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He glanced down at the small wheelchair specially built for him, a more embarrassing necessity in his crippled state than having to drag his rump along the ground. Climbing down a bed was an interesting ordeal he never expected to be such a challenge at any point in his life, having to slide down part of the way with his existing front legs until he had to drop the rest of the way to the ground.\n\nHe angled his rear mid-air so it landed in the seat of the wheelchair almost perfectly, bouncing once. The nightstalker wrapped his tail around the back support and began to walk towards the door out of the bedroom. He was used to that part of the daily routine, but it was still tremendously unsettling to walk purely with his front pair of legs, especially with the effect of feeling a pair of phantom legs behind him trying to walk in step.\n\nRose had been gone for a while now, at least he thought it had been a while with the combined total of zero ways to tell the time in their apartment. All he knew was that sometime after she was gone someone was supposed to take him to get a new pair of hind legs, and that he was supposed to wait by the front door for them.\n\nThe bedroom door slid open for Magellan, who hurriedly ran through before it decided to close on his chair again like yesterday. Was it yesterday, or the day before that? Magellan growled angrily, going stir crazy in the tiny amount of space he and Rose had been bottled into. He crossed the living room to the next sliding door, sighing as he realized he had no clue when the person would show up for him. Thankfully his wait wasn't long in the least, a man wearing a white lab coat opening the door not a minute after and almost tripped on the crippled nightstalker as he took a step in.\n\n``O-oh, sorry about the delay, we were just putting on the final touches on your prosthetics.'' the human stated, taking a step back and adjusting the thick-rimmed glasses that sat on his face. The man smiled, bending down slightly and lowering his hand gently over Magellan. ``May I pet you?'' He asked.\n\nFor the first time in a while Magellan smirked, hissing at the man with as much spit he could fling towards his hand as possible. The human retracted his hand and jumped backwards with clear fear. Magellan's mood immediately lifted as he gave the scrawny man something to for probably the first time in his over sheltered life.\n\n``S-so-sorry! Y-you can f-f-ollow me t-to the clinic.'' The man stammered, which only further improved the hybrid's mood. He could smell the fear that poured from him as the human turned around with extreme hesitation and began to quickly walk ahead of the wheelchair-bound animal.\n\nHe glanced back every so often to see if the nightstalker was indeed following hum, that or he was making sure Magellan didn't intend to leap from his chair and pounce him right then and there. They followed the path Rose had taken to the clinic a couple hours prior, only Magellan stopped to look at the green scenery below and beyond the walkway.\n\nIt was a nice sight to behold, despite the imposing atmosphere that clung to the air seemingly at all times. He flicked his tongue out to see what tastes he could find. No surprise to him, most of the air was laden with the taste of chemicals and synthetics, both sour on his tongue as he retracted it. His escort was getting away from him, forcing Magellan to turn back and pick up speed just to catch up with him just as he glanced backwards.\n\nTo him the hybrid was undoubtedly going in for the kill, jumping in his skin and almost screaming bloody murder as Magellan bounded towards him. Magellan hissed with laughter as the guy looked primed to faint, wondering if everyone was as big of a pussy as this human was. They finally reached the clinic where a group of doctors were still hard at work at one of the far tables.\n\nThe group of humans all turned to look at Magellan, an eerie sense crawling up his spine as he glared back at them. His escort bolted over to them, whispering quickly into one of the doctor's ears. The man nodded, ushering the clearly terrified man off while Magellan padded over to them with a clear smile on his face.\n\n``Welcome, Magellan was it? We just finished your prosthetics and are ready to begin.'' He stated, not a hint of fear like the last guy in his voice. ``Please let us lift you onto the table.'' The man bent down and wrapped his arms around the nightstalker's chest, who was extremely tempted to jolt and see just how afraid the human was of him. He relented, wanting to save the fun for when he and Rose were back home.\n\nThe doctor tried to lift Magellan off the ground and grunted with exertion, barely getting him to lift off the ground. ``Mind helping me? He asked to the others behind him. It took a total of three of them to lift the hybrid onto the table, the creature fighting to not cackle like a hyena at how flabby their arms must be under their long white sleeves to need so many hands to carry him.\n\nOnce he was on, Magellan got to see what they were working on for the first time. A good foot away was two pairs of legs, his legs in fact. Each were completely identical to his old ones, save for not being attached to him and clearly ending in a grey plastic with wires poking out. He flicked his tongue out and tasted his own scent coming from them, but kept his confusion well hidden from all the humans around him. He couldn't comprehend how the legs were giving off his scent, everything save for their clearly fake ends dictating those legs to be his real ones, which made no sense at all.\n\nThe endless loop of not comprehending cut off as one of the doctors placed a gloved hand on Magellan's head and gently laid it onto the table.\n\n``We're going to sedate you for the operation, understood?'' He asked, pulling out a needle from his coat pocket. Magellan looked up at the syringe in his hand full of a sloshing red liquid then at the man's expressionless face. In the blink of an eye his smugness disappeared as a memory flickered in his mind, that face stretched into a tight and bloody grin, the stench of blood that dripped from the blade hanging over him like a fog of death.\n\nOh no...\n\nMagellan's eyes widened, not with surprise but with fear as he stared up at the man. He was falling into another panic attack, and Rose was nowhere to be seen. The nightstalker's complacid-ness turned into full blown panic as he struggled frantically, several hands latching onto him to hold him down. Luckily the doctors had been told about his panic attacks long beforehand, keeping him still long enough for the one to inject the sedative as smoothly as he could into Magellan. The nightstalker kicked weakly, trying to get away as the world began to swim and fade to black, his eyelids fluttering close slowly...\n\n...\n\nRose almost vomited as the nausea of being teleported by the badly damaged synth for the second time today. She had already spat out a wad of blood on her way out of the deathclaw's habitat, her whole body aching all over with each step she had taken. She turned around to see the synth disappear in another blue light, leaving her alone and nude in front of the door to her room. \n\nA glance downward showed she was caked in a little too much deathclaw cum, dripping onto the floor already and spurring her to dash into her apartment before anyone could catch a sight of her current state. She B-lined for the bathroom, leaving creamy white footprints on the rug as she rushed inside. In her haste she slipped with the first step onto the tiled floor, flailing wildly and grabbing the corner of the sink before she hit the ground.\n\nNaturally her grip slipped rather quickly, dropping her the rest of the way to the floor with a dull wet splat. She grunted loudly as she hit the ground hard, mumbling a ``Damnit'' under her breath as she chose to lay there for a minute. God, she hated the Institute and their stupid polished floors, always having to be perfect no matter what task they were doing.\n\nGroaning painfully, she slowly climbed to her feet and waddled over to the shower, pulling open the glass door and stepping in with a little more caution than when she ran in. The cum on her felt more like cold water now than anything else, making every motion sticky and generally making her feel gross as hell. She twisted the nozzles until the water was nice and warm before slipping under its flow, tipping her head forward so it could run down her back first.\n\nThe patches that were mostly dry came off in flaky patches rather quickly, some splatting on the shower floor loudly while others chose to slide down her form with the cleansing warm liquid. She closed her eyes and felt around the wall for the bar of soap when both her arms began to feel like wet noodles all the sudden.\n\nShe pushed past the feeling and rubbed the bar between her hands, working a lather before rubbing it into her scales with an exhausted slowness. Honesty she didn't care how long it took to clean herself up, same going for all the aches and pains that sunk their teeth into her arms and legs. All that was on her mind was Magellan and that part of her that had revealed itself when he met the deathclaw.\n\nThe first was a given, being away from her best friend was getting too common for her liking, nor did she fully trust the Institute to hold their end of the bargain without a few strings attached that she would need to cut off. But the second part had her interest. She had gone toe-to-toe with a deathclaw and lived, even going so far as to wrestle it onto the ground in a test of strength.\n\nGranted her muscles were paying for that now, but all things considered the pain was absurdly manageable for what she had pulled off. And it was all thanks to that small presence in her body, the one that still lingered in the pit of her being. Its existence alone was turning her over to what Mike had told her, but a new question was propping itself up: why hadn?t this part of her shown itself sooner, especially when she was fighting that behemoth?\n\nThat feeling of power had been euphoric, like she could take on the whole wide world with just here claws, and now it was always there, as if it was waiting for something. Rose rubbed her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut to try and force that powerful feeling back up. She wasn't expecting much at all given its timidness now, so when it didn't budge she gave up quickly and focused on washing herself fully. After an hour of lathering rinsing and repeating a multitude of times Rose turned off the water, having rid every shred of evidence she had ever met the deathclaw from her body; that small part feeding into her a small twang of sadness to that fact.