Three Days Later

"You know this could be a trap, right?" Nick asked around a cigarette, yellow optics staring at their leader.

"That's why I brought all of you," Tessa replied simply, trying to keep her nerves from showing.

"And not a whole army?"

Tessa frowned, looking over those who had come with her to the secret Institute bunker. MacCready and Cait we're finishing off a canteen of water, rolling shoulders and stretching as they readied for what lay within. Piper double checked her ammo besides Deacon, the sunglasses wearing man trying to convince her he'd once fought off a deathclaw with only a pen, but she only laughed and shook her head.

Preston was scanning the horizon, laser musket raised for any sign of trouble. Dogmeat rubbed against her leg, whining needily for a scratch behind the ear. His tail wagged as she obliged. "Not like we don't have backup," she said, looking at her prototype synth friend, "the standby militia will move in if we don't radio back in a day. The Institute won't get away again… but if there's a chance for peace first I'm taking it."

"Right which is why we're not going in guns blazing," he said, "I understand. There's a lot of unknowns going in, could be nothing more than empty labs, or it could be filled with coursers waiting for revenge."

"If they wanted me dead they could have killed me at any time this past month," she countered, "they knew where I'd be."

"We crippled them, maybe that spy network is gone like their home," he suggested, "or maybe they're so weak right now they couldn't make a move against you even if they wanted, which I'm quite sure they do."

Tessa frowned, distracting herself for a moment as she soothed the whining Dogmeat. "Madison Li is the one who helped Father build me," she said, the others turning their attention to her. Her voice sounded a bit more emotional than she'd have liked, nerves electrified and butterflies trapped within her chest. She hadn't stopped thinking about what lay ahead since Shaun gave her the holotape, so many possibilities filling her mind, drowning her in what ifs. "If anyone knows why he built me it's her. I can't miss this chance. I also know that if they really do have Curie's mind down there, what's to keep them from destroying her if we go in swinging?" She caught a few thoughtful grimaces, small shrugs of agreement from her friends. They had their doubts she suspected, but they believed in her enough to have come when she asked.

"Madison isn't Institute, not really. She's from Washington D.C. to the south and used to work with the Brotherhood of Steel," Tessa went on, "I'm not sure when she left but she wasn't part of them when they came here. I don't think she ever was truly part of the Brotherhood of Steel either from the way she talked about them."

"What does that mean?" Asked MacCready, he had to focus on her intensely when she spoke, his left ear a twisted ruin of laser burns and explosive damage too far gone to hear from it. "That she's special?"

"Anytime Madison and I spoke in private she would mention her disgust at the selfishness of the Institute. She hated that they weren't doing anything to help the people on the surface when they had so much technology available to them. She might still believe that. Justin Ayo would rather we all die. The other two… they just want to protect their own. If we're going to get through to whatever leadership is left, Madison is our best chance and she's the one who sent Shaun."

"Why'd she even do that?" Questioned Deacon. "Your kid said she needed help, but what kind of help could you, the enemy, bring?"

"I wish I knew, I could only guess."

"Then guess."

Frowning, Tessa tried to articulate the mess of jumbled thoughts that swirled in her mind. "It has to be Father's plan, or one of them. From the recording it sounded like he only had the one tape, so even if I betrayed him or truly allied myself with the Institute, I was supposed to get it. Maybe it's a trap since I turned on them, maybe it would have been genuine if I'd become Director. I don't know." She looked at the hatch obscured by rocks and brush, lingering on the new metal rather than the rusted warped kind that belonged to the Commonwealth.

Turning back to her friends, she refused to let uncertainty fill her voice even as it filled her heart. "What I do know is that I help people. We help people. The Minutemen, the Railroad, the Valentine Detective Agency, Publique Occurrences… even you two, Cait and MacCready, given you follow me along. We all want to make this shithole we call home a better place, and this… this could be how. If we don't give peace a chance then all we'll ever know is war, and the world has had enough of that."

"Ya wanna make friends with them?" Challenged Cait, "After everything they've done? After Curie?"

"Curie was Father. Not the Institute."

"But-"

"Cait," interrupted MacCready, holding her hand, "she has a point. How many of those scientists really knew what they were doing or had a say in anything? Sometimes you work for somebody terrible and don't even realize it." He frowned in memory. "Other times you do but you're too scared to try and leave or make a change."

