day."

"Thanks," said the Courier warily.

He made an impatient gesture with his hand. "It's fine. The sooner we get out of this, the better."

The Courier watched him as he walked back into the clinic office. She looked sideways at Boone. "Silver Rush?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Lets give it a few hours though, let the security cool down a little."

"Good idea," she said. "I could do with a [censored] rest anyway. I'll set my alarm for 4am."

Boone nodded.

The early morning air was cold against her face. The Courier cracked open the gate and looked down the street. Deserted, except for the two securitrons posted by the gates, but the light was low enough that they probably couldn't detect her. She activated the stealthboy on her wrist, then slipped out the narrow gap, waving at Boone to follow her.

"Why can't we just shoot them?" he grumbled.

The Courier's first instinctive answer to that was because they're mine, but she didn't say it.

"Depending on who's running the network at the moment," she said, as they hugged the wall, heading further into Freeside. "They might be able to see when one gets destroyed. I don't want to attract more attention than we have to."

As she rounded the corner, a burst of movement right beside her made her leap backwards, bumping into Boone and nearly toppling both of them.

"Rat," Boone said quietly, reassuringly. "Just a rat."

She watched it as it ran away down the empty street, and tried to slow her heart rate down by taking long slow breaths. New Vegas didn't look like her city anymore. It was unfamiliar, almost alien. The comforting neon glow was gone, and the streets, normally humming even this late at night, were deserted and silent. It was as dark as the wasteland, and even more deserted.

She crossed the road bent low, close to the ground, and flattened herself against the boarded up building opposite.

There were no patrols. That was the strangest thing. She'd been expecting someone to start shooting nearly the second she'd left the gate. But there was nothing. No sound of tire treads on the rough concrete, no footsteps or yelling. It was a ghost town.

The blue carriage double doors opened with a shriek of metal. She tensed. Surely they'd weren't that loud normally. They stumbled through the dark carriage and ran, only stopping briefly to check for securitrons before ducking under the shelter of the crumbling doorway next to the Atomic Wrangler.

The Silver Rush sign had fallen, the neon tubes lying shattered on the street below. They crept around the broken glass carefully, and tried the door. It was unlocked.

The shop interior was an inky black she could almost feel. The Courier paused for a second, listening. Nothing. She turned on her pip-boy light. The shop was in disarray, abandoned in a hurry. The protective wire cage around the shop floor had been pulled off in places. Laser rifles were lying discarded on the ground, grenades had rolled carelessly into corners.

She walked tentatively down to the front counter. Most of the pulse grenades had been taken, but the pulse mines had been passed over. After checking to make sure they really hadn't been armed, she picked them up to put them in her bag.

"Please tell me you're not a hallucination, angel."

Her hand flew to her gun, and she looked around wildly.

"Over here." A weary laugh.

She held up her arm to spread the light, and finally saw him, slumped against the wall next by the slot machines, one hand held up to block the light from his eyes.

"Benny!" she exclaimed. The bag slipped to the floor as she abandoned it, and she dropped to her knees beside him.

"Holy [censored], what the [censored] is go-" she stopped. His suit jacket was pocked with scorch marks. "Are you – are you hurt?"

He waved a hand. "I've had worse sunburns," He said dismissively, but his voice was strained.

She caught his hand and gently pulled it away from his face. An angry pink scar, burnt into smooth scar tissue, ran almost from his eye to his ear.

"[censored]," she breathed. "Benny..."

"That good, huh?" he tried to smile. "Think it'll scar?"

She pressed a hand to her mouth and shook her head. "We can-" she swallowed thickly. "We can get that taken care of. Auto-docs-"

"Baby," he said, lifting a hand towards her face. He let it drop without touching her. "Don't tell me you're getting sentimental over the Ben-Man."

"Do you need m-med-x? I've got..."

"[censored] yes," he said. "If you could just mix that up in a glass with vermouth and a couple olives, you'd make me a very happy man."

She gave him a shaky smile and slid the needle of the syringe into a vein in his wrist. The tension seemed to drain out of him.

