Archive of Our Own

Growing up, Jimmy didn't know anything but the vault. The same grey walls, the familiar corridor, and the same few faces over and over again. Vault 27 was his home, and he'd been promised by his Overseer dozens of times that one day, he'd be able to go outside and see the real sun, repopulate the American wasteland as had been their plan.

Not to say that he minded the vault, becoming close with his fellow citizens and even the doctors, as cold as they were, and so really, imagining anything else was difficult.

As he did every morning, he woke up, and took a look at himself in the mirror, writing an entry in his diary about the change in his wings and feathers. There weren't any, as per usual; his growth had stopped when he was a teenager, but for some reason, the doctors were insistent on making sure he wrote everything down to do with his more bird-like characteristics.

Everyone in the vault had an animal. The animal they were seemed to be chosen at random, with some having an animal unique to them, such as Zedaph, who shared characteristics with a sheep, whereas some members shared certain traits with another member, such as Grian, who shared avian characteristics with Jimmy.

Even still, these traits bore little similarity beyond wings and feathers — Grian's wings were larger, coloured with brilliant hues of red, blue, and yellow. The doctors called him a "parrot". Jimmy, on the other hand, had smaller, golden feathers, and was called a "canary".

At breakfast one morning, Overseer Void, the one in charge of running the vault, stood up from his table that he shared with the other doctors. "Good morning, vault dwellers! Now, as a part of a new routine check-up we're implementing, can dwellers number 001 and 007 report to the infirmary as soon as breakfast has finished? Thank you."

001 was Jimmy's number. The one plastered on his chest, right above his heart, letting everyone around him know that he was lesser than the doctors and the Overseer. It felt a bit useless; everybody in the vault knew where they stood, and if they hadn't learned their vault number after over 20 years of use, then they'd never learn it.

007 was someone he hadn't spoken too much, a cat hybrid by the name of "Tango", who was supposedly expressing the traits of a "tiger". They hadn't spoken much, but across the cafeteria, they made eye contact for just a second.

"What have you done, then?" Joel — an insect hybrid, although the specific type of insect remained unknown and had baffled many of the doctors — asked, giving Jimmy a playful nudge.

"Oi, what?" Jimmy nudged him back. "I haven't done anything. It's a routine check-up, soon it'll be you."

Joel's antenna twitched, as he frowned at Jimmy, those creepy eyes almost staring into his soul. Jimmy did care for Joel, but those eyes… He never blinked, and they protruded out of his face, shimmering as they reflected the light. "Compound eyes", the doctors had called them. They allowed him to see colours differently. "I dunno, it seems like you've done something to wrong someone high up."

"Yeah," Grian chimed in, "Mum- Dr Jumbo, sorry, was telling me about this before. He says it's meant to be randomly chosen, but he's sticking you in there with a predator. Did you know before the bombs dropped that birds were the primary source of food for cats? And canary birds were really small, while tiger cats were really big. But sure, I'll pretend I think it's random."

That caused a pit of unease to stir in Jimmy's gut. Surely Tango wouldn't hurt him. He seemed like a friendly guy, laughing with his avian friend, Skizz. Anyway, if anything bad did happen, Jimmy had faith that the doctors would protect and heal him.

After breakfast, Jimmy reported to the infirmary, finding it to be empty. Not long after, Tango walked in, looking a little nervous.

"Hey, man!" Tango said with a grin. "I'm Tango. Do you, uh, know what his is about?" He scratched the back of his head, sitting down on one of the chairs available.

"I wish I knew." He laughed. "I'm Jimmy, by the way. Canary."

"Huh?" Tango's orange and black striped tail flicked from side to side anxiously.

"My- my animal? I'm a canary. A yellow bird."

"Oh!" Tango's ears perked up. "I'm a tiger. They were big cats who just about killed anything. I think."

"Oh, cool." Jimmy could feel his feathers puffing out on his back. It was the one thing he hated about them — just how exposing they could be of his inner feelings. He was afraid, and he'd been told that this instinct, to make the feathers larger, was supposed to help ward off predators. And right now, Tango definitely looked like a predator. "Do you… Kill just about anything?"

"No! No, of course not!" Tango waved his hand dismissively, and Jimmy noticed that he had longer, sharper nails, resembling claws more than anything. "I wouldn't hurt a fly."

Jimmy opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of the door opening.

"Welcome, subjects." Doctor M, affectionately known as "Doc" by everyone in the fault greeted, eyes sparkling. "This is simply a routine test that Overseer Void has demanded we conduct. For the next 48 hours, you two will be kept in a room together to ensure the safety of everyone in the vault.

That made sense. No, it didn't, but sometimes the doctors were vague about their healing methods. Whatever this was, Doc had a purpose for it.

"How is this ensuring our safety?" Tango stood up.

Doc chuckled, stepping closer to Tango. Doc was a very tall man, and Tango was shorter than Jimmy, so the difference in stature had Tango stepping back and shrinking in on himself. "If we told you that, the treatment wouldn't work. Do you understand?"

"I do." Tango said quietly, and when he turned back to look at Jimmy, his eyes were wide with fear, pupils narrowed into slits.

"Good." Doc said. "Follow me."

They followed him into a room Jimmy had never seen before, one that looked almost the same as any of the other bedrooms in the vault. There was an extra vent near the roof, but besides that, it was just… A bedroom built for two.

"You will not be allowed any other human interaction until this has ended, and you are to continue to log changes in your hybrid features in the journals placed by your new beds. Food will be delivered through a hatch in the door three times a day, and as soon as the lights go out, you are to go to bed." He smiled, one that looked more sinister than friendly. "I trust you two will get along."

The door closed shut as Doc left, an echoing sound that made Jimmy jump. Something about this felt off, but that was probably his mind screaming at him, due to being alone in a room with a predator.

"So…" He said, trying to clear the silence. "I've never been this close to a predator before."

"Does it matter what animal we are?" Tango settled onto one of the beds, leaning against the wall and staring off at nowhere in particular. "Some of my best friends are "prey", technically! Zed's a sheep, and Skizz is an avian, although we don't know what kind, and we've gotten on fine! You'll be fine with me, Jimmy."

