Dogmeat led the trio to Fort Hagen, where Kellogg had apparently gone to ground. Upon breaching the main building, they ran into hostile synths, Nora's first experience with them. This proved to be an incredibly bad occurrence for Piper and Nick (and, well, anyone that Nora ended up traveling with), as Nora recovered a laser rifle from one of the destroyed synths. She gave it an experimental firing and her face lit up like Christmas, New Year's, and Independence Day all rolled into one at the satisfying sound it made. She fired the rifle several more times, now vocalizing along with it: "Pyew pyew pyew! Motherfucking laser gun! Bzzzzzap!" Piper and Nick exchanged a horrified look, knowing full well that from now until the end of time Nora would be screaming "Pyew pyew pyew!" literally every time she fired that damned thing.
Things progressed as they usually did in these kinds of scenarios: they moved on to the next room, they blasted the synths to pieces, Nora vacuumed up all the valuable loot, lather, rinse, repeat. A new, ugly twist on the old formula turned up as they descended deeper into the complex. "If it isn't my old friend, the frozen TV dinner," a voice called out over the old intercom system. "Last time we met, you were cozying up to the peas and apple cobbler."
Nick sighed. "Great, there's two of them now." He looked forward to helping take this newcomer out of this world shortly.
Nora opened her mouth… and froze up, her mouth abruptly going dry. Hearing the voice put her back in Vault 111, watching helplessly as Shaun was taken, and Nick gunned down. Terror seized her innards and squeezed. She distantly realized she'd lost control of her bladder.
"Hey, come on, Blue, don't let him get to you," Piper urged, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
Nora looked at her and gave her a shaky smile. "Yeah, you're right." She looked up at the ceiling randomly. "Yeah, well, last time we met you were fucking a dead dog because a maggot-filled dog carcass is the only thing that sexually excites you, you fucking shitfuck COCKNUGGET FUCKSHITTER —"
Piper, extremely alarmed, put her hand back on Nora's shoulder. "Okay, Blue, I think you really told him!" she said through clenched teeth, hoping that Nora could find a happy medium between 'frozen stiff' and 'can only speak in accusations of necro-bestiality and swear words'.
Nora took a deep breath, then slapped herself hard across the face. Both Piper and Nick jumped at that, giving their friend wide-eyed looks of concern. "Okay," she said, much more calm. "Next slap's for him. Let's fucking go."
The next few passages didn't have any synths, but they did hold a lone sentry turret. "Pyew pyew, motherfucker," Nora said flatly, where before her homemade sound effects had been light and cheerful. That did more to unnerve Piper than anything else.
The speakers once again came to life. "Sorry your house has been a wreck for 200 years," he apologized. "But I don't need a roommate. Leave."
"You're going to choke to death on your own cock!" Nora screamed out, not bothering to look up at the ceiling. "A knife is going to be involved!" Piper felt relief that she didn't follow the threat up with a chain of expletives.
Kellogg spoke again in the next room. "You know, I never expected you to come knocking on my door. I figured if you ever made it out of that vault, you had 50/50 odds of even making it to Diamond City. After that? Figured the Commonwealth would chew you up like jerky."
"You can chew my ass when I'm blasting you with diarrhea, you dumb motherfucker," Nora muttered. They entered a corridor with several more synths, Nora doing the dead-sounding "Pyew" again with each shot. While rummaging through their remains, she observed a series of reinforced windows (and the occasional sealed door) on the left side of the hallway. Sensing eyes watching her from the darkness beyond, she smiled and waved into it. "Hi, Kellogg! I know you're in there! I'm going to tear out your fucking intestines and strangle you to death with them!" Her voice abruptly shifted back to its cheery, happy-go-lucky pitch.
"Look, you're pissed off, I get it, I do," Kellogg said over the intercom (after she'd left the room, the fucking coward). "But whatever you hope to accomplish in here? It's not gonna go your way." Nora didn't respond, merely continued advancing through the facility, Nick and Piper at her side, blasting away at any synths that crossed their path ("Pyew pyew pyew!"). Kellogg soon spoke up again: "You've got guts and determination, and that's admirable. But you are in over your head in ways you can't possibly comprehend." Again, Nora was silent, continuing on deeper. "It's not too late. Stop. Turn around and leave. You have that option. Not a lot of people can say that."
"I think he sounds scared, Blue," Piper confided in a quiet voice.
"Yep," Nora agreed. "He knows he's gonna be meeting God soon, and it'll be a very brief meeting indeed."
