The Commonwealth
November the 15th, 2288
19:08

"It's good you arrived when you did. I trust our underground homes have been treating you well? I'm sorry you cannot bathe in Atom's glow as can we."

Wrapping one of her two thermal blankets tighter around herself, still unused to the cold, dank, darkness of the caves and the half of the city carved and built out within them, Nora Jacqueline Norwich uncomfortably nodded. The twinkling lights of the mix of lightbulbs, string lights, and more traditional lamps were an eerie reminder of how deep underground they were and, though in most ways it was nothing like the Vault, it felt painfully familiar. Yet, uncomfortable as their surroundings were, they were also the only place safe from the radiation clinging to just about everything else above ground. Above ground. Above them, well above them and well away from safety and shelter, lay what had become the worst reminder of how far gone life before the War's fiery culmination was. Trying not to dwell on the violent storm out there which, to her relief, was almost able to be forgotten about so deep underground where its cacophonies were unable to be seen or heard, Nora wrapped her hands tighter around the edges of the blanket draped over her shoulders. It was there. Tactile. Real. She pushed herself up a little to sit up against the back of the surprisingly soft and comfortable bed. The former lawyer let out a light sigh of relief when she saw Nick was still sat at one of the chairs in the room, having closed the gargantuan book he had been reading ever since they had arrived into the safety of the city which, to her brief disbelief, had been nearly a week prior.

A week.

A week and a day ago, she realised as her heart dropped, she had turned twenty six.

And, fuck, did it hurt her through her skin and bones and to her soul to realise she was not only the sole survivour, just about, of Vault 111 but the sole survivour of the War of her siblings and parents.

Having no desire to even risk needing to explain her tears to the generous if mad woman who had entered their lodgings, Nora remained silent, twining her fingers in and out of each other. It was becoming a habit. She closed her eyes a moment when she felt tears nipping at their corners, and only opened them again when she was certain she would not begin to cry. Unnerved by the silence but not trusting her voice to not betray the storm underneath her masks, Nora tried to satisfy herself with observing the woman and Nick. Polite and amicable as ever, when she sat down beside him, Nick handed her the book he had been reading, allowing her to page through the passages he had marked either with a sticky note or a corner of the pages tucked down. Intrigued, the woman almost reverently turned through each and every one of the pages the aged detective had marked. Seeing the cover again, albeit for only a few seconds, the woman's interest in Nick's reading became clear as day. Embossed on the cover in bronze, calligraphic script were the words The Holy Words And Prophecy Of Atom. She almost smiled, the 'Atomite faith' as it was called both intriguing and maddening, but, instead, felt her face fall again when the thought she had been fighting most with came back to the forefront of her mind in a vengeful fashion.

If anything has happened to Shaun worse than what has already been done, then the fault is my own for not being able to protect him or rescue him fast enough.

"Some of our Brothers and Sisters have previously thought of you, Nicholas, as being by your very nature an affront to Atom. I am pleased they have since overcome their prejudice and accepted your unique body and mind as an unlikely gift from Atom," She closed the book and handed it back to him. "I am honoured to shelter you and your most resilient companion. Few people have witnessed Atom's holy act of division and survived to tell of it."

"It…was intense," Nora nervously said when the woman looked at her. "Even from so far away it…it was unmistakable. I'll never be able to forget it."

"Bearing witness to Atom's glory in its most naked and pure form is, truly, an unforgettable experience," The woman said with a bow of her head. "I hope I shall one day be able to experience the same."

"Whether you'll get the opportunity or not, I appreciate your granting us safe harbour, Isolde," Nick said with a rueful shake of his head. "Sudden and aggressive storms are an unfortunate reality of this part in the Commonwealth, for those of us like my friend here who aren't immune to radiation."

"I understand. Many of our faithful Brothers and Sisters are not granted such a gift from Atom," Isolde said in her calm, almost bouncy voice. "Thus, they make the sacrifice to engage with radiation mitigators in order to spread his word and glory. It is a noble sacrifice. Those whom give their life to Atom are as honourable as a person can be. Though it saddens me, my daughter is one of them."

"You…you've lost a child too?" Nora said, her voice shaky. "I'm so sorry…it's the worst pain imaginable."

"It is and my faithful Dawn was cruelly manipulated and sacrificed for her faith by a false prophet of Atom," Isolde said, wiping aside tears at the memory. "She has since become a glowing shell of a human being, a victim of a man who corrupted Atom's gifts in an act of cruelty and heresy against her true and pure faith. We pray every day for an end to her suffering, so she may return to Atom and be reborn in his sight, made whole again, her sacrifice never for even a fraction of a second forgotten."

