Using Maya's information of the base, and her tech knowledge, the group was able to infiltrate the headquarters without many issues. There were one or two close calls with a guard and a scientist, but White and McNamara pacified them before they were able to alert their friends. Maya was also keeping close tabs on the automated security systems, like surveillance cameras and microphones that were scattered in the corners in almost every room. Progress was slow due to this as she had to hack every surveillance system they came across, but they were steadily progressing to their target: the Founding Father's stasis room. To get there, they needed to gain access to the elevator that would take them straight down.

"What's taking so long?" Ibsen whispered behind Maya.

"Shhh!" Boone elbowed him in the ribs as he kept a lookout in front of them.

"Almost there" Maya whispered confidently as the screen on her Pip-Boy flickered, going through various algorithm permutations to determine the passcode for the elevator. "And…we're through!" the doors slid open and they all rushed inside, eager to disappear from plain sight. As the doors closed, everyone sighed in relief.

"I can't be the only one who thinks that was too easy?" Ibsen questioned after a thoughtful moment, "There is no way we weren't detected".

"Maybe we just got lucky" Boone replied, loading more bullets in his silenced pistol.

White shook his head, "No, they definitely know we're here. Nothing goes past them without their knowledge".

All Maya could do was listen to her heart pounding in her chest as the voices of the others blurred into white noise behind her. She didn't know what was coming up ahead, but she had to keep her calm so she could get all of them out alive and safe. She was desperately hoping that she had taken every precaution that they weren't detected, but a heavy knot in her gut was telling her that Ibsen was right… Nothing gets past them. Somehow she couldn't help feeling like this was the end...

Feeling a gentle weight press on her shoulder, she flinched and turned around, only to see Boone's worried expression bearing down on her.

"Maya, you alright?" he asked.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't hear her team talking to her. "Yeah, fine" she nodded, feeling a chill up her spine.

"Do we proceed according to plan?" McNamara asked, "It's not too late to make some changes".

Maya shook her head, "No, we proceed" she rubbed the back of her neck trying to calm her nerves. "Oh! One thing though: Ibsen, pass me your Pip-Boy". The scribe unlatched his device and tossed it to her. Plugging them together via a connection cable, Maya began a data dump of her files to Ibsen's device, which took less than a couple of seconds thanks to her compression method. She nodded when it finished and tossed it back to him, "Just in case…"

Boone wanted to ask her what she meant, but he felt the elevator slow to a stop. Before the doors slid open, everyone took their positions, weapons at the ready.

The hallway leading to the stasis room was ominously dark and cold. They couldn't risk turning on their headlamps as that would attract enemy attention, even though it appeared the area was abandoned. The group steadily made their way forward. Once they got into the room, the lights on the high ceiling slowly increased in brightness, startling McNamara and the others.

"Don't worry, it's just the motion sensors detecting our presence. It's automatic" Maya re-assured them.

A tall structure that looked like stacked computer servers, almost ten feet from top to bottom, was situated in the middle of the room on a metal grate platform.

"What the hell is that?!" Ibsen whispered in awe, "I've never seen anything like this…"

"You wouldn't have, this technology isn't native to your universe" Maya replied as she climbed up the metal stairs and analysed the structure, "It's the main server that controls the stasis chambers of the Founding Fathers. Begin accessing the terminals, extract and save as much information as you can before wiping the servers" she added.

"And, where are they?" he cocked an eyebrow, referring to the Founding Fathers.

"The level below us" Maya replied, "But you don't want to go down there. They're a bunch of withered husks by now in loin cloths. We can do everything we need to do from here".

Everyone immediately got to work. Having gone over the plan several times, each one of them knew exactly what to do and where to go. They had a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. Meanwhile, Maya was planning their escape, ensuring that on her command the system would provide a clear passage for them to the surface. It was more difficult than she had anticipated.

"Looks like you guys were busy after I escaped" she muttered under her breath as her fingers danced on the keyboard in front of her, her eyes scanning every line of code, "additional firewalls, tripwires and security, eh? Almost as if you were paranoid I'd be back". The thought made her chuckle. As she was embedding the last crucial bit of code into the system that would initiate the self-destruct, fry the entire system, including communication so they couldn't get a warning out to those they've influenced, she noticed a flicker in the screen. To an untrained eye, they might have mistaken it as just a random glitch or a refresh, but Maya realised they were in trouble. Taking a deep breath in to calm and collect herself, she realised there was only one possible solution to get the others out alive. She looked around and it seemed the others were almost done.