\n\nWell tough luck, this was her body and she had every right to clean herself as much as she wanted. She stepped out of the shower and grabbed one of the hanging towels, doing her best to avoid the patches of leftover cum on the ground as she toweled off. She tied a towel over her chest and waist before stepping out of the bathroom, taking a quick glance to make sure Mike or that synth wasn't waiting for her outside. The thought of finally being alone was shot down as the front door slid open, a mechanical whirr warning the mostly nude dragon soon enough that she could bolt back into the bathroom.\n\n``Learn how to knock asshole!'' She shouted, clenching a fist just in case. Her statement was greeted with an enthusiastic rattle, shifting her tone completely as she poked her head out. In the doorway was none other than Magellan himself, standing on four legs and wagging his tail lightly with an overjoyed smile on his face. \n\nRose squealed and stepped out from the doorway, her arms opening wide to invite the nightstalker in a hug. He broke into a sprint towards her and leapt into the dragon's arms, knocking her to the ground with a joyous yip. Now his tail was wagging up a storm, rubbing his head against Rose's while she pet him with the same level of energy and excitement. He licked her face over and over, which made the clear change of her even more obvious.\n\nMagellan couldn't pinpoint what exactly was different, but it did line up with that missing... piece that he always wondered about, the one that was faintly there whenever she showed her more wild side. But he ignored all of that and continued giving her all the kisses he could muster, her sweet squealing music to his canine ears. By the end both of them were catching their breath on the floor, the nightstalker rolling off Rose's chest still panting happily.\n\n``Glad to see you're doing better, boy.'' She said, sitting up and giving his rump a hearty pat. The only sign he had even lost his hind legs were the thins scars near the tip of his flanks, both cutting off suddenly with fresh scales and fur. ``How are you feeling?'' \n\nMagellan stood up and nodded. There was still some residual pain from when he had woken up, but otherwise he felt right as rain, giving his toes a flex to express that point. Everything felt natural almost to the point that the thought of having lost his legs at all seemed more like a bad dream than reality. Rose patted him on the head, feeling much better with her decision to go through with the experiment seeing how full of life he was now. She glanced down at the two towels that used to be tied to her, Magellan's eyes drifting down to do the same.\n\nHe gave a low howl, clearing asking if she was feeling alright herself, perhaps even enough to...?\n\nShe shook her head. ``Little sore, but I could be worse. I know its been a while, but I'll pass on the sex, already had my fill for today.'' She chuckled lightly. Rose tied the two towels back on their respective spots and got up, giving Magellan's head another pat. ``I'm going to go get dressed before Mike pokes his head in.''\n\nMagellan watched her head into the bedroom, staring at her butt more than anything before his view was cut off by the door sliding closed behind her. Without her to occupy him the nightstalker began bounding around the room to rejoice in his regained mobility, partially for the fun of it and mostly to test how clumsy he had gotten in his handicapped state. The answer was very little, although he didn't get to practice much because Mike stepped in and ruined the nightstalker's fun with his presence alone.\n\n``Hello Magellan, I see your prosthetics are holding up rather well.'' He stated cheerily. ``I'll let the team know.'' The nightstalker turned and gave the man the stink eye. Even if the human had given him the ability to walk again, Rose still didn't trust him, and as such neither did he.\n\n``I haven't harmed either of you, you know. Quite the opposite in fact, so showing a little gratitude wouldn't do you any harm.'' Mike added, showing more spine to the hybrid than any of his staff had. The bedroom door slid open, turning the two's attentions to Rose, clad in her blue and yellow vault suit.\n\n``Blackmailing me doesn't do much to build a healthy relationship, Mike. Besides, I bet you would have let us both die in that alleyway if you didn't have a use for me.'' She stated venomously. Ter her surprise Mike nodded his head in response.\n\n``Perhaps. But staring at the branching paths not taken distracts everyone from the present ones, which I'm sure you should feel is just as important as I do.'' He strode forward, hands clasped behind his back. Magellan's head turned as a second person walked in behind him, the ever-familiar black coat and emotionless face of Mike's synth putting the animal on edge immediately. \n\n``A deal is a deal, miss Rose. You and Magellan will be leaving this compound in a minute, but before that I must tac on one last addition.'' He took a step closer to her, making her tense up and ready to pounce if he tried anything. He didn't seem the least bit concerned at her unease, smiling a little wider in fact despite of it. ``In case you forgot, you will also be receiving the deathclaw that you tamed as I have no doubts that he won't imprint on anyone other than you now.''\n\nRose began to protest, but Mike kept talking: ``You can control him if you maintain your place as his matriarch. He shouldn't harm anyone or anything you hold dear unless you loosen the leash that he let you string around its neck. I thank you for your contributions to science and humanity, and I hope that it leads to the betterment of us all.''\n\nMike snapped his fingers, ushering the unscathed X9 past him. ``Transport them outside Sanctuary Hills, along with subject B1 shortly after.'' He commanded, turning on his heel and strolling out of the room.\n\n``As you command.'' the synth responded, ever monotone as he stepped between Rose and Magellan. ``Remain still.'' Was all he said, which Rose dreaded beyond words after hearing some variation of that phase a few too many times already. Magellan tilted his head in confusion when he saw Rose visibly cringe in anticipation, having not experienced the joyous experience fully conscious.\n\nThe blue beam cloaked them in a flash, subjecting Magellan to the gut wrenching feeling of being stretched like taffy across the world, which also surfaced the blurry memory of the first time. And then it was over, the nightstalker coming back together in a shambling mess as he retched violently. On top of all that a blinding yellow light forced him to close his eyes as the blue one faded. He drunkenly took a step forward and heard the creak of wood, which didn't make his confusion any better until his eyes finally withstood the blinding rays and took in where he was, which even that required several blinks beforehand.\n\nHe, Rose, and the robot human were on a rickety wooden bridge, one that the hybrid recognized extremely well. The muddy creek below was laden with ruse and sewage old and new alike, leading further down to where most of the forest (or what remained of it) clung to its existence by a thread. Behind them was the ruins of a pre-war neighborhood, left to crumble and rust in its abandonment. Magellan hopped with joy, turning his head back down the cracked asphalt road and looked over the hill to see the trademark rusty tip of the Red Rocket gas station!\n\nHe glanced back at Rose, his eyes gleaming with excitement as he hissed the only question he could possibly ask: Can we go home?\n\nThe dragon, who handled this teleportation trip much better than the last couple, smiled wide and nodded, watching her overjoyed companion spin around and bolt towards their home lighting fast, cresting the dirt hill that blocked most of their view in two bounding leaps. Rose couldn't help but snicker at Magellan's infectious excitement, but there was still the matter of the deathclaw, so she turned around to face the synth. \n\n``When can we expect our, err... other member of the family?'' \n\n``Subject 1B will be released momentarily.'' X9 stated, stepping back just as that light encompassed him again. Rose shielded her eyes until the light faded, getting real tired of seeing it now.\n\n``Hunk of shit can bite my ass.'' She very outwardly stated, rubbing her eyes. She had wanted to save that statement for when the robot was there in person, growling angrily as her anger towards the machine spiked before settling entirely. What she wouldn't give to rip the synth apart screw by screw partially to relieve some stress and to indulge the tinkerer inside herself and see what the Institute had cooking under its hood. The beam flashed again, twice as large this time as X9 and the aforementioned deathclaw came into existence in front of the dragoness without warning.\n\nThe deathclaw himself had been moping for the last hour in his nest, having lost the one thing he gave his love to the moment he let her slip from his claws. Not that he would in any way force his matron to stay with him all the time, but there was a small part of him that had crumpled into a ball of sadness that he couldn't enjoy a nice after-sex cuddle with his partner.\n\nAnd then the metal man appeared out of nowhere, grabbed him, and blinded the surprised lizard with that sinister blue sun that made his scales crawl. Had he been able to recover from his earth-shattering orgasm his matron had gifted him, the deathclaw would have torn the man into thin strips with a single swift swipe of his claw. Just like Magellan he closed his eyes under the harsh brightness of the sun, cursing the human for blinding him again in what was no doubt another trick of theirs intent to torture him further. And just like the nightstalker he took a dazed stepped forward and was awash in a wave of confusion as he heard the creak of wood.\n\nSlowly he opened his eyes and took in a breath, one that could have made the greatest of beasts fall to their knees and weep tears of blissful joy. The air, it was so... so.... full of life!\n\nThe deathclaw took the deepest breath his lungs could take, the true smell of warm air, real grass, dust, smoke, everything he had once known returning as one. He opened his eyes and stared into the vast blue sky, whimpering happily at its grandeur speckled with fluffy white clouds. Tree's as far as the eye could see, hills and real buildings stretching out over miles and miles ahead of him. He was free!