I slipped into bed with a sigh. The meetings had taken a toll on my mental stamina, which was considerable after years of days filled with constant meetings and negotiations. It had been a long day and the plans that we'd made were going to take a considerable amount of effort and resources to pull off. In fact, the delicacy of the matter was something that I would need to consider over the next few days while the supplies were gathered.

I pulled the thick blankets over and rested my head on the pillow. The stone seemed to move even in its eternal stillness. My tie to the titan's powers had grown to the point where I could see the very living nature of stone. It was mesmerizing and helped to calm me down after a long day agonizing over minute details. I smiled and closed my eyes as the weariness of the day overtook me.

I awoke violently as I felt myself being pulled, then suddenly another force tugged me in the opposite direction.

"No! No! I've got her," a woman's voice wheezed with stress in desperation.

"Let the girl go," a man with a gravelly voice said coldly as the rough tug of war continued to pull me back and forth. "I'm only going to tell you once."

This scene seemed so familiar. My eyes were foggy but I could make out a woman with short hair in a blue and yellow jumpsuit above me, white another woman a white hazmat suit just below me was fighting with her. They were fighting… over me… This was… familiar somehow.

"I'm not giving you-" the woman protested.

I heard a sound I hadn't heard in centuries. The hammer of a pistol being thumbed back into position. Panic and training kicked in and I reached out, willing the stone to protect me. A spike of stone screamed upwards as it pierced the metal floor and impaled the man with the pistol. The woman in the hazmat suit released her grip on me in shock while the woman holding me fell back against the cushioned wall.

"Oh my god! W-what just…" the woman in the hazmat suit stuttered as she looked at the man still twitching on the sudden stalagmite that had ripped through her companion. "This isn't what I signed up for!" She quickly slapped something and a metal hatch closed down.

As the hatch closed down, I could see through a slim window as the woman ran off. Suddenly, a large hiss of air erupted from below me and the air grew cold; colder than anything I'd ever felt before and forced me to slowly fall back to sleep.

The sleep was strange. That dream of the arguing women had shaken me and now that the darkness of dreamless sleep had taken me once again, I started wondering what it was about. As my mind wandered, I suddenly realized that my nightly routine had been interrupted by an actual dream! A dream dream! I wasn't in the Fade with Purpose. Had my connection somehow been cut? Had I somehow surpassed the point or need to enter the Fade to continue practicing my magic? I wanted to wake up, to force my eyes open and begin researching what happened with mages who didn't enter the Fade when they slept but my eyes simply didn't open. Wouldn't open.

As I struggled to wake myself a desperate voice called out to me, "Child… child.."

My consciousness seemed to turn to the voice, "Who? Are you the titan? Are you keeping me from the Fade? What do you need of me?"

"Titan…? Fade…?" the voice seemed confused. "Child… you can feel me… feel my power…"

The conversation was strange. The titan had never been so cautious with its words and never seemed… Was it pained? I reached in an attempt to be a comfort to the titan, "I can feel you. I was blessed by you. I can control the stone and sense the world through it thanks to you."

"To me…?" it asked. "No… not by me… My world has been… poisoned. If you can… call upon my power… you can… control the poisons. Control the poison! Cleanse it from me! Release… the scorching. Cleanse… the world…"

"Cleanse the world?" I asked as I tried to wrap my head around the information. "What do you mean you didn't bless me? I've never spoken to another Titan. If I can help, I will. But if I can't wake up, I can't help you. Please… help me wake up."

"Yes!" the titan said eagerly. "Wake! Wake! Wake and… draw the… poison out!"

My eyes snapped open as I fell forward. I tried to catch myself but my arms were bound snugly to my chest. However, my momentum was stopped as the large arms that were wrapped around me caught me and held me close. A woman… the same woman before, coughed and held me tightly. I looked around and noticed a skeleton in what looked like makeshift armor impaled on a stone spike.

"Nora?" a man's voice called out. He coughed and cleared his throat. "Nora? Are you alright? How's the baby?"