She grimaced, only partially convinced. "I just dont think we're meeting a peace party. Li wants something from ya, simple as that."

"Kinda hard to trust her after everything else," added Piper, "but I hope we can resolve this without more death."

"General," said Preston, Tessa's gaze lingered on the long scar he now had bisecting his right brow. It was another physical reminder of the pain she'd caused her friends and the lengths they were willing to go for her. Between it, MacCready's ear, Dogmeat's leg, and Nick's missing patches of skin she wasn't sure if she should feel gratitude or guilt. "I admire your desire to resolve this without further bloodshed. The Minutemen are still pretty hurt from the Institute Battle, the less they need to get involved the better."

"I know I'm asking for a lot here," she said slowly, "but I couldn't do this without you. It means so much that you're all here." For a moment she imagined a few others; Codsworth, Danse, Curie, a hole aching within her chest and closed her eyes. "Thank you."

Piper stepped forward and intertwined their fingers, squeezing her hand and smiling earnestly. "Of course Blue." The others gave similar affirmatives, Cait clapping her shoulder, MacCready giving a thumbs up while Preston tipped his new hat, not near as revolutionary style as his old one. Nick grunted and stubbed out his cigarette, crushing it underfoot before smiling at her. Deacon simply nodded, but the smirk he wore made her fear ebb away. Dogmeat barked happily, blissfully unaware of what she'd truly said but something about it helped alleviate the pressure within her along with the others.

Truly she had no idea what she'd do without them, these people that kept her sane and alive. She couldn't help but wonder if Father had anticipated she'd make such close friends, or if it'd been another way she'd deviated from their meticulously planned experiment. It was a bit of a comforting thought, something that made her feel more like her own person, if only in a small way.

"Ready?" Piper asked, examining her closely.

Tessa stared at the hatch, a thousand fears rising up her, her heart racing so quick it might burst. Curie is in there. She found her strength and gave a brisk nod, moving towards the hatch with the others right behind her. It came open with a bit of lockpicking, Tessa catching Piper's gaze flickering up from her rump when she lifted it and turned for the others to enter. Once upon a time Piper might've looked away with embarrassment but they'd certainly progressed beyond that, instead getting an approving wink that made her blush. "Ya two are terrible," commented Cait.

"You and MacCready could flirt if you wanted," Piper teased back, the man perking expectantly. "We wouldn't mind."

Cait glanced at him, MacCready giving a smile, and blew him a kiss before entering the hatch. He laughed, and followed her swiftly. "I would," drawled Deacon as he and Nick followed.

"Too bad," replied Piper, winking at Tessa who blushed deeper, before slipping in behind Preston. Dogmeat whined at Tessa's side, once more refusing to leave her side. She cleared her throat, appreciating Piper's attempt at soothing everyone's nerves with a good bit of banter, but it'd set her nerves alight in an entirely different manner.

Urging Dogmeat to move, she entered the hatch. There was a small stairway that lead into a rectangular room, more new metal just a few feet into the dirt. They fanned out into it, weapons readied for any surprises or traps. Across the way was a singular terminal mounted to the wall, a pair of doors, and nothing else within the small room. Nick and she approached it carefully, and together they'd hacked in. It was about as tough as she'd expected of an Institute computer, but not near as difficult as Father's private terminal had been.

"Alright so… door controls, elevator controls and… a map?" Tessa frowned as she clicked onto the image file, a blueprint of the facility loading up. She quickly plugged her Pip-Boy in, downloading the file and brought it up in her maps while Nick focused on the green screen.

"This place is pretty big," he remarked, squinting at a series of rooms labeled 'experiment #' from one through twenty. "Some kind of testing facility?"

"It's got a quarters, storage, eating area, restrooms… it's like a vault only smaller."

"A vault?" Piper questioned skeptically, "What they built their own?"

"Maybe… it's got a reactor, not as high tech as their main facility but it's almost half the size of this place."

"Maybe that's why Father wasn't so broken up about losing their home," suggested Deacon with a sneer, walking over to look at the screen too. "They had another one waiting."

"I'm not too sure…" Nick said, trailing off as he squinted, pointing at one area. "There's a relay room but it doesn't have near enough power sources and it's half the size of the other."

"How can ya tell that?" Asked Cait.

