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The town of Beech was disturbingly quiet, moreso than usual. Jeffries did not like it, hopping off the bus once it parked into the garage area along with Jerry and the Brotherhood members before James rolled up alongside them on the bike. They all noted an unease hanging in the air, the people looking fearful towards them. James had an urge to fight as if expecting a mob to turn on them, that fearful twist of nerve in the air as his body tensed underneath his leather armour, before Jeffries asked: "Whut's wrong?" No answer came from them. Slowly he approached but the people said nothing. "Whut...whut's happened?" "...Swan came." Diana walked up first, shivering with fear and dirt on her cheek as if scuffed across the ground bleeding. Her mother stayed alongside her hovering over with distressed tears on her face. "Sh-she came an'...we all heard...s-sumthin' happened up at thuh...base." "Swan?" "Y-yeah...like...gunshots, boomin' like a shotgun an' then she...she walked out an' called me over, said she wanted to...tell me whut happened then she grabbed me...f-forced me hostage an' told nobody better move or shoot or else! ...sh-she wuzn't gonna do it but she got all that armour she all...she got away, couldn't do nuthin'!" "I thought she was gonna kill her," whimpered Jemimah, "w-we all...we all thought she wuz with one of you but she...s-s-said not to report anythin' or she...she'd kill her." "Whut?" said Jeffries. "She...no...that's...that feels weird." "WH-....WEIRD!?" Jemimah stormed up towards the paladin and shrieked with pent-up fury and terror clear within her pupils. "MY DAUGHTER WAS HELD HOSTAGE FORCED AT GUNPOINT FOR A HUMAN SHIELD, AND ALL YOU CAN SAY IS THAT FEELS WEIRD?! THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" "CALM. Down, miss." "_HOW CAN I BE CALM!? I ALMOST LOST MY GIRL AGAIN, YOU PROMISED ME WE'D BE SAFE! YOU PROMISED ME! _" "ALL RIGHT! You're right. I did. And I clearly did not anticipate this happening, and for that I am sorry. I should have prepared for this but it just...this isn't like her. Something's not right." "Wha-...h-how...I thought you cared about us." "I do, that's why I want to figure this out, I'm glad nobody is hurt but I will find out whut happened." "Who is she then!? HUH!? How come my baby girl knows who she is an' I don't!?" "Swan is part of a specialist group of the Brotherhood of Steel who are no longer associated with us, they are a rogue unit. We have been tracking them for months and we did not inform you because it was strictly our business, plus if they had been aware of our knowing their gone rogue, we would lose the edge of surprise." "An' you just think you have the right to-" "Mom."

Diana stood firmly by her side and took her hand to calm her, feeling the older woman shaking with fear and anger but it was hard to tell which one was more strongly in her heart, trembling at the fingertips. "It's okay...we're alrigh', let them handle it." "Wha-...how...am I the only one SANE around here?!" "No...but cryin' yer head off when nobody else is hurt ain' gonna do nuthin' fer anyone." "But I-" "She wuzn't gonna kill me. She told me she wuzn't." "Sh-she...what?" "She held me tight when she grabbed me, said not to do anythin'...said she wuzn't gonna hurt me, she never would she...just needed to get out of Beech, had sumthin' she had to do, keep people safe...then she stole a bike." "Really?" asked James. "You believe her that easy?" "Ah would know if she wuz lyin'...she told me all secret-like in my ear, said she had to git sumthin' but she had a fight wit' you, said she weren't welcome here an' had to leave like this." "She could have been lying to calm you down." "She had a GUN on mah damn head ah ain' gonna calm down that easy! If she wanted to calm me down, why would she tell me she wuzn't gonna hurt me or she had to do sumthin' to save people if that wuz sum big lie?!" "I-i dunno, if I knew I'd have caught her already!" "Well whut happen then!? Did sumthin' happen we all don' know about?!" All the Brotherhood knew that it was impossible to tell the populace the true plan of the Eagle, for it would create panic most certainly amongst them. Panic caused pain and damage, hurting people unnecessarily by fighting each other from fear as they all kept quiet, with Jerry Delgado stepping up to keep the peace by a diplomatic proclamation on the spot. "Paladin Swan is no longer affiliated with the Brotherhood of Steel and has gone rogue, she just probably wanted something in our possession that we were unaware of, possibly some info we got, we won't know until we checked out what happened. So why don't you just let us investigate, an' once it's all over we'll tell you how it is, alright everyone?" The crowd soon nodded at this feeling rather confused, as well as somewhat betrayed before shifting themselves off to their various places. Diana took her mother's hand and slowly guided her off back to their living quarters, trying to calm her down with a strong gait she soon picked up, as Paladin Jeffries headed off towards the base. It didn't take them long to find a path of destruction, notably that of Theodore and Jackson crippled without limbs to support themselves with, the raptor running over towards Roosevelt asking: "SHIT, THEODORE, WHAT HAPPENED?!" "ARGH...d-damn...woman..." Crippled to one side with arms wrenched from their socket, his main processing unit still remained well enough that he still had the power of speech and movement, despite being shoved against the starway to one side. Jackson laid nearby in the corner, one of his three legs broken through with impenetrable force, something truly devastating enough to have come through here. "Hardly ever seen her coming...damn she-devil took apart my arms, barely gave me time to fight back, and when Andrew came round to investigate she ambushed him, took his leg out like a damned savage, left him laying out in the corner." "Jeffers..." murmured Andrew. "Thomas...g-get...Thomas." "OH...god no, you have to find him, he must have-...oh god no." "What happened to Thomas?!" asked FG. "G-go to the conference room he was last there that WOMAN went there too, we...h-heard a shotgun go off in there I don't...please, find him."

For the first time they had known each other, he heard fear creep into the old autonomous voice, stifled and gentlemanly whilst bristling with candour normally. But now there lied an uneased feebleness from within, as if age had just caught up with him and was taking his liberty fast. They rushed off to the conference room fearing the worst. Part of their fears were right, but only realising even moreso a greater fear within. Jefferson laid himself against the table, pushed out of alignment with part of the map showing on his face propped up with his back to it. His body had a large gash showing within its left side, blown apart with a flickering spew of sparks and transmission fluid bleeding out onto the floor darkly. Even despite being not made of flesh the sight was disturbing for James to see, his hand twitching against the rifle he had against his legs as shivering breaths came from the automaton. Martin was near gently hovering from behind a terminal fearfully, his vulnerability all the more apparent in his current state. Jerry immediately ran to him whilst James and Darryl watched with horror, the raptor cautiously asking: "...oh god. T-thomas...what happened?" "H-hhhh...a woman...came, in armour...demanded...the Eagle data." "Who did-...that...who was it?! Tell me!" "She...said she...represented you, paladin. I...did not trust her. Blown through me with a rifle...a shotgun...terrible thing...never fought in this capacity..." "Was it Swan?" asked Jeffries. "Do not...know her name, never gave it...took the data..." "It has to be, no one else would come here wanting that data, how did she know?!" "She must have known we took it," said the raptor, "I mean one of your scouts is dead in the same place as Hawk it's not hard to put the two together." "Light," murmured Jefferson, "it...it hur brzzz...no...I cannot...g-go through this pain again." "Yer not dyin' on me Tom," said Delgado, "we'll get you patched up, someone get me my tools from the garage!" "I'm on it!" said FG. "Just...k-keep him going okay!?" "Okay but step on it, he's lost a lot of fluid his brain won't be lasting long without some!" He ran off swiftly as he could leaving both Jerry and Darryl watching the bleeding form of the former dignitary gasping up towards them, the ghoul keeping fluids in as he tried to reconnect wires torn to pieces. The sparks made things difficult without shots riddling through his bone fingers but he tried as best he could, keeping him alive longer as Van Buren said: "Sh-she demanded the data but Thomas...would not give it to her, said he...needed identification. She said she had no care for an old piece of scrap and just...blew his sides out like a...vagrant lawless." "Was there anything this woman had that was different?" said the paladin. "Something that stood out?" "Armour...like yours. The-wait...the rifle...it said 'Dominion' on its side." "Yep, that's definitely her." "We already knew that," said Jerry, "why even ask?" "I had to confirm, just need a good eyewitness for when we bring her in. Whut else?!" "She..." murmured Thomas, "_saw through the data...thought she...had disposed of me but I listened...heard her next destination...confirm bzzrrt. _" "I was here too," said Martin, "she said she was going to Joliet, most definitely. You have to stop her, if she knows how to use that weapon we-" "I'm on it," said Jeffries. "We need to get there now, Jerry let's go." "I'm not going," said Jerry. "Whut?" "Look he's hurt bad I need to fix him." "If we don't stop Swan we may lose everybody's lives out on this-" "I'm NOT going, Tom needs help, he's done everything he can to protect that data and I am not leaving him like he's just worthless scrap!" "Our lives are more important! There are sixty-odd people out there who are gonna feel the wrath of this thing if we don't go NOW!" "...Martin." "Yes?" he replied to Jerry. "Go check on Theodore and Jackson, talk things over an' lemme know how bad their injuries are. Can you do that?" "...yes. I will."

As the small bot flew out of the room softly, the ghoul waited until he had left fully down the corridor before he spoke up once again. "...if you thought the same way you did just then, you wouldn't have saved my life all those years back." "Whut?" "So what if Thomas don't make it, he's been through a hundred-or-odd years, what's it gonna matter huh? I've been around fer two-hundred-and-fifty years an' even I get into bad scraps on occasion but you saved my life. Because you cared about people even if they had lived long enough fer other people to keep on going." "That's not whut I meant." "That's what it sounded like to me. So don't. Ever. Talk like that again, Darryl. I was the one that helped straighten you out, I was the one that told you about all you were cuz I knew what the world thought about such things. My world at least. And this world doesn't even know about such things." "Th-that...that wuz different, Thomas is..." "Is what? He can hear you you know, he just has manners unlike you do." Indeed Jefferson was listening to every word as Jerry's hands tenderly began rewiring as best as possible, trying to extend his power functions long enough in order to keep his vital neural system from decomposing. He saw the remnants of a human brain within, which he felt both pity and disgust for, for different reasons. Darryl however was slightly panicking, struggling to speak out: "That's not-...don't bring our past into this, that's got nothing to do with this, don't use that against me!" "You were on the edge of despair when I first met you, willing to give up yer life an' just end it all cuz of all the pain inside yer head, inside yer body an' I wanted to fix that, wanted to heal you...I know you risked yer life to save me cuz you wanted to end yours." "No...that's not...that's not-" "Am I wrong? I know you Darryl. You had a long time to fix yerself up, to reassert yerself before knowing who you are, what you REALLY are. No matter who says anythin' about you, I thought you'd have broken down after Momence but you didn't. You're not the woman I first knew back twenty years ago." "I...am NOT-" "I know. I know EXACTLY what I meant, and so do you...you're not the same person that you once were...you're a paladin. Nothing should stand in your way."

