A/N: So I inserted some of my own lines and altered the stuff between the Wanderer and Eden, but at least I got Mark and Faith back together, right?
Faith had found a foot locker in the room that contained her things. Mercifully, her Stimpaks hadn't been taken from her satchel either. After doctoring herself up, she felt marginally better. She knew that it was only a temporary fix though; she needed to get the hell out of here and find a doctor to patch her ass up.
Grunting, Faith finished lacing up her boots before pushing herself to her feet. After making sure she had her guns loaded and ready to use, she squared her shoulders. She was leaving and if she met Steve Austin on the way, good.
At first she thought that she was going to be killed on sight when she encountered the first soldier. Somehow, she had bluffed her way into postponing getting shot while said soldier conferred with another intercom that was linked to Eden.
After that, Eden issued a command via the P.A. system, basically saying she was off limits and on her way to his office.
She had just found her way to Level 2 of the building when another announcement was made. One that made her visibly cringe.
"This is Colonel Austin. We have a trespasser in our midst and I want her shot. Repeat, SHOT."
"Liberty Prime still isn't functional, Elder Lyons."
"I am aware of that, Scribe. However, I want men working on him around the clock. You have one week to get the robot up and running."
"But, Sir, I-"
"One week."
Mark -who had taken to walking with Owyn- for once was impressed by the old man. "One week?"
"We've been waiting for word concerning Faith." Owyn explained, something he was not used to doing for an outsider. "Our Brothers in the Wasteland are searching for her; I am giving them a week to send news."
"And if they have none to send?"
"Then we continue on with Liberty Prime."
I've been expecting you."
Faith recognized that voice. She had heard it on the Enclave broadcast, and during the interruption of her beat down. It was the voice of Present Eden. Frowning, she tilted her head back to look up. Nothing but a metal structure that housed some type of massive computer. It was like a tower of sorts, steel steps curving around it.
"Up here, my dear."
Cautiously, she started up the stairs, withdrawing a knife. In such tight quarters, a long barreled gun wasn't likely to be of any use to her. Once at the top of the tower, she paused. There was nobody else up here. "Well what the-"
"Turn around, please."
She did.
"Right here."
It took her a moment to realize that what she was staring at was a very large computer monitor. "Are you fucking serious?"
"About what?"
"Oh hell no, this is some kind of fucking joke. The wanna-be President of what used to be the United States is some fucking form of artificial intelligence?" Faith threw her hands up into the air and shook her head, feeling a strange mixture of hysteria and despair washing through her.
She wasn't in the mood to play games. She had had to battle her way here after Austin had announced that he wanted her found and shot. She had no idea how many people she had killed, or how many of those who had been unarmed.
There would -hopefully- be plenty of time later to suffer a guilt trip.
Point was, she wasn't up to being jerked around. Especially by a computer of all things.
"I assure you, this is no joke." The monitor said flatly. "I AM President John Henry-"
"Eden." She interrupted, weariness beginning to sink into her. The Stimpaks hadn't been able to take care of all the injuries inflicted on her by Austin and then fighting her way here. She hadn't done her body any favors and she was fairly certain that there was a gash bleeding copiously on her right side. "So what do you want with me?"
"I want you to help me help you."
She scowled.
"You and I are not so unalike you know."
"You sure about that?" She sneered, pressing a hand against her side in an attempt to stop the bleeding. "Because I know I sure as hell didn't have a childhood in rural Kentucky with a dog and green pastures."
Even the computer could hardly fail to notice the scathing quality in her tone. "Well, my dear-"
She really wasn't in the GODDAMN MOOD. This was just… asinine. The supposed leader of the country was a COMPUTER? She could not, would not, accept that.
Apparently there was a camera or a video feed because Eden beeped nervously when the barrel of her gun swung at him. "Now, do not be hasty. Shooting me will do nothing. I will just reboot myself on a different system."
"It'll make me feel a lot better." She spat through gritted teeth.
"At least hear what I have to propose."
Groaning, she lowered the barrel slowly. "Fine."
She could always shoot him after.
