Chapter Thirty-Five: Resolution

Once his body had been hoisted out of the FEV Vat, the crane then rotated on its base to deposit Alex's enormous, mutated frame onto the platform at the center of the catwalks. The machine lowered him slowly to the ground where he lay slumped, unconscious. Everyone was silent. They had their hands on their weapons, but none of the firearms were raised. This was Alex after all… or was it?

Albert stood closest. He still couldn't believe what he was seeing. For added verification, he removed his helmet so that he could look upon the mutant's face with his own eyes and not through the power armor's optics. Jennifer did likewise. Albert walked slowly over to the mutant and reached out to roll the body over to its side so he could get a better look.

The mutant reacted, lashing out at Albert's outstretched hand. Albert leapt back, his rifle raised. Everyone did likewise, though Jennifer was slowest to react.

Slowly, the mutant rolled over till he was on all fours. He paused for several long seconds, noticing his mutated hands for the first time. It seemed as though his body heaved with a great sigh. Then the large head turned and spotted the Lieutenant's body lying in a large pool of blood just a few feet away. He crawled laboriously over until he was looking at his own reflection.

He remained in that position for several long seconds, his eyes wide with disbelief, his fingers running over the enlarged features of his face. The more he stared, the more his shoulders heaved with deeper, more distressed breaths until, suddenly, he was wailing loudly in anguish at what he had become. Even his voice had changed, now lower and deeper. When his cry finally ended, Alex remained motionless in the same position on his hands and knees.

He stayed that way until Albert finally decided to rouse him from his grief. 'Alex,' he said.

Slowly, Alex raised his head until he was finally looking at Albert for the first time. To Albert's surprise and dismay, Alex's glance was cold and hard as he visually scanned his audience. But when his gaze finally settled on Jennifer, his expression softened and gave way to a sudden mix of surprise, shame, and regret.

'Jennifer,' he tried to say. Having escaped the full dipping treatment, he had also been spared the inconvenience of having his lips growing oversized during the transformation. He seemed to have no apparent need of one of those lip braces to keep his upper lip from blocking his mouth. Nevertheless, as perfectly enunciated as the word was, Alex's voice had changed so much that it was as if a completely different person had called Jennifer's name.

'No…' she moaned, her head slowly shaking from side to side in denial. 'It's not true. It can't be true.'

'Jennifer,' Alex repeated, struggling to get to his feet and reaching out one massive arm to her.

To Jennifer, hearing her name spoken by a super mutant's gravelly voice only served to alienate her even more from the mutant before her. And as Alex rose to his full nine-and-a-half-foot height, Jennifer's eyes only grew wider with fear and disbelief. She took a step back, her weapon falling limply to her side. 'No… No…' she repeated, taking another step back.

'Please. Jennifer,' he said, his hand still reaching for hers.

Jennifer shook her head. Tears sprung to her eyes. 'No… stay back…'

'It's me,' Alex pleaded.

'No!' she shouted and turned away.

'No! Don't go! Come back! Please!' he shouted after her with a look of desperation in his eyes, but she was already running.

'I'm sorry!' she sobbed and then was gone.

Alex held out his hand for several more seconds, then let it drop. His cheeks were already wet from his own tears.

'Alex,' said Albert gently, taking a step towards the much larger former human.

Alex turned his glance away from Jennifer's receding form to Albert. By the time he did so, his eyes had grown hard and narrow. 'You didn't come,' he said softly but stonily as he fixed Albert with his steely gaze. 'I held out under all that torture and you never came!' he bellowed. 'You! And you!' He turned his gaze over to Natalia. 'I said nothing about your stupid Vault, I stalled for as long as I could, waiting for you to show up. But you never came! And now look at me! LOOK AT ME!'

'Our Vault,' Albert corrected him, trying to be as calm as possible. 'You saved our Vault, Alex.'

'It's not my Vault,' Alex said with a fatalistic tone to his voice. 'Not anymore.'

'No,' Albert argued firmly though there was growing sadness in his voice. 'You can still come back. Come back with us.'

Alex gave a short, bitter laugh. 'I thought you were a better liar than that,' he said. 'You and I both know that will never work.'

'We will make it work,' Albert insisted.

Alex laughed again. 'Don't be a fool, Albert. The woman I love can't even bear to look at me anymore. What hope do I have in a world that hates and fears super mutants?'

