It had been a quiet couple of years. Father thought it best that we keep close to Sanctuary until my senses expanded further out. He and Jeff did some light scouting, but beyond that we had mostly fortified Sanctuary and the area around the lake it sat in the middle of. I repaired the bridge by replacing the wooden planks with a stone arch. I also helped mother with the gardening by rotating the soil with more fertile ground to plant the crops in.

Jeff helped me learn more about mechanics by letting me watch him service Codsworth and the Sentry bot. Over the years he wanted to begin making more defenses, such as turrets. I was able to smith the parts for him, though. At my age I wasn't able to swing a hammer hard enough, but I surprised myself by not being too far off. I didn't understand how, at the age of five, I was close to being strong enough to actually work medal, but that was something I would worry about later. However, I was able to smelt the ore by molding the stone into a furnace, heating it, then using the stone to handle and hammer it. This process wasn't as satisfying as working the stone with a hammer and muscle, but it got the job done.

The speed at which I was learning and retaining the information I was getting from Jeff surprised me. I had to chalk it up to June's influence on crafting expertise. Ever since I'd absorbed her soul, learning things became much easier, and I was able to adapt and improve upon things with surprising skill. This came in handy especially with learning computer hacking. I remembered the system from the game, which made things pretty easy. The fact that the computers used an archaic programming language made it almost child's play after I studied more in depth. If I could get enough parts, I was fairly certain that I could begin creating fully programmed robots.

By the time my sixth birthday came around, we had expanded Sanctuary to encompass the land all the way to Concord. We had scavenged through Concord already, but now that my influence reached that far we could start using the materials that were available there. We had planned a trip for the spring once winter had thawed out a bit. I was excited to finally move past the Red Rocket gas station. That was as far as I was allowed to go.

In preparation for the trip, I began making notes about all of the places in Concord I could think of that had anything. There was the hardware store, the Museum of Freedom, as well as a few other shops that were hinted at with their signs. Additionally, there were the sewer tunnels from which the Deathclaw emerged. I hadn't sensed anything there just yet, but I also wasn't paying the most attention to it. I could handle things whenever we got there, so my focus was more on preparation.

I practiced my use of fission and fusion, which I had come to be aware of one day when a bloatfly surprised me. It hadn't been on the ground so I hadn't sensed it coming. When I threw my hands up defensively to keep it at bay, I had released a small nuclear blast. Luckily, Jeff and Daddy weren't close enough to be hurt by it. Once I'd figured out I could create such explosions, I began to try and master the ability. I started with small explosions at first. I kept well away from Sanctuary so there wasn't any collateral damage. I was able to absorb the radiation the explosions created, so I wasn't poisoning the land or air with practice. Over time, I was able to create larger and larger explosions. However, I understood a little bit about explosions and the larger impact controlled explosions could have over uncontrolled explosions. While it was difficult, I had begun to manage containing the explosions into a more tightly focused area from which I could control the direction of the energy.

The day we left for Concord, Momma was extremely nervous. She tried dragging breakfast on for as long as she could. She double, triple and quadruple checked everyone's packs, and insisted that Codsworth carry me for my protection. She wanted to take time watering the crops, checking our food supplies before left, and a million other things to delay us. Finally, Daddy insisted that we go. Momma had spent most of the morning taking things slow and he was worried we might not have enough daylight left to get home.

Codsworth's rigged saddle had grown too small for me, but now he had a small platform I could stand on and handlebars I could hold on to. His thrusters had been upgraded as well, so that he could handle more weight, and was also much more maneuverable.

We set out closer to noon than father preferred. The walk took about an hour, and while Jeff and Daddy kept a lookout for things around us, my job was to begin sensing the area ahead of us. I began tracking each little echo through the ground, from small underground rivers, water running through sewer pipes, to scuttling mirelurks in the sewer system. A few things, however, caught my attention. There seemed to be a lot more activity going on beneath the surface, or at least there was a larger space than I'd remembered. I wanted to chalk it up to the sewer system being completely intact beyond what you were able to access in the game, but something about it seemed off.

