Fiore

Megaton; 10:00am:

After spending weeks cooped up inside a clinic, Ellie was finally well enough to leave.

However, with most of her equipment and caps gone, all she had was a box of her special mentats and the 9mm pistol Rufus gave her.

She knew that she would have to stay in Megaton for a little while longer…

"Great…" she thought "… no money… again..."

She then started walking towards Moriarty's Saloon…

"… I need to get back to Fiore soon…" she thought as she climbed the long array of stairs

Moriarty's Saloon:

Once inside, the young woman sits near the counter. To her right, she hears the radio broadcast from GNR.

"Greetings People of the Capital Wasteland" Three Dog announced in a dejected voice "The NCR has declared the Capital Wasteland as part of its territory and ask the citizens to cooperate with NCR officials to catch criminals such as those who affiliate themselves with the Brotherhood of Steel…"

"NCR trash…" Ellie said as she covers her right ear

Coincidentally, about 4 NCR soldiers arrive as Gob greets them.

"What can I do for you?" he asked

"Can it zombie!" one of the NCR soldiers said mockingly "We're looking for Colin Moriarty! Call him here, will ya?"

Without uttering a word, Gob complies and searches for Moriarty in the back room.

Ellie sat there quiet with fury slowly building up inside of her as she witnesses some of the NCR soldiers bully some of the locals.

Not long after, Moriarty arrives.

"What can I do for ya?" he said

"We're here to collect taxes, Mr. Moriarty" the NCR soldier replied as he hands over a piece of paper to Moriarty

"Ain't this shit" Moriarty said as he reads the letter "I don't ever remember Megaton ever surrendering its freedom to you, jokers."

"What was that!?" one of the NCR soldiers said in anger

"You heard me" Moriarty replied in an intimidating tone "I don't remember ever becoming a citizen of your stupid republic"

"Oh… We got a smart-ass over here!" the NCR soldier said as he grabs his pistol and aims it at Moriarty's head "Haven't you heard the news? We own everything in and around this place now. So you'll pay those taxes or else, the NCR's gonna burn your little pub into the ground!"

"What a load of bull" Moriarty replied in a casual tone

"Y-You son of a bitch!" the NCR soldier shouted

As the soldier was about to shoot Moriarty, Ellie acted quickly and shot the NCR soldier's hand, prompting him to drop his pistol.

The other NCR soldiers then turned to face Ellie

"Hey-" one of them angrily said before Ellie sucker punches him

"Why you!" said another as he brings out his pistol

But before the soldier could shoot, Ellie moved quickly and throws the man into the floor.

In response, the other soldiers attempted to shoot her

She then proceeded to grab one soldier and breaks his right arm as she moves to the next one and punches him in the face.

When she moved on the last soldier, he fired his pistol but missed as she grabs his arm and kicks him in the groin.

For the next few minutes, the NCR soldiers were down on the floor and writhing in pain...

Eventually, they all stood up and began to walk away...

"Y-You'll regret this!" shouted one NCR soldier as he and the rest leave the saloon.

With the threat gone, Ellie turned to Moriarty

"Are you ok?" Ellie asked

"Oh I'm fine" he replied "Those are some pretty fancy moves, you did there… Reminded me of a certain colorful character I used to know…"

"Right…" she said as she leaves the saloon

Still with no work, she proceeded to her next destination in town.

Craterside Supply:

Upon entering the shop, she sees a woman checking through her inventory. Noticing Ellie, the woman quickly walks towards her and says

"H-Hi! I'm Moira Brown! What can I do for you today? Do you want a copy of the Wasteland Survival Guide?"

"Um…no uh…" Ellie replied nervously "You seem to be having some trouble…"

"Trouble…?" Moira replied in a delighted tone "How did you know? Are you a psychic?"

"No…" Ellie replied "I could see it on how you handled yourself back there"

"Well… you're right" Moira replied "I did an inventory check and I saw that I ran out of sugar bombs for one of my experiments…"

"I could help you find some, if you want…" Ellie offered

"Oh you will?" Moira replied with an upbeat tone "Oh thank you! Bring me about 5 boxes of it! I'll pay you of course!"

"Yes… Thank you" Ellie replied "Where do I find sugar bombs around here?"

"You can find them in the Super Duper Mart… Just outside of town" Moira replied

40 minutes later:

When Ellie reached the vicinity of the Mart, she saw the NCR checkpoint that nearly compromised her escape attempt…

Suddenly, several images of the failed defense on The Purifier began to flash in her mind…

She could remember it all… the gunshots, the screams, the voices of her companions and even the pain she felt when she was shot…

At the same time, she also saw several unfamiliar images of events and people she has no knowledge about...