'She's just in shock,' Albert tried to reason with him. 'She'll come around eventually.'

Alex shook his head patronizingly. 'She's afraid of me, Albert. Just as you are.'

'I'm not afraid.'

'Then why are your hands still clutching onto your weapon like that? Why is your finger still in the trigger guard? You're all afraid of me. And you should be. I'm one of the monsters now.'

'You're not a monster!' Natalia shot back at him. 'You're still Alex!'

'Alex died when none of you showed up to rescue him! Alex died when the mutants left him in that Vat for hours!' He jabbed his finger in the direction of the Vat he had been pulled out from. 'When I look at my reflection,' he said, 'I don't see Alex. I see a giant mutant brute, created to wage war against all humans and ghouls in the wasteland. You came here to destroy mutants like that, didn't you?! Well, there's one standing right in front of you! So shoot me! SHOOT ME!' His arms were raised, as if welcoming their bullets.

'We are not your enemies!' Albert shouted back at him. Then his voice softened. 'And you are not ours.'

Alex seemed to calm down from his outburst. 'Maybe not,' he said. 'But you're not my friends.' He turned, so he was facing the three Vats, his back now turned towards them. He closed his eyes, his head lowering to his chest. 'We're done here,' he said. 'Do what you came to do, and leave.'

'Alex, we're going to blow this place up,' Natalia spoke up. 'You need to get out of here with us. We can help you. Whatever challenges you'll face once we're out of here, we'll face them together. We won't leave you, Alex.'

Alex didn't turn around. 'You're already too late.'

'Don't be a fool, man,' Tycho said. 'If you stay here, you'll die. Don't let Jennifer be your one lifeline. Her views aren't the only ones that matter.'

Alex turned so he was looking at them from the corner of his eye. 'You're right, Tycho,' he said. 'But you know what she and I still have in common? We both can't stand to see what I've become.'

'Alex,' Albert said again, taking a step forward.

'Get out of here!' Alex said angrily. When Albert made no move, Alex turned. 'LEAVE ME!' he thundered with such ferocity that Albert took an involuntary step back.

'Okay,' Albert said softly. 'We're going to program the self-destruct – give you some time to yourself. After that we'll come back in to get you.' Before he left, Albert slowed his step to offer one final word. 'I'm sorry we didn't make it in time.'

'You and me both,' Alex said quietly.

Back in the control room, Albert found Tycho inserting the encryption decoder key into the Vats Control Computer. Dogmeat bounded happily up to Albert as he entered, albeit with a bit of a limp, relieved to see his master was still fine.

'We're almost done here, boy,' Albert said reassuringly scratching the top of Dogmeat's head. Albert shot a glance at Erwin who was on his feet and seemed to be in much better condition than when Albert had left him; the stimpaks had done their work. As for the five human captives they had rescued, they seemed shaken but very relieved that they had escaped the fate that had befallen Alex. 'Take whatever weapons you can find off the bodies,' Albert told them. 'We may face some resistance getting out.' He turned to Tycho. 'Anything?'

'Fortunately, the decryption key works perfectly,' said Tycho. 'Which is a good thing, because computers aren't exactly my forte.'

'Look for a way to purge all the research data and infrastructure.'

'Got it,' said Tycho after a few seconds. 'It's telling me that once we start the countdown, that's it. This purge was designed so no intruder can stop it once it's started.'

'Fifteen minutes should give us plenty of time,' said Albert.

'We'll have to drop by the cell block first,' said Natalia. 'We left one of the prisoners there. Jennifer locked her in one of the cells before we came down here. She was… with the mutants.'

'Speaking of Jennifer…' said Albert.

'She ran past,' said Erwin. 'Didn't even stop to say a word.'

'She's probably on her way out already,' said Natalia.

'Well, for her sake, I hope she isn't dallying around,' said Albert. 'Start the sequ—'

'Hang on a second,' Tycho interrupted him.

'What is it?' asked Albert.

'This terminal has a log recorder function. Seems some rather interesting people have, at various points, used it to keep their own personal diaries here.'

'We don't have time for that now,' said Albert. 'Other mutants in the surrounding area may have heard of the break-in. They may already be on their way back. I don't want another horde of mutants waiting for us when we get out of this place. Just start the sequence so we can get out of here.'

'Oh, trust me,' said Tycho, 'This is something you'll want to hear. And maybe you too, Erwin.' Erwin gave Tycho a puzzled look.