"She was a good kid," Nick set the book down on the table beside him, then turning to face her, leaning back slightly in the chair, one arm resting on the side of the chair and the other resting over his knees, hands clasped together. "I recall, the last time I was here, you telling me Paul was particularly heartbroken by her fate. He truly loved her, didn't he?"

"He did, and, as such, yes, Brother Ogden took what befell Dawn quite hard. To this day, he is still quite aggrieved," Isolde paused, saying a prayer under her breath. When she finished, she shifted her gaze to Nora. "I understand you have made this journey with the intention of finding someone. I have not pressed you for it as I know your way here must have been arduous beyond simple comprehension. If you are ready to speak of it, now you have had time to settle into safe shelter with us, I will be pleased to offer you aid in whatever manner I can."

Nora hesitantly nodded. "I…I appreciate it. Th…thank you."

"It is no trouble at all. Atom calls upon us to be hospitable and charitable to all, even those unable to bask in his glow," Isolde smiled. "You, also, are a friend of Nicholas, after all, and he is one of our few contacts in the world beyond our hallowed Crater."

"I…of course," Nora fell silent, her mind a bit foggy. What am I even supposed to say? All of this is so damn… "We're trying to rescue my baby boy. My son," She got out, trying not to cry. "A man – Conrad Kellogg – gave him to the Institute. We – I – need to get into the Institute. I need to get my son back."

Isolde frowned. "I have heard of this Institute," She said sadly. "They hide themselves completely, trying to avoid the might, power, and providence of Atom. It is a futile effort for them, and all of whom refuse to acknowledge his divinity and respect it the way you and Nicholas have. But how might I be able to aid you in your search for the heretics who stole your child?"

"There…there's a man, a man who had been part of but left the Institute," Nora nervously forced herself to meet the woman's intense gaze. "His name is Dr. Brian Virgil and we…we know he went into the Glowing Sea to hide from them."

"Ah, yes, Virgil," Isolde said, her eyes momentarily glazing over. "He does reside here, though not in our Crater. I have much respect for him, as he came to seek Atom's shelter and, by belief in his strength, has been granted such. In truth, though, I must caution you, some believe his presence is an affront to Atom."

"Do you…" Nora chewed at the inside of her cheek, choosing her words carefully. "Do you know where he is? Or if he's still here?"

"Yes, I do," Isolde said with a peaceful smile. "He resides in a cave, southwest of our Crater. He has come to trade with us on a few occasions, but we have little contact with him apart from the sharing of the material resources Atom has provided us. I would approach cautiously were I you. I feel he does not want visitors."

"Can't say I blame him," Nick said. "Paranoia would come with the territory if you were bold enough to abandon the Institute."

"He is a dauntless man and, though he knows it not, Virgil has been blessed for his faith by Atom's good shelter," Isolde said, gazing between him and Nora. "On good faith, however, I cannot allow the two of you to go to him until you can make the journey safely, and it is never safe to test Atom when he hurls his divine winds and thunders and lightning bolts. When Atom lifts his storm, I will send a few of my most faithful to him so as to prepare him for your arrival. When they return, I will have them escort you to your meeting with him in safe passage."

"Appreciate this, Isolde," Nick said, taking a short glance at Nora before turning back to the ever calm Isolde. "I know we'll likely be here a while, too, so, once again, thank you for aiding us."

"You have come to seek answers in Atom's glow," She replied. "It is a noble mission, too, being one to ensure the safe reunification of a mother and her child."

"It's impossible to give up on your child," Nora said, biting back tears. "They're…they're the most important part of your world."

"Yes, they are," Isolde said with a kind and matronly tone of voice. "And merciful Atom shall reunite you to your son."

Mass Fusion Global Headquarters
November the 19th, 2288
12:01

"For its time, this was almost certainly one of if not the most advanced of all the fusion reactors in the world back then. I have to admit, I'm impressed."

All but enraptured at the sight of what once had been a prized scientific breakthrough, all Dr. Rosalind Orman could do in response to the observations of Dr. Allison Filmore was nod. The anxious and excited buzz from their descent was still coursing through her veins parallel to the relief of knowing the Brotherhood were nowhere nearby, and the feeling was, much to her surprise, something the young physicist found herself rather enjoying. Their first and second generation synth escorts guarding the doors into the expansive reactor control room while the others fought off the handfuls of gunner mercenaries looting the main of the building, too, left more room, so far as Rosalind was concerned, for excited anticipation. Even more cautious than Dr. Filmore or the young Dr. Orman, Dr. Janet Thompson began taking air quality and pressure readings. When she was certain they did not need to use their supplemental oxygen, Janet walked over to join Allie and Rosalind at the computer terminal arrays. Finding the master computer, Janet turned it on, surprised to find it still in good working condition after over two centuries since its installation. Plugging in an Institute data reader, she began the process of downloading a copy of everything stored in the computer. She ejected and stored the data reader back into one of the two bags they had brought with them for the retrieval the second the data had finished downloading. Then, she stepped aside to allow Allie to sit down in front of the computer and begin to navigate through its systems.

