The Legend of the Wandering Pair from Vault 101

by Nave the DM

Lloyd Freeman is joined by Amata Almodovar as they leave the safety of the halls of Vault 101 in search of his missing father, stepping into the broken world above. Along their grim path, they encounter harsh adversity and new enemies every step of the way, forge new alliances and meet new friends, and through their actions, they come to change the Capital Wasteland forever.

10. Rivet City Revelations

Jabsco held his head down in shame as Burke fumed. "You just let them walk away?" the intimidating man shouted. "Just like that?"

"No!" Jabsco protested. "They killed my men, did this to me!" he indicated the freshly-cut scar on his face. Lloyd Freeman had given him that scar with Jabsco's own knife, Occam's Razor. "I didn't think—"

"No, you didn't, you shortsighted fool," Burke interrupted him. "You honestly tried to walk up and taunt them? I told you to kill them on sight. No questions, no resolves, just simple murder. You can't even get that right?" He grabbed Jabsco's face and forced him to look up into Burke's eyes, behind his dark glasses. "Honestly, I don't know you got this far in Talon Company."

"I... I stabbed him! Right in the stomach, I stabbed Lloyd Freeman! He didn't even flinch!" Jabsco choked out. "He took it in the gut and kept going! He's some kind of fucking mutant or something!"

Burke nodded. "I already put that together from your report, you moron. Of course there's something strange. I don't doubt you when you say that he should have died. But that doesn't change the fact that you should have just shot him from a distance or done anything else of rudimentary strategic value!" Burke let go, pushing the ashamed commander back. Burke sighed. "And here I thought I had someone of reliability, Jabsco."

"Are... are you going to kill me?" Jabsco asked, gingerly rubbing his face. The cut had reopened and blood was slowly trickling out.

"No. You're even more useless to me dead, fortunately for you." Burke lit up a cigarette and looked out over the landscape. In the distance, he saw Megaton, that most despised place. He cursed the day he had ever met Lloyd Freeman in that filthy saloon. He spoke to the wounded commander with his back turned. "Listen to me, Jabsco, and listen good, because it will be the last time I ever tell you this. You are going to kill Lloyd Freeman and Amata Almodovar at any cost. Shoot on sight. Use dirty tactics. Lead them into traps. Break their spirit. But above all," he said, turning to face the commander, "kill them or you will die."

Jabsco swallowed, hard. "They... they were wearing Reilly's Rangers armor when we ambushed them," he said. "They're obviously affiliated with the group somehow."

"Then what does that tell you?" Burke asked.

"To... to go after the Rangers?" Jabsco meekly guessed.

"That's a good boy. You're learning, which is a start. Like I said, use your brain. When you ambush them, actually attempt to ambush them, not simply surround them and hope you can intimidate them into surrendering their lives. Don't disappoint me again, Jabsco. I don't have to remind you twice that I will kill you myself, do I?"

Jabsco nodded quickly and rushed back inside the top floor of Tenpenny Tower. He left the building shortly thereafter, headed back towards the center of Talon Company's operations, Fort Bannister, from which he didn't intend to leave any time soon.

Burke shook his head. 'Incompetent fools... all of them.' Burke continued to look out over the dark land around him. The moon and the stars illuminated the Capital Wasteland quite nicely, enough for him to make out recognizable landmarks. Minus the Washington Memorial, of course.

Lloyd Freeman concerned him. It wasn't just about personal revenge, though that had its own sweet appeal to it. It was more than that. People like Freeman and Almodovar got in the way of his progress. They were enemies, this Burke knew, and because of it, this strange duo from Vault 101 was a distinct threat to him. He knew that someday this pair, or someone like them, would come after Burke here in this tower, his seat of control. Tenpenny himself was a fool, more of a cover than anything else. He had long ago discerned how to manipulate the old man into doing or thinking or saying whatever he needed Allistair Tenpenny to do or think or say.

Burke could do without enemies. He knew that everyone could, but he knew that Lloyd Freeman in particular was a dangerous enemy to have. The two vault dwellers had become an increasingly unnerving mystery to the businessman, especially this latest revelation, this healing factor that Jabsco had seen with his own eyes. This potentially changed everything.

'This strange healing... Lloyd Freeman, my dear boy, you might be worth more to me than I once thought.'

He poured himself a glass of whiskey and then proceeded inside.

---

Having escorted Reilly all the way back to the Ranger Compound (a surprisingly uneventful trip, given how dangerous the D.C. ruins had proven to be) and in the newfound company of Charon (whom Jericho did not much enjoy having around, given his history of being kicked rather hard by the tall ghoul), Lloyd and Amata found themselves able to relax once more, only this time, it was in the company of their new friends. The Rangers were glad to have their leader back, as well as their newest members.

Lloyd and Amata, after being poked and prodded about it, began explaining their sojourn out of Vault 101. "So you left to look for your father?" Donovan asked.

Lloyd nodded. "Among other things. The Overseer had turned into some kind of villainous parody of what we thought he was."

"And that Overseer... he was your father?" Brick asked Amata; she nodded in response.

"How'd that make you feel?" Butcher asked. "I mean, he was your father."

Amata averted her eyes. "It was hard... at first. Really, the more I've thought about it, the more I find myself unable to regret my decision. What my father did... I don't think I could have stayed. I just had... reservations at first." She looked up at the group around her: Lloyd, Charon and most of the Rangers. Russ was curled up at her feet.

"Both of our fathers betrayed us... in a manner of speaking," Lloyd said. "I don't know why my father left the vault... but I'm going to track him down and find out why. That's why we can't stick around here much longer. We need to go back up to Galaxy News Radio and talk to Three Dog. He knows where my father is."

"How does he know, anyway?" Miles asked, taking a sip out of a coffee mug and then making a sour face. He got up to throw out the remaining coffee, but still listened to Lloyd's face.

"My dad, James, he went to see Three Dog. We followed in his footsteps, leading us to Galaxy News Radio. We met the Brotherhood outside and fought a bunch of super mutants with them."

"You met Three Dog?" Donovan asked, whistling. "Well, that's pretty damn neat. We hear him on the radio all the time, but none of us have ever met the man himself."

"He's... interesting, I'll give him that," Lloyd said, unintentionally quoting Sarah Lyons, the Brotherhood Sentinel they met outside of the G.N.R. building. "He gave us a job to do and we... well, we did it," he lied, looking over at Amata. "So now he should tell us where he went."

"When are you two leaving?" Butcher asked. "S'gonna be a shame to lose you guys when you do. The compound hasn't had such good company is a long time."

Lloyd was about to reply, but Amata beat him to it. "Morning. We figured we'd stay the night, then head out at daybreak."

"Well good!" Brick said with a smile, moving to stand up from her chair. "That'll leave me time to make you two a meal! You ain't ever had Tennessee-style cookin' I'll bet, so I'll fix you up with a dish of my famous beans!"

"Famous for being terrible..." Donovan muttered, standing up and grabbing a toolbox off of a countertop.

"Hey! I heard that!" Brick retorted. Donovan walked out of the room. "The hell're you goin', pretty boy?"

Donovan looked back and let out a sigh. "Your minigun isn't going to fix the busted radiator, Brick. Only my tools will. I'll see you guys later," he said to Lloyd, Amata and the silent Charon, who was standing in a darkened corner, listening intently.

Lloyd and Amata waved a goodbye. "Hey, where's Reilly?" Lloyd asked Butcher. "I haven't seen her since we got back.

"Main communications room," Butcher answered.

"Wanted to talk to her about something," Lloyd said, standing up. "Wanna come?" he invited Amata.

"I'll stay back," Amata waved him off. "You go ahead."

He nodded and left the room. When he heard footsteps behind him, he saw that it was Butcher. "Thought I'd come along. Something seemed a little off about Reilly when she came back, but I didn't want to bring it up."

"Alright, come on." The two of them walked to the compound's communications center. The room was lined with technology, various computer consoles and radio transmitters. One side of the room was lined with file cabinets. Reilly sat in front of a small desk, listening to the feint static sound of a radio. Lloyd walked up and she turned around.

"I was listening to your story in there. You two sound like you've been through hell," she said. She noticed Butcher standing behind her. "Oh. Hey, Carl."

Butcher's brow furrowed. "Something wrong, Reilly? You seem a little... off," he said. Lloyd could see it as well. Her eyes were a little sunken, and she seemed tired.

"Nah," she said and then looked back to Lloyd. "Hear you're heading out in the morning. Consider this place your home away from home, kid. I know it's no vault, but it should be close enough to it. If you're ever in the neighborhood, feel free to take shelter here."

"I appreciate it," Lloyd said. "That is, we all do, I mean."

"I guess that does it. See you around, kid." Reilly turned back to the radio.

"There's another thing, actually," Lloyd said, approaching the desk. He set a small sack of two-thousand caps on it. "We borrowed this money to buy Charon's contract, back in Underworld. The guy we paid was, well," Lloyd trailed off as he scratched the back of his head. "He's dead. It'd be a waste to have kept the caps on his corpse, so I figured we'd give them back."

Reilly listened to the tale, chuckling a bit. "Thanks, kid. We'll put'em to good use. I appreciate your honesty in the matter." She took the bag, putting into a the bottom shelf of a filing cabinet.

Lloyd was about to turn to leave, but stopped. "You sure you're alright?" he asked.

Butcher walked up behind Lloyd. Reilly sighed as she sat back down and turned her chair to face the two of them. "I don't know, guys. I don't know if I'm cut out for this kind of job anymore."

"What?" Butcher asked, surprise in his voice. "The hell kind of talk is that, Reilly?"

Lloyd was surprised as well. Reilly had never seemed to display a lack of confidence or any form of depression, but then again, he hadn't known her very long. People could surprise you quite easily sometimes. "You're the leader of the Rangers," Lloyd offered. "You have a responsibility to your team."

She shook her head. "I almost got everyone killed in Vernon Square. What kind of responsible leader does that? It was one bad decision after another."

Lloyd's tongue scraped the roof of his mouth as he considered what to say next. He usually had a gift for saying the right thing at the right time; he just needed to think about it first. "You can't blame yourself for that," Lloyd told her. "We all make mistakes. You were under heavy fire and pursuit by the super mutants. You can't have had a world of time to think about what you were going to do."

"Yeah, but I led the guys right into a corner! Theo died because I decided to take shelter in the hospital." Reilly sighed, and looked down. "I'm not so sure I could be trusted leading anyone at this point."

"Reilly..." Butcher said quietly.

Lloyd put his hand on her armored shoulder. "No. Theo died because of bad luck. That's all. It wasn't your fault, Reilly. It could have been anyone."

Reilly sighed and nodded. "Thanks. You're a sweet boy, Lloyd, to try and make me feel better about everything."

"It's what friends do," Lloyd said. He looked back at Butcher, who smiled.

After a moment, Reilly seemed to let out a troubled breath. "I just hope we can get back to doing what we do best, and soon," she replied, a hint of elation in her voice.

"Mapping?" Lloyd asked.

She nodded. "We have a lot of contacts demanding we finish, and soon."

Lloyd took his hand off of her shoulder and thought for a moment. "Maybe I can help. I'll be leaving soon, so maybe I can do some of the work while you stay here and get resituated."

Reilly looked up. "You'd risk your neck for me like that? Twice?"

He shrugged. "Well, sure, why not? We'll be leaving anyway. I figure that you could just use the help."

"Well... okay. I hadn't expected this, but I'll certainly take you up on it. Oh, and I insist on paying you. I won't take no for an answer," she stated, leaving no room for argument. It was clear from the tone in her voice that her confidence was being regained.

Lloyd held up his hands. "Fair enough. How will I do it, exactly?"

Reilly got up and proceeded to open up one of the filing cabinets that lined the wall. She pulled out a small device, not much larger than the palm of her hand. "Here," she said as she walked over and handed it to Lloyd, "take this geomapping module. Please don't lose it," she insisted, "it took Donovan a year to develop it and I only have a few."

Lloyd gingerly inspected the device. It resembled a computer circuit board. "What do I do with it?"

"You'll have to let Donovan install it on your Pip-Boy. Once he does, it'll record information about various locations you visit. It'll only be augmented by your built-in map system," she explained. "It'll upload all of your map's data automatically, in fact, and whenever you come back, we can copy the data and you'll get paid."

