The thunder she woke to was different this time. Thunder perhaps wasn't the right word. It was more of a rumbling, like she was sleeping on top of a generator. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept so comfortably. Squinting her eyes, Shiloh peered at the soft pillow and mattress beneath her. Even a thick blanket covered her lower half. She must be with the Brotherhood because the blanket didn't have any holes or questionable stains. Uniform to a detriment, the Brotherhood never would have allowed a scrap of fabric out of place. Frowning at Danse's voice in her head, Shiloh attempted to sit up. She was stopped by a heavy set of cuffs keeping her chained to the bed by her right arm.

Panic raced up her spine and she immediately began tugging at the offending metal. No, no, no, no, shit shit shit. There was no way, after everything, after surviving severe radiation poisoning for the upteenth time, that she would allow herself to go out in some psychopath's settlement. Of all the hellish ways to go in the wasteland, this was high on her list. When the metal proved that it wouldn't budge, she quickly switched tactics. She grabbed the small nightstand by her bedside and, with a lot of maneuvering, she broke off one of its thick wooden legs. What was left was some poor scrap of a weapon, but it was something. And it wasn't the first time she'd killed someone with what was essentially a stick.

Now she just had to wait. This was always the most difficult part. She was known for running straight into the super mutant's den. Sometimes literally. Waiting was not her strong suit. Luckily it was within the hour that she heard footsteps by her door. Whoever was on the other side let out a startled yelp when she threw the remnants of the nightstand at the door with a loud crash.

"What the fuck was that?" came a voice that sounded far younger than she'd expected.

"Let's get Knight-Captain Cade," the other voice replied. And off they went. Shiloh slumped her shoulders in relief, still clinging to her stick weapon. She knew Cade and she knew his position in the Brotherhood. Certainly he would have a good explanation as to why she was chained up like a prisoner.

It must have been another half an hour that passed before the footsteps came back. Shiloh sat sideways on the bed pressed against the wall now. There were no windows in her room, so she settled for this position. Eyes on the door and her stick in her lap.

When Cade opened the door, she began to speak when her voice caught in her throat. His position really must have worn on him. His hair was close-shaved and graying now, something she hadn't noticed last she saw him a few months ago. "Knight-Captain." She gestured to the cuff around her slightly bruised wrist, "Why am I chained up?"

To his credit, Cade did look sheepish. "My apologies, Paladin. It was for your own safety. We weren't sure the symptoms you would have until you woke."

"They kept me in a fridge. I doubt there's really much to go on by the way of symptoms. Wanna release me?" she shook her chained wrist for effect.

Again, Cade looked uncomfortable. "Paladin Carver, we need to talk about your time in that facility."

"I know you have to debrief me, but I really don't know how I got there." she dismissed him, waiting for the key.

Something in him changed and he quietly shut the door behind him. Grabbing chair by the desk, he sat down by her bedside. "This isn't a briefing. We gathered as much from talking to Scribe Anderson and Knight Ripson." He had a clipboard in his hands, she noticed. His knuckles were white from gripping it so tightly. "I need to ask you a question that you will find strange, but it's critical that you answer it honestly."

She knew the type of man Cade was. More scribe than soldier. The clench in his jaw and that white-knuckled grip on the clipboard kept her from demanding for the key. Whatever questions he had must be very difficult to ask. With her pulse racing like a stingwing, she nodded. "What questions?"

He sat back in his chair. "Do you know where you are?"

She glanced around at the metallic room. "The soldier who rescued me told me it's a Prydwen."

"That's correct, it's the Prydwen. Have you ever heard of the Prydwen before?"

She cleared her throat. "No, but I doubt Sarah would have told anyone outside of her strange inner circle of advisors if she was building a big metal tank."

"The Prydwen is an airship," Cade turned to put the clipboard away, "and Sarah Lyons may have helped with the efforts, but it wasn't built for her."

"Okay, so we're on a flying metal tank," she couldn't really wrap her head around something so huge flying around, "and the western elders made it? Or they grabbed it from the NCR?"

She watched him take in a breath with some small level of fear. Whatever he was about to tell her was going to hurt, she knew it. "No. The Prydwen was a project headed by Proctor Ingram, started by the Enclave...and intended for Elder Maxson."

She blinked owlishly at him, "You're telling me Sarah is dead and a teenager is the Elder." Maybe it was rude to phrase it that way, but it was the truth wasn't it? Arthur was barely out of boyhood and they just slapped the title on him before Sarah's body was cold. She flinched at her own thoughts. Oh god, Sarah.