Fingers quick and methodical on the keyboard, Allie quickly found and pulled up the reactor controls and status readers. Seeing it to be still conducting stable reactions, albeit slow and to provide minimal power to the facility, she scrolled down to the active readings. She frowned when she saw the current read on radiation inside the reactor room. Uncomfortable with the given readings, and hoping they were inaccurate, Allie switched tabs to the command controls, and manually began the process of a new reading. When the results came back almost identical, her hands lingered over the keyboard before, a bit hesitantly, she found the programme to manually shut down the reactor for 'maintenance' and started running it. Slowly but surely, the reactor's processes came to a halt. Letting the reactor room stabilise upon the reactor's temporary shutdown, she waited a few minutes before returning to the reader programmes. Beginning another manual reading of the reactor room's irradiation, Allie quietly swore when the radiation level readings came back better but not much better than before the reactor's shutdown. Going through the system again to ensure she didn't miss anything, she sighed when it became clear there was no way of mitigating the radiation levels any further. Looking up from the computer to see Janet still downloading potential, additional information from the other computer terminals, she waved Rosalind over, the young physicist still abuzz by their surroundings.

"It looks pretty dangerous in there, more dangerous than I anticipated," Allie told her. "Guess they weren't so good at mitigating radiation back in those days. Levels are almost off the charts."

Rosalind considered that. "Should we have a synth go in and do the retrieval then?"

"Too risky. Even if we had a Courser, say, with us, they could easily damage the agitator," She paused. "I know, of course, our hazard suits – after quite literally centuries of development – are in theory capable of withstanding even the most toxic levels of radiation, but I'm not entirely comfortable sending anyone in there."

"Someone's got to do it," Rosalind reminded her. "Lucky for you, I'm not afraid to. Call me crazy, but I have full faith in our anti-radiation measures. I've also taken a ton of rad-x and, worst comes to worse, I have to spend extra time under Dr. Volkert's care which, since Brenden's almost always there, wouldn't be terrible."

"Joking in the face of mortal danger. Always a good sign," Allie said under her breath before sighing. "I'll monitor from here. Retrieve the agitator quickly and store it in the transport container. It looks like there's a decontamination chamber in the airlock between the control room and the reactor. The second you step through there with the agitator safely stored and sealed completely air and watertight, I'll run the decontamination sequence."

Rosalind nodded. "Alright," She said, taking off the bag she had been carrying and removing the transport container. "Open the door. I'm going in."

Closely watching her approach the door into the airlock, Allie waited until Janet came back over to the master computer terminal. The two of them now able to put their full attention on a swift and safe retrieval, Allie opened the airlock. She shut the door to the control room the second Rosalind was through the doors. Briefly panicking, she calmed down the second she remembered the false agitator was in the transport container. Sure they would be able to cover their tracks again and, seeing the determined look on Rosalind's face, she opened the door into the reactor room. Quick on her feet, Rosalind made her way up the stairs and to the top of the reactor. Approaching the small computer terminal beside it, she set down the transport container and jammed the Institute cipher breaker into its reader port. Sure enough, the computer terminal unlocked and, after fussing with it for no more than a minute, she got the reactor open. In a few careful yet swift motions, Rosalind opened the transport container, and removed the false agitator, tucking it under her arm. She then delicately removed the beryllium agitator from the reactor and gingerly set it down and secured it in the transport container. With much less care, she shoved the false agitator into the reactor and used the computer terminal to shut it. The beginnings of a headache starting to come over her, she picked up the transport container and sealed it shut with the agitator inside while she all but sprinted back to the airlock.

