A:N/ It's been a while since my last update. I was hoping to post a chapter in November but between illnesses, holidays, birthdays, work and other things it became very difficult to find the time to write. I've been at a bit of an impass as to where to take it next. I believe this is the best possible outcome.

A lot of my projects have been kind of held up by a big crossover story, that a friend and I have been working on. It's been kind of hard working on anything with Denis or Cheyenne in as the continuity is quite fluid at the moment.

Anyway, I was hoping to finish these projects, so that I can move onto the next phase as it were. :)

Wolfe had been pretty damn quiet, these past few days… That was worrying.

Cain wondered what it would take to flush her out… Maybe invading a few of her bases? Burning a few Brotherhood Emblem flags? Parading a few women for the creep to gawk at?

He'd heard the rumours… It didn't give him a negative impression of her. If anything, he wished that the two of them had fought, side by side, out in the thick of it.

Either fighting Attis or the Calculator, he hardly gave two shits. Just so long as he got to see her lead a ragtag team of barely literate tribals, like they were the Goddamn SAS. He would've loved to have been a part of that… instead of chasing a bunch of fucksticks across a God-forsaken wasteland.

The Brotherhood's dirty little secrets, fighting side by side… If only that could've happened. At least once…

Fighting her was fun at first but the conflict was growing gratuitous. He had long since lost interest in this seemingly endless conflict, at this point, it just felt like she was impeding on his plans of expansion. He had hoped that a dust storm would appear and win this thing for him, years back.

It felt like the perfect tactical move at the time. Fight a war hero, beat her ass on the battlefield, maybe win her over to his cause, badda bing, badda boom.

However, the fighting kept happening, the territory changed hands all the time and by the end of the first year, Caine realised a sad fact.

He was in over his head.

On nights like this, when he was feeling all nostalgic, it didn't really do him much good, sitting in the dark, on his own. So it's what he usually ended up doing.

With a cigar between his teeth and a blunt, primitive instrument of death in his hands, he'd do his best thinking. His most inspired ideas came from doing a simple task in the dark.

However, tonight, he wouldn't be alone. Tonight, his walkie would flare up, getting his attention…

"Caine?"

The Ghoul looked up, iris shrinking, like a predator, spotting a weak deer, hobbling by. That voice was one of his enemy… The Voice of the Chosen One.

He snatched up the radio, giving the transmitter a brief squeeze.

"I was hoping to hear from you. You calling about your friends?

Heh, don't blame you… Still alive, still tickin'… even the old one, who looks like he's able to peg out, without my help."

"John's tough, tougher than you or I… I wouldn't accept it if he died, not unless I saw it myself."

"Something tells me that his skull was harder before he replaced it with steel… Man just glares at me, with what's left of his eyes, looking like he wants to hit me, straight in the nose with it."

"You blame him? You have him captive… You enslaved his companion's sister… You're why he's here."

"Heh… Not exactly. His sis moved around, quite a bit, I just… aquired her, in the end. Kinda funny, that you ended up with her and I ended up with the rest of your friends. It's a like God, with a bad sense of humour has shuffled your gains and losses around, to keep you on our toes.

Question is: What'll you gain and what'll you lose, by coming to this place?

The answer?: Is entirely up to you."

"I'm not making any deals with you, Caine."

"Heh… You make 'em with Wolf, right?"

The Chosen One scoffed, clearly moving about on the other end. Probably looking around as she thought on a retort.

"She's the lesser of two evils, Caine… I saw how you treat people, remember? I rode in in one of your trains, chain to chain with the other poor souls, who had crossed you."

"Heh… Funny, you don't approve of me but your Grandsire did." Caine said, seemingly quite dismissive of the whole thing.

This obviously got Cheyenne's attention, not knowing what he was talking about. The two of them had met? It was… so rare that she got fresh accounts of people, who actually spoke to the man, especially not accounts, that she hadn't heard before.

"In Necropolis?"

"Nah… After Necropolis… Back in 08? He came to Carbon… Was impressed at my willingness to protect this place. Shared the road with me, after I parted ways with an old Canteen, with a Thirteen on it.

