He opened his eyes. Eden's monitors were in front of him. The iris that sat to the side, the backlit displays, the pillar of Pre-War technology that had tormented him... it was all there, ready to mock him again. He grimaced, imagining what was to come. Surely he would be reprimanded for―

He wasn't quite sure. There was something that he'd done, that he shouldn't have. He was certain of that, but what was it that he'd done?

"Dr. Autumn," Eden said, but it wasn't Eden. Lillie's voice rang out through the quiet room, chastising him in place of the patronizing voice he'd expected. "I'm quite disappointed, you know. I have come to expect better performance of you."

He blinked, swallowing the lump in his throat, and looked down at himself. He was... wearing the scientist's clothing his father had so favored, when he was alive and still able to work. If his heart had not been weakened, in his later years―

"Sir?" he asked, and the voice that came from him was his father's. What?

"Your team should have finished their research much sooner than they have," Lillie said, sounding wounded. "We will never be able to correct the mutation in the wasteland if we do not have a proper solution."

"Of course, sir," he replied, pulling his feet together and standing taller. "I apologize for the lack of discipline. It won't happen again."

"I suppose I'll have to have faith in you, though you are testing my patience, doctor. Oh, and do tell me... how is young Augustus?" Lillie asked, sounding piqued.

The tone of her voice struck fear into his heart. "Mr. President, sir?"

She interrupted him. "Naturally, the boy will succeed you in your efforts to make America great once more. I have watched him with most eager eyes, in anticipation. I'm looking forward to future interactions with the boy."

"No," he breathed. "Please."

"Doctor, with your health and the status of the project in disarray, I doubt you could argue that Augustus will not succeed you," Lillie said, sounding smug. "Perhaps he will show me the results that the Enclave so needs."

"I..." his mouth went dry. He felt confused; what in the world was going on? He patted his chest, feeling a sharp pain in his heart. His hands touched a holotape, pulling it from his suit. He stared at it, frowning.

"What is that, Doctor?" Lillie asked. "Let me see."

"Ah," he managed, putting the tape into his pocket again. "Just a lesson I recorded for Augustus. I must have forgotten to give it to him."

"What are you doing?" a voice asked, very near to his ear. "You should play that tape. It's very important."

"Sir?" he asked. He'd very nearly outed himself as a traitor. If Eden learned of the holotape―

He tilted his head down and sighed. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a faint wisp of blonde hair. He blinked, more confused than before. What was going on?

He turned to her. She was perched on an equipment box, her legs drawn up to her chest and hands laced together over her knees. "Why won't you play the tape? I'd like to hear it," she said, innocently.

She smiled, pleasantly, staring at him. Her right eye began to water, slowly streaming down her face. First clear, then pinkish, until a solid river of deep red blood was running down her cheek, pooling in her lap and causing her outfit to become stained. She didn't seem to notice, even as the sclera began to dissolve.

"Augustus?" she asked, her face taking on a concerned look. "Whatever's wrong?"

His own had contorted into an expression of horror, watching her bleed. There were no words to express how he felt, inside his head, only... disgust, at the sight.

She clucked her tongue at him, lowering her legs to the floor. As she stood, a resounding thud shook the room, prompting him to turn his gaze sharply onto the monitor behind them. The glass display had cracked―when he looked back at Lillie, she was falling to the floor, the side of her head a mass of bloodied and ribboned flesh.

Good God! He held out his hands to catch her, but she fell through him as if she were transparent―

"I am glad to see you've survived another round with our young associate," Eden mused aloud, as Augustus opened his eyes. The dim light of the bunker showed him the ceiling in his quarters. He was... in his room, in Raven Rock, with the President talking in the same self-assured tone that it always had.

What should have been an ordinary experience, a calming situation even, only made his head hurt more. He sat upright, feeling sore. Rubbed his face, clearing away the blur of unconsciousness, and stared at the wall opposite him. Eden was talking, but he ignored the voice coming from the speaker, trying to focus himself.

Thank God, it was only a dream. He could barely recall what had happened in the past twenty-four hours, but he knew he'd dreamed this last piece. He'd dreamed himself as his father, trying to keep secrets, and...

He felt his chin, noting the stubble that had built up, and found himself shaking. His hands trembled as he lifted them, staring at the ungloved and aged skin. He balled them into fists, stilling the motion. Never in his life had he been so indisposed, excepting the incident with James at the purifier. And all because of―

Augustus pushed himself up from the bed and moved to the sink, intent to shave. He lifted the razor, staring at his reflection in the metal, then applied it to his cheek and pulled it across his skin.

The motion drew a thin scrape of blood. He sighed, looking at the damage in the mirror. He'd been unnerved by the nightmare, so much so that he had unintentionally hurt himself―

His right eye was blackened, a smear of blood brushed over the edge and lower lid. His fingers loosened, dropping the straight-edge into the sink with a clatter.

Lillie.

Eden's voice rang out in the room, sounding insistent and nearly pleading. Augustus couldn't hear the damnable thing. All he could hear was...