"How's it going?" she asked, striding up to Boone who was transferring the last bit of data off his terminal.

"Good" he nodded, "Going exactly as you planned".

"Good" she nodded with a smile, trying to keep her voice calm, "Remember to wipe the system with the magnet after you finish" she added before moving to McNamara, who was busying himself at another terminal across the room on his own.

"Nolan, I need you to do something for me" she whispered…

Boone safely stashed the storage device with the backed-up data in his backpack before destroying the computer with the powerful magnet by swiping it over his entire working area, even though Maya said he only needed to do it on his server.

'Better safe than sorry' he thought, pleased with himself.

"Alright, time to go", McNamara called softly, not wanting to yell in case there were any guards around. Everyone followed suit, apart from Maya, who was still working at her console.

"Wait up, Maya's not done yet" he called behind them, "Hey, everything okay?" he walked up to her and stood at the base of the metal stairs leading up the platform.

Maya nodded without looking at him, "Go with the others, I'm just finishing up. Don't worry, I'll catch up".

Boone shook his head, "No, we do this by the book like you said, we're not separating now".

"Craig, please. Go" she turned, her steady gaze meeting his, "I promise, I'll be right behind".

"Let's go Boone", McNamara called behind him.

His gut was telling him something was wrong, and after many years of experience, he learned not to ignore his instincts. "No" Boone hissed, "This is not what we planned. We all go together, you said that yourself" his pleading eyes met hers.

"Craig… Go", she pleaded, trying desperately to keep her voice calm. But Boone wouldn't listen. He just stood there waiting, his eyes pleading with her.

"What's wrong?" he questioned, "Something must have happened…?"

After a hesitant pause, Maya nodded, "I'll be able to fix it from here and make sure you don't run into trouble on the way up, but you all have to go. Now!"

Stubbornly, Boone shook his head, "I'm not losing you again". Just as he was about to climb the stairs to her, he felt a searing pain on the back of his head and the world around him disappeared into darkness…

Fading in and out of consciousness, Boone caught flashes of light, movement, and sounds. He vaguely recollected an image of the group dragging him down a hallway, then onto a strange aircraft he thought was a VertiBird…although it only had one propeller at the top. It was all jumbled together and didn't make sense, but there were gunshots throughout the whole ordeal. Then nothing….

It was an odd sensation for him, being paralysed that is, and wholly dependent on the four people that were with him. Wait… No… there were only three. Why were there only three? Someone was missing.

"Craig… Go"

'Maya?...'

"I promise, I'll be right behind"

'Maya!'

His eyes flew open, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. "Maya!" he called as his blurry vision started coming into focus. A team of individuals in a white coats rushed to his side, one of them with Mohawk hair was pushing him back down while another was preparing a syringe.

"Get off me!" he screamed, trying to get up even though the pain in his head was excruciating and threatening to incapacitate him yet again. Feeling a sting in his right thigh, he couldn't fight the effects of the sedative and drifted back into the abyss…

The faint hum of a flickering light and an uncomfortable feeling in his lower back finally roused Boone out of his deep sleep. Blinking the dried crust that had formed on his eyes away, he squinted as he allowed his vision to adjust to the painfully bright lights in the room. There was a figure sitting next to him, but Boone couldn't yet tell who it was as his vision was still out of focus and his mind cloudy and confused. It seemed that whoever it was, they were asleep; a book splayed open on their face as their head was tilted back, a faint snore escaping the man's mouth every couple of breaths. Boone tried to speak to get the man's attention, but that felt even worse than opening his eyes. His mouth was so parched it felt as though he had swallowed half of the Mojave Desert. There was a glass of water sitting on the bedside table next to him, but as he reached for it he must have missed, for the glass evaded his outstretched hand and smashed on the concrete floor. It successfully roused his visitor though.

"What? I'm up!" he sputtered, twitching awake and sending his worn book tumbling to the floor. "Boone! You're awake!". It was Ibsen.

