Chapter 36 - Remission & Relapse
There was a flash of heat and light.
Sarah and Ruby couldn't help but look away, averting their eyes.
Even through the chamber's thick windows, and the wall of ice between them and the purifier, the wave of energy that erupted from the purifier's activation still slammed into them like a sledgehammer, forcing them to take a power-armored step back, their arms raised to shield their faces from the blinding light.
And then, just like that, it was over.
Ruby's Geiger counter finally stopped clicking like a machine gun, as the radiation in the chamber was somehow scrubbed away. The GECK was more of a miracle than a piece of scientific technology to her, and she still had no idea how it worked.
She didn't care either.
As soon as she could, she ran towards the chamber's airlock controls (the wall of ice having been destroyed by the energy spike), and impatiently cycled it.
As the bulkhead doors opened for her, she ran in, heading straight for the purifier's control pad.
And most importantly, the glowing man lying lifelessly on the floor in front of it.
"No..." Ruby murmured in disbelief, staring at the body of the boy who'd been with her since she'd left Vault 101.
The yellow light around him turned white, before bursting into countless particles of light that floated away.
"No! Jaune!" Ruby cried out, as she engaged her power armor's emergency release, and quickly jumped out of her suit, heedless of the uncomfortable temperatures in the room.
He didn't stir, even as she timidly approached him.
"Jaune! Wake up!" Ruby begged desperately, as she knelt down by him.
The Invincible Boy, the boy that she'd seen dance through plasma fire and laser beams and mini nukes and everything the Enclave and the Capital Wasteland could throw at him, remained still.
All because she'd been too slow to stop him.
Her vision became blurry.
"Jaune..." Ruby wailed, slowly reaching out to him.
Cautiously, she took his hand, uncaring of any potential contamination.
Her eyes widened.
Her heart began racing.
She fumbled momentarily, but quickly recovered, and pressed two fingers against his wrist.
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
Thump.
There it was!
Slow and faint, so slow and faint she'd almost missed it, but it was there!
A pulse!
"Sarah!" Ruby shouted, waving her friend towards her. "He's alive!"
"He is?!" Sarah couldn't help but exclaim, from her position behind Ruby. The only reason she and Ruby were still standing from the energy spike was because of the chamber's thick bulkheads and windows, the wall of ice, and their power armor! Jaune had none of the above to protect him! "How?! Those levels of radiation would have been lethal to us even in power armor!"
"It's Jaune." Ruby giggled, more out of sheer relief than any humor that she could find from the situation. Then her (basic) medical training kicked in. "Help me get him out of the chamber!"
Sarah couldn't do much more than comply, and she gingerly picked up his limp form and carried him out as Ruby began rapidly searching through the chamber, looking for any emergency first-aid kits.
Damn. No such luck. Surely there had to be some around the Jefferson Memorial!
Before Ruby left the chamber to continue tending to Jaune, however, her father's body caught her eye.
She spared James a glance, before closing her eyes.
In the end, Jaune had kept his promise, the promise he'd made when they'd fled Project Purity.
They had come back for his body.
She could recover it later, give it a proper funeral.
Right now, though, she had to prioritize the one who was still alive.
Murmuring a farewell, she opened her eyes and turned away from James, focusing on Jaune.
The Pride and Fawkes came bursting into the Jefferson Memorial as she and Sarah descended from the chamber, excited to explain the situation to Sarah, that they'd taken no casualties, using Liberty Prime's immobile body as cover while picking off the disorganized Enclave remnants as they'd led a desperate charge across the bridge. The Brotherhood relief force that had sallied forth from the Citadel to reinforce their position had slammed into their rears, and the Enclave that hadn't been able to escape in their few remaining Vertibirds had been butchered.
Their enthusiasm quickly turned to shock, however, as they saw Jaune being carried by Sarah.
Before they could ask any questions, however, Ruby began barking orders, shouting for some Rad-Away to remove the radioactive particles already in his body.
As Vargas and Glade quickly found and brought the requested items, Ruby had Fawkes rip off one of the sleeves of Jaune's armored vault suit.
Sarah, who had taken over monitoring his vitals, mentioned that his pulse was getting slower and fainter.