Jimmy found that he preferred the smile that Tango gave him to the ne that Doc had given him earlier. And Tango seemed… Nice. In a way that nobody else in the vault had. He'd found himself staring at Tango before, when they'd pass for a moment in the hallways, and honestly, he wanted to stare even more.

Tango was predator, Jimmy was prey. In any other scenario, they should've been at each other's throats. If they met in the wild, as animals rather than as hybrids, Tango would've killed him in an instant.

Yet Jimmy couldn't stop himself from feeling a pull towards Tango.

"Are you gonna sit down?" Tango asked, which made Jimmy realise that he was still standing. There was nothing wrong with that, but it felt a bit awkward when the person he was talking to wasn't at eye level.

So he sat down at the bed that was "his", and picked up his journal. Like everything else in their room, it was near identical to the one Jimmy had written in just that morning. He opened his bedside drawer, and, predictably, there was a small "Vault-Tec" branded pen. Thinking it'd be best to give the doctors a "Day 0" log, he started writing:

02/10/2252

Day 0 of the… I don't know what this is. Doc didn't give us much information, despite Tango #007 asking him about it. I trust the doctors here, though. They've been nothing but good to us.

Hybrid traits: small patches of feathers on the neck, thicker fingernails — more like talons, small yellow wings, distinct lack of white in the eyes.

It was a description he knew like the back of his hand, one that he'd written time and time again, morning after morning. He didn't need to look in the mirror that was propped up besides the bed, and his features likely hadn't changed since that morning.

He glanced to the other side of the room, expecting to see Tango doing something similar, but instead, he was fiddling with his Pip-Boy — a wearable computer that went on the wrist, that all in the vault were expected to wear. The only time Jimmy's took his off was to go to bed, and putting it on was the first thing he did when he woke up. It did pretty much anything Jimmy needed it to, from opening doors, to displaying his health in real time, to just acting as a map of the vault. It was neat, and Jimmy treasured his Pip-Boy.

"What are you doing?" Jimmy sat up properly, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed to face Tango properly.

"Trying to get into it." Tango said, continuing to push buttons and twist the dial. "I wanna see if I can get Overseer's access."

"…why?" Jimmy asked apprehensively. The only thing that level of clearance was used for was to either look at the Overseer's terminal — the computer that lived in Overseer Void's office, where all of his private logs where stored — to enter every room in the vault, or… To leave. But Tango wouldn't be so stupid as to try and leave, right?

The surface was supposed to be uninhabitable, destroyed through the radiation emitted by the bombs that had dropped 200 years prior. It was the reason they were all in the vaults, to protect themselves and the future generations.

When Jimmy was younger, he remembered having a group of older scientists who would check in on him, who one day declared that they would attempt to contact people on the surface, and that if they didn't return, to assume they were dead. The Overseer at the time had gone with them, leaving only the current inhabitants of the vault.

Clearly, Jimmy remembered the day Overseer Void had stepped up and declared that he was second in line to become overseer, and that the sacrifice of all of those scientists was painful, but necessary, to determine once and for all that the surface wasn't safe.

Tango saw that, and seriously wanted to go out? The chances of him dying were too great, when he could just trust that they would all be let out when it was safe.

"I just want to." Tango shrugged, and then when Jimmy kept frowning at him, he sighed and said: "Fine. I want to see what it is that they're testing for. Weekly blood tests, keeping a track on our traits, and now this? I want to know what's happening."

"Nothing's happening. They're trying to take care of us."

"But why?" Tango's eyes didn't meet Jimmy's once, too fixated on figuring out the Pip-Boy.

For the next three hours or so, they chatted for a bit, getting to know each other. Tango's assigned doctor was Dr S.V, while Jimmy's was Dr Major. He mostly spoke to Zedaph and Skizz, who Jimmy had also had few interactions with. Throughout these talks, Tango would flick through the pages of his journal and doodle in them, telling Jimmy stories he'd made up to pass the lonelier hours away in the fault. Tales of a solitary dungeon master, in charge of a castle full of monsters and creepy creatures.

Then, at 12 pm sharp, the flap in the door opened, and two steaming plates of food were pushed through the door. One was a salad, the type Jimmy would normally have, with some nuts on the side, while the other was a plate consisting of only meat.

"That's yours?" Jimmy wrinkled his nose, taking his plate and getting as far away from the meat as he could.

Tango picked it up and took a bite with his fork. "We're carnivores." He said, mouth full. "As tasty as that salad looks, I've tried them before. Led to a stern talking to from Impy- Doctor S.V, sorry. I'm not meant to use that name around anyone else. Anyway, it turns out that the veg just doesn't sit right with me, and I get ill. I'm assuming the meat would be the same for you."

"We don't know that." Jimmy said apprehensively, despite knowing full well that he was a herbivore. That couldn't have changed overnight, and the meat on Tango's plate looked disgusting, but still… It couldn't hurt to just try.

"Don't!" Doctor Jumbo's voice crackled from an unseen speaker. He was a man who Jimmy only knew second hand, from the stories Grian had told him, but he seemed to have a reputation for being a bit on the anxious side, which was only proven further by his next words. "Uh, sorry, don't do that please? Doc would have a right go at me if the exp- medical test went wrong while I was supposed to be supervising. So please can the carnivores just eat meat and the herbivores just eat plants? Please? Thanks."

Jimmy's blood went cold. They were watching everything, listening to everything. Which felt invasive. He would've been fine with it if he'd have known that he was being watched, but he hadn't been informed. Tango and him exchanged a glance.

"Are you gonna stop messing with your Pip-Boy now?" Jimmy asked, watching Tango closely as he turned the device off and put his back around his wrist.

"I didn't think they'd be watching us. It's fine, I'm glad Doctor Jumbo has let us know."

Eventually the conversation topics shifted to something more personal. What they'd want to do if they ever reached the surface, how their animal side benefited them, and how it hindered them, what type of animal they'd choose to be, if they weren't a canary or a tiger — Jimmy thought he'd want to be a cat. Not a big cat like Tango, but a cat more similar to the type of cat that Lizzie or Scar were. Something friendly, and cosy. Tango said no cats were "cosy", they were just pretending to be.

Jimmy didn't want to think about that more.

One more round of meals came, and Jimmy once again wrinkled his nose at the sight of Tango's meat. He reminded himself that this was just for 48 hours, and ate his food as far away from Tango's meal as he could be.