Nora? My name isn't Nora. "My name is Merida…" I clarified weakly as I tried to recover from whatever had happened.

"What?" The man and woman's voice said in unison.

The woman stood shakily and looked down at me in surprise. The man approached and looked down at me as well with confusion written on his face.

"The cryo sleep must have done a number on my senses," the man said. "I could have sworn she said something."

I looked up at the two of them, confusion twisting my features, "Of course I said something. I'm not a… baby…"

Oh no. No no no no no! I wiggled and squirmed, doing my best to free my arms from whatever was restraining me. Finally, my arm popped free and I lifted my hand to my face. No. Not again! My hand was small, and its fingers barely responded properly to my will. I looked from my hand back to the man and woman looming above me and my world crumbled. My family, my friends, my people… Faren! I had lost everything all over again. I had lost Faren all over again… My heart ached from realization and I began to cry.

"What?" the woman whispered as she cradled me close. "Nate, I don't understand. She was talking! Full, complete sentences. And now she's just crying. What's going on?"

"I have no idea," Nate replied as he placed his hand on top of my head. "Hush now, dear. It's ok. Mommy and Daddy are here. You're going to be alright."

"She said her name was Merida," Nora insisted on pursuing the issue. "That's not her name. Her name is-"

"Merida!" I insisted through my sorrow. I tried to control my emotions and take control of the situation. This was the third time I was born. The first time I simply can't remember. The second time I'd been exhausted just trying to get a few words out. This time I had more energy and more cognizance.

"Please…" I pushed. "Call me Merida."

"H-How?" Nora stared down at me with a mixture of confusion and fear.

I took a few moments to catch my breath and gather my thoughts. As I considered my options, I looked them both over. Blue jumpsuits, yellow trim. The room around us was metal and there were dozens of metallic cylinders with glass windows around us. Those looked awfully similar to…

"Vault-Tec?" I asked as I guessed at where I'd been transported to.

"Vault-tec?" Nora parroted.

"Those bastards!" Nate growled but quickly changed his tone in an attempt to comfort me. "I'm sorry, sweety. Are you saying that Vault-Tec is responsible for you being able to talk?"

I couldn't help but thank the Stone that Nate had misinterpreted my guess at where I was into the reason I could talk. I latched onto the opening and nodded awkwardly. Baby's heads are much larger and heavier than the rest of their bodies, and my muscles weren't strong enough yet to properly move myself.

"Yes, Father," I said. "I believe they altered my DNA somehow while we were in cryo sleep. I think I have the intelligence of an adult and additional skills that I can put to work once I'm able to move around. And… it feels like there's more but I'm not sure yet."

Nora's eyes filled with tears and she clutched me desperately, "Oh, my baby! I'm so sorry! I swear, whatever happens, we'll do whatever it takes to get back at them."

"Nora…" Nate tried to assuage her.

"You can't, Mother," I assured her. "Vault-Tec is gone. So is everything else. Outside of the vault, everything is destroyed after the bombs fell. We'll only find settlements and bandits out there."

"How can you possibly know that?" Nora asked.

I considered how best to respond, "I'm not sure… It's like the information is already in my head. Small pieces of information, notations like bullet points in my mind. I don't know when they stopped but they seem very recent."

"We need to be prepared before we leave the vault," Nate said as he stood and started looking around. His military training was kicking in and he was already doing resource and threat assessment.

"There are tools and guns in the director's office," I said quickly. "There are large roaches the size of small dogs infesting the place, though. You'll need to be careful."

"Oh, baby," Nora sniffled and hugged me close. I'm so sorry they did this to you. It can't be safe or healthy for a baby to have this much information in their head so early."

I tried my best to put my hand on Nora's face to comfort her, "Don't worry, Mother. I'm fine. We'll be fine. I know you'll keep me safe and we can use the information Vault-Tec has given me to stay safe."