Ruby clenched her fists in determination, and grabbed the Rad-Away, quickly setting up the IV line and the catheter.
She'd relied on him so much over the past month, owed him so much.
He'd been there for her, when she'd been lost in the Wasteland, when her dad had died, when she'd felt the pressure of trying to live up to her dad's legacy.
She wouldn't lose him now.
She couldn't.
She pushed the needle through his skin and into his vein.
-? ? ? , ? ? ?-
Jaune stirred, as the harsh light seeped through his eyelids, and slowly roused him back to consciousness.
"Ugh..." Jaune couldn't help but groan, as dozens of stiff and aching muscles made themselves known to him.
He could just barely remember what had happened. The purifier, the explosion, the collapse...
Jaune sighed, and merely relaxed back against the soft bed under him.
He'd done it again, hadn't he? Died again?
Well, it beat getting torn in half by a dragon, he supposed.
He also supposed it was probably time to see where he was, wasn't he?
Jaune's eyes snapped open, as he realized three important things.
Firstly, that there there was a small weight on his stomach, pushing him down.
Secondly, he could feel something in his arm.
And thirdly, that he was on a bed.
The glaring light momentarily blinded him, and Jaune grunted and shut his eyes once more, before squinting and slowly squeezing his eyes open.
Ah, he could see why there was a very bright light blinding him now.
There was, indeed, a very bright light right above him, held in place by a metal arm, pointed squarely at his face, blinding him.
Groaning, Jaune gingerly lifted his right arm, and shoved the light out of his face, before using it to prop himself up.
He couldn't make out much details of the room around him with his blurry eyesight, but he could faintly see a mop of red-tipped black hair covering his abdomen.
The movement caused the room's other occupant to begin stirring, drowsily protesting that her pillow had moved, as she slowly lifted her head up.
Silver eyes met sapphire.
Ruby blinked.
Jaune blinked.
Ruby blinked again.
Jaune awkwardly tried to clear the silence: "Uh... hey?"
Ruby's eyes began to water.
Before Jaune could panic, wondering if he'd said something wrong, Ruby was already squeezing him tightly, crushing his ribs and neck while sobbing softly: "Jaune..."
"Hey, Vomit Girl..." Jaune said, awkwardly patting her back with his arm as she pushed against him, forcing him back onto the bed.
"You're awake! You're finally awake..." Ruby continued sobbing, hugging him even more tightly, as if she was scared that he might disappear if she let go.
Jaune just returned the embrace, the naked relief in Ruby's tone obvious enough to stop him from putting his foot into his mouth.
They remained like that for a few moments, warm, quiet, comfortable.
Finally, Ruby looked up at Jaune, even though she didn't release her grip.
Jaune didn't miss his chance, and asked: "So... uh... what happened?"
"Do you... do you remember what happened at the purifier?" Ruby asked, pulling herself up so that she was staring down into his eyes.
"Bits of it." Jaune said. "Did... did I manage to activate the purifier in time?"
"You did... you saved us." Ruby reassured him.
Jaune let out a sigh of relief. "Then I guess everything turned out okay."
"Okay?" Ruby echoed. "Jaune, you almost died! How is that okay?!"
"Ruby, I'm sure it wasn't that bad..." Jaune began trying to calm her down.
"You received enough radiation to kill a dozen people within a minute, Jaune." Ruby sniffed, recalling the readings she'd taken. "You were almost cooked alive inside that chamber! Your heart actually stopped for a few minutes! You died for a few minutes!"
"I... I did?" Jaune was at a loss for words.
"You did, you idiot!" Ruby wailed, tears flowing freely now. "When I saw you lying on the floor..."
Jaune shifted guiltily, seeing the pain in her eyes. James had died in there, after all. He didn't know how the sweet and caring Ruby would have reacted if he'd died in there too.
"I'm sorry..." Jaune murmured, embracing Ruby tightly.
"Idiot..." Ruby sniffled into Jaune's chest. "Why didn't you let me or Sarah do it? At least we had power armor!"
"There wasn't any time, and I thought my Aura would-"
"You yourself said you barely understood anything about Aura, Jaune." Ruby looked up at him, glaring reproachfully. The effect was somewhat intensified by the water in her eyes. "Don't you remember what Dr. Li told you about radiation sickness? Did you know it would protect you from radiation?"