"That's damn nifty... how'd you use these things before, without a Pip-Boy?" he asked.

Butcher spoke up to answer his question. "We actually do have one, but it's mostly broken. It mostly just houses the data as we traverse the ruins."

"Interesting," Lloyd said as he looked at his own Pip-Boy. "You know, I never really thought about it, but I wonder how many vaults are actually around the wasteland, and just how many people have left them like we did."

"There's at least a hundred others, right? I mean, you were born in Vault 101," Butcher joked.

Lloyd's blood chilled for a moment. He hadn't told them that he wasn't actually born in the vault, as he had learned from Colin Moriarty. The daunting truth of his birth only served to motivate him further into finding his father. "Yeah," he responded rather weakly, "at least a hundred more."

"I'll call Donovan up to install it. We'll need it off your arm, of course," Reilly said.

"I do hope this all hasn't been some kind of scheme to steal my Pip-Boy," Lloyd smiled as he took the computer-like device off of his arm. It felt good to have cool air touch the slightly paler skin that had been beneath it. Lloyd chuckled at bit when he realized that the sun had been giving him a bit of a tan, only noticeable when compared to skin that hadn't been exposed to sunlight.

"Of course not," Reilly said as she took it. She looked back at Carl. "We've got it, Butcher. Knock him out and drag him outside."

"Funny, Reilly," Butcher said.

"I thought so," she replied.

Lloyd's eyes widened a bit in surprise as the two shared a quick kiss.

"What?" Reilly said, seeing the look on his face. "Never seen a kiss before?"

Lloyd, a little embarrassed, replied, "No, I just… So how long will the installation of the geomapping module take?" he changed the subject.

"Not very long, I'm sure. Donovan works fast," she told him.

"Alright. Well, when I get it back, I'll probably head to bed."

"Sounds like a plan, kid," she said. "Have a good one."

"You too," Lloyd said as he exited the room.

"Pretty amazing kid," Reilly said when he was out of hearing distance.

"One in a million, alright," he agreed. "The both of them. And their friends are pretty interesting, too."

"Hey, I was just thinking... You know those stories Three Dog puts on the radio, the ones about Dashwood or whatever his name is?" she asked.

"Yeah... What about 'em?"

"I was just wondering what it would be like to hear stories of that kid on the radio someday. I'd tune in to listen."

Butcher shrugged a bit. "Who knows?"

---

The next morning, the four and their canine left the Ranger Compound, waving goodbye to the good friends they had made. With an all-new stock of food and ammo, all supplied by the Rangers, they were confident that they would reach the G.N.R. plaza in no time. As they walked, entering the underground tunnel system that they had been using for transit during the majority of their time in the D.C. ruins, their ghoul companion decided to be the first to break the silence.

"Lloyd Freeman," Charon spoke up.

"Yeah?" Lloyd replied.

"I wanted to say how interesting your story was. It is unlike any I have ever heard."

"Oh... well, I'm glad it entertained you, Charon," Lloyd said.

Amata, despite her slight discomfort with the tall ghoul, decided to ask him, "What about your story, Charon? What is your past like?"

Charon stopped walking and looked at her. Amata stopped, as did the other three. Charon said nothing as he stared Amata down with his pale blue eyes and unreadable expression. She found herself becoming rather uneasy with this ghoul giving her this blank look. The loudest thing around was the sound of dripping water from a crack in a pipe running along the wall.

"Charon?" Lloyd said, trying to break the silence. He wasn't sure what was about to happen, or what the ghoul might have been thinking.

Jericho stepped back, content to just watch.

Finally, Charon spoke. "I don't remember my childhood, Amata Almodovar. If I did, I would tell you."

Amata blinked a few times before slightly pulling at the cloth wrapped around her neck from her stormchaser hat. "I, uh... okay, then," she said. "I'm... sorry I brought it up."

"Don't be, Amata Almodovar," he said before looking back to Lloyd. "Lloyd Freeman, we may continue north."

Lloyd cocked an eyebrow. "Charon... if you're going to hang around, which I don't mind, could you, maybe, not refer to us in such a way?"

"In what such way, Lloyd Freeman?" the ghoul asked.

"That one, right there, with both our first and last name. Just call me 'Lloyd' and just call her 'Amata,' alright?" he told Charon, pointing to Amata when he referred to her.

Charon paused for a moment. "Very well. Lloyd and Amata, we may proceed north."

The sound of condescending laughter drew all of their eyes to Jericho. "Jesus, kid, you sure know how to pick 'em. Of all the damn ghouls in the world, we had to end up with the freak."

"He kicked your ass, Jericho," Lloyd quipped, bringing up their first night in Underworld, in which Jericho had gotten drunk and Charon threw him out of the Ninth Circle. "And I said to keep that kind of shit to yourself."

Jericho just shook his head and threw away his cigarette. "Yeah, yeah, kid, keep talking. Just lemme know when we start shooting shit again. Been forever since I killed something."

"You mean since yesterday?" Amata asked with a tint of sarcasm. Jericho shot her a nasty look, which was countered by Lloyd stepping between them. He motioned north, and they resumed their trek.

Roughly a half hour later, as they entered a large metro station, Russ held his head low and began barking. They raised their weapons, taking it as a warning, but Russ ran forward and vanished behind a train. Confused, they slowly approached, rounding the front of the train car to discover Russ sniffing the bodies of three dead Talon Company mercs.

"The hell happened here?" Lloyd said as he lowered his rifle and approached. Russ looked up and whined.

"Why'd your dog start barkin' if there wasn't anything dangerous?" Jericho said with an obvious amount of disappointment present in his voice.

"Jesus, Lloyd, look at these guys..." Amata said, leaning down next to one of the bodies. The merc's arm ended abruptly in a bloody stump. The arm itself was several feet away, mangled and gnawed. "These guys are grouped together... no gunshots, no explosive damage..."

"You sure about that?" Lloyd asked her. She looked up.

"I think we've shot enough people and blown up enough people for me to know what it looks like, Lloyd," she countered. "There's nothing to indicate that they died by, well, human hands, I guess is the best way to put it. Something tore these guys apart. Remember the outside of the Super-Duper Mart?"

He nodded. "The wastelander and the giant scorpion. Think one of those did that to these guys?"

"I don't know... turn this guy over," she told him, pointing to one in the middle. Lloyd set his rifle down and did just that. They both gasped at the visage of the man's mutilated front side. His armor had been pulled apart and whatever had done so exposed his innards and, clearly, it had enjoyed munching on them.

"Holy shit..." Lloyd said breathlessly. He looked at the other two. Slash marks, torn-off limbs... Lloyd wasn't sure how much more dead someone could be.

"Lloyd Freeman," Charon said, accidentally calling him by his full name. "This place is not safe." Charon's shotgun was in his hands, and he was slowly turning in place, scanning the area. Russ began growling.

"Guns up," Lloyd ordered, keeping his voice hushed. The room they were in was large, dark and easy for something, anything really, to hide in. Certainly big and dark enough for whatever killed these Talon Company mercs to hide in.

Lloyd, Jericho and Charon all had their guns up. Amata was getting nervous. Her hand went to her belt, where the sword she had claimed from the bounty hunter her father had hired was sheathed. She gripped its hilt tightly, trying to find comfort in its feel.

Suddenly, Lloyd jerked upwards. "Anybody else here that?" he asked, trying to hide the rising panic in his voice.

"Nothing," Charon said.

"I could have sworn I heard something," Lloyd said. He wiped the beading sweat from his forehead. He wasn't liking this tense situation. Russ continued growling, sensing something.

"Ain't got nothing, kid," Jericho said as he walked around the train, putting some distance between himself and the others. "Only shadows."

Lloyd almost jumped when Amata put her hand on his shoulder. "Lloyd, we should get out of here. I'm scared," she said, slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, me too. Something isn't right about this..."

"There!" Charon suddenly shouted, raising his shotgun and firing at something atop a train car. Everyone shouted and looked, but saw nothing.

"Where!" Lloyd cried, rising his rifle and aiming it from side to side, desperately trying to see where, or what, it was.

Charon lowered his shotgun. "Gone!"

"Did you actually see something?" Lloyd asked.

"Yes!" he insisted, before thinking silently for a moment. "At least, I could have sworn I saw it..."

"Damn ghoul's eyes are playing tricks on him, kid. Let's just get the hell outta here," Jericho said. Though he wouldn't admit it himself, he was getting a bit jumpy himself.

Lloyd heard something again. It sounded like footsteps, but they only lasted a second. The next sound he heard sounded like breathing. Russ barked three times, but was still walking in circles, unsure of where the enemy was.

"Tell me, anybody, tell me they're hearing what I'm hearing..." Lloyd said, almost spinning in place. The sounds were coming from all around.

"It's playing with us..." Charon muttered.

"What is?" The fright in Amata's voice was prevalent.

"I'm gettin' real tired of this cat and mouse shit!" Jericho shouted, his voice echoing. "This fuckin' thing should come out and fight!" Jericho shook his head and then heard a noise to his left. He looked. He suddenly shouted, "What the?" and fired as something big, larger than a man, charged out of the shadows at him, grabbed him and carried him into the shadows as he shouted and fired his assault rifle.

Lloyd shouted his name and ran forward, straining his eyes in the darkness as he tried to see where Jericho had gone. Jericho's rifle continued firing, but the sounds were coming from all over. Russ was barking fiercely at the darkness, but even the canine had no idea where Jericho and the monster were.

"It's carrying him!" Charon shouted, raising his shotgun and trying to follow the noise. "The damn thing's running circles around us! On the walls!"

"Where!" Lloyd couldn't see a thing. "Where the hell is it?"

"There!" Charon suddenly said, looking up at a higher floor that could be reached by immobile escalators. Lloyd and Amata looked up and saw, for the briefest moment, the silhouette of some kind of horned monster holding Jericho in its hand. Lloyd tried to fire at it, but it was gone, moving with the fluidity of a serpent, causing his bullet to miss and hit the ceiling.

"Follow it!" Lloyd ordered as he and Russ charged up the staircase. Charon pursued the two, followed by Amata. They heard Jericho's painful cries coming from a tunnel that led to the surface, followed by a jarring sound that was not unlike metal being torn apart. They quickly continued moving upwards until they hit stairs that were lit by sunlight. They were on the surface.

Lloyd quickly surveyed his surroundings, searching for his raider companion, when he realized something. "Chevy Chase!" he said. "We're in Chevy Chase!" They weren't far off from the G.N.R. building. In fact, they were only a small distance away where they were saved by Sarah Lyons and the Brotherhood of Steel from a super mutant ambush.

Amata ran up behind him. "Where's Jericho?"

"Lloyd," Charon said silently yet intently. Lloyd looked over and saw Charon standing very still, looking down the road at something. Russ was growling in the same direction, poised to charge but unmoving. Lloyd followed their gazes and then lost his breath.

If it were to stand fully upright, Lloyd didn't doubt that it was be over eight feet tall, but it was hunched over. Its body was roughly humanoid, but nothing about it was human. Everything about it seemed demonic, right up to the horns atop its head. Its arms, longer than Lloyd himself, ended in wickedly long claws. Its skin was rough and leathery, seemingly reptilian, with a very feint shimmering quality. Its legs bent backwards near the feet, like a goat's legs, or rather a devil's. The feet had three claws at the ends of its toes. Though Lloyd couldn't see them, large spines ran down the center of its back, all the way to the end of its prehensile tail, which was completely still. Its head was the worst, though. Terrible jaws with large teeth set beneath two small nostrils, and its eyes were a piercingly bright white.

And it held a bleeding and unconscious Jericho in one hand, the other held above him, with a claw prepared to undoubtedly slice him in half.

It stared at the four of them, unmoving.

"No sudden moves," Charon advised. "It's a deathclaw."

"A what?" Lloyd whispered. "Deathclaw?"

"They're rare, the stuff of wasteland legends..." Charon said. He wasn't moving; he was holding up his shotgun and standing completely still. His breathing was very slow and methodical as he struggled to maintain complete control of his movements.

