Chapter 6 – Crowley

Fort Constantine – 6 Months and 1 Week after leaving Vault 101.

Crowley had been waiting for this moment for years. It had taken him a long time to find a suitable assassin to do his dirty work for him. This last week long journey was just the last wait before his goal was realized. Fort Constantine was almost on the complete opposite side of the Capital Wasteland as Underworld was. Walking there had been harsh. But now Crowley stood only feet from his goal.

It was nearly a year after the failed expedition that Crowley found out just what Tenpenny had sent them to Constantine for. Deep within Fort Constantine, an unused ICBM sat dormant since the end of the Great War. Tenpenny had wanted his mercenaries to not only loot the place of all it weapons and ammo, but he also wanted the ICBM launch codes, which were locked away in a safe hidden in the Fort. With the ICBM, Tenpenny could essentially hold the Capital Wasteland hostage and make it his own.

When Crowley had been locked up in the Fort with the feral ghouls, he had killed them and escaped afterwards. On his way out, he found a set of T-51b Power Armor left behind by the American military. He knew he needed the keys to get to the armor, feeling it was his right to have it. He became obsessed with the armor, going to any lengths to get it. He stalked Dave, Dukov, Strayer and Tenpenny, getting to know how they worked and what they did. He knew he couldn't get the keys himself, and that's why he hired someone to help.

Crowley looked down at poor Tara's body. The corpse lay right where he had left her. He began to search her pockets. In her pants pocket was the last key. A blood stained piece of metal was the last piece of the puzzle he needed to finally get his just rewards.

The stasis chamber where the power armor was kept chilled the bone. It was kept cold and sealed off from the world to protect the contents inside. When Crowley had last been here, he had seen inside the stasis chamber to see the power armor being held there, but he could not get into it. Now he stood there, feeling his goal had been accomplished.

A cold chill ran up what was left of the ghoul's spine. The armor wasn't there. It wasn't in the chamber where it had been when he was last there.

"What…?" Crowley mustered. "What's going on here?"

"Well," I said. "this is awkward." Crowley whipped around to see me. I had followed him there. My gun was drawn and aimed at him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked me. "How did you find this place?"

"Dukov told me about it."

"That drunken Russian bastard!"

"Now, that's no way to talk about a friend."

"A friend of yours maybe." Crowley took a moment to look around the room. "Where is it?" he asked.

"It's safe at my home in Megaton." Crowley was stunned. He just stared at me.

"Why?" he finally asked.

"You really don't know who I am do you? Let me see, I already told you about Vault 101 and why I left. Well, a few months after leaving the vault, I found my father. He was locked away, being held hostage by a hostile AI at Vault 112. When I freed him, he led me to Rivet City. While there, he told me about a project he and Dr. Li were working on before my mother died. He called it Project Purity. Project Purity was situated at the Jefferson Memorial on the banks of the Potomac River. The project was started as a way to revitalize the wasteland by purifying the waters of the river. We tried to reactivate Project Purity, but President Eden sent Colonel Autumn to stop us.

"My father died protecting Project Purity by flooding the control chamber with radiation and sealing Colonel Autumn off from it. From there, the Brotherhood of Steel helped Dr. Li and I escape. In my quest to get back to Project Purity, I alone attacked and assassinated President Eden. Then, the Brotherhood and I took down his precious Enclave. We got back into Project Purity and then I activated it, running into the irradiated chamber and entering the activation code." It felt liberating to finally tell this to someone. It hurt keeping it in all the time, but the wasteland couldn't know what we had done. Not if we wanted peace and prosperity to spread. Project Purity was the beacon of hope that would save the wasteland, but revealing Eden's true nature would only trouble things.

"How did you survive the radiation?" Crowley asked. No doubt he was looking for flaws in my story, trying to prove I was lying to him.

"I don't know. I woke up a few days later in the Brotherhood of Steel's stronghold. I worked with them to destroy what was left of the Enclave from there. After that, I was allowed to go free and roam the wasteland as I pleased. Then I found you."

"You should at least be a ghoul after that much exposure to radiation."

"Yeah, I guess I should. But I'm not, so there's that."

"What does any of this mean to me?" Crowley asked me finally. "Why are you telling this to me?"

"This has everything to do with you!" I yelled. "My father always taught me about truth and justice. He taught me the world would help me if I helped it. But guess what, he was wrong. If this wasteland has taught me anything, it's that darkness lurks everywhere in this world. There is an evil to every good."

"And you gave yourself to the darkness."

"No. I will never give myself to the darkness. I am not like you. I am not a killer!"

"Look at how you lie to yourself!" Crowley yelled. "You killed innocents to get here. Look what you did to Greta, Strayer, and the Republic of Dave."

"Lies." I said. "Lies, all of them. I told you I was a proficient liar, better than many I had met. I didn't think I could fool you, but apparently I have."

"What?" he said. "What do you mean?"

"Careful little lies I implanted in each of my stories took you in. I gained your trust, and you didn't even know it."

"Explain this…now."

"First of all, I didn't kill Greta. I told her you were gunning for her, and we faked her death. It was a feral ghoul I used to paint the wall with blood. Greta helped me before I sent her away. She lives in Tenpenny Tower now with Roy and his people."