'Make a copy of it and then start the countdown sequence,' Albert decided. 'We'll figure it out later.' He freed his PIPBoy from his armored wrist and tossed it to Tycho who plugged it into the machine to download the data.

'What about Alex? We can't just leave him here,' said Natalia.

'Hopefully, the countdown will trigger him into action,' said Albert. 'If not, then…' Albert sighed sadly, temporarily losing his sense of urgency. 'He's right, you know? No one's going to be able to accept him. They'll hate him or they'll fear him. Or both. Either way, no one's going to be willing to take him in.'

'Then we'll take him in,' said Natalia. She turned to Tycho for support.

Tycho nodded. 'We'll figure out a way to make it work.'

Albert sighed again. 'I'll try to talk to him again. In the meantime, you start that countdown at twenty minutes.'

While Tycho worked on the computer, Albert headed back out to the catwalks. To his surprise, there was no sign of Alex.

'Alex?' he called, walking further out onto the catwalks. There were only so many places Alex could be. If he wasn't up here on the top floor, then he had to be…

Albert looked down and, forty feet below at the ground level, he spotted Alex's hulking frame moving slowly around the bases of the Vats, his large hand lazily grazing the surface of each FEV container as he passed it.

'Alex!' Albert called. 'We're about to start the self-destruct. You need to come up here right now.'

'I'm exactly where I need to be, Albert,' came Alex's reply. 'It's fitting, don't you think?'

'What is, Alex?' Albert called down.

'When this place goes up in smoke, all that FEV is going to come crashing down right where I'm standing. Only this time I won't be wearing an oxygen mask. It's like a rewind. It'll be like I was still in that Vat but this time, instead of coming out as a mutant, I drown and never emerge. It'll be like the FEV didn't succeed. It'll be like theydidn't manage to turn me. That's how it should have been from the start, Albert.'

'Alex, don't do this,' said Albert, barely able to keep the emotion out of his voice despite all his training, skill, and experience in the art of persuasion. 'You can still make it out of this with us – start anew.'

'Albert, you're a smart guy. Always have been. You know how this is going to play out. There will never be peace between human and mutant. People will hate us not only for what we've done in the name of the Unity, but also simply for who we are – how we look. And, knowing that, we mutants will never be able to trust humans again.'

'You're speaking like you're one of them,' said Albert. 'You're not one of them. You're—'

'I am one of them!' Alex shouted, growing suddenly aggressive again before dropping his tone once more. 'And I'll prove it to you if you don't leave me alone,' he finished. The words were softly spoken but Albert heard them clearly even from where he was standing several storeys above.

Albert spent several long moments staring down at Alex. Then finally he nodded slowly. 'I wish there was more I could have done for you,' he said.

'There isn't,' said Alex simply.

Albert turned and headed back into the control room.

'We need to go,' he said to the rest once he had gotten back in. Tycho finished punching in the last commands. A siren blared, followed by the warning of a 20-minute countdown timer till the complex self-destructed. Natalia looked like she was going to protest again but Albert silenced her with a glance.

Albert, Erwin, Natalia, Tycho, Dogmeat, and the five recently freed captives left the control room and headed back to elevator as the countdown began. At the elevator lobby, they found Jennifer seated on the floor next to the elevators. Her helmet was thrown back and she was hugging herself with her arms. She managed to look both stunned and thoroughly miserable at the same time.

Albert stepped up and was about to give her a piece of his mind for what she had put Alex through when a new problem presented itself.

'Countdown rate accelerating,' said the automated voice over the PA system.

'What does that mean?' one of the freed captives asked with alarm as they waited for the next elevator to reach their floor. As the seconds ticked past, the next alert over the PA system answered their question.

'Warning. Self-destruct sequence initiated,' it reminded them. 'Twelve minutes remaining,' said the automated voice.

'Twelve!' said another of the former captives. 'It can't have been more than five minutes since leaving that control room!'

Albert leapt to action. 'Tycho. Erwin. You two get Natalia and these people out of here. I'll take Dogmeat back to the control room and find out what's happening. Jennifer…' Albert turned to the despondent paladin, his voice growing sterner. 'You're with me.'

'I can't go back,' she protested.

'That's an order, soldier!' Albert barked at her.

'I'm going back too,' Natalia argued, trying to free herself from Tycho's grasp.

