Chapter Text
One
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Boone had only been traveling with Cory for a few hours. Maybe even less.
The woman had stumbled into Novac late at night, looking determined, yet distracted. He could tell. He’d never seen her in town before and yet she didn’t even glance at the dinosaur, Novac’s biggest tourist attraction. It was usually the first thing anyone paid attention to when they first came into town, but not her. She simply didn’t care, strutting right past it and speaking to a nearby mercenary who seemingly directed her further down the road.
Boone remembers scoping her out, trying to identify if she was a threat or not.
She sure looked harmless. Taller for a woman, thin, short brown hair that barely reached the top of her neck, and small, wispy bangs that spread across her forehead. She carried a 10mm pistol, and a satchel strapped around her waist. Her armor, if you could even call it that, consisted of brown leather braces strapped over a long sleeve shirt, and a shotgun strapped to her back through some type of leather holster connected to the braces. Her legs were covered in similar braces, covering her combat pants until they met the tops of her boots. She didn’t look like a legion recruit, especially considering she was a woman, but she was splattered with blood. He eventually decided she wasn’t a threat, maybe just got jumped on the trail from Primm and roughed up. His suspicions were confirmed when she tracked down the local doctor and traded with her.
Then, she finally noticed him, glancing up at the reflective scope aimed at her.
He remembers her expression made his ears flush, as he had, quite literally been staring at her for the past few minutes. His heart stuttered when their eyes met, from curiosity or embarrassment, he didn’t know. Her eyebrows narrowed, her eyes tightening as she squinted up at him. Her mouth twisted into a perplexed glare before settling back into a blank look and she smiled, raising her hand before waving.
She waved . At the person who was aiming a sniper barrel at her forehead.
His shock made him lose his grip, and he lowered his rifle, feeling like a child who just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. She was still staring right at him. Directly at him, like she could see through his eyes and into his very soul. Like she knew every bad thing he had ever done.
This is it. He thought. This is the person who will put me out of my misery.
(He’d come to realize, many months later, that she did indeed do that. Just not in the way expected).
She came up to the dinosaur after she finished with the doctor. He could hear her talking to Cliff for a moment and then heard another door open. He figured she had left.
“Hey.”
Boone jumped. “Goddamn it! Don’t sneak up on me like that. What do you want?”
The girl’s pale lips twisted, like she was trying to hide a smile. He hated that. No one should be able to sneak up on him, goddamn it. He’s First Recon.
“Expecting visitors?” She asked. Her voice was soft, delicate, missing the normal twang that most Novac’s citizens had. It reminded him of the shrinks the NCR required him to go to after Bitter Springs. She was just...nicer to listen too. “Yeah. I guess maybe I am. But not like you.”
Her eyebrows furrowed, like she took offense to his words. She was open with her expression, he noted. It’ll be easier to read her. He backtracked. Maybe he could trust her. “Huh. Maybe it should’ve been you I was expecting all along. Why are you here?”
She blinked a few times, surprised by his sudden change of mind. “I just wanted to check out the view.”
Boone frowns, putting his hands on his hips. This one wasn’t bright. “I think you better leave.”
“Just making friendly conversation.” She offered.
“I don’t have friends here.” He returned.
“Well, I’m not from here.” She countered.
That...was a good point. “No. No you’re not, are you? Maybe you shouldn’t go. Not just yet.”
“Why?” She asked.
“I need someone I can trust. You’re a stranger. That’s a start,” He waited for her to say something, but she just nodded, gesturing for him to continue. “I want you to find something out for me. I don’t know if there’s anything to find, but I need someone to try. My wife was taken from our home by Legion slavers one night while I was on watch. They knew when to come, and what route to take, and they only took Carla. Someone set it up. I don’t know who.”
Her face twisted, the sadness and shock on her face clear as day. She was innocent, he realized. Maybe a teenager who had just started exploring the wasteland, someone who wasn’t familiar with the harsh realities of the mojave. “So...you’re looking for your wife?” She asked.
His stomach soured, his expression tightening. “My wife is dead. I want the son of a bitch who sold her.”
She seemed to contemplate the request before nodding. “Okay.” Boone gave her some instructions, and his spare recon beret to wear once she found the bastard, promising to take care of the rest and to make it worth her while. He also told her to not speak with him until the job was done. She twisted the cap in her hands before nodding again, taking off back towards the city.
It took her less than an hour to find the bitch. Jeannie May Crawford. Part of him didn’t want to believe it, but the younger girl took out the cap and put it on.
Boone trusted her, so he aimed his rifle and took the shot.
The girl jumped, blood splattering across her face as her eyes squeezed shut. After a moment, she opened them, nodding at Boone and wiping her face with the back of her hand.
Huh. She took that better than expected. Maybe she was less innocent than he thought.