The other thing was surface activity. While there wasn't a firefight happening in the town, there was activity located within the Museum of Freedom. The echoes were faint, but I could tell they were at least human. Crumbling buildings were boxes of loose static in my mind. I could get some of the picture, but a lot was blurred out since the structures weren't intact. The echoes when they appeared, were rhythmic; which indicated to me that they were being made by something walking on two legs. Normally I might say it was human, but the Wasteland was home to plenty of things that walked on two legs and weren't human.

"Daddy," I called out.

"What is it, Princess?" Daddy asked.

"There's a few things in the town," I replied. "There's two things moving around inside the Museum of Freedom. I don't think they're very big, but they could be ghouls."

"Ah shit," Jeff sighed. "That's one thing we don't need. Ghouls are hard to shoot at. Their movements are all over the place and they twist and turn in ways you can't predict."

"They're fast too," I added.

Jeff nodded and looked at Daddy, "If we want to be safe, we need to clear that museum. No real way around it. They have ears that'll pick us up outside and they'll come running. And if they start running and shouting, they could rile up a whole bunch more that Merida might not be sensing."

He was right. A lot of feral ghouls went into a near death-like state until they heard or saw something. If most of them were resting, the two I was sensing could wake dozens more. While I wasn't particularly concerned about them myself, Jeff made a good point that tracking a feral ghoul's movements were difficult. They could twist or turn out of the way of defenses I raised up without much effort. I could contain them, but the problem with using my stone abilities in such quick bursts of movement was that anything resting on the stone would get shot into the air as debris. I had learned that particular detail the hard way. I didn't need to create a makeshift shrapnel bomb while trying to help. This job would have to go to Daddy and Jeff.

"Anything else, Merida?" Mommy asked.

I nodded, "There's a lot of open space underground. It doesn't feel like sewers, though. It's more like something is connected to the sewer system, but it's not part of it. Almost like an underground house."

"Is there anything in it?" Jeff asked.

I shrugged, "I can't tell. There's no movement. It just reads like an open space."

"We'll check it out if we have time," Daddy decided. "For now, let's focus on clearing out the museum and seeing what we can find that's useful."

Everyone agreed and we continued toward Concord. I was surprised by how similar the outskirts to the town looked when compared to the game. I was confused when I didn't see the dead brahmin being feasted on by the blood bugs, but wrote it off as something that might not necessarily occur, especially with how I'd managed to create an area free of pests. When we arrived in Concord proper, the town followed its similar street path, but it was far large and more dense with buildings than the game had depicted it. There was a time in my first life when I had lived in the New England area and looking at all of the buildings, or what remained of them, reminded me of my time there.

"I can show you guys to the museum," Jeff said and moved to take the lead.

Father chuckled, "Don't bother. We've been there before back when everything was still intact."

"I was still pregnant with Merida the last time we were here," Mommy said wistfully as she remembered the visit.

"You didn't want to come, as I recall," Daddy teased.

"I was pregnant and walking took a toll on me," Mommy protested. "Besides, I think the trip was a success. I didn't have morning sickness that day and I didn't have any weird cravings."

"That's true," Daddy laughed. "It was one of the few days I didn't secretly wonder if you were an alien trying to figure out how food work with all your cravings."

"Hush you," Mommy replied as she looked at me. "Merida, would you like to look through the museum once Daddy and Jeff have taken care of things inside?"

I smiled at Mommy, trying to give off excited, happy childlike energy, "Yeah! That would be neat!" It would be a disaster. The museum would be mostly destroyed on the inside. But like most things that can't be properly represented in a video game, it would probably have more stuff in there to look at. I would at least humor her and let her show me around even though I knew what it was like there already.

Mommy looked like she was going to burst from happiness, "Then we'll give it a good look!"

I felt sorry for her. She didn't get a baby or a child with me. She got an adult trapped in a child's body. It was harder for me to pretend to be childlike around them. So whenever it occurred to me to respond like a kid, it seemed to make Mommy happy.

"First thing's first," Daddy said. "We need to clear the place out."

