A/N: I have three versions of this chapter, believe it or not. It was hard to pick which one was best for the story.

Thank you Mr Ninja Pineapple for all your help with this chapter!

This task to, in Richter's words, prove her devotion and loyalty, is as predictable as it is distasteful: Kaelyn must hunt down a heretic who abandoned the family. At least it's an opportunity to learn how apostates are treated so she can prepare for the same.

After tracking down the likes of Kellogg and Virgil, finding Sister Gwyneth is almost disappointingly easy. The graffiti at the defiled holy sites have been made from cut up posters and magazines, and one such cannibalized poster fragment is from an advertisement for Waketak Station. A search of the cabins yields success: one room is covered in cut up posters, and a pilfered banner painted with Atom's symbols is scrunched up over a sleeping bag. Among Gwyneth's belongings are notes scribbled on any available paper, written around the cut holes in the pages, and one such journal entry reveals where she went.

Kaelyn takes the church steps with care, keeping one eye on the cemetery in case of lurking ferals. The church doors hang ajar in a gesture too unsettling to welcome visitors. Firelight flickers on the floor and behind it—movement.

"Stop! You— you have come to a sacred place. Have you come to learn the truth of Nothing?"

Kaelyn glances around at the ruined pews. It's a sacred place alright. Even if her spiritual beliefs don't trend towards organized religion, there's a feeling of wrongness when she steps into a pre-war place of worship armed. Some sensibilities she can't shake. Not even after months of popping in and out of Old North Church.

And then it clicks that Gwyneth said nothing with a capital N. "What do you mean by that?"

Gwyneth, a white, trembling woman, lifts her chin. Lank brown curls slide away from her face. "It's a false gospel, all of it. I was paging through a pre-war tome when I saw it. The atom. A tiny speck of matter surrounded by endless depths. It only reaffirmed what I felt all this time. This is the truth the Confessor wanted no one to hear—the lie that is Atom. It's not real! We aren't infinite worlds! Just empty space. Nothing is the true nature of existence. I know it is difficult to accept, but you must, as must the others."

"Oh for the love of—" Kaelyn closes her eyes, pinches the bridge of her nose, and draws in a deep breath. "Do you have this pre-war book?"

Gwyneth backs up to the stairs and darts up the dais to the podium. Hugging the book to her chest, she tiptoes to Kaelyn and holds it out with no heed for the pistol Kaelyn still holds. "It was all I managed to take with me when I fled."

Kaelyn takes one look at the page in question and says flatly, "It's a diagram of an atom."

"See the void that surrounds Atom? That is Nothing!"

"Close but not quite." Kaelyn huffs a sigh. "Atoms are the building blocks of matter. They're so small we can't see them with our bare eyes. This is a science textbook." But when she turns the page, she finds the pages are stuck together and the text smudged.

Gwyneth stares at her as if she sprouted a second head. "Then how can anyone know they exist?"

"Have you ever seen a pre-war microscope? Scientists used very powerful microscopes. It's human nature to assume, when we encounter something we can't explain, that it's something mystical."

And it hits Kaelyn that was exactly what she did with the spring vision.

With a self-deprecating smile, she continues, more gently this time, "But this is not mysticism. It's science. And I think, underneath your fear and doubt, you know this isn't a bigger, badder god."

"Fear and doubt…" Gwyneth looks down to the page, tracing the worn ink, then the empty space circling it. "This is—a lot to think about."

"It isn't easy to come to terms with learning what you know isn't what you thought it was." The recognition that they're standing in a church leads Kaelyn to tack on, "Maybe there is a god out there, but it isn't Nothing—and it isn't Atom."

Gwyneth raises a quizzical eyebrow. "You say this wearing the Children's robes. I thought you were one of my sisters."

Fair point. Kaelyn inclines her head. "You aren't the only one with doubts. I came to find you because you need to know Richter ordered your death. You're not safe here. If you flee, I can tell him you're dead."

For all that Gwyneth presses her mouth into a line, it can't stop her quailing chin. She clutches the book to her chest again, this time as a shield. "I knew it could happen if I left the family but—I had to. The— the only thing I know right now is that I must leave. Thank you for the warning. And—for what you've given me to think about."

As Gwyneth bustles down the road, a wave of grief rushes over Kaelyn for all the knowledge that has been lost.