"Lloyd, it's looking right at us..." Amata whispered. She was terrified by this creature. Everyone was. Both she and Lloyd knew that something like this shouldn't exist outside of nightmares. While they had witnessed a variety of creatures in the wasteland during their days above ground, nothing measured up to the beast which held their ally in its grasp. This thing, this deathclaw, looked as though a demon had stepped right out of hell itself.

"What do we do?" Lloyd asked slowly. He wasn't sure how effective his weapons would be. He was starting to think that holy water and a bible might be better tools against it than any gun.

"I don't know..." Charon said. The situation wasn't preferable. If they fired, they might hit Jericho or cause the deathclaw to tear him apart.

The monster kept looking at them. The tension of the moment was palpable.

They didn't need to decide. A noise suddenly rose in the area, coming from the east. It sounded like a high-pitched howling noise. The deathclaw immediately picked up its head and turned to the east, detecting something they could not. It dropped Jericho and ran off, leaping over a damaged bus. And then it was gone as quickly as it had arrived, disappearing behind the vehicle.

They watched it run away with confusion, initially. They quickly regained their senses and dashed to help Jericho, who was bleeding rather profusely from a cut in his upper left leg. Lloyd wasted no time in getting out his medical pack. Amata ran ahead and promised to return quickly with help from the Brotherhood, if any of its members were still in the G.N.R. building. Russ followed her at Lloyd's bidding.

Lloyd and Charon worked together to stem the bleeding and clean the wound. Utilizing Med-X and a few stimpaks, Jericho was brought back to consciousness. Around that time, Amata reappeared with Russ and two Brotherhood members. With their power armor-enhanced strength, they were able to easily pick up Jericho and help him to the G.N.R. building. One supported his torso and the other his legs, both walking sideways, mindful of the difficult terrain so as not to trip.

"Is there a place inside where he can lay down?" Lloyd asked. One of the Brotherhood knights nodded.

"There's a crew quarters section for Brotherhood members stationed here," the other told them. "There're beds. We'll set him down in there."

"Good, because we need to talk to Three Dog," Amata said. Lloyd looked over at her. He had been more focused on the wounded Jericho and had almost forgotten the reason of why they had come back in the first place.

"He'll be upstairs in his studio, where he always is," the first Brotherhood knight spoke. "Go on up. We'll make sure your friend gets to a bed and that our medic sees to him."

"Charon, stay with Jericho for me, please," Lloyd asked the tall ghoul.

Charon nodded. "I will."

"Hey, kid..." Jericho muttered. Lloyd leaned over. Jericho's expression was pained, but he was smiling. He held up two fingers. "Two shots."

"What?" He wasn't sure what Jericho meant. Two shots of Med-X? Two stimpaks?

"Two shots. Right in that fuckin' thing's neck. Two shots, I got."

"Oh," Lloyd said, realizing what he meant. He flashed a thumbs-up. "Nice job, Jericho."

"Fucked it up..." Jericho said, before rolling his head back, riding the euphoric effects of the drugs they had shot him up with. Lloyd clapped the grizzled raider's shoulder a few times. "You'll be alright, Jericho. You're a hell of a fighter." Confident that Jericho was in good hands, Lloyd and Amata walked at a less urgent pace towards the radio station. Russ followed them, wagging his tail.

They entered the radio station and continued past the Brotherhood defensive barricades, moving upstairs. They opened the door to Three Dog's studio, but he was nowhere in sight. "Three Dog?" Lloyd called out.

A moment later, the man himself walked down some stairs. He looked at the two for a moment, took off his sunglasses and blinked a few times, as if in disbelief.

"Well, holy shit," he said, a smile fast forming on his face. "You two crazy cats are alive."

Lloyd spoke first. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"This is out of sight!" Three Dog exclaimed. He walked over to them very briskly. Clearly he was excited about something. "Listen, I don't have a lot of time on my music break. When the next song ends, can you two be ready to go on live radio?"

The request surprised them quite a bit. "The station is working?" Lloyd asked.

He nodded. "Yes! You're not going to believe the luck I had, but somebody managed to get us a new broadcasting dish and a location for it!"

"Who?" Amata asked.

"That's the crazy part. The benefactor wishes to remain anonymous." Three Dog shrugged. "The letter I got from whoever it was just told me what to do on my end, and that he was a very big fan and didn't want to see the show die."

"That's... interesting..." Lloyd said. "And a little... ominous. Though it kinda makes me feel like we almost died for nothing."

"Oh... well c'mon, don't think of it that way. Surely something good's happened to you two since I sent you out. I mean, either you joined the Rangers, or you killed them," Three Dog laughed. "I'm guessing it's the former."

"Some good things, yeah," Amata said. "So, wait, you want us to go on the radio? Like, talking on the radio?"

"A live interview! It'll be the perfect way to kick off the return of the station." Three Dog paused for a moment, listening intently. "Alright, this song's wrapping up. Follow me."

---

He rushed them upstairs into his recording area. He sat behind a table with all sorts of buttons and switches, and pushed a microphone on the end of an arm towards them. "I only have one extra, so you'll just have to share," he said. "Grab two chairs from behind you there and pull them up. And listen, just be yourselves. Be cool and relax, you know. Don't even think about the people listening. Just think it's a conversation with me, alright?"

Before they could respond, he flipped a switch and spoke into his own microphone. "Now those were some real classic tunes right there, weren't they kids? This is Three Dog," he then held his head back and howled, surprising them both with the eccentric action, "and I'm coming to you live from Galaxy News Radio in downtown D.C., celebrating our being back on the air. Kids, I've got a real surprise for you. Right here, in the studio with me, I've got two crazy cats destined for wasteland glory, or a shallow grave in the dust."

They exchanged nervous glances.

"We've got two vault dwellers here, folks. That's right, actual people from a vault, who crawled out to get the sun on their backs, along with a little dirt and blood on their jumpsuits. We have, as our distinguished guests, appearing in their first ever radio broadcast, the Wandering Pair from Vault 1-0-1! Here, how about the two of you introduce yourselves?" Three Dog pointed at the microphone.

They were silent for a second. Three Dog frantically pointed at the microphone in front of them.

Lloyd leaned over. "Uh... Lloyd Freeman."

Amata did the same. "I'm Amata Almodovar."

"So! Lloyd, Amata, tell me and the listeners, what was it like in the vault?"

Lloyd decided to go first. "It was... cleaner than it is out here." Three Dog laughed, slapping his knee.

"Ya don't say?" he asked, laughing a little more. "Anything else?"

Lloyd continued, "Well, it was, uh, well-lit… It had clean water, good food. Everybody knew each other down there."

"Now I ain't ever had the chance to really learn about how people lived in those vaults. But I imagine a lotta people in the wasteland know about them and they're just as curious. How'd you live in there? Was it packed full of people?"

Amata answered this next one. "The vault was designed to accommodate a wide variety of people and was in no shortage of room. It was equipped with everything we would need to survive. We had a gymnasium, a baseball field, classrooms and a plentiful amount of living quarters."

"You know, out here in the dismal and abysmal Capital Wasteland, people struggle each day for survival. But I hear that life in a vault tries to copy life before the bombs fell. I hear everyone in a vault has a role to fill in down there. What was yours?"

"I was, well, am, the Overseer's daughter."

"The Overseer? And what exactly does the Overseer oversee?"

"The Overseer is the leader of the vault. He's tasked with making sure we all survive... But he didn't."

"What do you mean?"

Amata seemed to struggle to find the right words as she explained, "The Overseer... my father, I mean, he... well, let's just say I saw him for who he truly was."

"And what was he, if you don't mind my asking?"

"A liar, a coward and a murderer," Amata said coldly.

"Woah! A murderer? What brought him to do that?"

Lloyd put his hand on her shoulder. "I think I should take over from here. I... grew up in the vault, but I wasn't born there. I just never knew until I left. But growing up in the vault, life was... good. My father raised me alone. My mother was dead, but I never knew her, so it's not so painful. My father, James, was a scientist and a medical doctor. A surgeon as well, when the need arose. He was the most experienced man in the vault in those fields."

"Lemme back you up a bit, Lloyd; you say that you weren't born in the vault? Where were you born?"

"I'm still trying to figure that out. I have to find my father. He left the vault, leaving me behind with a hundred questions and no answers. Amata woke me up one morning, telling me that my father was gone and the Overseer's men had killed Jonas, my father's assistant and friend. He was my friend, too."

"What happened next?"

"I fought my way out of the vault through security guards and a massive radroach infestation. I watched as two guards executed two youths, Tom and Mary Holden, for trying to leave like my father had."

"Did they try to kill you?" Lloyd nodded. "And I'm guessin' that they failed."

"They're dead," Lloyd replied, rather disconnected. Amata squeezed his hand, offering her support.

"So tell us, Lloyd... how'd it make you feel?"

Lloyd looked up. "How'd it feel to be a murderer? Not good."

"But a murderer of murderers," Three Dog said. "That's not so bad."

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah, it's easy to say they had it coming. So that's what I say."

"If you ask me, they did have it coming. Survival of the fittest, Lloyd. We all do what we need to do to survive."

"Right." Lloyd took a deep breath. "The Overseer was torturing Amata, trying to find out where I was. I busted in, she ran and I exchanged parting words with the man himself."

"You killed him?"

"No, no. I didn't. But by then I had killed five guards and wanted nothing more to do with that place. I left."

"And Amata came with you?"

Lloyd allowed Amata to pick up where he left off. "I was unsure at first, but he convinced me. The more I think about it... the less I regret it. I don't think I could have stood living in that place with my father any longer. He was always so controlling, so manipulative. Now that we're out here... we're free."

"So that brings us to why the both of you left. Do you ever think you'll go back?"

They were silent for a moment. "I don't think I will," Lloyd answered first.

A moment later, Amata agreed, "I don't think so too."

Three Dog nodded. "So, you two are going to stay out here in the wastes. You picked a hell of a vacation spot." In spite of revisiting the memories of the day they left the vault, they managed to smile at Three Dog's joke. "So, Lloyd, tell me, how long have you known Amata?"

Lloyd thought for only a moment. "All my life. Growing up, she was only a few months younger than I."

"So the same goes for you too, Amata? Cool. When'd you two realize you had the hots for each other?"

Lloyd nearly choked on his own spit. "I'm sorry?" Amata was similarly surprised at the blunt question.

"C'mon. You grew up together in tight quarters, you left the vault together, you wander wastes together... it's all impossibly romantic," Three Dog chuckled as he gave them a wide smile.

Amata spoke into the microphone. "I'd hardly consider getting shot at by super mutants romantic."

"Don't dodge the question, now. The ladies of the wasteland deserve to know how little their chances of hooking up with Lloyd are."

Hoping to get it out of the way, as he didn't often talk about his personal involvements with Amata, Lloyd answered. "It was about two years ago, when we were seventeen."

"So you two lovebirds grew up together and fell in love. You know, some people would kill for that kind of luck."

"Yeah... Lord knows we've been nothing but lucky since the day we left the vault," Amata said sarcastically.

"Hey, hey, there ain't a reason to focus on the bad. Focus on the good! Focus on the love, baby! There's so much pain in the world, so much suffering and fear. Love washes that away for those few, precious moments when you can truly connect with someone. It's what makes all the struggle and fighting for living worthwhile."

They were getting a little uncomfortable.

Three Dog continued, changing the subject. "So, I know the next part of this story. You two went to Megaton, following Lloyd's dad, where you, Lloyd, fixed the town's water pipes before you went and disarmed that nuclear ticking time bomb from which the town got its namesake."

"That's correct," Lloyd said. "We met some really interesting and nice people in Megaton, and during our stay we got this little guy here, our dog Russ." Lloyd leant down to pet the canine on his head.

Amata nodded. "But we brought some trouble to the town, so we left."

"I've heard as much," Three Dog said grimly. "If you don't mind, I'd like to hear your side of what happened."

Lloyd started up again. "It started when I met a man named Burke in the saloon."

"Oh, I've heard too much about this guy lately. But go on."

"He offered to pay me a lot of caps to detonate the atomic bomb in the center of the town. I reported him to the sheriff, Lucas Simms, who tried to arrest Burke. A lot of things happened, but Burke ended up on the floor with a broken nose, courtesy of Amata's baseball bat."