Suddenly seeing all those images, puts a tremendous amount of stress to Ellie that she knelt down and quickly looked inside her bag for something.

"W-Where are they!?" she exclaimed as she hurriedly searches her bag

She then pulls out a mentats box and consumes 1 pill before finally calming down…

"I need to keep my psyche in check…" she muttered as she calms herself down and continues on her way

A short while later, she arrives at the mart

Super Duper Mart:

Ellie arrives at the old mart and begins her search for the sugar bombs.

Despite finding stimpaks, some buffout and a few mentats, she was dejected to find not even one box of sugar bombs

"...Are there even any Sugar Bombs left in here?" she muttered with a dejected voice

As she ponders on how she can complete her job, the sound of pitter patter began to echo around the old mart.

"What's that?" she thought as she looked around

She then spots a group of radroaches approaching her.

Immediately seeing the threat, she pulls out her pistol and begins to open fire on each roach.

She managed to kill 4 before the rest began to fly towards her.

"Oh great..." She said as she continues to shoot

She dodges the group of radroaches as they fly towards her with astounding speed

She continues to dodge and shoot the radroaches for the next few minutes...

After killing another 9 radroaches, she runs out of ammo as the last 3 radroaches continue to assault her

Acting fast, she quickly grabs a piece of wood on her left and a lead pipe on her right.

She quickly stood up and killed two of the radroaches as the last one lands on her belly and begins to move around her body.

"Get off, you piece of shit!" Ellie exclaimed as the radroach begins to bite her in different places

After a while, she manages to grab the radroach and flung it across the aisle.

As the radroach recovers and resumes its flight towards Ellie, the young woman quickly reloads her pistol and ends the life of the mutated insect.

With the threat gone, she checks on her wounds and then injects herself with the stimpak she found.

She then notices the closet door is open and proceeded to investigate the area.

As she crept closer, she readied her pistol

She breached the closet and found only the dead body of a wastelander.

"Poor bastard..." she said as she checked the body

To her amazement, she found 5 boxes of sugar bombs hidden in the person's bag.

"Wow... Must be my lucky day" she muttered

With her objective complete, she made her way back to Megaton.

Craterside Supply; 40 minutes later:

Ellie returns to Moira and proceeds to give her the items she needed.

"Oh thank you" Moira said with delight "And as promised, 150 caps!"

"Thank you" Ellie replied as she receives her payment

Just as she was about to leave, Ellie notices one of the items Moira was selling…

"Is that a Varmint Rifle?" She asked

"Why yes" Moira replied "I got it from a couple of traders a few days ago"

"How much is it?" she asked

"200 caps" Moira replied

Ellie felt a chill go up her spine as she looks at her money, 150 caps…

She gives a disappointed sigh before leaving

"Wait" Moira said as Ellie opens the door

"Since you helped me with my experiment" she said "I'll give you a discount, 100 caps, I'll even throw in a few boxes of ammo and this scope."

Ellie was surprised to hear Moira not only offer a discount but also a couple of other items that would normally cost a lot of caps...

"Are you sure about this?" Ellie asked nervously

"Yeah I'm sure" Moira replied in a casual tone "Call it as a 'thank you'"

Ellie pondered for a while until she finally said "...Deal"

And with that, Moira gives Ellie her new gun

"Thank you" Ellie said

"Happy hunting!" Moira said as Ellie exits the store.

The Wasteland (Near Farragut West Station); 4:30pm:

Ellie sets up a campfire inside one of the destroyed buildings… And finished cooking the mole rat meat she hunted a few minutes ago...

As she ate the mole rat meat, she began to see vivid images that even she could not recognize…

Flashback 1:

Ellie found herself in some sort of lab… The place was surrounded by tubes and stasis chambers…

She then turns around to see an unfamiliar man standing in front of her and another woman standing next to her

"We got the funding we need..." the unfamiliar man said "... The project is a sure go"

"That's good" the unfamiliar woman replied "Next on the agenda is to find volunteers for our research..."

"...I have an idea..." Ellie said

Back in the present:

Ellie returns to reality moments later…

"What was that…?" She thought "…I don't remember that place or those people at all…"

She noticed that it was dark outside...

"Must have dosed off..." She thought

Suddenly, she heard something from a distance… Someone had stumbled into the building?

Not knowing whether it was hostile or not, Ellie prepared herself for a fight…

As the footsteps drew closer, she looked through a hole in the floor and saw a raider. Knowing full well of the danger, she prepares her pistol.

About a minute later, as the source of the footsteps was only a few feet away, Ellie quickly went against the doorway and attempted to grab the man through the doorway…

Upon grabbing the individual, Ellie quickly threw him into the room and readied her pistol but the man recovered quickly and he swung his lead pipe at her.

