"So let me understand this.", Mother Isolde commanded. After all, she was the leader out here in the Crater of Atom. And she spoke like a woman who thought denying her word was akin to denying the presence of Atom himself, in his crater created by his division.

Even if she was speaking to people separating themselves from Atom's glow with power armor. If they were really people inside. The man standing in front of her with pieces of his face missing certainly brought that into question.

"You want to know if we, the Children of Atom, have done to - this Gunner Plaza, right - Gunner Plaza what Atom has done to his crater so many years ago? You come into our home, bare your weapons and then ask me? Because power armors imply that you aren't really asking. But it does imply you understand the justice of Atom, and fear it for your false accusations. Yet that belief would imply that you do hold faith in Atom. So come out from in there, and bask in Atom's glow.

"I will share the knowledge of which you seek."

The Lone Wanderer checked the radiation readings on the HELLFIRE POWER ARMOR's HUD. No way was she getting out of the armor. There was no reason why the woman standing in front of her was able to, let alone remain solid and not a puddle of goo. Nick, she understood. Nick was a machine.

"Hey, no need for that.", Nick interjected. "No one wants to send the wrong message. Everyone comes in peace. We aren't even Gunners.

"But you have to admit: it's not like Children of the Atom don't want to spread the glow of Atom."

The leader of the only settlement in the Glowing Sea raised an eyebrow. "Why should anyone?"

"So if you had the capability, you would have done so.", the synth devised.

Mother Isolde considered her next words against the weapons wielded by the power armor troops she faced. "There have been others who have missioned to a repository."

"Sentinel Site.", Nick prodded.

"Yes.", she confirmed. "None have returned. Those that beat Atom's curse instead of accepting his blessing may have proven too formidable. I do not know anymore than that."

The Lone Wanderer piloted her armor past Nick then. "Nothing else?"

"Nothing else.", she replied. "Should I?"

"You don't recall Mr. Valentine or the General coming here before then?", the woman from the Capital Wastes accused.

Isolde shook her head. "The machine brought a mother, not a general, here before. She was looking for a scientist to help find a lost son."

"And you don't recall anything about the two of them clearing out the ghouls in Sentinel Site.", the Lone Wanderer continued.

Nick somehow sighed without lungs. He drew his weapon. Reilly and her Rangers took that as their cue to level their weapons.

"The tools of Atom's glow are free?", Mother Isolde asked.

Valentine mustered his strongest possible voice. "If any of you take so much as a step toward that nuclear arsenal..."

One of the Children of Atom, who had been lost in his own prayers until now, stopped. He stood and turned toward the group. Yelling from several meters away, "Atom will protect me if he wishes." He then turned and started walking toward Sentinel Site.

Reilly aimed at him. "Stop right there."

The man kept walking.

"I mean it. I'll shoot."

Mother Isolde cocked her head. "Would you shoot all of us?"

Charon piloted his armor up to the man, used the mechanical hand to grab him by the neck, and drag him back before Mother Isolde. "Not everyone can become a ghoul. Fewer still can retain their sanity. I have not.

"I will kill all of you on an order."

"Atom be praised." And those were her last words.

The fact that none of the Children directly attacked them made the massacre even more spooky. But they all died facing Sentinel Site and the glow of Atom it could bring across the Commonwealth, the Capital Wastes, Far Harbor, Nuka World, Point Lookout, the Pitt, 'Ronto...who knew how many other places? No screams either. It was as if their fate was already determined.

Nick turned to the Lone Wanderer. She was about to defend herself but the detective cut her off. "Why did these people need to know that Sentinel Site no longer was infested with feral ghouls?"

"They were going to/"

"Because you told them!", Nick stated as a fact. "They had already stopped people from trying to overcome the feral ghouls. They weren't monitoring the numbers of them. All of this death - it's your fault."

"Should I have let them - Children of the Atom, mind you - reach a nuclear warhead repository?"

Nick pursed his lips. "We move. Follow me. There's no one else with a mind to talk between here and there."