Chapter 25 - Beagle

An hour later and with a lot of scrap metal thrown all around, Dante finally managed to repair ED-E to some extent, making the eyebot functional once more. For some reason, as soon as it powered up, the first thing it did was aim its cannon at Vito.

Before it could fire, though, Dante jumped in front of it, stopping the eyebot just before it could fire. Strangely enough, ED-E retracted his cannon as soon as Dante was standing in front of him, but a few seconds later, the eyebot moved to the left before aiming his cannon once more. The same thing happened two times before Dante decided to try taking another approach since it was clear as day that ED-E wasn't going to stop aiming at Vito anytime soon.

"ED-E, buddy, listen to me. The green man is my friend, an ally, so can you please don't aim your cannon at him?"

Neither one of them knew what the eyebot said, but it was clear it was some sort of question, considering the last part of the beeping. Then again, from all they knew, ED-E may just be trying to understand why a human would want to protect its natural enemies.

"Kiddo, let me try something. Worst come true, we might just have to fight your new toy."

Even though he was scared of what might happen to his friend, Dante still nodded at Vito before he walked beside the only couch in the room. Meanwhile, Vito stood in front of the eyebot looking at it, trying to figure out how old the robot was. Sadly for the green giant, there was no clear way of finding the age of this robot, so instead of just standing there glaring at the eyebot, Vito decided to gamble everything on the name of one of the Enclave soldiers he saved years ago.

"Look, I know that you were made to kill things like me, but before you shoot me, can you listen to a story?"

"Since you haven't shot me yet, I take that as a yes. A few years ago, after we were defeated, I was escaping from the NCR when I stumbled across a team of Enclave survivors. They were surrounded by the NCR and with little to no chance of making it out alive out of there. Even though I was a super mutant, I did the unthinkable and saved them, rescuing almost all of them before we quickly left the area, fearing that even more NCR troopers would arrive. Even though I didn't stay with them for long, I've managed to learn the names of some of them. Their captain was Judah Kreger alongside him were a few more survivors. Sadly, I didn't catch all of their names other than the name of their pilot, Daisy Whitman."

Despite fearing that the robot might not completely understand his words, Vito stood still for almost an entire minute before the eyebot let out a few beeps. As soon as the beeps stopped, ED-E turned around and hover over Dante, seemly being in some kind of idle stance, not caring anymore about Vito. Thankfully, Vito's story made him into an ally in the "eyes" of the eyebot, thus saving him from having his back turned against one mean tesla cannon. After this not-so-heartwarming episode, the duo alongside their new robotic companion left the hotel, heading towards the casino. Just as they were about to enter inside, the rather familiar voice of a coward stopped them.

"Wait! Wait for a second you two!"

Both Vito and Dante turned to see Beagle running towards them. The deputy was anything but fit for running a few meters, however, despite that, he still ran towards the duo.

"What's the problem, Deputy? Does the job of being the sheriff of this town tire you out?"

"W-what? No, no, no. My days as a law enforcer are long behind, there's no way I'm putting myself into this kind of danger or worse getting myself killed. Besides the NCR does exactly like me, since well I failed to do my job. Even though I'm a coward, there was no reason I couldn't have run back to Primm and informed all of the residents of the incoming threat, instead I deiced to hide and in the end got myself caught by those powder gangers."

"Then deputy…"

"Just Beagle, I'm no longer the deputy."

"Then Beagle, what do you exactly want from us? I mean I might be a super mutant, but despite that, even I can see that you want something from us."

"Well, about that… I would like to accompany the two of you."

While Vito was glancing at the man, Dante stood there dumbfounded, not understanding why someone as cowardly as Beagle would want to leave the safety of this town for the dangers of the wasteland. After all, Beagle wasn't forced to live a harsh life like them or have to raiders for a living either. Not only this wasn't making any sense, but at the same time, it was out of the character for Beagle to even ask them such a thing. Before Vito could ask the man something, Dante decided to interfere, and bring forth his own question.

"Forgive me for asking this, but why would you want to venture outside in the wasteland where death might come out of nowhere? Don't you have a family here that would miss you or worry about your well-being?"

"I had a sister that was killed by the convicts once they attack the town. She was the wife of the late sheriff and alongside him, both were killed by the convicts as soon as they were found. As for why I want to leave… I can't bear living in this town knowing that my cowardice led to the death of my sister. I can't sleep at night knowing that if I would have simply warned them, then maybe now she and her husband might have been alive and well, instead, I choose to sleep and after the powder gangers killed them they found me in the office. I want to leave this place behind and become a better me, one that won't be a coward, one that I can be proud of."

"What do you say kiddo? Do you think we can use someone like him in our merry band of rejects?"

"I don't know Vito. Despite being far from a perfect person, I'm not too keen on trusting a coward with my life, no offense, sir."

"None was taken, Dante. I understand your skepticism and I know that this is a hard choice for both of you. I only ask for one chance to prove you wrong. Worst case, you will leave me alone in the wasteland."

"I say we give him a chance. Who knows maybe he would turn out to be a great addition to our group and if not…well let's just say that being left alone would be the least of his worries."

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