Here ends the main quest storyline. I think there will be more but I'm not sure if it will be unrelated chapters, a DLC story arc, or something else! So follow the story to make sure you get notified if more chapters appear, but don't follow me unless you want a million updates from my other projects! I owe my readers in the Winx Club fandom a season that I've got sitting here three chapters from done while I've been basically hiding in the Commonwealth from the terrors of 2020. This story and all your wonderful reviews are helping me get through these "unprecedented times" we're stuck in. It's been quite an adventure so far and I can't thank you enough for coming along. You all are the greatest.
Begin Recording
Everything
Recording by Scribe Ellison
A new settlement had decided to join the Minutemen, and their welcome package is under construction.
"Seeds. Water purifier, in pieces. Wasteland Survival Guide. Map of the Commonwealth with caravan routes and raider camps marked. Radio. Parts for a siren. Distress flares and smoke canisters." The General pats the yellow trunk waiting to be loaded onto a brahmin for transport. "And they get an official visit from me and whoever else is handy, usually Preston. We go over the settlement's defenses and plan to build whatever they need. And I try to show that I'm a mere mortal and the strength of the Minutemen lies in all of us working together."
I'm not a bit surprised to learn that Em has to fight against being idolized. "There are people who believe Sarah Lyons saved the Capital Wasteland singlehandedly too."
Em makes a face. "I hate to think what they'll say about me when I'm gone. At least you're making recordings so we can preserve a record of every dumb thing I did!"
"So what else do the new settlements get?"
"Anyone from allied settlements can come to the Castle for training. Usually it's teenagers, but anyone can go. One guy, he lost both legs to a frag mine and didn't think he could be any use, but the Minutemen got him set up with a wheelchair and sniper training. He won't be as good in a fight as someone with legs but he's better off. Not just combat training either; repair and engineering, medical, reading and writing too, whatever we can find someone to teach.
"The next project is getting enough teachers to go to every settlement, make sure every kid can read and figure. We don't have enough, and you can't have doctors without teachers. If only we could get some of your scribes down off the Prydwen to help teach… that's another plan. If your brothers and sisters could come down out of the sky and join the Commonwealth I think that'd be good for everyone. Tracking dangerous technology is great, but being completely separated from the people who grow your food isn't. And they won't be able to manage it forever. Visits to collect crops are turning into parties and friendships, and eventually it'll be marriages and families."
Brother and sister scribes, I am a bit put out hearing this confident prediction about our order!
Em laughs. "Your face, Scribe. Nobody's plotting to bring down the Brotherhood, just encourage it to work with people instead of sweeping in and taking over. The same thing I'd hoped to do with the Institute, but the Institute members who are willing to show their faces above ground so far are Allie and… Allie. At least Doctor Holdren will talk farming with anyone who wants to and Doctor Binet and his family are willing, very hesitantly, to communicate with the Railroad about how particular synths have been programmed and how to help them get their heads right."
"So you want the Brotherhood and the Institute, what else do you want?" I ask, a bit sarcastically I confess.
Em doesn't notice. She sits down on the trunk and leans back, looking up at the sky and smiling. "...Everything. I want everything. More crops, more food. Chickens. Fish we can eat. Sugar maple trees, apple trees, oak trees, whole forests. I want the farms to produce enough food that we have time to train specialists. I want a medical school, an engineering school, enough architects to make real houses. I want all the books in the Boston library. I want people to have time to write new books, not just survival guides but fiction.
"I want the people of the Commonwealth to figure out a government and elect leaders with everyone represented so the settlements can stop coming to me for everything. I know why I'm at the middle of things now but we need to build a better system. Once we get things settled enough here I can travel. I'd like to visit the Capital Wasteland, hear the story of the Enclave from people who were there—and Piper wants that twice as much as I do, she wants to do a whole series on it. And Preston and Ronnie want to see the Citadel and swap tips for running a soldier training camp. And after that… I want to fix a boat and sail across the ocean."
I say, "You're joking."
"Not joking. Very cautious, but not joking. There are a lot of boats along the coast, sunken or washed up. The lighthouse settlers have salvaged a small one for traveling without having to meet everything that lives on land, and we have a few on Spectacle Island. The idea is that we find a large boat without too many holes, patch it up, a large number of trial runs and then… the first European settlers landed not too far from here, at a place called Plymouth Rock. History texts have the route and if we follow it back we'll hit the United Kingdom—people who speak English, who were on our side in the war. And Cait should get to see Ireland.
"I don't know how much of this I'll get to see, but my kids and the Minutemen and the Railroad and the Institute and the Brotherhood and all the people of the Commonwealth will go on rebuilding the world when I'm gone. And we'll see where we can go from where the great war left us. We've come this far."