"A man of Kellogg's reputation isn't the sort to shy away from a fight," Nick observed. "Something feels off here…"
Kellogg didn't speak again until Nora reached his living quarters (and had begun pilfering his belongings). "Okay, you made it," he said. "I'm just up ahead. My synths are standing down. Let's talk." Nora didn't respond, choosing instead to simply finish robbing her husband's murderer before moving on.
The previously darkened room lit up. It was stuffed full of old, broken computer consoles. Kellogg stood in the middle of the room, flanked by two synths. He looked… tired. Resigned. Nora resisted the urge to just blow his ugly mug to hell and walked toward him.
"And there she is, the most resilient person in the Commonwealth," he greeted. "Funny, I thought I had that honor."
"You've got shit for honor," Nora snapped back. "Give me my son back, and maybe I'll let you live. If you can call life with no arms or legs truly living. Maybe I'll put you on a leash."
"Your son, Shaun, great kid," Kellogg said, ignoring the demand. "A little older than you expected, but I'm guessing you figured that out by now. If you're hoping for a happy reunion, ain't gonna happen. Your boy's not here."
"Where is he?" Nora asked. Her fingers were itching to pull the trigger, but she had to find out where Shaun was.
"Fine," Kellogg said, easy as pie. "I guess you've earned that much. Shaun's in a good place. Where he's safe, and comfortable, and loved. A place he calls home. The Institute."
"The Shitstitute," Nora challenged. "How do I get there? I've got some fucking skulls to crack."
Kellogg shook his head. "Haven't you been paying attention? You don't find the Institute. The Institute finds you. You open the closet, it's just a closet. You can never find the monster that hides inside. Not until it jumps out at you."
"…So you're saying they're located in a closet?" Nora asked, deadpan. Piper stared intently at her — was she for fucking real? Making jokes now?
Kellogg gave her an uncomprehending look. "Did being frozen do something to your brain? No! It's not…" He shook his head. "I think we've been talking long enough. We both know how this has to end. So… you ready?"
"…No," Nora said, voice softening, surprising Piper and Nick, and even Kellogg, whose eyebrows rose slightly. "We… we don't have to do this. Maybe we can… join forces? Take on the Institute together?"
Kellogg gave her a small smile. "Yeah, that freezer definitely did something to your head." His smile melted away, leaving a look of sadness. "The truth is, I'm a dead man either way. Knew it the second I realized you were here." He sighed. "For what it's worth, I really am sorry." He started to raise his gun, a real hand cannon, to shoot at Nora.
Nora was faster. She drew her shotgun and gave Kellogg both barrels right in his dick. The synths proceeded to open fire, but Piper and Nick started plugging away at them. Kellogg had let out a groan of agony when his genitals were pulverized by the shotgun fire, but still had enough presence of mind to finish raising his big gun and aim it at Nora. Nora, however, was already running forward, slamming the barrel of her gun into Kellogg's gut. He doubled over; Nora raised her gun up and brought the butt of it down onto the back of his skull. He collapsed to the floor and rolled over onto his back, and for one last time they locked eyes. Kellogg gave a brief nod and closed his, and for a second Nora reflected how old and tired he suddenly seemed to look.
Her hand was not to be stayed, however. Nora began pistoning the shotgun up and down onto his skull, the meaty thump echoing through the now quiet room (Piper and Nick having taken care of the synths). After a few moments, a scream rose up from Nora's throat, a primal remnant from mankind's most primitive urges, the sound of one ape mindlessly slaughtering another with a jagged piece of rock. This was no longer about revenge for Nate, or trying to get Shaun back — the basest, most primordial part of her soul wanted him dead, as quickly and brutally as possible, and it would no longer be restrained.
More and more, each slam of the shotgun's butt brought about a wet splatter, as the skin was tattered and blood began to speckle everything within a few feet. Soon after that, a cracking sound began, growing louder and louder with each frenzied impact, the fracturing of Kellogg's skull. (Kellogg was long past caring at that point — the repeated blows to his skull had already caused irreparable damage to his brain from it being battered about in there). Finally, the skull gave way entirely and Nora's blows were rewarded with chunks of brain matter flying about.
"Hey kid, I think that's enough." Nick had come up behind her and gently touched her shoulder. "He ain't gonna hurt anybody ever again."
Nora stopped screaming, looked to him for confirmation, then looked back down at the ruined head. She allowed her shotgun to fall as she herself sank to her knees, wrapped her arms around herself, and began to scream again, letting out all the agony of losing Nate and Shaun, the sorrow of losing so much of Shaun's childhood, and the mourning of the life she had lost — that everyone had lost. Tears finally began to flow freely down her face, great rivers of them, and Piper was suddenly there, wrapping her arms around Nora, and Nora buried her face in the younger woman's shoulder, and Piper just kept rubbing her back and whispering soothing things into her ears until she had finally exhausted herself, at which point she simply passed out, physically and emotionally drained.