She had made her way back up rather quickly, opening the door and taking his beret off, handing it back to him. He rested his rifle on his back, putting the cap back on his head. “That’s it then. How did you know?”
She reached into her satchel, pulling out a piece of folded paper. “I found the bill of sale.” She muttered softly. He took it from her fingers, reading through it quickly and swallowing the bitter taste in his mouth. 2000 caps. That’s what his wife and unborn baby were worth.
He sighed, reaching into his duffle bag on the side to give her the reward he promised. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. It’d be like them to keep paperwork,” He handed her the spare beret he had, and a hundred caps. “Here. This is all I can give. I think our dealings are done here.”
She hesitated, taking the items with shaky hands. She looked at the caps, and the hat before looking up at him, a determined look in her eye. “Are you an outlaw now?” She asked, seemingly worried about him. He blinked. “No. People die out there. Often enough that no one worries about blame. They’re too anxious to forget it happened in the first place, I guess.”
She nodded, accepting his answer as the worry left her face. “What will you do now?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I won’t be staying, I know that. Don’t see much point in anything right now, expect hunting legionaries. Maybe I’ll wander, like you.”
She looked up at him, a smile growing on her face. “Come with me. Let’s go after the Legion.”
He froze, looking at her. “You don’t want to do that.”
“I thought snipers worked in teams?”
Damn. She got him. “Yeah. Yeah I guess you’re right. But this isn’t gonna end well.”
She raised an eyebrow, sinking into one of her hips.
He scoffed. “Fine. Let’s get out of here.”
She nodded, putting on the beret he gave him. He glanced at her. “You got a name?” He asked. She froze, her body winding tight as she bit her lip. “It’s uh, Couri- Cory. My name is Cory.”
Boone didn’t even have to look at her to know that her answer was shit, but he’s never been one to press. If she’s running from someone, or something, it’s got nothing to do with him. “Okay. Nice to meet you, Cory.”
Cory glanced over at him, a nervous look on her face before nodding. “C’mon Boone. We’ve got bastards to kill.”
They exited the dinosaur quickly and Boone stopped by his room to pick up the rest of what he needed. He didn’t have much, some spare caps, a couple stimpacks and a spare change of clothes. If they were taking on legionaries, he’d need to get some armor.
When he came out, Cory was chewing at her thumb. “I need to go to Nipton. After that, we’ll need to head to the REPCONN test site and deal with some ghouls. I have to clear them out so that prick Manny will give me some information. Sounds good?”
Boone scoffed. Of course Manny would make someone else do his dirty work. “Yeah, fine.” He looked up at the floating eye robot, chirping random noises near her. He raised an eyebrow.
It took Cory a second to recognize the expression. “Oh, this is E-DE. Or Eddie, you can call it whatever. It’s a good robot.” She said fondly, patting the robot on the head, praising it like a dog.
Okay. Sure. Fine. She’s friends with a robot.
It took them about an hour to get to Nipton, and the entire way there, she was asking questions. About him, about First Recon, about Carla, about the NCR, the Battle of Hoover Dam. She wouldn’t shut up. His throat hurt. This was the most he had said in a very long time.
By the time they made it to Nipton, he had a headache and was slightly regretting this agreement.
Then he saw the carnage.
Even before they had made it to the city outskirts, smoke clouded and flooded the air, the smell of burnt flesh burning his nostrils as the haze of ash clouded his vision. The odor of blood and burning bodies plagued his senses and he slapped a hand over his mouth to stop the burning retch building in his throat.
There were corpses everywhere . The majority of them were burning on piles of tires and other various means of debris, the source that was covering the city with the smoke. Others were laying on the ground beneath crucifixes, the wooden crosses covered in blood and gore. Legion flags stood tall in the city.
Most notably, however, was the corpse of Vulpes Inculta. Boone froze, staring down at the body of the man who had killed hundreds of innocent people, the man who could’ve been behind the kidnapping and sale of his wife and unborn baby. The death of both of them.
His body had been demolished. Boone wouldn't have recognized him if he wasn’t wearing that massive animal hood on his head with his glasses. He was missing both his legs, blood pooling beneath his body from where it had leaked from the stumps of his missing limbs. Half of his body seemed scorched from where his skin had practically melted from his body.
He had seen horrors in the war before. Many horrible things that spread like wildfire due to the legion. Things that have forever imprinted on his brain and scratched themselves into his brain. It had just been...such a long time since he had seen something as ruthless and violent as this.
Cory however, seemed unfazed. Surprisingly unfazed.
Cory caught his gaze, seemingly okay with the sight in front of her. “What?” She asked, confused at the shock on his face. She followed his line of sight, glancing at the body on the ground, her face souring. “Did you know him?”