'Natalia, I don't know if we're going to be able to figure this out,' said Albert. 'If we don't, I want you all out of this place before it blows sky high. And if we do, we'll still only have a few minutes left. This sequence can't be reversed, remember? We'll need to hightail it out of the control room. You can't do that in your condition.'

'Then we should all run!' said Erwin. 'Screw the countdown. Let's just all get the hell out here as fast as we can.'

'No, Erwin. He's right,' said Tycho solemnly, realizing Albert's logic. If the countdown rate kept climbing, there was no guarantee any of them would make it out. At least a few of them neededto at least try and return the countdown to its default rate. 'We need every minute we can get.' Tycho turned and nodded at Albert. 'Make it fast.'

'You just get everyone out of here,' said Albert. 'Come Dogmeat,' he said and took one step back in the direction of the control room before pausing and turning to Jennifer. 'Jennifer,' he said. 'Jennifer!'

Jennifer jerked in surprise as if she had only just heard him call her.

'I gave you an order! Get your ass into gear!'

That seemed to do the trick. Her training kicked in and she was on her feet, chasing after Albert and Dogmeat as they ran back the way they had just come.

They retraced their steps, every periodic announcement of the countdown timer hitting them like a sledgehammer and sending new jolts of panic through them. It was like diving back into a rapidly sinking ship or rushing into a burning building even as its foundations began to collapse. Every step they took towards the control room meant an additional step they would have to take to get back out.

When they finally turned the corner back to the control room, they saw the source of the seeming countdown malfunction through the open doorway to the room.

It was the Lieutenant. Or, rather, what was left of him. He looked nothing like a super mutant now except perhaps for his large shoulder pauldrons and his dull-green skin. His legs were heavily soaked in blood and missing large chunks of flesh from hip to toe. There was a gaping bloody hole in his torso where most of his guts had liquefied and spilled out onto the catwalks earlier. His face was gaunt, with gaps in his flesh revealing the muscle and bone beneath. As for his arms, he had only one left and even this one was thin, seemingly comprised more of bone than actual muscle.

And yet somehow he had managed to drag himself all the way back to the control room from the catwalks outside. The way he leaned heavily against the central Vats Control Computer showed he was clearly in a great deal of pain, his two maimed legs barely able to support his weight. Yet there he stood nonetheless. If anything, it was a testament to just how strong-willed he actually was. It was no surprise the Master had picked him as his second-in-command.

At first, they couldn't figure out what he was doing, but when Albert saw the Lieutenant's fingers on the computer's control panel, it all became clear. The Lieutenant's one remaining hand was pushed fully against a single lever – a lever that was usually used to remotely lower the arm on the crane on the catwalks outside but which had now been reappropriated and reprogrammed somehow to accelerate the countdown timer.

'Stop him!' Albert yelled with growing anxiety in his voice. Both he and Jennifer raised their weapons even as they charged forward. Dogmeat led the way, bounding towards the open doorway to the control room.

The Lieutenant turned and spotted them. Even through his pain, he still managed a triumphant and confident smile as he temporarily released his hold on the lever. His fingers moved over to another switch.

By the time Albert realized what the switch was for, it was too late. His eyes widened, mouth agape in horror.

'N—!' he began to shout in denial when the Lieutenant thumbed the switch.

Dogmeat was halfway through the doorway when the energy fields suddenly came back to life.

With a terrible zapping noise and the hiss of burning flesh, Dogmeat's body was split neatly in two, the front half making it through into the control room and the back half stuck on the side of the barrier where Albert and Jennifer were now trapped.

'NNNOOOOOOOOOOO!' Albert screamed as both halves of Dogmeat fell to the ground. Albert pulled the trigger on his laser rifle and kept it depressed until the weapon overheated and started emitting smoke. But the laser beam was harmlessly absorbed by the barrier. On the other side, Albert could see Dogmeat still feebly trying to crawl forward towards the Lieutenant using only the front half of his body and his two front legs.

Albert raced up to the doorway, hammering loudly against the side with his power fist. 'NO! NO! NO! NNOOO!' He screamed with every strike. His cries of denial and rage and heart-wrenching anguish continued unabated as he tried to smash into the field emitters despite the earlier warnings he had given to Erwin.