Cade saw the pained grimace on her face, but needed to continue ripping off this proverbial bandage. "No, Elder Maxson isn't a teenager. He barely was when he was elected. The Prydwen was launched nine years ago and began its patrol two years later when Maxson was elected as Elder." This time he leaned in close. "I'm going to tell you this exactly how I worded it to Anderson and Ripson. It is imperative that you understand the complete truth. It is 2289 and you were held in a cryostasis. You're in the Commonwealth and up until this point it was believed you, Anderson, and Ripson were dead."

Shiloh swallowed as he looked her in the eyes. Part of her dared him to break eye contact, make some semblance of this a lie. He didn't. "Can I-" he throat felt dry, "can I speak to Ingram?"

He either understood or pitied her, because he sat back with a soft look. "Of course. Stay here while I get her."

He didn't give her much of a choice. He left with her still chained up.

-0-

"I normally wear a modified power armor frame," Rachel Ingram spoke as she rolled into the room on a wheelchair, "but I think this situation needed less metal." The words weren't humorous, she was speaking plainly.

Perhaps seeing powerful, undefeatable Ingram paralyzed should have shocked her more, but she was already numb. The moment Shiloh saw her face, she knew it was real. Sarah was dead, Arthur was the Elder, everything was wrong and different and- Ingram gave her the key before she could violently thrash at the cuffs. Using her powerful arms, Ingram pushed out of the wheelchair and sat at Shiloh's bedside. The younger woman didn't have to energy to stand.

Shiloh wanted to speak, but her vision went blurry with unshed tears. Reaching out a tentative hand, Ingram pushed a lock of hair out of Shiloh's face before pulling her in for a hug. Shiloh gripped her perhaps too tightly, unable to do anything but hiccup as she cried. She was quiet during it, always had been since the days Butch and his gang pushed her around. Her father had found it concerning. Nobody's going to judge you if you're loud honey. Lots of children cry. Still, she hadn't listened. She hadn't listened to a lot of what her father said.

Trembling in Ingram's arms, she finally released a held breath and pulled back. "How did she die?"

It wasn't a question Ingram flinched from. "Super mutant attack."

"Is it-"

"Maxson killed him." Shiloh didn't know what to say to that. Nobody better to take revenge, she supposed. Her morals weren't above revenge at all. She hoped Arthur had made it a painful death. Ingram saw the look on her face. "Don't be like that. You can't go dark on me, too. Not when you- you just got back." She was gonna say something about coming back to life. It would have reminded Shiloh of her biblical father. It would have made her scoff. She was trapped in some human-sized fridge. The thought made her feel sick with anger. Ingram must have still seen the storm brewing behind her eyes, because she carefully slid back into her wheelchair. "This is a lot for you. Promise me you'll rest a little bit before trying to leave."

"I promise." Her words were hollow, but she kept her promises and Ingram knew that. She lay back against the pillow, turning away from Ingram. The older woman silently left and she was thankful that she and Sarah were similar in personality. Ingram knew when to stay and be a support and when to give her space. She would have to find her on the ship again. Ingram deserved a warmer reunion than she had the energy to give right now.

It was a small mercy that Ingram left when she did. Shiloh found herself curled up on the bed, sniffling over the generator's rumble. Only, it wasn't some primitive generator. It was the engine of a giant airship flying over a land she'd barely seen. She knew that she'd have to leave the room sometime. She needed answers and questions waited for her on the other side of the door.

-0-

Shiloh hadn't acknowledged her damaged and travel-dusted clothing until a scribe popped in through the door with a bundle in her hands. "Good morning Paladin," the young woman chirped, "Knight Rhys asked me to bring you this. If you remember he-"

"I remember him," Shiloh reached for the clothing. Her morning began quicker than she'd liked.

"Oh, right," the girl gave her the Brotherhood salute, "my name is Scribe Haylen. Knight Rhys thought you might appreciate someone other than Knight-Captain Cade delivering these to you."

Considering the clothing included undergarments, Shiloh was genuinely thankful. "I appreciate that, Scribe Haylen." Before the other woman could excuse herself, Shiloh stopped her. "I need to ask you...do they know?"

Scribe Haylen didn't try to pretend she didn't know what Shiloh meant. "I...yes, they know. It was supposed to be the higher ups, but word travels on an airship. And you are the Lone Wanderer. Many of these soldiers have Project Purity to thank for their health and the health of their families."