It's when I knew. No one else was crazy enough to be out here… After all of these years, the two of us were toe to toe. First in Necropolis… Now here. He asked me for stories… I asked him. He told me about the Master. The way that the fleshy halls made his skin crawl… The few nights that we had, on the road, he barely slept and the one time he did, he cried out into the dark.

I didn't get it… Until I met Attis. He mentioned how the Master haunted him, how it fucked his mind to hell and back.

You see, he got it. I get it. To get to a bright future? You gotta crawl through a whole lotta ugly. A lot of sins are necessary, murder, theft…

Some aren't, like rape and genocide.

He did whatever he had to do, to get that Chip and after? They exiled him and he had to live with himself… Had to live with what he saw, what he faced and worst of all, what he'd done.

He and I? We're the same, in that regard. This is my Arroyo, Cheyenne… I took a hole in the ground and made into something magnificent."

"My Grandsire didn't keep slaves… Caine. You're not alike, even taking into account that he had his dark side, he lived to help people. To fight for his people and the people of the Wasteland.

He left a legacy behind, that lead to a brighter California and all that you've done is dragged this place into a dark age."

"Heh…"

Caine was a little bemused by that, she wasn't wrong in what the facts were but she missed the point entirely. Like a child, trying to understand a foreign concept, she only saw the bad, with no effort to distinguish the good.

"Well you know what they say… 'Rome wasn't built in a day.'

Nor was it built by choice… It was built through slave labour or at least with piss poor working conditions. Because you give someone a choice? They'll pick the one that suits 'em.

You force 'em? They'll do the right thing… They'll build things, for themselves but more crucially for those around them.

We're selfish, Cheyenne… we don't do things willingly. It's why no creature on this earth has wheels as an evolutionary trait. No animal on this planet is selfless enough to build a road and if it were up to humans, on their own? They wouldn't either.

It's not in our nature, to do things for others, so we have to fight nature to ensure that these assholes do the right thing.

You're a leader, right? Big or small scale… You've been there. You made people do shit, they didn't want to?"

"I don't kill them, if they don't." Cheyenne said, cutting through him. This insanity was only convincing her that this guy was nuttier than candy bar shit.

"Your loss… You still make 'em on some level. You charm 'em, threaten 'em, manipulate 'em… trick 'em even. They wouldn't do it otherwise."

"None of that was needed to get me here, none of it was needed to get Cass here either and he has no stake in this. All that he wanted to do was see Texas."

"You think that… Cass is typical? No… Us and the people, we attract? They see us as leaders. Follow us into hell… Seen their type before, back in the day."

"You had such people?" Cheyenne asked, finding herself intrigued.

"Yeah… other initiates, who found their way to me. Vault Dwellers… Heh… Even THE Vault Dweller found himself here in the end."

Cheyenne wasn't quite sure what he was getting at. Was he saying…?

"I don't… Understand…"

"The Vault Dweller, Silar… He knew what he was doing, out here in this world. He'd made Arroyo but couldn't be a part of it, after losing her. He told me that…

So I asked him, how'd he start Arroyo and he told me, he told me everything. He was already helping the people of Carbon rebuild and he didn't want to hit the road again. He'd spent too many years, collecting dust. He needed purpose and a place to rest…

So he came here, lookin' for it.

Guess you could call Carbon Arroyo's Sister town.

The Black Sheep of the family…"

Cheyenne remained silent; her finger had seemingly slipped off of the walkie but quickly found its way back.

"You want me to believe, that my Grandfather founded this… Nightmare, you call a civilization?" She uttered, seething as she spoke.

"Nah, I ain't cruel enough to ask you to believe that the slavery was his thing or the brutality. Grandpappy was a hard man, tough man… but his ruthless days were behind him. He showed me how to lead, showed my people how to survive.

The slavery came after. When we realised that we were going the way of Arroyo and there was no magical box out there, that could save us.

We did things the old fashioned way… The way that gets results."

Cheyenne took a deep breath as she backed away, bringing up her walkie.