"Sounds like he got an old fashioned ass-kicking," Three Dog said with a smile. "What happened next, though?"

Amata decided to handle the next bit. "We were out doing a job for Moira Brown when the town was attacked by Talon Company mercenaries. They broke Burke out and rushed him back to Tenpenny Tower."

"Tenpenny Tower? You mean that high and mighty joint that won't let ghouls in?"

Lloyd shrugged. "We haven't heard of anything like that. All we know is that Burke, Tenpenny Tower, Talon Company and this group called Littlehorn & Associates are all connected, and they all want us dead."

"Dead, huh? That's not what I would call a preferred state of being."

Amata nodded, adding, "To say the least of the situation."

"Now, to the best of my knowledge, you found out about me and came here, isn't that right?"

She continued, "More or less, yes. We learned that James had come to see you, so we hired a guy to lead us here. An old raider, Jericho. So we came here. Before that, though, some raiders attacked Megaton in the wake of Talon Company's attack. They were fended off, and we went to go deal with them."

"Stone cold justice at its finest," Three Dog said. "Raiders are just assholes."

Amata went on to add, "But on the way over, we met our first super mutant, and believe it or not, it wasn't trying to kill us."

"His name was Uncle Leo," Lloyd explained. "And we had a real nice chat with him before he went off on his own way."

Three Dog's voice turned disbelieving. "You mean you two met a nice super mutant, who could talk? Like normal people? I mean, I know super mutants can talk and all, but I wouldn't call them very conversational."

Amata nodded. "He definitely set a standard that most super mutants, at least all the other ones we've seen and have shot at us, can't measure up to. But he told us where the super mutants come from. They're not born, you see, but created in some place up north. That's why the super mutants capture people and take them places and they're never seen again. It's because they're being turned into more super mutants."

"That's amazing. Uncle Leo told you all of this? Kids, you're solving mysteries people haven't been able to solve for years, here. You're telling us that all that reason they kidnap others is to convert them into even more super mutants?"

"That's precisely it," Lloyd said, "straight from the mouth of the only intelligent super mutant in a hundred miles."

"Amazing... What's more amazing is that it also explains how the super mutants have always been able to replenish their numbers. The Brotherhood has been trying to figure out how for years! But what happened next?"

"Well, we came here for the first time. We helped the Brotherhood of Steel reclaim the area outside of the building we're sitting in right now."

"But before we met for the first time, you two killed a couple tons worth of super mutant behemoth!"

"She did, actually," Lloyd said. "I was just there."

"Actually," Amata said, "immediately afterwards, Lloyd blew off the arm of a much bigger super mutant with red skin."

"Amazing what a couple mini nukes can do, isn't it?" Lloyd said with a smile. "So, we came inside and met you. You asked us to go do you a favor, and in exchange you'd tell us where my father went."

"That's right, for helping to fight the good fight. I asked you to fetch a satellite dish from the old museum of technology and fix it to the top of the Washington Monument back when G.N.R. was experiencing its technical difficulties. And of course, as all of our listeners know, the Washington Monument is no more. Now, having sat up in here for so many hours thinking about it, I've gotta be honest with the two of you: I refuse to believe that it's just a coincidence. Care to shed some light on the truth of the matter?"

"Well, we went to the Maul, like you told us to, where we discovered the recovering gargantuan super mutant. He was sitting right in the middle of the Maul. Not knowing what else to do, we entered the museum and got the dish after fighting our fair share of super mutants."

"So you got the dish, like I knew you would. How's this lead up with the collapse of the monument?"

"We split up and ran like hell," Lloyd said. "Amata and Jericho took off in two directions, while Russ and myself made straight for the monument. The big red guy noticed me, though. He stood up, and well, this is going to be hard to believe, but he somehow mutated his remaining arm and made it twice as big. And he chased after me."

"Bullshit," Three Dog said. "For real?"

"Dead serious. I ran into the monument, and he started punching the base of it, trying to get at me. He punched and punched, knocking debris aside and whole chunks of it, until finally it fell right on top of him."

Three Dog laughed. "That's amazing! Big red bastard brought the thing down on top of himself, that's beautiful! Let that be a lesson to all you listeners out there: if you want to get rid of something big, drop something bigger on top of it!" Three Dog clapped his hands. "So that's the mystery behind the end of the monument, folks! The biggest building in the Capital Wasteland killed the biggest mutant in the Capital Wasteland. That's the real beauty of it, you know. So, with the tower destroyed and the mutant dead, what happened next? I'm dying to know."

Lloyd felt like he had been talking too much and offered the microphone up to Amata. She began, "Lloyd was just lucky to have survived the monument's falling. Considering where he was, at the bottom," she lied, looking over at him, "he was lucky. I thought he was dead, but he crawled out of the wreckage and found me. Russ and Jericho found their way up to us not long after. Not knowing what else to do, we went to Underworld."

"The ghoul city?"

"That's right. We went there and spent the night. The ghouls there, while a little nervous about smoothskins like us, were very hospitable and we met a lot of great people there."

"See? That's what I've been saying this whole time," Three Dog said. "You hear that, listeners? The ghouls of Underworld are downright nice people; honest people. But please, go on."

"Well... it was there, in the Chop Shop, which is their hospital, we saw an unconscious woman. The next morning, we learned that her name was Reilly, and that she was the leader of Reilly's Rangers. So had the doctor wake her up and she told us that the Rangers were in big trouble. They were trapped on the roof of the Statesman Hotel and under heavy fire by the super mutants."

Three Dog spoke up, "The Rangers are a merc company that help map the ruins, while helping to fight the good fight, for all the listeners out there who don't know. You can recognize them by the green armor they were, much like the armor Lloyd and Amata are wearing right now. I take it you joined them?"

Amata waved her finger. "I'm getting to that part, be patient," she smiled. "So we volunteered to rescue them. Me made it to the hotel, fought our way up, then fought our way down with the Rangers, then we all fought our way across the ruins to their compound where they made us honorary members."

Lloyd cut in. "And the armor fits really nicely, too. If you guys are listening, thanks a lot. Really comfortable in the private area," he joked.

Amata laughed, elbowing Lloyd in the side. She continued, "So we went back to Underworld, to get Reilly, but before that, we had our first run-in with Talon Company."

"The badasses in black and at the end of Burke's leash, huh?"

"The same. We fought them off, though. We're positive we'll see them again, but the point is we made it to Underworld, where we picked up Reilly and another follower. But, since I still have yet to fully understand Lloyd's decision to buy him, I'll let him explain."

"Buy him?" Three Dog inquired.

"I'll let Lloyd explain, like I said."

Lloyd scratched the back of his neck. "Well, on our first stay to Underworld, there was a bar known as the Ninth Circle, right? Well, our friend Jericho likes to have himself a drink every now and then. I'm not so sure what he did, as he's stubborn and won't tell us, but he was thrown out by the bouncer, a tall ghoul named Charon. I went up and had a talk with the bar's owner, Azrukhal, who told me that Charon was basically his slave. Charon had a strange background, you see. He was conditioned to obey the orders of whoever held his contract. Azrukhal was a sick man, who cheated and conned his patrons out of their money and loved every bit of it. Charon watched him do this, and hated him for it, but couldn't move against him."

"That's amazing. I've never heard of anything like that."

"I offered to buy the contract, to free Charon from this torment Azrukhal was putting him through, but he wouldn't sell Charon for less than two thousand caps. I didn't have the money, but the Rangers did. Out of the kindness of their hearts, and I suppose thanks for us saving them, they let us have the money, and when we went back to Underworld, I bought his contract. Charon then shot Azrukhal in the face."

"Woah! This ghoul of yours sounds crazy!"

"Well, not really. Charon shot Azrukhal because he felt Azrukhal deserved it for causing so much pain. It's hard to believe, but Charon honestly felt that his evil had to be stopped. So, I tore up his contract and told him he was free. And, uh, now he follows us around."

"That's a pretty strange story. You're not pulling my leg, are you?"

"It sounds confusing only because it is," Lloyd said. "I still haven't figured it all out myself. But he's a welcome companion on our travels, and he's good with a shotgun."

"So, I'm guessing from there you brought Reilly back to the compound?"

Lloyd nodded. "That's exactly it. Stayed there the night. We traveled north to here. And then... we, uh, fought a deathclaw."

"Woah, woah, woah! Hold the phone!" Three Dog said. "A deathclaw? You mean those things mommies and daddies use to frighten their kids with?"

"It was every bit as scary as those stories make them out to be. Big, scaly, with claws and teeth capable of shredding a man to pieces. Trust me; we saw its handy work before it attacked us. It carried off Jericho, and we gave chase. It ran into Chevy Chase, not far from this very building, and then... it dropped Jericho and ran away."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. We don't know why, but we got some Brotherhood members to help us carry him inside. And that... pretty much brings us to right now, Three Dog. Jericho's downstairs recovering, riding out the Med-X we gave him, and Charon's helping by standing guard over him."

Three Dog sat back. "Wow... You know, I think I need to take a minute to soak in everything I just learned. That is the most amazing story I have ever heard, folks, and it's all one-hundred percent true, straight from the honest mouths of Lloyd Freeman and Amata Almodovar, AKA, the Wandering Pair from Vault 101. Let me thank both of you for coming on here and giving me the finest bit of radio talk I've ever hosted! As I put on his music for of you out there, I've got some unfinished business with Lloyd and telling him where his father went. Wish them the best of luck, all you wastelanders out there, and who knows? Maybe the next chapter of their lives told over the radio will include you."

Three Dog flipped a switch, then immediately punched his fist in the air. "That was beautiful! Best damn show I've ever done! I'm getting word from the guys downstairs that more people tuned in than ever before! Hahaha!"

"How can you tell?" Lloyd asked.

"There's a little teleprompter on my side of the desk that the people downstairs can use to talk to me. I'm telling you, kids, everybody in the wasteland now knows your story!"

"Really, I'm just happy that your radio station is back on," Lloyd said, "but about my father..."

"Right, right, of course. After all you've been through, how could I not tell you where your dad is? I'd be a horrible person to keep that from you. When your dad passed through here, he and I talked for a good long time. He's a real stand-up kinda guy. He mentioned some scientific mumbo-jumbo which didn't make much sense to me and mentioned something called "Project Purity." Know anything about it?"

"No, never heard of it before," Lloyd said. "Project Purity... Huh. Nothing," he shrugged.

"Well, right afterwards he mentioned going to see a Dr. Li in Rivet City. Then he left in a hurry."

"Rivet City?" Amata asked. "Where's that?"

"Wow... You know, for a minute there, I forgot you guys came out of a hole in the ground. Well, a whole bunch of people got together and turned a beached aircraft carrier into a town. Pretty cool, huh? Just follow the river south from here. There's no way you can miss it, it's big as hell, after all."

"Rivet City, huh? Alright. That's where we're headed. Thanks, Three Dog," Lloyd said, holding out his hand.

"No," Three Dog said, shaking it eagerly. "Thank you."

---

The Wandering Pair, as they were now known, were offered by Three Dog to remain for the rest of the day and night for Jericho's benefit as he was medically tended to and given a chance to rest. The two wayward vault dwellers were appreciative of his hospitality, and Three Dog appreciated their appearance on his show. All around the Capital Wasteland, people had tuned in and listened to their story. In Megaton, Moriarty's saloon was packed full of people, listening intently. In places like Rivet City and Canterbury Commons, places they hadn't even been yet, they were suddenly the hottest new thing to talk about. Though they hardly knew it, they had become the closest thing to celebrities the Capital Wasteland had to offer.

Their broadcast reached Burke, Jabsco and Daniel Littlehorn, all of whom were extremely displeased at the public mention of their connection to each other.

But they weren't the only ones with malevolent eyes for the pair listening to the broadcast.

Colonel Augustus Autumn turned off the recording of the radio broadcast and placed his elbows upon the desk he sat behind. He slid his fingers together and sat in thought. Immediately, his brain began processing this latest information, specifically this new revelation about Talon Company hunting the pair.

He pressed a button on a nearby communications panel. "This is Colonel Autumn. I want a full report on Talon Company. Numbers, weapons, everything. I'm going to need constant eyebot surveillance on their base of operations immediately. Over."

He sat back. He knew that Lloyd Freeman, and his female companion, may represent the best chance the Enclave had in tracking down James Freeman.

