James stepped onto the Prydwyn as it sailed away from the Capital Wasteland. Though he had just returned for the moment, it was already embroiled in a war. The first Enclave-Federation War. It was already declared and officiated. Though the main force was stationed in Boston, the Addams Garrison held over three hundred fully trained soldiers with over a thousand recruits stationed all throughout the Capital Wasteland. The advantage that the Enclave held was that all of the Enclave's best troops had been left at the Capital to engage i strike missions for when the main force could return. Despite the Federations's numbers and size, the Enclave held one large facility that was the matter of life and death for the Federation's settlements outside of the Vaults. The Enclave holds Project Purity.

"Are you sure leaving is the right thing to do?" Katherine asked. James didn't respond.

"The Commonwealth isn't safe either." James replied. "Amata is right, this isn't over."

"So what are you planning to do?" Katherine asked. "You can't fight multiple wars at the same time."

"I know, which is why we need to get the Commonwealth to get past their factional disputes." James answered. "The Commonwealth has been split into various warring factions. They are currently locked in a Cold War, each faction preparing for another to attack. That type of environment is not sustainable."

"So we need to have them get over their regional issues then." Katherine concluded.

"That's right." James agreed. "Though, personally I'm not entirely sure how we're going to go about doing that."

"Yeah, well. Since when was any of this ever easy?" she joked. The Prydwyn rocked slightly as it sailed through the wind. Adapted Institute and Alien technology served to help push the Prydwyn's limits as a flying vehicle as it rocketed above the ruins of the Old World.

"I wish I could've seen what this used to be like before the Great War." James muttered aloud. "It must have been beautiful."

"It was." Katherine agreed. "But not everything about the people was beautiful."

"What was it like?" James asked, turning his gaze to Katherine, when he was finally tired of staring at broken buildings and raging fires. "What was living in a country like?"

Katherine thought a for a moment and frowned as the words failed to come to her as she expected. She shrugged and turned to James. "I'm, uh, not exactly sure I can describe it."

"Was it really that great?" James asked, cocking an eyebrow as he turned to face her.

"No" she jabbed back, returning his sarcasm. She studied his face in the dark as she attempted to recall a good enough memory of her life before the bombs fell. "It's just that everything was normal to me. And now that it's gone, I have trouble thinking about those times as normal."

"So what does that have to do with you not being able to answer my question?" James asked.

"I guess, I'm trying to say that it's not really all that different from now really." Katherine concluded. "Why do you ask?"

James paused and thought carefully, forming his response. "Well, I guess I'm not so sure about that either."

"Didn't you use to hate the Enclave?"

"Yes."

"Why do you feel differently now?"

"I don't think I even like the Enclave even if I've tried bringing it back these past few years."

"Then what is the point to all this?" Katherine asked waving her hands around the ship that flew them at an incredible speed across great distances. "All the equipment, the technology, the policies, doesn't it ever get tiring?"

James shrugged, he turned his gaze at the mountain range below him and the small bits of light that James knew to be small settlements or campfires. It was quite the sight to see, the view of civilization surviving even after all the apparent destruction.

"I guess I didn't want to let people have to live the same life I did." he muttered.

"And that was?"

"Scavenging for supplies, looting people just to have enough ammunition for protection. Everything matters, each decision is life and death. I envy you in your Pre-War position. You could afford to take a lot of things for granted."

Katherine nodded slowly. "I guess I can't deny that." James smiled.

"No, I guess you can't."

"So is that really all to why you've decided to rebuild the organization that killed your father?"

James shook his head. "At first, I figured they'd be a means to an end. I just needed people to help me get what I wanted. Then I got back to Sanctuary and saw people rebuilding. But in their attempts to thrive, they were always being held back by the Wasteland. Starvation, Drought, Raiders, anything, really. I got sick of it." James looked back at Katherine as if that would emphasize his point. "I don't want people to suffer just to have the right to live." Katherine nodded, then paused before speaking.

"You can't control that." she said softly.

"Maybe not." James admitted. "But can it hurt to try?" he asked, almost innocently, as if he were a child trying to figure out a way to make his parents' lives easier.

"I guess not." Katherine shot him a small smile. The wind whistled by as the Prydwyn confidently rocketed through the skies. They passed many sights and scenes of cities ravaged by war and disuse. "So do you really think you're going to help the Enclave rebuild America? I heard that the Enclave is guilty of some pretty bad things."

"Yeah, but they didn't have me before." James said cockily. "And I think I'm a pretty great guy."

"Oh yeah? What makes you so sure?" she asked spurring his playful attitude regarding himself.

"I guess we'll just have to see what time decides to tell of me. You've heard of the Legend of the Lone Wanderer."

"Oh please, I bet half of that never happened."

"And how would you know?" James asked, chuckling. "You're not me."

Katherine laughed as well as the conversation naturally collapsed on itself. The two stood against the rail for a moment in silence. The only sounds that could be heard were the sleek whirring of Prydwyn airship technology and the wind around them.

"So how does Marie fit into this?" Katherine asked suddenly. The question surprised James, marking it as one of the few he didn't readily have an answer for. He stood straight from his previous relaxed position.

"Marie?" James asked, slightly confused.

"So you're rebuilding the Commonwealth. You've rebuilt the Enclave and you're in the middle of reforming it. How will Marie benefit from this?" Katherine elaborated. "While you've been under, I did a little digging. I know you've practically raised her from birth. And since you always used to wander alone, I want to know why and where Marie became so important to you."