Her reflexes saved her when she used her arms to block the lead pipe…

Despite being able to resist the damage, Ellie dropped her pistol which prompted her attacker to continue his assault on her.

As he continues to swing his lead pipe on her, Ellie, surprisingly, managed to grab the lead pipe.

Seeing his weapon was taken, the man quickly draws his pistol but before he could aim it, Ellie quickly lunges at her assailant but he struggled and managed to pick up some rubble and hit her in the head with it.

Staggering at the damage she took, the man prepared to shoot her.

Surprisingly, she was able to recover quickly and lunge at the man again, this time, she managed to pin him to the floor.

As the man continues to struggle to escape Ellie's grip, the young woman finds her pistol just inches away. As she reaches for it and the man does the same. Ellie knew that she won't be able to reach the gun unless she moves her body but in doing so, the man would be able to escape her grip.

She decided to take a gamble and lunge towards the gun. The man quickly stood up but was immediately shot in the head by a quick moving Ellie.

With the man dead, Ellie searched his belongings and found several items that piqued her interest, a medical brace, some stimpaks, a psycho and a few boxes of 9mm ammo.

"I could use these…" she said "…one more reason to get to Fiore sooner"

She then puts out the campfire and barricades that one doorway and proceeded to sleep.

The next day, Ellie wakes up, undoes the barricade and entered the subway system below.

Subway system (Farragut Station):

As Ellie enters the dark subway station, she hears robotic footsteps.

Quickly hiding behind some rubble, she takes a peek at the source of the footsteps and sees a protectron as it spots a raider behind it.

"Tickets please…" it said

"Tickets?" the raider said "Fuck you!"

But before the raider could raise his gun, he was shot in the chest by the robot and falls to the ground, dead.

"Threat neutralized…" the robot announced

"Tickets…?" Ellie thought "…What's that robot talking about?"

She then looks around her current position but doesn't find anything...

Having no choice, she decided to sneak past the robot by going through the office.

As she quietly sneaks around the office, she heard a robotic voice say:

"Halt! Present your ticket, citizen"

"Oh shit..." Ellie said as she looks at the proctectron that spotted her

Quickly looking around, she sees a piece of paper on the floor.

Deciding to gamble again, she shows the piece of paper to the protectron.

For the next few seconds, all she heard was beeping sounds

Then the protectron said "Ticket analyzed… Thank you for riding with us… Please proceed to the platform…"

"Uh… yeah" she said as she wipes some sweat off her head "Damn… I must have a shit load of luck…"

Tunnels:

As she traversed the tunnels of the subway, she hears the distinctive cry of feral ghouls.

She quickly turns her flashlight off and prepares her rifle as she crouches & hugs the wall just as a group of feral ghouls arrive.

Like a hunter stalking its prey, Ellie watched the ghouls' movements through her rifle's scope. Soon, they were merely a few feet away from her as they explore the subway ruins. Ellie kept calm and lowered her rifle.

But as the group was about to reach a safe distance from her, one of them suddenly turns around, growls and slowly walks towards Ellie.

She is now pressed with the predicament of either shooting the ghoul and alerting the other ghouls or staying silent but risk the ghoul getting too close to her, she had to do something and soon.

As the ghoul was only a few feet away, Ellie made the decision to shoot.

She fired a shot and the bullet landed on the ghoul's head but this decision caused the other ghouls to return and eventually, spot her.

As the ghouls charged towards Ellie, she fired her rifle and managed to hit 5 out of 6 of the charging ghouls.

When the last ghoul was only a few inches away, she fired her last shot but it missed.

As the ghoul was about to bite her, she held her rifle against it, prompting the ghoul to bite her rifle.

She struggled to shake the ghoul off of her rifle. But as the ghoul lets go of the rifle, she quickly hits it with the rifle's buttstock causing the ghoul to hit the wall.

But it quickly recovered and after giving out a snarl, it pounced at Ellie.

Dropping her rifle, she gets a hold of the ghoul's arms as the ghoul attempts to bite her face.

Amassing strength, she pushed the ghoul forward and pulled out her pistol and began to shoot its head and the ghoul dropped to the floor, dead.

As she looks upon the dead ghoul, she is suddenly begins to see images of stasis chambers, gunfights and an unfamiliar lab.

For some reason, she feels a sense of dread as she sees them.

She begins to hyperventilate but she soon calms herself down after taking another mentats pill

"Those images again..." she thought as she breathe heavily "...Why is this happening to me?"

After calming herself down once more, she continued her journey to Fiore.

Pennsylvania Avenue; 1:00pm:

Ellie emerges from the subway tunnels and the light of the sun temporarily affected her vision.

She scours the ruins as she makes her way towards Fiore.