Out of the corner of Kaelyn's eye, she notices a ripple in the Fog. The Deep Fog around the lake is a sickly yellow, eddying on air currents that lap at the ground in a mimicry of the tides—and there it is again. Another disturbance.

Halting off to the side of the road, Kaelyn draws Deliverer and spins in a slow circle, seeking the source.

Something watches her from the Fog.

Down the road, a shadow materializes. Kaelyn's grip tightens on Deliverer, but it becomes clear the figure is too slight to be Richter or any other zealot in their bulky raiments as they approach. The phantom with burning eyes takes a final step out of the Fog, and she's a solid woman.

Kaelyn gapes. "You're—real? Of flesh and blood?"

The Mother of the Fog stands wreathed in the unearthly glow of the Fog, which billows as much as her faded robes. Radiation has withered her frame, stolen her hair in clumps, wrinkled her face like an apple left in the sun. She is an ageless icon, given form and depth for the first time. Kaelyn wonders if, under her robes, her belly is as lined with stretch marks as her own is. A stealth boy is strapped to her hip.

That explains a thing or two.

"Mother hears our Children. Whispers against the one who drove the Good Confessor away." Her voice is the rasp of dead leaves skittering over dry asphalt.

Well, at least she doesn't seem irritated at having her name invoked to stir up anti-Tektus sentiment. If anything, she approves.

"Are you offering to help? You'd have better luck convincing them than I would."

"We watch our Children," she says. "They are trapped. Mother wishes to end their pain."

Kaelyn takes a step forward. "And you can. I am doing everything I can to convince Tektus this isn't the way, but they trust you to be their guide. You could clear things up pretty quickly if you went to the Nucleus."

The Mother's eyes are a muddy brown, Kaelyn notices for the first time. "The Bad Confessor is poison. Poisons the Mother. Poisons our Children." Her countenance grows stern as she points a finger at Kaelyn. "Bring them peace."

And with that, the Mother hits her stealth boy and retreats into her Fog. In moments, the Deep Fog has swirled to fill the space she had occupied.

Kaelyn sighs. "That went well."

A group of people are clustered outside the Nucleus. Grand Zealot Richter with his two guards, and pacing before them is—Aubert. A quiet instinct flickers in the back of Kaelyn's mind. She checks her stealth boy and switches the safety off Deliverer, its grip fitted to her palm as she strides past the banners. Aubert's eyes flash to Kaelyn, the whites visible even from this distance.

Richter tracks her approach with barely a twitch. His two zealots stand several paces away. "Ah. You've returned."

A sense of deja vu climbs up the ladder of her her spine. Kaelyn comes to a halt beside Aubert. Resists the urge to glance sideways at the anxious woman. "Gwyneth won't be troubling you any longer."

Richter draws in a half-breath through his nose. "Had to be done. Won't ask how. I wish I could say you've proven your loyalty to the family, but that's not the case. The High Confessor has reason to believe otherwise. So... a test."

Now Kaelyn and Aubert share a look. Aubert's face is white and shiny with sweat, even the bald patch on her head. Her mouth trembles, breathing, "No, no, please, no—"

"One of you returns the Nucleus. The other to Atom."

Kaelyn, however, scoffs. "Seriously? I just hunted down a heretic. That not loyal enough for you?"

Richter remains impassive, his eyes dark and flinty, imposing in his grand armor. "If you refuse to make a choice, you both die. So decide."

"Oh for the love of—" Kaelyn hefts Deliverer, aims to the right and—

A blue laser slices through the air.

Richter staggers, the side of his head charred black. Kaelyn pulls the trigger on the flanking zealot. Aubert cringes away, arms coming up to her face. Kaelyn tackles her behind a trio of oil drums as bullets fly by them, adrenaline spiking on her tongue. Rolling to her knees, she aims again and sees—

Chase, snapping up one zealot as a human shield while firing at Richter. The Grand Zealot drops behind a concrete barricade by the door and waits for a break in her fire to retaliate with a barrage of his own.

Kaelyn picks the third guard, who survived her earlier shot but isn't smart enough to hunker down beside Richter. A neat trio of bullets lodge into his armor, Deliverer's barrel kicking upward. The fourth shot hits his throat and he goes down choking. Richter swivels in her direction and she ducks. Gunfire rattles the oil drums and white-hot pain flares in Kaelyn's lower back. Pressing a hand to the spot, she feels the round lodged in her ballistic weave. Their cover isn't bulletproof at all.

