Chance

Chapter 9: Interrogation

Roulette remained locked up for what seemed to be ages. Paladin Danse had left her under the watch of a Knight-sergeant as he went to inform the Elder that his orders had been carried out. She sighed quietly in the silence, with the tension and dread of what could come slowly manifesting in her mind.

She ran through what she remembered from her time with the Brotherhood, trying to figure out just what might happen. Some of the possibilities were frightening, in all honesty. The BoS rarely hesitated to hand out physical punishments for infractions such as her own, and some of these could be incredibly severe. Simple demotions could also be implemented, and one could even be completely ejected from the Brotherhood. Some of the possible actions could be taken with other members present, and word often got around quickly, anyways. No matter what happened, people would quickly learn of it.

The hours ticked by slowly, and Roulette watched the door through the bars of the cell door. She paced and fidgeted despite herself. Suddenly, the door to the passageway opened, and Danse entered. The man seemed marginally smaller without his power armor, though he was still a man of strong build, regardless. The Paladin strode over to the Knight-sergeant, and the two exchanged a salute.

"Elder Maxson requested that the detainee be moved for interrogation," the Paladin told him, his voice even. The Knight-sergeant nodded, unlocking and opening the door to the cell. Roulette stepped out, offering no resistance as her hands were cuffed behind her back. She was lead by the Paladin to a smaller room which housed only a single table, a light, and a pair of bare metal chairs.

Upon entering the room, Danse sat Roulette down on one of the chairs, saying nothing to the young woman. The pair remained blanketed in silence for several moments before the door opened and the Elder stepped in. He and Danse exchanged a salute, before the Paladin left the room without a word.

Maxson took a seat across the table from Roulette. The two were silent for a moment, observing one another. Both held themselves in a strong manner, each eying the other for any sign of anxiety. Neither party found any trace of worry in the other.

Finally, the Elder spoke. "I had secretly hoped I would be the one to locate the rogue Ashley Thomas," he stated, almost seeming amused or satisfied with himself. "But, now is not the time to dwell on that. Right now, I need answers so that the proper actions can be taken."

"Or, you could just let me go and file in that I was found dead," Roulette offered, her tone being one of nonchalance and sarcasm.

"You know as well as I do that, that isn't going to happen, Initiate."

Rou shrugged, "It was worth a shot."

Maxson gave a subtle roll of his eyes. "Now, you disagreed with some of the values held by the Brotherhood. What would those happen to be?"

"The flat-out hostility towards all ghouls and synths," Roulette simply informed him. If the man wanted information, she was going to make him work for it.

"Elaborate," the Elder stated, urging the girl on. Her game was subtly obvious, and he knew well that two could play at it.

"The desire to eliminate feral ghouls and hostile synths is understandable, but if they are simply going about their own business, why waste the energy and resources? Why harm those who are making no effort to harm you?"

"Any ghoul can go feral, and any synth can turn hostile. It is only a matter of time. We remove the threat before it has the chance to manifest itself."

Roulette rolled her eyes, "A biased philosophy. Goodneighbor's mayor is a ghoul, for god's sake."

"And it's dangerous and disgusting," Maxson returned.

Roulette glared at the imposing man, leaning back in her chair. "Anything else you're looking to get out of me?"

"You knew the regulations concerning departure from the Brotherhood of Steel, correct?" the Elder questioned, deciding to ignore the girl's sarcasm.

"Of course," Roulette told him, in a very 'matter of fact' sort of way.

"And the actions which could be taken if those procedures were neglected?"

"All members of the Brotherhood of Steel know them, myself included."

"Yet you close to blatantly ignore all of it."

Roulette gave a half nod, "Basically," she bluntly stated.

Maxson was now starting to get annoyed. The short answers he was being given were getting him nowhere quickly. He fought to keep a level head as he continued on, "Why?" he questioned. His tone was now more stern and demanding, qualities which he hoped would draw some sort of response from the Initiate.. The training she'd received, all of the regulations and expectations of the Brotherhood were still in her head. He simply had to bring them to the surface.

"Because," Roulette began, her voice lowering a bit as she replied. "I didn't care. I was leaving, and nothing was going to slow me down or change my mind. I was done with it. Done with all of the bull shit you and the other members of this damn group believe," she told him, leaning towards the Elder as she spoke. Her voice had become somewhat softer, but more serious as she had answered, the uncanny calm that lingered after her words were silenced unsettled the hardened Elder, though he would never admit to it.

"What were you up to out there?" Maxson's fists clenched under the table, as his frustration continued to build. He'd finally gotten a full, straight answer, and it was nearly enough to make his blood boil.

"Helping ghouls and runaway synths. And a select few things which you'd no doubt disapprove of," Roulette told him, with a smug smirk.

"Such as?"

Rou gave a bit of a chuckle, almost as if he had told a joke, or as if she were about to tell one herself. "Let's just say I did pretty well for myself, and didn't earn the name 'Roulette' for nothing."

Maxson took a moment to think about this. It was easy to tell that the actions the young woman before him had taken part in were less than desireable, even if he didn't know what they actually had been. What had made him pause, though, was not what the girl had said, in fact, it had been how she had said it. It was almost as if the memory of what she had done was amusing to her.

"It would seem I have fair reason to go about the usual regulations," Maxson stated.

"Do what you will, you won't change my opinion," Rou told him, seeming far too calm about the entire situation.

Maxson shook his head, before getting up and fetching Danse from outside. The Paladin entered, and ushered Roulette out of the room. The girl was locked in her cell once again, while the Elder left to his private quarters to think things over.

The situation was somewhat difficult for the young Elder to comprehend. The man had heard about the rogue Initiate, and had even thought about what he may do if he was the one to find the girl. Now, though, with the information he had, his original ideas fell apart. The man hadn't anticipated the extent to which the girl would have gone. In the wake of this interrogation, Maxson found he had quite a few options to consider.

((A/N: Sorry about the wait, everybody. This chapter was supposed to be up back on 30 August, but I ended up getting busy, and so to make up for lost time, I'll be posting 3 chapters today [14 September]. So it'll be this chapter, chapter 10, and chapter 11 going up. Hopefully I'll make sure to keep up with future updates.))