Chapter 2

(Recording start)

"Year 2279, February 5th, Recording Session 6 of Prisoner 021"

(Feet shuffle)

"You should answer our questions truthfully or else this will be more painful than it has to be."

(Painful groan)

"Alright, tell me again, why is your Shack in Megaton stacked with technology we haven't seen before"?"

(Heavy breathing)

"…I told you…it's from a space ship that is stationed…in Orbit…"

"I see, Anne please help our friend refresh her memory."

"Yes Sir!"

(Switch being pulled)

(Electrical discharge)

(Painful scream)

"You should listen to me. Anne can keep up all day, whereas you look like you're about to break."

(Heavy breathing, painful groan)

"I'm telling you, it's the truth!

(Annoyed sigh)

"If you won't break, I'm sure one of the other Prisoners will talk"

(Angry growl)

"YOU STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM SARAH!"

(Amused chuckle)

"Watch your tone; you're in no position to bargain. Now let's try again…"

(Recording End)

xxx

Time, for most people it's invaluable. The average life span of humans is short, even shorter in the world ravaged by the nuclear war of the past. But for a single woman, time was sometimes nothing more but a burden. Right now her small frame was shivering in the farthest corner of her cell. She could see her breath every time she exhaled. Her sense of time was long gone, even though she was captive for barely two weeks. But to her it felt like a life time.

The Brotherhood Outcasts ambushed the Lone Wanderer and a group of Paladins lead by Sarah Lyons on a routine patrol near Arefu. The warriors had no chance, as their Power Armors and weapons malfunctioned by a well placed EMP-mine. They brought the group to Fort Independence where they interrogated each person, asking questions about Elder Lyons's plans and of course the infamous Lone Wanderer.

It was no surprise that she was a person of interest to the Brotherhood outcasts. Few humans in history brought immense changes to the environment they grew up in. Fewer did so in the post-apocalyptic lands they were living in now.

They wanted to know how it was possible, that a "brat" from a Vault had the experience of a Paladin Veteran. How it was possible for a single person to accumulate so much technology in a Shack without anyone noticing. The Lone Wanderer berated herself for her stupidity. She planned to take all of her gear and bring it to the Citadel, but never bothered, because she trusted the people of Megaton to keep a close eye on her belongings. And the people gladly did so. Thanks to the Lone Wanderer the giant bomb in the middle of the town was disabled and the citizen could sleep soundly, without having to worry about dying in the middle of the night by a nuclear blast. Three Dog's announcement did also immensely help to make the Lone Wanderer notorious across the wasteland. Everyone knew of the great hero from the Vault who skirmished trough slavers, raiders and Super Mutants without as much as a graze. Everyone knew of the purifier and how the Lone Wanderer brought clean water to a place which had lost all hope.

Now, she was freezing in her prison cell, awaiting certain death, even welcoming it. Death did not mean the same to her as it did to other people. To her it meant a new beginning, a chance to correct the mess they were in, to save all the Paladins and Sarah from needless torture and agony.

But it was hopeless. Before she could die, they stopped their torture and let her recover, so to question her further another time. Killing herself wasn't an option either, since they never tried to use sharp objects on her. She had answered all of their answers truthfully, but they never believed her. They thought she made up the stories of the Alien technology she gathered on the Zeta ship. They thought she made up the fact that she saw beyond the time they were living in.

They questioned her decision to help Ashur, an infamous "Brotherhood Criminal". The Outcasts had their own spies it seemed, so her journey wasn't as unnoticed as she first had thought. She tried to argue that Ashur was the best hope for the city and future children who would grow up healthy and radiation free thanks to his daughter, but there had been no point in explaining to them why she felt like she did. She knew it was the right decision, because she had seen it with her own eyes. She had visited "The Pit" or "New Pittsburgh" as Ashurs daughter had named it. She had been an old woman by then, but the journey was worth it, because she knew at that time, that her decision to enslave a few to save many had been worth it.

She also had seen the alternative as well. She had given Marie to the slaves at some point in her life as well, only to see her die a miserable death in a junkyard surrounded by unsterile medical equipment. A sad fate for a child, whose parents had been long dead at that point.