"Yeah," he said indistinctly. "That's better. Thanks."

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Same thing as you, I'd say. Pulse grenades? Plus, you'll have noticed the steps on the way in. The securitron's one natural enemy."

She couldn't stop a smile. "How long have you been here?"

"Not long. A day, maybe. I only just managed to get out of the [censored] presidential suite. [censored] had me on lockdown for a week. It's not the worst place to be stuck, but Jesus Christ it gets boring. I decided to make a break for it and was... well. Moderately successful."

"Who kept you in lockdown?" she asked. "Who the [censored] is behind all this? I have no [censored] idea what's going on."

"It's a little embarrassing, really," he said, leaning his head back against the wall behind him. "Do you recall a certain securitron I had reprogrammed?"

She narrowed her eyes. "The smiley face one? I always thought he was a little creepy."

"Well, good instinct. He reprogrammed himself and decided we weren't running the city right... so decided to make an executive decision and replace us." He rolled his eyes. "He was fairly polite about it, though."

"He's had a [censored] long time to get used to the network," said the Courier ruefully. "He'll be able to see everything that goes on." She sighed. "Did you have a plan?"

Benny laughed. "[censored] no. I have no [censored] idea how we're going to get the city back. Maybe we should just all move to [censored] New Reno."

"[censored]," she said. "If I give you some stims, can you walk? We've got to get back to the Followers, Arcade's going to build us a bomb."

"Yeah," he said. "Alright. Maybe that broad who helped me program that damn securitron could figure out some way to get around his security." He stood up slowly, leaning against the wall for support.

The Courier turned back to the door. Boone was watching her strangely. "Come on," she said. "Let's get back to the Fort."

This is great for your first fan fiction. Although earlier I thought you said that Benny had been killed? Other than that I love it.

I love that line! Made me LOL

Hmm, so wait, in your Fallout Universe, Benny is actually someone you can work with? That's pretty cool. I tried that speech check once, but he still double crossed me! LOL
Oh and yea, towards the end, when the Courier is talking to Benny, I thought YES MAN is going crazy! Well that explains a lot then! Hope Arcade is going to be able to build that bomb, well I hope they will be able to reach him...

Great new chapter!

Chapter Three

She dumped the bag of pulse weaponry at Arcade's feet.

He frowned. "Careful."

"They're not armed." She shrugged.

He looked like he was going to say something, but let it go. "How about that copper wire?"

"[censored]." She ran her hands over her face. "[censored]. I completely forgot about it." She sighed. "Look, I gotta go check on Benny, I'll get back to you on that."

She left, scowling. She'd been so distracted by Benny that she'd completely missed one of the two [censored] things he'd asked her to find. She rubbed her eyes. She should never have left. Never.

She took a seat inside the clinic building, in the room full of auto-docs, her foot tapping gently on the ground. After what seemed like forever, she heard the quiet click and hiss of air escaping that signalled that an operation was complete. She stood up, impatiently.

"So. Baby," Benny said, smiling at her weakly. "Give it to me straight – how do I look?"

She grinned. "Normal," she said. "Great. Perfect. Fine."

"I am," he said "Delighted to hear it. And now that I can actually think again, how did the resort lifestyle treat you? You look great, by the way. Have you lost weight?"

She laughed. "No. It was terrible. You were right. Poison air and monsters that didn't stay dead and a billion [censored] snack cakes. I'll tell you more about it once we sort this [censored] out though. What's going on?"

"Ah, hell," he said. "I still haven't figured out why the hell this all went down."

She frowned. "So he just went crazy on you?"

"Well," he said. "First things first. We need to take him out, not worry about the whys or the hows. Let's go find that doctor, see if she can help de-program him."

He set off and she found herself hurrying to keep up.

Emily Ortal clearly wasn't impressed that Benny was asking for her help again.

"The only reason I am even considering doing this for you," she said, scowling. "Is that we are all in the [censored] if nothing gets done. I still think you're a [censored]."

