Chapter 9
A) Search for a Cure
The Lone Wanderer, visibly scared for her mental health decided to spend more time searching the old labs for information how to cure her mental state. The Auto-Docs could only heal real wounds like in Katherine's case and their attempts resulted in failure.
The crazed scientists in the Think Tank could not come up with an explanation for all their intelligence and so they were forced to look for answers elsewhere.
Getting more desperate with each day the Lone Wanderer would start off early in the morning and search through every corner and lab she would come across. Eventually she found a laboratory almost buried beneath the rubble outside at the border of Big MT. With new hope flaring up she started to clear the door so she could open it enough to get inside. The place looked identical to the other labs, but the difference was the scientific pursuit of this lab. From notes and old computer entries it seemed that the scientists of this place tried to create a portal to control time and space, though the start of the Great War made them drop the project entirely. Now decades later the Lone Wanderer was the first soul to enter the dusty and abandoned place.
Further in the lower sections she found a round platform with strange arches above it. They all connected in the middle by a big ball that reminded her of the pictures she saw in a book about Nikola Tesla. Curiosity overtook her and she decided against getting Katherine and stepped on the platform. A switch was next to one of the arches and she pulled it down. As if paralyzed she was unable to move and the big ball above her sparked with energy and surrounded her with static energy. Before she knew what was happening, a bolt of lightning shot from the ball directly at her and she felt herself being pulled in different directions. She could see all the colors of the rainbow, though they seemed to flow into each other like water. It was bright and a strange sensation of cold and warm overcame her.
The feelings were coming from two different directions she was sure of it, but she didn't know which way she should keep going. The warm felt pleasant, even nostalgic, it was hard to explain, while the cold felt free and wild. Like at many points in her life she had to make a decision.
A) Follow the warm sensation (Continue reading)
B) Follow the cold sensation (Read "Dark Wings unfurled")
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She decided to follow the warm sensation as it gave her a good feeling and she found the closer she walked towards the warmth the darker it got around her. The colors vanished slowly leaving her surrounded by darkness until she could see and feel nothing. She panicked and started to run around but the effect stayed the same. It was dark, a void and nothingness. Was this her fate? To die in a place where no one knew her name? A place she couldn't even imagine in her worst nightmares. Just as she was about to break down a soothing voice called out to her.
"Do not be afraid, young one. Nothing here can harm you. I created this place for the sole purpose of talking with you. I imagine you have many questions."
The Wanderer looked up to see a ghostly apparition stand in front of her. It looked human, but she could not make out genders. It's voice seemed to have no gender but at the same time it did. She could not explain it. The Lone Wanderer didn't fear it though, as the feeling of warmth was back and it seemed to be radiating from this being in front of her. When she found her voice again she asked "W-Who are you?
"I am many things. I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, Life and Death, Creation and Destruction. I am and I am not."
"Y-you're God?"
"In a sense, yes, but also no. I am you, but also not you. I have always been and will always be."
"You said you wanted to talk to me?"
"Yes, but it is you who wanted to talk to me. You just didn't know it. You must have many questions. Questions about your existence, about the world. Ask and I will answer."
The Wanderer thought about what she wanted to ask. So many possibilities. This being here, one she could not imagine to comprehend gave her the chance to find out who she truly was, why she was unable to die and most importantly what it would mean for her future.
"I have a question about me. Why can't I die? Why am I cursed to suffer through the same situations over and over again only to find myself in different situations with the same outcome? It feels like my whole life is hell. There is no release from the anguish that overshadows our world! Why!?" she demanded, pleadingly so.
"You are a being that was created for the sole purpose of bringing uncertainty to life. Where others are beings of "No" and "Yes" you are at most a "Maybe". You are human in this life, but you are also not. Something more. You exist in many forms and many genders. Beings like you are born in times of great change or suffering. What you do with your gifts is up to you. There are no rules, no wrong or right, they do not apply to you. When you die you don't cease to exist, but the World around you does. The world does not revolve around you, but you are fit to shape it as you say fit. Many beings like you existed and continue to exist. Your friend Katherine is as you are, she just doesn't know it yet.
