AN: X6 was admittedly hard to write for. I never got to travel with him too much in my game so I researched his character. It didn't make it easier to write but insight is always nice. Anyhoo' enjoy!

Chapter 4

X6'S take

X6 was told she was a busy girl. He didn't have to deal with these...people. Why Delta bothered to have them around was a mystery to him. Not that he cared, it was just more inconvenient to deal with all these Wastelanders.

But orders were orders. Father had him investigate the matter at all costs and was more than willing to let information slip if it helped find his mother. He was put in charge to coordinate the resources necessary to help her.

Though the Courser didn't understand a great deal about emotions, there was enough drilled into him about the human psyche and how one would react to a number of conflicts placed in front of them. Some were incredibly resilient and others fragile. He wasn't told to care but how humans themselves could respond in moments of crisis such as this.

He'd witnessed the others anger and confusion at their loss. They seemed to have cared for her as much as Father did. Even more so. Mother and child bonds however, from what X6 knew were one of the strongest in existence. Like with animal kind, that they're meant to protect their young. In this point Delta had failed to do so. And they were teachers. Delta had failed to be one.

Love's factor puzzled him the most. A feeling that seemed more destructive and distracting of them all. Familial, romantic, sexual. The humanness of it all was one all big mess that left unchecked, could prove devastating. X6 pondered on the familial between the mother and son. He gripped the fact that unfortunate circumstances made it all the more twisted, but given the knowledge he had, he wondered about Father's motivations. X6 was a synth not made to question...but to wonder. Not to disobey but to contemplate the logicality.

The men who stood before him, even Nick the prototype, all had this loyalty to her that just...was abstract to him but in his mind it was them to her as he was to Father. He was taught expectations but they were much different to the scientists that he often spoke and dealt with.

Their reactions to his words became an interesting surprise. Delta hadn't yet to tell anybody of what happened. Confidentiality is the norm for the Institute. But if Delta really trusted them, wouldn't she have told them already? Then again, she had much her mind could debilitate and to absorb. Life stories meant nothing if it didn't aid to anything. Just told you how you lived your life. Not how you're going to live. The reality in front of him was more convoluted and he didn't like it at all.

"I...I don't know what to say." Spoke a stunned Nick, breaking the minute's long silence between them all.

Upon X6's examination, it was like, how the scientists describe, a kick in the gut. Certainly facts like that sure did force them to comprehend.

"Ouch...I uh...huh. That's gotta hurt. Sheesh." Deacon said as he scratched his chin. He couldn't even form a facsimile of his usual banter.

Were any of them expecting it? Then again...

Preston just shook his head. He seemed the most disturbed by those words.

"Her very son...leader of our enemy...that's not right." He commented with a sigh.

Danse nodded. He could detect the level of rage barely being contained within.

"I agree. You don't think Delta just...joined out of the sake of her son?"

X6 felt the stares dropping right at him. He was told this was going to happen. It was his job to carefully construct his sentences to ensure this would go smoothly and in the way the Institute planned it to. Revealing too much was a risk for sure...but their reactions told X6 that they weren't expecting it at all.

"I have not been told as much. He invited her. She accepted." He put it simply.

Nick leaned back against a nearby wall and took out a cigarette and lit it, while staring at the roof.

"The sins of the son cannot be blamed on the mother. I can't even imagine the type of conversation they would have had at that point. My gut tells me that she would not have made that decision lightly." Nick pointed out.

X6 was told to leave Nick as is. While the unexpected side effect of the garbage they threw was that it became a capable person that had the nature of a Pre-war detective, they came to the conclusion that he was simply to be observed, nothing more. They had plenty of synths in place in Diamond City to do that.

"Synth, let us know what Delta's job description and designation at the Institute." Danse asked.

The man held pure hatred in his eyes. The man had pure restraint, he could give him that.

"Very well. Delta gets allocated to Synth retrieval missions and data collection." X6 replied without pause. He noticed Deacon getting rather anxious about that.