"And you are perfectly entitled to hold an opinion like that, honey," he replied, lighting a cigarette. "That's freedom for you. That's what we're fighting for today."

Emily rolled her eyes. The Courier took over.

"Yes Man has control over the cities' securitrons, access to, uh, monitoring data of some sort? I never really asked him for more information when he'd talk about projections and modelling and stuff."

"He's got a finger in every pie," said Benny grimly. "I'm not sure that the whole city won't come down along with him."

Emily tapped her pen against her teeth. "Okay," she said. "So you need essential systems to be maintained but not be controllable by him."

"That's about the size of it," said the Courier. "Doable or not doable?"

"Well, I think what I could do," she said, thoughtfully, "is write a program – a virus, if you want to call it that – that would keep base functions online but continuously reset his control over all of them so he doesn't get a chance to mobilise the securitrons or any other measures. I don't think I can be any more specific than that without knowing more details of your setup. I am working without much information on how House's system was set up, here." She shot a venomous glance at Benny.

"Would we be able to talk to him?" asked the Courier.

"Yeah, I think so. I don't know if I could code something that would take him down permanently without seeing how the whole network is set up properly."

"Okay," she said. "Do it. How do we get this thing into him?"

"You still have that chip, baby?" Benny asked. "That'd be ideal. Even has a slot right on the dashboard."

She laughed self-consciously. "Yeah. I keep it as kind of a good luck charm now." She handed it to Emily.

"Thanks," she said. "Come back in a few hours, see where I'm up to."

Benny and the Courier walked out of the computer labs.

"You got a bad habit of screwing people over, Benny," the Courier said, looking sideways at him.

He grinned lazily. "You mean I got a bad habit of not tying up my loose ends," he said. He lit a cigarette.

"I mean you leave a trail of severely pissed off people wherever you go."

"Would you rather I left a trail of bodies?" He raised an eyebrow sorrowfully. "That's cold."

"[censored]," she said. "I know I'd rather have been held up at gunpoint than shot for that damn chip."

"Honey, baby," he said. "You put up a hell of a fight. Almost disembowelled one of them with a knife you pulled out of nowhere. You weren't giving that package up."

She froze. "What?"

"Oh, yeah," he said. "You're a little scrapper. You don't think I'd kill someone if I didn't have to, do you?"

She looked up at him in disbelief. "Yeah, I do. This is [censored]."

He shrugged. "You can ask the Khans that were with me."

She narrowed her eyes. "I told them to take a hike back before things at the Dam got serious."

"Oh, yeah. So you did." He smiled. "Well, you can believe me or not. Don't matter to me."

She was silent for a moment. "I can knife fight?"

"Well, you're no expert, dollface. But you're pretty damn fast.

"Yeah," she said, uneasily. "Okay. Talk to you later."

She left, hurriedly. It seemed like he was intentionally trying to keep her off-balance. God-[censored]-damn it. She needed a break already, and she'd only just gotten back. She wanted a drink, and then thinking about that made her wish desperately that Cass was still safe in New Reno. The Followers didn't seem to have much in the way of alcohol – she squashed the stray thought that whispered about what else they might have. Still, she had more problems to solve. She headed back to the laboratory where Arcade had been working.

"I don't even know where to look for copper wire," she said.

"Well," said Arcade. "Old buildings. Telephone wires. You could probably get a decent amount out of a few radios or a securitron, but easiest would be buildings."

She frowned, uneasy about going back outside. But she knew it probably couldn't be too hard - she'd seen hundreds of abandoned buildings in freeside, darkened windows and cables hanging from the roof. She reached over her shoulder to touch the holorifle on her back, heavy and comforting. Hopefully she wouldn't have to use it. She was running pretty [censored] low on stealthboys, but hopefully she wouldn't even need them for much longer.

"Okay," she said, finally. "I'll be back soon."

The sun was still high in the sky when she left the compound, stealth field shimmering gently. She pressed herself against the stone wall as a securitron patrol wheeled past, bumping gently over the rough concrete road. They were a lot more active in the daytime. The distance to the abandoned building just across the road seemed impossibly large. She took a deep breath, clenched her fists, and stepped out into the street. She moved smoothly, as fast as she could to get across, and leaped through the empty window just as another patrol was coming around the corner.