"Doesn't have to be that way… You know it doesn't. He must've told you, how he saw the Hub and Junktown…"

"One bad harvest away from extinction, lady. Besides… I heard of their dirty little secrets as well…

I appreciate you wanting peace, I do. However, it ain't gonna work. I'm a war criminal, Cheyenne, the Brotherhood ain't letting me live. Hell, they'd be throwing more at me, if it weren't for the Civil War, up north.

It's only a matter of time before that ends. My only hope, in the long run is to keep this up, until the Brotherhood and the NCR's conflicts reach boiling point and they break out, into an all out war.

It'll buy me some time…"

"To do what? You have a lot of people but I've noticed that you all depend on prewar tech and basic firearms. If I get into Carbon, in power armour, with a big gun… I could potentially kill you all.

If the Brotherhood drop in some power armoured troopers? Some truly great Paladins or a Star-Paladin even? You aren't seeing tomorrow."

"Heh… That's a pretty big 'If' girly." Caine pointed out, prompting him to slowly rise up and take a step over to the workbench, to return his materials.

"I'm in walkie range… It's not that big of an 'if.'"

"Heh… It is, given that you ain't the type of gal to blow a hole, through a city, full of innocent people." Caine observed.

"Listen… Your friends wait for you here, come down here, take 'em… Go back to California. My beef ain't wit'chu and it sure as shit don't need to be. I ain't Wolfe, I ain't making people do anything to please me or get me my way…

I'm just tryin' to preserve my way of life. Not pissing you off, seems like a good way of doing that…"

"You're not just going to try detaining me, the second that I arrive?"

"No, I'm a bad liar and I have a pair of balls, so I don't do subterfuge. That's Crow's job and he ain't the one on the walkie, with you.

Giving this offer, so we can go back to not knowing or caring about eachother. Take it… Leave us be."

Cheyenne remained quiet for a moment, clearly weighing up her options, like any smart kid would. She eventually replied, with a rather brief 'okay' before disconnecting.

She didn't like this… Fearing that Cain was hoping that they would become buddies, had he not attacked her long enough. Shame that wouldn't undo the whole… slave empire thing.

"Are we to roll out?" Carver offered, getting Cheyenne to glance back at him, looking somewhat unnerved.

"Unfortunately…" Cheyenne answered, pocketing the walkie.

"Though we won't be going in, guns blazing. We'll be giving Cain a chance."

"To do what?"

"Explain himself… To resolve this peacefully? I dunno… There's no way that this can end happily for him, I know that much. He wants to give me my friends back and I get the feeling that something is waiting for me, in Carbon."

"If he gives up your friends… Are you going to leave him to it?" Carver offered, prompting Kurisu to look up, hardly liking that idea.

"I can't." The Chosen one insisted, glancing over to the lights on the horizon, Carbon in all of its… 'glory.'

"I'd never forgive myself, leaving that 'slave empire' standing, the people who hurt Kurisu, Sulik… So many hundreds… thousands of lives, ruined by this nightmare. It needs to end, sometime. I have to end it."

"Very well." Carver agreed, locking and loading his rifle.

"It's as worthy cause as any to die for."

The imposing gates of Carbon groaned under their own weight, two giants stood vigilant, covered in rust and the blood of slaves.

The guards were somewhat nervous of the power armoured beast, approaching them, followed by two clearly armed companions. Unlike Cheyenne, Carver and Kurisu were truly dwarfed by the spectacle, as was the point in it all.

A colossal structure, serving as a power play to prisoner and guest alike. The smog, from the factories, made the sky look especially post-apocalyptic as it grew blacker and more unsettling than night.

Impaled enemies of the Empire, decorated the surrounding area, some of which were still alive, lightly groaning or spasming.

Cheyenne's gaze remained fixed on the path ahead, not even flinching as the two giants parted and revealed the Master, who commanded them. Clutching a Frankenstein's monster of a weapon, a bat with every category of sharp object imaginable strapped, stapled and hammered into it.

"Chosen!" Cain called, from the head of his army.

"You've no idea how good it is, to welcome you here!"

Cheyenne remained cautious, her hand felt like a separate entity, ready to grab her weapon and strike anyone who moved down.