He wasn't going to allow harm to come to them if he could prevent it. A plan was forming in his mind.

---

Lloyd and Amata sat eating a bowl of freshly-made noodles as Jericho rested nearby, his armor removed and his leg properly bandaged to. Nearby stood Charon who had denied any offer of food, saying that he wasn't hungry at the moment. Across from the two sat Knight Finley, a Brotherhood knight stationed at the G.N.R. building. He had removed his power armor's helmet so that he too could eat, as he had been relieved of his post for his break. They were in a small side room of the main building, where Three Dog had assured them they could spend the night.

Beneath the table, Russ licked his lips. Lloyd handed some iguana bits down to him, which he happily lapped up.

As they ate, they made occasional conversation with the knight. "Is joining the Brotherhood of Steel difficult?" Lloyd asked.

Finley nodded. "Well, originally, it was ordained that you were born into it. I was, back out west in the Core Region," he explained. "But, back in 2254, we were sent east to the Capital Wasteland. Once here, Elder Lyons decided to put down permanent roots, and here we've remained."

"Elder Lyons? Is Sarah your leader?" Amata asked.

"No, no, Sarah is his daughter. She's a sentinel, in command of her own squad, the Lyons' Pride. You met them, right?" he asked. They both nodded. "Right. Well, her father, Owyn Lyons, led us out here. He's our Elder. He decreed that we could recruit from the wastelanders, but only if they proved they could handle the rigorous training that comes with it."

"Where is the Core Region?" Lloyd asked.

"Back in California," Finley replied, before taking a spoonful of his squirrel stew. After swallowing, he added, "Not that great of the place, really. A little bit better than the Capital Wasteland, but only because it's mostly desert out there. Different from the ruins and wreckage you can't go ten feet without tripping over around here."

"You mentioned that Elder Lyons made the choice to stay here," Amata said. "What made you come to the Capital Wasteland from so far away? And you didn't intend to stay, originally?"

Finley nodded and pointed a finger at her. "Perceptive. Well, it's a long story, but the short of it is that we came to find useful technology and investigate reports of super mutants in the area. The Brotherhood has a history with them."

"There are super mutants in the Core Region?" Lloyd asked, curious.

Finley nodded. "They've been there for a long time. A fair amount of them migrated east, to the Midwest, but the ones here in the Capital Wasteland aren't like the ones back home. They're different."

"How so?" Lloyd asked.

"Well, for one, the ones back home don't grow bigger the older they get. That's how behemoths and gargantuans are made. Plus, these ones seem more unintelligent than the Core Region super mutants. I mean, don't get me wrong, the Core Region super mutants were dumber than a bag of rocks too, but these ones seem even stupider, if that were possible. That doesn't stop them from being just as dangerous though. Anyway, Elder Lyons decided to stay to help protect the people of the Capital Wasteland. He thought that it would be inhumane to leave them here without protection."

"Noble," Lloyd commented.

"Yeah, well, not everyone thought so," Finley muttered.

"What do you mean?" Amata asked.

Finley looked around, then dared to peak outside the room to ensure that none of the other knights would hear him. He leaned in closer. "Well… A group of the Brotherhood that came with us didn't agree with Lyons' choice. They wanted to focus more on acquiring technology and disregard the locals. They left, stealing a lot of tech from our home. We call them the Outcasts. They wear power armor like us, but painted black and red."

Amata and Lloyd both perked up with recognition. "We've seen them, actually," Amata said.

Just as Lloyd was about to say something himself, Russ got up and barked. In that moment, they heard a terrible noise come from the main lobby: an explosion had destroyed the front doors of G.N.R., causing the Brotherhood knights within to scramble to defensive positions. Almost immediately, Lloyd, Amata and Charon went for their weapons as Finley put his helmet back on.

A knight sergeant, the commanding rank of the outpost, ran inside, quickly loading his laser rifle. "We're under attack! Enemy is in position across the street!"

"Are the super mutants hitting us, sir?" Finley asked.

"Negative! Talon Company!" replied the knight sergeant, before moving to rejoin the other three knights in the lobby.

Lloyd and Amata's blood ran cold. Outside, across the street in the ruins of a burnt-out building, Twelve Talon Company mercenaries had taken up covered positions on the first and second stories. On the upper level, a team of two of them worked to reload a missile launcher. Once they had done so, its operator aimed out of a window and fired. It soared across the plaza, past the fountain in its center, and impacted inside the G.N.R. lobby, its explosive force kicking up smoke and dirt. All the while, the other mercs continued to fire from their position.

The Brotherhood inside quickly recovered and moved to return fire, aiming out the first floor windows of the G.N.R. building. Bullets and lasers flared from both sides as the shootout began proper. Lloyd took up position alongside a window, daring a glance through it. He could see the Talon mercs moving and firing amongst their well-fortified position. He looked back at Amata and Charon.

"Charon! Stay with Jericho!" he ordered. The ghoul nodded and went to move Jericho to a safer location. Lloyd put his hand on Amata's shoulder. "We need to return fire!" Russ stood next to Lloyd, growling, uncertain of what to do. The canine knew not to run off unless its masters said so.

She nodded and moved up to a different window, which was mostly boarded up. It had enough room for her to shoot her SMG out of, however, and she did just that. Lloyd took out his sniper rifle and aimed it through his window. Through its scope, he sighted a Talon merc on the second story. He held his breath to steady his aim and pulled the trigger. The merc fell back, a bullet having ripped through his neck. Lloyd let his breath out.

Amata ducked to reload. Just as she did, a small hail of bullets peppered her window, splintering the wood boards and shattering some of its broken glass. She covered her face as small bits of debris came down and more sunlight streamed in from the new holes in the wood. "You alright?" Lloyd asked, kneeling down from his window.

"Fine!" she frantically replied, sliding a new clip of 10mm ammo into her SMG. Lloyd looked out into the lobby and saw the Brotherhood take cover as a third missile hit the lobby from its open doors. Their power armor protected their bodies, and their sandbag barricades absorbed most of the damage. Lloyd resolved to take out that missile team.

As Amata returned fire once more, adding her own bullets to the hundreds flying across the square, Lloyd carefully waited until he saw the missile team appear once more. He knew that when they did, he would have to be fast, less they shoot before he does. He held his breath as his scope moved from window to window, searching for the one that contained the merc with the missile launcher.

Just as he scanned past a window, the man with the missile launcher aimed out of it. Lloyd quickly sighted him, aimed and fired. He let out his breath as he saw the man fall back with a hole in his chest.

Up on the second story, the Talon merc with the missile launcher died from Lloyd's bullet. The other merc tried to pick it up, but then noticed someone coming up the stairs behind their position. It was a woman in forest green combat armor wielding a minigun.

Brick let loose, waving the rotating barrel to the left and right, mowing down the Talon mercs with a brutally vicious storm of 5mm bullets. The rightmost Talon merc was about to fire on her, but he was quickly gunned down by Donovan, who had climbed the stairs as well. Lloyd, Amata and the Brotherhood knights saw this and stopped firing from their position.

Down below on the first story, Butcher, Reilly and Trigger had engaged the remaining Talon mercs. Trigger dived over a filing cabinet laid on its side, tackling a surprised merc to the ground. She put her handgun up to his head and fired three times. Reilly and Butcher, working in tandem, blasted away two other equally surprised mercs as the third ran out into the open plaza, where he was quickly and efficiently taken down by the Brotherhood.

And then, all was silent.

The Brotherhood, along with Lloyd, Amata, Charon and Russ walked out to meet Reilly's Rangers in the center of the plaza. A knight stayed behind in the building to alert the studio staff that the situation was all-clear.

Reilly smiled as the group approached. "You all alright?" she asked.

The knight sergeant nodded. "Thank you for the assist," he said.

"My pleasure," Reilly replied. She looked at the Wandering Pair. "Lloyd, Amata, Charon. Where's Jericho?"

Lloyd answered her, "He got jumped by a deathclaw. He's alright—recovering inside."

"Well, Talon Company just got its ass kicked," Brick said, a wide smile on her face. "Any idea why they attacked G.N.R.?"

"Probably to get at us," Amata replied. They looked at the knight sergeant.

The knight sergeant dismissed any blame on the pair. "There weren't any friendly casualties, so technically the only loss was the front door. We'll have a replacement barricade up and running within two hours. In the meantime, we'll radio back to the Citadel. Talon Company is going to pay for this attack." The knight sergeant looked at the rangers once more. "Thanks gain for the assist." He turned and walked back to the G.N.R. building with the other knights in tow.

"So what are you guys doing here?" Lloyd asked the Rangers.

Reilly holstered her weapon. She had a concerned look on her face. "Well, actually, I'm a little confused. We received a message from the Brotherhood asking to meet us outside the G.N.R., so we came. We were expecting some kind of welcome group, and that's where I'm lost. Those soldiers didn't have a message for us?"

Lloyd thought for a moment. "Let's go and ask." The two groups moved towards the G.N.R. lobby where Lloyd got the attention of the knight sergeant, who had been radioing to the Citadel through his helmet. "The Rangers came here expecting a meeting with the Brotherhood in the plaza. Did the Brotherhood have a message for Reilly's Rangers?" he asked.

The knight sergeant titled his head. "I don't believe so. Let me check with the Citadel." He held a hand up to the side of his helmet. "Citadel, do you copy? This is G.N.R. outpost, over." A moment later, apparently having received an answer, he continued, "Citadel, were any orders given to meet with Reilly's Rangers in the G.N.R. plaza? I repeat: were any orders given to meet with Reilly's Rangers in the G.N.R. plaza? Over." Another moment of silence, and the knight sergeant turned to them. "Word from the Citadel is negative on that," he told them, "no order was given."

The Rangers exchanged confused glances. Reilly crossed her arms as she said, "We spoke to someone on our radio frequency who explicitly stated that the Brotherhood wanted us to come to the G.N.R. plaza."

The knight sergeant asked, "When did you receive the communication? Did you get a name?"

Reilly shook her head. "About an hour ago, and no, we didn't. The person claimed to be from the Citadel."

The knight sergeant was silent. "I'll have to report this. I'm sorry, but it looks like it may have been a ruse."

"A prank?" Butcher wondered.

"What kind of person goes to such lengths to pull a prank?" Reilly replied.

"Talon Company?" Trigger offered.

Lloyd shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense; why would they call in a force that would flank them?"

"So that rules out Talon Company," Amata said. "I don't think raiders could have set this up…"

"They wouldn't have anything to gain from it," Reilly agreed. "How long was that firefight we interrupted?"

"No more than ten minutes," Lloyd replied, starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together. "So… whoever you talked to on your radio frequency knew that Talon Company was going to attack G.N.R. and that you were going to end up flanking them. They lured you here with their message."

"But why?" Reilly pondered.

"To destroy that group of Talon mercenaries, I imagine," Donovan said, taking off his helmet to scratch his head.

"But who benefits from that, aside from us?" Amata asked.

Nobody in the room had an answer.

---

Reilly and her Rangers offered to stick around and help repair the entryway to G.N.R. and reinforce it. Working with the Brotherhood knights, Lloyd, Amata and Charon, they all managed to get the work done in under an hour. The Rangers, although still confused and pondering the mystery of the events surrounding their happening upon Talon Company's ambush, parted from the G.N.R. plaza after the work was done, heading home.

The Wandering Pair and their travelling companions spent the night at G.N.R., wary of any attack that might come, though none did. The next morning, they set out and moved straight west, headed for the Potomac River. Jericho's wound had healed up quite nicely, and he only moved with a slightly noticeable limp. They all were pleasantly surprised with the hospitality of the Brotherhood and Three Dog, and wished they would stay, but Lloyd finally had his next solid lead on where his father had gone to. The only one among them who was upset was Jericho, who had missed the fight with Talon Company.

Taking the underground tunnel system, as they often did, they backtracked to the same location Jericho had led them to originally when they had first ventured into the D.C. ruins, Farragut West Metro Station. It was there that they had originally met Uncle Leo. Lloyd wondered briefly, as they stepped out into the afternoon sun, if they would ever see that most peculiar super mutant again. He certainly hoped so, as did Amata.