Thinking back on the many decisions in her life, the Lone Wanderer was happy that at least some decisions worked out for the best.

She was pulled from her thoughts when suddenly the door to the prison opened and Anne came back to get her. She grinned smugly at her and opened the door.

"It's time for our little tea party princess. Hope you're in the mood for it"

The Lone Wanderer tried to sit up straight, but the pain in her arms was too much, so the Paladin grabbed her roughly and pulled her up with her.

It was going to be a long night.

xxx

The Lone Wanderer was sitting in the all too familiar chair in an all too familiar room. She was gasping for breath as the pain slowly subsided from yet another shock. They had asked to show how to unlock her Pip-boy, but she was uncooperative as always, which lead to painful hours of electrical torture. She even refused when they tortured Sarah. They had done it before and she was forced to watch. But the Pip-boy was the only thing that was going to save them; she just had to get her hands on it.

"…I'm telling you…", the Lone Wanderer slowly began, ignoring the pain in her chest, "only I can unlock it. It's biometrically locked. If you kill me it's going to be useless.

"You're lying. The moment I give this thing to you, you're gonna call for help", a gruff voice spoke to the lone Wanderer.

The voice in question belonged to Paladin Henry Casdin, the only other person she saw when she was being tortured. They always used the same tactics. Questions and torture if the questions were not answered or when the answers were unsatisfactory.

There was no good cop, bad cop. They were both bad cops. Only one was worse than the other.

"…You have to believe me; the device…isn't capable of something like that. It's a piece of Rob-Co trash…", the she said desperate.

"You can kill Sarah if I try anything".

The last bit pained her, but she knew that if they wanted to get out of the situation, she had to get her hands on her Pip-boy.

Henry considered her proposal and agreed. To make good on her words, he brought Sarah into the room, who was tied and looked terrified at the Lone Wanderer. Just to make his point clear, Henry had Anne hold a gun against Sarah's head.

She smiled sadly at her friend and looked towards the Pip-boy Henry held in his hand.

"Watch out for anything suspicious Anne. We don't need Lyons brigade to show up in front of the Fort", he said,

The Lone Wanderer took the Pip-boy and put it on her hand. Then she started to push the buttons to change the screen to a file that said "Synchronize".

It was all a ruse. While it was enough for her to put on the Pip-boy for it to unlock, the Brotherhood Outcasts needn't to know that. If they did, they just had to cut off her arm for it to function properly. Damn thing wasn't fool proof. The Synchronize function was indeed a distress call that would be sent to Fawkes. The Lone Wanderer figured that at some point she really needed someone to save her miserable ass and who better to call than an 8 feet tall, angry Super Mutant. She had built him a small device that would send him the coordinates of her Pip-boy as well as set him a waypoint for him to follow, should he get lost. But she believed in Fawkes. He was very smart, smarter than most humans.

"Here you go", she held the Pip-boy out for Henry to see, "I still need to have it on though, else it won't function."

Henry looked at her with one eyebrow raised but turned her arm to get a better view at the Pip-boy. She said there awkwardly what felt like an hour, while he clicked trough the menus, searching for something of value, before he let go of her arm.

"You're right it's really a piece of Rob-Co trash. What's the point of it anyway?"

"Uh, music?"

"Anne, bring her back to her cell. I'm getting tired of this"

xxx

A few days passed without any incidents. Usually a little torture here and there, but it wasn't as bad as it were in the beginning. The paladins took turns and examined her Pip-boy over and over again, but she had a feeling that they wouldn't find anything useful on it. The Paladins seemed to be distracted by something and the Lone Wanderer could tell that something big was about to happen.

"I'm telling you sir, the other prisoners have confirmed it", Anne said, "There are pieces of a giant Robot for us to take if we attack the Citadel. Now is the best time to strike. With our new toys from Megaton we should win this easily. Since the battle at the purifier the Brotherhood is low on manpower and the main force consists of wasteland trash that can't properly shoot. Let alone hit a bag of sand."

Henry considered her words and asked, "What about Vault 101? You said you found some valuable information on the Pip-boy?