Almost leaping into the decontamination chamber the moment the door back into the airlock opened, Rosalind checked one last time to ensure the agitator was completely sealed in the transport container. She let out a sigh of relief when the decontamination process began, and, keeping the transport container held tightly against her chest, slowly spun around in the chamber to ensure she, within her thick hazard suit, got fully decontaminated. When the decontamination sequence ended, she walked through the rest of the airlock and to the door back into the reactor control room. She waved at Janet with one hand to let her know she was alright. Relieved, Janet waved back, and then turned to Allie to tell her to open the airlock door to let Rosalind back into the reactor control room. She gave her a short nod and entered the command to open the doors. Taking in and letting out a deep breath, Rosalind resisted the urge to squeal in excitement; the danger was, at least for the moment, gone and the agitator was, officially, safely in their possession. She quickly approached Allie and Janet at the master computer terminal and put the transport container back in its bag once she reached them. Still uncomfortable with the young physicist having been within the reactor room, Allie observed her for a few minutes. Satisfied Rosalind could make it back to the Institute with them under her own power, Allie stood up, logged out of the master computer, and began up towards the stairs out of the reactor control room, Rosalind and Janet no more than a few paces behind her.

"The Courser will be waiting for us at the elevator back up to the ground level, and once there we'll be back to the Institute in a flash," Allie told them when they left the room, the first and second generation synth escorts following them. "Pun sort of intended," She looked to Rosalind. "Are you alright?"

Rosalind shrugged. "Wasn't what I planned on doing today, but I don't feel terrible. Why?"

"Because I normally wouldn't advise sticking your hands into strange fusion reactors," Allie pointedly replied, her tone lightening a little the closer they got to the top of the stairs and to the corridor leading back to the elevator. "But I suppose this is the exception."

Janet chuckled. "It really is."

"You're right," Rosalind agreed with a slightly mischievous glint in her eyes when she looked back at Allie. "And who's joking in the face of mortal danger now?"

The Prydwen
November the 23rd, 2288
21:11

A light but painful burning sensation. The sharp clinking and clacking of metal floors.

Screaming.

When her eyes opened, everything was hazy, and, startling her, she realised she was the one who had screamed. Her vision fading in and out, Dr. Madison Li tried to calm down. A few seconds later, everything was quiet apart from the hollow sounds of steel floors. Slowly sitting up, realising, to her shock, she had been left on a bed, she could have sworn, for a moment, the clocks had rewound, and she was once again in the Citadel. Her mind was almost certain of it when her vision focused and, out of the corners of her eyes, she saw a young woman holding her knees to her chest and badly shaking on the other side of the room. The feeling didn't last. The second the shaking young woman saw she was also conscious, she all but ran across the room to sit down next to her, terror taking over her being. Madison tried to keep herself calm but, seeing the girl sitting across from her and still shaking was Jacqueline Spencer, couldn't and stood up suddenly, starting to pace. Catching a glimpse of her reflexion in the mirror, she paused, crossing her arms in an attempt to make her hands stop trembling. The first thing she noticed was the dirt and dust all over her shoes, tights, skirt, and blouse. The second thing she noticed was the faint chemical burn on her right cheek. Suppose that explains the… Hearing harsh sounds on the steel floors and noise seeping in from beyond a door she, when she turned around, realised had been behind her and, aggravatingly, was locked from the outside when she tried to unlock it, fear began to set in again.

"Fuck!" Madison swore under her breath when her left hand briefly got caught trying to pry the door open. "No. This cannot –"

"I don't think I've ever heard you say…" Jacqueline stopped, albeit quite weakly, laughing when her mentor turned around. "Dr. Li?" She whispered when she saw the anxiety in the older woman's movements and the fear on her face. "What's going on? Where…where are we?"

"I'm…" Madison sighed, sitting back down beside the seventeen year old when she saw how frightened she was. "Well, honestly, I'm not sure I want to know."

Jacqueline bit her lip. "Are we…are we going to die?"

"What?" Madison said, about to say more only to be startled when the seventeen year old latched onto her, starting to cry. "Jacqueline, I –"

"Good. You're both conscious again."

Biting back the urge to start swearing again when she turned towards the door, the head of Institute Advanced Systems suddenly felt rather sick when she realised she either hadn't heard the door open or, worse, was so disoriented she couldn't have noticed it until it had already swung open. Seeing the two men in the doorway only made the feeling worse. Though the taller of the two men had since gone bald, she recognised his face instantly. Very nearly the same, much to her disdain, could be said of shorter of the two men who, while far from bald, had the same arrogant frown etched onto his face while his eyes critically looked over her and her most unlikely protégé. Unsure of what else to do, Madison awkwardly wrapped an arm loosely around Jacqueline, who shifted slightly but still clung onto her for dear life. The taller man stepped into the room first, followed by the shorter man who, a tablet in hand, closed the doors behind them and locked them from the outside. Trying to keep her breathing as calm and steady as possible, if not for her own sake but for Jacqueline's, Madison waited for either of the two men to say something. When they didn't, irritation rising in her chest, she did:

"Alright, I'll play your game. What the hell is going on, Marshall?"

