AN: As a preface, I am taking much inspiration, including the point of crossover, from StaffSergeant's story "The Courier"

Chapter 1 - Inertia

Markus Friedrich was a man of many names. Few knew his given name, even fewer used it. In the Capital wasteland he had been dubbed the Lone Wanderer. In the Mojave he was known as Courier Six, or more simply as The Courier.

His enemies gave him their own names. The Legion called him Thanatos, the god of death. He was feared even more than the Burned Man was, as there was no question of whether he lived. The Enclave designated him with the code name "Apollyon". Fitting, as the Angel of the Abyss is viewed as Satan by some and Christ by others. Despite publicly hailing him as a hero, the NCR high command was always wary of his power, realizing that if he turned on them, their days would be numbered.

In the days following the NCR's victory at second battle of Hoover dam, the Courier found himself spending increasing amounts of time in the Big Empty. As one of the brightest minds of the twenty-third century, he, with the aid of the Think Tank, pushed the boundaries of science further than they had ever gone before. Of course, the Courier's strict morals prevented many of the Think Tank's less ethical ideas from harming the people of of the Mojave wasteland. Still, science flourished once again in the crater that was the Big Empty, and not long after the Courier's arrival, a prototype transportalponder was ready to be tested.

This transportalponder Mk. II would form the basis for a revolution of transportation in the wasteland. The new version would be able to take a person from the place of activation to a set point, in this case the sink, and back to the initial position of activation. In addition to this, the range would be increased to cover the entire continent. Therefore, in order to test this, the Lone Courier left Big Mountain and journeyed to the pre-war train station that ran between the Mojave and Capital wastelands.

The NCR largely forgot about Courier after the award ceremony and he, for his part, was content to be forgotten. He had no real investment in the NCR, he supported it merely because it was the most moral option. The corruption and inefficiency that were the vices of the NCR paled in comparison to the detriments of the other options. The brutality and backwardness of the Legion ensued that it was an abomination to concept of morality and the dictatorship of Mr. House would be contrary to the Old World values that the Courier prized so highly of liberty and democracy.

The Second Battle for Hoover Dam, and the conflicts preceding it, left the Courier hardened and cynical, having a pessimistic view of human nature yet still believing that one man could change the course of history. That particular lesson was one taught to him by Ulysses. The Lone Courier still had not checked up on him following the battle of the Divide. Thinking about the Divide also caused the Courier to remember the events of Zion.

He still felt guilty about the fate of the members of happy trails caravan (except Ricky for...obvious reasons). The lives that he had taken and those he had failed to save weighed heavily on the young man.

In the heat of battle, he felt no emotion at the deed of killing. Joshua Graham once told him that killing when done righteously, was a chore. And in battle, he agreed with that sentiment. However, once the dust settled and there was no threat to his life, he felt sympathy towards those he had killed, not knowing whether they were evil or merely victims of the circumstance of their birth. He also felt that there was something that was lost the first time one killed. However, he could no longer remember what that was. All these thoughts plagued the Courier's mind as he made the long trek to the train station.

The trains station was in much the same condition that he had left it in, that is to say, dilapidated and dangerously decayed. Some feral ghouls had taken up residence in the area. They were hardly a threat to the Courier, and six rounds from A Light Shining in Darkness later, six bodies were on the floor. Each had a single bullet wound in the exact center of their forehead.

A sudden wind caused the Courier's duster to flutter much like the flag which was emblazoned on its back. His sunglasses shielded his eyes from the dust of the Mojave that the draft blew through the desolate train station.

It had been months since he had first arrived in the Mojave however, as a result of a near fatal dose of acute lead poisoning, he had forgotten all events that had occurred between boarding the train in the Capital wasteland and waking up in Goodsprings. While some would be concerned by the loss of memory, he was merely thankful that he had lost none of his more important memories.

Once he had boarded the train he sat down and prepared for hours of boredom. Eventually, lost in his thoughts, he drifted off into an uneasy sleep plagued by nightmares and phantoms of the dead.

The squeal of the brakes brought him out of his subconscious self torture. Drawing A Light Shining in Darkness he cautiously approached the door. Hearing the sounds of more feral ghouls on the outside, he slammed the door open and activated VATS. His Pip-boy sent electronic signals to his brain causing him to perceive events as though time had stopped.

Four targets sighted. Three were on the ground level while one was on the upper level of the train station. Four suppressed rounds discharged and four corpses hit the floor. It was over in less than a second. Quickly swapping mags, he then surveyed the area for additional targets. Now that the area appeared to be clear, the Lone Courier set about testing the new and improved transportalponder MK. II.

Despite his pleading (or as he insisted on calling them "well reasoned arguments") with the Think Tank to rename the transportalponder to something less silly, or at least with less syllables, they were adamant that its name remain the same. The Courier eventually gave up and settled with renaming it without their knowledge if it ever went to mass production.

Atomizing A Light Shining in Darkness and summoning the transportalponder MK. II in its place. He held the device at about shoulder height and depressed the trigger. The new version, owing to its more powerful nature required a nearly half a minute to activate. While this was an inconvenience, the Courier was not overly concerned as he did not use it in combat situations to avoid it being damaged.

As soon as the transportalponder started charging, with a large amount of dramatic irony, he suddenly heard someone yell,"It's him!." Shifting his gaze towards the sound, he saw an Enclave squad had wandered onto the upper level. Having been absorbed in using his Pip-boy he had failed to notice them enter the area. There was one officer, two hellfire troopers, and one with a tesla who had identified him.

"Damn, those Enclave bastards don't know when to quit do they. Well, time to add four more to my body count." The Courier thought to himself.

Despite this confidence, the Lone Wanderer was aware that he was in a dilemma. He was not wearing his armor as he had not expected to meet any tangible resistance. While he was confident that he could operate his Pip-boy one-handed, once he had equipped his armor he would not be able to wield a weapon as long as the transportalponder was activating. His plans were thrown into disarray when the transportalponder started to glow with blinding light forcing the Courier to avert his eyes, despite the fact he was wearing sunglasses. Seeing this, the Enclave troopers began to blind fire at the Lone Wanderer. While the projectiles missed, even 9 luck can take one only so far, as much to the Courier's horror, the tesla cannon beam collided directly with the transportalponder.

The device glowed green and started became hot in his hand and the beeps became more frequent and intense. The Lone Couriers last words before being sucked into the portal were, "Oh son of a…"

Despite the efforts of many in both wastelands, the Lone Courier was not to be found, that did not stop the Brotherhood of Steel and the Outcasts from massacring the Enclave in retribution however. Little did anyone know the effect that this piece of seemingly bad luck would have. Despite others having given up, the search the Brains in the Big Empty continued to search for their CEO and missing technology, experimenting with portals of decreasing stability and increasing power. This singular incident would further prove that Ulysses was right. Not only can a single man change the course of history, but the Courier, could change two worlds.

AN: I did warn you I would reuse this.