Hey everyone, just fyi, there will eventually be a sequel to this story, and then maybe another, not sure about that part. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 27

Sarah walks through the door, proudly wearing her initiates uniform. Her platinum hair is tied up in a tight bun and there is still sweat clinging to her forehead. At first she tries to keep a serious face, but a smile appears as soon as Tyler looks over at her and nods his head. "I did it!" she all but squeals! "I passed my initiation tests!"

Tyler beams and holds open his arms to his little sis. She laughs and runs to him, leaping through the air and enveloping him in a bear hug. "Ha ha," he laughs poudly, "I told you that you would do fine. You worry far too much." He releases her and steps back with the smile still on his face. "You told the old man yet?"

"No," she laughs, "but I figure he knows already. He hears about everything that happens here." She turns on her heal and bounces out of the room, still smiling like a little kid. Tyler laughs at her and sits back down at the table. He turns back to his squad to find them all grinning at him like jackals.

"What?" he demands.

"Nothing," snickers Lieutenant Gears, "bibro."

Tyler glowers at them as they all laugh at the pet name his little sister used to use for him. "Attention!" All of his men immediately straighten up in their seats and stop laughing. Their faces take on the stone-like masks of soldiers. "As members of the Lions Pride, you men are better than the best of the Brotherhood. I make no attempt to involve myself in your private lives, and I expect the same level of respect from you, is that understood?"

"Sir yes sir!" They chant in unison.

"Now," Tyler declairs as he pulls his rations towards himself, "I do believe there is a large stretch of wall up there that has no one running it at this moment. I want you lot to get up there and give the wall some company. About thirty laps of company. Dismissed." The members of the Pride rise from their seats and file out of the room in rank. Gears takes the lead and starts up the training chant they use to keep in step while drilling out on the field.

Once they are out of the room, Tyler's stern face is split by another smile and he tucks in with his rations. He runs his troops hard, but that is what makes them so dependable. His reputation as a hard assed commander is well earned, and he intends to uphold it for as long as possible. ask any of the soldiers not under his command, and they would tell you that he is a bastard who is way to strict. Ask any of his actual troops, and they will tell you just how lenient he is, but that such leniency comes at the price of devotion and discipline.

He knows his men, not something every officer can claim. He trusts them, treats them the same way his family treats him. They are his brothers and sisters, he would die for them ten times over. At the same time, he sure as hell does enjoy sending them to running early in the morning.

Finishing up his rations he walks over to the quartermaster and pulls some strings. Exiting the C ring he walks up the stairs leading to the top of the wall and waits for his men to reach him. He hails them over and the move in his direction, coming to a stop in perfect formation. He inspects the line for a second, "At ease." They move to the relaxed position and he smiles at them. "Soldiers, I know we have all learned a valuable lesson this morning."

"Sir yes sir!"

"Good, now relax and and have some fancy lads cakes." he reveals the snacks and his men all break out in laughter again and relax. Tyler distributes the sweet cakes and toasts his sister Sarah, a toast all of his men join in on. "To Sarah, to the Brotherhood, to the Pride!"

Tyler opens his eyes and releases a pent up breath he hadn't realized he was holding in. He studies the horizon from the walls of the Citadel and lets out a deep sigh. There are a lot of memories in this place. Plenty of good and bad. Behind him some knights are on patrol. He can't make out all of what they say, but he gets enough to figure out what they mean. They are talking about him. About his failure and how he went violent and became a junkie. They are also wondering why the hell he is being allowed to stay, something he has wondered about himself.

He recalls the attack on the purifier, and the frantic escape through the hatch Luther showed him, but he does not recall entering the Citadel. The surgeon who patched him up claims that he passed out due to sever radiation poisoning and wanted to know if he got to close to something in the escape tunnels. Tyler could only laugh at the man. He didn't reveal that he is a ghoul, hell, he has barely spoken a word to anyone, which is fine with him. He has spotted Sarah at least twice, and both times she has avoided him. He has also seen his father, but that his a confrontation he actually wants to have.

Speaking with his estranged family is part of the reason he is standing up here, looking out over the water towards the Jefferson Memorial where he can just barely see Enclave soldiers moving around the facility. A few hours ago he sent messages to both Elder Lyons and his sister. Neither have shown yet, and he is beginning to suspect that neither will. "You have some nerve Tyler."

He squeezes his eyes shut and lowers his head at the sound of the voice. It used to be so sweet, so full of the energy of youth and innocence. Now it is cold and harsh. Without turning or opening his eyes he responds, "I know you don't want to hear any apologies, you made that clear back at GNR, but will you at least listen to why I called you up here?"

Behind him he hears Sarah move up to stand beside him. He still does not look at her. "I will listen, nothing more."

"That is all I can ask really." He lapses into a short silence as he gathers his thoughts. "I don't know how much you have been told about the mission that got my entire squad killed, maybe they told you it was all a giant accident, or that it was a trap. No matter what you have heard, it is all bullshit. The real reason the mission went wrong and all my people died is me. I ordered them to stand their ground while I retrieved some technical documents detailing the construction of a massive war machine, one I'm sure you know well by now. I gave the command, I sacrificed my people for the betterment of the Brotherhood and the wasteland, and I have to carry that blame alone."

"Elder Lyons tried to make it easier by naming me a hero and filing a report that was total bullshit. It didn't help, if anything it made things worse. I lay awake every night and see their faces, heard their screams over the communications in my helmet. There was no way to escape their deaths, no place to hide from their screams, except through the chems. I discovered that taking a hit of jet or psycho let me sleep, and eventually I didn't care about what the rest of the Brotherhood thought any more. I became the junkie that everyone sees me as now. There is no moral to this story, no happy ending, but I through you at least deserved the truth."