"Desdemona let me look at the schematics of the old one while we were waiting for Grey to arrive at the Imperial, and this isn't the same."

"Receiving end only?" Suggested Preston.

"What's the point of that?" Questioned Piper.

Tessa frowned deeper, trying to make sense of the blueprints. "Nick, try to summon the elevator," she ordered.

"Can't. Manually disabled from below."

"The other door, the stairwell?"

"Same."

"That's what's Cait's for. Whatever's down there isn't supposed to get out." Tessa gestured to her Pip-Boy's screen and drew MacCready and Preston over. She was quite glad to have it back, its many uses would no doubt prove vital to their mission. According to Cliff, the agent who'd escorted it to Sanctuary to lure Father into meeting her there, five coursers had ambushed her at the bridge leading into the town. It had been a grueling battle, but eventually she'd used her climbing and stealth skills to escape them. After the destruction of the Institute, Tinker Tom and Sturges had cleaned it of any Institute bugs. Even now Tessa wasn't certain the coursers wouldn't have just killed her if it had been her.

"Looks like the stairs lead out into this testing area," pointed out MacCready, "No idea what all this fancy stuff means but it seems important."

"It could be dangerous," Tessa said as she lowered her Pip-Boy. "Be ready. Cait?"

"On it," she grunted, punching the metal door with the deathclaw gauntlet and wrenching it until there was enough of an opening for them to slip through. Cait was at the head, ready as ever, while the rest filed behind her and moved down the stairwell. They curved five stories down, only the soft green glow of Tessa's Pip-Boy and MacCready's flashlight illuminating their path in the otherwise pitch black metal stairwell. Their steps echoed down it, Dogmeat's metal leg the loudest among them. The canine had no idea how ill-at-ease it made them, reminding them of the gen one synths chasing them, of death just a breath behind them. Once at the bottom they found it locked just the same. With a bit of effort Cait wrenched it open, and they filled out into a long corridor.

According to Tessa's map, it was the central hallway with several offshoot to small experimental rooms lining the way. "Nothing on the radar…" Tessa said slowly, taking in the sterile clean air, a soft drone from power reaching her ears. Soft emergency lights ran along the floor, interspersed between doors with terminals and dark glass windows. Piper approached the nearest window, squinting in but it was too dark to make anything out.

"What kind of tests could they have been running down here?" Questioned Piper, reaching for the access panel before thinking better of it. "Think there's an alarm?"

"Should be a control room at the end of the hall," said Nick, "good place to look."

Tessa walked slowly through the hall, boots loud on metal floors. Her skin was crawling, mind foggy with a sense of deja vu as they progressed through. It was like walking through a dream, everything heavy and slow. She could hear the soft murmurs of the others, but nothing truly clicked, like a whisper in the back of her mind rather than her friends talking just a foot away. A weight filled her chest as something caught her gaze passing another window, glowing within the testing chamber. "Blue?" Piper questioned, only half listened to as Tessa pressed her hand to the access panel, and the door came open. "You sure it's a good idea?"

"No."

There was a light switch just inside that Tessa flipped. The glow had come from a terminal which sat upon a desk across a workroom that instantly struck Tessa in the gut. "I know this place," she whispered. Various tools were set up across the bench besides the terminal, a pristine radio was on the desk next to it. A disassembled pistol rested on the bench, manuals and diagrams surrounded it with dirty rags on the linoleum floor. The walls were the same plastic like metal many buildings were made of before the bombs dropped.

A singular window, in the same spot the viewing window would be, gazed out to a beautiful idyllic neighborhood. Trees rustled in a gentle wind, hear heart quaking at the sight. She'd almost forgotten what true trees looked like. Only upon close examination did she realize it was a screen, everything upon it a looped feed, another fake.

"The hell is this?" Piper asked, standing at her side. Others watched from the door, on extreme guard. Dogmeat sniffed at the rags, soulful brown eyes looking up at Tessa and he whined softly. "Blue?"

"Nate's workshop."

Piper bristled besides her, hazel eyes wide. "What?"

"Nate would show me how to disassemble weapons back here," she explained, voice shaking, "this was at his parents' house, when we were engaged." It felt as if she had walked into the past, everything in the exact places she remembered yet it was all wrong. It shouldn't have existed. She typed on the terminal, her breath catching in her throat at the message upon it.