'I wouldn't… do that if I were you,' said the Lieutenant's voice over the speakers. His voice sounded strained and weak, requiring him to take frequent heavy labored breaths in between phrases, but it was also confident and calm at the same time. 'The internal mechanisms… of the emitters… are shielded by the energy barrier as well. If you hit it… you're in for a rather nasty shock. Your armor will be like… a lightning rod and pressure cooker combined into one. I assure you… it will be most painful.'

'Stop, Albert!' Jennifer yelled, rushing up to where Albert stood and pulling back on his arm so he would stop smashing the side of the door with his glove.

'Then again, you're both going to die anyway' said the Lieutenant, as he reached for the lever once again to accelerate the countdown rate. 'By setting off the self-destruct sequence, you destroyed the wasteland's only hope for peace and unity. I think it's only fitting you go down with it like the rest of us.'

Albert and Jennifer were frantic. With all the barriers on the level having come online again, there was no way into the control room or back to the elevator lobby. They were stuck and unable to flee or rectify the situation. Albert stared helplessly at the still ailing front half of Dogmeat's body as his faithful canine companion was still single-mindedly trying to drag himself over to the Lieutenant.

'No…' Albert sobbed, collapsing to his knees in front of the barrier. It was all over. Even if Natalia had been there with them, there would have been no time left on the counter by the time she made it through the field.

Then suddenly, even through the field, they heard heavy footfalls on the catwalks outside. Through the viewing window, they beheld a large super mutant rushing up to the control room.

Alex hit the window like a speeding locomotive. Despite its reinforcement, the Plexiglas might as well have been made of paper as Alex crashed right through, body-tackling a stunned Lieutenant as he did so.

Both mutants hit the ground hard. In his prime condition, the Lieutenant would likely have been more than a match for Alex. But in his half-dead state, he could not defend himself against the wrath and rage of a fellow super mutant. Alex brought his heavy fist down onto the Lieutenant's head, delivering blow after blow as he relived his torture at the Lieutenant's hands. Albert and Natalia and the rest may have failed to save him in time, but the Lieutenant was the reason he had needed saving in the first place.

When Alex was finally done, nothing remained of the Lieutenant's head but semi-solid mush leaking across the floor of the control room. Alex stared down at the headless, one-armed body below him. 'I told you your ass would be mine,' he said.

Alex got off the corpse, then he examined the control panel on the Vats Control Computer. He hit the same switch the Lieutenant had to activate the energy fields. There came a low-pitched whine that dropped in frequency. The force fields vanished as quickly as they had started.

Albert rushed forward to the front half of Dogmeat's mutilated body, raising his companion's head cradling it gently in his hands. But Dogmeat was already gone, the trail of blood behind him a testament to just how far he had crawled before finally perishing. Albert cried openly now, not caring who heard. All he could think of was the loss of his longtime companion and the fact that Dogmeat had died because of him. Albert had given the order to attack the Lieutenant, causing Dogmeat to fall right into the mutant leader's trap. And now it was too late to take it all back.

Jennifer in the meantime remained on the outside of the control room, unwilling to enter while Alex was still in there. The confusion she had been trying to sort through in her mind while she had waited in the elevator lobby came rushing back, threatening to overwhelm her thoughts.

Alex knelt down next to Albert, ignoring Jennifer for the moment. 'You need to get out of here,' he said to Albert, placing one of his big paws on Albert's shoulder in a comforting gesture. 'You've got seven minutes left. If you run as fast as you can, you may still be able to make it.'

'I c-can't…' Albert began.

'I'll take care of him,' said Alex gently, reaching for Dogmeat's body. At first, Albert resisted, clutching tightly to Dogmeat's neck. 'I'll be with him until the end,' Alex assured him. Alex reached for Albert's fingers and gently pried them loose. 'Let him go, Albert. Let him go.'

Albert looked up at Alex. For the briefest moment, it looked like he was about to say a multitude of different things. In that moment, Alex saw all Albert's insecurities, normally hidden under his usual confident façade, now radiating from his face. In that moment, there was Albert – a man aged before his time, twisted and bent by the trials forced upon him, no mask to cover all the hard choices he had made as he led the group to their various goals.

But it was just a moment. Then Albert cast his eyes down as he summoned whatever inner reserves he still had left. And just like that, the moment was gone, the pain on Albert's face vanished, now buried deep down inside of him. When he looked back up at Alex, the Albert Alex had known their entire time in the wasteland together – the Albert who rose to every challenge and got the job done; the Albert who led when no one else was able despite his own inner demons – was back. Albert reached for his helmet hanging off the back of the neck of his armor and pulled it back on, shutting out his facial expressions from Alex, Jennifer, and the world – insulating himself from everyone and everything else.