"..."
"... I was just so worried, Jaune." Ruby admitted. "You've always seemed so invincible, so untouchable..."
"Trust me, Vomit Girl, I'm anything but that." Jaune laughed, perhaps a bit more harshly than intended.
"And yet you still went in. Idiot." Ruby murmured in exasperation, though there was a hint of fondness in her tone.
"So, uh... I'm not actually going to grow an extra arm or anything, right?" Jaune decided to try lightening the mood.
"Nope." Ruby sighed. "Your Aura really does protect you from radiation too, as it turns out. We just gave you Rad-Away to remove the radiation, and your body's been doing the rest."
"Oh... thank Oum..." Jaune breathed a sigh of relief.
"But that doesn't mean there won't be any side effects!" Ruby glared, not wanting Jaune to get the wrong impression. "You barely understand Aura; I don't know a thing about it! It may as well be magic for all I know!"
"I'm sorry..." Jaune apologized automatically, knowing that tone. He did have seven older sisters, after all.
"... just don't do it again, Dragonslayer." Ruby finally whispered back, before embracing him. "You can't just cut through radiation or heat, you know?"
"I won't; Arc's promise." Jaune smiled back down at her. "And you know what I always say."
"Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet?"
"Besides that!"
Ruby half-giggled, half-sobbed into his chest. Hearing his voice like this, talking with him like this, after seeing him lying there lifelessly on the floor...
"So... what's been going on while I've been out?" Jaune spoke up, breaking the silence.
"Well, now that the Tidal Basin's full of fresh, clean water, the Brotherhood's been working on distributing it throughout the Wasteland." Ruby explained. "Oh, and also, as it turns out, Vault 87 was the source of the Super Mutants all along. The Lyons' Pride destroyed the vats they used to make more Super Mutants. Now, it's just a matter of mopping up the remaining Super Mutants, and soon enough the Capital Wasteland should be free of them."
"But what about Fawkes?"
"... he said he understands. He and Colvin debated it in philosophical terms; killing the Super Mutants is more of a mercy, setting their souls free. Apparently, the process that turns a person into a Super Mutant usually shatters their mind, makes them insane and violent..."
"... wait, turns a person into a Super Mutant?" Jaune paused at that.
"Yup."
Jaune thought about how many Super Mutants they'd fought, and blanched. Oum, how many people had been kidnapped over the centuries, turned into those violent brutes? And the process shattered their minds and drove them insane, too?
He could see why they agreed it was a mercy.
"Oh, and also, we've been pushing the Enclave back at every turn." Ruby added, distracting Jaune from the revelation he'd just heard. "Between the destruction of Site R, and their defeat at the Jefferson Memorial, they're disorganized. Sarah, her squad, and the giant robot have been mopping up the remaining Enclave strongholds throughout the Capital Wasteland over the past two weeks."
"The giant robot? Liberty Prime's okay?"
"Yup." Ruby nodded. "He's still kicking Enclave butt."
"That robot is awesome." Jaune declared, leaning back into the bed.
"He is." Ruby agreed, brushing a lock of golden hair from his face as he lay back, before folding her arms on his chest and resting her head on them, looking up at him.
At that moment, Squire Arthur Maxson burst into the room, hoping that he wouldn't find the pair in another compromising position.
Again.
His prayers went unanswered.
He still had a duty as a squire, though, and tried not to stutter as the embarrassed boy delivered his message: "Knight Ironwoood! Elder Lyons requests your presence in the Citadel!"
-ROCKLAND SATELLITE RELAY STATION, CAPITAL WASTELAND, TWO HOURS EARLIER-
"++DEMOCRACY IS TRUTH! COMMUNISM IS DEATH!++" Liberty Prime boomed, as it rounded the ridge, ignoring the laser beams harmlessly dissipating against it's thick armor to instead scan the area.
One of the Communist aircraft was flying overhead; that might be dangerous to his fellow Americans on the ground.
Half a dozen automated laser turrets on top of a nearby tower.