Nothing for it now. She reloads, pushes Aubert to the ground, and leans out of cover.

"Sorry, brother!" Chase's hostage shudders as Richter's fire rips through him.

Chase hurls the body at Richter with enough force to knock him back a step, out from the behind the barricade, then pounces in a blur of black. Lost in a whirlwind of strikes and grunts, she somehow manages to slap his rifle hard enough to jam it, before tearing it from his grasp. But Richter lunges, fast enough to return the favor and Chase's own laser rifle goes flying.

Skidding through the mud, Kaelyn scoops up Chase's rifle and loads a fresh fusion cell. She skirts across the courtyard, seeking an angle where she can fire at Richter without hitting Chase, but their movements are too erratic. One moment Chase almost has him in a headlock, the next Richter crowds her with his superior bulk.

Richter feints left and Chase falls for it, only for him to grab her and throw her over his hip with a roar. She slaps into the mud, shoulder unbroken despite his best effort, but takes a precious second to find her feet. Richter bears down on her, drawing a gamma gun from his belt.

There. Kaelyn sweeps the rifle to her shoulder and fires. Scorch marks bloom on Richter's armor, charring and cracking the ornamental patterns. He staggers back, dives behind the barricade, but doesn't get up immediately. Chase moves for the kill—and Kaelyn intercepts her.

"Wait, please. He doesn't have to die today, and neither does Tektus—"

Chase's gaze flits past Kaelyn and she grabs her as a gamma ray blast warps the air. The world is a sickening blur as Chase twists to take the worst of it, but her innards lurch. When her head stops swimming, she hears a crack.

Aubert still aims Deliverer at Richter. His head has snapped back, his expression still twisted in a teeth-bared grimace. Still clutched in his grip is his gamma gun, useless against her.

"For Edgar."

Kaelyn winces and closes her eyes, willing the last of the nausea to fade. So much for that.

Maybe Richter is beyond saving, but Tektus can still be negotiated with.

"Are you unwell?" Chase still holds her arm, and peers at her with a flicker of concern in the tense bow of her mouth. From a courser, it's a grave sign.

Sloughing off her regret, Kaelyn shakes her head. "Chase. What are you doing here?"

Her smile is tight and grim. "Shadowing you. Consider this an apology."

An apology—oh. No time to let the memory rush her now. Kaelyn shoves it all away until there is one focus: confronting Tektus.

Aubert studies Chase and her eyes widen, then narrow. "You're one of those things. Synths. With that plastic man. How do you two know each other?"

Kaelyn says, "Tektus is a menace not just to the family, but to the entire island. We don't have so many allies we can afford to throw one away."

Aubert's scowl is almost usual, if not for her paleness. "No funny business, you hear me?" Then her grimace betrays her disquiet. "I can't believe I fell for— Sister Avila asked me to bring a meal to the door guard. So stupid."

Kaelyn has to wonder if the Gwyneth matter was a ruse to orchestrate the loyalty test, or if Tektus had only just decided to eliminate her. "Aubert, do you know how long until the guard rotates?"

"Only just changed. I wouldn't leave the Nucleus if I knew Richter is— was out here." She looks at his body and swallows.

Kaelyn nods once. This isn't how she'd planned their coup starting, but now—there's no way but forward. "Then we still have time. Do you know how many people oppose Tektus? How many are zealots?"

"There's no—time," Aubert grits out, baring her teeth. "We do this now."

Kaelyn checks her weapons, the motion familiar enough it clears her head so she can think. "Chase, if you're a good distance shooter, there's a catwalk above the Vessel. Poor cover, but no one ever looks up. It has an unimpeded view of everything except Tektus's podium. Access is by the stairs near the decon arches."

She nods. "I'll go in under stealth. If you need me, I'll be there."

Kaelyn reaches down to her belt and, whilst it's covered in radioactive mud, her own stealth boy is intact. "I'll go stealthed, too. Let Tektus think Aubert won the test and I'm dead until I can get close to him."

They turn to Aubert for her agreement and stop. She's half-hunched, her robes dark and dripping. One hand presses to the entry wound in her side. It still takes the combined efforts of Kaelyn and Chase to break through her mule-headed refusals, inject a stimpak and bandage her up. There's no time to remove the lodged bullet.

