The procedure at the Memory Den was the farthest thing from what Lilith had expected. It had required both her and Nick to be inserted into Kellogg's memories and it had been very, very painful. Besides viewing a slideshow of the man's insanely depressing life, she had had to watch his memory of breaking into Vault 111 to take her baby. She had to watch Nate being shot again. When she was finally released from the viewing pod, she thought she was going to throw up. Dr. Amari helped steady her, asking if she was all right. Lilith's head was swimming, but she managed a nod and a thank you.
The doctor looked at her with concern. "Are you…ready to talk about what happened in there?"
The last thing she wanted to talk about was any of that. One glaring outlier in Kellogg's memories flickered into her mind and she latched onto it quickly. "There's more than one person who knows about the Institute. Virgil, that scientist who escaped…"
"I didn't know Institute scientists could defect. This changes everything. He could answer all sorts of questions. Where did the memory say he was? The Glowing Sea? That can't be right. No one would risk going there. Not even to hide."
"Of course, that's why he's there! To make the Institute think twice about following him…"
Amari caught on to her chain of thought swiftly. "That must be it! He's using the radiation in the Glowing Sea like a shield or a…cloak…a way to throw them off and be at an advantage. If Virgil found a way to survive there, you'll have to do the same, if you're going to follow him. You'd need as much Rad-X and RadAway as you could carry. Maybe more. A sealed environment suit would be great, if you could find one. Or maybe…one of those suits of Power Armor? That would be perfect."
Lilith nodded, running off a checklist in her mind of the doctor's suggestions. She still had the suit of T-45 Power Armor from Concord back at the garage in Sanctuary. In the meantime, she would need to find a way to make some fast caps to buy the extra chems she would need for the trip. She thanked the doctor briskly.
Amari hugged her then held her back at arm's length for a moment. "Good luck, and…be safe. Oh and by the way, I unplugged Mr. Valentine first. Removed the implant while you were waking up. He's waiting for you upstairs."
Lilith thanked her again and jogged up the stairs to go and meet Nick. As she approached him she called his name and was about to start regurgitating everything she had talked about with the doctor, when a chillingly familiar voice issued from Nick's mouth.
"Hope you got what you were looking for inside my head. Heh. I was right. Should've killed you when you were on ice."
Lilith froze in her tracks, and actually went to take a step back from him. "Wh-what did you say?"
Without even missing a beat Nick replied - in his normal voice this time - "What? What are you talking about?"
"You uh…you sounded like Kellogg just then."
"Did I? Amari said there might be some 'mnemonic impressions' left over…Anyway, I feel fine, so let's get going."
She put her hands up defensively as he stood up, backing away a few more steps. After everything that had just happened - the emotional torment of watching a replay of her husband's death, and just then hearing Kellogg's voice coming from her dear friend's mouth – the world was spinning around her again. "Nick, I…I think something's wrong with you. I-I think it…might be a risk to bring you with me right now…"
A look of actual hurt brushed across Nick's face. "Lil, are you sure? I don't think you should stay in Goodneighbor alone-"
"Yes Nick, I am very sure. I- Please, I just need to be by myself for a little while. I'll come find you in Diamond City when I'm ready, I promise. Please…"
He sighed and eventually gave her a nod. "All right, if that's really what you want. I know you can take care of yourself, but…look, Hancock puts on a lot of airs, I know, but if you need anything, you can go to him, OK? Against all evidence to the contrary, he is actually one of the good guys."
Lilith folded her arms across her chest and nodded, looking everywhere but into his eyes. And just like that, he was gone. She only looked up when she heard the door shut behind him. She was trembling, and she could feel tears stinging her eyes. She let out a shaky breath. She dawdled there for a few minutes pretending to check something on her Pip-boy, then left the old Scollay Square building when she thought Nick was probably far enough away.
Upon exiting the Memory Den, she was greeted with an immediate commotion outside the old colonial state house that stood as the town's centerpiece. Townspeople and neighborhood watchmen stood gathered around at ground level, while Hancock spoke to them from the balcony above.
"Now, what out there in our big, friendly Commonwealth would want to drive us apart? What kind of twisted, un-neighborly boogeyman would want to hurt our peaceful community?"
A voice rang from the crowd. "The Institute and their synths!"
"That's right! Who said that? Come on up to my office later. You've earned yourself some Jet. The Institute! They're the real enemy! Not the Raiders, not the Super Mutants, not even those tools over in Diamond City."
Lilith curled her arms around herself a little tighter, chewing her bottom lip as she gingerly walked over to the edge of the crowd. Although she was exhausted and anxiety-ridden, she couldn't help being curious about whether Hancock might shed some light on what little she knew of the Institute.
A neighborhood watchman yelled out. "I don't know, Hancock! I'd sure love to give McDonough a kick in the ass!"
There was general laughter from the crowd, and a few solid whoops of approval until Hancock spoke up again. "Hey, we all know I got my own personal beef with that lard-head, but stay focused! Now, I want everyone to keep the Institute in mind. When someone starts acting funny. When people are doing things they don't normally do. When family starts pushing you away for no reason. We all know who's behind that kind of shit. And the only way to stop it is to stick together. They can't control us if we're not afraid! Now who's scared of the Institute?"
In unison, the crowd bellowed. "Not us!"
"And which town in the Commonwealth should the Institute not fuck with!?"
Even louder from the crowd, "Goodneighbor!"
"And who's in charge of Goodneighbor?"
"Hancock! Of the people, for the people!"
Hancock laughed and clapped his hands a couple times in approval, and just like that the crowd was dispersing. Lilith looked around as the neighborhood watch returned to their posts, then glanced up at the balcony. Again, she caught Hancock looking back at her. He smirked, winked and made a gun shape with his hand that he flirtatiously "shot" at her. She looked away, toward what looked like an old subway entrance under the state house. A dirty sign above it read "The Third Rail." She addressed the neighborhood watchman stationed at the entrance. "This a bar?"
"Best damn bar in the Commonwealth, sister."
