Alright folks I guess nobody really was in the mood to leave some encouraging comments or ideas. However, its of no consequence for I shall continue to type; hopefully you dears on the internet will leave your marks upon my story. I am accepting new character ideas if you wish to make up your own character and want me to write him or her into existence then merely comment or PM me and give me all the the details. Enough of the jabbering, lets jump into the next exciting installment of this fantastic, hopefully, series. Yours truly, ChainzOfThePast.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fallout, yadda yadda yadda… You get the gist.

Darren stared silently at the gathered group of Vault Dwellers in his mother's office. From Officer Gomez to Amata, everyone had one emotion clearly written upon their faces. Fear. They had all heard the stories from Old Lady Palmer, the ones about when the Vault was opened before for exploration. His father wouldn't even speak of it and his mother just cried when he asked. The tension in the Overseer's Office was so thick it could be cut with a knife and Darren knew it had to broken before someone snapped. Sucking in a breath of air Darren spoke loud enough for everyone to hear,

"I'm… I'm not exactly sure what to say except what everyone is thinking, so, here is goes. The mainframe's alert is surprising to say the least and I know that some of you are frightened," glancing around he peered at each person, some meeting his gaze while others quickly took an interest in the steel floor.

"And I know that most of you probably want to forget about the alert and go back to your lives, but the truth is, plain and simple, that we can't just ignore this. We need to go down there and open that door, who knows whats down there? Maybe Vault-Tec left something important down there and set a timed lock or something, I don't know, but we owe it to them and everyone in the Vault to find out." Darren finished his speech, hoping that maybe he got through to them. He let out a soft sigh of relief as a few heads around the room began to slowly nod in agreement. Catherine pushed herself off her desk and shared a look with James, a silent understanding passed between them,

"My son is correct in his assessment and as much as it saddens me to say it and despite my own fear, he is right," drawing a deep breath before continuing Catherine raised her head and met all of their eyes,

"We must open the door." As soon as those words took flight from her lips pandemonium broke loose in the small room. People were shouting at each other, Gomez and Alphonse were shouting at each other, Officer Mack and Beatrice were gesturing wildly at each other, the man and brunette beauty shouting their opinions. Catherine and James exchanged looks quickly before Catherine leapt onto her desk and screamed loudly causing everybody to flinch and cover their ears from the offending sound. Satisfied at the silence she took James's offered hand and leaped off the desk, her feet thudding onto the solid steel floor.

"Our Overseer has made her decision and we will abide by her decision. So is the way of our Vault as it was and always will be." James addressed everyone, his voice held his conviction in his belief of the Vault and it's ways and he challenged anyone to it. None spoke up. Catherine touched her husband's hand with her own small one and flashed him a brief grateful smile along with a twinkle in her eye that promised more thanks later if you catch my drift.

"I know that all of you are nervous or even fearful but be that as may be or not we must open that door. We don't have to do it today", at that nearly everybody in the room let out a sigh of relief, " but we do need to do it. I'm proposing that we commence the door opening on wednesday after lunch has been served." this received several nods of agreement from the group. Letting out a relieved sigh Catherine spoke with finality,

"Alright, Wednesday it is. Now that that is settled, everyone get out of my office and don't tell anyone of this meeting." As everyone filed out of the office Darren was about to leave with his girlfriend when his mother called for him to stay for a few minutes. Reassuring Amata that he would meet up with her later at the Cafe, Darren turned around and stepped back into the Overseer's office, a smile on his face as he did so. However, upon seeing the serious looks on both his parent's faces his smiled quickly fell and was replaced with his no nonsense face.

"Darren, my son, I bear some bad news that is impossible to break lightly. So I will just come out and say it," James began but hesitated at the fearful look in his son's eyes. Surely he didn't already know, did he? "There is a complication in your health. Its something that I can't fix with the tec that I have available to me here in the Vault. I… I'm sorry son, I wish there was something I could do to fix it. I'm sorry." Darren stood still as stone as shock set in, not really believing what his father, the man that he always looked up to no matter how much they argued, had just told him. Tears welled up in Catherine's eyes as she stared at her son.

