Chapter Two: Three's a Crowd

A.N: Hey guys! Thanks for the feedback! Most reviews are welcome, and I'm still up for constructive criticism. Time to get this show rolling, Ring-A-Ding Baby! Also. I will be changing some stuff including the timeline.


All Intellectual Properties used in this fanfiction do not belong to me.


In the clean white conference room of the Institute stood a woman. She watched silently from the windows, content with watching the numerous scientists go about their rounds and research at the atrium.

Her cold blue eyes seemed devoid of emotion as she pressed a few buttons on her wrist-mounted Personal Information Processor, better known as a "Pip-Boy". A familiar blue flash shined and a fresh cigar materialized in her hand.

Nora Jensen, the Sole Survivor of Vault 111, the general of the Minutemen, the Directress of the Institute, and depending on who you ask the "Judas" of the Commonwealth slowly lit the Cigar and took a long drag.

She had fair white skin. A rarity when the entire world is a blasted hellhole. Her hair was a light brown, which was accentuated by her bangs. Her face could be described as beautiful to most, with delicate features that made her look like a pre-war starlet or model. She wasn't muscular, she relied on words to get her through most situations but her body was well trained and exercised.

She wore the dark brown battlecoat of the late Elder Maxon. She made a small "tsk" as she remembered the massacre of the Prydwen and the Boston airport. It took her months of hard work and a lot of waste of the resources of the Institute but once she obtained Maxon's and by extension the Brotherhood's trust; she pounced on the opportunity. She stole every single technical document that the Scavengers of the Brotherhood of Steel had scavenged. The amount of people she had framed was either exiled or dead.

Liberty Prime was a fine robot, it was a shame she couldn't keep it. But the thought of having a huge robot like Prime was tempting, so she ordered her scientists to rebuild once more. The wreckage of the Prydwen and the Boston Airport provided her with more than enough firepower to arm her Minutemen. It also helped that weapon schematics and factories around Boston were plentiful.

She herself put a high powered Gauss rifle blast through the Elder's head when he went to confront her as she had already sabotaged the electromagnetic field protecting both the Prydwen and the Airport from a full teleportation assault. The Prydwen was a sight to behold as Liberty Prime blew it up.

She enjoyed reminiscing a bit too much.

The Railroad proved no problem. She embedded herself so deep that she was privy to most of its secrets. She knew every safehouse, every informant and when the time came to confront Desdemona, it was easy to convince her that as Directress of the Institute she would grant the Gen-3 synths a shot at normality. In turn she received a network of spies all around the East Coast.

She scoffed as she remembered the Minutemen. They held next to little resources and had no long term goals for the region. Now they served as nothing but her army above ground, a reminder to the people of the Wastes that the "Reformed Commonwealth of New America" was slowly but surely beginning. What kind of idiots give leadership to a person they just met?

The settlements that wouldn't support her new government were a sizable minority. She answered disobedience harshly. The Operators from Nuka World were the ones that survived. She eliminated the Pack and the Disciples; they were too bloodthirsty and therefore uncontrollable. They terrorized the minority until all of them went to the palm of her hand. Diamond City was an exception. With her Coursers and Minutemen cleaning up Boston, the city flourished and expanded until surprisingly enough they went willingly to her palm.

There was nobody left to resist her rule in the Commonwealth, the Gunners having long been annihilated, its members either dead or absorbed into her ranks, the Super Mutants were no match for her Coursers , and slavers and common raiders easily fell to her Minutemen. Pockets of Brotherhood resistance popped up but her army was too strong and with the Institute finally making its own plasma weapons, and power armor, it was starting to resemble a true nation. The robot creation facility, she retrieved from the Mechanist easily provided the means to rebuild Liberty Prime, and creating powerful robots.

She ordered a swift "liberation" of Nuka World. It ended up being her most profitable trading settlement yet. She passed her position as Overboss to Porter Gage, who she gave specific instructions to disrupt Brotherhood ops in the southern areas. Her position as the messiah of the Commonwealth was not threatened by "false" accusations and slander. 'Porter made a very remarkable scapegoat' she thought rather fondly. Every assassination, every disappearance, blame the Operators. Raiders became her favorite boogeyman, next to the Brotherhood.

Silently she made her way to her quarters, passing by numerous Coursers and scientists who greeted her with awe and reverence. She internally scowled.

She remembered the first time she entered the Institute. Sure they were friendly enough but her time as directress of the CIA was not without merit. She could tell from the whispers and glances that they did not approve of her. To them she was just another Kellog, a tool they would wipe clean in the future. Still, that was to be expected. She had brought back

Shaun had ended up just as cold and detached as she was. The terseness of their conversations though made Nora suspect something different. There was no evidence that he was in fact, Shaun. But still she helped him achieve the Institute's goals. The Institute was the best shot humanity had at a future. It became apparent that Shaun had believed that replacing the surface dwellers was a smart move because the Gen-3's were much more capable of "bringing back a purer form of humanity." Personally, Nora herself believed that Synths were capable of turning Sentient. Valentine was a prototype, essentially everything he was, was the replication of a Pre-War detective. Curie, Danse, all of them made their own personalities. She even went so far as to skulk around the Institute and discovered that many Synths began to exhibit likes and dislikes, etcetera.

