-Outside the Sierra Madre-
The red haze danced in unnatural waves. Within it, Rebecca and Maine were locked in brutal, personal combat, fists colliding with the crack of thunder, armor plating breaking under every strike.
Rebecca didn't have time to be stunned however as system alerts immediately warned her the toxic Cloud was beginning to damage her Power Armor.
Maine was barely human—more chrome than flesh, his skin a map of blackened veins and glowing ports. Every time Rebecca struck him, he grinned wider, as if pain was fuel.
"You're weak!"
He spat, hurling her through a collapsed balcony.
"You always were! Hiding behind jokes and your brother!"
Rebecca climbed from the rubble, blood streaming down her cheek smearing her hub screen.
"At least I still had a soul, you tin-headed freak!"
She charged—he caught her.
Maine raised his fist to end it—
And was intercepted mid-swing by Six, who appeared like a missile out of the Cloud.
His punch collided with Maine's face, snapping his head sideways and tearing off part of his cybernetic jaw, which clattered across the floor with a wet thunk.
Maine staggered, hydraulics screeching, as Six stood protectively in front of Rebecca, armor glowing, reactor humming like a predator's growl.
"Touch her again, and I'll erase every trace you ever existed."
Maine twitched, blood and coolant spilling from his broken jaw, but grinned.
"Finally… someone showing some backbone."
Then, with a roar, he lunged again.
Six braced himself, his armor flexing as he met Maine head-on, fists locked in a brutal clash. The red haze around them twisted like a living thing, thick and choking, as the two titans collided in a storm of metal and fury.
BOOM!
Maine's fist smashed into Six's chest, sending a crack of sparks shooting across his Power Armor. Six staggered, but his feet dug into the ground like steel anchors, refusing to yield.
"You're too slow, little man!"
Maine growled, his voice distorted and mechanical, almost guttural.
Six snarled, firing back with a swing that landed square on Maine's jaw, sending him reeling. But even as Maine staggered, the sheer mass of his cybernetics seemed to absorb the impact like a sponge, and he grinned that twisted, inhuman grin.
Six twisted his torso, bringing his knee up into Maine's gut, the sound of metal-on-metal echoing through the toxic mist. It sent the cyberpsycho back a few steps, but again, he recovered too fast, his head snapping toward Six with dangerous, predatory eyes.
"You think you're a match for me? I'm death walking!"
Six's HUD flared red with system warnings. His chestplate was badly dented, and his limbs were already showing signs of strain. The Cloud's toxic fumes were eating at his armor's integrity, and Rebecca's life signs were growing weaker with every passing second. He couldn't afford to be slow.
As Maine lunged for another attack, Six gritted his teeth and leaped backwards, his landspinners roaring to life. He grabbed Rebecca, pulling her with him just as Maine's massive fist collided with the ground where he'd been standing, shattering the floor in an explosion of debris.
Rebecca, bloodied and bruised, clung to Six as he pulled her into cover.
"You okay?"
He asked, urgency coating his voice.
"I've been better."
Rebecca rasped, wiping her blood-smeared visor.
"But I'm alive, thanks to you."
Maine's voice echoed through the haze.
"You can't hide forever!"
With a sharp intake of breath, Six turned to Rebecca, his mind already working through a plan. His systems whined under the stress of constant damage. He was running out of options—and time.
"Stay low and make it back to the others."
He ordered, voice hard as iron.
"I need you on the backup if I go down."
Rebecca gave him a nod, her resolve steady, despite the pain.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Six gritted his teeth, then turned to face the incoming storm. Maine was already charging again, his eyes glowing redder than before, his movements increasingly erratic as cyberpsychosis tore through what was left of his sanity.
As the massive cyberpsycho bore down on him, Six made his move—he planted his feet and slammed a fist into Maine's chest, using the force to send the cybernetic monster hurtling backwards into the collapsing wall of the Sierra Madre. The impact shook the structure as rubble and debris cascaded down, but Maine didn't stop.
He surged forward again, this time with a howl of rage, ripping off part of the wall to use as a makeshift weapon.
Six's armor whined again, but he stood his ground, every inch of him ready to absorb whatever came next.
"This ends now, Maine."
Maine lunged brutally towards him like a freight train of cybernetic fury. But Six didn't move.
He pivoted.
A half-step was all it took.
Maine's punch sailed past, his momentum carrying him forward—and straight into Six's trap.
WHAM!
A brutal elbow to the back of Maine's neck dropped him to a knee. Before he could recover, Six grabbed the exposed spinal ports along his chrome-plated back and ripped with a crackling hiss of servos and torn nerves. Maine screamed—more out of rage than pain—and retaliated by firing a shoulder-mounted projectile.
The micro-missile hit Six square in the chest, detonating in a burst of force and flame, sending him skidding back across the Sierra Madre's ruined terrace.
Rebecca tried to stand, coughing up blood, her HUD flashing red—oxygen filtration was compromised, Cloud density rising.
"Six—!"
Maine turned to her again, that sick grin back despite the gaping hole where his jaw once was.
"Don't worry, sweetheart."
He rasped, voice now distorted and wet.
"I'll send you back to your brother… in pieces."
She raised her sidearm weakly—a single special round loaded.
"Eat this, you bastard."
CRACK.
The shot hit Maine in the eye. The bullet was designed to obliterate neural signal clusters.
And it worked.
Maine screamed, clawing at his own skull as his systems went haywire, sparks and neural fluid spraying from his head. He dropped to the floor, writhing, venting heat and static-filled garbled screams that no longer formed words.
That's when Six reappeared—kneeling beside Rebecca, checking her vitals, then pressing something into her hand: a fresh oxygen injector.
"Breathe. I've got this."
She nodded faintly, barely conscious, as he stood and approached Maine—slowly, deliberately, reactor humming like a death drum.
Maine was dragging himself up again, half blind, one eye socket smoking and jaw gone, systems barely holding together.
"Still… not done…"
Six didn't answer.
He just tapped a hidden control panel on his forearm.
CLANG.
From the darkness behind him, one of his turrets—his original engineering type—rose from cover, its railgun already charged.
"Let me fix that."
BOOM.
The rail slug tore through Maine's chest, vaporizing all his Cyberware in a flash of blue heat.
For a moment, Maine just stood there—arms twitching, red mist swirling around him.
Then he collapsed.
Hard.
Unmoving.
Six exhaled slowly, then turned back to Rebecca, who was barely upright but still awake, breathing through the new injector.
"I told you."
He said softly.
"I'll always protect you."
Rebecca gave a weak smile, tears mixing with ash and blood.
"I know… just... don't leave me behind again."
He nodded once.
"Never."