James grunted in response, acknowledging Katherine's deductions while making it clear that it was a topic he was not comfortable with sharing. However, she continued to hold all the cards in the conversation as she continued to press the issue.

"C'mon James, don't make me have to strongarm you into talking to me about it. You know I used to be a lawyer, right?"

James frowned and looked up back at Katherine as he attempted to formulate a coherent answer.

"Don't tell me you're her father…." Katherine suggested.

"No!" James replied defensively. "She was born long before I met Ashur." James snapped. He thought for a moment before continuing. "The Pitt was a slave colony that Marie was raised in. When I first went in there I was hired to be the catalyst of a revolution and I jumpstarted it. Hell, I practically planned and pushed it into happening."

"And then?" Katherine asked. "What made you change your mind about the slaves?"

"They asked me to kidnap a little girl. I was young, I thought her parents were evil. But when I got there, it turned out they were just like any other parents."

"Except for the fact that they were running a slave colony, right?" Katherine asked accusingly. James brushed off the comment and continued.

"I couldn't bring myself to take her.' James said. "She was innocent, she didn't deserve to be blamed for everything the freedom fighters said her family was guilty of."

"So you decided to spare the family." Katherine guessed. James nodded. "And you helped suppress a revolution and keep a slaver society in power, am I correct?" James nodded once more. "And I assume there's more to this story?"

"Ashur's idea was to keep the Pitt in business and running on slaves until they used Marie's unique genes to develop a cure for the Trogs."

"Trogs?"

"Don't worry about it. However the slaves were naturally restless so I suggested that they all be freed." James said. "Ashur was initially apprehensive but I convinced him into doing it. The slaves had nowhere to go and ended working in the same place anyways. Though I paid most out of pocket."

"Where did you get the caps for that?"

"Even when I was young, I had a knack for convincing people to do stuff for me. Most of them were trade caravaners. But the Pitt was full of unused talent that I then used to help rebuild the city."

"I can't imagine the slavers really liked that idea."

"No, they didn't. They tried to stage a coup one time." James replied. "Let's just say I had a direct role in shutting that idea down and the slavers never stepped out of line ever again."

"And Marie fit into this picture how?"

"I was essentially the Pitt's Sheriff, well more accurately I was judge, jury, and executioner."

"Hmm, I imagine that power never went to your head."

"I'll admit I was harsh, but it was for the greater good."

"So you tell yourself."

"You want to talk or you want to listen? Pick one please." James said sarcastically. Katherine nodded and held her hands up defensively.

"With Ashur busy with rebuilding the Pitt and restructuring society. He was an absent father. And Marie's mom, well, she was so busy on curing the residents of the PItt of their diseases and cancers that she never spent much time with the kid either."

"So you took on that role too."

"Yeah, well it turned out that way. I was making my rounds one day when I found her and her bodyguards in the courtyard. The guards had been bribed to help the remaining revolutionaries kidnap Marie and take her God knows where. I didn't even think, I shot first. Everyone one there died. And in the middle of the crossfire was Marie. I picked her up and carried her inside before making it my personal job to kill the remaining revolutionaries."

"An extermination campaign." James nodded.

"And after a year in the Pitt, I was getting damn good at it too." James admitted darkly, his eyes clouded and lost as if reliving every hit during his time as the nightmarish overlord of the PItt. "Soon, she started following me as I made my rounds. People started fearing me more so it became safer too. Then it was only a matter of time before she began walking with me on all my jobs and then becoming a helper during some of them as well."

"And her parents just let her do that?"

"What's the point in stopping her?" James returned. "Besides, who'd do anything if I was there? It's not just what I'd do to the protect her but what I'd do after they even think of hurting her."

"You became protective of her. You became her Protector." James shrugged, slightly embarassed.

"Yeah, well, she deserved a good life. It's not her fault she's immune to every disease and germ the Wasteland has put out to kill people. So if it's not her fault, I'll make sure people regret trying to make it her fault."

"How noble of you."

"And that's what it turned out to be. Why do you ask?"

"Haven't you noticed already?"

"Noticed what?"

"The girl is rejecting her biological father, it's clear to me that she now sees you as more of a father than Ashur ever was."

"Well, that's not fair. Ashur-"

"Was an absent father, you said so yourself. He was a deadbeat dad and you took on that responsibility. She sees you as her father. The question is, what do you see yourself as on her life?"

James paused. "I never thought about it that way."

"I know you haven't. Everyone in the Commonwealth's been talking about it. Marie is very well known among the communities especially those with schools and academies. Everyone's been talking about how she's the Lone Wanderer's daughter. Where do you think that idea comes from?"

James didn't respond.

"So all I'm trying to do right now is to remind you that the Enclave and the fate of the Commonwealth is not your only burden to bear. You have a daughter to raise, whether you like it or not and whether she is your biological daughter or not. You have a responsibility. You have a hole in her heart to fill that has been empty in the three years that everyone thought you were dead. So when you make plans, they had better include her. Or you are going to lose her."

James stood silently, not denying any of Katherine's allegations. But also not acknowledging them either. He thought long and hard about what such implications and rumors would mean and how they would affect his ability as a leader. But then his whole mind silenced himself as the door slid open and Marie herself walked out. She had heard everything.