"Thank you nepotism." Nora said with a cruel grin, looking at the section of the newly formed "Institute Defense Agency". Ayo had plans to betray her. He was a loose end, and so he was dealt with swiftly. She easily exiled him on grounds that he was "freeing" synths. She made sure to promote that Liam kid.

In truth, she never wanted to look for Shaun. She smiled bitterly. It was the perfect retirement. An American nuclear family complete with your Mr. Handy and normal suburban neighborhood. 'A soldier and a lawyer, what a perfect love story. Too bad the kid wasn't mine' she thought had opted to settle down, the amount of Chinese families that she had doomed with her reports and the operations she had sanctioned would make any man sick but it was all for her country. Shaun was a child from Nate's earlier marriage. But what would it tell about her skills if she couldn't find one baby?

She noticed that she had made her way to her quarters. Stepping inside and sitting down on the chair by her desk. She looked at the mountain of paperwork that greeted her.

Sighing, she could tell that with the Brotherhood's defeat and with the Railroad's indirect dissolution was more than enough to tip the fragile balance of power. Documents ranging from minor increases in manpower to radical reforms greeted her eyes but also the numerous technical documents she had retrieved from the Prydwen.

The Brotherhood at D.C was likely to come back. The death of their Elder would likely spark some militant response. She scowled. Coursers and Minutemen were good buffers, both of them packing serious firepower left by the Brotherhood and the numerous other factions she had exterminated. But she heard about the Brotherhood's weapons and resources.

Numerous cities built on the fossils of Aircraft Carriers and Nuclear Submarines, a mobile command center, access to many facilities capable of creating Power Armor, and a fucking air base. They were no joke and given enough time, they would come for her and destroy her government.

She frowned. She would need a lifeline if she was to survive this. She looked at one specific folder and her eyebrows widened marginally. Its front was emblazoned by a White Star, the symbol of the U.S army. Gingerly she picked up the folder.

She opened the document and smiled mischievously. 'Looks like my luck isn't running out anytime soon' she thought as her eyes traced over the words on the title of the project.

"Project Remnant?" Nora mouthed all while grinning like a kitten as she read the details.


Three weeks before the Courier's accident and one week after Institute victory.


Amidst the ruins of a crashed Bullhead was a man huddled over a campfire. Around him was a frozen landscape, similar to Anchorage. He wore a set of special Winterized Combat Armor, made specifically for the Liberation of Anchorage. He struggled to keep the campfire intact as the blizzard grew in intensity.

His emerald eyes were covered by the balaclava and a pair of combat goggles outfitted with bulletproof glass, both protecting his eyes from snow glare. His tan skin was protected from the harsh cold by the ballistic weaved sleeves. His posture showed the spirit of a man long broken by the wastes.

Liam Daniels looked around him and sighed. It seemed just a short while ago before he left the Brotherhood after Sarah's death. He looked at the holotags on his neck and sighed. Maxon was a good leader but after seeing the ruins of Underworld. He couldn't fight for them anymore, he could still recall the screams as Maxon ordered its extinction. It was one of the grounds that the Outcasts wanted in return for rejoining the Brotherhood. The ghouls had retrieved some sort of pre-war tech and wouldn't give it up.

He materialized a sniper rifle, made from the rifles of both Dusk and Colvin after their deaths, saving Maxon from a deathclaw. The familiar green color of the materialization comforted him to some degree. Lyons' Pride had long died off. He was the only survivor. He remembered Gallows. His bloody face as he strangled Shepherd before an overlord crushed his head with a super sledge, Maxon killed the Overlord but not Shepherd. Maxon received all the recognition. Much of the mythos surrounding him was nothing but horseshit. Something that those West Coast fuckers had spread.

The Lone Wanderer had somehow ended up in a frozen wasteland. Daniels struggled to remember how he ended up there in the first place. He remembered touching some sort of strange beacon that had crashed somewhere near the ruins of Megaton. He half expected to get kidnapped by Aliens, but those things weren't real.

All he remembered was a hot white flash before waking up in some sort of Enclave facility. He was tied to a stretcher, bagged and he vaguely remembered something about getting him to a "General Ironwood". They put him into an aircraft which he thought was a Vertibird until he felt it take off.

He remembered hearing a roar. It was similar to the dragons from those entertainment tapes he watched from the Vault. A voice, probably the Pilot shouted "IT'S RELEASING ICE" before the aircraft plummeted. When he awoke, he wore nothing but a simple hospital gown and that the straps on his stretcher were cut loose and the bag on his face was tossed aside. His Pip-boy laid by his arm, and had not been tampered with.

He went to the cockpit right after equipping his winterized armor and his laser pilot was dead. He wore some sort of metallic armor with a blue outline that covered his chest. Along with a helmet that revealed his mouth and a pair of black pants.