"No...you don't suppose she'd been using the Railroad all this time to find out where all the synths have gone? What the fuck is going on?" The Agent spattered. Deacon was right to be worried. He glared at X6 from underneath those sun glasses of his. He was prepared for the man to attempt to shoot him. He had anticipated this type of friction ever since he realised what Nick had planned.

All in all, It appeared no one seemed to have gotten what Delta's motivations were at this point. Saving synths in the way both parties interpreted it. Except the Institute were in the right to take back what was theirs.

"We won't know until we get to speak with her. I'm almost certain she has her reasons." Nick iterated. Though his inflection seemed to indicate he was quite annoyed with that fact as well.

Deacon became a bit more peeved at the notion. If X6 was in his position, he too would know they would have been compromised. But Father allowed the help of the Railroad on this one, if it was a means to an end, if not a slight consolidation that the more they could find out on the operations of the Railroad, the better.

"Agent, we've put on hold all Railroad grievances until this investigation is finished." X6 explained, not liking having to say that himself, but orders were orders. It didn't seem to make the man all the happier. Nor was he expected to be.

"Yeah yeah spoon-feed me more of your bullshit. I'm hungry." Deacon said sarcastically.

Preston walked forward and raised his hand, in the hopes that a fight wouldn't start between them.

X6 was told to leave the Minutemen be. Though their insertion of Synths into settlements was part of an Institute project, it would be best to not have that discussion if possible. Could cause far more problems in the future.

"Hold up. Let's all get this straight. Synth, did Delta ever mention anything that was doing before she disappeared? I mean, if any of us saw her last, all we would assume was that she would have been scouring the Commonwealth, taking out Super Mutants, ghouls or heaven forbid Deathclaws or...saving synths." Preston commented, his last two words sounding low and his eyes hardened as the glimpsed at the Courser. X6 knew her schedule was tight enough as is but at least it had some kind of routine to it. They needed that.

Nick nodded in agreement.

"Preston's right. She was a wanderin' kind of gal. Did any of these missions go south at all?" He wondered.

X6 stood there, almost frozen. He traversed through any recent memories to find any mission that may have been relevant. He was disappointed...although at the same time, fine with not finding anything.

"Not that I can think of. Any time we went out, she was totally silent. Fine by me. I'd rather have her focused."

Danse grumbled. X6 theorised the very thought of travelling with the enemy would have made them a target. He didn't care much for the Brotherhood and their barbaric methods. Father always said he'd take care of them one day. How was the definite question as to what it would take to take them down. Now wasn't the appropriate occasion to plan. But any intel was always useful. No matter how small. If they could convince Delta herself...

"Sounds like Delta towards the end. We used to chat where appropriate but in the days before her disappearance there was a lack of...outside of combat communication. No lack in efficiency, that I won't even dare to question." The Paladin backed up. Didn't the Brotherhood live on that military momentum?

He heard Deacon chuckle. It appeared even he had to agree to that.

"Yeah same here. She'd used to laugh at my jokes but then she turned to stone. Or she turned into Medusa so she'd look at you and you'd feel like you were turned to stone with that glare of hers."

The Courser looked at Nick as he analysed their comments. Everyone had come to the same manner with her. The world of silence that she'd fallen into. That did not develop with him that was for sure. Her entire character...twisted...darkened. Her moods were dull and monotone. Perhaps a conversation between her and Father changed something within her. He would never understand human relationships in their full, complicated and distorted exchanges, however it was not of X6's purpose to study her past. He cared less than what already happened and was in the mindset of the Institutes goals for the future.

"Deacon, I might need your help with something on this one." Nick stated.

The man smirked. The Railroad for the lack of their well, far-reach of the Commonwealth, they were resourceful. Admittedly.

"Might?" Deacon repeated.

Nick rolled his eyes, as he obviously didn't take much pleasure in getting the Agent to do something. The Detective was far more of an interesting case of Synth development, even for a broken down prototype.

"Yeah. I've got contacts and Delta has contacts. We may have to bring some mutual friends into the matter..."