If they're still alive when this is over, the Archemist can do a better job.

In turn, Chase and Kaelyn vanish into thin air. Aubert starts, even though she knew it was coming. Kaelyn draws in a careful breath, then another, and follows the her as she limps towards the Vessel. A whisper of air against her shoulder is the only sign of Chase's passing.

Last time she'd done something like this, the coursers had been the enemy. Last time, Valentine had been by her side.

Thinking of him almost cracks Kaelyn's resolve. How she wants one last look at his face, the glow of his eyes, the crook of his smile. Squeezing Deliverer's grip, Kaelyn crosses the threshold.

If most of the zealots support Tektus, this will be a bloodbath.

Tektus stands at his podium on the Vessel, delivering another sermon. "Devotion to Atom is not enough if one has no loyalty to the family. Wicked lies have reached my ears of false signs demanding peace with Far Harbor. Atom would never demand such heresy, not when His holy Fog laps at their gates! This flagrancy is a sign of weakness in the family—of those who put their own desires before Atom's."

Aubert's entrance draws a ripple through the nearest members of the congregation, who notice her and then double take: mud-slicked and blood-stained and grim-faced. Mai half reaches out, then aborts the gesture with a quick glance at a nearby looming zealot. Aubert trades looks with several people, and Kaelyn swears a number of them have the bulge of a pistol poorly hidden in their robes. Instead of slipping unseen into the crowd to lick her wounds, Aubert limps up the gangplank that connects the dock to the Vessel. Kaelyn follows as close behind her as she dares, hoping no one spots the tell-tale ripple or, worse, bumps into so-called 'empty air'.

Tektus himself doesn't notice Aubert until one of his guard quartet makes a surprised noise. Aubert's pure daring has given them pause, if nothing else. Two zealots are in Kaelyn's clear sight, not counting those arrayed around the dock. One of Tektus's guards is Ware.

Kaelyn's gut clenches.

The zealots tighten their hold on their weapons, wary of the intrusion but unwilling to shoot a sister without cause. The walkway is narrow, so Kaelyn sidesteps to get as clear a shot as she can on the Confessor. Her stealth boy is hot against her thigh, and it won't last much longer before it overheats.

If Kaelyn shoots Tektus, the whole place will turn on her. And she finds she doesn't want to shoot him.

"What is the meaning of this?" Tektus's eyes bulge, his jowls trembling with the rage that fractures along the wrinkles on his face. "If by Atom's grace you were permitted back into the fold, you had best not squander it so soon, child."

"What he means, sisters and brothers," Aubert shouts, "is that he had Richter kill one of our own! Anyone who reminds Tektus he is unworthy to lead this family—gone!"

Tektus gives her a nasty smile. "No, dear child. For you to be standing here, you must have killed our newest sister, heretic that she was."

Another ripple—and a surprising number of disappointed faces in the crowd. Kaelyn hadn't expected to make a good impression here. But it's Ware's face that breaks her heart. A rush of murmurs circle the room once, then still at a wordless hiss from the Confessor.

"Wrong on both counts, Confessor." Kaelyn's stealth fields melts away with a high pitched whine, pushed to its limits.

Shocked cries rebound of the high ceiling, warped by the acoustics of the room to eerie wails that scratch over her skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake.

Kaelyn pitches her voice to echo off the roiling yellow water below. "You all know the Mother granted me a vision when I drank from the spring. The 'wicked lie' the Confessor speaks of is the Mother lifting her veil from Far Harbor! Something that can be checked by anyone with eyes! This can only mean Atom wants peace, but Tektus would disobey Him and have me silenced in favor of his own agenda!"

Tektus scoffs. "Such accusations, child. You, who infiltrated this family to spread your blasphemous notion that Atom would care a whit for the heretics trembling on their dock! Who do you believe, brothers and sisters? A fresh-faced stranger, barely a part of the fold, who preferred her own counsel to the company of the family?"

Kaelyn calls, loud and clear, "You, who has crushed the family under your heel? You, who murdered anyone who wouldn't lick your boots? The Mother demands peace. Atom demands peace. You say your will is the will of Atom. I say it isn't, and this family has quailed in fear of you for too long. You spit in His face presuming you know better than His Radiance."

