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His smile faded away as he began to walk with her on his shoulder farther north.
"Well, I never really got to talk about how we're related to each other. I wanted to see how you felt, and I've been trying to decide how I feel about it."
He sighed slowly.
"As much as I'd love to just ignore it, I simply cant, it's way too important."

((@azureink: Thats perfect, we'll just maintain that story-line from now on. ))

*Nine Hours Later*

After traveling through Kentucky, he was halfway through the old state of Tennessee, the storm was getting bad, along with fatigue setting in from having to keep the APC driving straight and from getting pushed over on it's side, having to fight the storm the entire way, it must have been a big system since he was traveling into it rather than with it, along with the area it was covering. But wasteland storms were unpredictable and the eastern storms the worst, so it was no surprise.

Half an hour more passed when a rocky outcropping came into view, steering towards it, he discovered it was a shallow cavern, but just large enough to fit the APC along with the Humvee hitched to it, so pulled inside to get out of the weather. Shutting the engine down, he lowered the rear ramp, set up a turret at the mouth of the cave, then closed the ramp, laying down in the center of the APC amongst the piles of crates containing supplies and just slept in his armor, for the first being relatively safe rather than being in the open wasteland.

Watching his facial expressions she began to get a little worried...she remembered well the day he told her they were related and how immediately after he'd have to go away on a mission so she had had no time to really react...since then they hadn't seen much of each other both being kept busy in their own way...
"I dont know what you mean...to ignore it...theres no way to ignore something like that..I mean yes there are things we cannot possibly understand that go along with this but in alot of ways doesnt it seem fitting? When i got here i didn't really make very many connections between people..it seems easier that way because things DO happen on the battle field and i've always tried to prepare myself for just that situation. As time wore on though the Brotherhood became more of a family...and you've always been at the forefront of that. As many times as we've fought alongside one another...it almost seems fitting that we should end up tied to each other in one way or another. I wont let you get injured, and you return the same protectiveness over me...its just how we've always been...why do you look so troubled Brutus?"
As she finished talking she placed her fingers on the hard line between Brutus's eyebrows...her face was flushed, she always rambled when she got nervous so all of what she'd said had come out in a jumbled rush of words until the very end..where it had turn introspective...calculating almost..careful.

Mira was tensed up, as soon as she and the rest of her squad had gotten into the vertibird. Mira had strapped herself in to the point where she couldn't move, she had felt queezy just thinking about getting on and now seeing everything move at a much faster speed made here even more queezy. Just join the brotherhood and barely being broken into basic training she was thrown on this machine and told to go out. Nothing like a crash course to start your first day.

Seeing a billow of smoke off in the distance Mira figured that must be their main objective, or at least had been. Setting down the young initiate unstrapped herself and quickly left the chopper keeping her head low as she took in deep breaths of air. Feeling light headed she need a moment of rest before continuing. Managing to collect herself she turned and started to board the vertibird until she noticed the chard mutilated body of Mark. Not being able to stomach the sight coupled with the flight the Initiate turned and vomited on the ground next to the vehicle.

Mira didn't think she could stomach the sight of someone so badly injured, "I-I'll stay here an-and guard the wreckage" she said as she stepped away from the vertibird as it began to lift off. "Just don't forget about me out here ok?" she shouted over the whining of the engines.

*Twelve Hours Later*

After about eight hours, he had woken up and packed everything up and continued along in his journey for the past four hours, just crossing the old state lines on into Mississippi. Plotting out his course, he figured that he'd avoid the ruins of Jackson, Mississippi because it'd surely be inhabited with undesirable hostiles. So he started a slow curve to detour around the ruined city to reach the final leg of the journey. At least the landscape wasn't as barren as before, occasionally he passed the skeletons of still standing trees, their trunks charred black, making them look menacing, but their dead roots were buried deep in the soil still holding them upright.

Lyanah listened intently to everything her friend...her grandfather...had to say. It was still kind of odd to put that name on him...i mean to think they were related came naturally just by the level of friendship that had grown but to actually have a label for that kinship would take some getting use to. Throughout his tale Brutus had revealed alot that she hadn't known and when he had said it didnt seem relevent to her she'd thought much the same. As his voice trailed off to a close at the end she sat silent for a moment..then kissed his big cheek.
"Don't be sad...our strengths lie in two different areas...but perhaps thats because family is defined as a whole as opposed to seperate parts. Stronger together than when seperate. I'm in no more danger than any other human whose joined the brotherhood, you just see that because your the one whose around me most. And while you may think that you lack strength within it isn't true. Yes as we grow old our memories begin to fade and our bodies begin to weaken but you've never been weak and i dont believe you ever will be. You may get frustrated with how your mind works, there are more inhibitions when it comes to your mind than most, but i've watched you overcome those obstacles time and time again. So you see really...neither of us is stronger than the other when it comes down to it...at least mentally...i highly doubt i could lift a car over my head i'd get smushed flatter than a pancake...but you see the inner strength is all measured in circumstance, the ability to overcome ones own mental obstacles..."
Here she smiled.
"You know you scared me at first you big lug. i thought you were giving another goodbye speach! As long as you stick around i'm sure both of our strengths will work well together for the benefit of everyone around us...except maybe for the ones we end up pranking because you gotta admit some of the pranks we pulled were pretty freakin sweet if i do say so myself even if we had to apologize to your metallic friend after the fact! Thats one thing we have to work on...not getting caught..."
Grinning from ear to ear she spoke a little softer.
"We'll both live on, i promise you that, theres too much fighting spirit in both of us for one to fade away.."