They call me many things. To some, I am the Man Out of Time. To others still I am General, to others I am the Silver Shroud. Some call me Paladin, some still call me Father. Most call me the Sole Survivor. I care not. My story, however, is not something that one could forget. I left the Commonwealth, my home, a different place when I set foot on solid ground for the first time in 210 years. I met many men, killed even more. But there is one person I could never forget: The only one I had felt love for since those bastards killed my Nora. My name is Miles Mackenzie, and this is the story of a man and his love.

Diamond City Market, 2287, Commonwealth

Miles was in a rush on that day. The power armor coupling had fallen into disrepair, and the custom T-51 suit had flecks of its military green paint falling off. Miles groaned. "Piper!" he shouted, the welder drowning out most of his yelling.

"Yeah, Blue?" came his response, prompt as always. "Do you need something?" she asked, shouting over the din.

"Could you toss me a multi-wrench?" Miles responded, hands smoking. "If I don't secure this, we're going to be playing hot potato with a malfunctioning fusion core!" Piper threw him the wrench, which Miles caught with a look of gratitude on his face. "Thanks. Didn't want you to be writing my obit just yet, am I right?"

Piper chuckled, and responded, "Wow Blue, we need to work on your sense of humor. That was just… dark." She paused, then let out a laugh. "Nah, I'm fucking with you. That would suck though." She fiddled with her 10mm that Blue had given her about a month before. She knew his real name, she had published it in her article for crying out loud, she just felt uneasy when she called him anything else. When she had heard his story, she hadn't thought much of him at the time aside from biting McDonough in the ass with a missing persons story. She didn't really think he would take her up on her offer to travel with him after the interview, it just sorta… Happened. It's weird, anyone else would have been intimidated when over a ton of raw steel and circuits lumbered over and a man jumped out, but she found it kinda cute. She snapped herself out of her nostalgia, and focused on the task at hand.

"And… Finished! All we need to do is replace this fusion core, and we are good! Be very, very delicate. One false move and we're getting atomized." Piper glared at him in a knowing tone, and, with the forceps, took the enormous core out and put it in the cart behind her printing press as Miles slid in a new core. "Nice! This thing is ready to roll. So uh… what do you want to do?" chuckled a nervous Miles.

Piper shrugged. "Don't really know. Thought we could go check up on Valentine or something like that. He might need help, and after you killed Kellogg he's been bugging me about getting you to go to Goodneighbor with him."

"Alright. When did he want to talk?" Miles asked. "I promised you that we would go spy on Moe and Solomon and see if we can cook up a story."

Piper giggled. "That can wait. He said as soon as possible, and that was a week ago. Said he got Arami in the Memory Den to agree to getting Kellogg's memories to figure out how to access the Institute and get your son back from those bastards."

Miles cocked his eyebrow with surprise. "Lot of emotion comin' from over here. You alright lately, Piper? Can't have you going crazy in the field."
Piper sighed. "Don't worry 'bout me, Blue. I've got McDonough hauling my ass over here, and it's just getting to me. I wonder what the Institute would be like, y'know? Advanced tech, not worrying if your next meal has been residing in someone's filth for the past day or two?"

Miles responded, trudging along the rough road to Goodneighbor, "The Institute is a bit like the Brotherhood in my opinion. They make this tech only for themselves. We commoners need that tech to survive, too. That's why I keep my cards close when I'm playing the rough game of allegiances." Miles looked up from the muddy road and saw a sign. "Goodneighbor… three miles. Almost there, Piper! Just a few more miles!"

Piper, even with her upgraded armor that she had been given, was slouching under the weight of her pack. "What did you… put in my bag… Bricks?" She chuckled, strained under the weight. "This is starting to be… overbearing."

Miles was quick to respond, "Sorry 'bout that. I'll take some of the load. Found a Fat Man, didn't want to lose it. Miniature nuclear weapons are always handy in a fight." He picked up the Fat Man and strapped it to the harness on his backpack, his back quivering under the extreme weight that had been placed on him. "I'm alright. Just realized how heavy this thing was. Never did think that I would be in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Or that I would be older than most living things. Or that I would be holding a nuclear device on my back. Crazy stuff."

