Unrelated, but please do not leave reviews if you're going to ask about other fics I haven't been able to update in a while (unless it's Whispers of Darkness which is connected to this one, some time in the future.

Thanks, and please, enjoy!

The mad dash to Concord took a good ten minutes, but they began to hear the tac-tac-tac Astrid had come to associate with gunfire almost as soon as they departed the truck stop.

It was immediately apparent that Concord was very different from Sanctuary Hills. Few of the buildings she spotted on their approach seemed appropriate for housing, the town seemingly filled instead with long-since defunct stores and other such trading posts.

Astrid had had a feeling that there would be no diplomacy to be found when they arrived, and she had been right. The first live human other than Nora she had seen on Earth spotted her, running towards his position behind a barricade of sandbags near the main street, levelled his weapon, and shot at her without a second thought.

The slug pinged off her chestplate, harmless, as she had predicted. The attacker seemed shocked, but still managed to keep firing. By then, however, Astrid had thrown up a ward, and the bullets bounced against the translucent shield. She pulled Alduin's Fang from her back, reached him, and ran him through, his meager leather and cloth 'armor' providing little more resistance than his flesh and bones.

The man sputtered, blood pouring from the newly opened wound. He coughed crimson, and dropped his crudely made weapon. "Fuck." -he gurgled, vital fluid spilling down his lips and chin. Astrid rolled her eyes, drew out the greatsword, and swiftly ended his torment by sliding it across his neck.

Aela and Dogmeat ran past her, ferocious snarls on their snouts. Astrid cackled madly and followed, shaking the dripping ichor from her blade.

Oblivion broke loose upon Concord, as they clashed against the raiders. There were easily over two dozen, perhaps closer to three, all in the process of attacking the Museum of Freedom - a larger, central building at the end of Concord's main street, colored crimson, and seemingly defended by a single man perched on a balcony, picking off the more idiotic raiders with a powerful energy weapon.

The bandits hurled insults, spit, and bullets at them, but they lacked any sort of discipline, let alone a defensive formation. The direwolf in their midst, of course, only served to make things worse.

Astrid took to the fight with an energy she hadn't felt in years. These were no slow, fragile draugr; untrained and poorly equipped as they might have been, these raiders were quick on their feet, and hardy enough to put up a fight, especially with their numbers. She ran from victim to victim, stabbing, beheading, and cleaving the fools lucky enough to have been missed by the brutal canines. Aela left corpse after mangled corpse in her wake, tearing their bodies in half or ripping them open, while Dogmeat avidly dove for exposed throats and poorly armored arms and legs.

Finally joining the fight, Codsworth ran in with a cheerful 'Tally ho!' - whatever that meant - and a whirl of his deadly appendages. By no means a killing machine, the automaton nevertheless slew a couple of raiders that tried to flank her, one of them immolated, the other ripped open by a swipe of his gyrating saw.

"My coolant has never pumped harder! These raiders are no match for our fighting prowess, eh Miss Astrid?" -Codsworth asked her, while she conjured a bow and shot a raider - firing from the roof of a nearby store - through the throat.

She smirked. "Indeed! Already, they try to escape." -she sneered. At least a dozen raiders had run inside the crimson building, by her reckoning, and five more of them had started running towards a trap.

A trap which Nora had both conceived, and sprung.

The redhead knew Concord like the back of her hand, and seeing it still standing had evidently been a relief - not just for nostalgia's sake, but for the fact that she could plan accordingly, knowing the Museum of Freedom's location. She had been the one to propose a frontal assault, betting that any survivors would probably choose an escape route with better cover, towards the southeast.

Thus, Nora had set up on the second story of a nearby house, from which she could cover that road - and from which she began to blast away with her own energy weapon. Trapped between Nora's laserfire and her conjured arrows, the last of the raiders outside crumpled swiftly.

Astrid roared in triumph, dispelling her conjured bow and withdrawing her greatsword from the corpse of a nearby bandit. Aela howled, and Dogmeat barked happily, his snout dripping with raider blood.

From the balcony, the man caught their attention. "Hey! Man, I don't know who - or what - you are, but I don't care. Thank you. You guys just saved our lives."

"Well met!" -Astrid shouted. "I shall accept your gratitude when the last of these raiders has been slain."