The lights went out, and Jimmy rolled over to go to bed.

"Hey." Tango whispered, a sound that was more like a hiss. "You still awake?"

"Go to bed." Jimmy huffed.

"Why?"

Jimmy rolled around to face him. "Because- just do it. They've told us to sleep for a reason, so let's just listen to them."

"Fine. You're no fun."

That… Stung. More than Jimmy would like to admit, and more than it would've stung if anyone else had said it. He'd known Tango for a day, why did he care so much what he thought?

The next morning, Jimmy woke up early, feeling an odd itching in his neck. The lights weren't on yet, so he tried to go back to sleep, but he found Tango's reflective eyes wide open, staring right at him.

"…Tango?"

His eyes blinked. "Oh, morning Jimmy. Didn't see you'd woken up."

That caused something weird to settle in Jimmy's chest, but he chose to ignore it. Tango was probably zoned out, or might have even been sleeping with his eyes open… Or something.

"Do you know how long it'll be until they turn the lights on?" He wasn't used to this. He liked waking up on his own terms, without having to follow someone else's schedule.

"I don't know. Wanna see?" Tango stood up, waving at where he guessed there were cameras. "We're awake! Can you turn the lights on for Jimmy, please?"

"No- stop it-" Jimmy tried to get Tango to lie back down, and then the lights turned back on, almost blinding.

"See?" He flashed a grin at Jimmy, showing off his sharp teeth. Jimmy had to remind himself that Tango wasn't here to hurt him, that he'd be fine. "You've just gotta ask for the things you want."

Jimmy nodded, standing up and taking a look at himself in the mirror, the same as he did yesterday. Aside from the itchiness in his neck, there was no change. He noted that down in his journal, and turned back to Tango, whose eyes were once again locked directly on him.

"You ok?" Jimmy asked. "Do your daily log, Tango, stop staring at me."

Tango's eyes darted away. "I was staring again?"

"You… were. Do you not notice you're doing it?"

"No?" Tango said, confusion written all over his face. "I've never accidentally stared at someone before… I don't think."

"…ok."

Two more meals came and went, and Jimmy noticed that throughout the day, Tango began scratching at the back of his hand.

"Hey, c'mere." Tango said to him, gesturing over to his bed.

"What?" Jimmy looked up from where he was lying, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about what his friends might've been doing.

"Just come here. If we're gonna get stuck in this room together, might as well get close, right?"

Nervously, Jimmy sat down on the edge of Tango's bed. Tango leaned his head on his hands, looking at Jimmy. "You're nice."

"I am?"

"Yeah! You had every reason to hate me, but you aren't so bad."

Jimmy playfully pushed Tango. "You don't mean that. I'm just trying to live as we would on the surface. With kindness. Everybody's our equal."

"I get that." Tango said, adjusting where he was sitting so that his foot was touching Jimmy's. "What would you do if you were up on the surface?"

"I'd want to build a farm." Jimmy said, having thought about it more than he should've. "Grow crops, so that everyone's got food. Take care of animals, make sure that they're all safe. I'd like a horse."

"You'd like a horse, huh?"

A small smile crept onto Jimmy's face. "I'd like a horse. What about you?"

Tango thought about it for a second. "Do you know those pre-war board games that nobody touches? I'd want to make something like them, but better. I want to entertain people, I guess." His pupils grew wide as he talked, something Jimmy had quickly learned only happened when he was happy or excited.

"Entertain people." Jimmy repeated. "You're entertaining me. Does that count for something?"

"I reckon it does."

By the end of the day, Jimmy noticed that some new baby feathers were growing on his neck, and his talons seemed more elongated. What was happening to him?

The next morning, Jimmy took a note of his new feathers, and immediately took to pacing around the room. He found that he had a lot more excess energy, wings twitching as he walked. Tango's eyes stayed on Jimmy, tracking his every movement.

They spoke more, Jimmy sometimes resting long enough to sit on Tango's bed, but it was only five minutes until he stood up again.

A few hours into the day, the doors opened, causing Jimmy to spring up from where he was sitting on Tango's bed. Dr Fan walked in, clipboard in hand. "Well done for not killing each other." It was probably a joke, but nobody laughed. "The data we've gathered here will be useful for the future, you can go now."

They exchanged a glance, as if to say without words what did they do to us? But, remembering how Doc treated Tango the last time he tried to ask questions, they kept their mouths shut and walked out of the door.

Grian, being close with Dr Jumbo, would tell him that they were testing to see if radiation could enhance the already present mutations, but as an unexpected side effect, both of them behaved slightly more animalistic than the others around them. With time, and enough one-to-one sessions with the doctors, Jimmy learned to put a leash on that side of him, but he felt as if he'd forever be just a little bit more flighty and anxious than he was before.

After the experiment, Jimmy and Tango became closer to one another, sitting together during meals and spending the majority of their free time together. It got to the point where Jimmy felt a certain buzz around Tango, one he hadn't felt around anyone else.

It wasn't allowed, but sometimes they'd sneak into each other's rooms. The doctors knew, they just didn't seem to do anything about it, which was exactly what Jimmy wanted from them.

He'd go to sleep in Tango's bed, curling up next to him as he tried not to think about just how close they'd gotten. He didn't think it was normal to get that friendly so quickly, and he didn't exactly feel for Tango the same way he felt for his other friends. He didn't know what Tango was thinking though, so any feelings that were abnormal were pushed to the bottom of his chest — not that there was anything normal about Jimmy.

"Hey, Jimmy." Tango said to him, while Jimmy was nestled in his arms in the dark of the Vault's night. "Have you ever kissed anyone before?"

"Huh?" His heat had never beaten so quickly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I've been thinking… I've never kissed anyone. When we go the surface, I'm going to have to know what I'm doing if I want to help repopulate America, right?"

Jimmy sat up properly, twisting his body around to look at Tango. Was he being serious. Was he, seriously, asking to kiss Jimmy right now? And was Jimmy considering it too?

"I haven't." Jimmy admitted quietly, eyes focused on Tango's, whose pupils seemed to widen as Jimmy leaned in closer.

"Do you… Wanna change that?" Tango's claws lightly ran along Jimmy's cheeks.

