THIS IS NOT AN INK SPOTS TITLE :(

This is the third in what has somehow become a series. It'll probably make more sense if you read If I Didn't Care and then When It Comes To The End Of The Day first, but in case you totally cbf, here is the situation: Courier is currently running New Vegas with Benny, and has just returned from a rather unpleasant trip to the Sierra Madre to find her beloved city on fire and has no idea why.

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

"What the fucking fuck?" 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.

"M-mean Sonofabitch, is that you?" she asked. "What the fuck 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 fuck 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 fucked 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. Shit.

"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 fuck?" 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 scraped 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.