He understood once he began to calm down, sighing desperately before a nod of resignation as Darryl looked down upon Thomas mournfully, shame rising up through his voice. "I'm sorry. I did not mean that your life was worthless, you defended our data as best as you could. I didn't mean-" "No..." mumbled Jefferson, "I...apologise profusely...I did...all I can...but...no...you must stop her, do not mourn for me...you have to stop her." "I'm not leavin' you," said Jerry, "you are every bit as important as the next soldier and I'll be damned if I'll lose you here and now, not when I can help you." "You...have other people Zzrrt -to save...I won't...freedom is the right of all...sentient beings, I will not...let you waste that." "Right now I got no one else to protect. Just you. Paladin I'm sorry, but I can't abandon him, that's not how we do things around here when people need help." "Alright," said Jeffries, "I understand, I won't force you, but I'm not going alone, it's too dangerous to by myself. Whut do you suggest?" "Take James with you, he can ride a bike better than me anyway." "Whut?" "That kid can handle it, he'll follow you, just take him down, two bikes, there's yer backup, that guy was able to take down Hawk he can sure as hell take his momma out." "...alright. Stay here and keep Thomas patched up, we should be back within two hours." "Bring me back a souvenir sir." Jerry said this with a salute and a wink, as James returned gasping with a toolkit in his hand swinging it underneath heaving back hot breaths before handing to the senior knight. "Thanks Jim, that's all I need." "What do we...HHHhhhh...do about Swan?" asked FG breathless. "You're coming with me," said Darryl. "We're both the only ones available." "S-...seriously?!" "Are you willing to follow me? Are you strong enough to stand by me and fight to protect this entire state?" "Absolutely. Sir." With a salute back to him gulping a lungful of air, the raptor stood firm as Jeffries took him to the front entrance to grab their motorcycles, leaving Jerry behind to work on keeping Jefferson awake. He placed his tools out and readily began to open up the front plating for the central wiring to see what could be rerouted." "Alright, let's get to work Mr. President, hope ya don't mind I open ya a bit to save yer life." "Please...do all that you can Mr. Delgado." "Heh...just call me Jerry sir. I can call you Tom right?" "If you...insi zzrrrrt...hhhhh...Tom and...Jerry...quite a class act we make." "Hhhheheh...yeah...yeah that...that kinda works I like that, maybe after this we can go on tour." "HAH- BZZRRT...perhaps...one day." "We do it tomorrow. We've always got tomorrow." "They will...keep this land safe I hope." "I know. They will."

The city centre of Joliet was not hospitable for the two riders rolling in, twin set of motorbikes burning their way in hot off the streets in the long desert afternoon. Searching for a place possibly large enough from the schematics to house a nuclear weapon seemed nearly impossible, the many churches and foundations seeming to hide all sorts of secrets from them as they scouted round near the river. But they had an easier indicator all things considered. "Look for one of our bikes," said Jeffries, "no idea how Swan figured out how to drive one but I guess you learn all sorts being elite." "If you managed to learn fast so can she, it's not hard once you get used to torque...THERE!" James spotted the familiar silhouette of a beige motorbike sitting up against the gates of an old prison, a grand estate resembling a dark lord's manor with turret spires on all four corners as well as the central face of its front standing taller with parapets reaching out towards the sky. The Joliet Correctional Center, having long been abandoned before even the bombs dropped. The torn iron gates gave little resistance, as they slowly made their way in towards the indomitable front entrance. A black darkening spire of mournful existence, seeming to turn full with dread as they saw the doors had been breeched with a shotgun blast. "Definitely her," said Jeffries, "an ol' prison would be perfect fer hiding a missile." "Except for all the prisoners," said FG. "Not when they're already dead, this place might have got commissioned after it shut down, look there's a sign saying it's been condemned since...well, the fact it even has that tells you it's been empty for centuries." "She came right here as if almost knowing exactly where it was." "Must have gotten intel and our data was the missing piece. Come on, I'll lead, keep your gun ready." "Yes sir." The paladin walked in first, bringing out her jackhammer shotgun readily staring down towards the bleak reception area. Nothing so far could be seen of any indication of a break-in, the broken security monitors of a round central desk and two metal gates for scanning newcomers with potential metal objects. Not even they acknowledged the existence of two more strangers to its ghostly halls filled with chains and silence. Even without the wasteland all around it, they felt the oppressive architecture come bearing down harder upon them. Bleak desolate grey and black, pale floors and dark halls with ceilings beyond reach like the death of hope. At first they had no idea on where to go amidst correctional rooms pale with old blood, the central courtyard where basketball hoops tilted half-fallen to the ground amidst rusted dumbbells and twisted chainlink fences, as well as the cells themselves where dreams had come to die, scratched on the walls with chalk marking down days towards their reckoning. The facility was much larger than expected, with various courtyards and areas spanning a good eight acres of land. But Darryl was smart enough to have been tracking plenty of people over the years to know precisely on where to go. Seeing footprints embedded in dust, the odd newly-made crack in old tilesets or seeing a door with dust sweeped from it by a newly-disturbed hand upon it. He tracked down through hallways and cell corridors, rows upon rows of former living for both criminal and innocent. It took them thirty minutes to find an unusual doorway opened beneath a subsection of stairs that looked far more new than the rest of the facility.

Keeping their guns close, they made their way down seeing it had been opened up recently as claws and boots clacked on the metallic staircase. Reaching the very bottom, they soon found the basement area looking along one hall to their left, showing a newer construct of door compared to the other two hallways right and centre. Darryl walked forwards keeping his gun up and ready as they approached the oval steel door, turning the wheel at the centre before pulling it open. James gave assist, pulling it back far as Jeffries walked into the room. Then the alarm came on. Darryl rushed forwards on instinct, hearing the screaming glare of red all around him before two machine guns popped out from their turrets on either side and fired brutally upon the doorway. The raptor ducked and hid behind the door as Jeffries turned and fired on one, cracking four shots into the left top corner of the room and blowing the one turret off before focusing on the next. Two small explosions signalled time to reload, popping shotgun shells carefully into the Pancor before signalling James to come forwards. He saw that the room they were in now appeared to have once been some sort of boiler room, or perhaps more accurately a generator room due to the huge pipes funnelling something on either side of them. A narrow walkway lead through between them, as they heard something trembling in the next room. The room ahead was much larger, a control room laden with panels on each wall with a space big enough to hold an elephant, despite being walled in with bronze piping rushing torrents of water through them, sprouting through the walls before bending to dig down into the floor. Monitors showed very clearly on well-preserved screens of other areas unknown, as the main console on the opposite side of the room glistened with preserved care for being shut in a vault for years without dust or decay ever touching them. The doorway was open, but not for long since the moment Darryl Jeffries walked in, a steel shutter slammed down with a blaring warning suddenly separating him from James. "SIR?! SIR WHAT'S WRONG?!" "DON' WORRY ABOUT IT!" said Jeffries. "JUST KEEP YOUR BACK COVERED!" "I wouldn't worry about him." The voice of Paladin Swan came clear through the room, coming out from behind a pipe from the console-laid side of the room as a brutish dominating figure in steel power armour and blue patterns on her forehead helmet. Jeffries readied his shotgun as did Swan staring down, before hearing her say: "I had hoped that Hawk was better than this, now he's put you in even worse trouble." "How?" said Darryl. "By knowing whut your plan was? To wipe us all out?" "It's much more than that, I will give you one chance. Leave this place now, or I shall be forced to defend myself." "Like the way you defended yourself against Mr. Jefferson?" "First you can't acknowledge your own body, now you sympathise with a robot? I always knew you were sociopathic." "I'm not the one planning to launch a nuke and destroy the entire state, THAT is sociopathy!" "You don't understand and it is best that you never do. You cannot interfere with this." "Try me, I will NOT let you destroy my people." "...you ignorant bitch. All you had to do was play nice but you can't even control your own people, that lizard of yours almost ruined everything after killing Hawk!" "Well Hawk attacked him first an' was ranting like a fucking lunatic, even before the alcohol." "DON'T talk about my son that way you fucking WHORE! At least I can actually raise a child, unlike YOU doing god knows what to your body, I made him strong against the world!" "By whut, feedin' him beer instead of momma's milk?" "THAT WAS HIS PROBLEM, NOT MINE, HE SHOULD HAVE OVERCOME IT HIMSELF, I WILL NOT CODDLE HIM! This is the Brotherhood of Steel not a fucking baby shower, he fought like a warrior and protected Outpost Theta from the yao guai so you RESPECT HIM!" "I don't care about the dead. I care about the living that you plan to wipe out with this...room." "I am warning you now Jeffries, leave this place NOW! I assure you that you will not suffer if you leave quietly." "And I assure you that I WON'T go quietly, stop this plan now or I WILL kill you." "...heheh...you think you can kill me? What can you do, you're just a commander pulling rank and popping Buffout like some crackhead desperate to grow a penis." "Don't. Fucking test me." "Why? It's true isn't it? I'm not afraid of some crazy bitch who can't stand to look at herself in the mirror, let alone have the balls to shoot her superior, literally, so why don't you-"

Darryl did not waste time raising his shotgun and firing straight for Swan's head, who ducked behind a pipe as the gunfight between them began promptly. Swan pulled out carefully, seeing her foe duck behind another pipe opposite her as they readied themselves for their last battle. "Think I'm crazy now?!" cried Jeffries. "An' that's JUNIOR Paladin to you, Paladin!" "SHUT UP! I do NOT have to deal with this, not today! Not fucking today, you will die like a BITCH, just as you always have been when I personally write your death certificate!" "NOW you wanna write me something about my profile?! Go ahead, try me, because THIS is gonna be your swan song!" "I know it is," murmured Swan darkly to herself. She dodged low out of cover before hurrying to the next pipes just in front of Jeffries, pulling to the other side of it and firing hard where her subordinate had just been. But Darryl had seen her shadow cross the floor and swiftly ran round the corner to behind Swan's head, ready to fire the moment he saw steel. She turned and dodged to her right the moment she realised what was about to happen, Darryl pulled the trigger a second too late crackling shots across the wall before dodge-rolling to one side expertly despite the thick armour as Swan's shots boomed over his head. Before Darryl could shoot back, Swan pulled out an ultra-powerful flare, burning red-hot before hurling towards the junior paladin, blinding him temporarily by its harsh light in the room as she ran across the room. Darryl regained his sight swiftly, ducking behind the pipes once more before Swan had a chance to turn and fire, knowing the two wanted to preserve their ammo before having a chance to reload. Darryl also knew that he was at a disadvantage concerning ammo clips before reloading, ten shots in his Jackhammer compared to Swan's Dominion riot shotgun which held twelve. Eight was now left before reloading to Swan's ten if she had a full clip at the beginning, and he knew that she most certainly would. Deciding to switch tactics, Darryl ran across the room at the other end of the pipes, as far away from Swan as possible who did not dare shoot just yet. Expecting her opponent to pop out at the left corner's pipes, she suddenly saw something small and round suddenly hurl through the air before rattling with a clack on the ground. She wasted no time running towards it and suddenly hurling it towards the other side of the room towards the steel door shutter, expecting a grenade blast to destroy the console. It wasn't until she heard the rattling clack of pills that she realised it was in fact a soot-covered container of Buffout. Darryl rushed behind her firing hard at her back, three shots in burst-fire before the shrieking of Swan would be heard as she fell forwards, hurling another flare from her pockets straight behind her towards Paladin Jeffries to blind him once more. The cracking dents within the back of her power armour went inwards, scraping against her back harshly as she stumbled to the right side of the room hiding, with Darryl swiftly following after like a wolf to its wounded prey. Swan was ready, ducking at the bottom-right corner of the room and waiting for the first sign of trouble before seeing the glint of armour at the opposite side. Firing once, she rushed to her left and fired straight to where Darryl had dodged back, buckshot riddling down his right side as dents punched into his arm and leg to send him buckling to his knee. He turned and fired another three shots, burst-firing to keep Swan back before retreating towards the top-left corner and swiftly reloading five shots back into his Jackhammer.

