T'Preea and I spent a great deal of time catching up over the next few weeks. I told her all about what Thedas was like hundreds of years after her passing. I told her about my children, grandchildren, and so forth. I also told her about what had happened to the elves and her descendents. We caught up about what we had been doing during our time in the Wastelands, and worked together to begin planning our future. I was mostly excited that she could begin cooking once again! With chicken eggs, fresh tatos and melons, fish and mirelurk meat, we had all of the makings of a well-stocked kitchen.

It didn't take long for traders to take notice of the wall I had erected. With curiosity growing, and insistence that the route be opened, Daddy has me created a series of gates and doors that would allow traders in. Once Concord was opened to the rest of the world again, we had to set about cleaning it and making it suitable as a trading hub. This was well ahead of our schedule, but it couldn't be helped. Months went by as we cleaned each building from top to bottom, and repaired them as best as we could. This allowed people to start moving in and setting up shops. The museum was kept locked tight, though, sealed with stone so that no one could get to its trove of scrap and materials.

While Concord was being cleaned and prepared, T'Preea and I would be allowed to take breaks and play. During our play time, we would go into the sewers and I would clear them out. I kept the Mirelurks alive and transported them to the pen I'd created in Sanctuary. As we cleared out the sewers, we moved around the strange place I sensed somewhere in the middle. I wanted to find out what it was but I didn't want to have to deal with anything else in the meantime.

Concord was becoming a small, but bustling trade town the day we decided to explore the strange space. T'Preea packed us some food and we brought a few packs with us in case we discovered some useful items or scrap. When we were dismissed after completing our chores we ran to the small playground that rested behind a series of houses and apartments. We made sure no one was watching us then I brought us down into the earth and deposited us safely in the closest sewer pipe which led to the area.

"I don't suppose you could do something about the smell?" T'Preea asked.

"Oh, I knew I'd forgotten something," I joked. "Let me twiddle my fingers and summon my potpourri powers to create an enchanting scent for you."

"Wait, I didn't know you had…" T'Preea paused before she realized I was making a joke. "Oh, shut up. I was just wondering."

I laughed and shrugged, "Best I can do is create a series of vents that can act as drains to help air it out, but that won't really help hardly at all. Too much space, too many fumes."

"And you're sure you don't have your magic?" T'Preea asked.

I hesitated to answer the question. I didn't have full access to my magic, and not even a percentage of it. But every so often I felt… something. There was the occasional touch of it. It was like a spark in the darkness that appeared and disappeared in an instant. Never long enough to use, and never when I was prepared to capture it and fan its flames.

"Nothing solid or reliable," I replied.

We weaved through the pipes and draining area over the next few minutes till we came to a brick wall. It stood in between us and the passage that led to the area we wanted to get to. It was a bit confusing.

"Now why would someone brick off a passage to a place they would need to access later?" T'Preea asked as she rapped her knuckles against the bricks.

I shook my head, "They didn't. There seems to be a door here." I was scanning the wall with my stone sense and hummed as I made out the shape of the door. "I think the wall pulls back, then slides out of the way."

"Can you tell how to activate it?" she asked as she tried to look for a seam, button, or handle.

"Do we need to?" I asked cheekily as I willed the bricks to pull apart so that we could pass.

T'Preea huffed and watched as the wall opened up before us, "But what if we want to use it properly?"

I laughed, "It's not one way control, I can always put it back the way it was. Come on." I led the was past the brick wall with T'Preea right behind me.

The standard sewer layout lasted for only a few yards into the path before everything changed to stainless steel and metal grating. It was covered in a thin layer of dust, but it was steel infinitely cleaner than the sewers. The moment we stepped onto the metal grating, a series of light began to turn on under the grates to illuminate the way. We continued on for several yards till the tunnel turned at a sharp right angle. As we took the turn, we both stared up at a massive bulkhead door with stylized 'E' surrounded by thirteen stars.

"Damn…" I hissed as I stared at the symbol on the door.

"What?" T'Preea asked. "What's wrong?"
"You never played through the whole series did you?" I asked as I looked at her.

T'Preea shook her head, "Just the fourth one. And only a couple of times."

I pointed at the symbol, "That's the symbol of the Enclave; the remnants of the former American government."

"Isn't that a good thing?" T'Preea asked as she stared up at the symbol.

"Not at all," I replied. "They want to be in control again and actively work to poison or kill everyone in the Wasteland, then take control of it all over again."

"Sounds like the government," T'Preea sighed. "What sense does it make to kill everyone and rule over a pile of the dead?"

