The next few hours were walked in silence. The voice in his head ignored all of Alec's questions so Alec was left to walk the wasteland in silence. The going was slow. He felt tired and sluggish. His body still hurt where he had been injured. Almost as soon as he left the quarry he found a pool of radiated water and soaked himself in it, even drinking some in the hope that the radiation would heal is damaged throat. It had little effect. Even though the burning sensation had stopped, he found himself coughing and hacking every few dozen steps.

It was at the pool he had seen his own reflection, it was not a pleasant sight. His face was scarred and mutilated from the fire to the point he barely recognized himself. Some of his hair was burned away as well, but the damage was not as pronounced. His eyes were the most terrifying part, they had turned completely black, looking more like soulless pits where his eyes should have been. The sight of his face startled him so much that he jumped backward in shock upon first seeing it.

When the sun came up things got even worse. His skin began to burn and his eyes felt like someone had shoved his face inches from a roaring bonfire. Immediately he took shelter in a dilapidated house.

Is this normal for human bodies? It asked, speaking up for the first time since leaving Dunwich.

"No."

It is probably a side effect of the ritual then. Hmph, it was an amateur and hack job of a ritual. Although I am impressed he managed to get any result at all, even if it was as poor as this.

"What was it supposed to do?"

It did what it was meant to do. Bind a being such as myself to a being such as yourself. However, they did a crap job of it.

"How so?"

If it had worked perfectly your consciousness would have been completely destroyed and replaced by me. However, I would be under his complete control.

"So, an unpleasant result either way?"

Pretty much.

Alec chuckled quietly, then coughed. "I just had a thought."

That's a surprise.

Alec rolled his eyes. "Why do I need to find someone to fix me up? Why isn't the radiation working?"

You should be correct. However, I suspect a 'cheap sorcery' of sorts was used on that gas or the damage is too complex.

"Why is radiation healing me? It should kill me."

A side effect of the ritual. Probably intended, unlike your apparent new disdain for sunlight. You'll probably find yourself much stronger than before as well.

"Sheesh, what was that man trying to do?"

Alec didn't think it was possible to hear someone roll their eyes but he definitely heard his mental hitchhiker do it.

Do I have to spell it out for you? He wanted a weapon. He probably wanted several but you were the only success. Had the ritual been better performed he would have sent you out to wreak havoc in the name of Ug-Qualtoth.

"Do I even want to know who Ug-Qualtoth is?"

No.

"Fine." Alec found a rotted coach and laid down, hoping to get some rest. "Do you have a name?"

Not one you could pronounce.

"So, what should I call you?"

For several minutes the voice was silent. He was quiet for so long Alec thought he was ignoring him, but he eventually spoke up.

Azrael.

"What kind of name is Azrael?"

Shut up.

Alec shook his head and tried to relax. The coach wasn't particularly comfortable but after what he went through, he didn't care. After a few minutes passed he could feel himself begin to doze off. He stood up to try and keep himself from falling asleep. With 'Azrael in his head he didn't feel safe letting his guard down. He tried walking around and stretching his muscles to stay awake but the events of the day had worn him out. Even as he stretched he felt his eyelids forcing themselves down. His body was begging for sleep. Eventually, he gave up and laid back down on the couch.

"Well, it's not as if things can get any worse." He told himself as he let himself fall asleep. He was wrong.

With sleep came the nightmares: his mind forcing him to relive his harrowing experience in detail. He was brought to a stone altar by faceless horrors that then forced him upon it. His limbs were frozen, leaving him unable to fight them off. Moments later, a figure shrouded in black mist stepped forward, holding a familiar jagged dagger. Without hesitation, it plunged it into his heart. This time, he felt the blade. It was burned him inside and out. His limbs spasmed uncontrollably. He screamed in agony, but he didn't die. The figure ripped the dagger out and stabbed him again. Then he did it again and again. Alec screamed with each stabbing. The pain worsening with each stab.

Suddenly, the figure stopped and stepped back. At first, Alec felt relief but quickly realized the pain was not subsiding. In fact, it was increasing in intensity. It felt like someone had lit a fire on his chest, but he smelled no smoke. With great effort, he lifted his head enough to look down at his chest. He immediately wished he hadn't. He could see his skin peeling away as black flames ate away at his body, creating a hole in his chest. This time, he couldn't scream, he could only stare in growing disgust and horror.

Once the hole reached the size of a baseball a black, clawed, decrepit hand rose from it. As it began to pull itself out the hole expanded rapidly. Soon, an arm followed, then a head, then a body, each more frightening in appearance than the last. When the creature had completely pulled itself out from Alec's chest it looked down at him, with a maniacal grin, revealing its fanged teeth. Then it laughed. Its laugh was the most frightening sound Alec had ever heard in his life. It was an inhuman sound, so devoid of natural emotion. The sound echoed in Alec's head again and again, louder and louder. Even as the dream began to fade away, the laughter continued to grow in volume with each passing second. When it seemed like the laughter would deafen him, he woke up.

