Fallout: Fury Blood

Chapter 15: Broken Steel

The silence was unbearable, permeating the confines of the vertibird. No one dared to break it. No one even knew how to.

Danse took them over the Wastes like a phantom wandering in the lost lands of his mind. Kelly stared out absently, any wonderings at his destination never even passing through her mind. All she saw were her ghosts, and the barren world their dust had been lost to.

The terrain greeted her as they touched down, but she couldn't recall it's approach. Numbly, she felt Danse's armor carry her down to greet the terrain in return. Her first thought was to exit her Paladin's armor. She didn't deserve it's embrace.

"Well," Deacon dared as he stepped up beside her, squinting from the sun. "I still think my idea of crashing the airship into the ocean would have been a lot safer, but doing things this way gained me a new friend." He clapped Clay-Crawler's armor on the back fondly. "You really came through for me, pal. Glad to have you on the team. From now on, if we ever have to smuggle you out of someplace again, I'll hide you up my asshole if I have to."

Clay-Crawler tried pulling off his helmet, but didn't understand the locking mechanism. "We friends now?"

"Oh, here," Deacon reached up to help him pop the seals. "There ya go. Yeah, buddies for life. We should really think up a squad name. The Whispering Clay Dancers... The Crawling... Dancing Whispers. Dancing Whispers of Clay? Okay, this is harder than I thought it would be. And hey, how come I don't have a nickname, too?"

Kelly just listened as the two bonded and babbled on about all things meaningless in contrast to the prior incident, not really paying mind to their exact words for the growing abyss in her mind. Amongst the chatter, a rustle carried to her eardrums from the vertibird, then the clatter of boots upon steel, before hitting dirt.

Kelly dashed around the length of the vertibird to catch Danse in his retreat, seemingly in no specific direction. She didn't even know where he had set them down. His stride was heavy, fists coiled and set at his sides in rigid tension. He wasn't even bothering to get his armor...

"Wait!" she called, falling into step behind him, though having trouble matching his pace. "Let's just talk about this."

"There is nothing to discuss."

"Just let me explain, please." But he kept on walking, determined to get away from her. "Danse, please don't do this."

"Do what?" he growled. "Be disappointed in you? Ashamed of you?" He wouldn't even look at her.

"Don't shut me out," she answered pleadingly, "give me a chance to explain myself." Still, he kept walking, so she went in to clutch at his arm. "Please."

He shrugged her off and whirled on her, brow drawn like a weapon over his bloodied face. "After what you just did, I'm not sure I owe you any chances at all!"

"What was I supposed to do, let you die?" she asked, palms up incredulously.

"That would have been the honorable thing to do, yes." He said it without a hint of doubt, a brother of steel, through and through. "When we're under the Brotherhood's jurisdiction, you are under my command. Not only did you disobey a direct order, but you blatantly disrespected my authority, and killed fellow Brotherhood soldiers!" His voice had ripened into that hard grit again, bruising her soul with each syllable.