Never give up.

She was nothing more than a dead eyed doll as the Talon man examined her, tears steadily flowing down her face though she uttered no sound. She had given up. This was the worse kind of pain, to be betrayed by someone she thought was a friend, someone she was trying to help.

She hoped this got him what he wanted. That he got to be happy…Lord know if anyone needed a break in life it was Tobias. He had been through so much…

She really and truly hoped he’d be happy after this.

As the man looked her over he wondered how such a small and handicaped man had managed to capture the woman. Shooting a weary look at him he wondered if there was something afoot.

“Well, You’ve impressed me, Boy” He said relenting the grip on Aimee’s chin. “But you have one last thing” From his side he tugged a small sawn-off shotgun and handed it to Tobias butte first. “You’ve got’st’a be th’ one t’end it, Dead or Alive for this one, Don’t matter, Her head is on th’ choppin’ block” He smirked widely his crooked yellow teeth peeking through the gaps in his mustache that sat atop his lips.

Tobias hadn’t thought the plan through completely. He thought maybe Talon would enslave her or sell her off to the highest bidder and whatever they did with her was then none of his business and the guilt would just roll off his back. But when he was handed the gun and asked to murder the one girl who had ever paid him any mind in the Vault and had been so cheerful about helping him get somewhere in this world, he felt a knot form in his stomach.

“Kill’er? Really, I thought we were bounty ‘unters, We hunt a Bounty an’ hand it over to those askin” He said trying to push the gun away from him. “Oh, no, You ain’ gettin’ out’a this’n so easy” the man said pushing the gun into the boys hand and gripping his fingers around the trigger and pointing it at Aimee. “Either she dies and ya show yer loyalty to us or ya BOTH die, I don’ trust ya jus’ yet. Ya even said’t yaself. You knew one another ‘fore all this. How I know ya not here t’get a foot up an’ then rob me blind, Scaver?”

Anger bubbled in Tobias’ stomach. He had hoped the Talon’s would have him at his word and not make him go this far, this is what he was willing to do for Aimee, to allow her this one small thing. But it looked like regardless he had to do it. To end her life. But he couldn’t . His hands shook as the Shotgun was pointed at the trembling woman. If he pulled the trigger now it was game over. His conversion from a sheltered Vault Dweller into a murderer was complete. The Pros and Cons of what he was about to flew through his mind as he tried to think of how he could get out of this alive but still apart of the Talon’s.

“.... What’re ya waitin’ fer, boy? Christmas? An’ in’vitation? PULL TH’ FUCKIN’ TRIGGER” The man screamed at Tobias who turned on the ball of his foot towards the leader and pulled the trigger sending a deluge of buckshot into the man’s chest sending him flying backwards. His armor had drawn most of the damage and little had actually been done to him but that wasn’t his intention. Using the Gun as a Club he slapped it across the face of one of the guards who stood nearby and ducked under the swing of a machete and booted the man out the crumbled wall to his death moving towards Aimee.

“Consider this ya lucky day” He said grabbing her hand and flinging her over his shoulder. They were getting out of here, Talon wasn’t exactly what he had thought them to be causing him to want to back out as fast as he could. But being in Talon Central they were surrounded and would have to fight their way out eventually. Sirens were raised as the two scuttled down the stair case leading to the doorway they had come in pushing Talon mercs down the stairs and off balance as they made way for the closest exit.

The courier pondered over it over about 0.5 seconds. “Makes sense. Most snipers do have a spotter. Alright, Tobias.” Admittedly, it probably wasn’t smart to rely on a man you’d known for all of five minutes to help protect you from raiders, but the courier was known for his snap decisions. His tendency to narrowly escape from the jaws of death time and time again could come in handy too.

“Let’s go get that armor. I’ll show you the way.” He checked to see that his sniper was secure across his back and started off back down the alley.

Tobias snatched up his travel bag that was slumped against the side of the bin he had been digging in before the man had bought down danger into his ‘Home’. He trailed after the Courier, not knowing who he really was, But not really caring either. He was just another person he met in the commonwealth.