The man, dark-skinned and topped with a peculiar hat, frowned. "What do you...oh, crap, they went inside? Please, you have to help! There's wounded and elderly here."

Nora jogged up to them, her rifle slung behind her back, the Overseer's pistol in her hands, ready for action.

Astrid nodded. "Worry not, friend. We will handle these bandits."

The man hurried back inside when the sounds of gunfire began again. She looked at a very pale Nora, who seemed to be trying her hardest not to stare at the disemboweled corpse at her feet. "No time for planning this, Nora."

"Agreed. We gotta save these people." -she said, utterly determined. "Lead the way, Dragonborn."

The fight inside of the museum was a lot more complicated than the one outside. For one, the raiders had plenty of cover, and the advantage of the high ground.

Problem number two? Half the museum was missing. Most of the roof had caved in, owing to the fact that a Vertibird had crashed on top of the building, likely when the EMP from the nuke hit it.

Nora knelt behind Astrid and her seemingly impenetrable, two-handed Ward spell, taking potshots at the raiders with her ten-mil. She'd run out of power cells for the laser rifle because of her sniping idea, which she now regretted; the handgun was a lot less accurate, and didn't seem to be nearly as lethal as the rifle.

"This is getting us nowhere!" -she hissed, holding Dogmeat's collar. The dog obediently stayed put, though he was clearly eager to run to the nearest enemy.

"Agreed! I may be able to alleviate their suppression, but I require a free hand." -she suggested, chagrined.

Nora winced, looking around. To her right, there was an open hallway, that had led to the Revolutionary War exhibit in her time. If she recalled correctly, it also connected with the back of the Museum, from where she could possibly flank the raiders.

"I'm running for it!" -she shouted, and let Dogmeat's collar go, both of them zooming right. She heard bullets whiz by her head, impacting a wooden railing behind her, showering her in splinters. Nora slid into the room, ending up in a tangle with Dogmeat.

Patting her body, she sighed in relief; she was unscathed. The dog licked her face, urging her to rise. Nora did, as she heard the telltale sound of one of Astrid's portals, accompanied by the raiders' shouts of fear and anger. She walked through the small hallway, finding the exhibit she remembered, seemingly untouched by time. She scanned the room, finding nothing but mannequins dressed in red frock coats and tricorns, holding ancient muskets.

"Creepy." -she muttered, walking past them.

The back of the room led to another narrow passageway, which in turn opened to the back of the museum - the part behind the security gate. She risked a peek and saw that the floor had caved in to the basement, where she spotted a seemingly functional fusion generator behind a reinforced mag-locked door. Two raiders were taking cover behind the pillars lining the central staircase, unaware of her presence still.

She took aim, and shot the farthest one in the head, sending bits of brain and a spray of red mist flying. As if on cue, Dogmeat raced towards the shocked enemy left alive, leaping onto her and closing his maw around her exposed neck. Nora winced as she heard the desperate, gurgling cries of the rapidly bleeding out raider.

She jogged up the stairs. "Good boy." -she said, trying not to think too hard about the copious amounts of blood clinging to the dog's fur. Nora shot the writhing raider once in the forehead, putting her out of her misery.

Nora also tried not to think about how her lunch was suspiciously not trying to escape her body. Reloading her weapon - the last full clip, worryingly enough - she tensed as she felt magic reverberate through her body.

"FUS-RO-DAH!" -none other than Astrid shouted, and a wave of momentarily unbearable pressure filled the entire Museum. She looked up, only to see a raider soaring through the air. He crashed against the back wall of the Museum, hard enough to crack the wood, and fell in a crumpled heap between the raiders she'd killed, dead before he even landed.

Nora looked towards the lobby, and found herself bracing as Astrid cleaved through the security gate with an ease that betrayed her monumental strength. A dark purple skeleton shambled in behind her, bow and arrows at the ready.

"Well done, Nora." -she praised her. "There remain two living raiders in the building, by my account."

The redhead wiped her brow and nodded, looking at the blonde's skeletal thrall, which returned her stare with bright blue lights instead of eyes. "Where are they?"

Astrid hummed, breathed in deeply. "LAAS." -she whispered, the dragon word making her now-enhanced blood thrum with power.