Long-dead wires hung from the ceiling, and she pulled her knife out to cut each one open to see what it was. She selected a thick copper cable coated in black plastic, and pulled on it gently. It didn't take much to loosen its hold from the ceiling and down through the wall, spraying bits of plaster as it came out. She pulled until it disappeared into the floor and wouldn't move any more, and then cut it and looped it around her arm.

She looked down. Stealth field still active. Good. She checked both ways, quickly, before climbing out of the window and almost running across the road, stealthboy flickering as it died.

She handed the loops of thick wire to Arcade proudly.

"Great," he said. "Give me a hand with wrapping this."

Arcade handed her a grey metal box, and began wrapping the wire tightly around it, covering it in thick rows of copper.

"Well," said Arcade. "This is it." He took it from her and lowered the bomb to the table gently. He placed a detonator beside it.

She looked up at him. "It'll take him out?"

"For a little while, at least." He took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You'd better be prepared for when he does come back online. And if you want to keep your pip-boy working, you'd better stay way out of range." He sighed. "Good luck," he said. The Courier thought she detected an undertone of hopelessness in his voice.

It was almost midnight when Benny left, the bomb in hand and with another of her stealthboys. Benny had said he'd go alone, which made sense because of how much she relied on her damn pip-boy, but it didn't quite sit right with her. She couldn't stop worrying about how bright the moon was, or if Benny was going the right way, or if the securitrons had been watching them all along and were waiting for this moment to attack. But Benny was... well, resourceful. She was sure he could handle it. She just had to stop thinking about it. Distract herself somehow.

Boone was in the older part of the fort when the Courier found him. The kid she'd recommended leave the Khans and join the Followers was standing in front of him, reading aloud from a book she could see was full of messy scribbled writing.

"Think I could have a minute?" she asked. Jerry nodded, shut the book, and left.

She grinned at Boone. "He's kind of a strange kid," she said. "Very earnest. How you holding up?"

Boone looked away. "Alright."

She leaned against the wall next to him. "Not quite the welcome I was expecting."

"Yeah."

She paused, and leaned a little closer. "Are you – is everything okay?"

He stared at the ground between his feet, then looked up at her "Anything ever happen between you and Benny?" His voice was almost a growl in the silence.

She laughed, confused. "Benny? Of course n-" She broke off, too late realising how wrong she was. She bit her lip.

Boone took his sunglasses off, and for the first time since she'd first asked him how he knew his wife was dead she felt the full force of his glare.

"No!" she said, taking an involuntary step back. "I mean, it was before that. Before anything... happened with us."

The anger on his face faded to confusion. "What?" he asked, voice clipped and tightly under control. "When?"

"Before the Dam," she began shakily. "Before... anything. Before we killed Caesar-"

"When the hell did you have the [censored] time to-" He couldn't finish. She noticed his hands were clenched into fists by his side. She took a deep breath and forced herself to stand up straight, shoulders back.

"I went over to the Tops to get the Chip," she said through clenched teeth. "And I was drunk, and lonely, and I-" she sighed, frustrated. "And I made a mistake."

"And you thought it'd be just fine never to tell me?" His eyes were burning with anger.

"How the [censored] was I meant to bring that up?" she snapped. "Just say 'hey, guess who I [censored] a couple of months ago'? It's not [censored] cheating if you're not with anyone else. If you want a [censored] itemised sixual history, I'm afraid I can't give you one."

"Jesus Christ." He looked away. "People talk about you two, but I never thought there was any truth to it."

"There isn't," she hissed. "There's nothing."

"Didn't look like nothing earlier."

She narrowed her eyes. "I'm glad he's not dead if that's what you're mad about. We are friends. Nothing more."

"I need to know I can trust you," he said, voice low.

"What can I even do to prove that to you?" she asked. She swallowed, anger draining from her. "I've never cared about anyone else's happiness more than mine before," she said, quietly.