The senior paladin rushed her way forwards seeing Darryl's hiding spot briefly before pulling up her shotgun, firing in a spread-shot that while slower than Darryl's gun, was more powerful for it. Catching Darryl in the leg, she heard his roar as blood oozed from the crumpled power armour crunched inwards around the leg, falling to one side before unloading three shots hard into Swan's chest. Backing off and struggling to clutch her chest, the wounds went sharp as her armour cracked, and before she could even move back, Darryl fired at her bowed head. The buckshot snapped through her helmet, cracking it hard enough to split apart the covering over her right eye showing a clear blue iris burning with hatred. Swan glared down at the junior paladin before charging without warning, bullrushing to slam her helmet-covered head straight against Darryl's chest the moment he stumbled back up. Crunching against the wall, Swan immediately brought up her right hand to crack down hard upon Darryl's face, but the paladin blocked it quickly with an elbow covered by steel before trying to swing with his own right hand. Swan grabbed it in mid-swing by the wrist before headbutting her subordinate hard, roaring pain brutally throbbing within Darryl's head as the broken steel helmet cracked hard against his unprotected skull. Knocked back and dizzying from the blow, blood poured down from his face as he struggled to pull up his Jackhammer to fire back. Swan no longer cared for a firefight and simply rushed forwards in a pure rage of battle, slamming her shotgun down like a club onto Darryl's arm and knocking his weapon out onto the floor. The senior paladin landed on top of the junior, crushing with her metal weight before bringing both fists up into a crushing hammerblow that Darryl just barely dodged by tilting his head to one side, feeling the vibrations crumbling against the floor. Swiftly shoving his arms upwards on top of hers, he blocked her from raising them as he shoved his fingers through the crack in her helmet stabbing for the eye. One finger managed to jab straight to her pupil forcing her to reel back shrieking from the sensitive pain as the junior paladin grabbed her sides and rolled her hard, laying on top of her. He ran for the weapon, seeing Swan's Dominion shotgun laying on its side and quickly pulling it to his chest ready to fire at her. Swan in turn grabbed at his Jackhammer and immediately began burst-firing. Darryl swiftly dodged to his left using the pipes still as cover and ran a circle around to behind it as Swan hurried to keep up. But the junior paladin had simply dashed one way before sneaking quietly back to where he was, waiting for his superior to come round before firing. The brutal power of the riot shotgun was much stronger than he anticipated, his chest hurting as he fired half-way at her knees.

Screaming with violent fury as her own gun ripped through her leg armour crushing against her steel thigh, she leapt forwards biting through the pain as Darryl dodged to his right. Trying to fire once more, his arms began to sting from the sheer power of the modified choke cracking hard across the room with an almost deafening force that he cringed at feeling in his fingers. Swan took the chance of his momentary weakness and fired. Click. No ammo left in the Jackhammer. Darryl smirked cruelly before Swan shrieked and threw his weapon at him, bullrushing towards him. Dodging the weapon one way, he was forced to duck underneath Swan's head as she came rampaging towards the wall behind him which had next to him the main console of the nuclear launch. He tried firing the Dominion once more but Swan grabbed it and twisted his arm inwards before pulling it up, weakening his grip harshly as he gasped before she took her gun and hurled it to one side. Headbutting once again, Darryl dodged as she hit the wall with no damage done to her, the subordinate paladin slamming his steel knee straight into the metal crotch making Swan buckle slightly. Her leg wounded already added enough pain before a fist came flying to her bowed helmet-clad face, a rising uppercut that snapped her head back hard as she stumbled but did not let go. Pincering him against the wall, the senior paladin slammed her unwounded knee twice into Darryl's crotch before a violent fist came three times into the bloodied Beech leader's cheeks. The third fist slammed him down onto the floor brutally beaten, face swollen and heavy bruising beneath his dark skin as he crawled forwards quickly to grab at his Jackhammer, forgetting for a brief instant it was now empty. Swan did not fear him knowing this and waited for him to stand back up, seeing the struggling paladin subordinate gasp fiercely with a sudden wince of what was clearly feminine-sounding pain. Blood dripped from his cheeks as he turned around slowly, his superior chuckling breathlessly. "Look at you...you may be a strong fighter but in the end you'll always just be a worthless punk. What's the matter, no more drugs to pump you up? Make you feel BIG? Make you feel like you got a real swagger with a fat dick between your legs? You're pathetic. And being here only proves that you are still just as ignorant and insane as you always were."

But Darryl did not stop, simply gritting his teeth and stumbling forwards with a sudden rush by playing on appearance, forcing out a deep wheezing pain before regaining his second wind and slamming both wrists into Swan's upper shoulders. Her arms were now trapped, and at worst she could grapple him in a bear hug squeezing his back as if threatening to snap his spine. Darryl breathed hard against her piercing eye staring right towards him as he snarled out: "Whut makes you think I'm worthless? I beat back the Vipers, I commanded Momence fer years, I rose through the ranks faster than anyone anticipated, I earned your RESPECT before you went shitting on everythin' about me!" "Because I found out about you, your stupid insane ideas, at first I thought it was funny. Hilarious even. But...nnnngh...you wouldn't let it lie, you just couldn't let anyone else tell you what you were and you got arrogant. Arrogance leads to stubbornness. And stubbornness...turns to madness." "I...am NOT...insane. You're just too blind and arrogant to see me for whut I am, I don't give a fuck whut you think, I earned my right to be here and if I can command a squadron good as the next one, I DESERVE to make paladin no matter who tells me whut!" "SHUT UP! FOR FUCK'S SAKE YOU ARE NOT A MAN, YOU'LL NEVER BE ONE YOU FUCKING BITCH YOU'RE JUST A CRAZY PSYCHO! I DON'T CARE HOW GOOD YOU ARE AT BEING A PALADIN, BUT I WILL NOT LET SOME FREAK INSIST ON BEING CALLED A MAN, ON THEIR STUPID FILING FORM AND JUST THROW THEIR LIFE AWAY OUT OF FUCKING ARROGANCE!" "SHUT UP!" "YOUR NAME IS NOT EVEN DARRYL! CROW TOLD ME WHAT IT WAS, HE FOUND OUT ALL ABOUT YOU WHEN YOU FIRST ENTERED THESE RANKS, AND I AM _ NOT _, GOING TO HAND OVER A COMMENDATION TO SOMEONE TOO STUPIDLY FUCKED-UP TO FACE _ REALITY! _" "THIS IS MY REALITY, YOU DON'T FUCKING UNDERSTAND WHUT I GO THROUGH, YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND!" "TRY ME, _ MERYL! _" A blinding flinch almost too fast, before the slam fist of Paladin Jeffries came straight through Swan's skull to crack hard across the helmet, the butt of his shotgun dealing a second blow knocking her down to the floor. Before Swan even had the chance to move, a boot came swinging up towards her chin brutally smacking it against the wall next to the console. Darryl did not waste any time slamming the sole of his foot repeatedly against Swan's face, breaking enough of the helmet to cause a few small cracks to appear as he punctuated his words with each slam of his boot.

"My NAME! IS! DARRYL, BITCH! _" "_GUUUH! GHHRK! HHhhh...ugrhk...you...f-fucking psycho." Coughing fits of distressed pain came from Swan as the junior paladin stopped seeing her not resist, bleeding down her neck beneath the helmet clearly with a few bruises broken through her face. She shuddered looking up towards Jeffries through a lone single blue eye piercing from the cracked helmet, sneering from her tone. "You can't even let it go...not even for a second not even for authority...when things turn serious and it's time to stop playing dress-up you STILL...f-fucking...just a child you are...this is why you never made paladin." "I don't care whut you think, you call me arrogant? Try you constantly shutting me down every goddamn time I tried to earn promotion, always you picked on the smallest details that you think were 'wrong' just because you can't look past this body I was born with, I didn't ask for this, I didn't ASK to be fucked up like this you think I enjoy this?! You think I wanted this?! Feeling like some fucking mental patient, I thought...I thought I was insane, some kinda freak before Jerry told me all about it, no one in this wasteland knows about a thing like this, I thought it was some kinda illness! Then he told me. About how people like me existed...through all of history." Jeffries calmed down as he began to recollect, watching Swan bleakly as she struggled to sit up against the wall listening. "People that...born with a brain that's just different from their body, all out of sorts different needs it feels like...like something scooped me out of the body I should have been born with before I had a chance to feel it, put me in this...this...body that feels wrong no matter whut I do. Anything I do is just...even...even before the great war Jerry told me that people knew, people knew whut it was an' could give me the life I needed if I lived back then! But not anymore...not...not out here. I wasn't sick...I'm just...I was just born differently from everybody else." "Hhhheh...so is a sociopath...what makes you any different?" "I HAD TO DEAL WITH THIS SHIT FOR THIRTY-NINE YEARS, MY WHOLE LIFE IS NOTHING BUT A DAMN WAR WITH MY OWN SELF AND I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO FIX THIS! I had to do everything just to shut down the pain in this worthless body, get a chemist of my own she knew how to mix it up an' for the next few months I can focus...I can forget. I keep this armour on an' nothing's different about me. I'm a Junior Paladin, an' that's whut matters to me, not any of my problems, I can forget...forget I even have them and just be...just be Darryl for the next two months before my next treatment. And I'm a damn good paladin and you KNOW I am!" "Screaming about things like that," murmured Swan, "wanting...chems pumping up in your body, you're a junkie and you're clearly insane. I...do not need...people like you in our brotherhood." "Too bad."