"You imagine the world as one single dimension, as one flow of time. But just as time goes forwards and backwards, so does the world exist in many dimensions. This world, your world exists next to many other worlds who are the same as yours, but not quite like it. Each and every world is unique, but also the same. In each and every world you exist and will exist to bring forth change until your destiny is completed. Each cycle and each world has its own versions of you. You are not alone and your fate is not yet completed, that is why you are still alive and unable to die. What your fate is? That is not for me to decide. Just as you are a being of maybe so is your fate and nothing can change that."
It was a lot to take in and the Lone Wanderer didn't know how to respond. How can a single mind comprehend this information? How can she go on living her life when she knew how vast and complicated it all really was.
"Then…then show me. I want to see myself in the different worlds you spoke of. I want to know that what you say is true and not an elaborate fantasy of my own mind. Maybe I am truly mad by now and do not know it."
"As you wish young one. Give me your hands"
The Lone Wanderer took the hands of this otherworldly being and immediately a sharp pain went through her head as memories of different times and versions of herself flooded her mind.
"Why do you humans enjoy leaping so much?"
"Get off my lawn you sonofabitch!"
...
"Some asshole's in my pool!"
It was a strange feeling, like she knew exactly where those places were and who she was at that moment, but the memories didn't stop there.
"I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite store on the citadel."
...
"I am Dragonborn? What does that mean?
Intense pain once again shot through the Wanderer's head.
"Do you get to the cloud district very often? Oh, what am I saying? Of course you don't. I'll have you know that there's no Pussieeeeeee-"
...
"I never asked for this."
...
"Have I ever told you the definition of insanity?"...
"The right man at the wrong place can make all the difference."
...
"What is the truth?"
"We place faith in ourselves. We see the world as it really is and hope that one day all mankind might see the same."
"What is the world, then?"
"An illusion. One we can either submit to, as most do, or transcend"
"And what is it to transcend?"
"To recognize that law arise not from divinity, but reason. I understand now that our Creed does not command us to be free. It commands us to be wise."
...
"Endure and survive."
...
"A man chooses a slave obeys."
...
"To be alive, to walk this earth, that's the real curse right there."
The flood of memories became increasingly harder to comprehend and the Lone Wanderer felt her vision darken.
"S-stop! Please!" she begged unable to endure it any longer.
"Very well young one. I have given you but a glimpse of the reality we find ourselves in."
"No more, I want to go home and see my friends, I don't want this knowledge!"
"I'm afraid this will not be possible. You see, I was like you once. Until I became the very being you see before you. It is time that we switch places. You will be watcher, free from the torments of the world, until one day a being like you finds itself in the same position you found yourself in. And when that day comes you will set free."
Whit that the, being in front of her, pulled out a short sword from its chest and handed the sword to the Lone Wanderer. The horror was clearly written on her face, she did not want to spend an eternity in the place. Being a watcher or whatever it was the ghost was doing. She shakily took the sword and the being told her to stab it through the chest. It was the only way out of here. With the realization that there was no other way it can end the Wanderer rammed he sword with a scream through her own heart, hoping to change her mistake. To change the course of her life.
But it never came. The once immortal Wanderer was dead, her soul, truly free of the curse of life. The ghost smiled knowingly and vanished into the void, leaving nothing but darkness.
Epilogue
A confused Katherine woke up only to find her friend missing. Searching Big MT proofed futile and with a heavy heart she left the place, thinking her friend didn't want to have her around anymore.
Back in New Vegas she was met with great enthusiasm by the misfits and Katherine decided to form her own elite band of warriors searching for adventure and glory among the Wastelands of America.
The group traveled to Washington where the disappearance of the Lone Wanderer made waves. To this day the great story of the Battle of Hoover Dam tell of a great and ferocious soldier who fought like the devil himself on the battlefield and talked with a silver tongue that could persuade even the greatest tyrant.
The End
AN:
I finally got around to finishing this possible string of the story and I hope you enjoyed it so far. Just like the other decisions there is no real wrong or right, just a possible outcome. I hope you enjoyed it.