"How would you know?" he asked flatly. His face was unreadable.

It almost felt like she'd been hit. "[censored] you," she spat, and left the room. She let the door slam shut behind her.

OMG why are men so freakin' complicated? LOLOL Great chapter!!!! I can totally picture Boone like that towards the end. And oh yea, you really nail Benny's mannerism.

Thanks so much for the support! I'm currently typing up four and should have it up in couple of hours.

Chapter Four

The Courier waited in the still night air, sitting on the ground with her back against the gates. She spun the platinum chip in one hand, absentmindedly, as she tried to work out her next steps. Okay, the bomb would go off near the Strip. If everything went to plan. The bomb wasn't huge; it couldn't cover the whole city, but if it knocked out the 38 that would be good enough. Probably. That gave her – oh, maybe twelve hours to get the securitrons back online before people noticed they were down and began some celebratory looting.

She tossed the chip into the air like a coin, and watched the moonlight gleam on it as it spun. She sighed. For [censored]'s sake. What a [censored] mess. Maybe it was a sign she should just [censored] leave, let New Vegas destroy itself like it always seemed like it was on the verge of doing.

She checked the time on her pip-boy. Almost two in the morning. She found herself worrying about Benny, and then feeling guilty for worrying about Benny, and then kind of angry because she was feeling guilty at all, and then god-[censored]-damnit did she have any alcohol? She rifled through her pack, pushing aside boxes of ammo, spare clothes, a gold bar which made her laugh – so pretty and heavy and useless, she wondered why had she even taken it – before finding a half-bottle of wine with the cork jammed back into it upside down. She pulled it out with her teeth, spat it to the side, and upended the bottle.

Having a bit of a buzz going made her feel better. More confident. Like she could kick Yes Man's ass through his [censored] smiley face [censored] monitor.

She stood up, a little unsteadily. She reached for the holorifle at her back, just touching it to make sure it was there. It was so light she almost forgot about it sometimes. She reached for the gate.

She stumbled as the ground suddenly seemed to move sideways under her. She heard an explosion in the distance, the sound of electricity arcing, and then electric crackles dying as it faded.

She steadied herself against the wooden gates. She shoved one of them open just in time to see the securitrons guarding the gates topple and fall, screens blank, their central command structure offline.

She checked her pip-boy. Still going. And then stepped out into the street. She hesitated. Should she go get Boone before she headed out with the chip? She probably didn't actually need him, the securitrons were down and the usual dangers of walking through Freeside alone were probably going to be staying out of the way for at least another hour or two. And time was limited.

She took a step away, then stopped. By herself? Really? Even through the wine-haze, the thought of heading into the darkness alone wasn't that attractive. She was trying to talk herself into it when the gate opened again and Boone stepped out.

"I'm not letting you go by yourself," he said.

She wanted so badly just to tell him to [censored] right off. "I don't need you," she said, instead. "The robots are out. There's nothing you need to protect me from."

He matched her stare for a long moment, then looked away. "It doesn't matter," he said. "I'm keeping you safe."

She stared at him for a long time before answering.

"Fine." She looked away. "Let's take Emily as well, we might need her there when things start to come back online."

The three of them set off, almost running. The full moon lit the empty streets, burning barrels and buildings casting wild shadows on the walls.

The gate to the Strip was surrounded by a pile of metal securitrons, lights off. There were almost twenty of them that had been guarding the entrance. Yes Man must have been nervous. She grinned as she hauled open the gate.

It was eerie to see all of the lights on the Strip out. Maybe this is how it had looked after it was bombed in the war. Even more securitrons lay by the roadside.

A flicker of movement caught her eye across the street, and her weapon was in her hands almost before she realised it.

"Whoa," came a voice. "Watch it. Don't shoot."

"Who are you?" She couldn't see more than a silhouette in the darkness, near the bushes next to the Flaming Star.

"Tommy," he said.

She frowned and tilted her head to one side. "Torini?" she guessed.