Tessa,

I know you were expecting me to meet you here but something came up. I'll be back this evening. In the meantime go ahead and practice with the pistol. Soon enough we'll have you field stripping them quicker than me! You'll pass that certification test with no problem.

Love,

Nate

"Blue?"

Tessa blinked at Piper, pulled into reality if only for a moment. "I thought Nate taught me… her… whoever, how to work a weapon. How to handle it and maintain them. I thought that was real."

"But this? You remember this?"

"Clear as day. This was the first time I put a pistol together by myself, Nate was so proud of me! Every detail is right but none of this should be here!" The target from when he took her to the range was hung proudly on the wall by safety reminders and a love letter from Tessa to Nate. There was a bullet hole in the wall from the time she misfired. Everything was exactly as it should have been, and that fact upset her more than anything else.

"But that's… that's crazy. They made this up?"

The suggestion was like a brick to the face. Tessa stumbled back into the terminal, catching herself on the desk, Piper grabbing her to hold her up, Dogmeat whimpering at her side. "Is that what these are? These experiment rooms?" She hissed in confusion. "They created memories?"

Piper frowned. "Maybe they recreated them? Maybe they were real and they… wanted to alter them?"

"Doctor Amari can view individual dreams, can let you see them again, and that's one scientist who's not even in the Institute. What the fuck can they do?" She looked up at Nick, yellow optics watching her anxiously from the doorway. "Nick."

"Hey kid."

"Your memories were copied from another, and there's no chance they were altered. None whatsoever?"

"You know I've lost bits and pieces… but no I don't think so, none of old Nick's anyways. That was over a hundred years ago though, who can say what they've developed since. I mean damn is that a colored screen? There no telling what we're gonna find in here."

"Okay…" Tessa said shakily, trying not to lose her mind only one room in but this discovery was more than enough to set most over the edge. "Okay okay okay."

"Blue…"

"I'm okay." She was lying straight through her teeth. "I need to check the others," Tessa said, "I need to see what else is here. What other memories might be… might be from here."

"That might set off an alarm," said MacCready with worry.

"We've already opened one," countered Deacon, "and this is pretty important to learn. Maybe we should wait until after we've saved Curie though."

"Control room probably has records, cameras, something to tell us what the others are," suggested Preston, the others nodding in agreement. They all looked through the doorway at Tessa who trembled in the center of the workshop. The mighty General of the Minutemen and Agent Bullseye looked incredibly small, holding herself, face lowered and teeth gritted. Piper placed a hand upon her shoulder, trying to comfort her. She only trembled more.

It wasn't quite shock that rose up her body, the initial startling realization washing over her and fading away. It wasn't fear either, though she certainly feared what they might discover deeper in. No what she felt was a stir deep within that made her blood boil and hands twitch to her pistol. She wanted to tear the place apart, to break it down one piece at a time until she knew exactly how they had created her. She knew now she hadn't simply been created like the synths she'd seen, woven together bone by bone on a machine. They'd experimented on her, tweaking her again and again until they got her just right.

She felt violated.

"Is anyone there?" A voice came from down the dark corridor, tinny like aluminum, warbling with age. The voice of an old gen synth, only it wasn't as mechanical as previously encountered ones, instead an eerie familiar tone. The group snapped their attention down to where the mechanical being stood weaponless, the emergency lights faintly reflecting on its form. Yellow optics stared at them. "Hello?"

"I don't like this," whispered Preston, each of them slowly backing down the corridor the way they came. Dogmeat's growl only added to the sense of unease.

"It's green," Tessa informed them, meaning at least for the moment it wasn't hostile. She hastily flipped the light switch back off.

"Is anyone there?"

"Move back, don't let it alert the others," Deacon instructed in a whisper, himself ducking into the opened room. It's metal feet clanked as it approached. Tessa held her breath, watching it draw nearer on her radar while the others snuck away. Dogmeat let out a low growl, stepping around Tessa who grabbed his collar. The hound stopped, hackles raised, ready to defend her. Piper's hand pressed against her back, hidden behind her. Deacon stood just within the doorway, clutching a knife in hand. They pressed against the wall to keep it from instantly seeing them once it entered.