They kissed, and from then on, they had an almost secret romance, later known as the vault's worst kept secret; everybody knew by the end of the week. But as long as they pretended to keep it all hidden, to only love each other quietly, it was deemed to be ok.

To put it simply, life was good with Tango. Until it wasn't.

One night, Jimmy's eyes slowly blinked open to a loud alarm attacking his ears, red lights swirling in front of him. Faintly, he registered hands gripping onto his arm, shaking him about.

"Jimmy." The hiss of Tango's voice, urgent and panicked, was enough to wake him up. "Jimmy, we need to talk."

He slowly sat up, yawning as he did. "What's happening? Is it another lock down drill?"

"No." Tango said quietly, and when Jimmy finally opened his eyes, he saw that Tango's were wide, and afraid, pupils transformed into slits. "No, this is bad. There's something seriously wrong here. Do- do you remember the older scientists? From when we were kids? Our parents?"

"Yeah? They went out to the surface to see if it was safe. It wasn't, they went out too soon."

"Jimmy, if they died outside, how come I've just seen their skeletons in this vault?"

His blood went cold. What did Tango mean by that? How could he have seen that? "No. No, you're wrong, that's not true, they died outside, ok, nobody killed them, it was the radiation-"

"No, it wasn't, Jimmy. They were killed, and that's not even the worst thing I saw. Grian managed to get into Overseer Void's terminal. This whole thing is an experiment. Our lives, Jimmy. We were never meant to see the sun."

"Stop it." Jimmy said, more forcefully this time. "You don't know what you're saying, why would Overseer Void lie to us?"

"I don't know." Tango admitted quietly. "But I know that he is lying. Something's seriously wrong, ok? Grian and I, and a few others think that the surface is safe. We're running away. Pearl's stolen Dr Jumbo's Pip-Boy, and we'll be opening the vault door in ten minutes. Before they catch us."

"Tango, you can't seriously be thinking of going out there."

"What other choice do we have, Jimmy? Seriously, do you want to spend your whole life as nothing more than an experiment? They're trying to enhance human abilities. That sort of thing happens over generations, and we were just the first. Think about it. They're encouraging Joel and Lizzie's relationship so much because it helps them, and soon… Soon, you'll probably be forced into something similar. I can't watch that happen."

Jimmy had nothing to say. For a few moments, he just stared at Tango, head empty. Because seriously, what was he supposed to say to that?

Tango took his hand, and squeezed it tight. "Come with me. Please?"

For a moment, Jimmy actually considered it. A life on the surface, with Tango, like they'd always talked about. Their little farm, their paradise, their home.

…but it was too risky. And before the words even left his mouth, Jimmy could feel his head shaking. "I can't."

Tango opened his mouth to say something, but then, from the hallway, Grian called:

"Tango, we're going now! Come with us or stay in this hellhole!"

Giving Jimmy one final pained look, Tango stood up. "I love you, Jimmy. Really. I wish you'd come with us."

Before Jimmy could say "I love you" back, Tango had already disappeared from sight. He went back to sleep, hoping that this was nothing more than just a stupid nightmare. Tomorrow would be better.

The next morning, at breakfast, Overseer Void stepped forward. "I have a few announcements to make. Some of your fellow vault-dwellers have foolishly decided to go towards the surface. Funerals will not be held, as the way they decided to escape was considered violent, and unruly. Assume that they are dead. They were #004, #006, #007, #010, and #014."

Grian, Martyn, Tango, Pearl, and Gem. The ones both brave and stupid enough to try and escape. They were more than likely dead, as Overseer Void himself had stated, but Jimmy was foolish enough to let himself hope that they were still out there. Mostly Tango and Grian, his lover and his brother.

"Furthermore," Overseer Void continued, once the murmured voices died down, "Dr Slab has been promoted to one of our head scientists! Everyone clap!" The applause was faint, even Joel unable to find the joy in the moment. "This is after the violent hybrids last night took Dr Jumbo's life in their fruitless efforts to escape. A funeral will be held for him next Monday."

That wasn't like Tango. Or any of the people who had escaped. They wouldn't kill someone so mercilessly, right? But what was it Tango had said? Pearl's stolen Dr Jumbo's Pip-Boy. Did they kill him for that? The thought made Jimmy sick, but he had no choice but to accept the version of events that Overseer Void had presented to him.

Jimmy didn't see Tango for another five years. Five years of believing he was dead, of listening to Overseer Void, and slowly convincing himself that the people who had escaped were selfish, and cruel.

Until one day, Jimmy had enough. What he did was blurry, mind running on overdrive as he attacked the scientists, getting a high-access Pip-Boy of his own and escaping the vault. If he died, then it didn't matter. He'd see Tango again

But he survived, the harsh light of the sun taking him out at first. The wasteland was exactly that — a wasteland, a large stretch of desert with hardly any plant life. It was hard to believe anyone could survive there, but Tango was a survivor.

Jimmy spent a few weeks wandering the wasteland. Generally, when people met him, the interactions went the same: "You're a vault-dweller?" then, after they see his wings, "Oh, you're one of those." then, when Jimmy responded with a puzzled expression, they'd explain the Watchers to him.

A group of mercenaries, trained to fight. Some say they looked like monsters, others like animals. Their leader, an imposing figure with bright red wings. Grian. Nobody seemed to know where their home base was, although they seemed to work for a group known as The Pack, as every time that faction was attacked, the Watchers showed up immediately after.

It was conflicting, knowing that they were alive despite also knowing that they were supposedly murdering people. He took solace in the fact that Tango would do the right thing, and try and make this wasteland a better place. It was the thing they had all been told to do since they were young.

Along his journey, of trying to become reunited with Tango, he'd met a few people. Two ghouls — a nearly immortal, zombie-looking person, who'd become that way due to excess radiation exposure — named Cleo and Bdubs, a knight of the Brotherhood of Steel — a military group that wore bulky metal suits, that almost looked like robots, whose job was to keep the wasteland a safe place — named Wels, and… A random dog. Who Jimmy had named Norman, and had loyally stayed at his side.

He'd seen a lot. The good, the bad, and the downright monstrous. He'd been taught to fight by Cleo and Bdubs, and Wels had helped him find what gun suited him best. Norman was just sort of there, acting as moral support and occasionally stepping in to attack a wild animal when it threatened to kill Jimmy.