As they walked, the sky began to darken, as Radio Freedom played its announcement. "It's 10:00, Commonwealth. Stay safe and sleep well." Piper yawned and began to lay a mat down on the ground. "Hey Blue, I think it's time we stop for the night. This area has some pretty unfriendly characters waltzing around, if you catch my drift." Miles nodded, yawning. He began to set up a campfire, and both him and Piper sat around the ring.

"Hey Piper? Did I ever tell you how I got my scar? Y'know, the one over my eye?" He took off his Shroud hat and tilted his head to his right eye. "Crazy story, if you want to hear it."

Piper perked up a bit, and looked over at him "This reporter is always looking for a good story, Blue. Let's hear it. We've got all night."

"Alright!" Miles responded. "So, it was a long, long time ago. Before the war, I was a member of the U.S. Marines."

Piper interrupted him. "What's a Marine? Isn't it some kind of sea animal or something like that?"

Miles laughed, and responded, "No. The Marines were a corp in the U.S. Military. We were just above the regular army grunts, but below the Spec Ops. So anyway, we were in Alaska, Anchorage to be exact, and…"

Piper interrupted again. "Wait… you saw Alaska BEFORE the War? Before the world went to hell in a handbasket? What was it like?"

Miles looked solemn, replying, "Well, actually, we were in the Resource Wars at the moment, and Alaska looked a bit like the Commonwealth does now. It had been bombed to shit. Keep in mind this was around 2066, and the Anchorage invasion was at its height. My unit and I were in the frontier areas of oil exploration, and we were a small group, probably 20-30 guys, when we got ambushed. I was later told it was around 40 Reds, but it felt like thousands. We had to go hand to hand when we ran out of bullets, and those Reds were unstoppable. Lotta good men died, and we eventually fought 'em back, but not before one of their officers gave me this nice ol' marking to make sure I remembered what happened. All the lives the Resource Wars lost, all for naught. It's horrible to think about. Vain attempts at survival." Miles looked vacant, and Piper looked worried.

"Blue? I know you're reminiscing, but are you sure that getting more depressed is going to help you right now? I mean, I'm happy that you can let this off your chest, but you also seem to be holding things back. Something you want to tell me?"

Miles looked shocked, then a bit nervous. "Nope. Nothing to say. How about you? You seem to be a bit rowdy lately." He had obviously dodged the question, and it only made Piper more suspicious of what his actual motives were for the vacancy. She was wary that he was holding something back, and she wanted to know what it was. It could wait, though. They had all the time in the Wastes.

"I'm doin' ok. Nat is doing fine too, not that you would need to know. She keeps on getting into trouble in school, an' she won't stop. That girl has too much of me in her." She yawned, and began to lay down on her sleeping bag. "Well, g'night Blue. Sleep well." The two companions slept soundly, the bulking hunk of titanium steel averting any would-be raiders from their pillage.

Goodneighbor, 2287, Commonwealth, Dawn

The reporter woke up with a start, her hair a mess from the uncomfortable sleeping position, and her back hurting like a deathclaw's talon. She grunted, and looked over to the other side of the crude tent, where Miles slept soundly. She walked over to him, and yanked his pillow out from under him. "What the hell, Piper?!" he shouted, groggily.

"Sorry Blue. You've been sleepin' far too soundly for my tastes. And I think Nick might go haywire if he has to sit in that place hearing Ken talk about the pre-war days any longer. C'mon, it's only a two mile walk from here, and Hancock already granted you access to the city. Let's move."

Miles sat up, swaying under his own weight, and put his arm on Piper's shoulder to balance himself. "Where's… the power armor…" he slurred. She led him over, and shoved him inside the suit. It emitted a high pitched beeping sound, and started reading off code.

"I think that's robot talk for 'you are perfectly fine.' Onward ho, young Miles!" Piper said with a pep in her step. They covered the distance that was needed, and reached the gates of Goodneighbor. "Ah… Smell that air! Rotting ghouls mixed with a healthy dose of radiation. Nothin' like it, Blue." Piper approached KL-EO and browsed her new wares with what seemed like feigned interest while Miles was trying to fix his Pip-Boy.