The second its chrome head appeared within the room Deacon surged forward with trained expertise, jamming his knife into a spot on the back of its head while simultaneously taking out its legs. It crumpled to the floor loudly, and he stomped its skull with enough force that circuits spilled out like brain matter. "Nice," praised Piper, Deacon twirling the knife before sliding it back into its sheath. "But there's no way there's only one."

"We need to be on high alert, we've definitely tripped some sort of sensor but they're not coming in droves yet. Might have a bit of time before they come scouting this area in full," Deacon said, walking out and waving the others back.

"Piper…" Tessa said slowly, grabbing Piper's wrist as she'd passed. "Am I just going crazy or… did that synth sound like me?"

Hazel eyes averted for a moment. "No… it certainly did. Not the same but disturbingly close."

"What the fuck!"

"Whatever we find here I'm here for you okay?"

"Piper-"

"Blue. It's going to be okay. We're all here for you," Piper said firmly, refusing to let her spiral. She held her love's face, admiring the freckles that dashed across her skin in a chaotic mess. "We have to save Curie now."

Thinking of Curie snapped her back, a lightning rod for the chaos of her mind. They were so close, after a month of desperate searching, going after the faintest of leads, and she was letting herself melt down. She couldn't afford it, and neither could her lost love. "Curie." She nodded, once, twice, a third time even, before finally her eyes focused on Piper in front of her. Her other lightning rod, a lifeline in the tumultus sea that threatened to swallow her whole. She had no idea what she'd do without her. "Okay. I can do that."

"Atta girl," purred Piper, kissing her softly. "I know you can."

Before she could say anything else her radar filled with terrifying crimson. "Incoming!" Hissed Cait, grabbing the pair and hauling them out of the room just as the synths came dashing around the corner. They were weaponless just as the first, but they all knew well not to underestimate the machines. Images of them tearing their allies apart limb from limb were burned into their minds. There was five of them, and unlike the other they knew exactly where to look.

"You're not supposed to be here!" One shouted in a mechanized version of Tessa's voice. It only added to the sense of violation rising within her. "Trespassers will be punished with lethal force!"

MacCready opened fire before anyone else, shooting a chrome head clean off. Nick and Deacon were next, blasting apart a pair while Preston's red laser arched out and stumbled one into the corpses of the other three. He finished it off with a second shot while the remaining two rushed them. Cait dashed in front of the lovers, and dismembered the nearest one with her deathclaw gauntlet, before spinning and kicking the other into the corridor wall. It shouted angrily, but was put down by Piper and Tessa.

"Could be more," said Nick warily, "map showed a large storage area with an entrance right next to the control room."

"We need that fuckin' control room," grunted Cait.

"You mean where the synths are coming from?" Questioned Preston, "we'd be running right to them!"

"Just how I like it."

He scowled deeply at her. "Is there any other entrances?" He turned to the old synth.

Nick frowned, shrugging. "No. Just one from testing and one from their vault."

"We're going there," Tessa said firmly, "no matter what gets in our way." She holstered her pistol and swapped to the shotgun strapped to her back. Cait gave an approving grin. "Let's move." They funneled down the corridor, mindful of the rooms they passed in case anything was waiting within. The rooms started to get larger, curiosity itching at Tessa's mind as to just what was within but they needed to prioritize. More synths came at them, weaponless and furious. Fortunately they also seemed as if they hadn't been maintained in quite a while, and came apart with ease.

Keeping them at a range prevented them from getting any injuries, only Cait putting herself at risk given her fighting style but she was as graceful as a dancer only with deadly intentions. Dogmeat stayed by Tessa's side with much coaxing, wanting to dart off and attack the metal skeletons but his teeth wouldn't do much against them and the last thing she wanted was him getting hurt further.

Eventually they found themselves at the door into the control room, locked naturally, but Cait soon remedied that. Tessa expected to see terminals, machines, monitoring equipment and that sort, perhaps more synths left to guard it even. She hadn't anticipated the entrance to have been barricaded by said equipment. It took a lot of effort, a trio pushing one side, the rest pushing the other, before finally it all budged.

Boxes and small terminals haphazardly and desperately thrown on top scattered across the floor. Cait had dug her gauntlet right into the back of a machine and as it pushed away its circuits and wiring came spilling out like a gutted animal. They pushed into the darkly lit room until there was a squelch and a pungent scent rolled over them.

