Chapter 21: "For a Better Future…"

"I'm telling you, they looked different." Natalie explained to us back at the house.

"What do you mean, Natalie? Use your words." I issued to her as I felt my temples.

"Don't talk to her like she's our daughter. Oh wait, you don't talk to her either." Victoria shot at me.

"Oh Jesus Christ." I sighed in stress.

"Is everything okay at home, guys?" Natalie asked us.

"No, Natalie, someone tried to kidnap our daughter, so please for the love of God, tell us what happened!" I exclaimed.

"They were raiders. They had some new tech on them and they were just weird."

"What do you mean?" Vee asked.

"They didn't act like they were hopped up on chems. They seemed like they knew what they were doing."

I shook my head. "This can't be Chain." I said in disbelief.

"Well it is. You know what he's capable of." Victoria told me.

"We'll figure it out tomorrow." I said as I lumbered away from them.

"It's not even sunset yet." Natalie told me.

"I'm not feeling good."

"Sarah isn't either. She fainted today."

"I'll take her to the doctor tomorrow." I grunted as I grasped the staircase handrail and started climbing.

"Put it off to the last minute, that's what he always does." Victoria said quietly to Natalie but also loud enough so I could hear the complaints.

"I'm not putting it off to the last minute. Sarah's already asleep, so when she wakes up—"

"What if she doesn't? This isn't a normal cold, Jace! Where are your paternity instincts? Have they not kicked in when you were playing cowboy?"

Natalie cleared her throat. "This is starting to get awkward, so…" She grabbed her pay and left the house.

"You realize you're playing along with me, too, right?" I asked my wife as I exhaled at the top of the stairs.

"I'm doing it to make sure my child's safe, Jace! Why are you going around fighting people?"

"There's a fucking psycho on the loose! That's why I'm doing this! I'm definitely not doing it to make my life more exciting, that's for—" I breathed in for a deep second.

"What's the matter, not feeling up to talking to me?!" Vee yelled up a story of stairs.

"You call this… talking?" I asked her as I shook my head and turned away.

"It's better than the conversations we've been having lately!"

I shut our bedroom door on her and locked her out, my head spinning. I stripped my clothes off because I was sweating and then fell down on my bed. My body needed rest, and the weird position I was slouched on my bed provided me just that. I passed out on it as Victoria's muffled screams echoed in my ear.

I remembered walking through the halls of the vault, every decoration hung up on my old neighbor's doors filled my chest up with nostalgia. I looked around and smiled. Things seemed great, looking back at it. I felt like a 16 year old kid again, and as soon as I realized that, my adult thoughts flooded in. I remembered the lies the vault held, the forced tests and Utopian styled niche that made me into a mindless drone for the Overseer to control. I hated myself for being so blind to what was happening, but inside, I knew my mind was free. I spotted to my side and saw Rachel standing beside me, the words "Best Friend" Floating above her, but implanted to my head.

"This is your home…" She told me. "Why did you abandon it?"

I was confused, hurt. I thought I was helping my home, I knew I was helping, she was wrong.

I passed my father; his title was displayed above his head. "I bled for you… and you did the very thing I died for to keep you from doing. You betrayed me. You left me."

I didn't betray him, I did what was right, I was sacrificing things like this to save people. I'm selfless and if he doesn't understand, I don't care. I'd do the same thing again if it means the people alive today will be alive tomorrow.

I then passed the old Overseer, his menacing eyes and his floating title above him.

"You went out there for what? To fulfil a childish dream of the world outside? Look what it cost you, boy. Look what you've done to yourself. Look what you divulged. Look what you are. A murderer."

I know I wasn't the murderer, he was. He hurt and killed to maintain his power, to fulfil his selfish wish of being the leader over an army of puppets. He was just upset I had a mind of my own.

I passed Chip, with the title "Childhood Bully" above his head.

"Everyone said you were a good kid. I'm glad they were wrong. You're not the hero you think you are. You've poisoned our home. I'm happy I used every chance and hurt and intimidate you, Jace. You're a monster."

There's not a single thing I've done in my life that would merit those words. You know who is the monster? The person who would berate and bully a child because he doesn't think they can be friends. He ruined my childhood and made me hate this place. He's the reason why I left, people like him, who think that what they are doing is right but not caring about what they're doing to others. They're blind, they're fools. They're the monsters.

I walked past all of them in rage, stopping to see a child in front of me. She had black long hair and a skinny, questioned and anti-social look in her eyes. It was my daughter.

"This is why you did what you did? This?" A voice said behind me as I looked at her.

It was worth it.

"No. You're wrong."

My blood is important.

"Not when it's spilled for 'peace'."

I have a legacy. I have dreams and goals and aspirations and fears. My main fear: losing her.

"No matter what you do, she is going to fall, with or without you watching over her, with or without the help of others. What do you think is going to happen then? You think you'll be remembered as saints? No, you killed for her, you made sure nothing happens to her. Saints don't become the devil."

I'm protecting her. I'm doing what any father would do.

"No father would do this." A voice said as I looked at a lonely bearded man in the desert, dying of starvation as his daughter sat in a desk, flooded by his work that he left in his passing. She had lost her touch, her graces and airs, her colorful hair and her slender body. She wasn't a girl; she was a woman, an Overseer. And she was only 25.

He was not fit to be a father to her. She deserved better. A desk job is better than neglect and abuse.