We rounded the corner and the main street appeared before us. There, looming at the end of the street, tall and fading in its classically styled architecture, was the Museum of Freedom. The streets were pocked with potholes and crumbling buildings. Long dead vehicles sat wasting away as rust overtook them. Light poles and debris covered the cracking asphalt and puddles of irradiated water sat stagnant as they collected muck.

"I remember it looking a lot better," Father sighed.

"What do you…" Mommy began to ask before she realized that he was joking. "You really need to take this more seriously."

"The place is empty except for the museum, Baby," Father smiled. "We can afford to let our guards down a little bit."

"So long as whatever's in there isn't a pair of ferals," Jeff chimed in.

"Do be careful, sir!" Codsworth insisted. "I shudder to think what might become of us should something happen to you."

"I think Merida will be able to keep you all safe," Daddy smirked. "She's more capable at that than I am."

"Quite right, sir!" Codsworth replied. "I don't know why I was worried in the first place."

Daddy stared at Codsworth with exasperation, "You didn't need to agree with me that time, Codsworth."

"Ah…" Codsworth said with embarrassment. "As you say, sir."

"Anyway," Daddy shook his head. "Walky-talkies on, everyone. Channel two. We'll keep in contact as we make our way through the museum. If we find anything, we'll let you know."

Mommy turned her walk-talky to channel two while Codsworth tuned into the channel.

"We can go look in the hardware store while you two are inside," Mommy said and pointed to the nearby store. "I'm sure we can find some useful supplies there."

"Sounds like a plan," Daddy nodded. "Jeff? You ready to do this?"

"Hell no," Jeff laughed. "But let's get it over with anyway."

Daddy gave me a kiss on the cheek and hugged Mommy before he and Jeff went inside the museum. I wanted to go in with them, but I would probably be a distraction for them if I got into trouble. That, and anything I tried to do to help might cause the building to collapse. I was more useful outside giving them information on where the two other echoes were coming from.

Mommy, Codsworth, and I went to the hardware store. Luckily, it ended up being like everything else, more detailed and filled with more things than the game could properly show. Unfortunately, it was also lacking in any intact, useful items which I found to be strange. Everything inside was either broken, useless, or taken while its box was left behind. This didn't make any sense. Even in the game there were usually light bulbs, fuses, or a few other pieces of useful items and scrap.

"I'm sorry, Merida," Mommy said as she tossed an empty box back to the floor. "It looks like it's been picked clean."

I shook my head in disbelief, "But that doesn't make sense… There should still be some stuff in here. It's like someone deliberately took everything."

"Apologies, Princess Merida," Codsworth moaned. "I knew how much you were looking forward to finding some useful items here. Perhaps there will be more elsewhere in the town!"

I sighed and slumped over the top of Codsworth's head, "I hope so. This would be a wasted trip if we didn't find anything."

Just then, Jeff's voice came over the walky-talky, "Merida, you've been tracking us, right?"

"Yeah," I replied, the depression clear in my voice.

"Hey, everything alright, Princess?" Daddy asked.

"Everything's fine, dear," Mommy answered for me. "Merida's disappointed because there's nothing useful in the store."

There was a long pause before Jeff came back, "So, can you tell us where those echoes are coming from relative to our position?"

I had been keeping track of the signals coming from the building. However, there was a slight problem, "I haven't been seeing the other echoes since a few minutes after you entered. They stopped on the third floor somewhere on the north side of the building."

"And they aren't moving?" Daddy asked.

"Not that I can tell," I replied. "If they've moved, they're moving slow enough or soft enough that I'm not picking them up through the building's static."

"Alright," Daddy said. "Keep track of everything and let us know if there's movement."

"Yes, sir!" I said as I pointed Codsworth to the stores exit.

Mommy and I were starting to check through a small hardware store nearby when more movement began to register in the museum. At this point, Daddy and Jeff were on the third floor and in the room where you first encountered Preston Garvey and the others.

I pat Codsworth's head, "Quick! The radio!"

Codsworth wasted no time in activating the radio inside him, "Ready, Princess!"

"Daddy! There's movement near you!" I said quickly. "It's only a few feet ahead. Be careful."

"Will do, Princess, thank you," Daddy replied.