The woman smiled a coldly and replied, "Yes Sir, we have found a password on the Pip-boy that seems to open the Vault door. We can move the whole Brotherhood underground, it will be a perfect and save base of operations.

Cold sweat started to run down the Lone Wanderers back.

Amata. No.

It seems she was willing to invite her back into the Vault even after what she had said to her the last time she helped her out. She probably sent her a new message during one of her interrogations. She hadn't noticed.

"Alright Anne, have the men form two Squads and attack both points at the same time. They won't know what hit them until it is too late."

The Lone Wanderer frantically tried to come up with a plan, but she felt helpless. Fawkes was taking so long and she had to try to something. She started to pull at her restraints but found herself to weak to do anything. She hadn't been fed properly since she arrived at the Fort. And dying of hunger took too long to even consider it.

"At once Sir."

xxx

The Lone Wanderer was dreaming in her cell. She saw the citadel burning and dead bodies piled up like bags. She also saw the Vault and how her childhood friend was shot with the rest of the Vault like animals in front of the entrance.

She woke up startled by an alarm. She could tell something was definitely wrong, because judging by the time of day, that her torture schedule had changed drastically. Normally she was in the cell during the day and tortured during the night. Yet she could see the first rays of the morning sunlight falling through the small window in the wall.

The Fort's alarms were loud and blocked out almost all the other sounds she could have heard outside. But she still could feel the earth shake from time to time. Explosions.

She sat silently in her cell waiting for the alarms to stop, but after half an hour her cell door opened and a familiar figure entered.

"Excuse me friend, but it seems the device you have crafted for me, malfunctioned", a slow voice spoke, trying to form the words correctly.

Fawkes was standing at the door and blocking the way entirely. The Lone Wanderer could have kissed him right there.

"Fawkes!", she exclaimed happily, "I'm so glad you made it. I knew you could make it."

The Super Mutant awkwardly scratched his neck and gave her his best smile he could form with his enormous mouth.

"Glad to be of service".

Fawkes cut her restraints and helped her get up. On the way out of the complex the Lone Wanderer checked the other cells only to find them empty. Her heart started to race. She finally changed Sarah's fate after countless of tries and she was not going to let her die again. Maybe she was finally getting somewhere in her endless cycle of resurrection. Being caught by the brotherhood of steel was a curse and a blessing. On the one hand Sarah did not die like she previously anticipated, but now she knew the Outcasts were a much bigger threat than she initially conceived them to be. She had to find Sarah to know that she indeed had saved her life and her never ending nightmare had finally come to an end.

On the way outside she saw a few dead Brotherhood Paladins lying around and her hope slowly diminished with every body she came across. Before they reached the gate she saw blonde hair sticking out between all the red blood on the ground. The Lone Wanderer raced over to the body and turned the person around. It was indeed Sarah. The Lone Wanderer saw a big wound on her forehead that was bleeding and she panicked. She went through all the steps to save a person's life and checked her pulse as well as her breathing. It seemed that Sarah was fine and the head wound was probably a concussion, but she did not have the time to figure it out.

"Fawkes, I need you to take Sarah and bring her to Zeta. The mothership I told you about? Sally should be able to help her recover with some Biogel. I will send her a message to activate the beacon and give you the coordinates to reach it safely. I can't just come with you. I have something urgent to do. Can you do this for me?", her voice was shaky even though she tried to hide it and Fawkes picked up on it.

"Nuh, I would hate for you to get hurt out there, are you really sure this is a good plan?"

The Lone Wanderer nodded and quickly explained the situation to him. The Super Mutant nodded in understanding and carried Sarah in his arms outside. The Lone Wanderer injected a Stimpak she had found in one of the storage rooms for good measure, but after that she had to get ready for the upcoming storm.

Since she had Power Armor training she could wear any type of it as she saw fit. But since she didn't have time to search for her own gear she took one of the fallen Outcasts armor and his Laser Rifle. Hoping it was enough she had to make a choice now. She knew that she could only reach one destination in time and Amata and the Vault were closer. She took a deep breath and considered her options.

Option A: Save the Vault (Continue reading Chapter 3)

Option B: Save the Citadel (Continue reading Chapter 4)