#beyondthevault

Super super excited to be able to show this to y’all! 

I love how this cover turned out and I’m so glad I was given permission to use this piece for the cover.

Here’s a link back to the original piece, and the original artist’s tumblr is linked at the top of the cover.

Since chapter 6 is posted on Ao3 and FFN and I’ve just set this tumblr up, I figure I should give a preview of what’s to come in the next chapter!

This might be tweaked before it’s up, because I’m always editing, but enjoy!

“We’re almost there,” MacCready mumbled.

She nodded and stepped up next to him. She’d been trailing behind him and giving him his space, letting him lead the way up until this point. She opened her mouth to speak, but paused, then realized she didn’t even know what to say. She settled for giving his arm a gentle squeeze and, “We’ll find a way to help him.”

MacCready jerked his arm away and continued walking in silence. Margo let him, and she followed him up a road until he turned down an old driveway lined with pear trees on one side, and apples on the other; she could also see mutfruit in the distance, along with tatos, carrots, corn, and melons. Despite MacCready’s absence, the plants were in good condition, meaning his friend had been tending the farm in addition to caring for Duncan.

The two entered the home quietly, and MacCready tossed his bag on a couch in the living room. “There’s an empty room down the hall,” he said. “It’s the second to last door. Go make yourself comfortable. I’m going to go find Missy and let her know we’re here.”

She nodded, and quietly padded down the hall. The room he’d sent her to was a decent size, with a large bed, two nightstands, a dresser, and a desk. It was clean, and there was a bathroom attached that opened into another bedroom - presumably MacCready’s. Margo let out a sigh and set her bag down, then removed her soiled duster and flopped onto the bed.

The door opened moments after she’d laid down, and clinging to the doorframe was a boy. Margo sat up ,and her eyes widened when she saw the condition he was in. Pale, sweaty, dark circles under his eyes, blue boils on his skin. The fact that he was clinging to the doorway made it obvious that he was struggling to stay on his feet, and tears were building in his eyes.

“Duncan?” Margo guessed. She got to her feet and made her way over to him - but paused when she saw him tense. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you. I just wanna help you back to bed; you look like you’re about to collapse.”

Duncan eyed her for a moment. While he remained silent, he didn’t stop her when she moved in to pick him up. He allowed her to carry him back to his bedroom, which he directed her to since she didn’t know the house, and turned his back to her once he was in his own bed again. “Aren’t you worried about getting sick?” He asked. “Missy says it’s contagious.”

Margo shook her head and pulled a nearby chair over so she could sit next to the bed. “No, sweetheart. I’ve had it before. I’m not going to get sick like that again.”

The boy stayed silent.

“You thought I was your dad, didn’t you?”

He hesitated, then nodded. “He’s the only one who ever comes here. Are you one of his friends?”

It was Margo’s turn to hesitate. Were they still friends, or was MacCready simply sticking around to finish his job? She let out a sigh, and settled for, “I came here with your dad. He’s out looking for Missy.”

“Missy never comes inside this time of day,” he replied. “She’s not supposed to check on me for another hour.” He paused again, then turned to face Margo. He moved slowly, as if he were sore. “You said my dad’s here?”

Margo offered him a smile. She knew exactly how bad he was hurting; flu-like symptoms were one of the tell-tale signs of the disease, and the general aches were made worse by the frequent vomiting and the boils. “He is, but he’ll probably want you to stay in bed until he gets back.”

“I wanna see him,” Duncan stated as he moved to sit up again.

“Hey, easy,” Margo muttered, putting a hand on the boy’s chest. He winced, which meant she’d touched a boil, so she pulled back. “Look, I know you’re excited, but you don’t need to push yourself. He’ll be here in a minute, okay?”

He deflated, much in the same way MacCready had when she pointed out that Med-Tek’s cure may not be there, but the boy relented and laid back down. “What’s your name, miss?”

“Margo,” MacCready said from the doorway, a scowl plastered on his face. “What are you doing?”

She hesitated, then turned to face him. “He thought I was you and followed me to the bedroom. He looked like he was about to collapse, so I brought him back here and made him wait for you.”

It’s here! Read it on FFN! Sorry for the delay - but the next several chapters are mostly done, so they should come out at a decent pace for now.