"Water" Boone tried to say but the words that escaped him sounded more like a wheeze.

"Oh, yes! You must be thirsty. Hold on" he got him another glass of water and helped him sit up so he could drink.

Boone downed the glass in three gulps, feeling the coolness of the water rehydrating him almost as soon as it touched his lips. It tasted so sweet… He couldn't remember the last time water tasted that good.

"Where am I?" he panted, trying to catch his breath after the drink, "What… what happened?" he tried to pull himself up and felt a painful tug on his unmentionables. Wincing, he flipped the blanket over, much to Ibsen's uncomfortable dismay, and saw a catheter leading from underneath his gown to a bag at the end of the bed. It was practically full. "How long was I out?"

Averting his gaze away from Boone as he flipped the blanket back over his nether regions, Ibsen began to answer his questions. "You're safe in the new Brotherhood of Steel base, we were successfully able to avert global catastrophe, and you've been unconscious for about 4 days".

Boone stared at him in confusion, "What the hell happened?!".

"Well, you, um… Refused to listen to Maya or McNamara and he… well…." Ibsen couldn't stop shifting his gaze away from Boone, "He knocked you out with a blow to the head. You've had a concussion".

"What?!" Boone yelled, causing the familiar searing pain to return to his head and shoot down his neck and upper back. He collapsed onto his pillow and pressed his palms on his temples to try to stop the pain. "Where's Maya?"

Ibsen's saddened expression and aversion to meet Boone's eyes conveyed the news Boone desperately didn't want to believe. All he could do was lie there and feel the grief swallow him.

"How could you just leave her?" he sobbed quietly, his voice cracking as the pressure built up in him like an overflowing dam, "After everything we survived…". If only he could have been there with her in those last moments. Images of her all alone in that hell hole trying to stop the FEV outbreak on her own flooded his mind. He wondered what things went through her head in those final moments. The fact that he was denied the chance to be there with her filled him with an agonizing rage.

"Boone… I cannot apologise enough… I know what you're feeling –"

"No… you don't, you never will" he pressed his palms into his eyes until they hurt, trying to stop the tears, "Get out…".

Ibsen didn't want to leave his side, afraid that in his current state of mind he might do something regrettable; but it was evident that staying was also causing Boone a lot of stress.

"Alright… I'll be nearby if you need anything", he stood up, ready to leave. Then he remembered that Maya had transferred some files over onto his PipBoy, and there was one file he dared not open labelled 'Boone'.

"I'll leave this here with you", he gently placed his PipBoy on the bedside table for Boone, "There's a file in there with your name; I think Maya left you some recordings".

As soon as the door closed behind Ibsen, Boone reached over and grabbed the PipBoy, frantically flipping to the correct file. He felt like he was losing his mind all over again, and this last piece of her would stop him from tumbling into the abyss. He pressed play on the recording and hearing her voice felt like a salve offering sweet relief.

"Hey Craig, listen… I'm sorry for what is about to happen… I think I've gotten to know you pretty well. So um, don't blame Nolan for the headache… I asked him to drag you out if necessary. **nervous laughter**. I, um, have to stay and stop the launch of the FEV compound. The bastards were craftier than I originally thought. They built a Deadman's switch in case of tampering, so someone who knows how to bypass their systems needs to stay to counter the commands… I know that after all you've been through, leaving me alone to finish the job isn't gonna be easy... but it needs to be done. There's so much I wanna say right now but I'll keep it short and sweet. You know, when I returned to my home, things were very complicated and…difficult… I couldn't adjust to my old life before this… Not after seeing you through the chamber, after your last words to me… I had to get back. You were all I could think about… I'm sorry that we didn't have enough time…"

Tears were flowing freely down Boone face, but he dared not stop or pause the recording. He wanted to hear it all as if she were right there with him.

"Funny… I've travelled through parallel dimensions and time, and there's still not enough time… but I have to get to the stasis pods and connect myself to the system so I can gain full control. I have to run down soon and, well… I think I'll be cutting it a little close on this one. No matter what happens, I just want you to know that I love you too… I always have."

Boone tried to muffle a guttural cry at those words and cradled the PipBoy in his lap, rewinding the recording to the beginning and listening on repeat until he passed out from exhaustion and grief.

"I'll see you later…"