Mommy and I waited quietly, nervous to hear back from him. The radio silence seemed to drag on forever, but after a few minutes we heard back from them.

"Hey you three," Jeff called out, "meet us at the front of the building. We've got something to show you."

Mommy looked at me, "What do you think it is?"

I shrugged, "Maybe they found the power armor?"

"I think it has something to do with the movement, Merida," Mommy said.

I knew that, of course. But I chose to occasionally connect the wrong dots together so that she could steer me to the proper conclusion. It seemed to help her feel more useful.

I smiled, "Oh, yeah! You're probably right."

We made our way back to the museum and arrived before Daddy and Jeff made it out. That was understandable. The inside of the museum was pretty busted up and they would need to watch their footing. After a few minutes, they finally came out with with a two young black children. One was a boy who couldn't be much older than two or three. The other was a girl who looked around my age but who had somehow managed to, rather poorly, dye her hair blue.

"Oh, my God!" Mommy gasped and ran forward to the children. "Where did you find these two?"

"They were the things moving around," Daddy said. He was holding the young boy. "Apparently this one's name is Preston. The girl's name is-"

"Did you say Preston?" I asked.

Daddy looked at me and nodded. "Yeah. Preston Garvey. Why?"

My eyes went wide with shock. That was Preston? He should be in his early twenties! None of this was making any sense. I gasped and looked at Jeff, "Jeff! What year is it?"

"Huh?" Jeff asked. "What's that matter?"

"It matters!" I insisted. "What year is it?"

Jeff stopped to think, "Twenty-two seventy-five. Why?"

My jaw dropped open and I looked back in the direction of Sanctuary. I had insisted that the voice wake us early and it woke us up eighteen years before the events of Fallout Four! This forced me to reevaluate everything. If it was really twenty-two seventy-five, then there were so many possibilities that could be taken advantage of. My racing thoughts were brought back into focus when Daddy called my name.

"Merida!" Daddy called. "Focus, please."

"Sorry, Daddy," I apologized.

"Your name's Merida?" the girl asked as she looked up at me, hovering with Codsworth.

I looked down at her and smiled brightly, "Yeah, it is."

"Princess Merida, if you please," Codsworth insisted.

"What's your name?" I asked, ignoring Codsworth's insistence.

"My name's T'Preea," she smiled. "I used to know another person name Merida. She had red hair too."

I stared at the girl silently for several moments. I remembered that name from my first life. It wasn't a real person's name, though. I had a friend who would name all of her characters in video games or role play games the same thing. In video games she would always customize her character to be a black woman with blue dreadlocks. It wouldn't be the first time I'd met someone from my first life after reincarnating, but I didn't want to just assume they were same person.

"Princess Merida," Codsworth insisted. "She's really an Empress, but she prefers to be called Princess since she's little again."

"An Empress?" T'Preea asked, her tone showing some kind of suspicion. "What do you mean?"

"Princess Merida is actually the Empress of the Dwarven Empire of Thedas!" Codsworth announced, reciting what he, and everyone else but Jeff, thought to be made up stories.

T'Preea gasped and looked up at me in shock, "Wait! Merida?! Is that really you?"

I looked down at the girl, my suspicions becoming mixed with confusion, "Huh? Who are you?"

T'Preea smiled wide, "It's me! It's Aelfric! I reincarnated into this world like this!"

I gasped and jumped down from Codsworth. I moved in close and stared at the girl claiming to be Aelfric, trying to find anything recognizable in her features but there was nothing there.

"Aelfric?" I asked with some skepticism. "Is that really you?"

"Merida!" Aelfric exclaimed, my curiosity confirming what she already believed to be true. She lunged forward and hugged me tight. "It is you! How do you look like you did in Thedas?"

I laughed and shrugged after we separated from our hug, "How should I know? It's not like I had a choice in the matter."

Before T'Preea could respond, Mommy interrupted, "I'm sorry. Who are you again?"

I looked up at Mommy and smiled, "Mommy! This is T'Preea! She's my friend!"

She looked at us both, "How do you two know each other?"