\n\nThe deathclaw turned his gaze to the human, whom he deemed the object of his hatred for all the endless years of agonizing existence. But then he turned to look at his mate, standing not a hair's breadth away from him, and that vile rage vanished in an instant. His chest swelled with a flurry of powerful emotions as he tipped his head back and let out a roar of love, not just for her, but for the vast world he had been gifted an opportunity to live within again.\n\nRose took the roar quite differently, taking a step back on a particularly rotted wooden plank that snapped under her weight. She yelled out as she was plunged downwards, arms reaching out to try and grasp onto something. Instead something grabbed onto her , stopping her descent entirely.\n\nThe deathclaw may have been a little weak from their love session not too long ago, but his muscles were more than fast enough to catch his matron by the arm in the blink of an eye, taking everything he had to not let the sharp edges of his claws in her forearm as he lifted her out of the hole. He churred, curling his other hand around her waist and pulling her into what he recalled was a ``hug'', squeezing her against his chest and purring like a housecat to ease her pounding heart.\n\n``Orders have been completed.'' X9 stated flatly, stepping away from the two. ``Miss Rose, you are ordered to not speak of anything you have seen during your time in the Institute's company and will be monitored to ensure such.''\n\nRose, being squished against her emotional pet lizard, grunted and waved a hand. ``Understood, can you fuck off now?'' She managed to say, giving the synth the bird as a final taunt to satisfy herself more than anything else. The robot didn't reply to her, merely vanishing in the usual blue fashion, sparks sending splinters of wood sizzling over the rail of the bridge. Rose slapped the deathclaw's side weakly, beginning to feel lightheaded as he crushed the breath from her lungs gradually.\n\n``H-hey, I'm not stuffed teddy bear.'' She wheezed, which the deathclaw naturally didn't understand, but let her go regardless. The dragoness took a lungful of air in a gasp, holding onto his wrist to keep herself from stumbling right back into the hole. ``Guess we're both happy to be free from those psychos. I can't imagine living under their roof for a month, let alone, what was it, years?'' She looked up, expecting a little too much from the beast as he tilted his head slightly in confusion.\n\n``Right. Well, if you're going to be living with us you've got a lot to learn, got it?'' This time the deathclaw nodded, not used to listening to human speak so intently. Granted his life had been anything but normal for a very long time, so it wasn't much of a step to overcome.\n\n``First things first, I might not have broken the whole 'deathclaw pet' thing to Magellan very well so you need to be on your best behavior. Don't attack anyone unless I say so, understood?'' \n\nHe nodded again, licking her face appreciatively. He was glad to have someone as smart as her as a matriarch, but who was this Magellan she was talking about?\n\n``Then let's head to your new home and get settled.'' Rose wiped the slobber off her face. ``God, I wish I had stayed home when Boston was a shit show.'' She mumbled under her breath, leading the deathclaw down the road by the hand. He took in the scenery while they walked, unable to hide the toothy smile nor the wagging of his tail stump. They both had missed it all, differing only in the stretches of time they had been away from the real world. As they were starting to round the bend in the road Rose stopped dead in her tracks, freezing suddenly as she realized the critical error in her plan.\n\nThe deathclaw, not understanding, ducked down onto all fours and darted his head around, looking for the threat his mate must have sensed. She turned around and almost jumped out of her skin at the sight of him ready to pounce.\n\n``Woah, it's okay! B-but you need to stay here a minute while I go do something.'' She soothed, biting her lip at the fact that she almost brought the beast directly into the line of fire of all her turrets set up around her base, which was bound to end terribly one way or another. The lizard's stance slackened a bit, churring lightly in what Rose dreaded to be a question.\n\n``Stay here.'' she pointed to the ground between his legs. ``I'll be right back, I promise.'' He looked like he was about to begin drooling when the lizard finally nodded, acting unusually idiotic right now. ``Good, just stay right there while I go do something real quick.'' She repeated, slowly turning around to keep her eye on him to see if he was going to begin following.\n\nFinally she looked forward, biting her lip as she began to realize how much training she would have to pour into the deathclaw just to understand and follow her most basic commands, let alone the more complex ones. \n\nShe walked carefully into the view of her automated defense system, sighing with relief that none of them nor the building looked to have suffered much wear and tear in her absence as all but one spun to face her. The one that wasn't eying her was currently welcoming Magellan back home, who was at a breakneck speed very unlike his usual play sessions as he burned asphalt chasing the red dot. Seeing him playing got the gears in her head turning, beginning to wonder if her new companion would chase the red dot or what he could be useful for other than an oversized guard dog.\n\nSuddenly she wasn't dreading having to train the hunk of muscle as she strolled into the gas station to make sure the turrets didn't go blasting that exact giant beast. Thankfully everything inside looked just like it had been when she left, which all she looked at was the entrance and the living room, which is where she parked herself on the couch to grab the remote and turn the TV on.\n\nShe flipped through the self-made menus until she got to the turrets, setting them to accept another thing to their ``Don't Shoot into Swiss Cheese'' program, cleverly named by none other than the dragoness herself. She also set the select onscreen to the failsafe shutdown of all the turrets just in case they didn't accept a twelve-foot demon from hell as a new DSSC. Rose climbed off the couch after giving it a few seconds of enjoyment, ready to stroll right along when she glanced through the doorway to her workshop and stopped entirely.\n\nHer head whipped left as her eyes locked onto the table closest to the door, the one that was currently occupied by all her equipment and armor! Her expression widened as she saw by her original suit of power armor was the one she had used to fight the behemoth! She ran over to the table first, hands shaking as she unzipped her backpack and pulled out the sniper she had looted in a partially disassembled state along with the Gunner chest plate and shoulder pads, all sitting next to a few parts of what looked like the Fatman as well!\n\nShe was at a complete loss for words, looking over all her stuff that she had thought was long gone. How in the world did it all get here? A mechanical whirr stopped her frantic excitement before it got any worse, the dragon scrambling into the living room and looking out the broken windows of the front room as the deathclaw slowly waltzed into the turret's line of sight.\n\n``I thought I told you to stay put!'' She shouted, bashing open the front door and sprinting in his direction with the remote in hand. Magellan was stock still and completely beholden to his fear as he stared at the deathclaw. Rose had shown him pictures Mike had given her, but nothing could prepare for the real sight of the embodiment of terror itself. It had definitely noticed him, its gaze burrowing into Magellan's heart with a single glance. But... the deathclaw's stance didn't seem the least bit hostile or even interested in him, nor was the turrets shooting it like normal. In fact, it seemed to glance around at the world with a fair amount of calmness, almost like... a child?\n\nMagellan watched as Rose ran towards it with the TV remote in her hand, shouting incoherently at it as she turned see what the turrets were about to do. A unified mechanical click resonated from all the aimed guns as they returned to slowly scanning their respective directions for something else to point their barrels at. Rose relaxed as they returned to their standard protocol, wiping her relief off her face as she spun about to look the deathclaw dead in the eye, not even noticing as that bit of deathclaw in her was starting to ``wake up''.\n\n``I thought I told you to stay over there.'' She stated in a raised and angry tone, jabbing a finger at the hill. The deathclaw, who had been obliviously enjoying the lively world around him until now, craned his neck down and bowed his head shamefully, admitting he didn't quite understand what it was she had told him to do. It was, after all, the first time he was willingly following the commands of a human rather than kin.\n\n``You need to listen to what your matriarch commands, no matter how dumb you want to act!'' she growled angrily, not accepting his motion as good enough. She grabbed one of his horns and yanked his head up, baring her fangs angrily as that piece inside her decided to help. ``Understand?'' she asked in more of a snarl than any kind of normal tone, squeezing his horn tighter until he finally lifted his yellow eyes up to her and nodded gently.\n\n``Good.'' She let go of his horn, ignoring the throbbing pain in the joints of her fingers from holding so tightly onto the lizard and pointing to exactly where the invisible nightstalker was stood motionless. ``That is Magellan. He is never to be harmed, he is now your brother and you will not raise even a claw against him.'' \n\nShe spun her finger to jab at the deathclaw's nose, fully riding on her inner deathclaw's spunk to form the words for her. ``If you give him even one tiny cut I'll tear those pretty little horns off your head and find a new cozy place to jam them up.''\n\nThe deathclaw and Magellan both reeled back as the feisty dragon laid into the former without mercy, huffing angrily through her teeth. The look in her eye told the deathclaw all he needed to know and more, lowering himself before his matriarch and nodding again in submission.