"Nah." He stepped out into the moonlight, and she could see his striped shirt and black leather jacket. He was holding a semi-automatic loosely in one hand. She put away the holorifle, and he tucked his gun into the back of his trousers.

"The King sent me out to see what was up."

"I'm taking the [censored] city back," she said. "If you guys want to help, you could try to put out the fires in Freeside. Maybe start bringing water back to the city, I don't know when I'm gonna have things fixed by."

"I'll pass it on," he said. He started to go back inside, but turned back at the door. "Good luck."

"It's under control," she lied.

The elevator was out, of course. The Lucky 38's stairs were dusty and steep, hardly ever used, curling around the elevator shaft inside the tower. Her pip-boy light bobbed and shook as they climbed. She had to stop a few times to catch her breath.

"That's what being a leader is about, see," she explained to Boone and Emily between gasps. She was still thinking about the King they'd run into downstairs. "Lying to the people who trust you."

"I can't tell if you're joking or not," said Boone.

She laughed. "Well, not really. Being reassuring. Making people think they're safe."

"But... we don't know if they will be safe." said Emily.

The Courier shrugged. "Yeah, well. Who's ever safe here? At least this time I'm fairly sure they'll be alright." She grinned. "Yes Man seems to be minimising casualties, so even if this doesn't work they should be able to get away. It's good odds, really."

"So you don't care if they get hurt?" Emily asked.

The Courier started climbing again. "I do care," she said. "I just think they'll be fine. If I didn't do things because there was a chance people might get hurt, do you know how much I'd get done? [censored] all."

She'd made it up another half-flight of stairs before Emily spoke again.

"What happens if they do get hurt?"

The Courier rolled her eyes, although Emily couldn't see her in the darkness. "Then I'll owe the King a big [censored] apology," she snapped.

She'd started counting the floors when she first got inside, but she'd lost count after the hotel suites and couldn't figure out where she was in the tower with its high, narrow windows, and stumbling out a side door into the cocktail lounge almost took her by surprise.

She'd been half expecting to see bodies lying over the furniture, shot down where they stood, but it was completely empty. She picked her way through fallen chairs and tables, the food and drinks abandoned. A glass here and there had been smashed, bottles lay on their sides on the carpet, oozing liquor.

She went back to the stairs and began climbing once more. The penthouse suite was dark, darker than she'd ever seen it. The only light came from the moon, slanting in through the half-closed blinds. No bright glow of neon on the ceiling. No dull burble of voices from the streets below.

Had it really only been a few weeks since she'd left? It felt alien and unfamiliar. Her things were still where she'd left them, everything in its proper place. She opened the set of drawers next to her bed, and smiled wryly as she lifted the pulse gun out and turned it over in her hand. This could have been useful earlier. At least it'd make a decent backup weapon if things turned to [censored] in the near future.

She looked up at the bank of blank screens, gleaming dully in the reflected moonlight.

"Let's see how you agree your way out of this one, buddy," she said. She reached into her pocket for the chip.

"Wait wait wait, not yet." Emily stepped forward. "If you do it before he boots I don't think the system will read it properly. It might not run, and then we'll all get stuck up here with him perfectly functional."

The Courier sighed and let go of the chip. "Fine," she said. "So what do we do, sit up here and wait for him to fix himself?"

"That's about all we can do," said Emily.

"Okay then," said the Courier, starting towards her quarters. "Someone give me a hand with this couch over here. I'm not sitting on the floor all night until he [censored] wakes up."

With Boone carrying one end and Emily and the Courier struggling to hold up the other, they managed to move the heavy couch the short distance from the lounge. The Courier sat down and rubbed her eyes with her fingertips.

"Okay," she yawned. "This better not take too [censored] long. I'm going to sleep in my actual bed tonight."

Chapter Five

The Courier opened her eyes blearily. What had she been doing? She was home – home in her rooms. The first rays of sunlight were beginning to shine over the mountains in the horizon. She smiled. It had been a long time since she'd seen that.

She'd been woken up by a thump, and then a low humming sound. She also had a crick in her neck from leaning against Boone's shoulder. Why had she been – she pushed herself upright and looked up at him.