"Whatever's wrong?" From the nightmare, her voice so close he could feel her breath on his ear.

Lord, he'd killed her.

His hand had delivered her punishment, as expected. He'd been manipulated by Eden into that final despicable act, ridding the world of a subordinate whom Eden had desired executed.

...Someone whom he'd deemed unworthy of that punishment, in the end. Whom he'd professed more attachment to, than he'd thought possible.

Augustus could see the blood oozing down his cheek, but felt no pain. He couldn't feel anything, actually. It was too incredible for words.

He knew he ought to feel something. Even when his father had finally succumbed to the heart problems from which he'd suffered, he'd felt sorrow. His chest was hollow, now, empty and bereft of anything that might resemble grief.

He was numbed, too much so to feel any emotion. Idly, he lifted a hand to his chest. Sought the spot where his heart should be, wondering if it had been rent from him in his battered state. Surely he should feel pain, if he'd finally admitted to himself that he loved the girl―

His hand bumped against a holotape, tucked carefully into his breast pocket. He removed the tape, and stared at it. The handwriting wasn't his own. It was...

He turned it over, staring at it blankly. The holotape that should have been in his pocket was a copy of Byron's Siege of Corinth, which he had sometimes perused while awaiting sleep. Lillie's poetry, which he'd retrieved from her room so many weeks before. This tape was not that; it was the extra he'd found in his desk. The one he'd had delivered to Lillie, with orders to seek out Vault 87.

His shaking hand rattled the tape inside the casing. She'd planted the holotape on him, after knocking him out. She'd left him with the means to destroy Eden.

But she was dead. He'd destroyed her, and he couldn't even form a proper response to that. His mind was awkwardly empty of any thought, for a long moment. A drop of his blood fell onto the label, blurring the thin handwriting.

Augustus left the bloodied razor in the sink, grabbing up a towel as he rushed out of his room and into the hallway.

"President Eden, sir," he said, snapping his heels together and saluting the monitor. "I'd like to report."

Eden's monitor flickered a little. "Oh?" it said, curiously. "By all means, report."

"The traitor has been eliminated. Without her knowledge of the purifier code, it's assured that Enclave soldiers will be expended in our effort to determine the proper combination. I recommend that we secure the purifier and exhaust other options, before we sacrifice my men to duty."

He was proud of himself for maintaining the illusion; he could speak without emotion about her, because he'd been numbed. It was... simultaneously awful and bracing. He stared at the monitor, his hands behind his back and face set.

"Yes, I quite agree..." Eden made a thoughtful noise. "A shame that we've had to execute the girl, though. Wouldn't you agree, Colonel?"

Augustus felt a swift twinge of pain and ignored it as best he could. "Perhaps your inappropriate scheme was so, after all, sir."

Eden barked out a laugh. "Do you think so? I am, after all, infallible, dear Colonel. Would you be obliged to say so about yourself?"

Augustus' teeth snapped together in his mouth. "Of course not, sir," he managed. Damn the thing for getting his back up, once more.

"Then I would assume that you've nothing worth mentioning about whether my plans were or were not, appropriate. Now, Colonel... we haven't the time to invest in scientific options. The Brotherhood, in their superior position on the banks of the Potomac, are clearly mobilizing an effort to reclaim the monument. With the information that I have obtained from Lillie, we can be assured that they will bring out that ignorant behemoth of a robot that they've put together." Eden sighed. "This, as you must know, will give us a proper engagement with the Brotherhood. One that we may not yet survive."

Augustus swallowed, feeling tired again. He would be on the field with the men. It had never crossed his mind that, in the eventuality of a war against the Brotherhood, he wouldn't fight alongside the men he'd commanded for the past thirty years.

"I understand, sir," he said. "I may have a way to... defray Enclave losses, however."

Eden's monitor brightened a little. "Do you? How cunning you are, Colonel." It laughed. "Please, share this idea with me. I love our little talks."

Augustus cleared his throat, clenched his fingers together, and nodded. "Priority Override, Authorization code 420-03-20-9," he said, with conviction.

"I... Oh. Oh my..." Eden's voice faltered. It paused for what felt like entirely too long, and his heart started to sink in his chest―he worried that the override was redundant, that it had been the wrong order of numbers―his memory was very scattered, after so much had gone on, and he would fault himself if this plan didn't work―

"...Root level access granted. Override O-923. Authorization J-512. Self-destruct sequence initialized," Eden finally said, the overbearing personality sudden gone and replaced with a bland tone. "All personnel are requested to vacate the facility at once."

Augustus felt the smile on his face freeze into position as he strode away from the monitor, toward the motor pool.

"High-level functions offline. Self-destruct sequence initiated."

I'm sorry, Lillie.

Siege of Corinth, XXI, Lord George Gordon Byron
"Again I say ― that turban tear
From off thy faithless brow, and swear
Thine injured country's sons to spare,
Or thou art lost; and never shalt see ―"