He stepped forwards and planted a foot sternly upon Swan's chest, leaning pressure on her to make her gasp more fiercely. "I'm not leaving just because I'm some inconvenience, just because you can't accept me...you can accept ghouls an' mutants so whut the fuck makes me different?" "Because-HHHHhhh...their brains are working perfectly." "So does mine!" "I've never heard such bullshit in my life." "I didn't hear about the Eagle before you told me, doesn't mean the Eagle didn't exist before that now, did it? I protect people, and I'm good at it, that's ALL that matters." "Heh...says the sole survivor of Momence, couldn't save more than two people, could you?" "Fine. I failed. I've accepted that, but I move on and I keep doing my best, I did the best I could of a bad situation that nobody was prepared for but I did all I could. And that still wasn't good enough, but I accept that. Not because of who I am, not because of my problems, but because I just couldn't do it, I was unprepared for a nightstalker horde and I could not do anything. So you know whut I did? I just kept going, I kept the people of Beech alive when no one else would look after them. Where were YOU when they needed you? Where the fuck was the Elder when people were dying out here without somebody to guide them?!" "If we let every goddamn crazy person in what would the fucking world come to?!" "Ask yourself. Or Crow. Or maybe Hawk when he's sober." A forceful push of the boot on her chest made Swan clench her teeth seething towards Darryl. "NNNGH...f-fuck you. You think he's your example against me, my own SON!?" "Least I don't rely on alcohol." "No...you rely on chems to fuck your body up, make you think you're like a man but you won't, you never will be. STOP pretending you fucking child. There are worse problems out there than not being happy with the way you look, you're such a fucking queen." "I know there are worse problems out there. Because I fought them, I protected my people the best I can and unlike you, I don't care whut people think about themselves, or others. I do my best, I struggle sure but who doesn't with their problems, and I do whut I can to be a paladin to the people I love, the people I stand for because they're MY people. They look up to me. They trust me because they know I will give my life to do everything I can to keep them safe. Which is why I'm here beating the everloving fuck out of you." "Hhhhhh...then...if they trust you s-so much...h-how come no one else knows why you demand they call you sir?" "Because they don't have to know. I will tell them when I am comfortable enough to do so, the public do not need to know every tiny detail about my life, they don't have to long as they follow me because they TRUST me. I never ask about their personal lives, I never demand any details, bits and pieces so I can use against them, to control them, never. And I don't expect them to ask me for the same either, ghouls, lizards, mutants, we're all in this together, just doing our best to survive an' help each other out. If we want peace then we will bring peace. But if you bring us war..." He pointed his gun down upon Swan's face. "Then we'll all bring war upon you." Looking up slowly towards the console as a beeping started up, she smiled and turned back towards Paladin Jeffries. Shaking her head with disdain she spoke with: "Heh...and yet, all you say is total bullshit, because you can't even see the big picture." "Whut's that?" "...I aim for peace too."

Grabbing his foot close she slammed her knee upwards beneath it, twisting him down hard as he fell roaring with pain before she stood up holding his foot still and stomped threatening to break it in two. Seeing the armour resist without bending to her will, Swan screamed before a vicious boot came straight towards Darryl's battered chest, knocking him across the room as he clutched his leg harshly. Swan readily moved to the console, a large keyboard with a panel screen showing nothing but a green cursor, and brought out an ancient-looking red key. The teeth were not even worn through immaculate conditions before she twisted it into one of two keyholes raised from the main console, and soon the alarm came. A screaming tremulous haze of red that turned blind and deaf both paladins in the main room. Swan however started panicking, suddenly backing off from the console as Jeffries did his best to stand up on his wounded knee feeling it throb with crushed pains seeing the senior paladin start feverishly searching for something. All whilst the room began rumbling as the roar of a mighty dragon started trembling throughout the surface. "Wh-where is it?! N-no, no it's not meant to launch yet WHERE IS IT?! HERE!" Looking over to one side of the console, she saw there was a rectangular indentation in the wall where an opaque glass panel covered it. Seeing it did not move she tried to lift it upwards, feeling it could slide up before realising it had been broken quite sturdily off its hinges. She readily slammed her fist into it twice to break it with a cracking shatter, seeing nothing there. Nothing except one handheld transceiver, shaped like a brick with a radio transmitter beeping from the top of it. Her fears turned worse realising what this could potentially mean. "No...n-no, where is it?! WHERE IS IT?!" "Whut?!" cried Jeffries. "THE OTHER ONE! WHERE IS IT, THERE'S SUPPOSED TO BE TWO, IT SHOULD BE RIGHT FUCKING HERE, I-" "-was a little slow off the mark." A voice came from the walkie-talkie sitting on the shelf panel. It was unmistakeably that of Crow crackling through the airwaves of the desert. Swan grabbed it and hastily pressed to send asking feverishly: "C-Commander?! The trigger, it's not here where is it?!" "I have it here safely with me." "Wh-...wh-what?! That wasn't...th-that's not part of the plan!" "I know. Because you did not stay part of the plan." "WHAT!?" "Did you really think I was unaware of your true nature? Infiltrating my plans just to further your own agenda against mine?" "I...I-i don't...what are you saying?" "Don't play with me. You thought you could make sure I was safely disarmed once you heard about the Eagle's location, making me certainly not able to exact my plan of purifying this wasteland. Did you really think your son was anywhere better than me at finding things?" "B-but...that...that's impossible, you...you couldn't have known where it was, not without the data! You had one key I had the other, WE HAD A DEAL!" "I've found many secrets, your son simply found one part of it and I chose not to inform him, knowing that you would make him sympathise with you even more, even if you don't tell him everything." "BUT THERE WAS ONLY ONE DATA PIECE, HE TOLD ME THERE WAS!"

"Because I took the other one. Idiot, had he noticed with more focus and perception without a bottle glued to his lips, he would have known I had taken the other Pip, a pact formed between two scientists of the Enclave who were tasked with the operation of this former government installation in the event of an attack. Two keys by which once inserted, they would achieve fruition to complete this task. A task which they had plans on restoring on further notification from their president, before mutants came upon them and destroyed most of their research. Research I aim to complete in order to reach our true legacy." "Wait whut legacy?!" cried Jeffries. "Whu-the hell you talkin' about the fuck is this?!" "The true legacy of the Brotherhood of Steel, despite this Enclave technology of which at the very worst we agree on one thing. To preserve this earth for the human race. I expected better from this brotherhood after the St. Louis massacre, almost a hundred years ago and still you haven't learned." "But...b-but that's, you can't do this! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT, YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" "I have every right now and forever, I am your commander for a reason, Jeffries. If the Elder could not stand against me, what hope do YOU have?" "WHUT?! Whut do you mean?! WHUT DID YOU DO TO THE ELDER!?" "Buried him. Along with his former council's bodies, all five of them. There is only me now, and that makes ME your superior no matter what for the few hours that remain." Jeffries stood back shocked at hearing this, registering it barely upon knowing what he meant. Swan did not respond looking shameful upon herself, only confirming that his words were true upon her absolute silence. The junior paladin covered his mouth with disgrace and horror, and through all this, the door behind them had opened in the midst of burning fury and chaos that was heard from outside the room. James could only watch with utmost confusion as Crow responded: "Allow me to show you our very reason for coming here." "H-huh?!" asked Swan dumbfounded. "Type in this command into the terminal. Enter forwardslash-access, D-colon-sec-cam, colon-launch-two." In the midst of shock she slowly typed in as he commanded, the terminal suddenly coming to life with the view of a most terrible sight. From an unseen camera outside of the prison's walls, there was a large white piercing object slowly raising towards the sky from the middle of the prison facility, through a crackling shot of the wasteland's perspective. The prison crumbled from within, the courtyard slowly widening its ancient maw as the Eagle rose high above it, buildings crumbling all around it with little care as the nuclear weapon emerged gracefully from its coccoon.

Smoke flew across the courtyard cleansing it in a deep burning fog that charred the walls with its white breath, a monstrous indomitable weapon ascending towards the heavens. Soon it had fully left the correctional facility as the rumbling started to die down, causing everyone's balance to straighten out more properly, the raptor stumbling his way forwards asking: "How...did you find this place?" "Ah, the lizard who does not know his place, I see all of the circus has arrived." "Tell me how you found this place, NOW!" "Watch your tongue." "Or what, you'll cut off my head like you did with Ramona, fuckface?!" "Yes. That is if there are any traces of you left once the Eagle comes down upon its prey." "Why are you doing this?! What, what fucking sense does this make, why do you wanna nuke this fucking place?!" "You degenerates struggling to co-exist with those beneath our human nature are the very cyst of our wasteland, the very reason that this place has not become prosperous for humanity already. Mutants, ghouls and now this beast who dares talk back, rather than adorn my boots with his skin, we could have progressed so much greater in the last hundred years were it not for you savages scrabbling for our supplies, our resources, our time and knowledge wasted upon you." "You...are you...oh my god are you fucking-SERIOUSLY!? You gonna give this racist bullshit NOW, RIGHT HERE?! IN THIS FUCKING WASTELAND?!" "I am if anything but racist, considering you are all not even human." "BULLSHIT, THAT MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE!" "I suppose it does not, not to a beast in any case. My grandfather gave his life to protect this brotherhood, a massacre that began the very downfall of this Midwest Division, and still you allow these walking abominations to keep file amongst you hoping they do not turn on us with their base animalistic needs. If none of you chose to live like human beings then you shall all share the same fate. Is that clear enough for you?" He walked up to the transceiver and snatched it from Swan's weakened grip until his teeth pressed up against it, breathing fiercely upon it. "...now you listen to me. I...will fucking murder you before I let anyone else get killed by your little conquest you supremacist _ fuck. " "_Try me. You don't even know where I am, but suffice to say I am quite clearly safe beyond what will be the very reach of the blast zone once this Eagle starts to fall. In fact, let's make your last hours more exciting, that's the least you deserve for such bravery. If you can find me within the next...three hours, before this state becomes the start of the human race properly, then you shall have one last fight with me. At the very least, I shall honour you with a warrior's death, rather than that of vermin. Farewell." The comms clicked off as James slammed his fists into it, frantically trying to think by not wasting a second's notice. "Alright we need to think, think, where has he gone?" "I-" stammered Swan, "I-i-i don't...I couldn't-" "WE'RE GOING TO FUCKING DIE WHEN THIS NUCLEAR BOMB HITS THIS IS NO TIME TO FUCK UP!" "ALRIGHT I GET IT! Just...lemme think...jesus...fucking I tried to stop him, I thought I could launch this thing into space and just blow it all up then, get rid of it from anyone using it again. You only need the one key to take the failsafe detonator with you so it would be launched at a later time and then detonated up in the solar atmosphere safely. I didn't think he'd already come, you-STUPID HAWK! God...dammit I trusted you, I thought you could handle this..."

