Two weeks had gone by since the Institute had captured Piper and Ashley along with the Railroad HQ. In that time, they had been subjected to numerous interrogation sessions conducted by Nora and her Stormtrooper officers. Nora's interrogation methods were brutal, and she later revealed to Ashley in one of her sessions that she had studied interrogation techniques used by the C.I.A before the war. As such she subjected her prisoners to being beaten by her Stormtroopers or cut them open herself with surgical instruments. In some instances, she would subject them to waterboarding for her own entertainment. After several of these sessions Nora had learned everything there was to know about the Railroad and had dispatched squads of Stormtroopers to eliminate the remaining Railroad safe houses scattered across the Commonwealth.
As for the Minutemen, Nora had learned their plans from her sessions with Piper. The Reporter had resisted Nora's interrogations for as long as she could but eventually she cracked and told Nora how far along they were in building the intercept relay. Ashley couldn't blame her cousin though, she understood that Piper had never had to endure anything like this before in her life and realized that in an effort to help Ryan she had transitioned from a civilian to a soldier to quickly and didn't have the experience that she and Ryan had to build up their mental fortitude which Nora had exploited to her advantage. With the Railroad gone and the Minutemen's plans known, Ashley didn't have much hope in the success of their mission.
Nora took a different interest in Ashley however, preferring to talk with her instead of interrogating and torturing her. Their conversations mostly consisted of Ashley's adventures after leaving Vault 101, more specifically the war between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave. Ashley found it odd that Nora would take an interest in her past but she saw no harm in telling her what had happened. She would spend hours talking about her exploits while Nora listened intently and politely ask questions throughout her tales which Ashley would answer in kind. Ashley found it funny at how nice Nora was when talking with her and she would sometimes forget that the woman was responsible for committing heinous acts against herself and others. She would even entertain the idea that had they met in another life they could have been friends. Still she knew deep down that Nora was a ruthless murder and that despite her friendliness towards her now she could easily have her and Piper killed whenever she wanted as long as they remained her prisoners.
It was around noon when the door to Ashley and Piper's quarters opened and two Stormtroopers walked in. Ashley, being protective of her cousin, stepped between them and Piper to prevent them from taking her again but was surprised when they grabbed her arms instead and escorted her out of the room. The troopers led her down the hall and into the interrogation room where they sat her down in one of the chairs. Ashley was puzzled as to why she was here, Nora had already obtained everything she wished to know and she had shown no signs of wanting to torture them anymore.
Ashley was broken from her thoughts when the door opened again and Nora walked in. Ashley watched her as she walked past her and sat in the chair opposite her. Nora glanced at her briefly before placing a red, green, and blue item on the table in front of her and Ashley eyed them curiously, wondering what their purpose was.
"Care to take a guess as to why I've brought you here today?" Nora asked once she was down placing the cards down.
Ashley looked up at her and replied. "I assume it has something to do with those items."
"Yes, but we'll get to their purpose in a minute. As you no doubt know I have been successful in my interrogations, the surviving Railroad safe houses are being destroyed and the surviving members being brought here. That being said, there is no more information that I require from them, their leaders, or the synths they were attempting to help flee and I have yet to decide what to do with them, bringing us to these items that I have placed before you." Nora told her.
"You want me to decide what to do with your prisoners?" Ashley asked.
"In a matter of speaking. Each item represents a different portion of the Railroads infrastructure. The red one represents the Synths in their possession, the blue one represents the Railroads leadership, and finally the green one represents both groups combined. You've had to make difficult choices in the past and I want to see what you'll do in this scenario for myself." Nora explained to her.
"So whatever item I pick will determine that groups fate?"
"Yes. Choose the red one and all the Synths will be destroyed, but the human members will be left alive and kept as laborers. Pick the Blue one and the Railroads leadership will die while the Synths are reprogrammed to become a part of the Institute again. Should you choose the green one, the entirety of the Railroad will be destroyed. The decision is yours."