"Oh god." Came Piper. Tessa turned on her Pip-Boy's light, casting a neonic green glow to the large room. "Oh god!"

Bodies had been at the bottom of things Tessa expected. Institute scientists, or rather their corpses, littered the room. Laser burns splattered most of them, their bodies no more than two weeks old according to Nick after a quick look over. Others sported claw like wounds, long ribbons of flesh torn from them, but not from an animal. Tessa shuddered as she recognized the injuries from the Battle of the Institute. They were from old synths tearing the flesh of their victim apart like paper. Tessa managed to keep her breakfast down, Piper and Preston not so much. She scanned the room over as they cleaned themselves up, spotting not a single soul upon her radar beyond their own. The door across the way was barricaded just as desperately.

"Poot bas- guys," came MacCready's voice as he looked over a corpse. "Some of these aren't even hurt. They must've died of thirst or hunger." Tessa noticed him rifle through the coat pockets and stuff something into his own.

There wasn't a single sign of food or water within the control room. Blood was shakily painted on a wall that formerly housed the barricades. DAMN YOU AYO! Tessa nearly lost her breakfast then as she spotted the man beneath it, guts on full display, a bloodied cloth still in his hand.

"What the hell happened here?" Nick questioned, smoking a cigarette. Tessa suspected he was cursing that he could smell. It reeked as bad as a raider den, making her eyes burn and nose run. She wondered if she should have been more disturbed, if it was just another sign of the wasteland whittling her away that she only felt disgust from the smell and not the shock of the scene. How much have I twisted? How much of me is left?

"Ayo," she explained to the six others who looked at her attentively, "is the head of the SRB." She caught a few confused looks. "Synth Retention Bureau. He was the most openly against my appointment of Director."

"Sounds like he had other problems with the Institute than just you," said Piper besides her, wiping her mouth once again.

The wheels started to turn in Tessa's mind, but they didn't quite fit. She had the vaguest idea of what was going on but she needed more details. She turned to the detective among them, knowing her could help her make sense of the situation. "Madison worked on this, she knew what was coming. The others didn't. I'm willing to bet it wasn't just Madison and Father here though, they couldn't have been." She started, beginning to pace, blood squeaking beneath her boots.

"The facilities," Nick lead in with an agreeing tone, "they're for the scientists who made you. They must have lived here."

"Exactly, those scientists more than likely never returned to the main Institute. Father wouldn't want what he was doing getting out and I found proof he covered up secret experiments before. The Institute is why there's super mutants in the Commonwealth- they scavenged the FEV virus from the Capital Wasteland to the south."

"Tangent," warned Nick.

"Right- They were probably monitoring whatever experiment Father was running," she continued, "no way would they put all this effort in and then just turn me loose. Father is all about control so that doesn't add up."

"Then we attacked, forcing their hand," cut in Piper, her own investigative nature kicking into overdrive. "Father sends them to the only place that could act as a new home for them. Here."

"So when their pals show up, not having a damn clue this place existed. Angry, confused, and realizing there was a great big secret," Nick snapped his fingers, dropping his cigarette and stomping it out in revelation. The others watched in awe as the trio pieced it together, unraveling at least one part of the mystery. "Ayo would've had access to special synth codes right? Being the SRB head." Tessa nodded. "So he must've activated the synths and turned them on these scientists. But why would he do that?"

"They'd just found out their intended new director-to-be is a synth," Piper said, "given they enslaved them I don't think that would go over well."

"Shaun said we're the future." It still felt strange to include herself when she spoke of synths, not quite right but not quite wrong. "I think he wanted to eventually replace humanity with synths entirely or at the very least elevate them to equals."

"Plausible," chimed Nick, "which means Ayo would have perceived them as a threat upon this discovery."

"And Li helped create me. She would be a major threat, with scientists loyal to her that worked on this project. Ayo is power hungry he'd have acted immediately. He thought Father was going to name him Director instead of me, with the new power vacuum after Father's death…"

"Ayo turned on Li!" Piper shouted. "That's why she called for help! We just entered a civil war!"

Then in a quiet voice, Tessa asked, "Which side has Curie?"

AN: And with that I'm officially off hiatus! Thanks a bunch for your patience, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Be sure to leave your thoughts in a review, they're fuel for the fire!