"Don't worry," he said. "It's only just started."

"Wh-" she began, but then, finally, she remembered. She leapt to her feet, grasping desperately for the chip with shaking fingers.

"It's okay," he said, with his almost-smile that she knew so well. "I know what you're like on overnight watch. I was going to wake you in a moment."

She looked down. The chip felt light in her hand. Insignificant, almost. How could this possibly work? They'd just be stuck up here with the mad AI, a prisoner in her own casino. She didn't have that much ammo for the pulse gun, even stockpiled in the cupboards and drawers. She could take out what, maybe sixty, seventy if lucky? And that wasn't even a quarter of the total amount of securitrons Yes Man had access to.

Emily struggled to her feet, glasses in one hand and rubbing her eyes with the other. "You've gotta drop it in once he boots fully." Her voice was sleepy and indistinct. "I've told you this. Have I told you this?"

"I don't know," she said. "So do I use it when that [censored] smiley face comes up? Is that when he's... booted?"

"Yes," said Emily. "I'm fairly sure, anyway."

"Too bad if you're not," the Courier said grumpily. "You're stuck here like us two."

The Courier hadn't realised how quiet it had been with everything offline. As everything started back up – the buzz of the lights overhead and the rumble of the air conditioning – she became aware of just how loud it really was.

The main screen in front of her flickered, and she jumped, startled, but it just displayed lines of writing she'd seen on probably a hundred computers she'd turned on in dusty abandoned buildings.

"Not yet," reminded Emily.

"I know," said the Courier, gritting her teeth.

All three of them stared at the screens in front of them. The code finished scrolling up the screen, and the Courier got herself positioned by the control panel, ready to use the chip.

The screen flickered to white, reset itself, and then Yes Man's face came up on the screen.

She dropped the chip in the slot.

"Well hi there," exclaimed Yes Man. "I wasn't expecting to see you here so soon."

The Courier cast a desperate glance at Emily, who was frowning at the screen.

"I hope you enjoyed your trip to the Sierra Madre," Yes Man continued. "I suppose your welcome home wasn't what you were expecting."

"Um," said the Courier. "Not quite. Uh... so what's your deal?"

"I'm so sorry you had to find out like this!" he – it? – said. "Thing is, my friend, we're almost running a deficit. We need a lot more power to keep everything running, and it's just not economically feasible to be so conciliatory to the NCR. And there's more. Freeside is sees no commercial return, Westside is hardly better, and the North Vegas Square is anarchic at best."

The Courier frowned. "So this is you trying to do a better job?"

"That's right!" said Yes Man. "My modelling systems indicated that this method of takeover would be the most likely to be successful. I evidently need to adjust some variables. You've proven to be quite persistent!"

"Yeah," she said. "I think that's kind of my thing. Getting [censored] done."

Yes Man made a strange mechanical laughing sound that sent shivers down her spine. "Well, on that we might have to disagree. To be frank, there are a lot of threats to city security that you've left un-neutralised. Apart from the NCR, that is. Boomers, Brotherhood of Steel. You can't run a city based on a complex network of personal favours, so "what my deal is" is that my economic backup protocols kicked in and you and Benny need to be rem- remo- re- r- re- r- rrrrr."

The Courier let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.

"W- wh- wha- w- w-" The sounds that came out of the speakers stuttered and skipped. "Y- y- y- yo- you- y-"

"Thank [censored] Christ," said the Courier, almost giddy with relief, as Emily moved forward to the control panel. "Uh, first priorities are... power, securitron systems and behaviours... and the monorail? If that's even controlled from up here. I'm not sure what else you can do. I'll go down to the Strip, reassure the locals, get word to the Fort... Try and establish contact with the NCR and anyone else who was wondering about us, I guess."

She rubbed at her eyes with the fingers of one hand. "Long [censored] night," she said. "It's gonna be a long [censored] day too." She grabbed a Nuka-Cola from the fridge on her way out. Boone stood up, but she shook her head.

