Author's Notes: With the end of the arc, how about another upkick in reviews? I can't have done the last two perfectly.

And "Guest"? Now, just now, you thought something fishy was going on?

1

"Mayor Faraday.", she announced herself.

The synth looked up to her. "General? What brings you here?

"For that matter, what's in the box?"

The General took a deep breath of Acadia's stale air. It somehow carried the scents of it being both antique and manufactured. Dust that was truly dust and no longer shaken off skin. Metal and its protective paints and its aged rust. She was glad to let the synths have it.

As long as they made sure she got what she needed. It was the same deal she was offering to everyone else. That's...equal.

The General started. "I need you to help others rebuild DiMA."

And there it went.

"You...you...you've got some nerve.", Faraday stuttered aghast. "You come in here and throw all his dirty laundry in his face. Then you talk him into suicide."

The General shook her head. "I didn't tell him to die."

"Yes, you did!", Faraday countered. "You convinced him to go to Far Harbor and they shot him in the street. I was trying to remind him of how much we needed him. How much Acadia stood and fell with him. That was you.

"And now you come back here when you need him. Well he isn't here anymore, thanks to you. So you can't have him."

"Oh, I'm going to have him.", the General stated.

The scientist crossed his arms. "And why do you think that?"

"Because DiMA would want me to.", she answered. And finally, the synth let her speak.

"The Institute is the greatest threat to Acadia. And I've told you before, that in exchange for your city's joining up that I would change that. And I am.

"The next step is getting the Institute to recognize that your people here (or at least things like them) can be sentient. We're doing...The Minutemen are running a Turing test the Institute has. We're blinding it by disguising some humans from the force. The Railroad...have you heard of the Railroad?"

"Yes. Even though the Railroad doesn't know about us, nearly a third of our people here/"

"The Railroad's also obfuscating the synths taking the test with their own people."

"The problem is that none of you are going to pass."

Faraday scoffed. "Then why bother with a test that the Institute was going to rig anyway."

"The Institute isn't going to rig the test.", she stated. "I'm making sure of that. I'm just not convinced that any of you are sentient. What did you do back at the Institute? IT? Because that's the pattern I've been finding. The apple not falling far from the tree. Ex-coursers becoming anti-terrorists. Medical mechs doing nothing but. All within the realm of malfunctioning A.I."

The synth objected. "Humans do what they know, too."

"All but DiMA - he was designed for the sake of it. With capacity. And after his escape, he didn't just subject himself again. He thought. And for a long time. What I'm thinking is that that's the key that kicks an A.I. into sentience. But I don't have that many A.I.s that have as much self-contemplation. Curie, sure."

"Curie?"

"A Ms. Nanny that had finished her task cycle. After 83 years trapped in a box, she realized that she wasn't starting new research because she lacked the sentient 'inspiration' needed for actual invention. After her memories were transferred to a mind-dead mark III, she came up with a new problem definition and solution while interacting with a whole host of other things in my travels. She's still a medic, though. I don't want to play the Institute for all the marbles on her.

"If I can recreate DiMa, then the Institute can't know what hit them. He's a prototype that was never redone, so they have no record set to compare his behavior to. His stupid choices as well as his smart ones showcase his personality and its uniqueness. And even if the Institute has managed to spy on me or this place or Far Harbor: well, he's dead and they know it.

"He can beat this test. I just need to pull him out of the past for a week."

Faraday shook his head as if to clear his hearing. "You're going to resurrect him just to murder him again."

"The peace with Far Harbor demands it.", the General stated. "No one can really know, much less prove, that he ever lived again. But he'd...he has, sacrificed everything for you. I just need for him to do it one more time."

Faraday leaned back against the machines that lined and filled what used to be the observatory. "How?"

The General then opened her box. "This is the most recent edition of the Mark II synth. I've embezzled one from the Minutemen's motor pool. You have DiMA and all his memories backed up on the machines here. I just need you to mark out the hardware. The Memory Den in Goodneighbor is the Railroad asset that cast memories into escaped synths, and she's done it with a Mark II and human interactive cybernetics. I'll cover my presence there with the appearance of checking up on my Colonel of Personnel. He'll think that I'm really there to see a romantic rival of his with me."

"And when someone finds out the truth?", Faraday asked.

"Then they'll find out that I'm arranging the Railroad to actually bring escaped synths to the Castle to actually test. I am meeting one of their agents there for a hand off.", she replied.

"Even the Railroad's left hand won't know what the right is doing. They're so idealogically motivated that their loyalty can be compromised. Since exposing DiMA would expose not only the best strategy to beat the Turning test, but also compromise the synth he's planted; even the Railroad asset that'll get his memory in the new body will keep quiet."

The General did not explain the other that she was visiting the Memory Den.

"What about the other that DiMA escaped with? Valentine?"

"No good.", the General replied. "Nick's memories are actually recorded from a pre-war human. It risks the 'ghost in the machine' argument. That human brains can build sentience but synth minds can't. So only synths that were once human can be considered people. I need an A.I. all the way down. And preferably one that was only synth - another reason not to push every hope onto Curie."

"So you're spending everything you can to bring back our founder just to kill him again. You're having us abide by a constitution ratified by others and keeping us secret from them. And you're denying the right of my citizens to even compete for their own freedom.", Faraday summed up.

The General nodded. "Don't forget that I'm going to thrust you into the lime light as soon as I think the Institute needs you as part of the Commonwealth instead of under thumb."

2

"Congratulations are in order.", the General greeted.

A cloaked and hooded figure turned to her. It's golden lit eyes held the weight of a century in them. They seemed even brighter in the passages that ran under the Castle.

"So I've passed.", DiMA confirmed.

"Two of you.", the General informed. "Curie actually did it."

"So you didn't need me in the end.", DiMa understood. "Does this make it easier or harder for you to go through with our plan?"

"You don't have to call it ours.", the General admonished. "This time, it really is me killing you."

The synth shook his head. "I disagree. Ever since I agreed to it. And now, according to the Institute's test, I understood it. As soon as I went along with it then it was our plan to save my people. Including my second death. Never doubt, I am choosing this...General."

The General put her hand on his shoulder. "It's time.

"But you do deserve an answer. Even if it's only going to be recorded in the storage devices from Acadia instead of actually thought about. I've spent a lot of ammunition since thawing out and finding myself in this world. Some out of revenge. A lot out of fear and survival. Some even to just incur the good will of some factions like the Minutemen and the Institute and others to destroy a faction in the case of the Brotherhood of Steel. I'd hate to say it...but I'm not going to regret killing you. But I am going to regret that it's so familiar."

DiMA nodded. He removed his clothing and lay down on one of the shelves of ammunition. "Doctor Amari assured that this machine would take my new memories down so that they can be added to the collection at Acadia. Even though this body's mind will be wiped, at least the memory will be stored for prosperity. You may activate when you are ready."

DiMA had his mind recorded and wiped by the General. And once the unit was returned to a simple combat drone, the General shot the data collection devices. No matter what she and Amari had told him, Far Harbor could not be risked to have proof of his return.