\n\nThe nightstalker had never heard Rose go off on someone like that, especially not when their size was nearly double hers! And, although she didn't make any notion to it, the order she had barked in the lizard's face also seemed directed at him, making him afraid of what punishment Rose would toll out if they ever got in a scuffle that didn't end in his immediate death.\n\nRose huffed angrily, giving her inner wild side a sincere thank you as she eased her breathing and gave the deathclaw a pat on the head. ``Great, then I'll go ahead and find you a place to sleep for tonight then.'' She stated in a much more upbeat tone, turning around and walking happily back towards the front door of the station, beckoning Magellan to follow with a wave of her hand. The two animals gave one another a look, the nightstalker slowly uncloaking to show his fearful expression of the dragon that strolled past like nothing happened just then. He kept his eye on the deathclaw as he padded after her inside.\n\nThe lizard stood there, not sure what to do now. Did she still want him to stay put, or was there another order he didn't hear that he needed to do now?\n\nInside, Rose collapsed onto the couch and dropped the act entirely. Her heart was pounding in her chest now that her inner self drew back again, the adrenaline of telling off a monster like it was a kid not quite the feeling she was looking for today. ``I never want to do that again.''\n\nMagellan hesitantly hissed, wondering what she was talking about: shouting in a deathclaw's face or maybe something about the visit to Boston that started this all. Rose parsed the question extremely well despite how little she had to go off of, her reply a quiet ``Both.'' as she wiped her brow. She was beginning to feel extremely tired now, having done plenty to drain herself both mentally and physically in more ways than one. The temptation to close her eyes and snooze away was a tempting one, but she couldn't just leave her new ``mate'' outside for every passer-by to see.\n\nThe only spot she could really consider letting him stay was the garage, but the only real way in was a third of the deathclaw's size, with the other entrance being the most fortified part of the entire building. She wracked her brain trying to come up with some way to hide the lizard from prying eyes without having to trap it inside all the time; He's had plenty of that already in the Institute's clutches. Rose got up off the couch, still pondering what to do as she checked outside to make sure it wasn't causing any trouble.\n\nShe was glad to see that he was still generally where she had left him, although she hadn't ordered it necessarily. Again, the idea of training it seemed both promising and terrifying at the same time, recalling the rather painful experiences she got teaching the much less timid-seeming nightstalker. And Magellan was even in his youth when he was learning, god only knows how tough a fully grown and probably horny deathclaw was going to be on her, matriarch or not.\n\nHe was hunched over one of the rusty cars by the road, the hood in one hand while the other was making fine cuts into it while he waited for his matron's return. The deathclaw was already halfway across the thin square of metal, carving into it with a surprising amount of patience as another line of metal fell off onto the pile at his feet, which was akin to metal spaghetti noodles.\n\nRose's thought about the Institute and the ease at which he cut the metal sheet took a little too long to collide in her head, where the sharpness of his claws finally dawned on her. She had yet to see them in action, thank god, but there was a chance he could cut his way into the garage via the reinforced door. After all, the habitat walls that the Institute had made looked like paper run through a shredder, and surely whatever metal they had was way stronger than the scrap Rose had welded onto what was already a pretty crap door. As for the security breach it would create, Rose couldn't imagine her stuff could be any safer than around the resting spot of a walking nightmare like him. There were still a multitude of holes she could punch in the plan, like where her power armor was going to go and the general need to keep him fed and quenched with all the muscle he was packing, but that was all for another day. Right now she wanted him in a safe place so she could get some well-earned sleep in her bed.\n\nShe whistled loudly, jolting the lizard from his boredom-induced task and getting him to turn her way. \n\n``Hey, I think I've got a place for you, get over here!'' She beckoned, walking towards where the garage door was on the side of the building. \n\nThe deathclaw dropped his masterpiece onto the car and happily waddled over to his matron, who stopped at an odd-looking wall. From the outside it looked rather plain slatted wall, the few broken windowed slits the only indication it was had metal thicker than a brick protecting the other side.\n\n``Try and cut through this with your claws so you can fit through.'' Rose commanded, wrapping her knuckles on the door. For a second the deathclaw wondered what she was thinking. This oddly colored wall looked like he could break through it with a toe!\n\nBut he played along, nodding after giving the wall another glance just to be sure he wasn't missing something that she was trying to teach him. She smiled and took several steps back, not wanting to be anywhere near where the lizard's claws would be flying. He didn't understand if this was a test or she simply couldn't get in to the building, not that it mattered to him at all. He formed a shovel shape with his claws and placed his other hand on the wall to lean against, pulling back his poised hand as far back as he could to give the wall his full strength. Rose watched him reel his arm back but following it after was nearly impossible as it became a dark brown blur moving forward.\n\nAn echo of wrenching metal shook the entire building and made Magellan fly off the couch in terror, his head scraping the ceiling as he came back down wide eyed and ready to fight. The noise had come from the workshop, which he rushed into just in time to see the claws of Rose's pet splay out and shred the reinforced door into five finely cut lines of scrap all the way to the ground in a single downward swipe. Its other hand reached into the opening and shredded the hole a good two feet wider, enough so he could lower his horns in and wrench the upper part further with a screech of twisting steel.\n\nInside was that creature his matriarch his matriarch had declared his brother, wide-eyed with terror as he continued to pry open the rift in the wall until he could squeeze through. Rose was beyond impressed as the lizard made short work of what was three whole days of welding work in just a few short seconds and slinking into the garage. The clatter of metal inside got her to make sure he wasn't knocking over all her racks of tools, carefully stepping by the slabs of metal that fell out and glanced inwards. She saw that the deathclaw had already bullied both metal suits into the corner of the room like mere toys, the one that had been on the rack no exception while the giant monster glanced around curiously. Rose whistled low and long, stepping through the new doorway into her home carefully.\n\n``I used to think that door was pretty tough, proud of it even. Guess I was wrong.'' She stated with a twang of sadness over her deflated ego. The deathclaw grumbled in response, the tops of his horns scraping on the ceiling and reining down dust as he turned to look at the dragoness.\n\n``This will be your new den until we come up with something a bit more... spacious.'' She watched him duck his head and shake the dust from it, hoping he'll keep it low so he doesn't bring the entire building down on him. The deathclaw agreed with her, forced to move on all fours inside the cramped space. He circled the center of the room before settling his weight down on the ground, the rough floor in definite need of improving if he was to sleep there for very long.\n\n``Good enough for now, I'm going to go get some sleep now. Don't break anything.'' Rose yawned and stretched her arms. Institute may have had futuristic beds and all, but nothing beat lying in the one she had earned with her very own caps, and nothing was going to stop her from flopping down in it tonight. Lo and behold, as Rose began walking past the deathclaw to her room he snatched her out of nowhere and pulled the dragoness against him, this time more than capable to get a snuggle session out of his matron.\n\nRose squeaked as he squeezed her against his chest, grunting and struggling weakly for a scant few minutes before giving up rather quickly. ``You going to let me go anytime soon?'' She asked, already knowing the answer to be a definite no. He purred happily and curled around her. Rose settled her head on his arm and sighed tiredly, giving Magellan a defeated glance. ``Guess I'm not going anywhere today. Bed's all yours bud.''\n\nMagellan hissed sadly, eying the claws that had just torn through metal that were draped over his master, but knew he couldn't do anything even if he wanted to. He just had to hope her status as the lizard's mate would protect her in his absence. He turned around and padded into the living room to leave both of them to get comfortable with one another.\n\nRose couldn't even try to remove her vault jumpsuit as the beast pressed against her, his whole body radiating with warmth that was bound to make her start sweating uncomfortably. She squirmed to get into a better position where the rough side of his arm wasn't digging into her back so much, which wasn't any easier thanks to him so desperately not wanting to let her go. Finally she found a spot that was somewhat comfortable and closed her eyes to try and get some sleep, which came sooner than she was expecting.\n\nThe deathclaw watched her doze off with pride in his chest. He had never even dreamed of escaping that place, nor did he ever think he could find a matriarch willing to accept him in his damaged state; tailless and starved for companionship. He leaned his head in on the frail female in his clutches, sniffing her lightly and smiling at the same wondrous scent that greeted him back. She was an odd one, but that wouldn't ever matter to him anymore. They were bonded now, and it was his duty to serve her for all his life.\n\nHe set his head as close to hers as he could, listening to her breathing to help himself sleep peacefully for the first time in six whole years...\n\nThe End...?\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "____________________________________________________________