Mark had taken up joining the patrol at the Citadel gates. He figured if word of Faith was coming, it would come through those doors. He raised his sniper in order to peer through the scope, feeling his heart do an erratic leap. "That's Kane." He grunted, signaling for weapons to be lowered. After passing aside his gun to the nearest Paladin, Mark began walking out to meet the Ghoul he had contracted for Faith.
He had been under the impression Kane had died during the raid on the Jefferson Memorial. He was surprised to find that he was glad it wasn't true.
As the two drew nearer to each other, the thing in Kane's arms Mark had at first took to be a satchel or something became clearer. His pace picked up as realization that it was Faith Kane carrying sunk through. He wanted nothing more than to snatch her away from the Ghoul but refrained when he seen she was asleep, or at least he was hoping she was asleep. "Is she…?"
"Unconscious." Kane rasped, looking a little more decrepit than the last time Mark had saw him. "I keep knocking her out so she won't try to move."
Mark grimaced, reaching out to gently push strands of black hair away from her face, frowning when he seen the scar that marred her cheek. "How'd this happened?"
Kane didn't answer, just pushed past the other man.
"Well, you had two broken ribs and a lot of bullet wounds, how the hell are you still alive?"
Of all the people Faith was expecting to wake up and see, Knight Finley was not one of them. Not that she was bitching, last she remembered, he was a very good doctor. Opposed to Sawbones, the Citadel's very own medical robot, who also happened to have a serious malfunction that caused him to kill more patients than actually save them. She gingerly began to sit up, nodding gratefully when he eased an arm beneath her to help. "Thanks."
"Do you remember how you got here?" Finley asked, shining a penlight in each of her pupils.
"I remember…" Faith bit her lower lip thinking. She remembered listening to Eden's 'proposal' and then accepting it just so she could get the hell out of there. He had ordered his robots to help her in her escape, which was a good thing else wise Austin's soldiers would have gunned her down quickly. It had been the sounds of explosions that had alerted her to the fact that something had been seriously wrong.
"Unlike Colonel Austin, I do not believe the Capital Wasteland needs to be entirely destroyed in order to save it." Eden said, aware that his audience had an itchy trigger finger. "I do believe it needs to be purged of mutation in order for humanity to start over. The good Colonel would prefer to scour all living creatures."
Faith had known Austin was a bastard, now he had just made Eden the lesser of two evils.
"The good people of this country cannot regain control while mutation runs rampant through our land. My soldiers cannot stem the tide, nor can the cult you've come into contact with, this Brotherhood of Steel. Mutations like the "Super Mutants" and ghouls must be purged from our society, our world, before we can proceed anew. Where others have failed, I believe your father's work can succeed."
"I don't understand how the purifier comes into play."
"The purifier your father helped create has the ability to provide clean water to the whole of this Capital Wasteland. With a simple modification, it can be used to distribute agents that destroyed mutated creatures upon ingestion. In time, we could eliminate all mutations in the Wasteland at the same time the good people of the world regain their health. I need you to make the modification necessary for this to succeed."
"How?"
"In front of you will be a vial of modified FEV virus. It can be inserted into the control console for the purifier. Doing so will inject it into the water supply, and the purifier will take care of the rest. You just need the code to activate the purifier."
She knew there was a reason Eden wanted her. She was the only person alive with that knowledge.
"You do understand that I cannot allow you to leave here without taking that vial."
"Won't this basically kill everyone in the Wasteland?" She asked evenly.
"Anyone or anything that has been affected by mutation will be eliminated. You will likely be immune, thanks to your upbringing in the Vault."
But Mark would die. So would Dr. Li and Elder Lyons. The kids in Lamplighter Caverns, not to mention Walter….
"Likewise, the good people of the Enclave will be unaffected as well."
How unsurprising.
As if the computer could sense her feelings, it added: "I understand that you may have become sympathetic to certain individuals in your travels. Individuals this will eliminate. Please recognize that the fate of our entire country rests on this plan. Sacrifices must be made for the greater good."
"Sacrifices that YOU deem necessary for the greater good. How do you know that this genocide will do any good at all?"
"Because I am programmed to be infallible."
"So you know because you know? That is circular logic, at best." Faith said scornfully. "That would be like a HUMAN saying they know because they know. Circular logic is fallible, all you are doing is supporting your argument based on your argument, and you haven't presented any facts Eden!"
And then an amazing thing happened…