"I wonder what this place looked like before the Great War..." she wondered

Fiore; 1:15pm:

Upon arriving at the town, Ellie is greeted by a familiar face.

"Ellie!" He said with a happy tone "Nice to see ya again!"

"Hey Polonsky" she replied with a smile "Been a while. Mind if we continue this chat in my house?"

"Sure" Polonsky answered

Ellie's House, Fiore:

Polonsky and Ellie take their seats in the living room…

"How have you been?" Ellie asked

"I'm fine but fuck that" Polonsky replied "I heard the NCR took the Purifier! I thought you were dead…"

"I managed to escape the prison caravan" Ellie replied "Now I'm a free woman again! Hahaha!"

Polonsky gave a sigh of relief and said "That's a relief... So what's your plan now?"

"My job's not done yet..." She replied "Not until the NCR's been kicked out of the Capital Wasteland!"

"Kicked out?" Polonsky said in a worried tone "Ellie, fighting the NCR is a tall order… Especially now that the Brotherhood is all but destroyed… Besides, who's gonna pay ya?"

"The NCR is still standing…" she replied as she clenches her fists "I still got some beef with em… So I'm gonna do what it takes to bring these pieces of shit down! Even if it means fighting legions of those bastards myself!"

"Whoah there" Polonsky replied as he tries to calm Ellie down "Slow down there, sister. How exactly do you plan on destroying the NCR?"

"Well uh…" She replied nervously

"You don't have a plan, do you?" Polonsky said with a disappointed tone

"Sh-shut up!" Ellie replied with a flustered face

Polonsky gives a disappointed sigh and says "Look, I suggest you lay low until this whole shit storm blows over…"

"You don't get it" Ellie replied in an angry tone "This is not just gonna 'blow over'! The NCR's gonna keep on taking lands as if it's their own until someone stops them! Somebody has to have the balls to stop these bastards!"

"Ok, ok… I understand" Polonsky replied "But fighting the entire NCR army on your own is kinda suicidal. I suggest you try and garner support"

"Alright fine…" Ellie said "Anyway, for now, do you have a drawer slide?"

"Drawer slide?" Polonsky wondered "Uh... No but maybe ya can ask the junk shop if they have some…"

"I got it. Thanks Polonsky. I'll be right back" Ellie replied as she made her way to the junk shop

A few minutes later:

After buying the items she needed, Ellie retreated to her room and began to build something in her workbench while Polonsky waits in the living room...

A short while later, Ellie emerged from her room while wearing two armguards.

"Armguards?" Polonsky wondered

"Not just any kind of armguard" Ellie said as she flicks her wrists, which prompt the device to unleash the blades hidden inside both armguards.

"Whoah…" Polonsky said in amazement "…Where did you learn to build something like that?"

"I dunno" Ellie replied with a straight face

"You dunno?" Polonsky said in confusion "How can you NOT know?"

"I just dunno where I learned to build this…" Ellie replied "I just know how to build one…"

"Right…" Polonsky said in a confused tone "Cool as this looks, what's the use of two small hidden blades?"

"Covert assassinations" she replied

"Covert assassinations?" Polonsky replied "You imagine yourself as an assassin now?"

"You can never be too careful..." Ellie said "Besides, these are useful weapons especially for someone who knows how to use em"

"And you know how to use them?" Polonsky said in a confused tone

"Yeah..." Ellie replied with a straight face

"Let me get this straight..." Polonsky said in a sarcastic tone "...You don't know where you learned how to build one but you know how to build and use these things... Interesting story, Ellie. What's next, you got super powers or something?"

"Shut up" Ellie replied

Polonsky chuckled for a bit and said "Anyway, what are ya gonna do now?"

"For now" Ellie replied "I'm gonna rest here until I can figure out my next move..."

"How about Canterbury Commons? " Polonsky suggested "The Merchant Caravans may have some useful info."

"That could work" Ellie replied "Know anyone from Canterbury Commons?"

"Yeah..." Polonsky answered "When you get there, find a resident named Derek Pacion. He's an old friend of mine"

"Ok" Ellie replied "Thanks for the info"

"But the town's pretty far..." Polonsky added "... You planning on using the surface route?"

"I'm not planning on taking the surface route" Ellie replied "We got NCR patrols in the surface, my best bet is the underground subway"

"Yeah…" Polonsky replied "But it's full of feral ghouls"

"I'd prefer ghouls over the NCR any day" Ellie replied

"Alright fine" Polonsky replied worriedly "As if I can stop ya but be careful out there"

"I will" Ellie replied "I don't plan on dying til those NCR bastards get the fuck out of this wasteland!"

"That's uh... Reassuring..." Polonsky said in a worried tone