The factory was easy to find. She could barely see it when she found something else that looked more familiar than any building. It was caught in some weeds, almost as if it was hiding among them. It was small, faded brown, and just the right size for Nick Valentine’s oversized head. Marian lowered her guard long enough to hurry to it. She doubted there would be any guards this far away from the cannery.

The bodyguard leaned down and picked up the fedora. Without her backpack, she had nowhere to put it other than on her own head. She shuddered at the thought of how badly she was going to itch in just a few minutes, but she still placed it on her head. The smell of stale cigarette smoke and motor oil caressed her olfactory sense.

Even if Nick Valentine wasn’t here, she would have come to finally finish off the Rose Gang. The hat was just confirmation he was in the area. Then she thought about the fact she was wearing his hat. If he wasn’t wearing it, then he must be in trouble. She stuffed down the thought she was too late to find him and started climbing a hill towards the factory.

She had delt with the Rose Gang before, and botched it. She spent weeks, maybe even months, pretending to be one of them. She worked her way into Hank’s bed as his favorite girl. He felt safer sleeping with another slaver than with a slave. She used that against him.

When everything was right, she took his gun and shot him in the head while he slept. She slipped out and killed everyone she could until she got to the slaves. They were suspicious, until she started undoing their collars.

No plan is ever perfect. The remaining members of the gang figured out what was going on. They detonated the collars she hadn’t managed to unlock. She did her best getting the survivors out, but too many were mad, and wanted to attack their captors. She barely got the Little Lamplight kids out.

Three kids, and fifteen adults. She didn’t want to do the math on how many people she failed. How many names she didn’t know to put in her book. She had to do the math, and wrote “Unknown” forty-seven times.

When she was halfway up the hill, she dropped to her belly and crawled the rest of the way. The fedora’s brim was in the way of her sight. She felt frustrated by it, but still continued to wear it. As she climbed to the top of the hill, she found more evidence of Nick Valentine. Scraps of cloth that were reminiscent of his clothes were scattered along the hill. She picked up one piece, and saw it was the same fabric as his trench coat. There were clothes, but no body. She could only hope that he was safe.

When she got to the top she saw one piece of his trench coat sitting in place. It looked weighed down. She ignored the scrap for the time being. She was too close to the cannery to move around much. The front door was in view. With two people looking around. It seemed like they were supposed to look in her direction, but boredom had it where they were glancing everywhere.

Marian got Faenus ready and looked down its sight. She wished she had enough caps to buy a scope so she could identify the guards. If she had that many caps, she would be in the Capital Wasteland by now. Instead, she aimed Faenus thinking of the three C’s, and gently squeezed the trigger.

The guard to the right, didn’t make a noise, he just fell backwards against the wall, and slide down until he was sitting against it with the top of his skull missing. The other guard watched this happen and instead of looking for his friend’s murderer, opened the door and looked inside.

Marian tried to kill him before he could do that, but she wasn’t a good enough shot. She could hear him shout something before she hit him in the back. He fell inside, letting the door close on him. He wasn’t dead, she could see him move. He was trying to get up. Another person dragged him inside, letting the door close behind him.

Damn, he was going to get a stim, and then they were going to come get her. She laid there, watching the entrance. She would pick off anyone who tried to open that door. It was just a matter of waiting.

Minutes passed, and there was no movement. Marian decided this was going to be a battle of wills that she was going to win. Suddenly she felt her back being prodded by a rifle barrel.

“Don’t try anything funny, bitch,” a ghoul woman’s voice said. “Leave the gun, and stand up, slowly.”

Marian did as she was told. Letting the aggressor see her hands the whole time. She raised her hands into the air and turned to look China in the face.

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The slaver smiled a vindictive smile. “Hey, Demask, look at what we have here. Marilla Cuthbert, the boss is going to love seeing you again.”

“Flattered,” Marilla said dryly.

Marilla was led down the hill and into the factory. She knew that Faenus was being carried by Demask, it was too important to their boss. When they got to the entrance, Demask held the door open, confirming her belief. She saw Faenus against his back. He was carrying another assault rifle. The whole gang had assault rifles. Hank once bragged to her that it was a mark of their success, that if someone saw an assault rifle, they knew it belonged to the Rose Gang, and not to mess with them.

Burnet was leaning against a desk as they entered. He smiled just like China when he saw Marilla. “There’s a face I never thought I would see again,” he grinned. “I’m going to love following orders from the boss when he has me break you.”