She broke with the briefest of tears piercing through her cheeks, barely stained before she wiped them off struggling to think, clutching her knees before falling down slowly against the wall as sorrow completed her. Darryl slowly offered a hand to her making Swan look up at him. "Wha-...what are you doing?" "Helping you up." "...what are you-" "You wanted to stop this thing, really?" "Yes." "Then...you knew...all about this. And you didn't tell anyone." "I couldn't trust anyone, the moment one word went to Crow or he knew anyone was going to upset his plan things would go bad, he'd kill all of you one by one if he had to, this was just a much more clean way of doing it rather than the alternate option. I had to keep it secret, or else he'd have killed you all if he had to just to complete this...mission of his." "Just like he did the...the Elder? Whut happened?" "He...he wanted to be part of the original Brotherhood, west coast, wanted to...keep everything to only pure humans, said the riffraff were killing us slowly, ghouls and such they couldn't be trusted, made us weak because of their...needs. The Elder disagreed with him and he...just killed him. All the ones above he just, murdered them like six months ago. I knew but didn't say anything, knowing there was no one to report to I had no choice or else he'd kill me too! But I thought perhaps there was another way. If I just be obedient and follow through with things I might find a way, technically that makes HIM the Elder bu-" "No, it doesn't. He's not my elder and he's no longer my superior through all this. Neither is he yours." "Right...gotcha." She took Darryl's hand slowly, pushing up against the wall for support before standing up on both feet as she explained. "Hhhhh I thought I could get one step ahead of him, he had ideas, discovered...reports about an Eagle, some sort of old Enclave weapon, thought it was the perfect choice, something he found out when the Enclave division moved out to over here, some people from...control station 'ENCLAVE', imaginative name I know, dunno where it is, California I think...they started things out here, uncovered old stuff, but then mutants came and murdered all of them years back. He went and found all of it, Crow just...I just didn't think he had an idea anymore than I did of what it was but he had everything...played me and Hawk like we were nothing." "That doesn't matter," said Jeffries, "right now we know he's gonna kill all of us if we don't get out of here fast." "H-how...you can't escape the blast." "You got here on a bike, which you stole, I think we can carry everybody out using the bus, we got a former slave camp we can use for safety, been buildin' it the past two months, should have some safety there." "Y-yeah...of...course, we need to...round up everyone, get them all out on that bus an-" "What about Crow?" James' comment hung in the air like a bullet in mid-rift. Darryl looked confused at him as if the answer was obvious. "We can't find him, we can't stop him." "Bullshit, I'm not letting him get away with this." "Bu-" "NO! Sir I know you think it's impossible but it can't be, there just HAS to be a way to stop him, I won't let him fucking win!" "He won't, we'll get all our people out and find someplace else, then we'll stop him." "HE'S PLANNING TO DO THE SAME SHIT PEOPLE DID TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO, THAT'S NOT FUCKING FAIR!" "LIFE'S NOT FAIR, BUT WE DO OUR BEST TO SURVIVE JAMES, NOW HELP ME UP WITH MISS SWAN!" "Wait!" Swan's voice came clearly through the argument, a hand raised up for attention. "There is...one way I know." "Whut?!" "He...we had a map, on this, this...console. I know how it works just, we covered all the basics when we learned the schematics of this. It shows you the...blast radius that it'll cover...just look."

She typed in a new command on the terminal, recalling specifically what the previous user's actions had been and noted one that said "map simulation". The map suddenly appeared on a pure black screen filling out rapidly in green lines of an indeterminate geographical survey. The correctional facility was marked with an arrow on the top left of the screen, whilst the target site for the Eagle had been marked directly upon Chicago itself. The blast radius projected consumed literally the entire city, as well as Beech easily, stretching towards half the state southwards. Seventy miles of destruction in one giant circle of extinction. "...oh my god." Jeffries felt weak at the knees watching the projection reveal the sheer horror of its potential destruction. Swan however typed another command on it, recalling even further of Crow's input upon it trying to find where he might be. The map of the wasteland soon showed another new target marker, moving in towards a rather erratic-looking river snaking towards the right, before zigzagging to the left. It was noted as a "prime observation spot" according to the computer's map. "He was looking at this part last right here, noted it." "You sure about that?" "Definitely, he really planned this out but...I don't recognise it." "Well...at least there's one place we can escape to, that's definitely out of the blast radius, way beyond actually. We might just be able to survive this if we can get back home in time." "I didn't want this to happen...I...I tried, I wanted to stop this, beat him to it and destroy this damn thing bu-" "Hey." Darryl put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Let's just focus on surviving, you with me paladin?" "...yes...paladin." An unseen smile of hope came from within the helmet, before Darryl took command with: "Alright let's go, we need to get out of here an-" "WAIT!" James stopped them before they took leave, staring at the course of the insanely-twisting river on the terminal screen, almost recognising it somewhere before. A small hope came to him as he put his hand into his satchel, digging around softly before he took a small piece of paper. "This place...I know where this place is." "What?" Pulling out Gruthar's map tracing all the way back up towards Beech, he saw the exact same river turning serpentine from east to west. His eyes lighted up feeling a chance zip past him, knowing it had to be. "H-hah, I know it! I KNOW THIS PLACE!" "Wait what?!" cried out Swan. "YEAH, this-...I RECOGNISE THIS! See this?! On the map I got here, the one I got to Beech with?! That's the exact river I walked through, it's dried up and broken but this town? That's Watseka, THAT'S where he is!" "Are you serious?" "YES, I know it is, this map is perfect there's no way it could be anyplace else!" "But look at it, it's far away, even if you could get there and stop him cuz firstly, he WILL kill you! Crow is our strongest commander and the Elder couldn't stop him!" "Well I'm not the Elder, am I?!" "Secondly, you have no idea how long it would take, it took you how long to walk here?!" "I have a bike, three outside I can pick, I can make that journey in like two hours flat, and he told me we had three hours!" "You barely made the rank of Knight two months back," said Darryl. "Whut makes YOU think that you can stop him?" "I don't THINK I can stop him. I just know I have to. I'm not going down without a fight, he won't get away with this, not for all he did, people like him don't deserve to walk away free even if they're not able to kill everyone." "You really think you got a chance?" "Yes. I do." "...alright." "Wha-are you serious?!" asked Swan. "We have to get back to warn everybody to leave, just in case, James is not a higher rank but he is a good fighter and he's done a lot since he's been the past few months. If he wants to take a chance throwing himself at your former superior then it's better than nothing." "You can't...you're letting him walk to his death, we need to get everybody out!" "We will, but if James knows where this place is then there might be some chance." "...do you really think you can stop him?" "Does it matter?" said FG. "What's the point if you don't even try? You can't let that sort of people just walk away without punishment, he's not getting away with this and I have to make him pay. We're wasting time let's go." "I agree," said Darryl Jeffries. "I'll carry Swan and get back to evacuating everybody on the bus. If you survive...come see us in Jamestown. Don't die on me." "Yes Paladin. I won't let you down." "If you see Crow," said Swan sternly, "he'll have the transceiver on him and the detonator, you NEED to know something. I'll take this transceiver in case you need me to tell you something, alright?" "Got it." "The detonator is the actual transceiver he's carrying, it has two buttons, one to send signals and another concealed button that's underneath the transmitter end beneath a black-and-yellow panel. It's indesctructible so Crow can't simply destroy it, it can transmit a signal directly to the Eagle and cause it to explode prematurely, it was a backup safety measure the scientists made in case something went wrong and they had to contact each other for procedure, one inside here and one outside in observation." "Okay, what do I do?" "When it reads five-hundred-and-sixty kilometres on its tracking dial, or more than that, blow it up. It'll be out of Earth's atmosphere by then and we should be safe, it still has to make a huge arc over us before screaming down on us so you'll be given plenty of time for it. Five-hundred-and-sixty, remember that." "Alright, five-hundred-sixty, got it." With a firm salute and click of his heels he ran to the front entrance as fast as he possibly could, hopping onto the bike with the most fuel in it and revving it up towards the southeast. He checked his compass seeing that it worked perfectly as he readied himself for the longest, fastest most important race for his life. His omni-tool's clock told him it was now 4pm. Three hours to save the world. "I'm coming for you Crow...don't fucking wait up on me."

Seventy minutes left. Crow counted as time kept ticking through his mind, watching the skies above. He knew he couldn't see the Eagle from this distance but he almost thought he could, seeing a strange shape amidst the barest cloud covering across this wasted earth. The old Super 8 Motel remained standing unaware of becoming witness to yet another destruction, the old rotting walls of wood and brick simply victim to the state of entropy, even moreso its neighbouring gas station. Crow's peerless figure of dark steel stood out amidst the broken signs and long-distance trucks laying to their rest eternally, crushing the gas station's store halfway underneath. An old tanker that once contained gasoline now long-drained of its resources glinting dull steel upon his left, the two weighteen-wheelers almost meeting in an L-shape pattern from above as one front crushed itself against the underwheels of another. He almost wondered if he had spent too long staring at these former beasts of the many roads that he started hearing the faint sound of an engine. humming upon the waves of the desert. Then it turned louder from straight in front of him, tingling upon his ear like an annoying buzz as he saw a strange sight growing on the horizon, a cloud of dust rearing like the storm. One that he almost had trouble registering for his sheer disbelief for seeing him here, of all places as he tightened his jaw grimly. "_ CROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! _" Screaming down the long lane of Watseka with the city of Chicago long behind him, James burned hard rubber on the motorcycle ready to kill something. Crow stood waiting in front of the road not moving an inch as he watched James backflip off from the bike, making certain that it kept rolling straight for the last few feet towards killing Crow or at least outright wounding him. But the paladin commander was not so easily moved by sheer velocity, the red markings on top of his helmet glaring in the hot sun. Gently pulling back one fist in preparation, he narrowed his eyes waiting for the right moment before punching hard on just above the front wheel, crushing with raw force as the vehicle flipped forwards violently hard. The front wheel had stopped moving, suddenly crushed by the metal lump punching through the fender as Crow grabbed the front of the motorbike before swinging it hard once in a half-circle, throwing it straight towards FG as it rolled and crumpled across the ground straight for him.