The animals on the surface weren't anything like Jimmy expected. Cleo had explained that this was a result of the radiation exposure after the bombs, and that these creatures were once "normal", just as they were. Jimmy couldn't believe there was any version of a radroach that was normal. They made for good food though, something that Bdubs had taught him when roasting his kill over a fire, although Jimmy couldn't exactly eat it. He filed it away for Tango, wondering if he'd ever eaten radroach before, and if so, what he thought of it.

"Just be careful of the rads." Bdubs had said, taking a bite out of the radroach. "You don't wanna turn out like us, do you?"

It turned out that nothing on the surface was safe. Jimmy was grateful that his Pip-Boy had an in-built Geiger counter, and that Wels had gifted him enough Rad Away to last him a few months. It was a pre-war drug, designed to rid the body of radiation, which was good! Except for the fact that it made Jimmy feel ill for a day or so afterwards.

The most important lesson Jimmy had learned was that the wasteland was far from kind. IF anything, it was cruel beyond belief. But with the promise of Tango and Grian, and the others, at the end of his journey, he kept his head held high, and greeted everyone with the same kindness. Sometimes he was rewarded with a free meal, most times he had the door slammed in his face.

The day Jimmy finally found Tango started out like pretty much any other. He and Norman woke up, and ate their breakfast. Jimmy was eating some pre-war instant mash he'd scavenged, whilst Norman ate a radroach — it turned out that if it was cooked a specific way, it no longer became radioactive, and he'd hate for Norman to get hurt like that. He slung his backpack around his shoulder, tidied up his campsite, and set off in the direction of the last Watcher sighting. He kept track of them in his Vault-Tec notebook, alongside old journal entries describing the same features day after day. He knew the reason for it now; they wanted to track how their little experiment was coming along. It made him sick.

The previous day, he'd been told about a "winged beast" attacking a group of raiders, somewhere eastern. That had to be Pearl, the guy had also described freakish bug-like eyes, antenna, and brown hair tied up. This time, the raid was closer to Jimmy's location than they had ever been, and he just knew they couldn't have gotten far in that time.

"C'mon Norman, let's go. They should be… That way."

As he walked, he found claw marks on the collapsing walls, the occasional feather, and their mark: a purple eye, spray painted on an old building. He poked his head in, seeing only an injured raider writhing on the floor. Immediately, he rushed over to them, kneeling on the ground and stabbing a stimpak — an injector designed to heal instantly — into his thigh.

The raider's eyes widened when he saw Jimmy, trying to crawl back until Jimmy placed a hand on his chest. Over the weeks, he'd learned that he was a great deal stronger than the average person, so the raider was unable to move under him. "It's ok. I'm here to help."

"You're- you're one of them." The raider said, voice faint. "Those bastards."

"Oi." Jimmy said, removing his hand. When the raider pulled out a pistol, he just rolled his eyes. "I saved your life, put that thing away. I'm looking for them. The ones like me." He gestured to the feathers on his neck.

"Lord knows where they went. I didn't even think they were real…."

"This is important." Jimmy pulled out his notebook. "Did you see one with, uh, claws? A black and orange striped tail?"

"That one," the raider spat, and Jimmy wrote down a small "yes" next to Tango's name, as he did whenever Tango had been spotted, "did this to me." He held up his arm, where a deep gash, now being healed by the stimpak, and Jimmy sucked in a breath.

"You're healing now. You know where the nearest settlement is, right? I'll give you a few caps, you go and get food, shelter, whatever you need. I'm so sorry for what he did."

Jimmy shoved a few caps — literal bottle caps, the currency of this post-war world, something that had always confused Jimmy — into the raider's hand. His eyebrows furrowed for a second, and then he stood up, walking towards the door, mumbling about "happy-go-lucky vault dwellers". It was something Jimmy had heard a lot; turns out vault dwellers like him had a reputation for being overly kind Some would call it naivety, a weakness, but Jimmy thought that seeing the light in things despite all that he'd witnessed was a strength, one that Tango surely would've maintained in his five years gone.

"Wait!" He called after the raider, who stopped in his tracks. "Which way did they go?"

The raider pointed in a direction, slightly more northern than Jimmy was walking. "It's why I'm going the other way! They ain't good news, except maybe for you."

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind!" Jimmy said, planning to disregard his advice entirely.

It took another hour of walking for him to find a small campsite set up, and he could hear laughter and chatting coming from the campsite. He tried not to let himself hope, but he couldn't stop his heart beat from picking up, and then he heard Grian's laugh. Grian had a laugh unlike anyone else Jimmy had ever met, and probably would ever meet, something infectious and loud, that sounded more like a cackle.

That was it.

He stepped closer, hand hovering over his gun in case things went wrong, not that they ever did. Anxiety swelled in his chest, heart thrumming with anticipation, as he stepped closer.

They'd changed so much. They wore masks, and hood, and long robes to hide their hybrid features. Jimmy could see Tango's claws though, slicing into a piece of meat, while Grian's talons picked at some corn.

He stepped closer again, snapping on a twig, causing all of them to turn around and point their weapons at him.

There was an incredibly long stretch of silence, in which Jimmy stared at the group, eyes wide and breathing erratic. This could go very well or it could go very wrong, and this would be for nothing.

"Jimmy?" Grian's faint voice registered barely seconds before the crushing hug did. Jimmy placed his hands on Grian's back, patting it sympathetically whilst Grian cut off his breathing. "How long have you been out for?"

"A few weeks." Jimmy wheezed, trying to push Grian off of him, but his grip only tightened.

Pearl snickered. "Careful Gri, you're gonna kill him."

"Yeah, the boss won't be happy if anything happened to him. We're a valuable species, remember?" Martyn chimed in. If Jimmy wasn't so overcome with emotion, he'd question that statement a bit further.

Grian reluctantly let go, the biggest grin on his face. "Anyone else with you?" His face fell as Jimmy didn't respond. "Are they…?"

"They're alive. I… I think. The last I saw, it was more a mission of… I don't know, stopping anyone else from getting out? They're running out of us, I guess."

"I see." Grian said quietly. "Well, sit down! We've got fresh grown food here, no rads, and I can't imagine you've been eating well."