I shrugged, "No sense at all. But they're all over the Wasteland. They have spies and an army. Nothing large enough to populate the whole of the country, though. Not even a single state. It's elitism and ignorance at its finest. But their army isn't something to dismiss. They have advanced technology and well trained soldiers."

"Should we even go in there?" T'Preea asked, looking hesitant.

I smiled at her, "Why not? There could be advanced weapons or armor in there that we could use."

"What if they find out that we're in one of their secret bunkers or whatever it is?" she asked.

"They'll probably send someone to quietly check on it," I replied. "It's not like they'll come in force because they think someone might be scavenging in place. Or that some animal might have gotten in. Besides, you can see the dust on the walls. No one's been here for a long time."

"I guess you're right," T'Preea huffed.

I used the stone to lift me up to the bulkhead door and twisted the door's capstan. A hiss of air met the opening of the bulkhead. I lowered myself back to the ground and pulled the door open to reveal the cleanest room I'd seen in years. Polished metal walls and ceiling, with a floor covered in rubber mats greeted us. There were computers all around the walls, with filing cabinets and desks to boot. Massive tubes and pipes led from some equipment I was unfamiliar with that rested on the perimeter and connected to a thick glass tube. Resting inside the tube was a large tan egg, bespeckled with dark brown spots.

"Well… I'd say we found some equipment," T'Preea gasped as we stepped inside, gawking at it all.

I nodded quietly as I moved over to what I surmised to be the main computer, "Indeed. But what do you think it's all for? Something to do with that egg?"

"Has to be, right?" T'Preea replied, moving up to the glass case and resting a hand on it. "Everything seems to lead to it."

"So it seems…" I said absently as I began accessing the computer. It was encrypted, but that wasn't saying much considering the programming nature of the system. I had access to the computer's files after a few moments.

"By the Stone!" I exclaimed. "The whole place was set up as an F.E.V. lab!"

"A what?" T'Preea asked as she joined me at the computer.

"F.E.V.," I repeated. "It stands for Forced Evolutionary Virus. It's what turns humans into super mutants."

T'Preea turned and looked at the egg in the center of the room in its case, "This one doesn't seem to be a human experiment. Not unless super mutants are born from eggs."

I shook my head, "No. Humans turn into super mutants when injected with the virus. That's a deathclaw egg…"

"What?" T'Preea shouted and back away a few more steps. "Are you telling me that thing is going to become a deathclaw?!"

"I always wondered where the deathclaw from the start of the game came from," I mused to myself as I continued sifting through the computer's files. "It never really made much sense for it to just spring up out of the sewer the way it did."

"You think it came from here?" T'Preea asked as she watched the egg carefully, seeming to expect it to just spring to life.

I nodded, "Probably. But without the experiment running, it likely just hatched later than it was supposed to and grew up hunting the mirelurks in the sewer. Then all the noise from the raider attacked caused it to surface."

"So we don't have to worry about it coming to life any time soon," T'Preea concluded with a sigh of relief.

"Well, we didn't have to worry," I said cheekily.

"Wait," she replied nervously, "what do you mean 'we didn't have to worry'?"

I looked at her and grinned, "According to the logs on this computer, this facility was tasked with creating a deathclaw with the virus. According to the logs, they were just one step away from finishing the project when it was shut down so that resources could be sent to Washington. They have plans on returning and finishing the experiment."

"That still doesn't explain why you said we didn't have to worry," T'Preea pointed out.

"That's true," I nodded in agreement. "We don't have to worry about it anymore because I started the final process."

"You what?!" T'Preea screeched. "Merida! Do you know what you're doing? You're going to unleash a super deathclaw right in the middle of town!"
"I don't think so," I said as I watched the glass case begin to fill with water, and then watched as the water began turning a shade of yellow. "Deathclaws who are injected with the virus just become smarter. It doesn't affect them physically."

"How is a smarter deathclaw not a super deathclaw?" T'Preea protested.

I looked at her and thought about the question, "That's actually a fair question. I guess you could consider it a super deathclaw."

"Then why are you doing this?" T'Preea asked.

I smiled wide, "Because it'll be awesome to have a super deathclaw on our side!"

"You said it wasn't a super deathclaw!" T'Preea yelled.

"You convinced me that it is a super deathclaw," I nodded sagely.

"Is there any way to stop the process?" T'Preea asked, looking around as if searching for a big, red button.

"I don't think it matters if there is," I giggled.

"Why not?" she asked, staring at me in a panic.

I pointed to the glass case, "Because it's hatching."

"What?!"