Nora continued to hug me close. I suppose the confusion of my intelligence with the idea that Vault-Tec had somehow manipulated her child was pushing her to her limits so soon after being woken from cryo sleep. It couldn't have helped that the last time she woke up, someone was trying to kidnap me. I looked over at the corps of Kellogg and remembered he'd been a formidable opponent in the game. He would also have an Institute teleporter or tracker on him. Couldn't have that coming to haunt us.

"Father," I called out.

Nate turned and looked at me, "What is it, Princess? Daddy's here."

I tried pointing at Kellogg's corpse but my arm would only jab in the general direction, "That skeleton has armor and he dropped a revolver. They should help you."

Nate looked at the impaled remains and shivered, "What could have happened to him? Stone doesn't just… jump out of the ground like that."

I wanted to be taken as seriously as Trian had treated me when he learned of my magic in Thedas. I didn't want to wait to have my abilities taken into consideration. I took a moment to catch my breath. Talking was taking a considerable toll on me, though this time I was able to do a lot more of it than when I was reborn into Thedas and could only puff out a few words, "I think that was me. When the people tried taking me from Mother, I screamed and wanted help. That's when the stone jumped up and killed him."

"Jesus, Nate!" Nora cried out. "What the hell did they do to her? She can talk, she has knowledge of the outside world, and now she can control stone? What were they doing to her while we were sleeping? What else would they have done to her if I hadn't woken up that one time?"

"I don't know, babe," Nate replied as he stripped Kellogg's skeleton of its armor and scooped up his pistol. He popped the revolver's cylinder out and checked the remaining rounds before snapping it back into place with a flick of his wrist. "But we've got plenty of ammo. And if Mary-"

"Merida," I insisted.

"If… Merida's… information is on the money," he quickly corrected himself, "we'll find more supplies, weapons, and ammo in the vault. We should explore the place then decide where to go from there."

"You need to look around the remains," I insisted. There will be strange computer chips around him or in his skull. The people who sent him can track us with them. They need to be destroyed."

"That's insane," Nora growled as she moved with me to look for the chips. "I swear, Nate, we are going to find the people and make them pay for what they did to our baby girl." She found the chips and made quick work of them by crushing them beneath her boots.

I would have preferred to keep them intact but I didn't know anything about the technology or the components yet, so they were more of a liability than anything else. And besides, I already knew the exact location of the Institute. When the time was right, I'd go to them.

"Alright, you two," Nate smiled as he finished donning Kellogg's armor, "let's get going. I'll take point. Nora, Keep… Merida… safe."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Nora almost snarled. I knew that tone. That was the tone of a mother whose child was in danger. She was backed into a corner and was ready to kill. Rather intimidating for a lawyer.

Nate led us through the vault, easily dispatching the radroaches that appeared. There weren't as many as I assumed there would have been, which confused me because I'd gone through this opening so many times that I knew the precise amount that needed to be defeated. I insisted we grab the Red Menace holotape from the staff quarter's terminal so that I could play it later on. I had an affinity for the terminal game and holotapes and used to collect as many as I could every play through. One needed a hobby after all. I couldn't wait to get my hands on a Giddyup Buttercup!

When we got to the Overseer's office, Nate found the pistol there and gave it to Nora. I assisted in freeing the Cryolator from its locked case by forcing a stock spike to destroy the lock. The display seemed to unnerve my parents but Nate wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He took the weapon and made a makeshift holster for it out of some bed sheets and a pillow case. We pushed through to the vault's exit where Nate handed Nora the Pipboy. I admit to growing excited seeing a Pipboy in person for the first time. My enthusiasm seemed to please them and Nora tucked it under her arm, saying she would keep it safe for me.

Nate prepped the elevator that would bring us to the surface and Nora stepped onto the platform. Nate followed after us and the two of them shared a look of trepidation before Nate pressed the large button that would bring us up. The mechanics groaned to life as rust and dust scattered for the first time in years. The platform vibrated and began its slow climb upwards. The sealed entrance to the vault slid away and the platform raised us gently into the open world. The sunlight was blindingly bright compared to the vault. Nora covered my face so that my eyes weren't hurt by the sudden change. The air was fresher and full of life compared to the vault's. I could almost hear the opening music that welcomed you to the Commonwealth in my head.