"No." Jimmy laughed. "I've been having something called, uh, instant mash? It's from before the war? And Norman here's been eating radroaches."

Norman, as if on cue, barked, alerting the group to his presence.

"Oh my god, puppy!" Pearl squealed, walking over to Norman and crouching down in front of him, giving his ears a scratch.

Sitting down at the campsite, Jimmy realised there was someone he wanted to see, but hadn't yet. Tango. Who was looking at him like he didn't believe he was real, like he was refusing to blink in case Jimmy disappeared. They made eye contact, Tango's pupils turning from narrow slits into a large, black void. His tail swayed gently.

"…Jimmy." He said quietly, taking his hood off. If it weren't for that, Jimmy would've thought it was the wind whistling.

"Hey, Tango." He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry for taking so long."

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again." Tango stepped forward, rubbing his eyes. "You're… You're here! Oh, this is just great, I can show you what we've been working on, the life we've built, oh Jimmy, we have a farm!"

Jimmy perked up. "You have a farm?"

"A farm, yeah! We have a few radstag, and we're growing plants for the herbivores, and we have a roof. Jimmy, do you know how rare it is to have a proper living place up here?"

"I do." He admitted, having spent the past few weeks sleeping on a thin sheet of cloth in the exposed wilderness. He'd been lucky enough not to get attacked in the middle of the night, but he knew that his luck could've run out at any moment.

"We've got one. As long as we keep working for them, we're set! Our leader's a great guy, too."

Jimmy smiled. It was nice to see that Tango was in a good place. He did have one issue, though. "You're covering up your animal traits. Why?"

"Have you not seen in your time here?" Tango laughed. "The people up here don't exactly like our kind. And now, with what we're doing, they're terrified of us."

He'd seen. People slamming the door in his face, people hurling every insult under the sun at him, he'd just thought it was because of his jumpsuit and bright attitude — turns out Vault-Tec had a reputation for being, well, evil, so most people didn't like whatever they thought Jimmy stood for. And now he was learning it was also because of the wings on his back? That he was born with? He couldn't exactly control that.

"You aren't making us look any better. You're fighting for a good cause, right?"

Tango got this amused look in his eyes. "Yeah, sure we are."

"Great!"

Grian sat down by the fire they'd set up, while Jimmy and Tango sat opposite him. "What happened after we left?" Grian asked, picking up his corn from earlier.

"Oh, uh…" Jimmy said, struggling to remember that far back. "Dr Slab got promoted. They didn't hold a funeral for you guys, said you were all violent."

"They thought we were dead?!" Pearl exclaimed, looking up from where she was feeding Norman another form of bug that Jimmy didn't recognise. "Typical."

"You guys went out onto the surface, I don't know what else you expected. They did hold one for Dr Jumbo though- Wait… What happened to him?"

"Who, Mumbo?" Grian said with a frown. "Nothing? We just took his Pip-Boy, which we gave back, and he went back into the vault."

That gave Jimmy pause. "They said you killed him."

"No?" Martyn sat down next to Grian. "He… Do you think they killed him?"

"Who, Overseer Void?"

Grian snorted. "Yeah. Void probably saw him as an accomplice, so he punished him. Probably kept him where all the other dead scientists are."

A chill went up Jimmy's spine. "Ok. I don't… Want to think about that. Shall we get moving back to wherever your base is?"

"Let us pack up, and we'll show you." Tango stood up next to him. "You're lucky you found us here, our base location is kept under wraps."

They walked together to their base, talking about what they'd been up to. Jimmy didn't have much to report to, saying that life went back to normal relatively quickly. Any mention of the "violent" escapees was met with punishment, and so Jimmy kept diary entries writing about Tango in the torn out pages of his journal. He showed it to Tango, the process of hunting them down and trying to figure out their location. With Jimmy's pencil, Tango corrected it, writing in where they actually were on certain days, remarking that Jimmy was highly accurate, but almost always a day or two behind.

In turn, Tango told him about what he'd been doing. Learning to fight, to stand up for himself. He admitted that he'd killed a few times, and that he wasn't proud of it, but that it got easier over time. That made Jimmy uncomfortable. He explained that the leader of the group was typically the strongest, as that's how things worked in their faction, and that their subgroup of The Watchers was Grian, while the leader of The Pack was a man named Ren. Wise, ancient, and an insane fighter.

"Martyn's obsessed with him." Tango explained, causing Martyn to whip his head around, gill-covered cheeks turning red. "It's funny."

"It's not!" Martyn huffed.

"It so is." Gem giggled. "You're the only one here who actually calls him an alpha."

Martyn sputtered. "That's his title!"

"Sorry, what?" Jimmy laughed. "Are you being serious."

"Oh, yeah." Tango said. "Don't laugh. That's just how things work there. Their leader is called the alpha, it's… Their way of life. We're the guests."

"…right."

Explaining more of how The Pack actually run things, Tango wound up letting slip that a lot of them like to dress up as certain animals, another reason as to why they seemed to like the hybrids.

"They still sort of view us as "other", but they know we're stronger than them, and they like to stand out. Who stands out more than us?"

As the day drew to a close, they wound up at what seemed to be an abandoned warehouse. "Here we are!" Tango announced.

Nearing the entrance, Jimmy saw a guard standing by the door, gun in hand. All it took was for the hybrids to take their hoods down for the guard to nod and stand aside, letting them walk in.

"Was that just me, or did he seem to get a bit scared when he saw us?" Jimmy asked Tango, glancing back at the guard.

"They respect us around here." Tango grinned widely. "It's great!"

It felt more like fear than respect, but who was Jimmy to judge? Tango knew the situation better than he did anyway.

They walked through the warehouse, past corridors with various spray-painted insignia, until they entered what Grian called "the main hall". Standing at the end of the room was a man in a wolf mask and cape, who opened his arms when he saw them arrive.

"My Watchers, hello! Have the raiders been taken care of?"

"Yes sir." Grian said stiffly. "The stolen inventory has been returned to the outpost."

"Brilliant, brilliant." His eyes landed on Jimmy, scanning him. His gaze lingered on his wings, the patches of feathers around his neck, the Vault-Tec. Feeling exposed, Jimmy hid his taloned hands behind his back, feeling his feathers puffing up. "My, who might this be?"