Nora scanned their surroundings, and spotted seven glowing red lights, beside Astrid and herself. Five were near the balcony - Nora assumed they were with the guy who'd thanked them for the rescue - and two more were holed up on the same floor, apart from the others.

"There." -she pointed. "That's probably them."

Astrid nodded. "Quite so. Leave them to me."

Nora hummed her agreement, holstering her weapon. "Come on, Dogmeat." -she said, heading down towards the fusion generator. The loyal canine quickly followed.

There was a terminal beside the locked door, so she got to work. Her Pip-Boy's software was pretty barebones when it came to hacking - she'd have to rewrite all of her old programs, unfortunately - but the password was stupidly simple to figure out.

"F-R-E-E-D-O-M." -she muttered, shaking her head as the terminal pinged with her successful access. "What a joke. This thing could've blown up Concord if it got messed with, and they used 'freedom' as the password." -she told Dogmeat, who eagerly started to lick his soiled paws.

She opened up the door, punched in the core's release, and yanked it out, easy. Nora checked the reading on the side. "Seventeen percent." -she whispered, scowling. It was, she supposed, more juice left than she could've expected after two-hundred and ten years of seemingly continuous operation. She pocketed the thing and headed back up the stairs, where the sounds of battle seemed to be dying down.

Nora passed by a bunch of overturned desks, a duffel bag filled with cash and ammo, and a small stash of bottle caps, all of which she shouldered. On the way to Astrid, she also found two bodies; a man with an arrow through his eye socket, and a woman messily cleaved in half.

Up on the third floor, she yelped in surprise when an upright raider came out of the doorway, only to notice that the man's chest was oozing a thick, purple-black fluid from a gaping hole, his veins darkened and his eyes glazed over.

"I apologize," -Astrid said, "but this one refused to perish properly."

"So...you turned him into a zombie?" -she asked, in disbelief.

"It was an instinctual thing." -Astrid replied, shrugging. The dark magicks lost their hold on the corpse, and his flesh turned to ash, his weapons and garments falling into the dusty pile left behind.

Nora sighed. "Both of them dead?"

Astrid nodded. "These raiders do not seem to comprehend the concept of surrender."

"Yeah, they don't seem very smart. Let's talk with the survivors." -she said, holstering the pistol.

The Nord followed her to the door marked 'Administration', shaking the blood from the odd longsword and returning it to the sheath on her back. Nora breathed in deeply, and knocked on the door.

"My rifle's pointed your way, so don't even think about it." -the man from before threatened.

"There's really no need for that. The raiders are all dead."

Muffled discussion followed; Nora shared a look with Astrid, who simply shrugged. The door unlocked after a minute or so, and opened to reveal a fearful young man with asian features, a tall guy furiously typing away at a terminal, and the soldier type with the cool hat from before, aiming some kind of bastardized laser weapon at her.

Nora's hands slowly rose. "We just saved your lives. Please point that away from us."

The dark skinned man pursed his lips. "I'm very grateful, just...not stupid. How about you tell me who you are and why you're here first?"

She pointed at her chest. "Nora. Nora Quinn."

"Astrid Frost-Wyrm." -the Nord said behind her.

Nora searched her pocket and pulled out the bit of cardboard brought to them. "We were heading here anyway, looking for...someone. Dogmeat found us, and gave us this. We ran all the way from the Red Rocket truck stop to the northeast."

The man's eyebrows shot up. "There a settlement that far north?"

"Settlement? No, just my old neighborhood. Abandoned."

"And a Vault, clearly."

Nora nodded. "One-eleven. Also abandoned."

The man pointed his weapon to the ground. "I see. Well, I guess you did save our lives. Come on in."

Nora smirked, walking into the old administration room. Two more women were holed up inside - a young, scowling one, and a very old, very pale lady somehow sleeping away the carnage and chaos on a moth-eaten sofa. Dogmeat trotted in, immediately heading for the sleeping old woman and lying down at her feet.

"The name's Preston Garvey. Commonwealth Minutemen." -the soldier said, extending an open hand, which she shook. The angry young woman scoffed at his claim.

"Nice to meet you, Preston. Wish it had been under less bloody circumstances."

"I don't. You got here just in time. A few more minutes and those raiders would've lost their fear of laser muskets." -he said, patting his custom rifle.