A nuclear football would easily handle them, but it saw no reason to waste the resources. Instead, it's optical sensors followed the wires down, spotting a generator on the ground.
Too easy.
"++CHAIRMAN CHENG WILL FAIL++" Liberty Prime declared, using it's laser beams to take out the Vertibird even as it strode forward, and kicked the generator into a nearby Chinese communist soldier, powering down the turrets on the tower. "++CHINA WILL FALL++"
"Well, I guess that's the signal." Colvin murmured, as he and the rest of the Lyons' Pride emerged from a nearby car tunnel, having waited there for the robot to begin the assault.
"Time to watch the robot do all the heavy lifting as usual." Dusk replied, rolling her eyes.
None of the Pride could disagree, though.
"Stay alert." Sarah barked, checking her laser rifle once more as she took point. "Intel says this is a communications hub for the Enclave. If we take this out, we can finally figure out how the scattered remnants of the Enclave are still coordinating. And they know it, too."
Correction: one of the Pride could disagree.
"Yeesh, what crawled into her ass and died..." Dusk murmured, as soon as Sarah was safely out of earshot.
"Aw, lighten up, Dusk!" Reddin replied, trying to cheer her up. "You know she's just pissy since Jaune's still in a coma!"
"And what's this about Jaune?" Sarah's voice came over the radio, dangerously soft, and the pair looked up to find Sarah glaring back at them.
""Nothing, ma'am!""
"Good." Sarah replied tersely, before turning back to watch Liberty Prime storm the satellite relay station
Honestly! She had no idea who the hell had started those rumors about her and her "Wastelander boyfriend", but if she ever found out who they were, she'd have them on latrine duty until the next Great War!
She was just cautious regarding the Enclave after they'd almost wiped out her squad at Vault 87, that was all. She was definitely not being affected by Jaune still being unconscious after two weeks... right?
Sarah frowned. While she and Jaune hadn't exactly started out on the best foot, she did like to think they had become, if not friends, then at least trusted acquaintances. After all, he had come to help her against the behemoth, and at Site R, and there was his stupid stunt at the purifier...
Wait, what did any of that matter? Even if he had saved her, even if she did appreciate having someone to talk to, someone willing to push back against her, unbound by the chain of command, uncaring of her reputation, the idea of him being her "boyfriend" was absurd! They'd only known each other for a few weeks, and there was absolutely no way Jaune would find her attractive, even if she wasn't being compared to Ruby Ironwood.
After all, it wasn't like any of the other males in the Brotherhood of Steel seemed to show even the slightest romantic or sexual interest in her...
"++COMMUNIST THREAT ASSESSMENT: MINIMAL++" Liberty Prime boomed, shaking Sarah out of her thoughts. Huh, he'd already wiped out all the soldiers and defenses outside? Maybe Eden's words had weighed on her more than she realized. "++SCANNING DEFENSES++"
Liberty Prime's optical sensors began scanning the station's structure, comparing it to Pre-War schematics of similar buildings. It remembered it's directives for this mission; unlike it's usual operations, his fellow Americans wanted the building intact, so that they could capture it and study the Communist intelligence within (and wasn't that an oxymoron).
Hmmm, there it was. A section of the wall with minimal rebar; he could safely and easily remove it without compromising the building's structural integrity,
"++STRUCTURAL WEAKNESS DETECTED++" Liberty Prime declared, walking up to the station, and caving in the weakness with it's fist, creating a hole in the foot-thick concrete, large enough for his fellow Americans to fit through. "++EXPLOITING++"
A door opened at the roof of a nearby building, and three more Communists ran out, firing as they did so.
Liberty Prime's eyes flashed blue three times.
Before they died, however, he detected a burst of radio waves within the station, followed by a much longer burst from the station to an external source outside the atmosphere.
"++SATELLITE UPLINK DETECTED++" Liberty Prime announced, as his onboard communications systems and his navigation systems worked in tandem to track the outgoing radio waves, and more importantly attempt to decrypt the message, ascertaining it's true purpose. "++ANALYSIS OF COMMUNIST TRANSMISSION PENDING++"
Interesting. The signal was being bounced off a satellite to somewhere in Adams Air Force Base, who were promptly sending a signal to-
Impossible. There should not have been any such Communist satellites over American space!