Note: There is no sexual content in this story aside from the aftermath of the previous chapter.

____________________________________________________________

Magellan scooched himself towards the edge of the bed, the action as humiliating as it was funny to look at. He glanced down at the small wheelchair specially built for him, a more embarrassing necessity in his crippled state than having to drag his rump along the ground. Climbing down a bed was an interesting ordeal he never expected to be such a challenge at any point in his life, having to slide down part of the way with his existing front legs until he had to drop the rest of the way to the ground.

He angled his rear mid-air so it landed in the seat of the wheelchair almost perfectly, bouncing once. The nightstalker wrapped his tail around the back support and began to walk towards the door out of the bedroom. He was used to that part of the daily routine, but it was still tremendously unsettling to walk purely with his front pair of legs, especially with the effect of feeling a pair of phantom legs behind him trying to walk in step.

Rose had been gone for a while now, at least he thought it had been a while with the combined total of zero ways to tell the time in their apartment. All he knew was that sometime after she was gone someone was supposed to take him to get a new pair of hind legs, and that he was supposed to wait by the front door for them.

The bedroom door slid open for Magellan, who hurriedly ran through before it decided to close on his chair again like yesterday. Was it yesterday, or the day before that? Magellan growled angrily, going stir crazy in the tiny amount of space he and Rose had been bottled into. He crossed the living room to the next sliding door, sighing as he realized he had no clue when the person would show up for him. Thankfully his wait wasn't long in the least, a man wearing a white lab coat opening the door not a minute after and almost tripped on the crippled nightstalker as he took a step in.

``O-oh, sorry about the delay, we were just putting on the final touches on your prosthetics.'' the human stated, taking a step back and adjusting the thick-rimmed glasses that sat on his face. The man smiled, bending down slightly and lowering his hand gently over Magellan. ``May I pet you?'' He asked.

For the first time in a while Magellan smirked, hissing at the man with as much spit he could fling towards his hand as possible. The human retracted his hand and jumped backwards with clear fear. Magellan's mood immediately lifted as he gave the scrawny man something to for probably the first time in his over sheltered life.

``S-so-sorry! Y-you can f-f-ollow me t-to the clinic.'' The man stammered, which only further improved the hybrid's mood. He could smell the fear that poured from him as the human turned around with extreme hesitation and began to quickly walk ahead of the wheelchair-bound animal.

He glanced back every so often to see if the nightstalker was indeed following hum, that or he was making sure Magellan didn't intend to leap from his chair and pounce him right then and there. They followed the path Rose had taken to the clinic a couple hours prior, only Magellan stopped to look at the green scenery below and beyond the walkway.

It was a nice sight to behold, despite the imposing atmosphere that clung to the air seemingly at all times. He flicked his tongue out to see what tastes he could find. No surprise to him, most of the air was laden with the taste of chemicals and synthetics, both sour on his tongue as he retracted it. His escort was getting away from him, forcing Magellan to turn back and pick up speed just to catch up with him just as he glanced backwards.

To him the hybrid was undoubtedly going in for the kill, jumping in his skin and almost screaming bloody murder as Magellan bounded towards him. Magellan hissed with laughter as the guy looked primed to faint, wondering if everyone was as big of a pussy as this human was. They finally reached the clinic where a group of doctors were still hard at work at one of the far tables.

The group of humans all turned to look at Magellan, an eerie sense crawling up his spine as he glared back at them. His escort bolted over to them, whispering quickly into one of the doctor's ears. The man nodded, ushering the clearly terrified man off while Magellan padded over to them with a clear smile on his face.

``Welcome, Magellan was it? We just finished your prosthetics and are ready to begin.'' He stated, not a hint of fear like the last guy in his voice. ``Please let us lift you onto the table.'' The man bent down and wrapped his arms around the nightstalker's chest, who was extremely tempted to jolt and see just how afraid the human was of him. He relented, wanting to save the fun for when he and Rose were back home.

The doctor tried to lift Magellan off the ground and grunted with exertion, barely getting him to lift off the ground. ``Mind helping me? He asked to the others behind him. It took a total of three of them to lift the hybrid onto the table, the creature fighting to not cackle like a hyena at how flabby their arms must be under their long white sleeves to need so many hands to carry him.

Once he was on, Magellan got to see what they were working on for the first time.  A good foot away was two pairs of legs, his legs in fact. Each were completely identical to his old ones, save for not being attached to him and clearly ending in a grey plastic with wires poking out. He flicked his tongue out and tasted his own scent coming from them, but kept his confusion well hidden from all the humans around him. He couldn't comprehend how the legs were giving off his scent, everything save for their clearly fake ends dictating those legs to be his real ones, which made no sense at all.

The endless loop of not comprehending cut off as one of the doctors placed a gloved hand on Magellan's head and gently laid it onto the table.

``We're going to sedate you for the operation, understood?'' He asked, pulling out a needle from his coat pocket. Magellan looked up at the syringe in his hand full of a sloshing red liquid then at the man's expressionless face. In the blink of an eye his smugness disappeared as a memory flickered in his mind, that face stretched into a tight and bloody grin, the stench of blood that dripped from the blade hanging over him like a fog of death.

Oh no...

Magellan's eyes widened, not with surprise but with fear as he stared up at the man. He was falling into another panic attack, and Rose was nowhere to be seen. The nightstalker's complacid-ness turned into full blown panic as he struggled frantically, several hands latching onto him to hold him down. Luckily the doctors had been told about his panic attacks long beforehand, keeping him still long enough for the one to inject the sedative as smoothly as he could into Magellan. The nightstalker kicked weakly, trying to get away as the world began to swim and fade to black, his eyelids fluttering close slowly...

...

Rose almost vomited as the nausea of being teleported by the badly damaged synth for the second time today. She had already spat out a wad of blood on her way out of the deathclaw's habitat, her whole body aching all over with each step she had taken. She turned around to see the synth disappear in another blue light, leaving her alone and nude in front of the door to her room.

A glance downward showed she was caked in a little too much deathclaw cum, dripping onto the floor already and spurring her to dash into her apartment before anyone could catch a sight of her current state. She B-lined for the bathroom, leaving creamy white footprints on the rug as she rushed inside. In her haste she slipped with the first step onto the tiled floor, flailing wildly and grabbing the corner of the sink before she hit the ground.

Naturally her grip slipped rather quickly, dropping her the rest of the way to the floor with a dull wet splat. She grunted loudly as she hit the ground hard, mumbling a ``Damnit'' under her breath as she chose to lay there for a minute. God, she hated the Institute and their stupid polished floors, always having to be perfect no matter what task they were doing.

Groaning painfully, she slowly climbed to her feet and waddled over to the shower, pulling open the glass door and stepping in with a little more caution than when she ran in. The cum on her felt more like cold water now than anything else, making every motion sticky and generally making her feel gross as hell. She twisted the nozzles until the water was nice and warm before slipping under its flow, tipping her head forward so it could run down her back first.

The patches that were mostly dry came off in flaky patches rather quickly, some splatting on the shower floor loudly while others chose to slide down her form with the cleansing warm liquid. She closed her eyes and felt around the wall for the bar of soap when both her arms began to feel like wet noodles all the sudden.

She pushed past the feeling and rubbed the bar between her hands, working a lather before rubbing it into her scales with an exhausted slowness. Honesty she didn't care how long it took to clean herself up, same going for all the aches and pains that sunk their teeth into her arms and legs. All that was on her mind was Magellan and that part of her that had revealed itself when he met the deathclaw.

The first was a given, being away from her best friend was getting too common for her liking, nor did she fully trust the Institute to hold their end of the bargain without a few strings attached that she would need to cut off. But the second part had her interest. She had gone toe-to-toe with a deathclaw and lived, even going so far as to wrestle it onto the ground in a test of strength.

Granted her muscles were paying for that now, but all things considered the pain was absurdly manageable for what she had pulled off. And it was all thanks to that small presence in her body, the one that still lingered in the pit of her being. Its existence alone was turning her over to what Mike had told her, but a new question was propping itself up: why hadn?t this part of her shown itself sooner, especially when she was fighting that behemoth?