'You're right,' said Albert as he fastened the seals on his helmet. He passed Dogmeat over to Alex's arms. His voice was calm now, almost passive. 'You're a good man, Alex,' he said as he rose to his feet, his confidence returning with every additional movement. He stood now before Alex, just as he had way back in the Vault during all those Exodus meetings – confident, self-assured, strong, charismatic, and capable.

Several long seconds of silence passed between them before Albert decided that he really did need to go if he wanted to make it out alive. 'Goodbye, Alex,' he said. 'I wish things had been different.'

'So do I,' said Alex. 'Now get the hell out of here.' Alex spared no glance for Jennifer, his thoughts and emotions about her still a mixed whirlwind of anger, love, perceived betrayal, and longing.

As Albert and Jennifer stepped out of the room, Alex walked over and brought both halves of Dogmeat's body together and laid them gently down on his lap as he sat on the cold metal floor, his back to the wall. He reached out and stroked the dead dog's scruffy, blood-stained head with his large mutated fingers.

Jennifer was in the middle of running for the elevators when she heard the charging sound of a plasma pistol. Before she could react, the bolt struck her in her back, at the very spot where the systolic motivator of her power armor was located. Her suit froze suddenly, her momentum carrying her forward over armored legs that no longer responded to her own attempted movements. She crashed, hitting the ground hard and sliding several feet. Stuck in a suit that no longer worked, she was paralyzed.

Footsteps came up behind her. She craned her head, her eyes widening in shock as she spotted Albert catching up to her.

'Alex deserved better,' Albert said simply, holstering his plasma pistol. 'He sacrificed his entire life to be with you and you threw it all back into his face.' Alex reached for her ankles and began dragging her back to the control room. His voice was a monotone. 'Because of you, he will never again have the chance to say goodbye to his parents and his siblings. And he will die here feeling betrayed and alone.'

'Albert. Don't,' said Jennifer, the panic rising within her as Albert pulled her back as the countdown timer continued to drop. 'Please…'

'Funny,' he commented. 'Isn't that the very same word Alex said to you earlier?'

They hadn't gone far from the control room and, less than half a minute later, they were back. Alex's look of surprise at Albert's return grew exponentially as he saw Jennifer's body being hauled back against her will.

'What's happening?' he asked. 'Why are you back?'

'I concluded that you should get to decide her fate,' said Albert. 'The world owes you that much.' Releasing his grip on her, he turned and left.

With Albert gone, Alex sat and stared, unmoving, at Jennifer, even as the next minute on the timer was announced over the speakers. Five minutes left. Jennifer's eyes betrayed her emotions that, even now, were still conflicted. Finally, she could hold his gaze no longer and lowered her eyes.

'I'm sorry, Alex,' she said, her voice sounding genuinely contrite as she slowly began to accept her fate. 'I wish I was a better person… But I'm not. I wish I could say that if we went back thirty minutes in time, I would have stayed instead of turning and running, but I can't… There was a woman in the cell blocks who was with the mutants. She seemed to really care for one of the mutants. Maybe… she was even in love with him. I almost killed her for it and now… Now I wish I could make myself feel what she felt… But I… I can't. I just… I don't know how to deal with this. I don't know how to change it, Alex…'

For several long seconds, Alex didn't reply. Then he carefully laid Dogmeat's body to the side and walked over to her. 'Thank you for your honesty,' he said coldly.

Jennifer shut her eyes tight as he reached for her, his enormous hands grabbing a hold of her armor. She deserved this, she knew. She deserved this and more for being such a horrible person. Alex had saved her and Erwin and Gunther and the rest – sacrificed himself for them – and she had abandoned him in his darkest hour. Yes, she certainly deserved what was coming. She shouldn't be allowed to be let off for what she had done (and would still do) to him. This was how it should be.

A part of her reacted in alarm as she heard her armor start to groan from the intense amount of pressure Alex was exerting on it. He was actually starting to bend and break the armor apart! The strain in the armor became palpably audible. She clenched her eyes even tighter, waiting for the end when she would feel his powerful hands crushing the life out of her.