"I came as promised, hand my friends over!"

"Not quite yet." Cain said, twirling his monstrous club around and slamming it against the floor.

"I want to show you something first. Something… Big."

"If this is some sort of trick or trap, I swear that you'll pay for it." Cheyenne assured him, getting the ghoul to scoff.

"Bitch please, you're outnumbered and outgunned. I ain't no sadist either, especially not for folks like yerself… If I wanted you dead, I'd shoot you dead now. I wouldn't even risk letting you inside, if I planned to kill you in the long run."

Cheyenne paused, taking a deep breath before stepping forward.

"Whatever you intend to do with me, I demand that my companions are allowed to walk free, after all of this. No matter the consequences. That includes Cass and Sulik."

"Course, dunno what I'd do with 'em anyway. Wouldn't exactly make good slaves, now would they?"

"Thanks for the… Re-assurance." Cheyenne sighed, glancing back.

"You can leave… If either of you want to. I won't hold it against you."

"Pfft… Like it'd even occurred to me." Carver shrugged, prompting Cheyenne to look to Kurisu.

"Brother Sulik come from far to find me, I do same for him."

In truth, Cheyenne was hoping they'd leave but she didn't have it in her to force them to go.

She felt the weight of her power armour holding her back as she slowly stepped towards the main gate, feeling like she was in space. Every movement took a great degree of effort to achieve.

"You know… You ain't the first of your family to walk through these gates." Cain informed her as she got closer.

"Well… Figuratively speaking. These weren't here, when he was. Sadly for all of us…"

Cheyenne looked incredibly confused under her helmet, until she saw it, right at the heart of the square. A statue of a ragged old man, carrying several weapons on his back, latched onto a bandolier. His hair was hidden in a hood, face hidden behind a beard and many lines of age on his face but somehow she knew exactly who it was, for it was identical to another statue she'd seen of him, the face she'd stared at for hours as a child in awe and admiration.

There was no mistaking it, this old man was her grandsire, the Vault Dweller.

"Hope we got the likeness right… Took us a dozen attempts but I'd say we more or less got it down pat." Cain interjected, behind her, though his words fell on deaf ears as she eyed the inscription at the old man's feet.

'Sylar, Father of Carbon.'

Cheyenne looked around, at the city that her Grandsire had fathered. How as this Arroyo's sister? It was the complete opposite of that place, a nightmare, built on thrown away lives, misery and despair!

"I had no idea what I was doing at the start…" Cain admitted.

"I wasn't no leader, no hero or… well, I just wanted to help and there he was, a man with decades of leadership experience and nowhere else to go.

He told me how hard it was at the start, the shit he went through as a young founder and how many years it took to get things right for his village. I offered him a home, a place where he could be of use and rest in his twilight and in return, he helped me build an empire."

The Ghoul found himself stopping and glancing up, with a bit of admiration in his eye for the elder. He felt like a child at this God's feet…

"I offered him shelter and he gave me a world."

The way he spoke sounded like he found any of this nightmare admirable… This place was far from it. Calling it hell would be generous.

"He wouldn't want this… This slave empire? It's…"

"What he suggested." Cain answered, indifferently.

"Unlike Arroyo, he cared nothing for the people here. He would've done the same there, had it not been his family and friends founding the place and had he not had to look them in the eye as he did it.

Here? He knew nobody, all he could offer was advice. So? He made a City of Pragmatism, unlike Arroyo, it's survived the test of time, purely on its own merits. We didn't need a Chosen One or a G.E.C.K. We took this world by the balls and squeezed."

Cheyenne found herself breaking away from this… This was… a monstrous perversion of everything she's lived for. Everything her friends and family have died for, over decades was what it took to make Arroyo the Utopia it was and he belittled it all for… this?

Her Grandfather… ALLOWED this? Encouraged it?

She'd heard a few dark stories, over the years but… She always chalked it up to necessity, rather than outright callousness.

"C'mon, let's go and take a tour around Grandaddy's Opus." Cain suggested.

"Ye might just learn a thing or two."