"Darren, its all my fault! If I hadn't left the Vault with the exploration team then you would be fine! I'm so sorry Darren!" Catherine wailed as she broke down. Her self guilt and blame crushing her like the world did to Atlas. James wrapped his arms around his sobbing wife, his guilt evident in his eyes as he had been the one to encourage the previous Overseer to open the Vault door and explore. Darren trembled as he spoke, his voice shaky and unsure

" What is it that I have?" When he was met by silence he spoke again, his voice harder than before.

"I want to know what I have." He neither shouted nor did his voice shake. He spoke with steel in his voice and his father couldn't refuse his son the truth any longer.

" It has no name, not really. Its a cancer of a sort I believe, at least thats what the symptoms show but I could be wrong. I've named it GT-82, short for gene type 82, as it displays an extreme abnormality on the 82nd gene. I've tried everything from pills to injections, radiation even! Although thats probably what caused it in the first place… I'm sorry son." James sighed in frustration. He wished that he could cure his son's illness, he really did and if he had to give up his own life to do so then he would. Sadly he hasn't found any cure as of yet. Darren rubbed his face with his hands, looking down at the floor before lifting his head and meeting his parents eyes. Despite not sharing his illness with him until now he couldn't bring himself to hate them or stay angry. Darren understood that his father and mother just wanted him to grow up normal and life a happy life while he had the chance. He glanced around the room, never was he so aware of everything around. Life seemed so fragile and delicate now and Darren wanted to cherish it while he still could. Turning back to his parents, Darren smiled

"Well I guess I just have to make the most of my time then, huh?". Catherine choked back a sob as she flung herself at her son and begged his forgiveness. James merely stood back and smiled sadly, tears streaking down his cheeks.

Wednesday: It had been a long week for Darren, first he had to break the news to Amata and Alphonse. Amata's father had taken the news in stride but the young woman had not fared so well. Her dreams of having a son or daughter, maybe even both, were crushed and she had taken to being reclusive in her and Darren's apartment. Darren rolled over in bed, smiling at Amata's sleeping form. Her cherry red lips were parted slightly, breathing in light whispers as the air ghosted over her lips. Her glossy raven colored hair cascading over her pale, creamy white skin while her tiny fairy like nose twitched before she let out a light sneeze in her sleep. Unfortunately that sneeze was right in Darren's face. Sighing, Darren edged closer to his girlfriend and gave her a light kiss on her forehead before slowly and silently crawling out of bed as to not wake her. The young man padded as quietly as he could to the bathroom, grabbing a fresh pair of boxers, socks, and a clean Vault 101 blue jumpsuit on his way. Darren tapped the button to open the bathroom and set his clothes down on the toilet cover before he stepped in front of the mirror. A man of white skin with a tint of hispanic stared back at him. Grey eyes with fine eyebrows and short black, but not buzzcut short, hair mirrored himself. His thin lips sat below his sharp aristocratic nose much like his royal like cheek bones which were covered in small amount of facial hair. Letting out a snort of amusement, Darren stepped away from the mirror and to the shower. Turning the handle for out water Darren couldn't help but be amused that he looked perfectly fine on the outside but inside himself he was slowly decaying. Luckily some of the Vault's medicine had kept the pain under control. Stepping into the hot water, Darren ran his hands through his hair when suddenly he heard the bathroom door open. The door to the shower slid open and a goddess like woman stepped in, fully nude and fully awake. Amata looked up at Darren as she stepped under the stream of hot water, right in front of him. Darren could see her eyes were red and bloodshot which meant she must have cried before coming into the bathroom. Slowly she slid her arms around him and pulled herself against him; Darren wrapped his lithe but muscled arms around the raven haired beauty and buried his face in her lemon scented hair. Sobs began to wrack Amata's body while Darren murmured loving words to her, wishing that he could take away her tears and pain.

Everyone that stood in front of the door was more tense than a coiled spring. The gleaming silver door had a single large white E painted on it surrounded by twelve white smaller stars. Stepping forward, hand outstretched, Catherine uncurled her fingers, her painted finger nails gleaming in the light as she lightly touched the red button next to the door. With a near silent hiss and creak as the hydraulic mechanisms forced the door upwards, the Vault Guards drew their pistols and flashlights. Glancing at Overseer Black, Officer Gomez and his squad slowly stepped into the darkness beyond the door. Suddenly white lights blinked into existence, momentarily blinding everyone as they had all proceeded into the room behind the protection of the Guards. Darren was the first to recover and gasped in awe at all that lay before him. He squeezed Amata's hand lightly before surging forward to the railing that overlooked a massive atrium. James quickly appeared next to his son and was rendered speechless, his eyes glazing over at the amount of objects of all sorts in the atrium. Hesitantly everyone else stepped forward to the railing and the effect was the same on them as it was the others.