"My vitals are not low! Sun literally just did a check up on me! Blasted machines can't even function properly." When they reached the Den, Irma pointed down the stairs, and they arrived to see a much welcomed face.

"What took you two so long?" the detective asked, extinguishing his cigarette on his synthetic hand.

"Kept you waiting, huh?" Miles said, with a mild sense of déjà vu washing over him as he said it. "We just can't all be as timely as you, Nicky," Miles said with a grin. Piper chuckled beside him.

The detective waved him off with an aggravated wave. "Shaddup. Anyway, from the info you got from the stiff's brain Arami here thinks she could use my as a conduit to put you in the memories. I know, it fucked with my head for a bit too, but it's the breakthrough that could lead us to the Institutes' location."

Miles looked at him, his face a mask of a façade of bravery, hiding the nervousness and fear that truly lay underneath. "I'll do anything to get my baby boy back from those… those… savages. Hook me in, Amari." Amari nodded, and typed the activation code for the pod.

As the pod closed, he noticed Piper looked nervous too, even more so than he. She looked at him, and gave him a nervous, trembling smile, putting her hand on the glass and quietly mouthing "Don't worry," and giving an unconscious thumbs up. He nodded to Amari, and the pod sealed shut.

Kellogg's Brain, Date Unknown

As Miles entered the simulation, he heard the arguing voices of Piper and Dr. Amari as voices far up in the sky. Piper's voice won, and he began to hear frantic voices. "Blue?! Blue can you hear me?! Blue?!"

He smiled and responded with, "Yes Piper, I'm perfectly fine. Getting a bit worried for me, aren't we? I'm not Deathclaw bait just yet, y'know." He wasn't sure how long that would hold, though.

An audible sigh of relief broke through the silence in Kellogg's brain. "Thank the Dweller…" he heard Piper say. "Amari found some intact memories, but most of them aren't relevant… But there is one from his Diamond City house. Unfortunately, you'll have to travel through the others to get to it."

Miles skipped most of the memories until he came onto a familiar cold. He looked around, and saw a vault, filled with pods. He saw Kellogg, opening Nora's pod. He saw himself, pounding on the pod, trying to save his love. And when Kellogg pulled the trigger that ended her life, they both screamed simultaneously. He saw the pods seal back up and reactivate the cryogenic sequence. He pushed himself on, and the next and final memory showed an Institute Courser come and pick up a 10 year old Shaun from Kellogg. A blinding flash of blue light appeared, and they were gone.

He heard a dumbfounded Valentine mutter something along the lines of "Did they just... teleport?" And in a more audible remark, he said "And this Virgil guy, an Institute refugee? Don't know how a human could survive the Glowing Sea, but not even the Institute would look there."

Miles woke up from the pod, and Piper wrapped him in an embrace. "I am so sorry you had to relive your wife's murder. Nobody deserves that."

Miles stared at her for a moment, then uttered a barely audible "Thank you." He sat up and returned her embrace, tears streaming down his face. "I couldn't… Couldn't stop him... he killed her and… and… she's dead." They sat there for quite some time, until a renewed Miles stood up, fury flaring in his puffed, watered eyes, and said, "Let's get Virgil and get my son back. Permanently."

The Glowing Sea, 2287, Commonwealth

"Welp, this is without a doubt the Glowing Sea." Piper said, looking out over the supposed epicenter of the Massachusetts bombs. He looked out over the wastes, dumbfounded.

"This was my Massachusetts home base… and it's all gone. Piper… what happened here?" Miles asked, stricken by the desolation and suffering that still lingered in the air.

"You'll probably notice your Pip-Boy is flippin' its shit right now. That is not a malfunction. According to legend, the Glowing Sea was the epicenter of the nukes in the Commonwealth. Entire place was covered with an almost permanent shroud of rads that turned most people there into either ghouls or ash. Can't decide which is better. It's also the last place that a secretive highly advanced scientific group would look for a fugitive." She wiped the fogged screen of her yellow hazmat suit, and checked for any holes. "None. Blue, this is Red, we are staged and ready for liftoff on your go."