Stepping out of the station, they had made it to the river. It ran with dark water, which they knew was irradiated. Their Pip-Boys allowed them to monitor their body condition, including radiation levels. Thus far, Lloyd and Amata had managed to keep their rad levels very low. They didn't know about Jericho, and Charon, as a ghoul, was immune to rads due to his overexposure to them in his past life, which, as with all other ghouls, had been the catalyst of his ghoulification.

They began to follow the river south, rather, southeast, as Three Dog had instructed. They were walking on the very outer limits of the city. A wall of concrete ran mostly on their side of the river, putting them about several feet higher than the water's elevation. "Something on your mind, Lloyd?" Amata asked.

He snapped back to reality. "Oh... I was just thinking about how lucky we are to have these things," he said, holding up his left arm. His Pip-Boy displayed the GPS program, keeping constant track of their surroundings and various areas they stumble upon.

"I'll say," she agreed. She looked at her own Pip-Boy. "Though, I have to admit, it gets a little itchy under there sometimes."

Jericho spoke up. "What, can't you take the fuckin' thing off?"

"Obviously we can take them off," she quickly retorted. "It would get filthy under there if we never washed the skin."

The old raider chuckled. "Fuckin' vault royalty, I tell ya. Little dirt never hurt anyone."

"Yeah, but a lot can kill you," Lloyd said.

"Whatever, kid. A lotta anything'll kill you. Too much food, too much alcohol, too much sun, too much water..." he trailed off.

"Too much noise," Charon suddenly spoke up. It got very quiet among them after that comment. Lloyd thought it was funny, so for the next block or so, he wore a smile.

There were few moments to chat like that one. Being that this was new territory, there was plenty of fresh danger afoot. Similar to the metro tunnels, at least the ones they had been trekking through for the past few days, the riverside presented one obstacle after another. But they were more than well equipped to deal with each situation. With Lloyd's hunting and sniper rifles, Jericho's assault rifle and Charon's shotgun, along with Russ' canine fury and Amata's supporting fire, nothing could stand in their way.

Both of the vault dwellers, over the course of that day, learned something intriguing. They didn't come to the realization at the same time, nor did they realize it as quickly as the other, but they did come to the same conclusion. They had lived life in the wasteland for a week now, and were accustomed to the constant battle. Food, shelter, medicine, life or death, combat. Eventually, all of these things seemed to blur together. For people like Jericho and Charon, they grew up with it. They knew no life aside from it. For people like Lloyd and Amata, they had to get used to it. Their entire style of living had to change to adapt to wasteland life. The realization was that they, in fact, had done just that. Fighting against foes that seek only your death, for whatever reason, was anything but fun, but there was a strange detachment that brought a sense of calmness and seemed to subvert fear.

Neither of them knew what it was; only what it felt like. When one battle was over, there'd be no real reason to celebrate, because the next one would be just around the corner. Fighting was just the way it was. And for them, it became natural and easy to shift in and out of combat mode. The lone centaur hiding in the back of a truck, the group of mirelurks protecting their egg clutch from perceived threats, two radscorpions and even a group of radroaches, as seemingly harmless as they were, were all handled with efficient teamwork and timing.

They passed a place they did not enter, a small building, mostly intact, with a sign out front warning people to keep their weapons holstered. They had no real reason to stop and see what was inside, so they kept going, continuing south.

A raider camp had been set up along this path, and even they were dealt with in the same collected manner in which they had fought off every other threat of the day. There were six of them. So unorganized were they that they did not have anyone on watch, allowing the group to get the drop on them. Throwing a grenade into the camp, the raiders scattered and were quickly gunned down.

The camp, after they had taken care of the raiders, was very useful in its own right. It had enough beds for all of them, small stockpiles of food and ammunition, and for Jericho, liquor and cigarettes.

There was even a sofa the raiders had looted, placed near a campfire. Lloyd, no longer wearing his goggles, sat back on the sofa and took a deep breath. "It's nice to take a break," he said. Amata looked over at him and began to giggle quietly. He looked up at her. "What?"

"I never noticed until now, but there's a tan-line where you've been wearing your goggles," she told him.

"Really?" he asked. Indeed there was. His skin was slightly darker than it had been during his years in the vault due to his exposure to sunlight. "How lucky for you, you've had that nice hat that shields your face from the sun."

"It got a little sweaty. The new helmet is nicer," she said, taking off her combat helmet and shaking her head free.

"I'm glad." Lloyd petted Russ on the head. Charon walked up.

"When will we move again?" he asked.

"Couple minutes," Lloyd said. Charon nodded and moved off to patrol and camp's wooden wall parameter.

Amata took the opportunity to snuggle up next to Lloyd, though their armor made it a little cumbersome to do so. He put his arm around her. "Lloyd?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Something on your mind?" he replied.

"I was just thinking... you think we'll ever need to, you know, not fight for our lives when we're just trying to get from point A to point B?"

Lloyd rested his head back and thought for a moment. "Maybe. I hope so. I know I'd like it, but..."

"But what?"

"I just don't think it's going to happen," he said as he gazed into her eyes. "I know what you're thinking, Amata, I really do... I wish things could be like they were back in the vault too."

"No," she said, surprising him. "The more I think about it, the more I know I don't want things to be like the vault. Everything in there was a... a fabrication. A disguise to mask the real things that were happening underneath the propaganda my father spewed night and day. What my father was really doing." She closed her eyes. "I want us to find a place where it's safe, and we can be happy... but it has to be real."

They were silent for a moment. "We'll make one," Lloyd said, reaching over to brush a few strands of hair out of her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I know we didn't come out here to help other people, but... I want to. I've seen the good of people out here, and the hardships they face. Not like us. To us, everything out here is new. It's like Three Dog said. We came from a vault, where growing up was easy. Most wastelanders didn't have the same kind of chance we did. I can't imagine what growing up with this kind of life must be like."

She nodded. "Fighting every day..."

"The ones you love might not come back from a supply mission…"

"Monsters and mutations... Deathclaws..." She shuddered at the mention of the vile creatures.

"People don't deserve to die just for wanting to survive."

"Even raiders?" she asked.

"Killing someone, especially a group of people, is hard to justify. But raiders, and people like them... Talon Company, Burke... they made their choices. To them, it's either them or us. I'd rather have it be us when it comes to them. Raiders can't work with other people who aren't raiders themselves. I don't want a world like that. I want a world where everyone helps everyone. Where we work together to make our lives better."

"A nice dream," Amata said.

"If we don't die, I'll make it a reality."

Amata smiled. She took comfort in his words. They were noble, confident and brave: three qualities she knew characterized Lloyd. She was sure he'd help others, like when he gave purified water to a severely dehydrated man just outside of Megaton, purely out of the kindness of his own heart. He was going to help other people, no matter what, and she was going to be there to help him.

"I love you, Lloyd," she said, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek.

He smiled. "I love you too."

Not far away, Jericho shook his head. He didn't know if it was the booze or the two of them, but he felt like throwing up.

---

"What is it, Jericho?" Lloyd asked the former raider.

"A super mutant camp. You can tell. They all look the same: the big, sharpened steel beams, those big-ass spikes? They form the fence. There's usually a fire with dead bodies and bags of guts hanging around. I'm telling you kid, that place is going to be crawling with super mutants," Jericho said.

"Right around the corner of that base is Rivet City," Charon told them. "I passed by it only once before, but I remember this part of the landscape. That building, over there," he pointed across the water at a domed building. "I recognize it."

"Yeah... so do I..." Lloyd said, now looking over at the building. "I think I saw it in a history textbook once." He strained as he tried to recognize the building alongside the river basin.

"That doesn't matter now, kid, let's just blast our way through that super mutant camp and get to Rivet City already," Jericho said.

"We must proceed with caution," Charon advised.

"Of course," Lloyd said, taking out his sniper rifle. "Let me just try and pick some off before we move in. This is becoming a serious chore," he said as he looked through the scope.

"What, you didn't have fuckin' chores in your pristine vault?" Jericho asked rather snootily.

"Yeah, until we took jobs," Lloyd replied.

Jericho laughed. "Fuckin' jobs? What'd you have to do?"

Lloyd looked up at him. "What didn't I do," was his reply.

"Give good answers?" Jericho quickly shot back. Lloyd sighed.

"I did a lot of stuff, but mostly I was my father's assistant." Jericho was silent. "My father is a doctor and a scientist." Still silence. "I'm going to shoot the super mutants now, Jericho. If you have anything further, please bring it up now." More silence as Jericho shook his head. "Good." Lloyd looked throughout the camp, seeing a few super mutants. "Alright... There's at least five of them... wait..." He sat up quickly. "They've got a woman."

"A woman?" Amata asked.

"Stupid wastelander that probably fell into their trap," Jericho commented.

"We need to help her," Lloyd said. "I'm going to start shooting. Get ready for the fight."

They all began to take cover. Lloyd breathed steadily, and fired. He hit one in the back. He could hear it roaring in pain from his distance. When it turned around, Lloyd got a good shot in its head, which killed it. They could all hear them, now, the super mutants around the camp calling their brethren to take up arms. Lloyd picked off another before several of them streamed out of the camp and towards his location. He put away his sniper rifle and equipped his hunting rifle instead.

Russ ran forward. Jericho fired, as did Lloyd, Charon and Amata. The super mutants had assumed Lloyd was their only threat, and were completely surprised when the five of them ambushed them from three directions. Uncoordinated and unintelligent, the super mutants fell one by one. The largest of them, one armed with a minigun, tried to open fire on them, but was distracted by Russ. He tried to shoot at the dog, but he ran far too fast. He was taken down by the rest of them rather quickly as Russ circled around.

"Nice one, kid," Jericho said with a smile as he reloaded his gun. "Led'em right up to us."

Lloyd ignored his comment and headed straight for the camp. He walked through the tangled mess of sharpened support beams and barbed wire up to a higher level, where a dark-skinned woman sat, tied up and blindfolded. She was wearing a dirty shirt and similar jeans.

"You're going to be alright," Lloyd told her. At the sound of a human's voice, her ears perked up and she began to get excited. Lloyd quickly removed her bonds. She stood up and looked at him.

"Am... am I safe?" she asked, eyes wide and scared.

"Yes. The super mutants are dead. You can get out of here, if you like. Personally, I wouldn't stay," Lloyd said, looking around at the wreckage.

She quickly surveyed her surroundings and then bent over to pick up a pack. "I need to get out of here. Please, take these supplies. They're all I have, but they'll slow me down."

Lloyd held up his hands. "No, no, you need those more than I do. Please, take them."

She thought for a moment. "You'd know best, I suppose. I'll go. Again... thank you." She took off running, right past the others.

"So now what?" Amata asked, looking up at him through the steel beams.

Lloyd looked out to the river and saw a mighty sight which left in him awe. "Rivet City," he said nearly breathlessly.

They all turned to look. A massive, pre-war aircraft carrier, split in half in one area, was beached next on edge of the river. The ship alone was impressive to behold; it was undoubtedly an amazing feat of engineering and power in its day. But, like the rest of the wasteland, it was nowhere near its old days of glory. Lloyd would have loved to see the vessel at work, but just from looking at it, he knew it was mostly scrap metal. Much of it was dented or full of holes, with what appeared to be a lot of patchwork.

"That thing's a city?" Amata marveled at the sight.

"Evidently," Lloyd said, walking down. "Let's waste no time. Come on!"

Lloyd couldn't deny his excitement. He had never seen a place quite like it, and there was the chance that his father was inside.

"How do we get inside?" Amata asked as they passed some statues.

"There's a staircase. You walk up and press a button and then a bridge comes over to the stairs. That's what I heard," Jericho told her.

"I see the stairs," Lloyd said, then practically ran. The others moved just as quickly to keep up with him, save for Jericho.

"Hey, kid! Don't fuckin' run off on me now," he grunted as he borderline dragged his foot behind him to keep up.

The stairs were more like ramps that led up to two platforms, one on top of the other. At the top of the bottom ramp there was a large sign advertising that they had, in fact, made it to Rivet City. Lloyd moved up the ramps and found himself atop a platform. He looked around and saw a dirty wastelander sitting with his back to the railing. "Where's the button?" Lloyd asked, skipping formalities.