"You're the scientist," Quinlan said coldly. "Why do you think you're here?"

"Well, let's see," Madison dryly replied, seething when she looked between him and Aaron Cade. "A Brotherhood Of Steel airship arrives in the Commonwealth, I wake up in a cramped room with my protégé and a chemical burn on my cheek, and, now, you walk through the door."

"You resisted retrieval too much, Dr. Li. Our team must have used far more anaesthetic than was necessary to ensure you could be safely transported to the Prydwen with your, as you call her, protégé, who did not resist much as she fell unconscious quite quickly," Cade informed her, uncomfortable with the conversation. "I apologise for the mishap. Rest assured, we'll treat you as soon as this discussion is over. The burn is only a minor, first degree chemical burn. It'll heal."

"Whether or not it's a minor injury isn't the point," She snapped. "It's the –"

"Dr. Li, calm down," Quinlan ordered, making no attempt to hide his frustration. "It may not have been the smoothest way to do so, but we have saved not only your life but the life of your young protégé," He sympathetically looked to her. "Jacqueline, is it not?"

The seventeen year old swallowed hard. "How do you know my name?"

"We've been watching you and Dr. Li for some time," Quinlan said, raising an eyebrow when she gaped at him in disbelief. "Did you think no one would attempt to rescue you or Dr. Li from the Institute?"

Jacqueline scowled. "Did you think we might be there for a good fucking reason?" She shouted, then, fear taking over her again, looking away, still clinging to her mentor.

Quinlan pursed his lips. "Dr. Li, please," He said flatly. "Control her."

"If she says something I disagree with, then I'll correct her," Madison said, her eyes narrowing when she looked between him and Cade. "I should have known it was just a matter of time before your people would track me down," She sighed. "I've been looking over my shoulder for almost a decade, waiting for you to send someone to kill me."

"Kill you?" Quinlan repeated. "Why would we want you dead?"

"You and I both know why," She said sharply, gently prying Jacqueline off her to stand up and walk over to be toe to toe with him. "If I recall, you, Marshall, were one of the people who objected to Lyons letting me go because you thought I knew too much."

"I did object," He said, closing what he had been looking at on his tablet and tucking it under his arm. "You never truly appreciated what we did for you. Neither did the civilian medical student who you –"

"You made Annette sign a contract giving away her freedom of movement in exchange for the Brotherhood tracking down her father for, if I'm remembering what Lyons said correctly, the sake of endearing me to the Brotherhood," Madison cut across him, raising a finger to silence him. "You also," She said with a resentful look to Cade. "Did just about nothing after Keith raped her on three separate occasions, which were a major factor in Annette's suicide attempt after all of you let James be killed."

Cade took a small step back, uncomfortably rubbing at his neck. "Teagan's…advances on Dr. Davis were wrong, but he has since changed a great deal and, while I understand how badly it impacted her, she did not resist much which –"

"She was a nineteen year old girl who had spent her entire life in a Vault, safely tucked away from this awful world!" Madison snapped. "She was in one of the most vulnerable states a person could be in, and all of you – but especially him – took advantage of her being, then, quiet, well mannered, and naïve! That, however, is not the point," She lowered her voice when she noticed Jacqueline was badly shaking again. "Why the hell did you want me back, and why did you feel the best course of action to do so was to abduct me and my protégé?"

"The Brotherhood valued your presence, and we'd like you to pick up where you left off on some of your work with us," Quinlan said, masking his irritation. "Notwithstanding, you need to stop working for the enemy, and come work with us."

"Ah, there's the old Brotherhood spirit," Madison said wryly. "I'd almost forgotten how much I missed the intimidation and the threats."

"Dr. Li," Cade intervened. "We won't be separating you or your protégé, but you need to calm down."

"I'll calm down when I know neither my life nor hers are in danger," Madison hissed. "I've been down too many bad roads with the Brotherhood before, and I am not going to make the same mistake again."

Acadia
November the 26th, 2288
8:02

When the place called Acadia turned out to be built in and around a pre-War astronomical observatory, they had anticipated it would be bustling with scientists, something which Preston had found promising, remembering the parents of the missing girl had more than once mentioned her love for science.

What they had not expected was a small town populated entirely by synths.