"Right."

Garvey sat on the sofa behind him. He looked bone-tired - was almost certainly younger than her, but probably felt a good bit older. "So you're a Vault Dweller, but how about you? Thought I'd seen every kind of person in the Commonwealth, but...you're new." -he asked Astrid, half curious, half fearful.

Astrid slid her helm off. "I am foreign to these lands."

If Preston was shocked by her appearance, he didn't much show it. "I mean, obviously. 'Bout as tall as a super mutant, kind of albino looking...are you from up in 'Ronto or something?"

"Skyrim, actually."

"Haven't heard of that one."

"It is not of Earth."

Preston narrowed his eyes. "...right." -he said, then looked at me. "Too many chems? What's her poison, Psycho? Buffout?"

Nora snorted. "Astrid hasn't touched any chems since she arrived, as far as I know. No, Astrid really is just a weirdly human-looking magic alien."

"Magic?"

"Did you not see the plus-sized purple wolf hanging out with the Mister Handy outside?"

Garvey blinked. "No, I did, I just...thought it was a mutie you'd tamed. You're saying that thing is magical?"

Nora nodded, weary, setting her hands on fire. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

Preston's eyes comically widened, as did those of the asian man and the angry woman. The tall man just whistled, momentarily distracted from the terminal. "What the hell?" -the 'minuteman' asked.

"It's a long story, Garvey." -she said, willing the flames to disappear. "So, what about you guys? How'd you get stuck here? What's your plan?"

"Keep listening to this old hag's bullshit, probably." -the angry young woman spat.

Garvey sighed. "For the last time, Marcy: I didn't bring you guys here because of Mama Murphy's 'Sight'. The Abernathy family used to be allied with the Minutemen, and I know they live around this area. Concord was supposed to be abandoned, free of raiders."

"Fuck off with your Minutemen crap, will you? They're gone. Even if we had gotten to this farm you keep touting, there was no guarantee they'd take us in." -the woman, Marcy, countered.

"Dear, please; Preston has kept us alive this far. The farm could be a bust, but it's better than the alternative, right?" -the shorter man said, seemingly trying to convince himself.

"You call this a life? I don't know if you noticed, Jun, but we've been running for over two weeks. If it's not the fucking Gunners back home, it's raiders here, mutants downtown, or a goddamn horde of ferals at Lexington. I'm surprised we haven't found a nice little deathclaw to finally put us out of our misery."

Preston shot up. "Alright, enough. We can argue about this after we're safe." -he all but ordered. He looked at her. "Your old neighborhood, how far is it?"

"Sanctuary? A good hour at a slow pace. There's not much there, though."

The taller man scoffed. "No way. 'Sanctuary'? That the name of the place?"

"Sanctuary Hills, technically. Why?" -Nora asked.

Preston pursed his lips. "Well...Mama Murphy said we'd finally find sanctuary if we kept going north. I thought she was just being a little too optimistic, but now…"

"Told ya she wasn't lyin'." -the taller man said, finally leaving the computer be. "I'm Sturges, by the way. I'm the one who heard Mama Murphy's little 'prediction' back in Quincy."

"Quincy still exists?" -Nora wondered.

Marcy scowled deeply. "No. Not anymore."

Preston's expression turned downcast. "Quincy was attacked by Gunner mercs. The Minutemen tried to defend it, but we were betrayed and had to escape."

"We're all that's left." -Jun said, haunted.

First people I've met and they're just like me, Nora thought grimly. "I'm very sorry."

"Thank you." -Preston said. "Mind if we ask for just a bit more help?"

"I'm listening."

"We can't stay here, obviously. I'm thinking we can go to Sanctuary Hills, hole up and heal up, then search for Abernathy Farm from there."

"Right."

Garvey pursed his lips. "Only problem is, I'm the last guy in this group who can properly handle a gun, and I'm already on my last few fusion cells. Not to mention doped on stimpaks and Med-X."

Nora resisted the urge to grimace. "You want us to escort you back to Sanctuary."

"That's right. We don't really have much to offer in the way of a reward, but I'll think of something, if you agree."