The man coughed and spoke. "Please... I'm dieing... I need water... Do you have any? I'm so thirsty..."

Lloyd knew just what to do. He pulled a bottle of purified water out and handed it to him. It occurred to him, in that moment, he was being a little hasty due to his excitement. He tried to calm himself down and spoke to the man, who was eagerly downing the bottle. "There you go. My name is Lloyd."

"Thank you, thank you, Lloyd!" he said, taking another gulp. He pointed then, to a speaker on the wall. Lloyd nodded and walked up to it. At that moment, the others came up. Lloyd pressed a green button on the intercom.

"Welcome to Rivet City. Who is this?" a voice asked.

Lloyd leaned over. "My name is Lloyd Freeman."

About five seconds later, the voice replied with, "The kid from the radio?"

Lloyd cocked an eyebrow and looked back at the others. "Um... Yes? I guess so?"

"This I need to see. Hang on; we're bringing the bridge over."

Something moving on the ship caught their eyes. A large bridge was turning in their direction. Before, it had been turned parallel to the ship, but now it was swinging in the direction of the platform upon which they stood. Lloyd saw that the end of the bridge had tight metal ropes which connected it to a large counter-weight system which would keep the bridge stable.

They could hear it rumble and creek before falling silent as the edge of the bridge stopped right at their platform. The bridge was now fully extended, and they could walk right up to Rivet City. Lloyd could see about three people at the other end.

"Well, let's go," Lloyd said as they crossed. Contrary to his initial concerns, the bridge was very stable and not rickety at all. The figured at the end wore black combat armor, somewhat like Talon Company, but they didn't have the white logo the mercs had. Two of them, the ones on either side of the tall man, wore security helmets that reminded him of the helmets Vault 101's security forces wore.

The man in the center approached. He was a tall man, as tall as Lloyd, with neatly combed brown hair and only slightly-tanned skin. "Hold it," he said as they approached. "You're Lloyd Freeman?"

Lloyd nodded. "And these are my friends." He looked down at their guns. "We don't want any trouble."

"State your business here," the man ordered.

"We're looking for a Doctor Li," Lloyd told him.

The man nodded. "Yeah? Well, let me guess," he said, suddenly adopted a slightly condescending tone. "She's not expecting you, but since you were on the radio with that sap story, you think you can just walk right in and talk to her because you think it's important."

Lloyd held up his hands. "Woah, no, no, no, I just need to see her. My father might be on this ship." He didn't know this man, but he was unnerved by the prospect that he had heard their broadcast and formed his own opinion of Lloyd before they had even met.

"Been a lot of that goin' around lately, and I've had just about enough of it. Dr. Li is a very busy woman, working on real problems in this city. You're going to have to do better than that."

"Hey, it's really no big deal. I just need to see her for a minute and then I'll be out of her hair. Swear it," Lloyd said. Something rang in the back of Lloyd's mind that this man's voice sounded familiar, but he dismissed the notion.

The man seemed to think for a moment.

Amata stepped forward. "Look, I don't know if you heard us on the radio or not, but if you did, you have to know that we're good people with good intentions. We don't want to get in anyone's way. We'll leave as soon as we learn where Lloyd's father is."

"Fine," the man said. "Just don't bother her for too long. She's real busy, what with all of her work on creating clean food. She's up in the science lab. You can go through the market or take the stairwell. Don't make trouble in my city."

"Yes, we'll be sure not to, mister...?" Lloyd trailed off.

"Harkness," the man answered, then turned and walked through a metal door with a valve on it.

"Charming," Amata said. "Well, only a minor setback. Shall we?"

They entered the marketplace, a bustling area with various stores constructed out of raw materials. Lloyd walked down a short flight of stairs and moved further into the market, past a barrel with burning fire inside it.

"Hey, hey!" a man called to his left. Lloyd turned and saw a middle-aged man with a thick mustache, shaved head and a sleeveless leather jacket. "You're the Wandering Pair, right?" he asked.

Lloyd and Amata exchanged glances. "Uh... yeah, that's us," Lloyd said. He began to think, for the first time, of the scope of their interview with Three Dog. He hadn't realized that so many people might have heard it.

"I knew it! I heard it from one of the guards," he said, moving around his counter, which Lloyd just realized had guns on it, to greet them. "Name's Flak. I help run Flak and Shrapnel's gun shop. Pretty catchy, huh?"

"Yeah," Lloyd said as he shook the man's open hand, "real catchy."

"Listen, I've never had a celebrity shop at our store before, but please, I want you to take this," he said, walking over and picking up a mini nuke. Their eyes widened.

"Um... is there a particular reason why you're handing me a bomb?" Lloyd asked.

"Hell yeah there is! I want you two to take it, and then, when you use it to blow up another super mutant behemoth, I want you to tell everyone that the mini nuke came from Flak and Shrapnel's in Rivet City," he smiled. He held out the bomb.

Nervously, Lloyd took the mini nuke. "Uh... sure, no problem. Anything to help advertise, right?"

"Ha-hah, I knew you'd be on board!" Flak said. "But please, if there's anything else I can do for you, let me know. Guns, repairs, anything. For a price. I'll give you a discount, a small one. I still have to make end's meat, after all."

"Yeah, sure," Lloyd said, looking around. He suddenly noticed that various eyes in the large room were looking at all of them. People were talking. Amata, Charon and Jericho had noticed as well. From corners, railings and walkways, there was hushed gossip as people stared.

A little boy with dark hair ran up. "Hey, I hear you're the guys from the radio. The Wandering Pair."

"That's right," Lloyd said.

"You guys sound retarded. I think you're retarded." The boy ran off.

"What the?" Lloyd said. Amata stepped forward, seemingly about to chase after the boy, but then she stopped.

"That little brat! Somebody ought to teach that kid some manors!" she said.

"Oh, don't mind that little shit. He's always like that." Flak shrugged. "So, what can I do for you all anyway?"

Lloyd snapped back. "Oh, right. Listen, Charon," he said, turning to the tall ghoul. "Take Amata's pack. The caps are in there. Have the guns repaired, replaced if need be. Don't buy ammo; we're all good on that," he said as he tucked the mini nuke under his arm.

"Very well," Charon answered. Amata took off her pack and she and Lloyd set their weapons on Flak's table. Charon moved close, to ensure the safety of the firearms.

"Oh, and, uh, watch this," Lloyd said, placing the mini nuke at Charon's feet. Lloyd turned to regard Flak and asked, "Can you point out the science lab?" The man, much more polite than Harkness, gave them in-depth instructions on how to get to the lab and what level of the ship it was on. They inquired of Jericho if he wanted to come along, but he denied it.

They walked away, with Russ following. A man called out to them, "If you ever need clothing, come to Potomac Attire!" A woman advertised, "If drugs and medication is what you need, come to A Quick Fix!"

As they neared the end of the room, a young woman with blonde hair in a brown, raggedy dress ran up to them. "Excuse me," she said. "I was just wondering, if, um, I mean, I was thinking, since you two are uh, and I... oh god, never mind!" she said, running off.

"What is up with these people," Lloyd muttered. Amata tapped his arm.

"Let's just get going, Lloyd."

Back at the stand, Flak was already in the process of laying out their guns so that he could clean and repair them. He looked at Charon. "So, you were brainwashed, eh?" Flak asked.

"I'm not the one for conversation," Charon coldly replied.

"Okay, okay," Flak said as he went back to taking Lloyd's sniper rifle apart.

Lloyd and Amata began wandering about the hallways of the city, passing doors where people lived. Occasionally, they would bump into a stranger who knew them. Thanks to Flak's instructions, they eventually found their way into the science lab. There were large tanks of liquid, computers and various research assistants walking about tables full of experiments. Passing some of them by, Lloyd guessed that they were trying to purify vegetables. They quietly asked one where Dr. Li was, and although the researcher was annoyed, she pointed to a woman whose back was turned to them. Lloyd walked up, cleared his throat and spoke. "Excuse me," he said.

The woman audibly sighed in frustration. "Look, this is a restricted area. I'm tired of telling you people..." her voice trailed off as she turned to look up at Lloyd. Her eyes blazed with a spark of recognition. "I... It's you. My heavens, you look so much like him..."

Lloyd cocked an eyebrow. "Care to clarify?"

"You're James' son, aren't you?" she asked. He nodded. "Amazing... the resemblance really is uncanny..."

They both stayed silent as Dr. Li continued, "I thought you'd be coming. I heard about your story on the radio, but I didn't hear it myself. Just that some kid from the vault had left in search of his father. I thought it was just a coincidence, but I knew it couldn't be."

"So you know my father? Where is he?" Lloyd asked.

"Well yes, of course I do. Don't you know who I am?" she asked, her voice becoming a little less soft.

"No, I'd never even heard of you until Three Dog told me where to find my father."

"So James never told you. Typical. I can hardly believe I gave him more credit." She shook her head and then straightened up. "I'm Doctor Madison Li. I worked with your father many years ago. Your mother as well, in fact. I met them both when they were young, and we travelled here to the Capital Wasteland together."

Lloyd stepped closer, a million questions on his mind. "What? You knew my parents? So it's true, then? I wasn't born in the vault? You knew my mother?"

"Please, please, calm down," she said putting a hand on her head. "You'll have to forgive me. This has all been very stressful, what with your father showing up here after being gone so long."

"Take your time," Lloyd said. "But please, tell me, is my father here?"

"No. You have to understand, that I... we put all that behind us. Project Purity, our work, all of it. We've moved on, even if your father hasn't."

'Project Purity... there's that name again...' he thought. "I'm trying to find my father. Do you know where he is?"

Madison asked a question of her own, however. "Why did you leave the vault? James said he had left you there when he came here," she asked. She looked back at Amata. "Who is this?"

"This isn't about me, or Lloyd," Amata replied. "He left the vault to look for James, and I came with him."

"Did you, now?" Li asked. She spoke to Lloyd, "I was under the impression that that's the opposite of what he wanted for you."

Lloyd took a steadying breath. "Tell me where he is, please."

"Well, you won't find him here. He's come and gone already."

"Where did he go?" Amata asked.

Dr. Li looked away, shaking her head. "Your father insisted that we return to work on Project Purity. I tried telling him too much time has passed; there's no way it would work. Predictably," she said, crossing her arms, "he refused to listen to me, or to reason. He says he can prove that it will work, and headed off to the old lab. I'm sorry; I don't know what else to tell you."

"What's the old lab?" Lloyd asked.

"It's in the old Jefferson Memorial building, northwest of here."

Lloyd thought for a moment. "The domed building?" He recalled having seen it earlier, right before their attack on the super mutant encampment.

"Please, don't go after him. It was foolish of him to even think about going up there alone."

"I'm going," Lloyd told her. "My father went there, and that's where I'm going to go."

"I can't stop you," Li said. "I just hope you're lucky enough to find your father captured by the super mutants in that area, not killed."

Lloyd glared at her, but ignored the comment. "Now I've heard this before, but what is Project Purity?" he asked.

"Other than the name, what do you want to know?"

"What was the point of it? What was it going to do? Or what was it for?" he asked, rephrasing his question twice.

"It was a simple idea, really: fresh, clean water for everyone; such a simple idea and yet so impossible and frustrating to make real. The plan was to build a facility that could purify all the water in the tidal basin at once. No radiation, no muck, just clear water. It just turned out to be much more difficult than we anticipated."

"Why didn't it work?" Amata asked.

"We had the basic principles down and we understood most of the science behind it. But the radiation in the area is so pervasive... Small-scale tests were fine. But any time we tried the test process on a larger scale, it was just... too much. Maybe if we had had more time... or better equipment... who knows what we might have been able to accomplish."

Lloyd asked, "Why did you stop working on it? What happened?"

"You happened," she said.

Lloyd looked at her, blinking a few times. "Pardon?"

"It wasn't just you, we had more problems than we could handle already, but your birth is what pushed it over the edge. Your father decided that you were more important than everything we'd been working for, and he left. He left all of us."

Lloyd looked down. 'My father... did that?' he thought.

Li continued. "But even before he was gone, the Brotherhood decided we weren't worth their time anymore. Without their protection, or your father's leadership, we had to abandon the purifier."

Amata put her hand on his shoulder. Lloyd looked up at Li. "You knew my mother, right?"