Sure enough, as T'Preea spun to face the glass case, the egg was beginning to crack. The liquid mix was draining from the case, and we could hear the cracking and snapping of the eggshell. The process was surprisingly slow as the baby deathclaw struggled to free itself from the confines of its shell. Slowly but surely, though, a large chunk of egg fell away to reveal the broad snout of a deathclaw. Once the first piece of the shell fell away, the rest of the egg came apart in short order, leaving a newborn deathclaw inside the case.

The deathclaw stared at us through the glass, appraising us carefully. I reached over and opened up the pack T'Preea had brought and pulled out some of the jerky she'd packed for us. I summoned stone to my fingertips to create extremely sharp talons on my fingertips, and used those talons to cut open the glass case.

I smiled at the deathclaw and offered it the jerky, "Come on, little one. I'm sure you're hungry!"

"You're not actually feeding it!" T'Preea tried to shout in as loud of a whisper as possible.

"Of course I am!" I smiled at the deathclaw as it appraised me. "It just put in all that effort to get out of its shell, so I'm sure it's hungry! Come on now! Mmmm! So yummy! Come get it!"

"It's not a puppy," T'Preea shook her head.

"I mean, technically there was never a name for a baby deathclaw," I snickered as the newborn sniffed at the jerky. "We could call it a puppy and it would be a puppy. Look! It likes it!"

The deathclaw had begun to eat the jerky, tugging it from my grip and biting into it vigorously. I reached out and carefully ran my free hand over the top of the creature's head. It ducked for a moment, but once it realized I wasn't trying to take the food away from it, it didn't seem to care that I was petting it.

"Look! It's letting me pet it!" I squealed with barely contained excitement.

"You are petting… a DEATHCLAW!" T'Preea tried to emphasize the danger in the moment.

"I know!" I said excitedly. "It's amazing!"

T'Preea shook her head in disbelief.

The deathclaw finished the jerky and looked up at me expectantly, seeming to wonder if there were more.

"Clever girl…" I said, grinning at the hatchling. I'd always wanted a reason to say that line. I didn't care if it was actually a male or female.

The deathclaw seemed to grin at me.

"Did that thing understand you? That thing understood you!" T'Preea announced.

The deathclaw looked from T'Preea then back at me.

I laughed and smiled, "You do kind of understand us, don't you!"

The deathclaw grunted and the two of us smiled in response. It was exciting to see how much the virus increased even a deathclaw hatchling's intelligence. I was about to experiment with some simple commands when the emergency lights around the room activated in bright red and began to spin.

A computerized voice came over the terminal speakers, "Caution! Subject containment unit breached. Facility lockdown in effect. Nuclear eradication of contaminated and or unsecured facility will occur in ten seconds."

Before we could respond, a thick steel door slammed down in the doorframe and the mechanical voice started a ten second countdown.

"Oh, god!" T'Preea shouted and looked at me, fear filling her eyes. "What are we going to do?"

I pulled the deathclaw out of its case and hugged T'Preea close, "Hold on to me!"

T'Preea wrapped her arms around me tightly and the deathclaw seemed to understand that it needed to stay close. As the countdown ended, the room erupted in a white flash of light, heat, and explosive destruction. I pushed my abilities to their limits and controlled the explosion to go around us while absorbing the heat and radiation into myself. This was a gamble since I didn't know if absorbing it would do anything to the others. While controlling the blast and absorbing its destructive energies seemed to last forever, the blast was over in an instant.

It took us several moments after the explosion to stop clenching our eyes shut and clutching each other. When we finally opened our eyes, the sun was shining down on us. The explosion had opened a massive hole in the streets above us. It took nearly a minute before the ringing in our ears began to clear and screams and shouts replaced it. We separated and looked up at the open sky. There were people calling for stimpacks and screaming about collapsing buildings. Once the disorientation cleared up, I used the stone to lift us up out of the crater.

"Merida!" Jeff's voice called out. "T'Preea! Are you kids ok?" He rushed over and stopped short, "Holy shit is that a deathclaw?"

"Are you alright, Jeff?" I asked, ignoring the question.

"Huh? What? Yeah, I'm fine," he said, still confused. "Were you kids caught in the blast?"

T'Preea nodded, "Dead center. Merida saved us. Where is Preston? Is he alright?"

Jeff nodded and pointed to the end of the street, "Yeah. He was over near the museum at the Abbernathy stall."

"What about my parents?" I asked. "Have you seen them?"

"I… uh…" Jeff hesitated.

"Jeff," I said, more anxious about his hesitation, "where are my parents?"

Jeff gave me an apologetic look, "I'm sorry, kid. They were helping a small caravan move into one of the buildings that was caught in the blast. The whole goddam ground just… erupted up beneath them…"

I stared up at Jeff in horror, my voice escaped in a whisper, "...What?"