Tektus's face scrunches in a snarl, spittle flying from his lips. "You dare—"

"But— Confessor," one of his guards, Yenner, pipes up. Enough confusion blends with her wariness that hope sparks in the pit of Kaelyn's stomach. "The Mother is Atom's messenger. Who are we to question Him?"

While her question were not meant to be loud, the acoustics of the chamber magnify her doubt until whispers crawl among the watching congregation. Someone shouts, "We must follow Atom's will!"

"The Confessor's will is Atom's—!"

Someone gasps and point, and for a moment Kaelyn thinks Chase's cover has been compromised but they point in the opposite direction, towards the command center.

The visage of a phantom in billowing robes stands at the railing. Her eyes burn as she takes in the scene.

Kaelyn gapes along with everyone else, even if her reasons are different. The Mother actually listened, even if she had been deep in her mystical guardian routine at the time.

The Children look around the room, at sister and brother, at the loyal and rebellious. Fresh murmurs, loud in the sudden hush, break out.

"Is that—?"

"The Mother…"

The very walls seem to sigh the name. "The Mother!"

Tektus can only stare, as do his guards. Kaelyn and Ware exchange a grim look. When she approaches, no one lays a hand on her.

Without his personal guards to protect him, Tektus is but an old man hunched against the railing with one arm raised as if to ward away the Mother's censure. In a last burst of speed, Kaelyn rushes him to fist a hand in his collar, shattering the illusion of his untouchable power. His hands curl into claws, scratching at her arms, scrabbling to free himself.

Tektus's eyes fix over her shoulder. "Zealot! I demand you execute this heretic at once!"

A creak of armor behind her. "Atom forgive me, but I can't."

People now stare at her. She surveys the chamber, stomach clenching at the number of weapons brandished between brothers and sisters. Kaelyn swallows, but can't choke back the rush of fear and fury. So instead she harnesses it, screaming, "This is the result of hatred and intolerance! This is what Tektus would demand you do to Far Harbor! This is what Tektus has done to the family!"

"You think this is my fau—" Tektus chokes off as Kaelyn tightens her grip on his collar.

Kaelyn draws in a deep breath. "This has to end now!"

"Atom's very words, daresay, if He could talk to us directly," Ware says, and his voice carries in the ringing silence.

Above them all, the Mother smiles and vanishes. Credit where credit's due, that woman has an excellent sense of timing.

Someone cries, "He punishes us for not listening to Him! The Mother sent a sign—we cannot deny it!"

"We only have that sister's word on it!"

"She says the Confessor caused this?"

"The Confessor caused this!"

The last speaker, a wild-eyed man with one of the pilfered pre-war pistols, is the first to move. He pushes his way to the Vessel and others follow, swarming the gangplank.

"The High Confessor kept Atom's will from us! If we punish Tektus, Atom might forgive us for our sins!"

"Wait!" Kaelyn lunges forward to latch a hand around his wrist. "Enough blood has been shed today. No more." Maybe they don't know about Richter yet, but they will. "The Mother would not see her children war like this."

Ware stands by her side. "Our sister here is right. Confess— Tektus. I can't kill you. You saved me from my joke of a life. If Atom wants you dead, He can strike you down Himself."

"Then what do we do with him?" someone calls.

"Disown him," Kaelyn mutters, but Aubert hears her.

She calls, "Exile it is, sisters and brothers!"

Tektus looks from face to face. Recognition bleeds over his face like spilled inks; a stain that will not lift easily. He presses his mouth into a thin, white line. "After all I have done for the family, this is— fine. Have it your way, then. I see when I am defeated."

"It was never a war," Kaelyn tells him, "until you made it one."

Tektus is marched inside a quartet of zealots—a different four to Tektus's bodyguards—through the Nucleus to the entrance. With a final, baleful look, Tektus turns away. He begins his shamed walk away from the Nucleus, away from the family, and into the Fog.

It doesn't feel like it's over. But when she glances up at the catwalk, she catches a black shape that could be Chase retreating from view. Abruptly lightheaded, Kaelyn spins on her heel, seeking Aubert. The woman sits propped against the Vessel ladder, one hand pressed to her side. Red seeps through her bandages.

Kaelyn slides down the sail to sit beside her, her strength fading with the adrenaline.

Aubert grins. There's blood between her teeth. "It's done. Edgar avenged and Tektus gone. Atom smiles on us."