"Well hooray for you. You spared Greta's life. What about Strayer?"

"I didn't give Strayer his final dose. I came back three days after he gave me the key and I asked his wife where he was. She told me he had dosed himself with Psycho and died of an overdose. As per Rivet City tradition, Ted's body was thrown into the ocean, the only true burial of any Rivet City citizen. I wanted to help him, but telling you I killed him just engrossed you more in my stories. The dealer he bought from, I later found out, worked for Eulogy Jones. I avenged Strayer's death."

"I checked the Republic of Dave; it was a crater just like you said. Want to explain that?"

"The Republic of Dave might as well have been fenced off and renamed the Wasteland Mental Institution. Everyone there was out of their minds, including the children there as well. I concealed Dave's murder by bringing his body with me to Old Olney. I fed him to the Deathclaws and waited until there was just enough for me to bring back to Bob and tell him of his father's death. Then I killed the rest of the Deathclaws, and that act gained me Bob's trust.

"When I returned to the Republic of Dave, I told Bob of his father's 'adventures'. I told him a legend about a family called Keller."

"And you engrossed him in a story like you are with me are you not?"

"This wasteland has made me a wordsmith Crowley, but the Legend of the Family Keller is not fictional. Alex Keller was a National Guardsman when the first bombs dropped in 2077. Alex stole the bunker codes to a National Guard bunker so his family could ride out the storm of the nuclear holocaust. But he was arrested and couldn't get in so he sent the rest of his family each one number of the bunker passcode so they would all have to be there to get in. But before they were sent away, each member of the family left behind evidence of their existence. The bunker was a stronghold and would guarantee safety against the wasteland. Bob found this interesting and I suggested he start his new Republic in the bunker so to escape this vile wasteland."

"And he took you up on it.' Crowley added.

"Yes he did. Bob moved his family to the National Guard bunker and gave me the weapons there. I used the MIRV launcher to destroy the Republic to sell my story to you."

"You are deceiving." He added. "I hope your story about Tenpenny is true as well?"

"Oh it is, all I did with that one was leave out a few details."

"And they would be?"

"I told Tenpenny you hired me. He offered me money to kill you, and I convinced him that I had upon returning to the Tower. He was a gullible man, not even asking for proof before paying me in full. He paid me nearly triple to kill you what you paid me for all your targets."

"So you swindled him before you killed him." Crowley began to clap. "Well done. Now, if you would be so kind as to give me my power armor, I think our business will be concluded." I cocked my gun.

"No, I think I'm going to kill you too."

"What?" he asked. "You can't be serious."

"I'm afraid I am." I lowered the gun and fired a round into each of Crowley's legs. He fell in agony, screaming in pain. The old ghoul was too frail.

"How can you kill me?" he asked once his screaming had died down. "You said you won't give into the darkness. You said you weren't a killer."

"I'm not. I do what I can to survive on this wasteland. I kill, but I kill the deserving. I kill raiders, I kill feral ghouls, and I kill killers…like you."

"I'm not a killer. I have no blood on my hands."

"Oh, but you do. Lucas Simms."

"The Megaton sheriff? You'll kill me because of him?"

"I'll kill you because through your insistence, an innocent man was killed. Lucas Simms had a family, a wife and a son. Burke killed him, but his blood is on your hands. It was through you that Lucas Simms came into the situation that killed him."

"So you kill me because of some half-wit sheriff?" I fired another shot into Crowley's shoulder. He screamed.

"Lucas Simms wanted nothing more than peace in his town! Burke and Tenpenny are dead, but it was not their fault. It was yours. You need to pay for an innocent man's death."

"Fine…kill me." Crowley had given up. He knew he had lost. "Just kill me now."

"Oh, not now. You are going to die slowly…and painfully for what you have done."

"What are you going to do?" I fired another shot into Crowley's other shoulder. He screamed one more time.

"I'm going to leave you here, bloodied and alone. You will bleed, you will starve, and you will freeze in this room. You're finished Crowley." I lowered my gun and turned around.

"You think this makes you better than me! IT DOESN'T! YOU'RE JUST AS FILTHY AS ME!" I didn't look back as I shut the door and pulled out the keys I had fought for. I shut the door, sealing Crowley in forever. I left to the sound of Crowley shouting and screaming for help. No one was coming for him.

--

As I emerged back into the blinding light of the wasteland, I thought about what a difference I had made. Project Purity was cleansing the waters of the Potomac River, waiting to revitalize the wasteland. With Eulogy Jones dead and the slave traders cleared out from the Lincoln Memorial, the slave trade in the Capital Wasteland will all but disappear. Tenpenny Tower is rid of its high and mighty tenants and has now become a safe haven for ghouls just as Underworld has. President Eden and his Enclave are dead and their chokehold over the Capital Wasteland has disappeared. The legend of the Lone Wanderer will reverberate all throughout the Wasteland's history for many years to come, and Three-Dog will be my prophet.

But, for now, I simply left Fort Constantine's gates to meet Dogmeat who was waiting obediently at the front gates.

"Come on boy, let's go for a walk." He barked up at me, happy at my return. And I and my dog walked off into the dying sunlight as the sun lowered and hid behind the desolate landscape of this…the Capital Wasteland, my home.