"I did. I worked with her for several years until... until your mother died, and your father decided it was time to leave. What else do you want to know?"

"I never knew my mother. What can you tell me about her?"

Li seemed to pause in reflection. "Yes... Your mother was, well, she was a good woman. A very dedicated scientist. Your father loved her very much. It was a shame that she had died. She had been… excited to meet you," she told him.

"How did she die? I want to know if my father had told me the truth about that."

"Complications from childbirth." She took a moment to see how he reacted. He grimly nodded, indicated that James hadn't lied about it. "None of us were ready for it; we weren't as prepared as we could've been. You have to understand, we were struggling with scavenged, derelict equipment. We did everything we could."

His expression hardened a little. "You weren't prepared?" he asked quietly. "My mother is dead!" he almost shouted, garnering glances from about the room. Russ growled softly. Amata gently squeezed his arm.

"As I said," Li replied, keeping her calm, "I am sorry. I'm afraid I can't go back and change the past."

"I know that," Lloyd almost spat. He took a moment to calm down.

"You're emotional, much like your father. He's more mature, of course. He's learned to control his emotions in the time he's been in the vault."

Lloyd bit his lip, almost hard enough to draw blood. "So I'm like my father was before he left with me in hand?" he asked.

"He was very driven. Determined to change the world. Well, we all were back then, I suppose. He was focused on two things, really. Making Project Purity work and your mother. When she died, I think... I think he gave up, in a way. I know he wanted to keep you safe, but I think part of what he did was run away from the wasteland to escape it."

'My father, running away... Sadly, it does have familiar ring to it,' he thought.

"But it seems he was never able to get over the idea. I'm frankly shocked that he waited all this time, and wants to try again."

Lloyd nodded once more. "Alright. That's it then, Dr. Li. But please, if there's anything you can do to help us out..."

"Look, I don't want to be harsh, but I have problems of my own. I don't have the resources to support James' endeavors or of your chasing after him. I'm sorry."

Lloyd's eyes narrowed and his voice grew determined. "There must be something," he said. "Please."

She sighed. "I suppose I can spare a few stimpaks. It's not much, but it's something. Should make things easier for you when you get shot at." She reached into her pocket and pulled out five small syringes. Amata took them from her hand.

"Very well then, Doctor Li. Thank you for your time," Lloyd told her.

"Good luck finding your father," she earnestly told him.

They left the lab a moment later. Lloyd didn't look back.

Amata tried to stop him in the hall, but he kept on walking. "Lloyd, I want to talk," she told him. "Lloyd!" She grabbed his hand. He turned to face her. "Lloyd, we should talk about what happened in that room."

"My father could be in danger. She said that there're super mutants in that area. Every second we spent not getting closer to my father is a second he could die."

"But, Lloyd..."

He grabbed her shoulder. "Amata, please... I'm so close. I know it. He's there, at the Jefferson Memorial. There's nowhere else for him to go. We have to leave right now or else everything we've done up until now will have been pointless."

"You don't know that," she protested. "He could be fine."

"Or he could be dead, and I would never forgive myself for being too slow to catch up to him." He turned and walked back towards the market. After a moment of standing still, Amata moved to catch up with him.

---

"What the fuck, kid? We didn't even get to go to the bar," Jericho said as they crossed the bridge out of Rivet City.

"Jericho, this is seriously not the time for your bullshit," Lloyd said. "I need you to be on your toes. Super mutants are where we are headed."

"Where are we going, Lloyd Freeman?" Charon asked. Lloyd whipped around.

"It's Lloyd! Alright? My name is Lloyd! Two L's, an O, a Y and a D! Just Lloyd! Christ!" Lloyd threw his hands up and continued walking. Charon was silent.

"Lloyd!" Amata called out after him. "You need to calm down."

Lloyd turned back and sighed, running his hand through his hair. "Forgive me, Charon, I'm not in the best of moods. Now please, follow me to yonder Jefferson Memorial," Lloyd said, pointing to the domed building across the river water.

"He'll get better when he finds his father," Amata said to them. To herself, she thought, 'I hope.'

Heading back once more onto solid earth, they found a path along the river's edge which led to the Jefferson Memorial building. Just outside it, they began to encounter super mutants. A large, yellow industrial walkway led them around the building. The super mutants were few and far between outside.

The only entrance to the memorial they found was through the gift shop. The interior was trashed, and had many more super mutants. While they did use their usual amount of teamwork, Lloyd pushed on ahead, driven to find his father. He wasn't going to let these super mutants kill him.

The first floor consisted of various rooms with decaying and rusted equipment piled about. A turret system was broken and firing on anything that moved. They cleared it with the use of a grenade. As they began to eliminate all of the super mutants and centaurs, one by one and room by room, Lloyd borderline kicked down a door that led to the purification chamber. His mouth fell open when he saw the purifier. It was a massive machine that housed a large amount of filthy green water taken straight from the river. Tubes and pipes ran everywhere. Lloyd marveled at the machine some more after he killed the two super mutants in the room.

The tank itself had an upper interior area that could be accessed by some stairs. It was a circular chamber with computers and monitoring equipment. Some worked, some didn't. Lloyd ran his fingers across the surface of one computer, looking at the dust. "My father spent years of his life here, working on this... Both of my parents did..."

Amata walked up to him, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Lloyd?"

He closed his eyes. "I get it," he whispered. "Suddenly I get it all."

"What? What do you get?" she asked.

He opened his eyes and spoke softly. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." She looked at him curiously. "Revelation 21:6," he told her. "It was my mother's favorite bible passage. I shall give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life, freely. They wanted to make clean water... they wanted to help the lives of every single person in the wasteland."

"That's… a good dream," Amata said, unsure of how to reply.

"We've had a lot of good dreams lately," Lloyd said. "I tire of dreaming. I want to make this into a reality."

"What do you mean?"

"Amata, look at this," he said, holding up his hands and turning in place. "Look at all of this... it's so much bigger than what it seems. This purifier represents something amazing. It represents a dream that was dropped, but can be picked up again." He walked over to her. "My father is here somewhere. I'm going to help him get this thing working, no matter what."

She merely nodded. "Okay," she replied. "You know that I'll help you, Lloyd."

"There's just too much to think about, Amata. I need to find dad. I need to talk to him about this. This... this changes everything. I understand now. There are questions that remain unanswered, sure, but now I know why he left me without telling me. But, I still have to find him. Come on, I saw a basement level that we passed earlier."

Lloyd's mounting excitement, once more, began to fade. The basement levels contained only more super mutants. They passed by various rooms, but none of them had James. "Damnit!" Lloyd shouted, banging his fist against a wall. He entered a room lit dimly by a lamp. There was a comfortable bed, which he sat on. "Split up," he ordered them all. "Find my father! Just... just find him!" he shouted. Charon and Jericho moved back to head upstairs and search it more thoroughly. Lloyd looked up at Amata. "Go," he said. "I'll be just a minute. Then... then we'll talk, okay?" he said, calming down. She was quiet. "I'm sorry, I am... but damnit, we're so close..."

"I'll go look upstairs," she offered. Russ followed her, leaving Lloyd alone to sit on the bed. He looked over, and saw a couple of audio disks. He picked them up. They were labeled "Project Purity Personal Journal" with numbers one, two and three. A forth disk was unlabeled. Not quite sure why, though he told himself it was to see if anything at all was on it, he slid the unlabeled journal into his Pip-Boy and hit the play button. He heard his father's voice. He remembered, in that moment, the day of his escape from Vault 101, when he found a recording of his father behind a framed quote of Revelation 21:6, which, in his anger, he had smashed.

"Well, here we are again. Project Purity and me. It's been close to twenty years since my last entry. Since I left all of this behind to make a life for my son. We've spent that time in Vault 101, tucked away from the rest of the world. It wasn't perfect, but it was safe, and that's all I could have hoped for. Now, my son is a grown man. Handsome, intelligent, confident. Just like his old man. Humph. And as hard as it was to admit it, he doesn't need his daddy anymore."

Lloyd wasn't sure what to think. Did he not need his father? The entire reason he left in the first place was to find him. But did he truly need his father to survive? Lloyd and Amata had been doing well in the wasteland, certainly better than James could ever have imagined they would.

He ejected the disk and put in the first personal journal.

"So here I am, back where it all began. Project Purity. God, we wanted to change the world. We really thought the waters of life could be a reality. And that's why this is a momentous occasion. Because even after nineteen years, I still believe it. Project Purity can and will be operational. This is just the beginning. "

Not wanting to stop, Lloyd put in the next one.

"This is day 2 of my attempt to resurrect this project. I've got one of the portable fusion generators up and running, but it's just enough to power the emergency lighting and a couple of other systems. It will serve for now, but I need help powering up the mainframe. Time to visit Madison in Rivet City."

Lloyd frowned. He wished these had been longer, like the unlabeled one. So far, he hadn't learned much of what he had hoped to learn. He slid in the third.

"I spoke with Doctor Li, Madison, at Rivet City. It went about as well as I expected. That is to say she thinks I'm completely mad. How can I blame her? She's got her own life, her own team, and is making real tangible scientific progress. Here I come again, the very paragon of failure and false promises. But the reality is I need Madison and whatever scientific team she may have assembled. I can't do this myself. Project Purity is bigger than me, it always was. And without Catherine... God, I can't let this die. Not again, not like this."

Though it was only a recording, Lloyd could feel his father's words resonating deep within him. He knew his father was right, about everything. Project Purity could change the face of the Capital Wasteland forever. Lloyd's mind was still reeling at the prospect of how important it would be. It would save hundreds, maybe thousands of lives. Perhaps vegetation, green and alive, would finally begin to spread. The radiation, at least in that area, would be exterminated. Twice, now, Lloyd had donated a clean bottle of water to someone who didn't even have the luxury of a clean river. The ramifications that this purifier represented alone were too many to count and too powerful to comprehend.

He was about to sit up and leave the room when he looked over and saw another tape, one he had missed. It was near an open bottle of scotch, half-empty. He picked it up and read its label out loud. "Better Days." He wasn't quite certain what that title implied. The only way to find out would be to play it.

He slid the tape in. His utter surprise came about when the voice he heard was not of his father's, but a woman's.

"That batch of tests was inconclusive, but Madison and I are convinced it's a problem with the second filtration system. We're going to recalibrate the equipment and try again tomorrow so that... James, please, I'm trying to work. Now's not the time! ...So that's the next step. Assuming we get the results we need, we'll move on to... James!" the woman giggled. "Stop, I need to finish these notes!" More giggling. "...We'll move on to diagnosing the issues with the radiation dampeners, that should... Ow! James!" she laughed. "Now? We really shouldn't!" There was more giggling, a playful kind, before the tape cut out.

Lloyd sat there, completely still. At that exact moment, as if the gods themselves had deigned it, Amata walked in.

"Lloyd?" she asked. She wondered why he hadn't moved. "I found some tapes upstairs. I think they'll tell us where James is. I listened to one of them and he mentioned another vault, Vault 112. I think that's where he's headed."

Lloyd played the tape again for her ears. As she listened, small tears found their way down Lloyd's cheeks. When the tape was over, Amata walked over to him and crushed him in a tight hug. He cried, not particularly hard but it was easily noticeable. Amata didn't care; she knew that he had to cry to let it all out. Dr. Li was right, he was emotional. While he wasn't controlled by his emotions, he didn't have complete control of them either. He had a problem with bottling them up, and sometimes all it took was the right trigger to make that bottle burst. He needed her right now, and she was more than happy to help him.

She held him, and she felt like crying too, though she wasn't sure why. It must've just been the moment, because she continued to comfort him and kiss him and talk to him, telling him that it would be alright, that they would find his father, and that together, they would make the world a better place. Everything they had talked about, and dreamed about, would happen, and they'd be together. He kissed her back in earnest, and soon, the tears stopped.

In the hallway, Charon held Jericho and Russ back. As Jericho was about to protest, Charon told him. "It would be extremely prudent, I think, to patrol the entrance of this building and ensure that they are not interrupted." Jericho looked at the tall ghoul and shook his head. Charon coaxed Russ into following them.

He knew that, at that moment, they deserved their time alone more than anyone else in the Capital Wasteland.