With a sudden grating and shearing noise, her armor came apart, ripped in half by the sheer strength of a particularly large super mutant. Without her armor, dressed only in the dark-green bodysuit that all paladins wore under their T-51bs, Jennifer suddenly felt extremely vulnerable. She waited for the end.

But it didn't come.

When she opened her eyes again, she was shocked to see Alex had returned to where he had been sitting before. His hand was once again on Dogmeat's head as if he found some comfort from the physical touch, even if it was of a creature that was no longer alive. Jennifer looked expectantly at Alex, but he said nothing.

Her thoughts were a whirlwind. If she had been conflicted before, it was far worse now. In addition to revulsion, anger, horror, shame, self-loathing, guilt, and fear, she was now totally and utterly confused, not just by Alex's actions but also by how she felt.

'Get out of here,' Alex said quietly, without looking up at her. 'If you're fast enough, you might still make it out in time.'

Jennifer got to her feet, her eyes still staring down at Alex uncertainly. She took one step to the doorway, paused, and turned back. Alex didn't look up. It was as if he had deliberately tuned himself out to her presence. She turned again and this time hesitantly stepped out of the doorway into the corridor beyond.

From the cover of a large boulder and a few trees, Erwin, Natalia, Tycho, and the recently freed captives watched the side entrance to the base, waiting in anticipation for Albert, Jennifer, and Dogmeat to appear. The woman in the cell blocks hadn't moved when they had opened her cell. Instead she had crawled over to the body of the mutant she apparently cared so much about and refused to move. With the timer still spiraling down to zero, no one had the patience to convince her to leave. Judging by the announcements over the PA system, the countdown rate had been restored, meaning that Albert and Jennifer had solved whatever the problem had been, but that still hadn't given them much time.

'How long more do they have?' Natalia asked anxiously.

'About three minutes,' said Tycho.

'Come on, Albert,' Natalia muttered under her breath.

From the main ramp of the base, scattered mutants were fleeing, many of them injured from their fights with the internal robotic security. Natalia only hoped Albert, Jennifer, and Dogmeat hadn't had to face any of them.

They continued watching with bated breaths.

'Two minutes,' said Tycho.

They heard the side door being activated from within. It slid up, lighting up the area around it with the fluorescent lights from within. And out stepped an armored figure. The helmet was on but the plasma pistol carried in one of its hands told them all they needed to know.

'Albert!' Natalia called, limping out of cover. If any fleeing mutants noticed them, they did nothing to stop them. Tycho jumped out after her.

Albert heard Natalia's call and raced towards her. Natalia threw her arms around him and gave him a strong hug. Then she pulled away, her voice sounding worried. 'Where… where's Dogmeat? Where's Jennifer?'

Albert didn't say anything. He broke from the embrace and headed over to the where the other former captives were taking cover. Natalia stared silently after him. The sagging in his shoulders told her all she needed to know.

'One minute till self-destruct,' said the automated voice.

'I was supposed to be down there when the Vats break,' Alex said to Dogmeat's unmoving body. 'But I think it's better to be up here with you. Even if I am just talking to myself.'

'You're not talking to yourself,' said a familiar voice that was so close that Alex jumped at the sound of it. He hadn't noticed her come back in. But there was Jennifer, right in front of him. Without her power armor, she looked so small, especially now that he was looking at her through a super mutant's eyes. She slid down beside him, their backs to the eastern wall of the control room.

Alex was too stunned to speak for several seconds. 'Wh… what are you doing back here?' he eventually asked in disbelief.

'I don't know,' she said honestly. 'But I can't leave you here alone.'

Alex wasn't sure how to interpret her return. Maybe she was feeling guilty. Maybe it was pity. Maybe… just maybe… it was love that had brought her back. Or maybe it was just pure insanity. But in the end, he realized it didn't matter to him. She was there with him at the end of it all, and things didn't seem quite so miserable. But with that renewed feeling came the horrible lurch in the pit of his stomach. If she stayed here, she was going to die. And now he was sure of it: he didn't want that to happen.

'You have to get out of here, Jennifer,' he said urgently. 'You can't be here when—'

'It's already too late,' she said calmly. Whatever she felt or didn't feel for him, she had apparently already come to terms with it. She leaned in close and rested her head against his massive chest. 'Just hold me,' she said. Those words, at least, told Alex that she had overcome her physical aversion to him, even if it was only sparked by the dismal nature of their circumstances. Alex didn't care. To Alex, it was the best feeling he had ever experienced. He reached out his arm and pulled her closer towards him.