The warnings of his parents now all too clear in his mind, having been told from birth to never go to Acadia, Preston tried not to dwell on the possible reasons why they had been so vehement on the matter, why nearly every kid from the Island had been told something similar. Jarring as the revelation of the town's inhabitants being – supposedly – all synths had been, it did seem, from what little they had been told by its leaders, the runaway Kasumi likely was there. The lack of transparency from the town's inhabitants, however, had made everything far too difficult and, so, since the first time they had set foot in Acadia, they travelled back and forth from it and Far Harbour, hoping to get anything of use out of the people there. More surprised than he wanted to admit, the people of Far Harbour had been the most forthcoming, something Preston suspected had to do with being one of them himself. One of them. It was a truth he was not comfortable with, and being back on the Island was something he almost wished he could forget or, at least, not be reminded of at seemingly every turn. Knowing things were getting worse for the town he grew up in by the day, the fog relentlessly keeping almost the entire town of seven hundred pressed onto the dock and its immediate edges made the feeling worse. Calling their situation painfully cramped would be putting it lightly, worsening his thoughts. The name for the feeling they inspired was just as bad.

Guilt.

It was then, he supposed, a blessing and a curse for them to have been asked to remain within the walls of Acadia for the past two weeks.

Only a month had he been home, yet, in such a short amount of time, the guilt of having left with no desire to look back remained.

Looking around the table of the surprisingly roomy apartment they had been temporarily given by Acadia's leaders, Preston set down his breakfast toast and began sipping his water, observing his companions closely. Seeing they were still the same was one of the few things keeping him sane for as much as he was uneasy with it. Humming softly to herself, every so often saying something to herself in her native Russian, Ellie primly drank her coffee and ate her eggs and fruit cup. Seventeen year old Ada, sat in between her father and the detective's secretary, slowly ate her pancakes and sipped on her orange juice, trying not to squirm, fascinated by everything about the town. Calm and level headed as ever, Derek, having just finished his potatoes, coffee, and water, adjusted his glasses and was reading from some of the documents they had found strewn about the town. Preston closed his eyes for a minute, relieved to be with them and not alone. Yet the comfort in being both safe from the unpredictability of the Island beyond the walls of Acadia and being with others he knew could be trusted waned the more his mind began to wander back towards Far Harbour, only a few hours' walk from Acadia, and into fears he had not needed to think of since his departure. The fog. The ever tenser relationship between the people of the Island and Far Harbour and the Children Of Atom.

The only consolation, he supposed, was the fact everyone he remembered in town were almost the same as they had been when he left. Allen and his omnipresent aggravation included. It was the warning they had been given by Caitlin Maria Eris – the Mariner, as she preferred to be called, now, he reminded himself – before they left for Acadia again just two weeks prior, however, which left him deeply ill at ease.

"I've never been to Acadia, but they seem to be fine with everyone. Rumour has it their leader gave the Children an old nuclear submarine decades ago to live on, which has drawn tons of them to the Island in order to," She had dramatically waved her fingers in air quotes, the light cast by the bright lamps lining the town making her pale skin almost shimmer. "'Complete divine pilgrimage through Atom's sacred fog.' Weird, I know, and also why Allen thinks them rad eaters are the reason the fog's been so bad the last few years. They're not. The fog's been bad because something out there in it wants out, and you and I both know – when something in the fog wants out – it's not a good thing."

Shaking himself out, the General of the Minutemen took another few, heavy sips of his water before setting it back down to finish his breakfast toast. The fog. The first scent of it filling his lungs again upon their arrival had been more than enough to tell him it had not changed. Hearing about it and walking through the fog again to get in between the town and Acadia had only confirmed the inclination to be correct. The only difference between then and now was how far the fog had pushed the once bustling and sprawling town. What worried him most was the fact, apparently more and more each year, people were leaving the Island all together for the Commonwealth, some of them making it and some of them disappearing at sea. Sickened by the thought of what some of their fates could have been, Preston shoved it aside to focus on finishing his breakfast, even more so when he noticed Ada had finished hers and Ellie, too, was almost done. Grounding himself in the moment seeming to help, he focused in on it, superseding his wandering thoughts with making note of every sensation and everything surrounding him. He only startled when, taking the last few bites of his toast, a knock reverberated off the door into the apartment before being opened. When he turned around, he quickly finished his toast and took a few sips of his water, seeing it to be Acadia's two leaders entering the apartment.

"I do hope we are not being intrusive," The first of them said in his low, calm voice. "Faraday and I have finally come to a decision on whether or not to allow you to speak with and see Miss Kasumi Nakano, and, as such, have come to inform you of it."

"Yes, Dima, you are correct," Faraday agreed, dusting off his lab coat. "Miss Kasumi is in quite the fragile state, as you can imagine," He said, walking towards where Preston, Ada, Derek, and Ellie were sat at the small kitchen table. "Forgive us for being trepidatious on the matter."