Boone scoffed. “ Everybody knows him. He’s one of Caesar’s second in command.” Cory blinked a couple of times before looking back down at the body, letting out a long, miserable sigh. “Oh. Oops.” She mumbled, gently poking at the body with her boot. “That’ll probably come back to bite me in the ass.”
Boone looked up at her in barely masked shock. “You killed him? How?” He asked, incredulous.
She reached into her satchel and pulled out a wad of dynamite sticks and tossed it a few inches into the air, catching it in the same hand. “An old friend taught me all about explosives. When I came into Nipton, that asshole with the weird animal head told me to spread the word of the Legion's actions. I told him his actions were dangerous and he told me to do something about it, so I did,” She said, gesturing to the dynamite stick. “I threw a good few at him and his lackeys and he wasn’t expecting it. I got the majority of them with it and picked off the others with my gun. Most of them were injured from the initial blast anyways.”
His mouth dropped open before he could stop himself and then he swallowed, thoroughly impressed with the woman. “Damn.” He mumbled. She shrugged sheepishly before heading into a nearby building, where a livid Powder Ganger was waiting for her.
“Heya Boxcars. How’re you feeling?” She asked, pulling out...the med-x she had got in Novac? So that’s what she was doing...no wonder she was splattered in blood. Boxcars scowled, glaring up at both of them. “Like I just got my goddamn legs beaten in with fucking hammers. How the fuck do you think i’m feeling?”
He bitched for a few moments before she injected him with a couple of doses of med-x and a stimpack, leaning down and adjusting his legs which were resting in makeshift splints.
The man winced. “You find my friends yet?”
She shook her head. “I’ll go now. I needed to get you med-x before you went into shock.” The gang member nodded, mumbling his thanks quietly before Cory nodded at Boone again, the two of them leaving. Cory spoke up, filling the silence once again as they made their way back into the city of Nipton. She stood in front of city hall, chewing on her thumb.
“As far as I know, the Legion had some sick lottery here. The winner got to go free, the runner up got his legs broken. Third were taken as slaves. The rest were crucified. I stumbled across them on my way to Novac and killed the bastards before they knew what was happening. Which...wasn’t very smart of me...if you’re gonna be traveling with me, you should probably know that I get hot-headed around the legion, tend to not think straight. Anyways, I lost my temper and tossed a stick of dynamite right into that fuckers face. They underestimated me, that’s the only reason I won that fight. The men that were crucified...they couldn’t be saved.”
The last sentence left a sour look on her face. Boone glanced around before acknowledging the bodies of the gang members who were no longer crucified, laying on the ground. She mercy killed them.
She looked at him, taking a sip of her canteen before offering it to him. He took it, taking a few long sips to quench his thirst. “Now, we’re gonna hunt down those hostages and rescue them. Nobody deserves to be a legion slave.”
He nodded in agreement, handing her the canteen back, and they were off again.
He glanced over at her, adjusting his sunglasses before speaking. “For what it’s worth, you did the right thing. That man, Vulpes, has probably murdered hundreds of innocent people in his lifetime. And you just ended his reign of terror.” The woman’s head dipped down but he could see the smile on her face. “Thanks, cowboy.” She murmured back.
The nicknames had become a thing, he realized. Cowboy and killer were her favorites apparently. She used them constantly when she talked to him.
They kept a brisk pace and after a few dangerous encounters they had made it to the legion camp. The camp itself was covered in Legion tents, but only three men stood on guard. The two gang members were bound and gagged on their knees, sitting side by side in front of a bonfire. Boone began setting up, looking for the best angle to shoot from afar.
Cory watched the men, determining something in her brain as she nodded. “Alright, killer. You got my back?”
He nodded, resting his sniper on a rock. “I’ve got your back.”
And just like that, she charged into battle, pulling out her shotgun from behind her back and shooting the first legionnaire in the stomach, pushing him down and shooting the second in the arm, effectively crippling him. Boone picked him off before he could recover, catching the last one in the skull before he could raise his weapon to Cory while she was reloading.
They had won the fight, and she began freeing the men that had been taken hostage, kneeling down and pulling the gags from their mouths as the men began to sob their thanks. His hands began shaking as he set his rifle down off the rock.
They’ve known each other for three hours at the most. And she turned her back to him, trusted him with her life. He could’ve easily put a bullet into her back, but instead, she charged into battle without a second thought because Boone had her back .
It was then he realized just how big of a ride he was in for. This woman, this strange, trusting, reckless, hot-headed woman was a goddamn powerhouse. She was too trusting, and apparently had a heart of gold. Most importantly, she wasn’t selfish, which was one of the rarest sights in the mojave.
It was then that he knew. Somehow, someway, she was going to change this shitty world. He just hoped it’d be for the better.