"Welcome citizens of Vault 101 to Enclave storage and production facility ESAPF-03WDC. Please direct any and all inquiries to myself via direct confrontation or through the terminals throughout this facility. Thankyou, and remember, God bless the Enclave. God bless America." Everyone looked shocked to hear the synthesized female voice echo throughout the large room, James however looked beyond excited and Darren shared his father's excitement. Catherine eyed her husband and son, a question teeming in her eyes and luckily before she asked James answered,

"Catherine! Do you have any idea what that was?!" James shouted in excitement, his eyes wide and eager. Catherine titled her head in a feline manner for a few seconds while James practically bounced on his heels.

"I'm going to say it was probably an artificial intelligence of some sort, right?" James nodded his head furiously and flashed forward to scoop up his wife in his arms, spinning her around. Darren watched his father, stunned at the really open display of emotion from his usually withdrawn father. When his father stopped spinning his mother around Darren was worried when he spotted the tears in his parents eyes and when his father spoke, he expected the worst.

"Son… this could be the solution to all of our problems!" James nearly shouted, yet he somehow managed his contain his voice to a moderate level. Darren scrunched his eyes but before he could say anything Jonas spoke up,

"What do you mean James? I mean, yeah this is amazing and all but how can this solve the Vault's issues?" Stanley nodded in agreement, he knew that that the Vault's reactor was having major software issues and the water purifier was on it's last leg so unless this stuff in here could fix those two issues then he really didn't care about this stuff.

"Imagine Jonas, just for a second, that the Vault could have back all those wonderful things that we once had. Enough power to run the pool section, water a plenty so we don't have to use water rations anymore, more supplies in general! Imagine Jonas…" James's small speech has inspired the whole group and gave them much to think about. It gave them hope that life would get better in the Vault and that maybe one day the could even live on the surface again.

"Dad I still don't understand why you seem so-so excited I guess", Darren questioned his father, extremely curious about his manner. James slowly strode forward and clasped his son's shoulders with both his hands. When he met his father's eyes he saw a flicker of something in them but Darren couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.

"Darren, if all this technology is down here, left by these Enclave people, then its only smart to assume that they had medical facilities, right?" Understanding flashed in Darren's eyes at the implications of what his father had said. Glancing over his father's shoulder he met his mother's watery gaze and knew that she had arrived to the same conclusion. A loud bang followed by cuss words drew everybody's attention to the massive atrium. Rushing down the stairwell the group of Vault Dwellers followed the sound of voices, not noticing that they were missing two people from the group. As they ran toward the voices lights sprung to life, illuminating the massive warehouse like area. Soft white lights bounced off the form of several massive machines with fan-like things on them; there must be at least one hundred fifty to two hundred of these things lined up Darren thought to himself as they neared the voices.

"I'm telling Almodovar, I've seen these things before! I know I have!", Darren looked questioningly over to Amata as the group stopped in front of the two arguing people. Amata squinted her eyes trying to see past the people in front of her. Darren grabbed her hand and pulled her through the crowd so she could see her father, he saw the worried look on her face and pushed through the crowd faster. He may not like Alphonse but Darren knew that his girlfriend loved her father very much and he would walk to the ends of the Earth to make her happy. If that meant helping Alphonse then he would suck it up and do it, of course he wasn't very likely to enjoy it but it is what it is. Luckily Amata's father was only arguing with Officer Gomez, someone who was about as likely to punch you as he would open the Vault door. Looking down at Amata he saw her let out a sigh of relief and smirked at the small smile the graced her lips.