"My God," Nate gasped as he looked around. "Everything's just… gone."

"The house might still be there," Nora smiled at him, trying to keep spirits up. "Look down there. You can see the neighborhood from here. Let's go see what's left."

The pair made their way down the hill and wound their way through the path that led to the neighborhood of Sanctuary. They made for their old house to find a spherical robot with multiple limbs hovering around the building seemingly cleaning it.

"Wait. Codsworth?" Nate called out.

The robot turned and focused its camera lens on us, "As I live and breathe! It's… it's really you! Sir! Mum! And young miss! I can't believe it's really you!"

Nate laughed and Nora smiled and stepped up to the robot, "Codsworth! You're still here!"

"Well, of course I'm still here," Codsworth replied excitedly. "Surely you don't think a little radiation could deter the pride of General Atomics International? But you lot seem the worse for wear. You could do with some rest."

"I think we've rested enough for now," Nate said. "Have you been keeping up the house since we've been gone?"

"Oh, sir…" Codsworth bemoaned. "It's been horrible! Just horrible! I spent the first ten years trying to keep the floor waxed, but nothing gets nuclear fallout from vinyl wood. Nothing! And don't get me started on the futility of dusting a collapsed house. And the car! The car! How do you polish rust?"

"It's fine, Codsworth, really," Nate reassured the robot as we all entered the dilapidated house. The place was a ruin and had more holes in its structure than solid walls. Still, it had been their home and Sanctuary was a decently defensible area. They could make a home here again.

"This isn't so bad," Nora said in a tone that revealed she was trying to convince herself more than anything else.

"Father can scavenge siding from the other houses and use that to repair the walls," I suggested. "And one of the neighbors is sure to have had a small underground shelter to get food and supplies from."

Nate laughed as looked back at me, "Well, you're just full of information and common sense. I have to wonder if whatever Vault-Tec did to you was so bad after all."

"Nate!" Nora shouted in shock.

"I'm just saying," Nate shrugged. "She's got good ideas and she's helpful."

"She's a baby!" Nora shouted back.

"Mother…" I tried to coo up at Nora.

She looked down at me with concern, "What is it, baby?"

"We're all over two hundred years old," I tried to explain. "I don't know what Vault-Tec did to me, but I want to help. I can help. I'm still your baby, but please… let me be useful."

"I'm sorry, Princess," Nora sighed. "I'm just not used to this whole situation yet. It's stressful and bizarre. I'll try to keep in mind that you're much more special now than you were before."

And so life in the Commonwealth began for me. Over the next few days Nate and Nora cleared the neighborhood of radroaches and bloatflies. They scavenged supplies and were able to open a few of the home safes around the place. Nate had a close call with an impromptu bomb that was set as a trap to a larger safe. A week later Nate and Nora had repaired the holes in the house's walls with siding from the other houses. It was surprising to see how industrious they could be when they put their mind to it.

While my parents worked, Codsworth was placed in charge of taking care of me. I had him carry me around the perimeter of the small island that Sanctuary was located so that I could use my titan abilities to slowly clear the water of debris and make the water deeper. I didn't have the strength to do everything I used to be able to do all at once, so the process took me some time. However, I noticed that I was able to sense larger pockets of radiation. I found that I could will the radiation into me and the energy from it would revitalize me. This seemed to be what the titan of this world had meant when he said I could cleanse the world.

The next few months were busier still. Daddy, as Nate preferred I call him, and Momma, as Nora wanted me to call her, worked to create a few gardens with the vegetables they found in Sanctuary. Momma tended to the crops and turned the house into more of a home by working on bedding, clothes, and cleaning up the general area. Daddy's main focus was repairing the bridge. Daddy also used the tools that were in Sanctuary to create a seat for me so that I could ride on the back of Codsworth's head. I slowly built up enough muscle to start walking, but the progress was slow. Meanwhile, as I practiced my walking, Codsworth would carry me around the island so I could create a stone wall around the perimeter of the island.