"You care about her mental health, it's admirable," Derek said mildly. "But I hope you understand why we are here and why we have a lot of questions for you."

"Of course," Dima said with a short nod. "What do you wish to know?"

"What are you?" Ada burst out, unable to contain herself. "As a synth, that is!"

Dima laughed. "I am an early synth designed by the Institute," He replied, shaking his head when he saw Derek send his daughter a sharp look. "Please, it is alright. Her questions do not offend me. Actually, I quite appreciate her curiosity."

"I also appreciate her curiosity, but," Derek sighed, looking back at his youngest. "You know me, Ada. I'm sorry if I've been short with you since arriving in –"

"It's okay," Ada said, hugging him. "You care a lot about manners."

Derek smiled when she let him go, affectionately ruffling her hair. "Old habits die hard, and, I suspect, my years in the Brotherhood are part of it."

"The Brotherhood?" Dima said, surprised. "Judging by the reputation your leaders have, I must ask –"

"I departed from the Brotherhood several years ago, you needn't worry," Derek said calmly. "Now. You were saying?"

"Of course," Dima said, looking between him, Ada, Preston, and Ellie again. "I was an early Institute experiment, one of their first to be capable of independent thinking and judgement."

Ellie frowned. "Are you sure you're the only one like you?"

Dima stepped back, eyes widening. "Why do you ask?"

"For now, you don't need to worry about it," Ellie said. Because if you're lying and you know of Nick and how similar the two of you look, then what else could you be hiding? "I'm just curious."

"I can hardly blame you for it. Oh! I almost forgot why we came to speak with you. Kasumi," Dima paused, thinking hard. "She is usually working in the basement of the main building, whenever you wish to see her but, please, be gentle with her. She's facing the possibility of her entire life being a lie, and, here, she has a chance to live freely without pretending to be something else."

"She has a family who miss her and know she's their daughter," Preston politely disagreed with a solemn shake of his head. "She's a teenager, and probably having an identity crisis. She needs support, and her family."

"She will decide who her family is on her own," Dima firmly replied. "But I respect your compassion. At least, your heart is in the right place."

Diamond City
December the 1st, 2288
14:41

"Wish we'd been able to try and retrieve the bug I had Nora place in McDonough's office a few months ago," Piper irritably remarked, dropping a massive crate of files onto the floor of her office and sitting down in front of it with a scowl. "At the very least, we'd probably have at least something to humiliate him with."

MacCready laughed when he sat down across from her on the floor, even more so when Piper briefly scowled at him. Reaching over the crate, Piper wacked him upside the head with one of the files she pulled out. Holding onto his hat so she couldn't knock it off his head, he dodged out of the way just before she could smack him with a pebble she threw at his head. Piper rolled her eyes but grinned when he looked back up, laughing herself after he realised she wasn't going to try and keep messing with him. Stretching out her arms, she hopped up to her feet and quickly ran up to her loft to grab her notebook and pen. With a smirk, she then jumped over to and slid down the banister back into the main floor of her office. MacCready half sarcastically clapped when she slid off and took a dramatic bow, and started laughing again when she sashayed back over to where she had left the crate of files. Sitting back down in front of the crate and across from him, Piper flipped quickly through her notebook to the first free page and clicked on her pen, testing the ink flow. When she found it to be working, she quickly scrawled down the date and then what, at a glance, was on the first file she pulled out only to scowl at it after she got past the first few filler pages in the file.

"The most interesting thing I've got on McDonough, now, came from Hancock," Piper said, taking out another file and handing it to MacCready. "He's not the most reliable source, but, this time, I think he's given me something I can actually publish."

"Looks like it," MacCready said, raising an eyebrow when he reached some of the notes towards the back of the file. "I'm not surprised McDonough was willing to risk innocent people getting hurt by not letting them in during that insane amount of snowfall in 2286, but it's still low."

"What disturbs me the most about it is he left them to potentially die at the hands of a crazy man claiming to be the 'Last Son Of Atom,'" Piper rolled her eyes. "The man was out of his damn mind, sure, but people still got hurt because of him. Least McDonough could have done was have security deal with him but no, of course he didn't. It's a miracle the Minutemen were able to drive him out of the area."

"Also a miracle the man hasn't been seen since," MacCready said with a shudder. "Everything I've heard about him is terrifying."