That feeling of power had been euphoric, like she could take on the whole wide world with just here claws, and now it was always there, as if it was waiting for something. Rose rubbed her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut to try and force that powerful feeling back up. She wasn't expecting much at all given its timidness now, so when it didn't budge she gave up quickly and focused on washing herself fully. After an hour of lathering rinsing and repeating a multitude of times Rose turned off the water, having rid every shred of evidence she had ever met the deathclaw from her body; that small part feeding into her a small twang of sadness to that fact.

Well tough luck, this was her body and she had every right to clean herself as much as she wanted. She stepped out of the shower and grabbed one of the hanging towels, doing her best to avoid the patches of leftover cum on the ground as she toweled off. She tied a towel over her chest and waist before stepping out of the bathroom, taking a quick glance to make sure Mike or that synth wasn't waiting for her outside. The thought of finally being alone was shot down as the front door slid open, a mechanical whirr warning the mostly nude dragon soon enough that she could bolt back into the bathroom.

``Learn how to knock asshole!'' She shouted, clenching a fist just in case. Her statement was greeted with an enthusiastic rattle, shifting her tone completely as she poked her head out. In the doorway was none other than Magellan himself, standing on four legs and wagging his tail lightly with an overjoyed smile on his face.

Rose squealed and stepped out from the doorway, her arms opening wide to invite the nightstalker in a hug. He broke into a sprint towards her and leapt into the dragon's arms, knocking her to the ground with a joyous yip. Now his tail was wagging up a storm, rubbing his head against Rose's while she pet him with the same level of energy and excitement. He licked her face over and over, which made the clear change of her even more obvious.

Magellan couldn't pinpoint what exactly was different, but it did line up with that missing... piece that he always wondered about, the one that was faintly there whenever she showed her more wild side. But he ignored all of that and continued giving her all the kisses he could muster, her sweet squealing music to his canine ears. By the end both of them were catching their breath on the floor, the nightstalker rolling off Rose's chest still panting happily.

``Glad to see you're doing better, boy.'' She said, sitting up and giving his rump a hearty pat. The only sign he had even lost his hind legs were the thins scars near the tip of his flanks, both cutting off suddenly with fresh scales and fur. ``How are you feeling?''

Magellan stood up and nodded. There was still some residual pain from when he had woken up, but otherwise he felt right as rain, giving his toes a flex to express that point. Everything felt natural almost to the point that the thought of having lost his legs at all seemed more like a bad dream than reality. Rose patted him on the head, feeling much better with her decision to go through with the experiment seeing how full of life he was now. She glanced down at the two towels that used to be tied to her, Magellan's eyes drifting down to do the same.

He gave a low howl, clearing asking if she was feeling alright herself, perhaps even enough to...?

She shook her head. ``Little sore, but I could be worse. I know its been a while, but I'll pass on the sex, already had my fill for today.'' She chuckled lightly. Rose tied the two towels back on their respective spots and got up, giving Magellan's head another pat. ``I'm going to go get dressed before Mike pokes his head in.''

Magellan watched her head into the bedroom, staring at her butt more than anything before his view was cut off by the door sliding closed behind her. Without her to occupy him the nightstalker began bounding around the room to rejoice in his regained mobility, partially for the fun of it and mostly to test how clumsy he had gotten in his handicapped state. The answer was very little, although he didn't get to practice much because Mike stepped in and ruined the nightstalker's fun with his presence alone.

``Hello Magellan, I see your prosthetics are holding up rather well.'' He stated cheerily. ``I'll let the team know.'' The nightstalker turned and gave the man the stink eye. Even if the human had given him the ability to walk again, Rose still didn't trust him, and as such neither did he.

``I haven't harmed either of you, you know. Quite the opposite in fact, so showing a little gratitude wouldn't do you any harm.'' Mike added, showing more spine to the hybrid than any of his staff had. The bedroom door slid open, turning the two's attentions to Rose, clad in her blue and yellow vault suit.

``Blackmailing me doesn't do much to build a healthy relationship, Mike. Besides, I bet you would have let us both die in that alleyway if you didn't have a use for me.'' She stated venomously. Ter her surprise Mike nodded his head in response.

``Perhaps. But staring at the branching paths not taken distracts everyone from the present ones, which I'm sure you should feel is just as important as I do.'' He strode forward, hands clasped behind his back. Magellan's head turned as a second person walked in behind him, the ever-familiar black coat and emotionless face of Mike's synth putting the animal on edge immediately.

``A deal is a deal, miss Rose. You and Magellan will be leaving this compound in a minute, but before that I must tac on one last addition.'' He took a step closer to her, making her tense up and ready to pounce if he tried anything. He didn't seem the least bit concerned at her unease, smiling a little wider in fact despite of it. ``In case you forgot, you will also be receiving the deathclaw that you tamed as I have no doubts that he won't imprint on anyone other than you now.''

Rose began to protest, but Mike kept talking: ``You can control him if you maintain your place as his matriarch. He shouldn't harm anyone or anything you hold dear unless you loosen the leash that he let you string around its neck. I thank you for your contributions to science and humanity, and I hope that it leads to the betterment of us all.''

Mike snapped his fingers, ushering the unscathed X9 past him. ``Transport them outside Sanctuary Hills, along with subject B1 shortly after.'' He commanded, turning on his heel and strolling out of the room.

``As you command.'' the synth responded, ever monotone as he stepped between Rose and Magellan. ``Remain still.'' Was all he said, which Rose dreaded beyond words after hearing some variation of that phase a few too many times already. Magellan tilted his head in confusion when he saw Rose visibly cringe in anticipation, having not experienced the joyous experience fully conscious.

The blue beam cloaked them in a flash, subjecting Magellan to the gut wrenching feeling of being stretched like taffy across the world, which also surfaced the blurry memory of the first time. And then it was over, the nightstalker coming back together in a shambling mess as he retched violently. On top of all that a blinding yellow light forced him to close his eyes as the blue one faded. He drunkenly took a step forward and heard the creak of wood, which didn't make his confusion any better until his eyes finally withstood the blinding rays and took in where he was, which even that required several blinks beforehand.

He, Rose, and the robot human were on a rickety wooden bridge, one that the hybrid recognized extremely well. The muddy creek below was laden with ruse and sewage old and new alike, leading further down to where most of the forest (or what remained of it) clung to its existence by a thread. Behind them was the ruins of a pre-war neighborhood, left to crumble and rust in its abandonment. Magellan hopped with joy, turning his head back down the cracked asphalt road and looked over the hill to see the trademark rusty tip of the Red Rocket gas station!

He glanced back at Rose, his eyes gleaming with excitement as he hissed the only question he could possibly ask: Can we go home?

The dragon, who handled this teleportation trip much better than the last couple, smiled wide and nodded, watching her overjoyed companion spin around and bolt towards their home lighting fast, cresting the dirt hill that blocked most of their view in two bounding leaps. Rose couldn't help but snicker at Magellan's infectious excitement, but there was still the matter of the deathclaw, so she turned around to face the synth.

``When can we expect our, err... other member of the family?''

``Subject 1B will be released momentarily.'' X9 stated, stepping back just as that light encompassed him again. Rose shielded her eyes until the light faded, getting real tired of seeing it now.

``Hunk of shit can bite my ass.'' She very outwardly stated, rubbing her eyes. She had wanted to save that statement for when the robot was there in person, growling angrily as her anger towards the machine spiked before settling entirely. What she wouldn't give to rip the synth apart screw by screw partially to relieve some stress and to indulge the tinkerer inside herself and see what the Institute had cooking under its hood. The beam flashed again, twice as large this time as X9 and the aforementioned deathclaw came into existence in front of the dragoness without warning.

The deathclaw himself had been moping for the last hour in his nest, having lost the one thing he gave his love to the moment he let her slip from his claws. Not that he would in any way force his matron to stay with him all the time, but there was a small part of him that had crumpled into a ball of sadness that he couldn't enjoy a nice after-sex cuddle with his partner.

And then the metal man appeared out of nowhere, grabbed him, and blinded the surprised lizard with that sinister blue sun that made his scales crawl. Had he been able to recover from his earth-shattering orgasm his matron had gifted him, the deathclaw would have torn the man into thin strips with a single swift swipe of his claw. Just like Magellan he closed his eyes under the harsh brightness of the sun, cursing the human for blinding him again in what was no doubt another trick of theirs intent to torture him further. And just like the nightstalker he took a dazed stepped forward and was awash in a wave of confusion as he heard the creak of wood.