Miles smiled, and took the biggest running jump he could, apparently forgetting about gravity. Unfortunately, gravity hates being ignored, and he came face first back down to Earth. "...Ow." Miles got up and shook off the dust. "Well, according to the Pip-Boy, he's near that ol' Gamma Radiation center. Place is probably crawling with Ferals. We could try to go around it, but that area might be dangerous too. Whaddya think we should do?"

Piper looked deep in thought for a moment, then shot back up. "I've heard rumors of the Children of Atom being nearby. If we meet with them, they could point us to Virgil." Miles nodded in agreement, and they set off.

Virgil's Cave, 2287, Glowing Sea

Miles slowly slipped out of his hazmat suit, and placed his Shroud armor on again. "Thank God that Ken knows how to reinforce armor, or I would have died a long time ago." he muttered. Their eyes both widened when they heard the click of a sentry locking on. They jumped behind two stalicates seconds before a hailstorm of bullets littered the area where they had been only seconds before. Piper was about to pull out a pulse, when he heard a strong, hoarse voice give some deactivation code.

The voice boomed as it shouted, "Come on out, Kellogg! Or are you afraid to face me like a man?"

Miles was confused. He called out, hesitantly, "Are you the one they call Virgil?"

The voice answered back. "You know that already, Kellogg. The least you could do is give me a fair fight before I go."

Miles breathed a sigh of relief. He stepped out of the shadows, as did Piper. "I am not Kellogg. Kellogg is dead by our hand. We need your help to get into the Institute." He heard a faint "yeah!" from Piper, who blushed and waved. He heard… laughing?

"Just… wait a minute… Not only did you kill Kellogg, but you…" he snickered, "you want to infiltrate the Institute?" he broke out laughing harder and harder, "You… you are either the dumbest or the bravest man I have ever met." Virgil said. He ushered them into his cave, and offered them both tea. Piper was too busy eyeing the two ton mutant in the room to bother drinking the tea.

Virgil saw her gaze, and sighed. "Yes. I'm a Supe. I was the head of the Institute's Biological Science division, and when the Forced Evolutionary Virus came into our hands from the Mariposa base, I tested it. I was exposed to the F.E.V. for far too long, and I began to mutate."

Piper gawked. "That's horrible…" She looked oddly determined. "What can we do to help?"

Virgil held up a hand. "Whoa, slow down there. We are making a deal. I don't want charity. You came this far to find me, I want to… reward that, in a sense. Now, tell me why."

Miles sighed. "I was born in 2045, in Sanctuary Hills. Pre-War." Virgil's stood up, not noticing or maybe not caring that he broke his chair in the process. "I'll explain that later. My wife Nora and I had a child named Shaun, and at the time of the Great War, he was a newborn. We were entered into Vault 111 for my military service, and unbeknownst to us, we were cryogenically frozen for 210 years. When I woke up the first time, Kellogg and a group of scientists unfroze my wife and child, while I watched. She tried… she tried to stop them from taking him, but Kellogg… shot her. He took my baby, whom is apparently 10 years old now, and left me there for 10 years, frozen, until a malfunction killed all occupants but me."

Virgil sat there, entranced and horrified. "That's… that's amazing. And horrible of course. If the Institute took your child, I can guarantee that he is in the compound. Judging by your knowledge, I'm guessing you accessed his memories? And that means you know how they get in and out. Before we go any further, have you heard of the Railroad?"

Both Piper and Miles cringed at the memory of their violent meeting with the leaders, which led to the Railroad, and its secret base, being eradicated. "We kinda… killed them all? That a bad thing?" Miles asked.

Virgil looked momentarily shocked, then amused. "Wait… you killed Kellogg, eradicated the Railroad, and you're trying to infiltrate the most secure place in the Wastes? Who the hell, if I may ask, are you?" Miles just smiled. "Well, ignoring the fact that you seem to be perfectly capable, you'll need a Courser chip to ever dream of entering the mainframe. It would need to be decoded, one of the computers at the Railroad base might do well. Then you would need to gather material for the teleporter, military grade stuff." Miles hid his hoard of circuit boards and transmitters out of view. "Then you would need to find an able technician, say from the Brotherhood," Piper scowled, "or the Minutemen." Piper grinned. "A Courser was recently dispatched to handle a missing Synth at the C.I.T. ruins district, see if you can intercept him there. And God, before I forget, when you teleport in, try to access the F.E.V. labs. There is an experimental cure that could turn me back to a human. Please bring it to me. Then I can finally leave this damned place."