Marilla didn’t bother responding. She just followed Demask into the factory floor. She was caught fair and square, by people who were ready to find out how long they can take killing her.

“What have we here?” Marilla heard a too familiar voice ask. “If it isn’t Marilla Cuthbert, my brother’s old whore.”

The factory floor had a conveyor belt that went in an indirect loop, with Ed Rose standing inside the loop. Marilla would not be able to get to him easily. Maybe ducking underneath or jumping over. Both would take enough time for him to kill her.

Demask and China lead her to the center of the floor. China walked past her and went up some stairs to a catwalk she stood right outside the small enclosure. Demask slowed down and walked to the conveyor belt to hand Faenus to his boss.

“She had this on her,” he explained.

Watching her precious weapon getting touched by a monster like Ed Rose made it feel like he was tarnishing it with his touch alone. She felt sick watching him take it from Demask and examine it. Sometimes it can be hard not to anthropomorphize something like a rifle when out in the wasteland alone for several days at a time. She had never projected her emotions on Faenus more than she did at that moment. The thought of Ed’s hands on her was less disgusting that seeing them on her weapon.

Demask walked past her and stood in a corner behind her. She was not standing alone, facing the man who she had been trying to kill for years. A man who had been trying to kill her for years.

“So glad you could bring my brother’s gun back,” Ed taunted.

“I figured I could just use yours next,” Marilla responded.

Every member in the room moved even the one who was standing over Ed on the catwalk. What was that member’s name? Elizabeth? Two guns were pointed at her, and Marilla could swear Burnet was ready to stab her. Ed raised his hand and the other members settled back into place.

“What brings you here, Cuthbert?” Ed asked.

“Same thing as always,” she responded, “you treating people like they aren’t people.”

“I could be big if it weren’t for you. My brother and I would be running the Capital Wasteland. The Brotherhood of Steel would be afraid of us, instead of us running from them. But you had to fuck my brother, and then fuck him over. You had to kill a bunch of my guys and steal my stock. Now you’ve followed me here. But you’re not going to finish the job. You’re dead. Burnet.”

Ed made a gesture with his head. Marilla could hear Burnet’s footsteps. She knew he was coming towards her. Just as he got within arm’s reach, Marilla reached for where she knew he kept his knife. She pulled it out of its holster and stabbed Burnet in the throat in one smooth motion.

Blood spurted out as Burnet gestured as if he wanted to pull the knife back out. Marilla spun around the man who was still standing as he was dying. She grabbed his rifle and slipped it off his back, breaking his arm as she pulled it from him. Still using him as a shield, she pointed his rifle at Ed and fired. The sight wasn’t the same as Faenus’, but it was hard to miss from that distance. Ed was on the floor bleeding.

She wasn’t sure if he was dead, but she didn’t have time to find out. There were still three members who were breaking out of their shock. All three had guns. Marilla felt a bullet tear through her shoulder from a higher location. Most likely from China.

Marilla dropped a bottlecap mine near the motionless Burnet as she hurried around the conveyor belt. She let her left arm go slack from the pain but fired on Elizabeth. She heard a grunt as she slipped behind the entryway, leaving the gapping space between her and the exit door.

“Why don’t you just give up, girly?” she could hear Demask shout. She heard footsteps, and then she heard an explosion complemented by the sound of bottlecaps hitting the floor.

She hoped she had killed Demask, but soon he appeared from the door. He was injured, but not dead. He shot at her, but Marilla was already moving in with the butt of her rifle, bashing his face. His bullet grazed her neck, but she forced her way through her pain as she kept bashing at him. He was on the ground, and she knelt over him, bashing until his face caved in.

Another bullet hit her ribs. Reminding her she had at least one more member of the gang left. She turned her body as much as she could to see China running towards her, ready to shoot again. Marilla aimed the rifle and fired, hitting China’s leg. China was trying to shoot back, but was doing so while running, ruining her aim.

Another bullet grazed her scalp, putting a hole in Nick Valentine’s fedora. Marilla fired again, this time hitting China’s chest. The ghoul fell on top of Burnet. Marilla looked up to see Elizabeth hunched over the railing where she stood a moment before.

It would be easy now, just to let go. But her job wasn’t done. She still had to find Nick Valentine. She had to fulfill her promise to Ellie. Marilla reached into her right cargo pocket and pulled out a stimpak. She jammed it into her thigh and blacked out.