"This is Jimmy." Tango said, stepping slightly closer. "He's from our Vault. This one's a canary."

"A canary, hm? Interesting… I do always wonder how they managed to choose these animals for you. I imagine I'd be a wolf of some sort."

Jimmy bit back a snarky comment, realising that now was not the place, but that he'd tell Tango later.

"Well, you lot can rest for now!" The leader, who Jimmy could only assume was Ren, clapped his hands together. "There are whispers of an attack on our northern base tonight, but you'll be alerted of that as and when it happens. Tango, give our new guest a tour of the building?"

"On it." Tango saluted, leading Jimmy out of the room.

"So… That was Ren, huh?"

Tango nodded. "That was Ren. I think he likes you."

"That's a good thing?" Jimmy asked, a frown on his face.

"What, did you not like him? He's the one who's kept us all alive."

He sighed, shoulders sagging slightly. "He just gives me a weird vibe. That's all."

"You sure?" Tango nudged him playfully. "He's not so bad. There are worse leaders out there, I promise you."

"I'm not saying there aren't I'm just saying-"

"Let's just take the tour." Tango said in a tone that shut Jimmy up. "You'll be living here soon."

The first place he took Jimmy was their room, a set of three bunk beds. "We've always had a bunk spare." Tango commented, as Jimmy waved to the other guys resting. "I was trying to save it in case you showed up. And you did!"

"I did." As annoyed as Jimmy was, he couldn't help but smile. "It took me so much to get here, and I'm so glad I did it."

"I'm glad too." Tango took Jimmy's hand in his.

They kept walking, past the mess hall, which had plenty of herbivore options for Grian and Jimmy, and past the armoury, where Jimmy stopped in his tracks.

"What's in here?"

"Oh, just stuff." Tango shrugged, opening the door with a smirk on his face.

Jimmy was expecting defence. Armour, shields, maybe a few weapons, but no. The place was stocked floor to ceiling with firearms, grenades, anything any solider could ever want would be in that room, and it made Jimmy deeply uncomfortable.

"Isn't it awesome? I've used almost everything in here at some point. You will too while you try and find your signature weapon."

"My… signature weapon?" Jimmy blinked slowly.

"Yeah! Mine's this thing." He held up a small dagger. "I like close combat. Ren insists I keep a gun on me, but I hardly use it. It's more for if one of the other guys lose theirs. Grian's really prone to that, by the way. If he asks to borrow something you are not getting that back.

"Oh, nice." Jimmy laughed awkwardly. "So, I'll be learning to fight?"

"I can teach you!" Tango's pupils got big, and Jimmy's discomfort vanished. This was clearly something that meant a lot to Tango, so of course Jimmy would take part in it.

Then, alarms went off. Grian rushed past the armoury, shouting: "They're attacking now! C'mon Tango!"

Tango squeezed Jimmy's hand. "I'll be back in an hour or so. Ok?"

"Don't get hurt." Jimmy responded, fear laced into his voice.

"I never get hurt." Tango said, and he let go of Jimmy's hand. As soon as that happened, a wild look found it's way into his eyes, and he looked downright murderous. It was a side of him that Jimmy had never seen before, and it just added to the pile of discomfort weighing in his chest.

Martyn stopped at the door of the armoury. "Ren wants to talk to you by the way, Jimmy. Now, let's go."

Just like that, Tango was gone again so soon.

Once the alarms died down, Jimmy made his way back to the main room, finding that Ren was deep in discussion with another Pack member. Jimmy cleared his throat, and Ren looked in his direction.

"Oh, hello, Jimmy. Come, come." With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the other woman, who left out the door Jimmy came in from. "Now, I want to have a little chat with you. Understood?"

Jimmy nodded wordlessly.

"So, I understand you're one of my hybrids." My hybrids. Ren's. Like they were just property. "I'm sure you've heard about the small deal I struck with them?"

"They fight for you in exchange for a place to live, right?"

"Exactly!" Ren slung an arm around Jimmy's shoulder. "It's a good deal, if I say so myself. One I'm rather proud of. One I'm assuming you will take as well?"

"I don't know how to fight." Jimmy admitted.

Ren laughed. "Tango can teach you, can't he? You two are special."

"How so?"

"Do you remember, in the Vault, that little radiation experiment you two did?"

"Yes?" Jimmy asked, wondering where this was going. "How did you know I took part in that?"

"The feathers on your neck. Grian doesn't have those. And something I've learned from Tango is that experiment has actually made you stronger. And it's also made you look less human, and Grian didn't seem to mention your neck feathers when he was telling me about the other hybrids in your vault. Meaning either he just… Forgot. Unlikely, considering he also compared you two to brothers, or it means the neck feathers were a new development. A mutation, if you like."

"Tango's… Stronger?" Jimmy frowned. Tango had said that the strongest would lead, and yet he was not the one in charge of The Watchers.

"Oh, yes. He doesn't know that he could easily overpower both myself and Grian. He wouldn't want to risk losing Grian either. You do know how we choose a new leader, right?"

Tango hadn't explained it to him yet, conversation cut off by his battle. "No."

"You have to challenge me to a fight." He grinned at Jimmy, as if daring him to start a fight right there. "If you win, you're the leader. The loser is shunned from The Pack."

"…oh."

"It's a shame." Ren sighed. "We aren't allowed to murder in this faction. The only downside, I think. We're supposed to be loyal to each other, but Jimmy, I'm sure you can I both know that loyalty is temporary. Now, if someone were to die on the battlefield, through somebody of a different faction-"

"No." Jimmy cut him off, hoping he wasn't implying that he'd kill Jimmy. Or worse. kill Tango. "That wouldn't be right, it wouldn't be fair."

"Fair?" Ren laughed. "Your little boyfriend is out there slaughtering people for petty theft and you're still thinking about what's fair? I won't have to do anything if you keep behaving like this, you'll kill yourself!"

Taking a step back, the world seemed to spin around Jimmy. Tango wasn't, he wouldn't… "He's not doing that because he wants to! He- he works here because you give him a space to live, not because he wants people dead. He… He… Oh my god."

It clicked for him, then. The deal the hybrids had with Ren, the needless killing, the normalisation of violence. Praising Tango and Jimmy for being the "strongest".