'Since when did you get so tiny?' he joked, recalling all the times he had always had to look up to her because she had been suited up in the power armor that now lay in a broken heap a few feet away.

Jennifer laughed. Amidst the periodic wail of the sirens, her laughter was music to his ears. 'I guess it's—'

She never finished her sentence. The room shook violently with the first explosion. Before they had time to react, the second explosion struck, collapsing the roof above their heads. Tons of rock and metal came crashing down upon them. The rest of the explosions followed swiftly after.

Albert, Erwin, Natalia, Tycho, and the rest were thrown off balance as the ground beneath them trembled with the seemingly unending chain of detonations beneath their feet.

'We're too close!' Tycho yelled. 'We need to get further!'

Everyone turned and ran.

Marcus and Rhombus were locked together, each of them trying to hold off the other's weapon. Ammunition had run out long ago, forcing every remaining combatant to resort to close-combat attacks. Over Rhombus' right hand was a power glove he had taken off a dead paladin's own fist. The knuckles of the glove crackled with energy. In Marcus' own right hand was a ripper vibroblade, taken off another paladin's corpse, the chains spinning at full speed.

When the explosions began, they sounded like peals of thunder. Every mutant turned, his or her own worst fears suddenly realized. Every Brotherhood soldier turned, an expression of wonderment and hesitant but rapidly growing elation rising within him or her.

When the shockwaves of the explosions reached them, many were thrown off their feet. Marcus and Rhombus, who had been battling on one of the hilly slopes surrounding the exposition center, both lost their footing, sending them tumbling down the steep incline.

Marcus hit the bottom first and somehow managed to rise to his feet despite the tremors. His eyes darted around till he found Vanders – all that was left was the mutant's bullet-ridden and partially hacked up corpse lying several yards away. The decision on what to do next now rested on Marcus. His sharp mind rapidly calculated all the implications of the explosions which he knew came from the Mariposa base. The fact that the explosions still had not ceased told him all he needed to know – the Vats were gone. And that meant there was no point in all of them losing their lives here anymore. The tables had already turned. The Unity was over. Now they would be the hunted ones. And to survive, they would need every single ally alive to help defend themselves.

'Fall back!' he bellowed the order. The remaining mutants looked in surprise to the source of the command. 'Fall back!' he yelled again, making sharp gestures with his right arm towards the northeast – directly into the mountains. It was the toughest route to take, but that also meant that the Brotherhood soldiers would need to be equally desperate and crazy to catch them.

Some mutants stayed to fight. But most heeded the sound of their acting commander's voice.

Rhombus tried to regain his balance and rise from where he had fallen, surprised by the sudden turn of events. A fellow paladin helped him to his feet.

'Are you okay, sir?' asked the paladin.

Rhombus glanced at the paladin's tag ID on his left pauldron. 'I'm fine, Jacob,' he said in his usual gruff voice to the youngest paladin in the platoon.

'Then let's go get them, sir,' Jacob urged him when he realized that Rhombus wasn't making any move to pursue the fleeing mutants. Jacob picked up Rhombus fallen power glove, disconnected in the tumble Rhombus had taken earlier, and handed it back to him. Rhombus didn't take the proffered weapon.

'It's over,' Rhombus said, releasing the seals on his helmet and pulling it off so it hung back on its hinges.

'But sir!' Jacob protested. 'We have a chance to wipe them all out now for good!'

Rhombus looked wearily at Jacob. 'The tides have changed, Jacob. With the destruction of the Vats, the mutants are done for as a collective fighting force. They'll never be able to replenish their ranks again. Our weapons are dry and we would have to fight them tooth and nail all the way.'

'But—'

Rhombus sighed, silencing any further protests from Jacob. 'Haven't enough of our brothers died today?' he stated. Jacob lowered his gaze, the point striking home. Rhombus turned to view the lay of the land and the dozens of bodies, both mutant and human, littering the remains of the exposition center. 'Regroup,' he called out loud to all his soldiers, so none would pursue the fleeing mutants. The fighting had gotten so concentrated once ammunition had run out that there was no need for him to use the radio anymore. Everyone who was still in any condition to fight heard his order loud and clear. 'We're done here, soldiers,' Rhombus declared. 'Mission accomplished.'