I spotted my wife crying at a table with a wine glass next to her, and a sleeping girl on the couch. She tried to conceal her tears so she wouldn't wake her daughter.

"Neglect and abuse?" The voice asked.

It's not neglect and abuse if I'm doing it to help their lives. They're going to be happy one day because they're suffering now, and that's another sacrifice I had to make.

"I'm sure many an Overseer has said that."

No. They do it for themselves, not for others, to increase their social standing and climb and climb and bite their tongue at the top of the ladder. They did nothing with that power, as I used it to help others.

I then felt my body traveling vast distances across the Wasteland, stopping at the Battle of the Gun Shack, where the cave lay abandoned, except for a small band of scavengers that took the place over. I had forgot to issue guards there to collect the slaves and weapons, and instead, others replaced the raiders that were there, and soon they would be just as powerful over people and well-equipped as the past residents. I saw a glance at a town I visited in a past year when I had been fallen by a brutal man with more strength than me at the time. The gangs had continued to take from the needy until one day; there were no more needy living. And soon, there would be none living in the city at all. It was destined to be a ghost town because no one stood up to the evil that rested inside there.

I went into a white room, with a woman standing there, a warm smile and a white dress with the words "Vault-Tec" stitched into it.

"You were blessed with a curse. Self-awareness will make any man insane. Or persevere."

"What is this?" I asked.

"Welcome to Project Legacy, sponsored by Vault-Tec. You have been recalled. Have a wonderful day."

And I was awake-for whatever that was worth.

I was nude, outside of Megaton, alone in the morning with just a pair of boxers covering me. I was sitting next to a dead, black tree. I got up and looked around. I was sweating; my hair was blasted around my head as if I was ripping at it. I was scared of what I did in my blackout first, and then looked at my fingernails. Brown and black were they as I peered. Scratches and dried blood were sprinkled around them. I rushed back home and flung the front door open. I looked at Vee and Joe talking at the table.

"What the hell is this?" I asked them in betrayal. Why were they talking without me? There wasn't any need to go behind my back, into my own home when they both had jobs to do. I was angered.

"Hi I'm Joseph. I wrote a book, I'm kind of a big deal around here." Joe answered. "I'm sorry, that was a horrible response to what you just asked. Let me try again." Joe said as he recuperated his thoughts.

"…"

"Why are you naked and why are your arms covered in dirt?" He asked me after the pause.

"Uh… I…"

"Drunk." Joe said as he snapped his fingers and pointed at me.

"I invited Joe over here today, Jace." Victoria told me in a dead tone as I put my green button up on and brown pants.

"Why?" I asked her, knowing there was a catch. I washed my hands off.

Joe nodded, preparing sarcasm. "That's nice. Pretty sure that we're best friends, but—"

"Tell him the truth Jace." Victoria said as she looked at the floor. Joe looked at her face, and then up at me. He was silent, listening. His humor was wiped away. I knew what this was about.

"What's wrong?" He asked us in a low voice.

I looked at him and opened my mouth, sighed, and closed it. It was like abandoning a lost puppy when he was attached to you, and I knew Vee didn't have it in her to tell him.

"We want a divorce."

"W-What?" He asked me, looking at Victoria for confirmation. Her face was gray and tired. She looked at the ground.

Joe smiled and shook his head. "You can't do that… y-you guys have a daughter. She's four years old, guys!" He said, almost begging.

"Five." I corrected him.

"Four." Victoria corrected me.

I looked at her and opened my mouth, looking at the ground.

"We need to get ourselves together, Joe. It's just—"

"No!" Joe yelled. We looked up at him.

"We're… we're best friends, guys! You guys are best friends, this shouldn't happen to you!"

I tried to explain. "It's for Sarah's wellbeing, she's not growing up ar—"

"How can you do this and say it's for her? She's a fucking kid, Jace!" Joe shouted.

"Watch your language." Victoria told him weakly.

"I… I told you… you guys were supposed to be the good ones… you're supposed to protect her! Not fucking throw her to the side while you worry about yourselves!"

"We are protecting her. Just differently than you thought." Victoria told him.

Joe inhaled. We sat in silence.

"How did this happen?" Joe asked us as he dropped his head in his hands.

"I don't know. It just did… We're not kids anymore, Joe. There are people out there that are trying to kill us and we don't have the time to focus on things like a family."

"Then why did you start one?!" Joe yelled at me as he slammed his fist on the table in rage as his words expressed a different emotion. "She's… she's just a kid, guys! You can't do this to her!"

"I promise what happened to you won't happen to her. She'll have her parents." I assured him.

"This isn't about me!" Joe boomed.

We heard steps approach down the stairs. We turned to see her trot towards us slowly.

"What's wrong?" She asked us.

"Nothing, Sarah." I told her.

"Uncle Joe!" Sarah smiled as she ran over to him and hugged his hurt legs.

"Oof... you just keep getting prettier every time I see you. You got your parents' good looks." Joe smiled at her as he hugged back.

"Can you run upstairs and look for that comic book I've been asking you for?" Joe issued a challenge to her.

"'Ladies of the Amazon'? Okay!" Sarah nodded as she got upstairs.

Joe grabbed his crutches and silently moved to the front door.

"Joe—"

"Don't ever talk to me again." Joe told us.

He turned himself around, and pointed to us.

"If anything happens to that little girl… I'll… I'll..."

He didn't have any other words.

He left through the front door, and I looked down, and then at my wife. We made eye contact for a split second until we looked at something else for longer than we should have.