Against her better judgement - and the pressing, burning need to keep searching for her son - Nora found herself shaking her head. "We didn't do any of this for a reward, Preston. You guys needed help, and we were able to do something about it. If you think going to Sanctuary is the safest option for you, we'd be happy to get you guys there."

The hope blooming in the Minuteman's face - in fact, in all of the survivors' faces - was nearly overwhelming. This wasteland that her beloved Boston had been turned into must have seriously lacked any sort of empathy, because they all looked at her like she was the alien, not the inhumanly tall blonde proudly smiling behind her.

She was about to try and break the awkward silence, when Mama Murphy suddenly roused from her deep slumber, bolting upright with baffling agility.

"Monsters!" -she shouted, her eyes wild and unfocused, roughly grabbing Nora's shoulders. "Not just the one, but indeed the many...claws meet bone, but not just any...of fire born, and thus respects it...hope is found where s'least expected."

Nora extracted herself from the old woman's grip. "What the hell?"

Mama Murphy blinked once, twice, then focused on her. "Oh. Oh, I'm sorry, kid." -she apologized, sitting back down. "The Sight, it came to me so suddenly…I didn't realize I was hurting you."

"It's ok." -Nora quickly replied. "I'm fine, just...shaken."

"That which you call 'the Sight' is no less than the gift of prophecy, elder." -Astrid said, serious. "It seems I was incorrect; this world may indeed be touched by magic."

Murphy chortled. "Oh, I think I like you, stranger. No one's ever believed me that easily."

"I knew it. You two are fucking insane, too." -Marcy declared, furious. "Stop enabling her! The last thing we need is the ancient junkie OD'ing on us."

"Never you mind that." -the older woman shot back. "The Sight is a gift I can't ignore. It's how I know we're about to be attacked by raiders."

Preston and I shared a look. "Uh...we cleared them out, ma'am. The raiders are all dead."

The old woman looked at her mischievously. "Not the ones arriving just now, kid."

The Minuteman grabbed his laser musket and peeked through a small hole in the wall. "Shit!" -he hissed. "There's dozens of them. Pointing every gun they have at your pals outside."

"What? How?" -Nora asked.

"I guess they're...reinforcements. That's not good."

"Obviously."

"No, I mean...raiders aren't usually that well organized. All or nothing with them, most of the time, so them holding back a second wave is odd."

"Big trouble." -Sturges confirmed. "Fortunately, we have a big wrench ready throw at 'em works."

Nora raised an eyebrow. Preston pursed his lips. "Sturges is being very optimistic." -he admitted. "But we managed to mostly repair a suit of power armor, hidden up on the roof behind the wrecked vertibird."

The redhead's eyes widened. "Holy shit, really?"

"Fixed it myself." -Sturges claimed, proudly. "It's, uh, kinda missing a couple things, though. For one, the OS was fried back when the bombs dropped." -he said, then pointed at the terminal he'd been working on. "Fortunately, I managed to whip up a bit of proprietary code to at least get it movin'. Just gotta install it."

He popped a holotape out of the side of the computer, and handed it to Preston. "What's the second problem?" -the redhead asked.

Preston sighed. "The suit's out of power. No fusion core in it, probably salvaged a long time ago."

Nora smirked. "Ah, well, not a problem, then." -she said, pulling the used core from her back. "I got this from downstairs."

"Well, I'll be damned. How'd you manage to break the encryption on the gate? I got locked out of tryin'."

She snorted. "The password was 'freedom', stupidly enough. I should warn you, the core only has 17% charge left."

"It'll have to do." -Preston said, grim. He offered the holotape to Nora. "Here. Get up there and suit up."

Nora frowned. "Me? You're the soldier, Preston."

"I'm also hopped up on chems. Plus, I don't have any training or experience with power armor."

"Well, me either." -she said. "What about you, Sturges?"

The mechanic shook his head, pointing at his leg. "My knee's busted. Can't bend it enough to walk around in PA. 'sides, you're the one with the portable computer strapped on your wrist."

Nora scowled, frustrated. She looked at the Longs, but Jun had been reduced to a terrified, muttering mess, and Marcy gave her a death glare scarier than Astrid's helm. "Shit." -she muttered, yanking the holotape from Preston's hands. "If I blow myself up, I'm blaming you, Garvey."

"Noted. Now, go become a walking tank."