Also, I’ve gotten in touch with my beta - and we’re working through and improving older chapters. The new and improved versions are gonna be on Ao3 and y’all should definitely go read them :) 

The next chapter is up! As usual, you can find it on Ao3 and FFN!

Also, below is a preview for one of the upcoming scenes!

“And Margo’s in what kind of trouble?” The man asked.

“Who are you to care, exactly?” MacCready asked, crossing his arms.

The man bristled and took a step toward him, but Prim huffed and put an arm out to stop him. Her gaze settled on MacCready. “This is James,” she said. “He’s from Vault 75. You can trust him.”

He blinked in surprise. Rather than questioning him further, however, he took a seat on a nearby stool. “If you say so, Prim.”

James crossed his arms as he glowered at MacCready. “Can we get on to whatever’s going on?”

MacCready nodded slowly. “Prim already knows some of this, but Margo hired me to help her hunt down your Overseer.”

“Hayes?” He breathed a sigh, squeezing the bridge of his nose. “She’s been set on getting revenge ever since the revolt. Nobody can talk her out of it.”

“Can you blame her?” He crossed his arms as well, and his eyes flicked to Prim as she took a seat on another stool. “Anyways, when we found out he’d gone to D.C., Margo offered to help me get a cure from Med-Tek for my son. It was destroyed on the way back to my farm, so we took a few days to regroup and we decided to see if Hayes had any F19 once we found him.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Prim asked, glancing between the two men. “Isn’t that going to make him like Margo and James?”

“It will,” James confirmed. “But if he’s that sick, it might give his immune system the boost it needs to help him fight off whatever disease it is he’s got.”

“And it’s the only option we have,” MacCready added. “We found out Hayes has holed up with some Enclave remnants, so we were planning on posing as recruits to get in, but Coursers showed up.”

“Coursers?” He echoed, his eyes widening. “The Institute took her?”

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck again. “Yeah, they did. Do you know why? Cause, she didn’t tell me anything before she went.”

James sighed as well and closed his eyes. “They think the vault’s research can give them better Coursers, and they aren’t wrong. As far as we know, the F19 should affect synths just like it does humans.”

“Do they have anything so far?”

“They know some of what it does, I think, otherwise they wouldn’t be so interested in getting it. They also know who the F19 subjects are, so they know who to target.”  He paused to drag a hand across his face. “If she’s been taken, that means she’s being experimented on again. I don’t know if she can handle it.”

MacCready shook his head. “She’s strong. She’ll manage.”

Possible cover for an upcoming spin-off of Beyond the Vault!

Here’s the first draft of the story’s summary:

Alma Lancaster, a Vault 75 survivor who’s taken up the alias Lana Hale, is a mercenary with bad alcohol habits and even worse socialization skills. She’s got a mouth on her, and she refuses to get involved with anyone beyond causal flings - until she gets stuck taking care of an Enclave amnesiac whose aloof charm gets under her skin like nothing else has before.

Hey guys!

First and foremost, thank you to all y'all. The amount of attention Beyond the Vault has gotten has blown my mind (we're nearing 1,300 views), and I really appreciate all the reviews y'all have given. It's really helped me stay motivated to write.

As y'all have probably noticed, BTV hasn't been updated in a hot minute. It's been a month and a half since the last chapter was posted. For those of y'all who've been reading from the beginning, you might notice that everything after chapter 8 is gone right now too. I'm sure there will be some annoyance (maybe even anger) with this decision, but I'm reworking the story following Margo's departure for the Institute.

My reasoning for this is pretty straightforward; while I've had the whole story outlined since about chapter 3 or 4, I'm realizing that it's not working the way I want, mostly with the story arc involving Xara (the woman MacCready left Davenport with, if y'all don't remember).

I've been encouraged to simply write her off, but at this point that's going to be nearly impossible. To do that, I'd have to push out a few more chapters with her in order to give her death any significance - and given that I can't bring myself to even finish one chapter with her, over the course of a month and a half, I don't want to take that route. It's a lot of work and a like of time for an arc that I'm not enjoying and just isn't right.