T'Preea and I looked at each other, wondering how to actually answer that. Daddy and Mommy had heard me tell Codsworth all the stories of my life in Thedas but they believed them to be the results of my exceptional imagination.

"I don't think we need to worry about that right now," Daddy said. "Let's head into the museum. It seems these two here have been collecting all of the good scrap around here. It's all stacked up and collected inside."

Mommy was hesitant and looked at us like she still wanted an answer to her question, but she followed Daddy and Jeff inside. T'Preea and I were just happy to be together again that we followed along with wide smiles across our faces. Inside the museum we saw that the place had been cleaned up surprising well, or at least as well as a determined six year old with an adult's mind could manage. T'Preea had taken a lot of time to scavenge through Concord and collect everything that was in good enough shape to be used properly, or at least be used as scrap, and organized it all inside the museum. Her plan was to turn the museum into a giant shopping center once she'd grown up enough to defend it properly.

I was impressed to say the least. She had taken the initiative to go to a decently sized area with plenty of resources that wasn't occupied, and quietly claimed it as her own. She hadn't gone into the sewers because she couldn't handle the mirelurks that were there, but now that I was here, she was hopeful.

Daddy had decided that since everything had been gathered and organized already, we wouldn't need to collect it and haul it back to Sanctuary.

"Merida," Daddy said as he squatted down in front of T'Preea and I, "Do you think you can raise up walls around Concord all the way back to Sanctuary? They need to be tall so that no one can get in."

I smiled and nodded, "Of course I can! But if I do… Concord is a town traders pass through to get to other places in the Commonwealth. They'll notice it eventually."

Daddy nodded, "I understand, Princess. But we need to be able to safeguard these resources. If we play our cards right, we can set up the whole area to be a safe haven for people; maybe even turn it into a big trading post."

I grinned and nodded, "Alright!"

I laughed and turned to head outside, dragging T'Preea along with me. I didn't need to be outside to do what Daddy had asked, but I did like to watch it happen all the same. Everyone followed us to watch the show. I stopped in the intersection in front of the museum and took several moments to stretch my senses out all the way back to Sanctuary. The area I could wall in was substantial, and it would include Abernathy Farm; a respectable sized farm which grew tatos and melons. We had traded with them often enough that they knew who we were and where we lived. I'd include their land inside the walled area to keep them safe.

Once I had assessed the area I could wall in, which included a few other smaller, but noteworthy locations, I raised my hands for dramatic effect and smooth stone walls began to rise up out of the ground. I made sure the walls were twenty feet high and four feet thick, with the stone as dense as I could force it to be. Any part of the wall would be able to hold up against several Fat Man strikes before giving way. I also made sure that the walls extended thirty feet int the ground to deter molerats.

Once everything was finished, I turned and looked up at Daddy, "All done!"

"Great job, Princess," Daddy praised me. "And it goes all the way to Sanctuary?"

I nodded, "It's past the vault too, so we can use the vault if we want. Oh! And I made sure that the Abernathy farm was included. I wanted them to be safe too. But we might want to stop by and let them know what's going on."

Mommy sighed, "You should have asked about that first, Merida. Just enclosing their land like that will scare them."

"I can take it down if you want," I replied hesitantly, as if to show some remorse for the perceived mistake.

Mommy just shook her head, "No, it's fine. What's done is done. And since we won't be going around scavenging through all the buildings today like we thought we were going, we can probably head to the Abernathy's and speak with them." She looked at Daddy as she said this.

Daddy nodded, "Yeah, I suppose that would be the best course of action. Not sure how we're going to explain how the wall came up, though."

We left Concord a few minutes later. Preston was allowed to ride on Codsworth. Daddy and Jeff led the way while Mommy and Codsworth brought up the rear. T'Preea and I were in the middle, chatting and reminiscing about our time in Thedas and about how our lives had been thus far in the Wasteland. Apparently her parents had died in a raider attack a few months ago. She'd managed to keep Preston and herself hidden until everything was over. Then she gathered as much food as she could and carefully made it to Concord with Preston in tow. Once she was there, she had set up a small home for themselves in the third story of the museum and began collecting and organizing all of the scrap the town had to offer.

