There were many times I'd been glad to see the Citadel, and this was just one of many. My journey to the Mojave Wasteland had been interesting, and though difficult, it was nothing I couldn't handle. I went there of my volition, to contact this person known mostly as the Courier, and also to check in how the chapter of the Brotherhood that lived there was doing. They were still isolationists, but slightly more open to outsiders after this Courier had helped them with their problems. It seemed the Brotherhood were destined to always need help from outsiders.

I ran towards the doors eagerly, failing at suppressing the smile on my face. It had been a little over six months since I left, and I was looking forward to taking things slowly. Well, as slow as it ever could be. Barely a minute went by without something needing my attention, but it was good to feel needed. I had this secret fear that one day the Brotherhood would decide they didn't need or want me, and kick me out. Luckily, there seemed to be no sign of this happening any time soon.

"State your name and business," the guard at the door said as I approached. I looked around, but since no else was there, I assumed he was talking to me.

"Knight Grace, reporting in," I said. He turned to the bored looking woman to his left.

"Huh?" She glanced up at me. "Oh yeah, let her in."

"Thank you," I said, trying to make it sound sarcastic and sincere at the same time. I ended up sounding rude, and I smiled apologetically as the doors opened, and I walked inside. The courtyard looked different than I remembered, but I suppose part of it had to have been rebuilt, after an unfortunate incident that nearly caused the whole place to go up in flames. That was a few years back, and it couldn't have happened at a more inconvenient time, since the Brotherhood was in the middle of constructing an enormous airship.

My mission to the Mojave wasn't anything official, but I was still sure that the elder would be interested in my findings. He used to like my stories of the wasteland when he was a child. I smiled softly to myself, remembering the timid young boy I first met when I came to the Citadel. He was nothing like that anymore, though I suppose it was partly my doing. When the elder crisis occurred, I was appointed as his bodyguard since it was getting increasingly likely that he'd be elder one day, and partially because they'd run out of use for me at that point, but the Brotherhood didn't want to let me get away.

The whole of the Citadel seemed to be quite empty, as I walked through the interior looking for someone I recognised. Eventually, I went up to a random scribe, and waited as they finished talking to someone, which took a while. People used to drop whatever they were doing to talk to me, and I didn't think my importance had diminished that much. I consoled myself by saying that they didn't realise who I was.

"How can I help you?" the scribe turned to me, and asked. She looked closely at my face, tilting her head to one side.

"I was just wondering, where is everyone?" I folded my arms behind my back, standing as straight as possible. It was difficult for me to come off as anyway authoritative, mainly because I still looked so young, despite being twenty nine. The blonde hair, and big blue eyes, and baby-face certainly did nothing to help, and my voice was still high pitched, and childish.

The scribe raised her eyebrow at me. "A lot of people went to the Commonwealth on the Prydwen."

"Are you serious?" I exclaimed.

"That was about a month ago, didn't you know?"

"No, I've been away for about six months." I put one hand on my hip, and pressed the other to my forehead. "Have you heard anything about what's happened there?"

She shook her head, her hair whipping her face. "I'm just an initiate scribe. Go ask a paladin, or something."

"Is Star Paladin Cross still around?" I asked.

"Yes, she should be in the lab. She probably won't tell you anything."

I started walking away. "She will, trust me."

"Who are you?" she called after me. I stopped, and turned around and saluted.

"I am Knight Harmony Purity Grace, better known to the Capital Wasteland as the Lone Wanderer," I declared, before running down the corridor to where I thought the laboratory was. I was mistaken, and had to quickly hurry past the scribe again, hoping that she didn't notice.

Cross was indeed in the lab, which shouldn't have surprised me, since it was where she normally was. What was surprising was how empty the place was. There were maybe four other people in total there, though I guess they didn't have much reason to be in there, since the Brotherhood didn't have any major projects they were working on after getting the Prydwen built and operational.

"Harmony, it's good to see you've returned safely. I should have expected that, you're among the strongest of us here," Cross said once she noticed me. Though I hadn't travelled with her much, the very fact that she was the third highest ranking member in the Citadel told me her compliment meant a lot.

"Thank you, it's good to be back, but there's one small problem," I said.

She frowned slightly. "What is it?"

"I've been told by one of the scribes that many people left to go to the Commonwealth. Is this true?" I asked.

"Yes, but I thought Elder Maxson told you about his plans."

"And I told him that it was best to stay out of there, because we had no idea what kind of enemy we'd be facing. We'd only sent a few recon teams, and not all of them had returned." I crossed my arms over my chest. "So, what's happened to them out there? I'm guessing you've heard from them."

"I'm not supposed to disclose the information with anyone below the rank of paladin," she said uncomfortably.

"Cross, it's me."

She sighed. "Okay, but don't tell anyone else. We've only recently learned this, and they're not entirely sure of how things will end up out there." She looked around, and then lowered her voice. "They've recruited the help of a civilian, who they believe can gain access to the Institute. He's already helped them secure a fort from a group of super mutants."