"So your telling me that each of these will have a different outcome even though their pretty much the same thing with a different color and my decision won't really matter in the end regardless of what I choose?" Ashley asked, questioning the logic behind whatever test Nora was doing.
Nora looked up in thought for a moment before responding. "Pretty much yeah." She replied bluntly.
"And what if I refuse to pick one." Ashley challenged.
"If you refuse I'll have you and your cousin killed slowly while I watch and laugh. You have no attachment to the Railroad and knowing you I believe you'd do anything to protect your family. I'll tell you what, pick one and I'll let the both of you go free."
"Why? Wouldn't that make it harder for you to stop us?"
"Perhaps, but I like a good challenge every once in a while. Besides things are about to change around here and having you two here will distract me from what I have to do."
Ashley sighed and looked back down at the items in front of her. Nora was right, she would do anything to protect her family. She carefully weighed her options but saw no outcome in which the Railroad wouldn't be severely damaged. Finally, she decided that since they wouldn't be able to rebuild regardless of her choice she picked the green one, condemning the entire organization. She hated herself for this and hated Nora even more for putting her in this position but Ashley knew that the Synth would get what was coming to her eventually.
"Green huh? Interesting choice. Now that that's settled you may return to your quarters." Nora told her before Ashley was escorted back to her quarters by the two Stormtrooper guards.
The next day she and Piper were brought to a large room where Nora had the Railroad gathered, Stormtroopers armed with automatic shotguns and heavy repeating laser canons where formed up between them and the Railroad. Nora stood with Ashley and Piper and held a microphone in her hand which she used to address the crowd and broadcast throughout the Institute.
"Today marks a glorious day for the Institute. The Railroad, which has been a thorn in side for years, has finally come to an end thanks to the efforts of our Stormtrooper Corps. With these radicals defeated we are free to continue our research without delay and are one step closer to bringing humanity into the future. But we could not have brought an end to the Railroad without the misguided efforts of Ashley DeLoria and Piper Wright. Without them we would have never been able to track them to their lair, and for that I thank them. Now we will witness the destruction of the Railroad and the end of their pitiful ignorance."
On Que the Stormtroopers raised their weapons and fired into crowd of Railroad members. With nowhere to run the Railroad members were slaughtered as the troopers emptied their weapons into them without pause. Piper looked away, unable to watch knowing that she was partially responsible for what was happening while Nora smirked with amusement as her troopers gunned down their prisoners. Ashley however forced herself to look, knowing that she was responsible for the massacre taking place in front of her. While Nora had made her choose she was ultimately responsible for the destruction of the Railroad. Finally, the troopers stopped firing after the Railroad members were full of holes and completely unrecognizable.
Ashley and Piper were then led to an assault transport which took them to the surface, dropping them off close to Sanctuary before returning to the Institute. Ashley sighed as she watched the transport depart, that whole ordeal had been horrible and she was even more confused about Nora now than ever. Ashley knew that Nora was a despicable and evil person but having had several civil conversations with her made Ashley wonder if Nora wasn't always the ruthless person she was now. Regardless she was still the person responsible for the murder of her family and Ashley would do everything in her power to make her pay for what she's done. But before anything could be done they had to get back to the Castle. Ashley looked Piper over and noted the bruises over her body, and figuring her mental state was as bruised as her body she was in no condition to travel far without a few days' recovery. Sanctuary wasn't far so Ashley picked up Piper and carefully threw her over her shoulders to carry her to the settlement where they would rest for a few days before returning to the Castle. One thing kept bothering Ashley however, Nora had told her that the Institute was about to change and she feared what she had implied by that. Was Nora planning a coup against whoever ran the Institute? If so things would get a whole lot worse for them before anything got better.
Yes I did just poke fun at Mass Effect's ending (love those games.)
As for the Sole Survivor being a bit immature, he's a Lance Corporal in the Marine Corps. That should be enough to explain his supposed immaturity. (Look up LCPL on Urban Dictionary for an accurate description.)
And finally the A113/Pixar reference was completely unintentional, I just BS'd Nora's designation for the sake of giving her one.