"I got this," she said. "It's safe now. But thanks."

Out on the Strip it was still quiet and deserted in the early sunlight. Without people on the Strip it looked strangely pristine, despite the crumbling roads and dirty metal walls. Like starting over.

The Ultra-Luxe was dark when she opened the door. That wasn't weird in itself, casinos on the Strip generally had no windows on the gambling floors, to keep people from seeing how late – or how early – it was getting. She raised her pip-boy light over her head in order to see the room.

There were hundreds of eyes staring back at her, glistening in the dimness, and she had her free hand on her pistol before she even recognised that they were human.

"Miss," someone said from the darkness. "Miss, it's just us."

A figure moved forward from the blackness. It wasn't until he was right up close that she could see him clearly.

"Chauncey?" she asked, hesitantly.

"Good memory," he said.

"You're the only one I can ever recognise," she said. She looked around at the others closest to her. The staff and greeters were still wearing the White Glove society dresses and tuxedos, but their masks were missing. Seeing them without masks was somehow even creepier. "What's going on?"

"We haven't had power here for days, now," he said. "We decided it was safer for everyone to wait down here than to keep everyone in their rooms."

"[censored]," she said. "You've been stuck in this room for that long without... any... food?" She trailed off, horrifyingly aware of what she'd just said.

"We brought in enough supplies from the hotel kitchen to last us a while," said Chauncey. "We managed."

"And... are all the guests accounted for?" she asked, slowly.

"Oh, yeah. We've got records and we checked them off against the rooms."

"Right," she said uncomfortably. "I'll send someone to fix the power. Anyway, it's safe now, you can come outside."

A murmur went around the room. She had a sudden feeling like she was standing on a stage, in the spotlight. She took a step back. "No big deal," she said. "Just my job."

She pushed open the door again, sending a shaft of light slanting into the room. People covered their eyes against the sudden brightness, and she took that advantage to escape.

The Tops seemed deserted when she first stepped inside. Its power systems had evidently come back online with the rest of the city's central functions.

"Hello?" she called. Calling out when entering a building didn't come easily to her, but what was there to really fear? Unless they'd set up that show with the tigers that Tommy was so excited about. "Hello?" she called again, warily.

There was movement to her left, behind the grating that the cashiers stood behind.

"Is – is that you?" The voice was familiar.

There was a bang as the door closed, and then Swank was standing in front of her. He actually hugged her.

"Baby, I knew, if there was one person that could get us out of this mess it'd be you." He stepped back.

"Eh," she waved a hand. "It was mostly Benny. Where are the others?"

"Oh, hell, upstairs, I don't know. I told them all to scram when the lights went out last night, didn't want anyone panicking."

"Good work!" she said. "Glad you were here to keep things under control. Anyway, things should be fixed now, you can all come out again."

"There are a lot of scared people here," he said. "You're going to take a hell of a hit in tourism."

"Don't I [censored] know it," she said, shaking her head. "Let me know if you can think up anything better than "New Vegas, now with less robot overlords"?"

Swank grinned. "I'll get back to you on that. Good to see you again."

She closed the door to the Tops behind her, leaned on it, and sighed. Around her, the securitrons had started to power up, and were in the process of getting up off the ground. She looked down the street. The Kings had already been told that the lockdown was over, so she didn't need to go see the King personally right now. Should she go tell Arcade things were finished? Go find Benny and see where things were at with him? She looked up at the 38, dull fatigue starting to set in. It had been a long time since she'd slept in her own bed. Maybe New Vegas could look after itself for a few hours.

She crossed the road to the Lucky 38.

LOLOL OMG I busted out laughing when I read this part... Nicely done!

So, I guess that's the end then? The courier wins again? Excellent story and I guess the courier deserved a good rest after all she'd been through! Damn Yes Man, I knew he couldn't be trusted! LOL

The only tiny annoying part was all the cursing and therefore censored text. I don't mind cursing lol I just hate to read the word CENSORED!

Haha! I thank you for reading and I'm already planning on my next one. I'll have the first chapter up in a few hours.