"You're using them as weapons. Real, living people, and you're using them to benefit yourself!" Jimmy shook his head, face getting more panicked as Ren just shrugged. "You're a monster."

"No, Jimmy. You're the monster here. Anywhere else you'd be shunned, I've given you a home."

"You're as bad as Vault-Tec." Jimmy spat. "I'm going back to my room."

"You'll come around!" He sounded so sure, and it made Jimmy wonder if any of them were as against this "deal" initially as he was now. He ran back to Tango's room, heart thumping in his ears as he pulled out his notebook and began to scribble down an note.

Tango,

Something bad's happening here. I don't know what, but I know this organisation you work for isn't a good one. I'm sorry for leaving you. I'll try and find civilisation. I will come back for you. You have my word.

He read it once, then twice, and realised that this wasn't the type of conversation he should have with Tango with a note. This should be something he has in person. So he sat on Tango's bed, as he did all those years ago, and waited.

Half an hour in, a guard stepped in, gives Jimmy a nod, and walks out. Ren was keeping an eye on him, and it terrified him.

Then, Tango ran back in, sweat dripping down his face, a gash on his arm. Jimmy immediately sat up and looked at the wound.

"This looks painful." He said quietly. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah!" He waved a hand dismissively, smile looking too bright for the moment. He was probably still reeling from the fight, still flooded with the adrenaline, perking up his mood. "I barely feel it. I an't tell if it's the tiger or the adrenaline."

"Ok…" Jimmy responded, trying not to let his concern show. "Let's get you sat down."

Sitting down next to Jimmy, Tango ripped some of the fabric off of his jacket and tied it around the gash.

"We need to talk." Jimmy took Tango's hand once the fabric strip was secured.

"You ok?"

He didn't know how to start that." Yeah. I think. I just… Don't like what Ren's doing. You're killing people. To live. And you seem to think it's ok. Tango, these guys are using you, they're as bad as Vault-Tec!"

Tango laughed loudly, taking gasping breaths. "You're joking, right? These guys give me agency, the choice to do what I want. I'm not just some experiment to them, I'm a person."

"You're a tool." Jimmy corrected, getting annoyed. "A way to get them the advantage over their enemies. The only reason you're special is because you're one of the strongest."

"I… I'm what?" Tango laughed again, more unsure this time. "You're lying."

"I'm not. I swear to you- No. No, I'm going. I don't want to be here anymore."

"You can't be serious. Jimmy, you spent five years trying to find us, and you're leaving so soon?"

"Yes!" Jimmy snapped. "Because as sucky as the vaults were, I was taught one thing for the surface: treat others as you would want to be treated. I want to be treated like I'm a person, not a weapon, and I don't exactly want to be killed, Tango! I'm not staying in a place that sees me as subhuman and wants me to kill innocents."

"They- they aren't innocents, Jimmy." Tango said, walking after him. "They attacked us first!"

"Oh, so that means they have to die?! What if it were me? What if, at some point on my travels, I was one of the people attacking you? Would you still kill me?"

Tango had nothing to say to that, which was an answer on its own. He didn't view his opposition as people either. Didn't seem to realise that they were real people once, with real lives and real goals, and he'd just taken them with one bullet. They might've had someone waiting for them at home, someone who would never see them again.

Jimmy turned back around and left without a word. As soon as he was out of the door, he ran. He didn't know where he was going, only hoping that he'd wind up with Cleo or Bdubs again, or he'd even take Wels, who had good advice but seemed to meet him with a bit of judgement. Anything that wasn't The Pack.

Eventually, he had to stop to take a breather, fishing in his pocket for his remaining caps, and realising he didn't actually have that much. Then he realised he was missing someone — Norman. What had happened to him? The last he saw, Norman was with Pearl, and she'd taken him somewhere else. If The Pack could use the hybrids as weapons, train them to be loyal fighters, couldn't they do the same with animals? with… dogs?

It was too late to go back for Norman. Jimmy could only hope that they'd treat him well.

Eventually, on his travels, Jimmy found an old convenience store that had turned itself into an inn, according to the poorly made sign on the building. He just hoped he had enough caps to pay for a night there.

"Uh, excuse me?" Jimmy poked his head in, seeing an old man working the counter. "Hello, sir, my name is-"

"Get out." He spat, reaching behind the counter for a gun.

Jimmy laughed nervously. "Sir, you can't be serious, I haven't done anything."

"You're a vaultie, for one." He loaded the gun. "Second, those wings on your back ain't natural. You're a freak as well. We don't serve freaks."

"Freak? I haven't even done anything!" Jimmy was annoyed, frustration pumping through his veins. "You listen to me, I've had an awful day, I need to rest, and you will give me a room!"

The man lowered his gun, eyes wide with fear, and Jimmy was hit with a wave of guilt all of a sudden. "There's a room for you in the back."

"Thank you." Jimmy said firmly, slamming the last of his caps on the desk.

In the dark, dingy hotel room, Jimmy curled up on the bed — nothing more than a sheet of fabric on the floor, not unlike what he'd spent many a night sleeping on, but at least he had a roof over his head.

What Tango had said was true. They were frightened of people like Jimmy here.

The door opened, and the man from earlier left Jimmy's caps by the door. "You're alright to stay for free. Just don't piss on the floor or whatever it is you lot do."

"Thanks." Jimmy mumbled, knowing full well the free night wasn't because he was feeling kind. People on the surface wouldn't know kind if it hit them in the face. It was pointless, trying to get them to see reason.

The more Jimmy thought, the more tempting The Pack seemed. He could spend his life with Tango, have free food and shelter, be respected, not feared… All for the low price of giving away his morals and dignity. It was tempting, almost too tempting.

He could see the flaws in the system too, but so far he hadn't seen a single way of life that came without flaws. All that mattered was which flaws he cared about the least, and harming other people seemed to be a better choice than harming himself.

He could try and take the system out from the inside. Become strong, replace Ren as leader, turn The Pack into something good. It was unrealistic, and an incredibly dangerous choice, but it was just as tempting as joining to work as a mercenary.

At least he'd see Tango and Norman again.

Conflicted about which path he should go down, Jimmy rolled over in the quiet hotel room. Tomorrow, he would set off for The Pack, returning the way he came, and permanently altering his future.