XXX
Naturally, she was back to her old self when she woke up. "Guys, I'm fine, seriously," Nora assured Piper and Nick for what had to be the hundredth time. She was scouring the room for anything she might regard as a goodie. She had already rifled through Kellogg's belongings and, the main object of Nick and Piper's concern at the moment, somewhere far more intimate.
"Jones, for the love of God, you were digging around in Kellogg's brains," Nick pointed out.
"I saw something in there!" Nora said. "You saw it! It was some weird electronic thingie!" (Nora had, in fact, cried out "I found candy!" after extracting the thingie, waving it gaily over her head like a miniature flag on Independence Day, and Nick regretted not having pain sensors, as biting his lip to keep from laughing at the darkly comic imagery did nothing and he had to rely on sheer force of will).
"I don't care if you saw the secret to eternal life, Blue, you just don't go digging around in dead peoples' brains!" Piper countered.
"Well, is it really any different from stealing things from the outside of their bodies?" Nora asked.
"Blue, you licked his fucking blood off your hand," Piper said slowly, trying to get it through Nora's skull like Nora had gotten through Kellogg's. "You sucked a little chunk of brain off your thumb like it was a noodle."
Nora looked down at her hand, which was stained red, then to Nick, who gave her a sober nod, nonverbally telling her that yes indeed, you drank blood and ate brain. "Huh, that's funny," she said, then continued on with her rummaging. Nick and Piper exchanged what seemed like their thousandth look of alarm.
Finally ready to leave, Nora poked around on a nearby computer terminal. There was a note from Kellogg on it; it mentioned tracking down a renegade, which was intriguing but otherwise uninformative, but the note about taking Shaun back to the Institute raised even more questions. Why 'back'? Wasn't the whole point of Kellogg's little speech that Shaun was safe and sound with them? And if he was safe and loved, why would they let him go on a… a field trip, or whatever, with a known killer like Kellogg? It didn't add up. Nora didn't like it when things didn't add up. She filed the information away for later and opened up the security doors.
It was a straight shot from there to an elevator that had also been locked behind a security door. From there, there was only one door, which opened out onto the roof, and in a hugely wild coincidence, it was that exact moment that the Brotherhood of Steel invaded the Commonwealth. Wild how that worked out! If Nora had stopped for a pee break, she would have missed the whole thing!
It came out of the west, on a giant fucking blimp. "PEOPLE OF THE COMMONWEALTH," it broadcast on a loud-ass speaker. "DO NOT INTERFERE. OUR INTENTIONS ARE PEACEFUL. WE ARE THE BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL!"
"Oh yeah, real peaceful," Nora said with a snort. She watched as weird helicopter things were flying around it, some actually taking off from moorings on the ship's undersides and peeling away for parts unknown.
"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing," Nick quoted ominously.
"God, they must have an entire army on that thing!" Piper remarked, fearful.
Nora watched it recede into the distance. "Well, that was weird," Nora summed up, sounding bored. She turned to Nick and Piper. "You wanna blow this popsicle stand, or what?" Her companions could only stare at her, somehow shocked at Nora's blase attitude.
XXXXXXXXXX
Boy, the comedy never stops, huh?! But yeah, Nora is not doing well, and things for our fearless heroine are definitely going to get a lot worse before they get better.
Of course, the Brotherhood is scripted to show up precisely when you leave the interior of Fort Hagen, but in a realism sense it's just a very funny coincidence that they happen to show up immediately after you dust Kellogg. Fun fact: apparently, the game moderately wigs out if the Prydwen shows up and you haven't bothered introducing yourself to Danse and his homies just yet. (I don't remember the details, as I only read about it a little bit back in November '22 when I first wrote this). When I eventually (and I do mean eventually) have Nora meet Danse, I'll still have her run through the intro missions with them and probably write some BS to explain why they haven't linked up with the main expedition just yet.
Also, go back and reread the chapter. (No, you don't actually have to do this, this is just a rhetorical setup). Do you like reading about the game's main storyline? Well, savor this chapter, because much like the Prydwen, the main plot is, for the most part, sailing off into the distance, and it'll be a long-ass time before we revisit it. (So I'm basically staying true to 90% of playthroughs that leave the Vault and basically just forget that Shaun is somewhere out there, hahahahaha). She will get back on track someday, I can assure you — you can't run from destiny.