James did not move and brought out his scissors, burning up with rising fury as his nanos turned his blades white-hot, hotter than ever before with newly-focused power. The motorbike rose before him in a bouncing crush as he came down with a single cleave through the motor itself. Screaming sparks of steel shrieked out from either side of him, a brilliant orange shower forced apart by the whet of his blades, carving the motorcycle's form neatly in half as both front and rear of it fell through to lay down behind him, cauterised and broken through. He had nowhere to run and James did not even care. Crow simply walked forwards within range of hearing answering with: "So. You found me. I suppose being such a primal beast you must have SOME instincts good for hunting." "I'm not here to hear you talk, I'm here to stop you!" "Do you really think you of all people can stop me? For all I have done, for everything I have fostered in this seething lair of degenerates, betraying the human race by even giving anything other than contempt to those not of-" "OKAY, NO! JUST! NO! I AM DONE, I don't wanna hear anymore of this FUCKING BULLSHIT!" "What?!" "I know what you're gonna say! You're gonna try and bullshit me about some kind of racial purity that you believe in EVEN WHEN THE ENTIRE WORLD IS FUCKING DEAD! Whether it's about humans, or white humans, or humans that live in one special area or whatever I don't care okay?! I don't give a FUCK what you believe in, because you know how many times I've heard that exact shit before?! TOO MANY! Every fucking world I go to, there's always at least ONE RACIST ASSHOLE, who thinks he knows better than anyone else!" "I know better!" argued Crow, "I-" "YOU'RE THE SAME AS EVERY OTHER ASSHOLE I'VE MET! Even I was an asshole like you! I used to think like you, thinking humans were the ones responsible for everything shit in my world, but I was young and stupid, I was angry at the world! I wanted someone to blame for everything but I manned up, and realised that the world is just a fucking shithole sometimes because of individual people and bad circumstances, and the only thing that's worth living for are the people you love! I may not be a human, but I at least LEARNED to take back my humanity and stop hating people as a GROUP as if they all act the same! I hate YOU however, as an individual, so you can just fucking DIE!" "...you...are the most worthless-" "SHUT UP!" James fired straight at Crow's helmet with his handgun, knowing it would just ping off of it insultingly. "You had your chance to fucking monologue, to make something different about your motivation beyond fucking bullshit like this, in THIS WORLD of all places, and you FAILED! You're nothing but another fucking ruler wannabe who wants to shape the world his own image, and every speech I heard is the exact fucking same! Now you gonna cry, or are you gonna fucking fight?!" "...I...will end you, you feckless unrepentant little fuck." "Well...guess what." The raptor taunted him with a beckoning gesture of his left gun-wielding hand, the other pointing his scissors directly at Crow as a cocky smile returned to him. "I'm the only one of my kind left in this world. So come on...I dare you. I dare you to give me the best damn ethnic cleansing I'll ever GET!" "And who...the hell..." Crow swung out his flaming sword brimming with vaporous gasoline trails like an aura of darkness, borne of man's fury within steel and gas fossil fuel. "Do you think you even are to even stand against me?" "My name is James Campbell. And I will NOT let people like you exist just so you can ruin the lives of those around you, and I will not run! I will NOT surrender!" He swung out his scissors with one fell sweep, streaking across the desert dust as he rushed towards him screaming: "I WON'T LET YOU DESTROY THIS WORLD AGAIN!"

The moment he raised his gun ready to fire into the commander's neck, Crow grabbed the front muzzle of the beretta and crushed it in his steel hand easily, cracking the gunmetal as James immediately let go of it to take his first strike. The flaming sword of "Demise" came down on his head as James striked up towards it, friction scraping between the two burning hot blades as he dodged to his right, letting Crow's blade fall fully before the raptor spun once backwards, building up momentum for a brutal strike upon Crow's helmet. The steel helmet of his power armour was monstrously thick, but a good burning horizontal line was now carved on its face barely as Crow barely flinched, swinging his sword out to his left to catch James by the arm. The raptor immediately countered by fuelling his nanos through his left arm and blocking the sword with more than a dozen tetra-blocks, the many holes never connecting perfectly together, but as a whole shielding him briefly as the stinging flames of gasoline licked across his left arm. It gave him time to move back to face Crow once more. Swiftly deconstructing the blocks over his left arm to save power, he rushed forwards once more and clashed with Crow diagonally, the two blades crossing an X once before the momentum repelled the steel swords from each other. James swung the other way, harshly from his left with left hand on his right wrist for resistance as Crow countered back to form another X, his own left hand still holding the broken handgun as he swung his fist through James' head, the raptor ducking harshly to avoid both fist and burning sword as he blasted a harsh wind in front of him. The gust of wind forced James backwards, dodging Crow's attacks fully as the Paladin Commander never moved from his place, a steel titan of awe and terror upon the wastes who swung his blade deftly with a beckoning taunt. The raptor ran towards him, but dodged left the moment the human pulled his blade back to swing downwards as he in turn struck upwards with his scissors, burning always with an intense nanomechanical fire blazing of pure chemical force. Crow blocked his attack with a slam of the fist, hurling the broken gun away to grab the scissors themselves.

James however had an idea, shanking forwards as Crow pushed down on the scissors ready to strike with his own sword down upon FG. Swinging on the scissorhandles underneath Crow's fist, "Demise" whirled over his head completely as James' feet scrabbled on the harsh earth as he grabbed at Crow's face, leaping up onto his chest by kicking off the ground and scrabbling. With a hand to his helmet he burned a furious force of flames, cooking his helmet up and scalding his face possibly, enough for Crow to roar and drop the scissors from his grip before James backflipped off of him, grabbing his blades from the ground nearby. "You....worthless LIZARD! _" Finally Crow moved from his spot, rushing forwards with latent fury as he cleaved his sword through the air towards James, the hot winds of the desert proving no match for his burning gasoline vapours, the scent of death out on the wastes. James dodged right and immediately blocked against the sudden horizontal swing of the flaming sword, clashing hard as he turned fast towards him. Crow was faster than he looked, turning almost just as fast to strike against his blade in guarding, an inverted cross as James' scissors cleaved down on top of Crow's blade. The human was made of pure strength, slamming his sword upwards hard enough to send FG back reeling with his own scissors swinging up behind his head stumbling backwards. Crow thought he had won, his right arm in front of his face ready to swing out a decapitating blow upon the raptor's exposed neck. But with a twist of his step, he turned hard enough to his left and swung out his left arm straight towards the coming blow reassembling a thick gauntlet of tetra-blocks down to the wrist, unbreakable but not infallible as his teetering force of falling aided his left arm's swing. The sword "Demise" struck out against James' covered hand, clashing with a hot shriek of resistance as the only thing they could do was slam his left arm away forcing James to spin falling to the ground. But he was not hurt at least, guarding himself well as he dodgerolled to the left as soon as he hit dust, boosting himself up with a burst of wind and scissors up high to spin fast in the air. Whirling like a brief tornado, he summoned a desert gale briefly to his aid as the fire in his blades burnt hotter and whiter than ever, igniting the hot winds around his body into that of a true scirocco, roaring with: "_NOW YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD! _" Spinning forwards with his body horizontal, his scissors swung down with sheer momentum striking down upon Crow's guarding blade, his horizontal block smacked down before the raptor's twin burning tips scratched and charred violently upon his face and chest. Scraping pieces of his armour off, burning deep wounds chipped at his steel form as he roared with violent outrage. One punch slammed straight into the whirlwind itself to knock James out of it, his body sent flying across the gas station lot before hitting against a rusty old fuel tanker. The wind swiftly faded as Crow came charging through, the raptor staggering back up as he saw "Demise" come bearing down upon him, the Paladin Commander pulling his blade back behind his right side as if ready to slice his head off. James readied himself for the last moment, his leather armour still holding but nowhere near able to handle such a monstrous weapon as he waited for Crow's charge to step down. The moment he stepped a second slower, ready to sever the raptor's head from his throat, he blasted the ground beneath him with a sudden shock of wind. "_WULD!"

Like a rocket burst he suddenly leapt a great height, the human slayer carving his sword with one swing deep into the metal tanker as he roared with vengeance, screaming steel cutting deep against the sword. James was now on top of the tanker, staring down upon him as Crow suddenly drove his sword right into the engine, the unchecked generator set ablaze by violent sparks of gasoline-fuelled fire, a warning of things to come. Crow ran to the right, the shrieking firey blade cutting through the entire tanker's side as the raptor ran fast to try and beat him. The metal tanker cried with agony, groaning as steel sparks shot out across the paladin's burn-marked armour, the raptor's work glaring like an open wound. Running the entire length of the vehicle, the engine soon finally ignited from the burning heat it had been given, exploding piece by piece as each severed part of the tanker's weight blasted up into the sky. The raptor felt every shudder come near him, closer and closer as sections shot off with crackling bursts almost deafening him at the fourth one, right upon his heels before he jumped just before the whole thing completely came apart. His claws sparked with a blue light, shimmering gusts of wind blasting him higher and higher up towards the gas station's rusted sign which was a rectangular design, old and faded red that creaked upon feeling his weight. The vehicle's frame broke in two upon its last explosion, a shocking radiating boom of a small mushroom cloud as testament to its atomic energy. Crow simply stood watching with marvel before watching the pieces fall, heading towards one steel plate the height of a truck and grabbing with one hand. Seeing James grapple onto the sign, he spun once for momentum and hurled the thick steel hard towards the centre of the sign, a broken tremble of dull tones humming through its frame. It was a brief enough spot for James to plan out his next strategy, waiting and watching what Crow would do as he hurled another plate of steel harder than before, roaring with sheer muscle as the lower strut suddenly snapped. Cleaved in half straight through by the force of the solid plate, the sign's lower support began to buckle and break, groaning as it fell forwards with raptor in tow. James had an idea, seeing the dust suddenly pulse from the crumbling structure as he grappled onto one part of the sign as if trying to duck behind it. When he felt gravity take ahold of him once more, he stood upon it seeing he was high enough for Crow to not entirely see him, leaping from behind cover in mid-fall and plunging his burning white scissors downwards. Screaming with fangs glistening in the hot desert sun, he saw Crow anticipate his attack a second early as his hands gripped both handles. As the paladin swung up his sword to deflect, the raptor swung open his scissortips which scraped above and below the flaming "Demise" before sinking straight through Crow's armour. The human bellowed with sudden pain as he felt his flesh start to burn, both above his stomach and his lower abdomen, the raptor's weight pushing harder down directly on top of both scissors and sword trapped in the very middle where the scissors' joints met.