His body was shaking violently and sweat was pouring from his skin. His heartbeat was ringing in his head and beating like he had downed a whole pack of nuka-cola in thirty minutes. It took him several minutes of deep breathes before he was confident enough to sit up.

Nice of you to finally wake up. The sun has gone down and we need to get moving.

"How long was I asleep?" His voice was as drained as his body.

Long enough.

Alec shook his head. "Whatever." Too mentally worn out to argue, he stood up and walked out of the building into the cool night air. Thankfully, it was a cloudless night, the stars and moon giving adequate visibility. As he walked he carefully surveyed his surroundings for any sign of danger. He had never cared for traveling at night, as some in his profession did. They preferred the night because there were fewer dangers lurking around. The downside, in his opinion, was that what dangers did inhabit the night were much more likely to catch you by surprise. Believing this, he only traveled or worked at night when he had no alternative, like now. When he did he would move as fast as he could. His new condition, however, forced him to walk painfully slow as to avoid coughing up a storm. This forced pace frustrated Alec. If Azrael was annoyed he wasn't letting on. He had stopped speaking once they left the building. This time Alec didn't bother prodding him with questions.

In the quiet of the night, Alec found himself lost in thought and worry. What was he going to do when he returned to Nordhagen? He couldn't just go back to a normal life, not with Azrael in his head. Could he explain it to Gwen? Would she understand? Would she be disgusted by him? Should he even tell her at all? These questions and more swam through his mind. He knew he needed to come up with answers soon. Even at his slow pace, he would be in Nordhagen within a day or two.

When he had traveled with the Minutemen to Dunwich Borers it took them two days to travel the distance, but they had constantly been stopping to fight with small raider gangs, rogue mirelurks, stray super mutants, and other distractions. On the third day, they scouted and planned the attack. On the fourth, they carried it out and everything went wrong. The initial attack had been successful. They killed several raiders in the exterior portion of the quarry and pushed the others back inside. Once they entered, they were overwhelmed within seconds, several men not even getting a chance to return fire before being cut to pieces.

Alec felt a wave of grief when he thought about the people who had been killed. He hadn't known them long or particularly well, but they had been decent people. Those that had been killed in the fighting were lucky. The survivors were tortured, then subjected to the 'ritual' that ended with them being stabbed in the chest. All, in the name of this Ug-Qualtoth. Alec had no idea who or what Ug-Qualtoth was but if his followers were any indication, he was undoubtedly an unwholesome fellow.

Head out of the clouds, something's coming.

Alec's gaze instantly darted from side to side, looking for any sign of movement. "What is it?"

Something big.

Alec dove into the nearby ruins of a house. It wasn't great cover since much of the house had fallen or rotted away, but it was the only thing available. Nervously, he held his breath and listened. He didn't have to wait long before he heard the sound of heavy footsteps getting louder and louder. The sound of heavy breathing and grunting followed after.

'Please, don't be a deathclaw.' Alec prayed internally. From what he was hearing, it was no doubt an animal of some kind, and a big one. 'If it's a deathclaw I'm a dead man... again.'

What is a deathclaw?

'Big mean ugly lizard with claws as long as swords and teeth that can tear apart a man in seconds.'

Sounds like fun. Alec detected no hint of sarcasm.

'Your definition of 'fun' is very disturbing.'

Coward.

Alec prepared to make a witty comeback but as he was forming it in his mind he heard the creature begin to sniff the air.

'I think it smells us.' Alec began to sweat nervously. 'There's no way I can fight or run in this condition.'

I can.

'What?'

I can. Give me control.

Before Alec could answer the boards he was leaning against shattered and something clamped onto his shoulder.

"Aaaah!" Alec screamed as he felt his shoulder being torn up as the creature shook him violently. After a few shakes, the creature flung him to the side. Alec rolled for several feet before coming to halt in the middle of the road. He tried to get up but his left shoulder and arm weren't working, only sending bolts of pain through his body when he moved them. Using his right arm, he managed to prop himself up and look at his attacker, who was roaring at him and stomping its feet.

That doesn't look like a big lizard.

"Nope, that's a yao-guai."

Looks like a big ugly bear.

Alec groaned and struggled to his feet. The yao-guai, in turn, rose onto its hind feet and roared again.

"Ah, cr-"

The yao guai lunged, throwing Alec onto his back. He raised his arm to shield his face. The yao guai tore into his arm with its teeth, eliciting another scream from Alec. His vision went, a now familiar, red.

"Get off!" Azrael slammed his head into the yao guai's snout and kicked its gut at the same time. The sudden attack startled the creature, which staggered back. With the yao guai no longer on top of him, he stood to his feet. While the pain would have stopped Alec, pain did not stop Azrael. He fed off the pain. Once recovered, the yao guai roared in anger. Azrael roared back. The yao guai accepted the challenge and lunged forward, intent on tearing him limb from limb. Azrael avoided being mauled by claws by inches. In the same moment he dodged the attack he brought his left fist down as hard as he could on the yao guai's snot. The inhuman strength behind the blow sent the strike sent the the creature reeling back in pain.