Piper's eyes darted to Virgil hungrily as her reporter instincts kicked in. "Did you just say… Super mutant cure?" she asked, writing notes furiously.

"Yes and no. In its' current form, however, it can only cure my strain at the moment. With research, I could make the cure a universal cure for the strain."

While Piper wrote until her pencil lead broke, Miles shook Virgil's giant hand. "Virgil, my good man, you have a deal."

Virgil began to smile, something he most likely hadn't done in a very long time. "That's… thank you and good luck to you both. Coursers are tough sons of bitches."

C.I.T. Ruins, Greenetech Top Floor, 2287

"I don't believe you." A plasma bolt incinerated the young Gunner fast enough to stifle his streams of agony. The Courser looked to the next man. "What. Is. The. Code?" the Courser asked. Silence. The synth let out a sigh and raised his gun.

"Stop!" The courser turned to see a man clad in black and a woman clad in red.

The Courser looked the man over. "This is a matter of the Institute. Please step aside or face violence." He raised his finger to the trigger pointed at the Gunner, but before he could do anything, he was thrown to the ground.

Piper saw the Gunner prisoner, and then the Courser, and time slowed down like a shot of Jet. In an instant, she was brandishing brass knuckles and pounced upon the Courser, pounding it down. When Miles pulled her off, there wasn't much left of the Courser to speak of.

Miles looked worried. "We got the chip, at least…" Miles said, slowly. "Are you… are you alright?"

She looked solemn. "I'm fine," she said, cutting the Gunners' bonds. "Just… surprised. Didn't think a Courser would go down that easily."

Miles cocked a brow at her. "You do realize how long you punched him, right?"

"Yeah," Piper said, "Like 10-15 seconds, barely."

"Piper, you were pummeling him for at least two minutes without letting up. You beat him to a sparking, metallic pulp. How did you do that… and did you even know what you were doing?"

Piper looked… scared? "Blue… I… I…" She went limp. As she faded out of consciousness, she heard Miles screaming her name.

Place: Unknown. Time: Unknown. Date: Unknown

She awoke with a start. Her surroundings were cold, as if she was walking in a place of death. "Where… Where am I?" She heard a familiar and friendly panting, and turned to see Dogmeat, tail wagging, tongue bobbing, sitting guard beside her. "At least you're here, buddy." He barked happily. As if on command, his head swung to the right, and he stopped. Before Piper could ask what was wrong, he darted far to the right, out of sight. "Where ya going, bud? Found something?" She sprinted after him, and came upon a most unusual sight. She appeared to be staring at… herself? "Who are you?" Piper asked, interrogatively.

"Oh, you don't know me, sweets?" The figure chuckled. "I'm you, sister. It ain't rocket science, y'know."

Piper, as any person would naturally be when a random person who happened to be their exact double said that they were you, was unconvinced. "You can't be me because I'M me. I'll ask one more time. Who. Are. You?"

The figure laughed once more. "Fine, I'll tell you. But only because you're so persuasive." She laughed. "I'm the Hyde to your Jekyll. I'm everything dark and destructive about you that you tried to bury. Now, was that a nice thing to do to little ol' us? I don't think so. I'm your sins. Your fury, your hatred, your evil, your greed, your lust. I am the side that you wish never came to be. And I want OUT." The figure charged at her with a cry, and everything went black.

The Castle, Commonwealth, 2287

"I'm sorry, Mr. Mackenzie. She's gone." As these words were spoken, a faint blip drew the attention of the four men. "Or maybe I'm wrong," he muttered. "I should really just start selling chems. More money in it, anyway." Sun moved to the back of the room, moping.

