I've been waiting to speak my entire life. I don't know who I'm writing this for, or why.
I'm at war with myself, even now, writing this down. I can vividly recall my mother's constant admonitions, from the moment we left Navarro. They won't understand, Arcade. They're different. If you tell, they'll hurt us… and wasn't that a burden to lay at the feet of a young boy. One slip and I could destroy everything I ever loved.
To have the ability now is equal parts freedom and terror.
It won't matter, soon. Ruth has convinced me – convinced us – to fight for these people. She's the reason for all of this. The reason New Vegas has a fighting chance, the Remnants back together, the reason I decided that my duty towards the people of the Mojave is greater than anything they can do to me. Convinced me to follow her, too.
Not that I needed much convincing. I abhor Caesar's little game of dress-up. As a Follower, I think of our founders crawling out of their vaults to help others, the sacrifices they made to spread knowledge through this wasteland. As my father's son, I'm forced to consider the world he tried and ultimately failed to build for me.
All of that history, all of the education that the Followers gave him… and Caesar wants to drag us back. The rise and fall all over again, out of some deluded belief in inevitability. Someone has to stop him, and if it must be me, so be it. Extremis malis extrema remedia, I suppose.
As for the Remnants, in the privacy of my own thoughts, I'm willing to admit that they're going along with all of this for one last chance to do… what it is they used to do. Between their knowledge and the Enclave technology in the bunker, I'm not sure I have any genuine doubts about the outcome.
Caesar's playing a very primitive game.
Thirty years of silence, the burden of knowing that I'd be held accountable for my father's sins if I ever slipped up. I wonder what he'd think of me now.
AN: any content you recognize is probably from the game. Once again, I'm writing about Honest Hearts. What is it about that DLC that's so compelling?
This story is substantially written and will be posted as I have time to edit.