By the time I was a year old, I was walking confidently on my own, though my stamina still wasn't what it would be in my prime. I walked as much as I could before I would ask Codsworth for help up into my seat and ride him around. We didn't see much trouble that year. There was the odd bloatfly or radroach, or the occasional mutated hound. Otherwise, that first year was quiet and simple. That is, until the first raider scouts approached.

I admit now that the wall, the repaired bridge, and the cleanliness of the area should have been a dead giveaway that we would start attracting people who came up this way. We weren't really guarding the entrance either. So when a group of three men in makeshift armor and carrying guns came strolling up the street, Daddy and Momma greeted them with caution.

"Hello, there," Daddy said with a friendly tone. I could read his undertones, and they were filled with trepidation. "Is there something we can do for you?"

The men approached with the swagger of those used to getting their way. One of them grinned and spoke up, "This is a nice place you got here! Ain't seen no place like this before!"

"Especially since we came through this way last year or so and none of this was here," another of them said.

"Yeah yeah," said the third. "But look at what they're wearing. Vault suits! You lot come outta that vault back thataways?"

Daddy nodded and eased his hand to his pistol, "Yes, we did. We've been cleaning the area up since then. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering who was being so productive since we last came by is all," one answered.

That got a laugh from the other two.

"Is there something you gentlemen want here?" Daddy asked as he tried to seem calm.

"Yeah," one grinned. "I think we'll be taking this place over. You two seem like you're pretty hard workers so we'll let you stay on as slaves. I'm sure there's some work we could put the lady to that she'd really enjoy."

I couldn't help but notice he said two, and not three. They must not have noticed my and Codsworth when they came in. I watched the encounter from beside one of the nearby houses while Codsworth insisted I stay back and stay safe in as low of a volume as he could manage.

That was one threat he shouldn't have made, however. Daddy drew and aimed his pistol at them faster than they could blink. "I think it's about time you gentlemen leave."

The three of them raised their hands but laughed in response to the threat.

"We can't let them leave," I said as I walked out from behind the house to block their retreat.

"Merida!" Mommy shouted and made an attempt to run to me. One of the raiders drew his gun and pointed it at her.

"Merida, princess, what are you doing? You shouldn't have shown yourself," Daddy said with concern.

"We can't let them leave, Daddy," I insisted. "If we let them leave, they'll come back and bring more people with them."

One of the raiders laughed and turned to look at me, "Awww! Lookit her! She's a smart

one! What'd your old man say your name was? Merida? How old're you Merida?" I had to stop and think about that one, "I'm five hundred ninety-five years old."

The raider cackled and slapped his knee, "Oh man! This girl is a riot! Five hundred ninety-five, huh? You're looking pretty spry for almost six hundred years old."

I smiled cherubically, "Thank you very much. But I hope you understand that we really can't let you leave. You're raiders. You'll just bring more people and kill us to take our home if we let you live."

"Spry and smart!" the raider chuckled. "And you know what, Merida? You're absolutely right. But right now, I don't think you have to worry about that. Because Daddy and Mommy here? They're outnumbered and outgunned."

"Merida, stop talking to them!" Daddy yelled.

"That's where you're wrong," I continued speaking to the raider. "Because I can fight too." I held up a tiny fist and took a defiant stance. The raider's all laughed, and that's what I was hoping for. I wanted to keep their defenses down.

The raider that was speaking to me shook his hands in mock terror, "Now you got me shaking in my boots, Merida. And just how are you gonna fight us?"

"Before I tell you, will you make a bet with me?" I asked.

"A bet?" he chuckled. "You wanna make a bet? Sure, princess. I'll make a bet with you. What kind of bet do you want to make?"

"If your two friends die, you have to promise to become our servant," I said confidently. "You can't run away. You can't try to hurt us. You can only help us from now on, until we let you tell you that you have permission to go."

"You hear this kid?" the raider asked his friends who both laughed and remarked about how cheeky I was being. "Alright. But what if we kill your Daddy before my two friends here are dead?"

"You can have me, Mommy, and Codsworth," I said chipperly.