"I'm serious Almodovar, look", Officer Gomez pulled a magazine out of his back pocket titled America's Army Today. He flipped through the pages quickly while the group silently watched, observant off his every action. Gomez's eyes light up and he pointed to the object that sat next to them,

"Look, this thing is called a Vertibird. Ha! I told you I've seen them before." Darren had never seen Gomez look so satisfied before that it actually made him want to laugh that the usually stoic man was displaying his emotions on his sleeve. Alpshone studied the image in the magazine before glancing up at the Vertibird next to him and sighed,

"Well I guess you're right Gomez. Wonder what the hell these things are doing down here though. Says in this magazine that these things were supposed to have attack capabilities and such…" James and Jonas studied the large flight capable machine intently, wanting to know how it worked. Catherine looked around the group from Beatrice to Old Lady Palmer before she spoke,

"Well I would really like to know what all this is and we aren't going to find out just standing here. You all heard that voice earlier, you heard what it said. It told us to input all inquiries to the mainframe, so, lets go find that mainframe." Everybody began to nod in agreement to what the Overseer said. As the group began to move Darren couldn't help but stay stationary and stare up at the Vertibird, its gleaming and shining metal looked pristine and the large white E on its tail glared back at him and Darren felt that he was home, that he was where he was meant to be. Amata shouting his name and beckoning him to her propelled him to his girlfriend and as they neared the bend in the hallway, Darren gave a slight pause and turned his head to glance once more at the gleaming Vertibird.

James and the group sat in what they had supposed was the command and control room for this part of the new area of the Vault. James fiddled with the computer terminal for a few more seconds before growling in frustration and giving up. Darren watched as his father threw his hands in the air in resignation and his mother wrapped her arms around him. His father had been trying to get into the system for about twenty minutes unsuccessfully, his mother had even tried her Overseer override passwords, courtesy of Vault-Tec. Sadly no progress had been made and as such they were no closer to receiving the answers they wanted.

"Darren, you should give it a try", Amata whispered to her boyfriend. She knew that Darren had taken apart his Pip-boy 3000 dozens of times and had even made modifications to the software, improving the runtimes in it's core processor. Darren's eye widen at Amata's suggestion but with a few more words of encouragement he slowly stepped up to the terminal, it's green glow illuminating the darkened room. Steeling his resolution he slowly spread his fingers over the keyboard, typing furiously in his attempt to use a brute force hack. It was a crude way of trying to force his way into the system but it was often times effective and if he could fool the software into believing that he was an administrator then he could unlock the whole system and do whatever he wished.

Welcome to Robco Industries (™) Termlink

Set Terminal/Inquire

RIT-V300

Set File/Protection=Owner: RWED Acounts.

Set Halt Restart/Maint

Initializing Robco Industries (™) MF Boots

…

…

…

Retro Boot/Main Sequence Pattern Detected…

Root File Corrupted… Set Main File PW 82-4S

Please Standby…

…

…

…

WARNING UNAUTHORIZED USER DETECTED! PLEASE STANDBY FOR SECURITY SHUTDOWN!

Admin Route Protocol/User Admit_RIV?

Enter Maintenance Mode Firewall Reboot?

YESNO

…

…

…

Welcome to Robco Industries (™) Termlink

Please Verify Authorisation…

Admin File Runtime #3295…

Main\Time\Set 5A8

…

User Authorised

Welcome

Everybody was shocked when suddenly the lights sputtered to life and the massive storage devices began to light up, their power lines glowing red. The main console in the center of the room began to glow as words and numbers flew across the screen. James approached the now blank green screen when the word ZAX sprang onto the screen. (Imagine President Eden but in female form)

"Welcome citizens, I see you managed to unlock the security shutdown and reboot the systems. I congratulate you on that, it shows great promise for the future. Now, I presume you all have questions?" Catherine stepped forward next to James.

"I do have a few questions… well more than a few but I have some really important ones that need to be answered now." The ZAX was silent for a few moments before it spoke up once more,

"I'm going to assume that you are the Overseer of Vault 101?" the feminine voice asked alluringly

"Yes, I am the Overseer and I demand that you answer my questions otherwise I will have my son shut you back down. Understand…?" After a few moments it replied

"Very well Overseer, I abide by your decisions and answer all of your questions. You can call me Serena if you wish as well." Catherine studied the machine for a few minutes as Darren piped up

"I think we can trust Serena, Mom. If she wanted us dead then she would have activated the security systems by now." Catherine turned to her son and nodded her head when she saw Officer Gomez slowly nod his head in agreement. Despite what most people thought, she didn't know everything that went on in the Vault and Officer Gomez was her most trusted friends and confidants. Well of course, besides her husband.

"Serena, where is the medical facility? What kind of equipment does it contain?" James had stepped forward and needed to know the answer to his questions. Everyone stood silently as they waited, they knew this was all that James truly cared about out of everything in this new area.