Slowly he opened his eyes and took in a breath, one that could have made the greatest of beasts fall to their knees and weep tears of blissful joy. The air, it was so... so.... full of life!

The deathclaw took the deepest breath his lungs could take, the true smell of warm air, real grass, dust, smoke, everything he had once known returning as one. He opened his eyes and stared into the vast blue sky, whimpering happily at its grandeur speckled with fluffy white clouds. Tree's as far as the eye could see, hills and real buildings stretching out over miles and miles ahead of him. He was free!

The deathclaw turned his gaze to the human, whom he deemed the object of his hatred for all the endless years of agonizing existence. But then he turned to look at his mate, standing not a hair's breadth away from him, and that vile rage vanished in an instant. His chest swelled with a flurry of powerful emotions as he tipped his head back and let out a roar of love, not just for her, but for the vast world he had been gifted an opportunity to live within again.

Rose took the roar quite differently, taking a step back on a particularly rotted wooden plank that snapped under her weight. She yelled out as she was plunged downwards, arms reaching out to try and grasp onto something. Instead something grabbed onto her , stopping her descent entirely.

The deathclaw may have been a little weak from their love session not too long ago, but his muscles were more than fast enough to catch his matron by the arm in the blink of an eye, taking everything he had to not let the sharp edges of his claws in her forearm as he lifted her out of the hole. He churred, curling his other hand around her waist and pulling her into what he recalled was a ``hug'', squeezing her against his chest and purring like a housecat to ease her pounding heart.

``Orders have been completed.'' X9 stated flatly, stepping away from the two. ``Miss Rose, you are ordered to not speak of anything you have seen during your time in the Institute's company and will be monitored to ensure such.''

Rose, being squished against her emotional pet lizard, grunted and waved a hand. ``Understood, can you fuck off now?'' She managed to say, giving the synth the bird as a final taunt to satisfy herself more than anything else. The robot didn't reply to her, merely vanishing in the usual blue fashion, sparks sending splinters of wood sizzling over the rail of the bridge. Rose slapped the deathclaw's side weakly, beginning to feel lightheaded as he crushed the breath from her lungs gradually.

``H-hey, I'm not stuffed teddy bear.'' She wheezed, which the deathclaw naturally didn't understand, but let her go regardless. The dragoness took a lungful of air in a gasp, holding onto his wrist to keep herself from stumbling right back into the hole. ``Guess we're both happy to be free from those psychos. I can't imagine living under their roof for a month, let alone, what was it, years?'' She looked up, expecting a little too much from the beast as he tilted his head slightly in confusion.

``Right. Well, if you're going to be living with us you've got a lot to learn, got it?'' This time the deathclaw nodded, not used to listening to human speak so intently. Granted his life had been anything but normal for a very long time, so it wasn't much of a step to overcome.

``First things first, I might not have broken the whole 'deathclaw pet' thing to Magellan very well so you need to be on your best behavior. Don't attack anyone unless I say so, understood?''

He nodded again, licking her face appreciatively. He was glad to have someone as smart as her as a matriarch, but who was this Magellan she was talking about?

``Then let's head to your new home and get settled.'' Rose wiped the slobber off her face. ``God, I wish I had stayed home when Boston was a shit show.'' She mumbled under her breath, leading the deathclaw down the road by the hand. He took in the scenery while they walked, unable to hide the toothy smile nor the wagging of his tail stump. They both had missed it all, differing only in the stretches of time they had been away from the real world. As they were starting to round the bend in the road Rose stopped dead in her tracks, freezing suddenly as she realized the critical error in her plan.

The deathclaw, not understanding, ducked down onto all fours and darted his head around, looking for the threat his mate must have sensed. She turned around and almost jumped out of her skin at the sight of him ready to pounce.

``Woah, it's okay! B-but you need to stay here a minute while I go do something.'' She soothed, biting her lip at the fact that she almost brought the beast directly into the line of fire of all her turrets set up around her base, which was bound to end terribly one way or another. The lizard's stance slackened a bit, churring lightly in what Rose dreaded to be a question.

``Stay here.'' she pointed to the ground between his legs. ``I'll be right back, I promise.'' He looked like he was about to begin drooling when the lizard finally nodded, acting unusually idiotic right now. ``Good, just stay right there while I go do something real quick.'' She repeated, slowly turning around to keep her eye on him to see if he was going to begin following.

Finally she looked forward, biting her lip as she began to realize how much training she would have to pour into the deathclaw just to understand and follow her most basic commands, let alone the more complex ones.

She walked carefully into the view of her automated defense system, sighing with relief that none of them nor the building looked to have suffered much wear and tear in her absence as all but one spun to face her. The one that wasn't eying her was currently welcoming Magellan back home, who was at a breakneck speed very unlike his usual play sessions as he burned asphalt chasing the red dot. Seeing him playing got the gears in her head turning, beginning to wonder if her new companion would chase the red dot or what he could be useful for other than an oversized guard dog.

Suddenly she wasn't dreading having to train the hunk of muscle as she strolled into the gas station to make sure the turrets didn't go blasting that exact giant beast. Thankfully everything inside looked just like it had been when she left, which all she looked at was the entrance and the living room, which is where she parked herself on the couch to grab the remote and turn the TV on.

She flipped through the self-made menus until she got to the turrets, setting them to accept another thing to their ``Don't Shoot into Swiss Cheese'' program, cleverly named by none other than the dragoness herself. She also set the select onscreen to the failsafe shutdown of all the turrets just in case they didn't accept a twelve-foot demon from hell as a new DSSC. Rose climbed off the couch after giving it a few seconds of enjoyment, ready to stroll right along when she glanced through the doorway to her workshop and stopped entirely.

Her head whipped left as her eyes locked onto the table closest to the door, the one that was currently occupied by all her equipment and armor! Her expression widened as she saw by her original suit of power armor was the one she had used to fight the behemoth! She ran over to the table first, hands shaking as she unzipped her backpack and pulled out the sniper she had looted in a partially disassembled state along with the Gunner chest plate and shoulder pads, all sitting next to a few parts of what looked like the Fatman as well!

She was at a complete loss for words, looking over all her stuff that she had thought was long gone. How in the world did it all get here? A mechanical whirr stopped her frantic excitement before it got any worse, the dragon scrambling into the living room and looking out the broken windows of the front room as the deathclaw slowly waltzed into the turret's line of sight.

``I thought I told you to stay put!'' She shouted, bashing open the front door and sprinting in his direction with the remote in hand. Magellan was stock still and completely beholden to his fear as he stared at the deathclaw. Rose had shown him pictures Mike had given her, but nothing could prepare for the real sight of the embodiment of terror itself. It had definitely noticed him, its gaze burrowing into Magellan's heart with a single glance. But... the deathclaw's stance didn't seem the least bit hostile or even interested in him, nor was the turrets shooting it like normal. In fact, it seemed to glance around at the world with a fair amount of calmness, almost like... a child?

Magellan watched as Rose ran towards it with the TV remote in her hand, shouting incoherently at it as she turned see what the turrets were about to do. A unified mechanical click resonated from all the aimed guns as they returned to slowly scanning their respective directions for something else to point their barrels at. Rose relaxed as they returned to their standard protocol, wiping her relief off her face as she spun about to look the deathclaw dead in the eye, not even noticing as that bit of deathclaw in her was starting to ``wake up''.

``I thought I told you to stay over there.'' She stated in a raised and angry tone, jabbing a finger at the hill. The deathclaw, who had been obliviously enjoying the lively world around him until now, craned his neck down and bowed his head shamefully, admitting he didn't quite understand what it was she had told him to do. It was, after all, the first time he was willingly following the commands of a human rather than kin.

``You need to listen to what your matriarch commands, no matter how dumb you want to act!'' she growled angrily, not accepting his motion as good enough. She grabbed one of his horns and yanked his head up, baring her fangs angrily as that piece inside her decided to help. ``Understand?'' she asked in more of a snarl than any kind of normal tone, squeezing his horn tighter until he finally lifted his yellow eyes up to her and nodded gently.

``Good.'' She let go of his horn, ignoring the throbbing pain in the joints of her fingers from holding so tightly onto the lizard and pointing to exactly where the invisible nightstalker was stood motionless. ``That is Magellan. He is never to be harmed, he is now your brother and you will not raise even a claw against him.''

She spun her finger to jab at the deathclaw's nose, fully riding on her inner deathclaw's spunk to form the words for her. ``If you give him even one tiny cut I'll tear those pretty little horns off your head and find a new cozy place to jam them up.''