"Merida!" Mommy and Daddy both protested.

"Oh, I'm taking this kid and making a proper raider out of her!" the raider laughed. "Alright, Merida, you've got a deal. If my friends die before we kill your daddy, I'll be your servant. And if we kill your daddy before my friends die, we get you, your mommy, and your bot."

I held out my tiny hand, "Shake on it?"

The raider seemed more and more amused. He looked at Daddy as he handed his gun to one of his friends before sauntering over and squatting down in front of me. He took my hand and shook it gently, "You got yourself a deal, little girl."

"Okay!" I smiled brightly. "Would you like to know what your first chore is going to be?"

"Sure thing, kid, just as soon as my friends and I are done," he chuckled.

"Your friends are done," I said, as menacing as my voice could manage.

The raider turned to look at his friends and shouted in fear as he saw them impaled on stone spikes that had jumped out of the ground. He fell back and tried backpedaling from the sight but a stone slab rose up to stop him. He looked around and settled his gaze on me.

"Where are you going?" I asked. "You lost the bet. You're our servant now. You're not going to go back on your word now, are you?"

"What the hell happened to them?" the raider whispered. "What the hell are you, kid?"

Mommy rushed over and scooped me up, clutching me to her defensively, "She's not to be trifled with. Nate, kill him."

"No!" I shouted. "We need people to help us grow food and hunt. He'll help us!"

"No, Merida," Daddy said as he marched past to the dead raiders and raised his pistol to the last man. "He won't help us. He'll try to get away and bring more of his kind here."

"No, Daddy! He won't! I can keep him from leaving, I promise!" I begged.

"Jesus, man! What the hell is wrong with her? Who are you people?" the raider screamed.

"Sir!" Codsworth interjected. "I'll ask you to watch your language around Princess Merida.

I had insisted that Codsworth call me 'Princess Merida'.

"Princess? Are you kidding me? This kid's fu-" his response was cut off as Daddy brought the barrel of his pistol across his temple, knocking him out.

"Nate, just kill him," Momma insisted.

"Not just yet, Nora," Nate said as he looked at me. "Merida. Princess? Are you sure you can control him?"

I nodded and pointed at the unconscious raider as the road wrapped itself around his ankles and wrists, "Absolutely. I'll leave him there till tomorrow then we can see if his mood has changed."

Daddy turned to look at Momma, "Nora?"

"You expect us to just keep a person?" Momma gasped as she looked at the two of us. "Nate, this is insane!"

"More insane than just murdering him?" Daddy asked.

"Our daughter just murdered two people already! She did it in the blink of an eye and look at her!" Momma shouted and pointed at me. "She isn't even showing an ounce of remorse. She's just trying to bargain so she can keep him like some pet. Like a-"

"Servant," I insisted quickly. "He can teach us about the Commonwealth. All of its threats and all the people who might be able to be trusted. He can also work and help us secure Sanctuary."

"Baby, I know you think you're trying to do the best for us," Momma moved over to me and scooped me up. "But he will try to hurt us, or try to get away so that he can bring more people here. He isn't a good person."

"I can convince him to help, Momma," I pleaded. "Please. Just give me a few days. If he isn't convinced by then, I can make sure he won't be a threat to us any more."

"People don't change over the course of a few days, baby," Momma sighed, hugging me close.

"Please, Momma," I insisted. "I can convince him. I know I can. Just give me the chance."

Momma sighed and looked at Daddy for his opinion.

Daddy just shrugged, "I don't think he's any threat to her. Not after what she just did." He looked at me and pointed a stern finger my why, "You keep a safe distance from him and do not let him loose if you can help it. Do you understand me?"

I smiled brightly, "Yes, sir!"

"And you only get three days," he continued. "If I'm not convinced that he's turned over a new leaf, then we get rid of him. Understand?"

"Yes, sir!" I cheered. I looked at Momma and smiled, "He won't get anywhere close to me. I promise!"

Momma let out a heavy sigh and shook her head, "I can't believe this is happening…"