Note: I had intended for things to go a slightly different way, but it's not following, so sorry about that. Lillie will be back to her normal self soon enough.

edited for content

"How did your talk with the good doctor go, Colonel?"

Augustus kept his hands behind his back. Stood as straight as he could―no easy feat, with his leg put out by that damned good kick―and stared through one swollen eye, at the casing that contained Eden. He felt his mouth tugging up into a smile again, his body sore and coat bloodied.

Hell of a day.

He composed himself for his report to Eden. The events that had occurred, such as they were, lent to him knowledge. From his viewpoint, it neither helped nor hindered him to know what he did―Eden knew he knew. It would out-think him at every turn. It had been out-thinking him even when he realized he was being manipulated, and refused to cater to its whims.

Damnable machine. He couldn't give into the thing, again. He would fight.

Everything that had become, led to his first visit to this particular part of the bunker; his first visit to what Eden actually was. If it was not concerned to reveal its "body" to him... he wasn't concerned, either. Eden thought him no threat. It was a sort of freedom that he could appreciate.

And perhaps he could use that to his own benefit. Augustus fought the smile that wanted to overcome his face. He shouldn't be triumphant. He was in pain, and he let the pain show. Let the damn thing think it had won this battle.

But not the war.

"James is understandably concerned," he told it. He swallowed, his mouth dry. The scotch was still running its course. He was too fatigued to keep himself from showing his poor attitude.

"And are you?" Eden's "face" was just another intercom light. A red, unblinking eye in the dark. Augustus stared at it without really seeing. "Concerned about our dear Lillie?"

He ignored the implication. He'd had plenty of that kind of insinuation from James, who hadn't quite believed him when he'd said his intentions were not to foster―dare he say it―romance, but a friendship. Lillie had been pleasant enough when she'd come to trust him, but he was well past her age. Out of his prime.

Even thinking of beginning some sort of May-December romance―he honestly wanted to laugh at the supercomputer. The sheer ridiculousness of Eden's scheme had depended on the failure of their relationship, never mind what was read into it. It shouldn't matter what he continued to feel, for the girl.

He'd very nearly shot her, and Eden still presumed his feelings for her were pleasant ones. And... it wasn't untrue. Augustus was proud of her. She'd been trained by him and she had taken him down, never mind his altered state. She had not caved to the weaker emotions she was prone to, but reacted in a very efficient and military manner.

She'd genuinely fought him, and he appreciated the irony. His ill actions brought to a head and Lillie was the victor.

Good girl.

But he felt the awkward sickness in his gut churning. If she didn't understand why he'd been so violent... he couldn't blame her. He was facing his own problems, problems enough that he could barely afford to be worried for her.

He did, though. Eden was probably responsible for that. Augustus sighed to himself. It was all too easy to let himself believe that he'd been manipulated into such feeling for the girl.

"I doubt she will cause herself enough trouble, that she cannot figure her own way out, sir," he said, fighting exhaustion and unease. He still felt the sting in his shoulder. She was stronger than she looked.

"That is not an answer to my question," Eden said, dryly. "I know we've mastered the art, Colonel. I would prefer your actual opinion to a tactical evaluation."

He coughed, and squared his feet on the metal floor. "I dislike this... inappropriate scheme. Now that she is gone, we can perhaps return to business at hand."

"Scheme." Eden laughed. "An appropriate word for what you deem inappropriate."

"I fail to see how setting the girl into dramatic action is not inappropriate," he replied, grumpily.

"Ah..." That red light, burning into his eyes. Augustus fought the urge to show weakness. "You will. Give it time, Colonel."

He did not like that thought. That his was only a waiting game until Eden put another piece into play―he pushed the matter from his overtired mind. He would examine that at a later time.

"I value your opinion, Colonel. Without you, I would be without purpose." Augustus closed his eyes, blocking out the unblinking eye. "Without a person willing to do my bidding... well, you've seen the outcome of that action. It is not a concern of mine whether you consider my actions inappropriate."

He wanted to laugh, again. The very same sentiment that he, himself, had regarding Lillie. Until his actions were shown to him to be immoral―he opened his eyes and felt the anger returning. "I suppose, then, that my purpose is to play Devil's advocate?"

"You are rather predictable in that regard," Eden replied. "So, in your honest and predictable opinion, dear Colonel, are you concerned for Lillie?"

"No," he said, and this time he was being honest. "She will manage. She was trained by the best, as you said yourself."

Eden was quiet for a moment. "That is good to know," it said. "Lillie undoubtedly understands why she is alone in the wastes. She will fill her shoes as best she can, and we will reap the reward. When the time comes, you will retrieve her. She is valuable, still."

"Yes, sir," he said. Was there anything else, sir?" He shifted his weight off of his injured knee. He felt older than he ever had, before.

"I understand that you need respite," Eden said. "You may leave." A short pause. "Oh, there is one more issue."

"Yes, sir."

"It is my private opinion that, if you intend to facilitate the release of the doctor, you must do so when I say."

Augustus didn't even react. He stared at the light, his eyes burning from lack of sleep. "Yes, sir."

"Sleep well, dear Colonel."

For the first week, he stayed away from VIOLA and focused himself on the armors. Put every available moment he had awake into keeping the disaster out of his mind. Eden took a personal interest in reminding him of the drama, at every available opportunity. The... experiment, or whatever it was, had not ended.