Liam had noticed that the man had no noticeable wounds but a bit of blood had started to drool out from his mouth."Brain hemorrhage" Liam said as he took off the man's helmet. He was right. The man's eyes were bleeding and his face was twisted in what seemed to be a terrified expression. If Liam had to guess, the high altitude had caused a brain hemorrhage and a concussion but not before the man had seen something terrifying.

And so the Wanderer had ended up creating a campfire.

Snapping back to reality, the Wanderer went back to burning all the junk from his Pip-Boy.

'Why do I even have three sets of Pre-War outfits?' the Wanderer thought as the fire consumed the grimy pre-war business suits.

The Wanderer knew he couldn't stay there forever. Strangely enough his Pip-Boy refused to show him where the hell he was. So after waiting for a few hours, he packed up and scavenged what he could from the man. 'Survival no matter the cost' was the name of the game, and the Wanderer was a veteran player.

He retrieved what seemed to be a strange handgun from the man and a sword which strangely enough seemed to be able to collapse into a small frame with a press of a button before hoarding those into his Pip-boy.

So with that, the Wanderer took his first journey into the deadly snowstorms of Solitas.


The Courier looked warily at the woman who just uprooted a tree with a fucking riding crop.

"Aliens." The Courier deadpanned quietly as he attempted to rationalize the purple glow around the woman before shaking his head. He needed to get away from Veronica's ramblings.

"Drop the tree." The Courier said as the woman raised an eyebrow.

Before any of them could react to this strange Mexican stand-off, a blood red portal opened up right between them. A figure emerged wearing a mask made from those bone plates. 'Probably a woman. That or a guy with some really hot legs.' The Courier thought as he saw the mysterious newcomer's attire. The newcomer was facing directly at the confused mailman.

She was wearing a black dress, and held a scabbard with several chambers. The mask prevented the Courier from getting a good look on the woman's face but her hair was long and raven black. The Courier gripped his katana tight, whoever this woman was she didn't seem too friendly.

The woman unsheathed her sword effortlessly and flawlessly. Suddenly, the woman launched herself at the Courier.

Sparks flew as the two blades met. Six found that he had dropped his Sequoia in favor of gripping the Katana with both hands. The woman was strong and fast. Six swore as the woman backed up. She unleashed a power foreswing and the Courier responded with a backswing of his own.

The Courier nearly staggered but kept his ground. Bringing the offensive to his opponent, he narrowly missed the robe of the stranger's skirt as the stranger backed away like a nimble cat.

The Courier raised an eyebrow, she wore no visible armor yet she seemed battle hardened and experienced enough to hold her ground against him. The other woman seemed to be confused at this turn of events and held what looked to be some sort of tablet and started speaking to it.

The Courier swung again. Neither of the two combatants backed down, each parrying or dodging each other's attacks. When the Courier's tenth strike was dealt, the woman stumbled; Six saw an opportunity and let loose a savage slash at the woman's chest.

It connected but a dark red aura protected the woman. Six's eyes widened as he swore he could feel the smugness emanate from his enemy. He attacked in quick succession, not one to let his opponent recover but each time it would be protected by the same aura.

"My turn" the woman gloated. Her attack was swift and merciless. Six felt her blade rip through the chestplate of his armor, tearing a bit of the bulletproof fiber and the Saturnite material as he backed away. He didn't expect the woman to perform a powerful roundhouse kick.

He was knocked down, and his katana was disarmed from him. He felt a blade press his neck. He looked up and he saw the woman's mask staring at him like he was mere prey. Not one to surrender, he materialized Blood-Nap and stabbed the woman's leg as hard as he could.

To his surprise, it worked and the blade passed through. He suspected it was from the earlier blows that he had given. The woman didn't even scream as she brought the sword down on the Courier's neck.

The Courier swiftly grabbed the sword, thankful for the gloves that came with the Elite Riot Gear and tried to withdraw it from his neck. The blade drew a bit of blood but due to his strength, it was not doing any further damage.

His opponent surprisingly took the blade off his neck and made another portal. She took off the knife on her leg and threw it towards the Courier, narrowly missing his head. And with that, the mysterious woman disappeared.

Standing up, the Courier had noticed the other woman was shocked, the tree was nowhere in sight. Whether because of the sudden enemy or the fact that he was alive, he couldn't tell. What mattered was that she didn't bother to help him. So materializing a flash bang and quickly throwing it at the unknown party. He retrieved Blood-Nap, his Ranger Sequoia, and his Katana which had nearly laid forgotten and disappeared into the forest.

He heard the woman shout for him to stop but the blue flash quickly disoriented her enough. So with that, the Courier ran like hell and disappeared into the bowels of the Emerald Forest.


A.N: So. Looks like Raven got a Mother's day special. ;)

... Well. Uh, this is awkward, anyway. Leave a review, please don't be hostile. Constructive criticism is greatly welcome and happy mother's day to everyone.