Despite the pain running through him Crow did not falter once, simply putting one foot back to resist the sudden weight before his left hand grabbed out towards the raptor's neck. James pulled back and suddenly backflipped, pulling his blades out as they swung upwards to scrape across Crow's chin, further the cut into his armour they went that he almost felt their heat against his lips. James stood a small distance away taunting him to come again. But Crow had other ideas, grabbing one of the parts of steel casing from the tanker before throwing it suddenly at FG. The raptor dodged right, feeling the force of it whoosh past his ear but even more did he notice Crow suddenly come charging down upon him, not given a second chance as his huge steel shoulder cracked into the raptor's jaw. Caught against the paladin's armour, Crow slammed him against the grill of a half-turned truck as if he was roadkill, bruising his face hard by the powerful force of his brutal charge. James knew he was too close for either of them to use swords, but the paladin's fist came down upon him as James was pinned down by Crow's right arm caught against his chest. The fist pounded through the steel grill, cracking with a shrieking pop that near-deafened James who dodged his head just left of the punch. The second blow came to his right, another desperate dodge using his neck alone as he struggled to power up. Crow screamed in his face, slamming his whole left arm straight into the grill just after James had ducked his head forwards, hugging the arm that pinned his chest desperately as he bought enough time. Warm metal covered his right arm, scissors swapped to his left as he charged up his energy. "WHY WON'T YOU DIE!? _" ranted Crow. "BECAUSE _FUCK YOU, THAT'S WHY!" "SHUT UP, YOU ANNOYING LITTLE WORM THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP YOUR FATE! YOUR SETTLEMENT HAS BARELY AN HOUR LEFT TO LIVE AND THIS IS WHAT YOU CHOSE TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE?! ARE YOU INSANE OR A _ FEEBLE-MINDED LITTLE SHIT?! " "I'VE ALWAYS BEEN MAKING STUPID CHOICES, SOME OF THEM TURN OUT RIGHT LIKE STOPPING YOU RATHER THAN HIDING LIKE A COWARD!" "YOU ARE _NOTHING! YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO EXIST, LIKE EVERY OTHER WRETCHED ABOMINATION OUT HERE AND NOW THAT MISTAKE SHALL BE CORRECTED!" "I HEARD THAT ONE BEFORE TOO, NOW LOOK DOWN CUZ I GOT A NEW FRIEND OF MINE TO SHOW YOU!" "WHAT!?" Crow looked down upon hearing a strange noise underneath, somewhat reminiscent of an energy weapon charging up whirring with an orange glow. He saw just in time the blast of pure energy, a plasma shot burning from the nanos themselves now charged up to a superstrength they had never been capable of before. The plasma blinded his face, scorching through his helmet and seeping its destructive force straight inside his steel covering as he howled screaming from his face on fire. Falling back, he instinctively put his hands up feeling the helmet hot to the touch. Were anyone able to see the back of James in that moment, they would have seen the sudden faint glow of his nano's limits having peaked from his burst of energy, a simple blue resonance down his spine. On his right hand was now an arm cannon, orange with green tints smoking from the heat radiation as his nanos expunged as much energy as they could, the sudden pulse throughout his body radiating through his nano-sinking gauge as his entire arm shuddered with hot warmth, one he had not felt in years and now no longer exhausted mentally from it. He knew for certain now that his power had been increased much more than he expected, thanking silently for the operation as he smiled on his left arm gladly. He gently petted his left hand on the arm cannon as he smirked, or rather petting the scissor handles his left arm now held whilst striding casually up to the clearly-suffering commander Crow, his blades cooling off without fire across its steel as his confidence grew.

"Yanno, I'm starting to think I don't even remember how this thing looked anymore, was it even orange she had, or maybe green?" "AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH! YOU...WORTHLESS THING I...I WILL EXTERMINATE YOU, I WILL ERASE YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY OFF THE FACE OF THIS EARTH! _" "Too late, someone beat ya to it, but now you got me. Tell you what, two more shots of this thing and I'm done with it, promise. Think you can dodge them next big boy?" " GAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGH! _" Unmitigated fury came trembling across the land as James swiftly ran left to circle around Crow's bullrush, swinging his sword violently fast into a sudden combination of blows that would eviscerate anyone within range of it. Down, right, left, right, thrust, left, James dodged only once at the first strike before blocking every time with either the metallic arm cannon or the scissors in his left hand, scraping steel everytime they crossed blades. The arm cannon however was not a perfect replica despite its power, an inferior copy but nevertheless it did its best despite cracking underneath the repetitive blows, a shattering line running across the top of it. Crow's only mistake was when he tried to trick James into a block, raising his sword up high but the raptor noticed he twisted his hand to the left, just before he came down. The downwards cleave suddenly became a horizontal sweep, threatening to carve his throat in half as James ducked with scissors in the sand, burying the tips for support before firing his arm cannon straight into the metallic chest. Concentrated plasma pulverised its integrity, violently severing molecules within the steel power armour that soon had it torn apart, rippling, shattering, cracking itself open as Crow staggered backwards with a bellow of rage. James swiftly pushed himself back up, ready to fire one last shot before conserving his power for other abilities. He just had to find the right moment, but this time Crow did not charge at him, rather waiting for James to come to him. The raptor smirked cockily and rushed towards him, waiting to see what he would do as the first strike came down upon him. Halfway through the downwards swing, it suddenly struck upwards scraping past the scissors and thrusting just above his left shoulder. The raptor was surprised by such an odd motion, but then he realised why. The paladin suddenly crushed his sword-wielding arm against the raptor as if about to smother him in a bear hug, his left arm grabbing James' right forcing the arm cannon downwards to prevent him from firing a plasma burst. He reared his head back ready to crush his skull with a headbutt made of raw steel as the raptor swiftly ducked down and crunched against Crow's left arm.

Knowing Crow could not grab him with the sword in hand, he swung his own body underneath Crow's left arm in a twisting inwards motion, turning around in a crouching rush as if almost about to perform a judo throw. But of course that would not work on the pillar of steel muscle as Crow immediately pulled back FG against him, trapping his right arm still with no position to fire as his sword tried to stab at him from the awkward position. He could not shoot at the head or body directly but he had another plan as he fell back even harder before like an unruly child, back and to the left as his arm cannon pointed somewhere around Crow's left kidney. The third and final shot obliterated through Crow's armour, crackling it harder as its molecular integrity broke even faster, screaming with white-hot pain burning through his senses. It was enough for Crow to drop FG from his grip, the raptor backing off instantly to disassemble his arm cannon, breaking down to nano-level to reabsorb its remaining energy back into his body. The Brotherhood of Steel commander was looking ragged, peering over his shoulder with deep snarling rage as his body felt weak, like the bull with many spears bloodied from its worn hide. Slowly turning towards James he swung both fist and sword out towards him one at a time, wounded deeply from within as James saw the cracked armour start to bleed from every orifice, his voice hoarse in his lungs as he used every ounce of strength he could to kill the raptor. Haymaker followed by a downwards strike, hammerfist pounding into the dirt before the horizontal sweeping cut, a thrusting punch joined by a plunging sword borne of crimson flame. At this point the raptor simply had to dodge, the human's endurance trickling down bit by bit with every droplet dyeing red upon the earth. Occasionally the sound of vomiting was heard as even more red spurted from his helmet, pouring down his chest but still he did not fall. Then he charged without warning, even wounded at a most brutal speed that slammed James once more against the wheel of a truck. Banging his head harshly against the thick rotting rubber, the raptor shook himself clear and saw the final rush, Crow bellowing with a blood-born frenzy as his blade thrust forwards. The raptor knew what to do, it was a classic setup and one in this state would work perfectly. He summoned a gust of wind, billowing dust like smoke and mirrors between him and Crow, watching and waiting as every thunderous step came closer towards him. Soon he heard the cry, and out of the hot mist he came, burning sword thrusting deep inside his foe.

But his foe was no longer there, and Crow was too weak from growing blood loss to notice until too late that his sword had just lodged itself straight into the old brittle rust of a steel tyre rim. The raptor was now above him, rising high with a boost of wind up beneath his heels as he came roaring down hard with the scissors of Damocles come down upon him. The paladin commander dodged back a little too slow upon realising, before feeling the blades glistening white-hot as they suddenly came tearing down his left arm, breaking through to the very bone itself by piercing velocity. Screams of agony fell upon the earth as he heard the armour crack, but clearly felt the bone itself twisting through to snap violently from their flesh and steel confinement. Sharp bloodied white sprouted before being cauterised black by the burning scissors as he fell, stumbling hard onto his knees. His left arm was now wrenched almost completely from its socket, breathing hard as he struggled to stand up before buckling down once again, the gasoline sword burning with hot vapours as it buried its tip into the sand. A crutch for the fallen paladin. James saw he had no more fight in him and walked round to stand before him. His scissors pointed directly at the human's throat, giving one ultimatum. "Do you submit?" "HHHhhhhh...HHHHhhHHhhhhh..." "Answer me. Do you submit?" "...I...will never...submit to you." "Hm, least you don't beg, you got that going for you." "You...are a fool...a monster to cause death to this wasteland...why...why do you curse mankind with this...I wanted to bring back humanity to its greatness...and now...you try to condemn us back to these wastes never to thrive." "No. You're the fool around here, you made the world like this and those like you that came before, I'm doing everything I can to stop those like you so that all people can survive to greatness, not just humans. But people who deserve it. Everybody has a right to live, even you...until you tried to take other people's rights from them. You said you'd let me die a warrior's death, well I'll give you the same too. I think that's fair at least...it's a lot more than you gave Ramona at least." "Who...is Ramona-HHRRK..." "Someone you never gave a chance. Any last words?" "Ghhrrrrhgk...what...tell me. What...what are you? How...could you have possibly been able to survive against me?" "...because." The scissors slowly opened up before him as he placed Crow's neck inbetween them, a burning embrace for him to feel in his last moments. "I don't want to be a monster like you." He brought his hands together once. The scissors closed with him as James severed his foe's head from his body, the steel helmet rolling off backwards to lay upon the smooth sandy soil. He sheathed his scissors and quickly dug into Crow's satchel looking for the transceiver, pulling out the large blocky tool which was indeed more complex than the one back at the original launch base. A numbered readout showed an increasing distance between him and the rocket somewhere out beyond the peerless sky. 540. 541. 542. His omni-tool showed he had plenty of time left, rolling towards 6:15pm. Forty-five minutes by Crow's estimate as he sighed with relief, feeling exhaustion come straight upon him as the adrenaline slowly died off. He sat himself onto the ground next to Crow's body, breathing deeply whilst still shaking from the battle. He almost thought he was dreaming, somehow never quite able to defeat him but yet here he was, dead beside him. He hadn't quite saved the world just yet, but knowing in about three minutes he would be able to. He breathed one more sigh to recompose himself and soon called on the transceiver, pushing send on its rigid frame. "Swan? Swan are you there?" "...yes?" Her reply was nervous but came through quite clearly. 546. "Crow is dead. The Eagle's still rising, just waiting for the numbers to go up." "Holy...h-holy shit you...you killed him?" 548. "Yep...kinda bruised but I'm still here, waiting for that five-sixty number to come up like you said." "You actually...g-god we could...we can survive this...is it still climbing, the numbers?" 552. "Yep, still going. Listen, can you uh send a bike out here once I'm done detonating this thing, I think I broke mine because...well...Crow broke it actually." "Are you still in this...what was the town you said you were in?" "Watseka yeah, tell you what, I'll make a big fire going so you can see me. Now get ready and tell everybody to look up towards the sky above Chicago." "Really?" 556. "Just look up and wait...you said this thing was heading into space, right?" "Yes?" "Good...just thought of something to say." He clicked off the transceiver's send button before turning on his omnitool, turning it on record as he slowly opened up the detonator's casing. 558. A single red button to transmit as he pointed his left arm out towards the sky itself, quivering with hot nerves. "Hhhhhhh...alright...here goes. Make a wish Koopin." 560. "This star I made just for you." Click.