"Our medical facility is state-of-the-art, containing new and advanced technologies it has the remedy for all your aches and ailments. Sadly, our medical technology did not arrive before the war began. We are only currently equipped with the basics of medical technology and a single Auto-Doc Mark 3. I'm sorry that we don't have what you seek Mr. Black." James clenched his fists in anger. He knew, no he thought that this place would have the medical technology he needed to save his son's life. Just another dead end James thought bitterly to himself, angry that he assumed what he had assumed. Catherine wrapped her arms around her husband, pushing herself into his side trying to comfort him. Darren stared at Serena's screen before asking her a question that would change the Vault, himself, and the Wasteland.

"Serena, is there someplace like this that would have the proper medical facilities to cure me?", everyone was silent in shock at what he had implied, that he would leave the Vault, the supposed only safe haven in America.

"Yes, there is a few places that you could travel to that would have the proper medical facilities to cure you of your illness. However, I'm going to assume that you wish to not travel terribly far. In that case I would recommend either Raven Rock Enclave Military Base or U.S Army HeadQuarters, the Pentagon." Darren nodded, absorbing all the AI had told him.

"I would recommend that you equip yourself with armor and weapons from the armory; I have no idea what the surface is currently like as my satellite connection unstable. I will unlock the armory if you wish to access it." The musical like voice informed him. The young man in question merely nodded to the AI before he turned and faced the crowd. Amongst them he saw varying looks of curiosity, anger, disgust, and worry. Darren cleared his throat before he addressed the group,

"I know that some of you may or may not agree with my decision to leave the Vault, but please understand that this is something I need to do." turning to Amata he spoke with more care in his voice,

"Amata, I know that I couldn't give you a future" he placed a finger on her lips to stop her words, "You and I both know this to be true. I hope that when I return you would accept my marriage proposal." Amata was rendered speechless at what he had said, that he wanted to marry her when he returned from wherever it is that he needed to go. So she did what any girl would do, she leaped him, wrapped her arms around his neck his cried out a muffled yes.

Darren hugged his mother and father one last time before turning to his now fiance, Amata Almodovar. He wrapped his armored arms around her and kissed her passionately on the lips once more, pulling away, sad that he wouldn't see her for who knows how long. Lastly the young man turned to Alphonse, the older man's eyes were slightly clouded with anger. He didn't believe that anyone should ever be allowed to leave the Vault; he believed that they should live in the Vault forever, just like Vault-Tec had intended them to. Darren extended his hand to his future father in-law and was thoroughly shocked when the middle aged man firmly grasped it and shook it.

"Just a word of advice boy. You had best come back, you make my Amata happy and she doesn't have much that makes her happy. So, if you don't come back the I will go out there and kill you, understand?" Darren simply nodded, not knowing any other way to express his thoughts. Sucking in a deep breath, Darren pulled the lever on the control panel. The giant mechanical arm swung forward and latched onto the gear shaped door; as it pulled the bomb proof door out of its ancient resting place an ear screeching sound ensued. When the Vault door rolled to the side, exposing the tunnel that led to the surface, Darren knew this was it. Slipping on his Advanced Power Armor Mark 1 helmet (its the Enclave Remnants armor from Fallout New Vegas and that will be the armor the Enclave uses in this story), Darren stepped out of the vault and onto the dirt path outside of it. Shuffling forward past the skeletons the littered the ground, Darren turned around and watched as the gear shaped Vault door rolled back into place and was pushed close once more with that ear shattering screech. Once the alarms stopped, Darren followed the dirt path to an old wooden door. Hesitating for only a few seconds, Darren pushed the wooden door open and stepped into the sunlight. The brightness nearly blinded him but thankfully his helmet's optics quickly adjusted and dimmed it. Pulling his Plasma rifle off his back, Darren stepped forward and into his destiny.

Well children, how was that? Did you enjoy it? Please let me know, all reviews are appreciated. I'm very aware that many people probably don't read Fallout fanfiction but if there are some of you that enjoy this story then I shall continue to write. Please leave reviews, let me know your thoughts, and as I mentioned, I am accepting characters if you want me to write them into my story for you guys. Lastly I would like to thank my sole reviewer, IgorTheMad, I appreciate your review and hope that you enjoy the story. As for all those that followed and favorited it, I say thankyou to you as well. Anyway, remember to, read, review, and enjoy! Sincerely, ChainzOfThePast.