The Abbernathy family was in a state of disarray when we arrived thanks to the appearance of the wall. Daddy managed to ease their concerns and explained how I was experimented on by Vault Tec, and how one of the experiments had given me control over stone. I had to demonstrate my ability a few times, but in the end they came around to the idea of being inside of a safe zone. It was getting late by the time everything had been discussed and settled with the farmers, so they offered to let us all stay the night.

T'Pree and I slept together in a corner by ourselves. There were a few lights on for safety, but otherwise the night was dark and cool.

"Hey, Ael… Sorry, T'Preea," I said. "Can I ask you something?" T'Preea snickered at my stammering. I still hadn't gotten used to calling her by her new name, "Can I ask why your parents gave you that name?"

"They didn't," she answered. "They named me Jasmine. But after they died I decided to call myself T'Preea."

"Why'd you decide to do that?" I asked curiously.

"I always named my characters T'Preea," she answered. "In my first life, I mean. Whenever I played a videa game where I could choose my character's name, I chose T'Preea."

I stared at her quizzically for several moments, "You were a black girl in your first life too, weren't you?"

She looked at me, surprised that I would ask the question, "Yeah, I was. Why?"

"And you were a chef, right?" I asked.

"Yeah… I was," she answered. "Why?"

"You lived in Florida, didn't you?" I pressed.

Her eyes went wide, "Wait. How did you know that? I don't think I ever told you that."

I sat up and grinned as I leaned in to whisper, "Is it really you Genea?"

T'Preea sat up in shock and scooted back a bit, "How do you know my first name? Who are you, Merida?"

I laughed and grinned excitedly, "By the Stone! I knew it! It is you!"

"What are you talking about?" T'Preea asked. "How do you know who I am? I mean, who I was?"

"Oh, come on!" I teased her. "You really don't recognize me? Confident walk, confident smile, way too sure of myself?"

"That could be plenty of people!" T'Preea protested.

"We've known each other since middle school!" I laughed. "You had a crush on me since we first met!"

T'Preea went silent and stared at me in disbelief, "David?"

I smiled so wide my face almost hurt, "That's me!"

T'Preea sputtered a series of half questions that interrupted each other as she tried to wrap her head around the fact that we had lived out an entire lifetime without knowing who we were to each other.

"I think you should also know that Anne was with us well," I smiled softly. "Anne was Faren."

"Are you serious?" T'Pree had to forcibly contain the volume of her voice. Anne had been my wife and her best friend in our first life. "Did she know who you were?"

I nodded, "She figured it out before I did. He figured it out before Ostagar but she only told me about year or so after the battle. That's why Faren was always angry with Allen whenever he would talk about how Faren and I should become a couple. He was trying to respect my new life. But once he told me the truth I became determined to marry him again."

"Do you know where he is now?" T'Preea asked expectantly.

I shook my head sadly, "Not yet. But I'm determined to find him again. We found each other once already, and now you and I know who each other are. So there's nothing that says I won't find him again."

T'Preea smiled, "Good! I hope you do. But you still haven't explained how you still look like Merida and didn't become someone new this time around."

I could only shrug, "I don't know how any of this works. I still have my Titan powers. I'm even stronger than I was before. Right now I'm almost as strong as I was in my teens when we were in Thedas. And some new entity gave me control over radiation and nuclear power. So I can't say why I still look like this."

"Well, I guess you're just stuck being the Shortstack Dommy Mommy for another lifetime," T'preea giggled.

I lifted my hand to my forehead to feign swooning, "Oh no! Say it isn't so! How terrible!"

We laughed together. Most of the evening was spent reminiscing about our first and second lives. We relived mundane and fantastical adventures we'd shared, talked about what had happened after she'd died in Thedas, and discussed plans we had for the Wasteland. It was good to speak with someone who had been through everything I had been through. Jeff genuinely believed my stories now, but his belief wasn't the same as someone who could actually relate to my experiences. We fell asleep some time in the early hours of the morning and had to be woken up so that we could head home to Sanctuary. This would be the first day in the next stage of my time in the Wasteland with one of my fellow Fated by my side.