She was also only there to serve as a temporary fling for Mac, just to cause drama with Margo. Xara is a character I've put a lot of work into, and I've taken a lot of time developing her personality and backstory as an OC; I feel that throwing her into this story for the reasons I did is a waste of her potential, and while she'll make appearances in other stories, I think it's best that she doesn't appear in this - at least not in the same way she had before I decided to rework the story.

In other news, I want to announce that this story is only one part of the series!

Some of y'all may have noticed that I have two other fics on my FFN profile, both on hiatus for rewrites: Children of the Vault, and Snake Charmer. Children of the Vault will be a prequel to Beyond the Vault, focusing on the events that went down in Vault 75. It'll be shorter, maybe around ten chapters.

I also plan to write two more spin-offs. Alma Lancaster, one of the main characters in Children of the Vault, will be getting a spin-off set in 2287. I'm in the process of outlining it, but Beyond the Vault is my main focus at the moment.

The other spin-off I'm planning focuses on James. Those of y'all who read before I removed chapters 9-14 know him already, but for those of you who don't, he's also in Children of the Vault. In this, we'll get to see how he ended up in Davenport, Iowa and how he and Prim met. This story is in the pre-outlining stages, which for me really means that while I'm developing a plot, I'm not actually putting it on paper yet because I'm still working on the major plotpoints. It's a story I want to tell, but I'm still working out how to tell it.

TL;DR:

Beyond the Vault's last 5 chapters are being cut due to the fact that I can't make them work as-is. Y'all will be getting rewrites, and they'll be coming soon! I know this is frustrating for current readers, but I'd rather be able to finish the story and enjoy it than not be able to put out any more chapters because of the stuff listed above.

“I don’t like this,” Prim whispered as she picked her way through skeletons and debris, the only light in the tunnel coming from James’s Pip-Boy. “Follow the Freedom Trail? Do you seriously buy that, James?”

He breathed a sigh and drew his pistol as the sound of erratic footsteps echoed down the hall. “According to Amari, that’s how we’re gonna find these people.” A ghoul rounded the corner, and he quickly planted a bullet in its head, wincing at the amplified volume of the gunshot in the tunnel. “I know you get antsy in small spaces, but we should be close.”

She huffed and tucked her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “Fine. But if we’re down here much longer, I’m going back up.”

He rolled his eyes as they rounded another corner, then paused when he spotted a stone ornament in the wall with the words The Freedom Trail carved into the surface. “I don’t think you’ll have to,” he muttered to Prim, moving in to examine the puzzle.

“Good,” she mumbled. She stepped up next to James, eyeing the device curiously. “Did Amari mention this?”

James shook his head and began rotating the ring. “No, but it’s not hard to figure out.”

She leaned against a wall and watched as he entered letters. “It could be literally anything.”

He glanced to her. “You’re over-thinking it.” As he pushed the center button a final time, the wall to the left shuddered, and he stepped away from the puzzle, giving Prim a confident smirk. “It’s Railroad, Prim.”

She blinked, scratching her temple gently. “But that’s so obvious.”

“Exactly,” he said with a grin, “nobody’s gonna guess it. Besides, how many people can actually spell that these days?” He clapped Prim’s shoulder and made his way through the new doorway, pistol drawn – just in case they came across more ghouls. It was too dark to see more than a few feet ahead, even with the light of the Pip-Boy, so he moved slowly and cautiously through the darkness.

To his surprise, a circuit box was mounted on a wall to the right - but when he flipped the switch, nothing happened, much to his dismay. His eyes flicked to Prim. Seeing that she’d drawn her own gun, he continued down the small hallway. 

As James passed through another archway, a spotlight switched on, blinding both him and Prim. His arm immediately moved out in an attempt to shield her from anything that might be coming, but instead of enemies, a voice drifted to his ears.

“Stop right there,” a woman demanded. “You went through a lot of effort to find us. What do you want?”

Prim was the first to recover from the light. Her eyes flicked to James for a brief moment before she lowered his shaking hand. Rather than commenting on his fear, she leaned in close to him. “You can’t see?” She whispered.

He shook his head.

She bit her lip, then nodded. “There’s a wall about a foot to your left,” she continued in a low voice. “Lean against it before you start losing your balance. I’ll handle them.”

James clenched his jaw, but rather than arguing, he did as he was told.