"He also has a lousy fashion sense," Piper half jokingly added. "Not unlike the Brotherhood, although I'm pretty sure they wouldn't get along. I'd pay to watch them fight it out, though. Could be interesting. Come to think of it, they have some similarities. Bad fashion sense, self serving nature, weird obsessions. You know, him with wanting to find and use nuclear bombs and them with hoarding technology."

"Maybe the Brotherhood could use you as their stylist," MacCready teased. "Between you and the Cats, their power armour could look a lot more interesting."

"Pretty sure the Cats' idea of making the Brotherhood's armour more interesting would involve spray paint, water guns, and paintball, but who knows," Piper shrugged, setting her notebook and pen aside. "I've always thought the Cats have the best power armour designs in the Commonwealth. Helps they don't mind a little mess or a few hairs out of place."

"Seeing as they seem to enjoy bar fights, I'd be shocked if they cared about things being perfect," MacCready remarked. "I mean, they also spend half their time with Vadim, and he's not exactly known for caring about things getting messy or not."

Piper smirked. "So, does that mean the Dugout is more or less crazy than the Third Rail?"

"Depends on the night," MacCready replied. "I'd say it was definitely more crazy in the Third Rail when No Nose pulled a gun on and threatened to kill me to try and make me work on her 'big dig.'"

"Didn't you say you ended up doing it anyways because Hancock paid you to spy on her?" Piper snickered when he nodded. "How'd that turn out?"

"Pretty well," MacCready said, handing the file back to her. "Ended up being the catalyst for my current agreement with Hancock. I do odd jobs for him, and he pays me a lot for it. Although some of those odd jobs have been Fahrenheit asking me to babysit him after he does one too many chems or one too many shots because she apparently has a very active social life."

"Putting those skills of herding drunk people around to use?" Piper teased. "You know, the one you apparently started learning when you were nine."

MacCready scowled. "I started drinking when I was seven. Are you really surprised me and the hundreds of other kids I lived with in a cave all did things we probably shouldn't have?"

"No, but I'm still going to tease you for it," She replied with a falsely innocent smile. "I'll have you know, I waited until I was thirteen to start drinking."

"What an accomplishment," MacCready said dryly. "But here's the real question: when did you start smoking?"

Piper groaned. "Fuck you, just because I had my first cigarette when I was twelve doesn't –"

"I waited until I was fourteen," He said with the same falsely innocent smile she had given him. "Mainly because Lucy made me, but still. I'll have you know, I won't let Duncan even think about smoking until he's at least an adult."

"Really?" Piper said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Make sure you don't leave any laying around then. I'm pretty sure Annette already knows not to do that, but she also…doesn't exactly leave any to be laying around."

MacCready sighed. "She's been smoking a lot more than before the past few weeks and drinking too. I still feel bad about snapping at her the other night over it. She made herself sick and didn't seem to care. I…really, I'm worried about her. Have been for the last two, three months really but…"

"I can see why," Piper said, softening her tone. "Something happen?"

"I think it's a mix of things, to be honest," MacCready said, rubbing at his neck. "September was officially ten years since her dad was murdered, and the Brotherhood coming to the Commonwealth has really frightened her. Then there's the…she seems terrified of hurting me, walked out of the apartment after we had been fighting saying she needed to be alone for a little because everything she touches turns to ash. We went out again last night, and things are fine now but I'm still worried about her."

"Anyone would be," Piper said, pushing the crate and files to the side. "You care about her. A lot. I'm sure she knows you do."

"I just don't want anything to happen to her," MacCready hesitated. "She's lovely. Sure, she can be a bit haughty – not as though I have much room to talk – and is probably more paranoid than I am, but I do care about her a whole heck of a lot. And I think it's sweet how much Duncan likes her, too. She's so gentle with him, I really didn't expect it, but she'll even braid his hair for him some nights. For as pointy as she can be, I really didn't think she'd be as soft with kids as she is, but I'm glad she is."

"Your son approving of her is a good sign for you," Piper said with a wink. "Considering he means pretty much everything to you."

"He does, which is why…" MacCready fell silent, anger briefly crossing his face. "Which is why I'm scared of what the gunners might do when they come looking for me again. I don't care what Hancock says, those guys are so tightly wound you'd think they're a cult or something, and Winlock and Barnes made it pretty clear they're out to get me. Realising they haven't been around Goodneighbour the last few months is really getting to me and…and I'm terrified they'll do something Duncan."

"Any parent would be," Piper said, though her voice darkened. "If they know he exists, you don't…you don't think they'd go after him to get to you, do you?"

"I have no idea, which is why it terrifies me," MacCready said, shaking a little. "Because…because if I lose Duncan I…I don't think I'll even know what to do anymore."