His onboard processors double-checked their findings.
Nothing changed.
He triple-checked them.
Something changed.
A launch from the Communist satellite.
"++WARNING! WARNING! RED CHINESE ORBITAL STRIKE IMMINENT!++" Liberty Prime announced, blaring a warning siren and cranking it's onboard audio modules to maximum volume as it did the math. At the payload's speeds and projected acceleration... "++ALL PERSONNEL SHOULD REACH MINIMUM SAFE DISTANCE IMMEDIATELY++"
There was a brief pause, a stunned silence where none of his fellow Americans moved, as if they couldn't comprehend the depths of depravity the Communists were willing to sink to.
There was little time left. He was already tracking them as they began to enter the Earth's atmosphere.
"++REPEAT: RED CHINESE ORBITAL STRIKE INBOUND!++" Liberty Prime repeated, as desperately as a computer could, as it began to point away from the station with it's free hand. "++ALL U.S. ARMY PERSONNEL MUST VACATE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY! PROTECTION PROTOCOLS ENGAGED!++"
Good. They were running now, scrambling to get as far away from the station as they could.
It was still tracking the salvo of warheads as they touched down.
The first four were near-misses, hitting the ground around him, the shockwaves rattling his armor as debris and shrapnel bounced off of him, and he fell to his knees as the ground around him shook.
The fifth hit his left shoulder and detonated, tearing off its arm in an explosion of nuclear fire.
The sixth and seventh blew off his legs and badly damaged his internal systems.
He failed to track the eighth and ninth.
Finally, as the dust cleared, and the Lyons' Pride cautiously approached the massive new crater outside the somehow-still-standing satellite station, they found the top half of Liberty Prime, bleeding hydraulic fluid and sparks, as it attempted to pull itself away with its one good arm.
"++CATA...STROPHIC... SYSTEM... FAILURE++" Liberty Prime announced, attempting to run a system diagnostics program. He would have blinked when he found he no longer had one.
He felt onboard reactor spark and sputter.
Query: surrounded by Communists?
Scanning...
Negative.
Re-engage self-destruct failsafe.
"++IN-IT-INITIATING CORE SH-SHUTDOWN... AS PER EMERGENCY INITIATIVE 2-6-8-2-2-0-9...++"
He was surrounded by his fellow Americans.
He could still be recovered.
And most importantly, he would not harm his fellow American soldiers.
He ejected his head, and all the intelligence systems and encrypted codes of the U.S. Army stored within, for easier recovery and transport.
"++I-I DIE, S-SO THA-AT... DE-MO-CRACY... MAY... live++"
Author's Note: One last chapter for the week.
Welcome to the Broken Steel portion, which completely retcons the Lone Wanderer's death in the purifier and allows you to play past the end! So, yes... Jaune survived the purifier. It broke his Aura and almost cooked him, but the immediate medical attention saved his life. No idea why anyone's surprised. Like I would end it that easily... even though I did once already...
Regarding Jaune's Aura... yes, I know I initially wrote it as a white light (as it was in the first few volumes), but now it's yellow. I'm just going to hand-wave it as his Aura growing, evolving, and changing as he does (he did only have it for less than a year; it's probably still immature), but I will at least be consistent in that, when it reflects an attack back (as opposed to just absorbing one), that light will be white.
And, uh... yeah. I initially wrote Ruby to be a lot angrier, more confrontational about Jaune's almost-death, but I decided to tone it down a bit. So much rewriting, but I feel like this is a bit more like a grieving and worried Ruby Ironwood might react than what I previously had.
Now, if it had been Yang, I'd have had to tone it up a lot. But that would have been easier. Far more threats of bodily harm.
Also, poor Squire Arthur Maxson. Every time the kid delivers a message... maybe I'm being too harsh on him...
And it makes sense for Liberty Prime to be able to track radio waves... after all, he was meant to be deployed to the Liberation of Anchorage. It would be pretty important to track if someone was sending a message to a nuclear submarine with a ballistic missile off the coast of Alaska, no?
Alas, with LIBERTY PRIME fallen, there goes the final ship: LIBERTY PRIME x Penny Polendina.