I rolled my eyes. "So Maxson actually wants to take down this Institute I'm guessing?"

"That's what I've heard, yes."

"What direction is the Commonwealth?" I lifted my Pip-Boy up, and switched to the map.

"You're not really going to go there on foot are you?" Her eyes widened.

"What other options do I have? It's kind of northeast, isn't it?" I fiddled with the dials and buttons on my Pip-Boy, trying to zoom out as far as possible. I'd built up the map to reach the west coast, but I'd had to do that manually. "They call me the Lone Wanderer for a reason."

"You said yourself you don't know what could be out there."

I looked up at her, somewhat disbelievingly. "I think I can handle it."

"How about I see if someone will take you in a vertibird?" she suggested. I paused, wondering why I didn't think of that.

"That'd be great. You get on that, I need to go get my good equipment. I left most of it here when I went to the Mojave, so it wouldn't weigh me down." I smiled at her. "Thanks Cross."

She smiled back, shaking her head fondly. "I presume I'll find you in your quarters?"

"I'll wait in there until you come find me." I rushed off to my room, feeling a mixture of excitement and anger.

I was glad to see that my room hadn't changed one bit, except for the dust that covered everything. There'd be no point cleaning up, since I was leaving soon. I knelt down in front of the large trunk that took up most of one side of the room, and realised that I didn't have the key to it anymore. Thankfully, I always kept bobby pins everywhere, and I found a box of them in a drawer of my desk, and picked the lock, which was a skill that I had perfected over years of looting buildings.

A smile spread across my face when I looked upon what was inside. I first took out the clothes, which were neatly folded, which was a change for me. They were what I wore whenever I was on official Brotherhood duty, or acting as Maxson's bodyguard. I stripped off the leather armour I was currently wearing, and shoved them underneath my bed to do something with later.

The black trousers seemed to be a little looser, so I had to take the belt from my leather armour, which didn't go with the whole outfit, and then I paused to wonder if I'd really just thought that. When I picked up the black shirt, I noticed that the small 101 I'd embroidered on the inside of the collar was starting to come loose, but I didn't have any thread on me, so I just had to hope that it wouldn't fall off. I'd made most of the clothes, but the armoured chest piece and leg guards I'd had to buy from the quartermaster, mainly out of laziness.

I lifted up the long black trench coat, still feeling proud of making it, since it was the only thing that made me look remotely tough, and I didn't have to ruin it with extra armour pieces, since I'd reinforced it on the inside. I'd sewn patches of the Brotherhood insignia onto the upper arms of the sleeves. It still fit just fine when I put it on, and I grabbed a hand mirror from my bedside table so I could look at my reflection. Star Paladin Cross walked in on me posing for myself.

"Harmony?" she said, startling me so I nearly dropped the mirror. I smiled guiltily, like she'd caught me doing something wrong. "You're in luck, a small team is heading to Commonwealth to deliver supplies, and I've asked if they'd take you. Report to the vertibird station as soon as possible."

"Sure, I just need to grab one more thing." I went back over to the trunk, and lifted the Gatling laser out carefully. I set it down on the bed, and filled my pockets with extra fusion cores and a fairly large amount of caps, and then picked the laser gun up again. "I'm going to need Vengeance with me."

She shook her head, and told me to follow her. It felt good to be holding Vengeance again. It wasn't exactly the original one, I'd upgraded it to be more like the ones brought back by recon teams from the Commonwealth, so it ran on fusion cores instead of electron charge packs, which negated the need for a back mounted battery pack, since I'd been having back problems lugging it around.

I had to run to the vertibird, as the pilot was beginning to look very impatient. Cross wished me luck, and waved to me when we took off. I couldn't wave back, so I nodded at her, smiling, and then settled onto the seat. The knights sat next to me began talking to each other, and didn't try to include me in their conversation, not that I minded.

I looked out over the Wasteland as we flew by, seeing the destruction and chaos that reigned. The Capital Wasteland used to be no different, and for a long time that was just how things worked. It had changed now, and it wasn't exactly orderly, but there was structure. People knew the Brotherhood were in charge, though most weren't happy about it. Surely they could see that it was better than before? Then again, I wondered that sometimes. I sighed and shook my head, and focussed on the strange beauty of the devastation below.

I've been wanting to write something with chapters for a while, but I didn't have any solid ideas, until I came up with this. This is also partially to give some kind of explanation as to what happened to the Lone Wanderer. I've read up on what the game gives you as much as possible, but if I do get any details wrong, please let me know so I can correct them. I have proofread this, but if I have made any errors, inform me, since I decided to read over this while having a headache.

Also, if you've read some of my other stories, you may recognise Harmony from the now discontinued "Convergence", and I'd just like to mention that in this universe, that isn't canon.

I'm not 100% certain with the title, but it's going to stay as that unless I think of anything better. If I do change it, I'll be sure to mention it.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed, and as always, constructive criticism is very welcome, as is any kind of review.