"I have seen the way you command your people, you are good, better than I ever was. They respect you, which is far better than them liking you. Don't take advantage of that. Don't ignore how much they mean to you. I may be your family by shared blood, but they are your family by spilled blood, and that bond is even tighter than anything you will ever have again." He goes quiet and finally opens his eyes again. He lifts his gaze to the Memorial across the water and can almost feel an Enclave gun to his head.

"They are going to attack us." They way she says it, it clearly isn't a question. Tyler nods his head yes. "Then we need to be ready. We need to strike first, but Father won't risk trying to hold the purifier unless it is active, and that won't work without a GECK."

Tyler lowers his head again. "Unfortunately, the only GECK left in the Capital is in the hands of the Enclave."

Luther ascends the last set of stairs and stands before the massive computer screen that is President John Henry Eden. He glares, but isn't sure that a monitor can pick up on facial expressions. "You wanted to speak with me?" Blood is dripping down the side of his arm from a long and deep cut from a deathclaw attack a few minutes ago. After Eden let him out of his cell, Autumn went crazy and ordered the whole base to hunt him down and kill him. Luther, having once been one of the Enclave's best, easily avoided most of the fighting, but was forced to improvise in a few situations. Situations such as being pinned down by gatling lasers and then releasing a deathclaw with a mind control device attached to its head.

"I am sorry for this mess, Major, but it would seem that the Colonel has decided I am no longer fit for duty. It is a shame really, I did enjoy our little evening chats together. Now then, on to business. I am sure that by now you realize that opposing us would not work out all that well. So I hope that you will at least consider lending us your aid, if not your allegiance."

Luther sneers, "Why in the hell should I help you? What has the Enclave ever done for me or the wasteland? Besides wage war on defenseless vault dwellers?"

"Now, now Major, lets now get hostile. The soldiers still looking for you in the lower levels of this base are hostile enough. You are correct though, up until now the Enclave has been incredibly docile in its dealings with the outside world. That has changed. It changed when I launched a full scale occupation of the Capital. As we speak, Enclave shock troopers are setting up outposts all across the DC area. Yet even that will be useless without the aid of the purifier. Now is where you come in Major."

"I want you to deliver a serum that we have developed to the purifier and insert it into the water systems. This serum is a product of our studies with the FEV, something I am sure you have familiarity with. It will effectively target all irradiated monstrosities in the Wastelands while leaving uncorrected civilians completely safe. A miracle of science is it not?"

A port opens in Eden's monitor and serum vial ejects. Luther tentatively reaches down and takes it. He turns the vial over and over in his hands. This small amount of liquid has the capacity to whip out half the residents of the Capital Wasteland. It will kill the Supermutants, the ghouls, any and all creatures out there, and it would even kill any normal humans who just happen to be a little irradiated. The implications are hard to think about. This serum could usher in a new era of peace, or it could destroy everything all over again. Peace. He chuckles a few times. Then he laughs, and then he is roaring. "You think, you can end the problems of the world Eden? You can't. Humanity always finds a way to fuck things up again. You want peace, but I assure you, it will never happen, not so long as there are still people alive. Want to know why? Because ever since our ancestors discovered that rock and bone can kill, we have killed in the name of everything! War, peace, freedom, liberty, even simple psychotic rage. The way war has been waged has changed, oh yes, but one thing has not. Through all the ages, one simple truth remains. War, war never changes! Authorization code 420-03-20-9."

Eden's monitor freezes up and for a moment nothing happens, and then the whole facility begins to detonate. Luther stashes the serum in his coat and turn on his heal towards the exit. He sprints through the destruction, pushing aside panicked Enclave faculty as he goes. Shrapnel and fire explode across his path, but he does not slow down. Nearby a fully armored Enclave soldiers ejects himself from his burning armor and grabs a fire extinguisher. Luther shots the panicked man in the head and puts the flames out on the armor. He leaps into the suit and it powers up almost immediately. With the added strength of the power armor, he forces his way through the rubble of Raven Rock.

A beam falls from the ceiling and crushes half of the armor's helmet. Luther reaches up and tears the useless head gear away and continues forward. As he passes a viewing pannel, he stops just long enough to see Autumn leap into a vertibird and take off into the air. Luther curses the damn man and runs towards the escape. He pulls the activation switch to open the surface exit, but nothing happens. He yells in frustration and begins pounding on the door with his now armored fists. The door dents a little, but nothing else happens. An explosion goes off behind him and the force of it slams his head into the door. His vision swims and he feels blood dripping down his face.

He sways backwards, but the power armor keeps him upright. He shakes his head to clear it and again tries the activation switch. This time the door groans and begins to slide open. He grabs the seam and pushes the door to make it go faster. When there is just enough room he rushes through. Stumbling down the hill he is treated to a view of the side of a mountain exploding outwards in multiple different places. The sound of a gatling laser causes him to duck, but the weapon is not being fired at him. He looks around, and spots a hulking mutant happily mowing down Enclave soldiers. Luther stumbles towards the mutant, his mind no longer thinking straight.

The mutant turns to him and starts to fire, but stops. It approaches him and roars something, but the throbbing in Luther's head makes it impossible for him t understand. The mutant gabs his shoulders and shouts in his face. "My friend, I do not think this to be a good place to be standing!" That voice. It can't be. How in the hell did he find him. Fawkes. You are a saint. You are a guardian angel.

There you are, another addition to the story. I am trying to get as much closure for each of the characters as I can. The next chapter will be Nick all the way. Hope you guys enjoyed. We are getting close to the end now, can you feel it? Leave a review or a critique. Thanks!