Piper's eyes slowly opened. The first thing that came out of her mouth was a bloodcurdling scream which made Sturges fall backwards onto the metal table holding the surgery tools. As he cursed his foul luck, Piper began to slowly move her head around the room. "... B… Blue?" What… what happe…"

Miles, too overjoyed by her sudden recovery, did not let her finish her sentence, as he had already thrown his arms around the woman. "Ohthankgodohthankgodohthankgod…" he whispered, which, because of his excitement, came out almost unintelligible. "I thought you were dead. You pummeled that Courser to death and then lapsed into some form of unconsciousness. The doctor said it was a stroke. I got Preston and Sturges to help carry you back to the Castle, and Sun came here when I got the radio to broadcast the situation."

"It was our pleasure, General!" Preston said, with the same bubbly enthusiasm as he always had spilling from his words. Sturges just smiled and nodded to Piper.

Piper suddenly became overwhelmed by a sense of exhaustion, unnaturally so. "I… I don't remember what happened. What Courser are we talking about here? I guess… I guess I lost control." She looked at Miles, and then at the floor. "I'm… sorry."

Before Miles could respond, Sun piped up. "Mild amnesia is a side effect of a stroke. It should be gone in about a week or two, in extreme cases."

Miles gave a thankful smile to Sun, and turned his attentions back to Piper. Shaking his head, he said, "You didn't do anything wrong, so don't apologize. There's no reason to."

She smiled. "Thank you, Miles… I think… I think I'm going to sleep now…"

Place: Unknown. Time: Unknown. Date: Unknown

Piper opened her eyes to oddly familiar surroundings. She was once again in what she called the Room of Death. Her memories rushed back like a waterfall. Almost as if on instinct, she swiveled her head to see her once again. "You… I know you…"

The figure got up and laughed. "That's right! Tell her what she's won, boys!" The figure jumped down from the platform. "I'm glad you didn't forget who you are. That would be bad. Very bad. But you know what? I think we should have a look inside of that head o' yours just to make sure." A smile came across the figure's face.

At that moment, an indescribable, excruciating pain came over Piper. She collapsed in agony. "What… what are you doing to me…? What do you want?!"
"Isn't it obvious, Piper? You've had your turn in control, and now I want mine." Piper screamed in gut-wrenching agony as the pain intensified. "You have got sooo much in here! Now, now, Piper… what is this little gem?" An image of Miles smiling face spread over the vast landscape.

"No…" Piper seethed in shock and pain. Struggling to stay conscious, she made one last ditch effort to save herself from herself. She reached for the first weapon that Miles had given her when she joined his team, her favored 10mm. As she did this, a duplicate copy of the gun appeared in her alter-ego's hand.

She clicked her tongue. "Tsk tsk tsk… Piper, what are you doing? This is my corner of your brain, don't you get it? You can't take me down!" She crouched down on the tips of her toes next to Piper, both a splitting image of the other. She clutched Piper's drooping head and lifted it up, placing the cold, metal barrel of the 10mm in Piper's mouth. "Now Piper, we don't want to have any more incidents, do we?" Piper glared, her eyes smoldering with rage. "I said, no more interruptions from the peanut gallery!" She smacked Piper with the butt of the 10mm, a cry escaping her lips. "Understood?!" Piper nodded slowly, her eyes still red with rage and tears, the pain still searing her body. "Good man! Now, what are you hiding about Mr. Mackenzie… Let's look, shall we?" Multitudes of images popped up on the screen, images that would make most people run. Piper's alter ego, on the other hand, was overjoyed. "Oh, Piper! This is absolutely beautiful! We do have a dirty mind, don't we? The feelings of want, the feelings of lust you have for him are insatiable! And the details… But then again, what's the point of these luscious thoughts if you don't do anything about them? Don't worry our pretty little head. This… This I can help you with! And don't worry, I promise I won't lock you out forever… Just long enough." An insidious laugh bellowed from the depths of her throat, and she walked the path the real Piper, gagged and tied in her own brain, had taken on her way in.

Whew! That was quite an interesting chapter, if I do (and I do) feed my ego. I really hope you liked this first little taste of what's in store if you are loyal and continue reading. I do have trouble staying interested in writing fan fictions, but I think this one is something even I can't turn away from. The second chapter is in the works as I am writing this sentence, and I love that you even read my little story. In the coming chapters there will be action, adventure, heroines and villainesses, suspense and despair, and, of course… Romance. Review and make sure to catch me next time, you peoples. Thanks!
-Valkriye