He wasn't sure what to expect upon detonating the falling Eagle. Was there supposed to be a great boom of earth-shattering proportions streaking across the sky itself, breaking open the heavens? Was the sky not supposed to be a radiant white of death glinting upon the Earth before disappearing like an angel of destruction being summoned back? He could not say, but he did see something glistening up in the late afternoon sky darkening clearly like a ghost upon the wind. Were he any closer he would have known what it looked like more, as well as the falling debris that soon came to Chicago. Debris however was something it got used to, the crumbling buildings and remnants of its former days nothing new towards feeling entropy, breaking down upon itself as parts of the Eagle came hurtling down on the city. Nobody was harmed for all the inhabitants of Beech had vacated safely, back towards the new village of Jamestown. The vote was unanimous once James had come striding in through its gates, upon a motorcycle chauffeured by Jerry who had come to pick him up. Adulation washed over him. The sky somehow looked clearer than ever before. Raining steel may have fallen on Chicago, but it was better than that of fires burning to wipe out all traces of it. He was exhausted clearly, and once the adrenaline had died down he almost stumbled off his seat from the motorbike, falling into the arms of friends and admirations. He spent two last days out on the wastes, revelling his moments of joy and love all further encouraging him towards greatness. Jeffries shook him by the hand glowing with genuine shock and admiration for his foolishly brave act, the foundations of an entire town now kept safe with people's lives unabated. Stern as he was, he saw a smile form on his face truly with a firm shoulderpat and a strong shake using both hands. Jerry and Sally backpatted him at once almost knocking him over before Jerry hugged him with a filthy cackle of brotherhood between them. Jefferson could now sturdily walk up towards him, slowly recovering by Delgado's technical skills as well as apologetic assistance from Swan giving him a new steel plate on his lower left chassis. It looked very out of place compared to his renaissance-blue steel underneath his old longcoat, but one he felt comfortable with feeling on his old wound. Swan herself was still limping, but took pride in those wounds now joining as part of Jeffries' company, demoting to just simply Paladin once it all had been said and done, as punishment for her actions. She also took part in the future building of Jamestown somewhat akin to community service. Due to the circumstances of their disorderly file and lack of superiors left to follow, Swan took authority and promoted Darryl to the rank of Paladin Commander, proven not only to be trustworthy and incorruptible, but also strongly defiant against cruelty and injustice out on the wastes. Jerry followed up promoted to being Knight Commander as soon as Jeffries became ranked, further bolstering their ranks' morale. Whilst Swan still disagreed greatly on Jeffries' personal beliefs, there was no denying that he was the only leading officer fit enough for duty, especially when backed by almost a hundred strong supporters. After having four robots claim to be presidents and a walking talking dinosaur be their saviour, Darryl felt more assurance that people would accept him fully, no matter how ludicrous it may sound to the wastelanders. Jerry reassured him, and so the two set a date for when he was comfortable enough to speak openly about his transsexualism, as an offering of absolute trust towards all his people and company. But not today. Not in this chaos of rampant joy and cheer almost entirely focused upon James. This was his moment. He earned this, and Darryl knew that he had no right to take that away from him as the raptor celebrated with grand dancing events, a flurry of ragged limbs shining in the desert sun. He almost always ended up dancing with Mrs. Jemimah Watterson, spinning her around and waltzing as a strange old-timey music came filtering through the waves, found by a jukebox that Jerry found and repaired for the people. Diana also danced with James and in turn with her mother, pleading with one last request before he had to leave.

All the citizens of Jamestown and Beech revelled in two nights of song and dance, blending stories of their aged past together with hopes and prospects of a new future. The journey back to Beech would take some time until after scouts could estimate the potential damage caused by the Eagle's parts falling onto the landscape. But so long as the people lived, they could rebuild. Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt both stayed in Jamestown as protectorates of this realm, soon promoted into rank along with new recruits into the Brotherhood of Steel Midwest. Martin Van Buren and Thomas Jefferson chose to return to Beech as advisors for Paladin Commander Jeffries, working behind the lines of battle as best they knew themselves to be. Through all this, James saw a whole new change amongst those he knew. Happiness. Kindness. Positivity. Not a single worry hung over anybody's head, even the most miserable of former slaves knew that things would turn great, a new world for a new group of people. He said his goodbyes to each and every one of them, being thanked and giving thanks back in turn. He gave one last salute and the Brotherhood gave one in turn altogether. But he had one last person to see before leaving as promised the moment he back to Jamestown amidst feverish crowds. On the outskirts of the village, he watched the sun slowly sink over the ridge as he once had saw on first appearing in this place, back many months ago. He did not fear the dark that came after, not in this case. Now it more felt like the day was done, and a new hope soon came after. Sitting on the edge of town as people celebrated from within, he heard a voice behind him. "Hey!" "...hey there." Smiling as he turned and looked, Diana sat down beside him smiling eagerly up at him, her long blue dress now well-cleaned thanks to her mother's caring. She spoke first after watching the sun set for two minutes, replying: "Thanks fer not leavin' 'til I came." "No prob, I promised after all, we didn't get a chance to talk much in the whole rush back there." "I wuz...um...jus' bein' with friends like um...yanno Jen an' such." "Heh, it's alright, they got more cool stuff than I do." "Nawwww yer cool!" "Sure sure." "You got that neat arm of yers." "Heh...yeah..." He flexed his left arm lightly, feeling the grip now warmer than he remembered. "Real piece of work this." "You really gotta go?" "Yep. I promised some friends I would see them again." "Alrigh'...will you come back someday?" "I dunno...do you think I should?" "Wouldn' be bad, I mean...we been through a lot, I don' wanna fergit you." "You won't, come on how many dinosaurs are running around out here?" "Heheh...um...this is...kinda silly but um-" "Yeah?" She took out two small bracelets, woven with threads and then further braided with hair of some sort, dyed in a particular colouring of blue and green twisting round. The raptor smirked at this as he took the one she offered. "Friendship bracelets...really?" "Yeah I know, it's dumb but Jen like, um, these ponies we had, the hair kinda fall out so we took 'em to my mom an' then she made 'em into bracelets an' then she had one, Jen, she had one, then I took one an' then thought maybe-" "No no...I love it." "Whu-...really?" "Yeah. I never got a friendship bracelet before. Thank you." "W-wait wait, you wanna...you wanna wear it?" "Course I do." "Then you gotta exchange 'em, you gimme dat one, an ahll give you this one."

Handing his back to Diana, she gave him the other one in turn before wearing it on his left, finding that it stretched very nicely over his exposed bicep showing off. Diana wore hers upon the wrist, giggling bashfully up at him as he admired his new accessory. "This is really nice...feels good too, makes my left arm look a little more colourful and not so...weird." "I don' think it's weird. You think any of yer friends are gonna think it's weird?" "Well...Koopin might worry over it, always hugging and worrying about everything he's just gonna cling to me like a whole day once I tell him I lost this arm like 'oh no honey whyyyy' and then just never let go of me and just keep his arms round this left arm...but you know, that won't be so bad. It means I just have to try better at keeping promises to not get hurt...that's about it really." "Yeah...but you done good keepin' 'em with me...I...I-i-i-" "Hmm?" She hugged him suddenly in a rush of joyful emotion, feeling shame come forwards almost wanting to pull her away but James stopped her with his own arms around her, holding the little girl close to him in a soft squeeze. "Thank you," she murmured. "F-fer everything." "I know," said James. "Thank you for everything as well." "H-huh?" "If you hadn't...if you hadn't gone with me, when you woke up in that cave, I would have had nothing to live for, nothing to really fight for before I remembered myself, remembered who I was." "But...you..." She let go of him before staring up at James curiously. "You didn' fergit who you were." "I mean...I lost my way, and being with you helped me come back to it, knowing what I had to do, where to go, what I must do. If you hadn't made me promise to help you and your mom I couldn't have gotten back to this. Now I can't promise that I'll come back because there's a huge amount of problems my other friends are dealing with in other worlds...but..." "It's okay." The girl softly put her hand on his, dwarfed against his thickened black claws. "You don't got to promise me anythin', after all you did. I trust you." "...thank you." "You gots to keep yer promise too to yer other friends, I ain' gonna git in yer way, but if you ever wanna come back fer like, maybe, say hi or sumthin'...I'd like that." "Heheh...I wouldn't mind that either." James smirked as he rubbed her head softly, chuckling as she got up on her feet. But something puzzled her still about the way he sat completely peacefully out on the wastes beyond the gates of the village. "Yanno, I dunno why you all not up on thuh stage whoopin' it all up bein' like sum big hero." "Huh?" "Cuz you are! I mean, you freed us out, you stopped Crow, you even got a TOWN named after you, why you not more excited?! I know you gotta leave but...you stuck around in thuh party, danced with sum people, now you leavin' after sayin' goodbye like you sum guy an' not a big hero!" "Heh...well, I would have been lapping all this up when I was younger...but things...sorta change." "Whuh?" "Well...you see, I've been through a lot of things, good and bad, and I mean yeah I know I did something awesome. I mean you should have SEEN the way I faced Crow it was crazy! But...I realised, from people I've met and such that...you don't wanna be too bigheaded about things, because if you do then you start to forget why you're fighting for freedom and peace and all things good." "Whysat?" "Because if you get all cocky and up on yourself you start doing things for YOU, for yourself. And that can mean anything, like say you end up doing bad stuff like ruining some other people because YOU get something good out of it, and that's not what you should do. Not like I used to, so I just stay humble as I can, or at least try to, didn't realise until recently but see...if I let it just go all to my head, the things I do, even the good stuff...that just changes me too much. I don't wanna change from this. Like this here, this person I am now, this is who I wanna be. I want to be a good person, and the only way I can do that, is by being humble and not doing things for myself...but to do things for other people, to help those around me. That's what I think being a hero's all about." She smiled down at him as she nodded with understanding, taking in his words greatly before slowly turning back towards the village, realising the sky already was starting to go dark. She also had to hide her eyes from him briefly as tears slowly dropped down her cheeks, biting her lip cautiously before breathing a deep sigh of relief to clear her senses, replying: "I better head back now, mom's gonna worry about me." "Alrighty, You take care of her alright? You've got to keep this place running while I'm gone." "Well DUH, I mean who else is gonna stop this place from fuckin' up without me?" "Hhhahahaha...no idea. Take care Diana." "Don't you be a stranger now alrighty?! G'bye James!" "Byyyye!" Waving back to her, he softly laid back and enjoyed a few minutes more of the sun setting upon the wastes. Slowly the darkness fell and he decided it was time to leave, pulling out the piece of paper Gruthar had given him with the strange cursive note, far too perfect for the beast's hand to have wrote it. "Ivalice" stood out for him as the old tingling came back through his central nervous system, shuddering with slow warmth as he rolled his eyes. "I sure hope whoever's pulling me around...Kirie...plans to do something good about it cuz I sure don't like being jerked around. Then again this note says I should find my home and an old friend about so uh...hopefully that's not suspicious or anything. Oh well. God knows I've gone through worse." He pocketed the note as he summoned once more the roaring chasm of deep infinite space. It was certainly faster than before as almost nobody saw him leave. No one...except a demon's shadow standing ten feet tall on the horizon, watching the whole disappearance of James Campbell from his world. The monster simply nodded to himself murmuring: "_ I have earned you more time, spirit...pray that it is not wasted. _"