"I'm really sorry, kid…" Jeff tried to console me. "There wasn't anything anyone could do. You two just got lucky. No one could have guessed a random nuke would go off beneath the street."

T'Preea looked at me with a pitiable expression, "Merida, are you ok?"

I turned and just waved them off, "If you don't mind, I'd like to be alone for a bit."

"Look, I understand what you're going through, kid," Jeff said. "But we could really use your help with all of this."

"Don't worry,"I responded as I started to walk off. "I've absorbed all of the radiation and secured all the stonework and the street around us. Nothing will collapse and no one will need any Rad Away. Just tend to the wounded. I'll be back in a little bit."

T'Preea jogged over to me and touched my hand, "Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you?"

I shook my head, "I just need some time to think. Come on, Meirune. We'll get you some more to eat."

"Huh?" T'Preea looked around. "Who's Meirune?"

The deathclaw gave a rumble and moved to catch up with me.

"Did you name it and I didn't notice?" T'Preea asked.

"It's smart," I sighed. "It figured it out. I'll be back in a bit."

With that, Meirune and I began walking back to Sanctuary. I took the rest of the day to reflect on my mistake. While I didn't think of Nate and Nora as my real parents, I did like them. I wanted the best for them. I'm sure in time they would have had another child who would have been normal. But in my haste and arrogance, I had insisted on activating the experiment in the Enclave laboratory. It was my choice to open the case directly without checking to see if there was a procedure. It was my fault the laboratory self-destructed and killed not only my parents, but several other innocents as well.

It was my hubris that killed them. It was me treating the situation like a game and not considering what the consequences to my actions would be that was responsible for the explosion. In the end, I had killed nearly twenty people simply because I was overly curious and too dismissive of the danger. I knew the laboratory had been set up by the Enclave, and I knew the threat the Enclave represented. There was no excuse. I was as upset about the death of my parents as I was that the deaths were unnecessary and compounded upon by more deaths than theirs. These people were living their own lives in their own universe. This was their only reality. This was likely their only life and I was treating it like a game. I was taking for granted the fact that I had been reincarnated twice now. In my mind, I was comparing myself to Seven and the thought sickened me.

Meirune followed me silently, letting me work through my thoughts until I was in a state to pay attention to it again. I considered feeding it, but opted to take some of the mirelurk hatchlings and let them loose so that Meirune could hunt them instead. Best to give it some practice. It wasn't like Meirune was small, after all. It was a newly born deathclaw but was only slightly smaller than I was. I'd wager that in a year or two, it would be fully grown and standing nearly ten feet tall. Once Meirune had had its fun and its meal, I went back to my home.

Inside I grabbed a pen and some paper. With my parents dead, I didn't really have to hold back my plans any longer to accommodate their acknowledgement of my growth. It was convenient, but not worth the price I paid. I wrote several pages worth of information and then sealed them in a packet using a stone crafted seal and dyed tree's wax. I took the packet and placed it inside a leather messenger bag we'd found one day, then headed back to Concord. Meirune stayed by my side the entire time, always checking the general area with a discerning expression.

When I arrived back in Concord, several of the adults expressed their sympathy for my loss. I just smiled sadly and accepted it. There wasn't anything they could do about it after all. I had to wonder if T'Preea had said anything about the cause of the explosion. If she had, no one mentioned it. Eventually I found Jeff, T'Preea, and Preston in the museum. Preston was being watched after by Codsworth.

"You're back!" T'Preea exclaimed as she ran up to me. "Are you alright?"

I nodded, "I'm fine. I'll be fine."

"I was worried about you, kiddo," Jeff said as he squat down in front of me. "We were just about to go look for you."

"No need for that now," I replied.

"Oh, mum!" Codsworth moaned. "I'm terribly sorry to hear about your parents! I shall endeavor to do my very best to care for you in their stead."

I smiled up at the robot, "Thank you, Codsworth. But I think Preston needs you far more than I do."

"I concur," Codsworth replied. "But you are my primary charge. It wouldn't do for me to not have a care for you after this tragedy."

"Well, then you can check on me whenever Preston is tended to. Deal?" I asked.

"Deal," Codsworth said. His voice sounded almost human in that moment.

"What's this?" T'Preea pointed at the messenger bag.

I looked at the bag then at Jeff, "This is for you, Jeff. I need you to do me a giant favor."

Jeff took the bag as I offered it, "Sure thing, Merida. What do you need me to do?"

"Leave," I responded with determination in my eyes.