The deathclaw and Magellan both reeled back as the feisty dragon laid into the former without mercy, huffing angrily through her teeth. The look in her eye told the deathclaw all he needed to know and more, lowering himself before his matriarch and nodding again in submission.

The nightstalker had never heard Rose go off on someone like that, especially not when their size was nearly double hers! And, although she didn't make any notion to it, the order she had barked in the lizard's face also seemed directed at him, making him afraid of what punishment Rose would toll out if they ever got in a scuffle that didn't end in his immediate death.

Rose huffed angrily, giving her inner wild side a sincere thank you as she eased her breathing and gave the deathclaw a pat on the head. ``Great, then I'll go ahead and find you a place to sleep for tonight then.'' She stated in a much more upbeat tone, turning around and walking happily back towards the front door of the station, beckoning Magellan to follow with a wave of her hand. The two animals gave one another a look, the nightstalker slowly uncloaking to show his fearful expression of the dragon that strolled past like nothing happened just then. He kept his eye on the deathclaw as he padded after her inside.

The lizard stood there, not sure what to do now. Did she still want him to stay put, or was there another order he didn't hear that he needed to do now?

Inside, Rose collapsed onto the couch and dropped the act entirely. Her heart was pounding in her chest now that her inner self drew back again, the adrenaline of telling off a monster like it was a kid not quite the feeling she was looking for today. ``I never want to do that again.''

Magellan hesitantly hissed, wondering what she was talking about: shouting in a deathclaw's face or maybe something about the visit to Boston that started this all. Rose parsed the question extremely well despite how little she had to go off of, her reply a quiet ``Both.'' as she wiped her brow. She was beginning to feel extremely tired now, having done plenty to drain herself both mentally and physically in more ways than one. The temptation to close her eyes and snooze away was a tempting one, but she couldn't just leave her new ``mate'' outside for every passer-by to see.

The only spot she could really consider letting him stay was the garage, but the only real way in was a third of the deathclaw's size, with the other entrance being the most fortified part of the entire building. She wracked her brain trying to come up with some way to hide the lizard from prying eyes without having to trap it inside all the time; He's had plenty of that already in the Institute's clutches. Rose got up off the couch, still pondering what to do as she checked outside to make sure it wasn't causing any trouble.

She was glad to see that he was still generally where she had left him, although she hadn't ordered it necessarily. Again, the idea of training it seemed both promising and terrifying at the same time, recalling the rather painful experiences she got teaching the much less timid-seeming nightstalker. And Magellan was even in his youth when he was learning, god only knows how tough a fully grown and probably horny deathclaw was going to be on her, matriarch or not.

He was hunched over one of the rusty cars by the road, the hood in one hand while the other was making fine cuts into it while he waited for his matron's return. The deathclaw was already halfway across the thin square of metal, carving into it with a surprising amount of patience as another line of metal fell off onto the pile at his feet, which was akin to metal spaghetti noodles.

Rose's thought about the Institute and the ease at which he cut the metal sheet took a little too long to collide in her head, where the sharpness of his claws finally dawned on her. She had yet to see them in action, thank god, but there was a chance he could cut his way into the garage via the reinforced door.  After all, the habitat walls that the Institute had made looked like paper run through a shredder, and surely whatever metal they had was way stronger than the scrap Rose had welded onto what was already a pretty crap door. As for the security breach it would create, Rose couldn't imagine her stuff could be any safer than around the resting spot of a walking nightmare like him. There were still a multitude of holes she could punch in the plan, like where her power armor was going to go and the general need to keep him fed and quenched with all the muscle he was packing, but that was all for another day. Right now she wanted him in a safe place so she could get some well-earned sleep in her bed.

She whistled loudly, jolting the lizard from his boredom-induced task and getting him to turn her way.

``Hey, I think I've got a place for you, get over here!'' She beckoned, walking towards where the garage door was on the side of the building.

The deathclaw dropped his masterpiece onto the car and happily waddled over to his matron, who stopped at an odd-looking wall. From the outside it looked rather plain slatted wall, the few broken windowed slits the only indication it was had metal thicker than a brick protecting the other side.

``Try and cut through this with your claws so you can fit through.'' Rose commanded, wrapping her knuckles on the door. For a second the deathclaw wondered what she was thinking. This oddly colored wall looked like he could break through it with a toe!

But he played along, nodding after giving the wall another glance just to be sure he wasn't missing something that she was trying to teach him. She smiled and took several steps back, not wanting to be anywhere near where the lizard's claws would be flying. He didn't understand if this was a test or she simply couldn't get in to the building, not that it mattered to him at all. He formed a shovel shape with his claws and placed his other hand on the wall to lean against, pulling back his poised hand as far back as he could to give the wall his full strength. Rose watched him reel his arm back but following it after was nearly impossible as it became a dark brown blur moving forward.

An echo of wrenching metal shook the entire building and made Magellan fly off the couch in terror, his head scraping the ceiling as he came back down wide eyed and ready to fight. The noise had come from the workshop, which he rushed into just in time to see the claws of Rose's pet splay out and shred the reinforced door into five finely cut lines of scrap all the way to the ground in a single downward swipe. Its other hand reached into the opening and shredded the hole a good two feet wider, enough so he could lower his horns in and wrench the upper part further with a screech of twisting steel.

Inside was that creature his matriarch his matriarch had declared his brother, wide-eyed with terror as he continued to pry open the rift in the wall until he could squeeze through. Rose was beyond impressed as the lizard made short work of what was three whole days of welding work in just a few short seconds and slinking into the garage. The clatter of metal inside got her to make sure he wasn't knocking over all her racks of tools, carefully stepping by the slabs of metal that fell out and glanced inwards. She saw that the deathclaw had already bullied both metal suits into the corner of the room like mere toys, the one that had been on the rack no exception while the giant monster glanced around curiously. Rose whistled low and long, stepping through the new doorway into her home carefully.

``I used to think that door was pretty tough, proud of it even. Guess I was wrong.'' She stated with a twang of sadness over her deflated ego. The deathclaw grumbled in response, the tops of his horns scraping on the ceiling and reining down dust as he turned to look at the dragoness.

``This will be your new den until we come up with something a bit more... spacious.'' She watched him duck his head and shake the dust from it, hoping he'll keep it low so he doesn't bring the entire building down on him. The deathclaw agreed with her, forced to move on all fours inside the cramped space. He circled the center of the room before settling his weight down on the ground, the rough floor in definite need of improving if he was to sleep there for very long.

``Good enough for now, I'm going to go get some sleep now. Don't break anything.'' Rose yawned and stretched her arms. Institute may have had futuristic beds and all, but nothing beat lying in the one she had earned with her very own caps, and nothing was going to stop her from flopping down in it tonight. Lo and behold, as Rose began walking past the deathclaw to her room he snatched her out of nowhere and pulled the dragoness against him, this time more than capable to get a snuggle session out of his matron.

Rose squeaked as he squeezed her against his chest, grunting and struggling weakly for a scant few minutes before giving up rather quickly. ``You going to let me go anytime soon?'' She asked, already knowing the answer to be a definite no. He purred happily and curled around her. Rose settled her head on his arm and sighed tiredly, giving Magellan a defeated glance. ``Guess I'm not going anywhere today. Bed's all yours bud.''

Magellan hissed sadly, eying the claws that had just torn through metal that were draped over his master, but knew he couldn't do anything even if he wanted to. He just had to hope her status as the lizard's mate would protect her in his absence. He turned around and padded into the living room to leave both of them to get comfortable with one another.

Rose couldn't even try to remove her vault jumpsuit as the beast pressed against her, his whole body radiating with warmth that was bound to make her start sweating uncomfortably. She squirmed to get into a better position where the rough side of his arm wasn't digging into her back so much, which wasn't any easier thanks to him so desperately not wanting to let her go. Finally she found a spot that was somewhat comfortable and closed her eyes to try and get some sleep, which came sooner than she was expecting.

The deathclaw watched her doze off with pride in his chest. He had never even dreamed of escaping that place, nor did he ever think he could find a matriarch willing to accept him in his damaged state; tailless and starved for companionship. He leaned his head in on the frail female in his clutches, sniffing her lightly and smiling at the same wondrous scent that greeted him back. She was an odd one, but that wouldn't ever matter to him anymore. They were bonded now, and it was his duty to serve her for all his life.

He set his head as close to hers as he could, listening to her breathing to help himself sleep peacefully for the first time in six whole years...

The End...?

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