Azrael knew he couldn't keep this up with only his bare hands. It would only take one mistake for him to be eaten alive. With the few seconds of reprieve his hit bought him, Azrael looked around for anything to even the odds. On the ground, a few feet away, was an old tire iron. It wasn't much, but at this point, he would take anything. He dove for the tire iron just as his assailant was recovering from its shock. As he rolled to recover from his dive, picking up the tire iron as he did, a bolt of extreme pain shot through his shoulder. The pain feeding his unnatural strength, Azrael unleashed and animalistic scream as he rose to his feet and turned to his attacker.

Instead of continuing its attack, the yao guai hesitated. Azrael, did not. With mad fury, he rushed the animal, tire iron swinging. On the first hit, he was rewarded with the sound of bone breaking. On the second, the sound was louder. The yao guai slumped to the ground but tried to stand back up. Then came a third hit, then a fourth, then one after another. Even after the creature had stopped moving he continued to swing the tire iron again and again.

'Enough! It's dead!' Alec cried within the prison of his own head. Azrael continued to swing, ignoring his plea. 'Enough!" Alec tried with all he had to regain control of his body. Although he didn't retake full control, his effort was enough to halt Azrael's mad assault and acknowledge him.

"What?" His voice was filled with rage.

'Where about to bleed to death and your beating a corpse into mush!'

Azrael looked down at their body. The rags that were clothes were coated red. At his feet was a growing pool of blood, gushing from the fresh wounds they received.

"Fine." He growled. He took off what was left of the shirt and tore it into makeshift bandages. It wasn't enough, but it was a start. In the ruins of the house, they found more cloth that they fashioned into bandages. By the time he had finished, most of their body was covered in bandages.

The blood loss, however, had taken its toll. When he tried to get up to continue their journey they collapsed back onto the ground after only rising a few inches.

"Curse this carcass I'm forced to live in! How do you humans survive in such frail bodies?"

'Usually by not boxing with giant mutant bears.' Alec responded dryly.

"Your sense of humor leaves much to be desired."

'As does your personality.'

Azrael grumbled but did not reply. Instead, he laid back against the wall and closed his eyes. As much as he hated sitting still, he would have to allow this body to recover naturally. With the adrenaline wearing off, he found himself very tired and quickly dozed off.

Although they went unaccosted by any human's or creatures, the rest of the journey grew in difficulty. The new wounds were not healing well, despite radiation treatment. Azrael theorized that the body had simply taken too much abuse in too short a time for the radiation to be effective. With radiation no longer effective, for the time being, they were forced to make their way toward Nordhagen with a body that was barely holding itself together. Based on his crude medical knowledge, Alec guessed that if he didn't get home soon, an infection would likely kill him.

The trip felt like it took an eternity, with much of it made in silence. Azrael had withdrawn to the inner parts of the mind and wasn't speaking. Alec didn't try to get him to speak, instead, he focused on keeping himself moving, one step at a time. Each step was painful, but he pushed himself through it, resisting the ever growing urge to lay down and give up. By the time he was on the home stretch, he was barely conscious. He remembered almost nothing of the last few hours of the trip. One moment, he was dragging his feet along the ground, the next he was having terrible nightmares.

Again and again, he relieved the horror in the quarry. The death, the pain, the confusion, he felt it all in his delirious mind. Through it was the constant sound of chanting. He couldn't understand the words, but he noticed Ug-qualtoth was repeated many times. Sometimes, he found himself chanting along, with no comprehension of what he was saying.

Eventually, the terrors faded and he found himself slowly becoming aware of his surroundings. He was in a building. A complete one, not a ruin. He was also in a bed with medical supplies lying all around. It took a few moments but he realized he was in the Nordhagen town hall. He looked down at himself. His wounds were neatly bandaged and the pain wasn't as intense. He tried to get out of the bed and stand upright but his legs couldn't hold him up and he collapsed to his knees. He heard someone rush over to him and say something. He didn't catch the words but he recognized the voice.

"Gwen?"

His recovery was a slow process. For much of it, he was forced to remain in bed or confined to his room, much of it in solitude, though Gwen stayed with him as much as she could. The solitary atmosphere left him a great deal of time to think and reflect on the past few days and look ahead to the future. The more he thought, the more he felt anger and a great sense of injustice. No one deserved to go through what he and those Minutemen had. Something needed to be done. Of course, the primary perpetrator had to be hunted down, but what would he do after that? Killing one man wouldn't end all the dangers his kind perpetuated throughout the Commonwealth. No, something more needed to be done, and once he recovered fully, he would be in a unique position to do something.

Whether he liked it or not, Azrael was stuck in his head for the perceivable future, but while he was there, Alec had abilities that could give a distinct advantage in a fight. Advantages, he planned to press in full. He could no longer just be Alec, he needed to become something more. Something fulled by anger, hate, and desire for blood, which he now had in full.