Shiloh nodded, uncomfortable with the praise. "It was my father's project. I just...helped."

Haylen knew not to push. "Of course, Paladin. Would you like me to show you around?"

Shiloh stopped fumbling with the flight suit's buckles to ponder the experience of awkwardly wondering around the ship by herself. "Would you?"

"Yes, ma'am!" She perked up immediately, "I'll just wait outside until you're dressed." Shiloh wasn't sure if the scribe was bound by duty, curiosity, or something else, but Haylen's reaction warmed her a little. After more time fumbling with the orange and gray flight suit's buckles, Shiloh emerged gingerly from the room. They were on a lower level, somewhere near the knight and initiate quarters. Haylen led her down the hall past the showers and up a convoluted pattern of stairs and ladders until they neared the flight deck.

The sky was clear when Haylen opened the door. The young scribe was telling her something about the sleek virtibirds parked against the Prydwen's deck, but Shiloh was distracted by the distance they floated above the Boston airport. "Ma'am?" Haylen noticed Shiloh's wary peer over the deck. "Are you feeling sick?"

"A little overwhelmed," Shiloh continued to look at the ground before Haylen gently tapped her arm.

"I'll show you something a little easier," Haylen led her to the end of the deck, where a wide half circle of pathway reached out across the sky. "For some reason, when I first boarded, coming here made me feel better. It feels more claustrophobic when it's just you and one line of path. Here it's open and you can feel the sky surround you."

Shiloh knew what she meant, feeling wrapped in a sea of blue, but her stomach still squirmed. She glanced behind them to see a soldier clad in power armor pointing their direction, Knight-Captain Cade at their side. "I guess that ends our tour."

Cade dismissed Haylen with a friendly smile and the young woman scurried away with her orders. The doctor then gave Shiloh a solemn look. "The Elder wants to see you."

Shiloh swallowed thickly. Arthur wanted to see her. Elder Maxson wanted to see her. She knew immediately he must hate her. She'd gone off and died when he was thirteen, just before Sarah apparently did. And the last thing she'd said to him-

He definitely hated her.

She repressed a sigh, knowing it was rude, and nodded slowly as Cade led her back up the staircase to the command deck. Arthur would have to be, what, twenty? Twenty-two?

-0-

He was twenty-two. She'd calculated it properly on their way. He looked so tired that it made her chest hurt the moment she saw him. She and Cade were standing by as he addressed a man in a dark gray captain's uniform. She supposed that the Prydwen counted as something of a boat. Their meeting ended and the other man didn't spare a glance in their direction before heading below deck to where the ship's controls were.

Arthur turned to them, and she knew the second he laid eyes on her that Arthur was buried below the Elder Maxson. He'd grown an insane amount in nine years, that she knew was thanks to Brotherhood expectations of fitness. She wasn't surprised he'd reached peak condition for power armor recommendations, but he was still so young. She stopped herself there. Technically...he was the same age as her now. The thought made her feel slightly dizzy.

Luckily for her pride, he hadn't been speaking to her this whole time. He was doing something akin to sizing her up. It made her feel raw, exposed, and she found herself slightly on the defensive.

"Elder," to everyone's surprise, she spoke first.

"Paladin," he nodded and Shiloh prepared for the verbal lashing. "You're free to use the Prydwen until your recovery. My crew on the Prydwen is full, but there are some Star Paladins at the airport you may join should you feel like taking on any missions. And I'll have Proctor Tegan supply you with an officer's uniform. The one you're wearing is for power armor users. Dismissed."

He turned away from her to the window and Shiloh blinked in surprise at his coldness. She couldn't read the expression on Cade's face but notably, he stayed back when she left the command deck. Following a squire around led her to Proctor Tegan and her new uniform. She stopped on her way downstairs to see Proctor Quinlan and pry about the facility she was found in.

Busy reading some old document on his terminal, he gave her a folder to read about her cold case. Nothing of interest grabbed her attention save for the coordinates of the facility, which she memorized. There were some brief additions from the past few days and she noted that both Anderson and Ripson were sent back to the Capital Wasteland. She couldn't fathom why they kept her behind. Especially when the Elder couldn't get rid of her quickly enough.

She left the documents with Quinlan and returned to her room to change. Luckily, they left the old combat armor she'd donned for her mission up here in her room. Strapping that over the black flight suit, she punched the coordinates to the facility in her Pip-Boy and headed for the closest vertibird.

When the pilot tried to argue, she pulled rank.