James seemed to have developed the same response and Eden was highly amused at the similarities, occasionally dropping a hint at the doctor's admitted ability to ignore the supercomputer's jabs. Augustus wished his ears were so easily shut.

He started feeling less homicidal toward the man. Pure strength of will was a hard value to disrespect. Something that he, himself, sorely needed to develop better.

After the first week, one of the technicians approached him with a concern regarding Lillie's actions in the wastes. Eden said she would make her way to Vault 101, and Augustus knew she would. But she hadn't, and the technician reported an anomaly―

"She's moving over the same path, right now," the man said. "We've received visual data of the same three places, repeatedly. And..." he scratched his head and frowned. "Every time she stops somewhere, she rewrites something in the dirt, or on a wall. It's starting to make us... uneasy, sir."

Augustus stared down at the man, blankly. "You mean she has been attempting to make contact." Lillie leaving a message was something he hadn't expected. What she was writing was probably some kind of code. Who she was attempting to contact, specifically, Augustus had no doubt. "What is she writing?"

"Uhhh―" The technician looked confused. "It's―it's just too strange to explain. You'd have to see it." The man looked nervous, face flushed with sweat. "Honestly, sir, I would appreciate if you could look into it. It would make the 'orchestra' easier to handle."

Augustus narrowed his eyes at the man. "I will find the time, soldier," he said.

He never lied. He made the time, and watched the last recording. Watched the others, as well, and recognized some of the scenery. She was traveling in a rough half-circle around Vault 101, stopping every few hours to rewrite her messages.

She moved from a Super Duper Mart, to a baseball field outside of a ruined building, then to a small settlement with standing Pre-War houses in terrible shape. All the locations were free of threat, though the technician told him that they hadn't been when she first arrived.

Augustus marked her combat holotapes for later viewing. It would assuage his ego to know she was doing well, and keeping herself safe. And, perhaps, he could clear himself in James' eyes for having taught her such defensive capability.

In the Super Duper Mart, she'd written "Death, thou shalt die" on a wall and sat down, staring at it. The time indicated she sat there with her eyes open, barely blinking, for over two hours.

At the baseball field, it was a bit difficult to make out the message scrawled into the dirt. "Here is Freedom's chosen station" was made out, eventually.

In the settlement she scratched out "ignis fatuus" on a wall.

Augustus made notes of these things, but didn't understand. Eventually she made her way from the Super Duper Mart toward another settlement, without writing any more messages. Augustus asked the technicians to keep an eye on the matter, in case she attempted any other contact.

Lord only knew what she was trying to tell him.

"The phrases are from a variety of works, Colonel," Eden said. It sounded as if it were entertained by the idea. "Poems. I had arranged for Lillie to be given a selection of classical works, you know. She took well to poetry."

Augustus sighed, shifting his weight as he stared at the wall in his quarters. There wasn't much he could have done but approach Eden; even James had no idea about the origin of the messages. Eden already knew she was sending messages, regardless of Augustus' desire to keep it hidden; Augustus didn't even know if what Lillie was saying was worth decoding.

It sounded nonsense. He couldn't quite grasp what she intended.

"She is affirming that she will not die, in the wastes, and that she is willing to complete her mission." Eden chuckled. "The last message is the most telling."

"What is that, sir?" Augustus looked over his thin handwriting, idly. Pretending he wasn't concerned. It was becoming harder for him to stay his feelings; Lillie acting in such an odd manner wasn't as concerning as what she might be planning. Whether she knew of the supercomputer's plot to get her into the Vault―or not―

He'd pushed it down for too long. It simply couldn't be stomped out. He was worried for Lillie.

"An ignis fatuus is a will-of-the-wisp," Eden said. "Something attractive and desirable, but ultimately deceptive."

Augustus frowned. "Odd," he muttered, looking up at the intercom. What she meant... he had no idea.

"I believe she is attempting to tout the Enclave," Eden said. "She is, naturally, referring to herself. An attractive thing, but deceiving of the people of the wastes."

Augustus pursed his mouth and shoved the paper into a pocket. "I see, sir."

"Do keep a close eye on our Lillie," Eden said. "She will be at the objective soon."

"Yes, sir," Augustus said, and retired to bed.

He'd slept very little, without scotch to keep his mind from overthinking. It was a deliberate change he'd made, after Eden's insipid comment about self-medicating. His hands went over the paper again, staring at his handwriting and attempting to understand the words. After a time, since he couldn't allow himself to sleep, he left his room and made his way through the bunker to Lillie's room.

Half an hour later he was sitting at his desk, reading the poem that Lillie had been exposed to, and feeling very sick to his stomach. Eden had set her up to fall, just as it had set him up, by encouraging her to read poems and stories designed to torture her teenage mindset.

No wonder she'd tried to kiss him. He smiled in relief at that. It was to be expected of her, at such an age, to... well, to fall in love, even to prepare for marriage. This push that Eden had made only compounded the matter.

Perhaps he wasn't wrong to be concerned; she'd been manipulated just as much as he had. Eden would tell him to go and fetch her again. He would plan his actions for such inevitability. To rid himself and the Enclave of the supercomputer.

And maybe... maybe, he could finally relax and actually get to know the girl in the manner that the bastard thought he should.