Fallout 3 - Beautiful Stranger

Chapter 23 Part 2

Patience considered arguing with him, but something in the back of her mind stopped her. The soldier in her, that manufactured, soul-less thing that Sara became, manipulated and brainwashed, told her to accept it. Acceptable losses. But Patience wasn't that Soldier. She wasn't that version of Sara, or the other one, the sweet one. She was Patience and, to Patience, there were no such things as acceptable losses.

"Alright. You go get what you need." She grabbed his forearm and squeezed, forcing a smile. "While you do that, I have something to do, myself."

Vincent nodded and headed away down the corridor. Patience watched him go and then lifted her arm to look at her Pip-Boy. She hadn't had time to tell Valrie and Gia, before Vincent's betrayal and the missile. She had chosen not to tell Vincent after pulling him out of the rubble, and now she didn't think she would tell him.

She switched on the Pip-Boy, flicked through to the map and watched the flashing green dot and the words 'Second Location' blinking at the same time. The dot flashed right in the centre of the Mall. After everything she had learned, from Moira and from the files and videos on the Vault-Tec mainframe, she finally thought she knew what she was.

She was a weapon. A weapon aimed towards the Super Mutants and their 'King'. "The methods may change." The words from the dream haunted her waking mind. She wasn't a gun, or a bomb. She was that different method. She didn't think she would survive this, but knowing that she could stop the Super Mutants? That made it okay.

She switched off the Pip-Boy, resolving herself to what she needed to do, then turned and headed towards the stairs to the second level. Even though she had accepted her fate, it didn't mean that she had to accept Vincent sacrificing himself. Not alone, at least. Of course, that depended on whether her 'hero' status held any privileges. That remained to be seen.

-+-

"Run that shit by me again." Three Dog removed his sunglasses, leaning forward and frowning as he swung the glasses by the arm.

Patience knew it was a long shot. It was, for all practical purposes, the biggest of Hail Mary's, but she had to try something. Anything. She couldn't do it alone. She couldn't allow Vincent to sacrifice himself, regardless of the things he had done, and she couldn't allow Valrie and Gia, if they were still alive, to stay in the hands of the Super Mutants.

She ran through the plan again and Three Dog paid close attention to every word she said. He didn't interrupt at any point. He listened, screwed up his face at several points almost as if she had physically hurt him with her words, and gave her the time to finish what she was saying. When she finished, again, he sat back, lifting a leg onto the opposite knee and chewed on the arm of his sunglasses, lost in thought.

"So, what do you say? I know, I know, it's unlikely, but it's worth a shot, right?" She watched him, eyes wide, urging him to say yes. "Right?"

"It's the dumbest idea I've heard in a long time." He reached over to the table beside them, picking up a mug of the beverage that tasted like machine oil. "I mean, not only is it unlikely that anyone, no matter how much you've helped out the Wasteland, will come to waste precious ammunition, but you going in there to die? That's beyond stupid. That's stupid on a historical scale."

"You're not going to do it." Patience nodded to herself and started running scenarios through her head, trying to find one where, at the very least, Valrie and Gia survived. She began to stand. "Thanks anyway."

"Hey, hey! Hold up." Three Dog reached over and pulled her back to the chair. "I didn't say I wouldn't do it. I just needed to be clear that it's not likely to work. I mean, really, really unlikely."

"You'll do it?" She felt a rush of relief run through her body. If only one extra person turned up, it would be a help.

"I can't go around building you up to be a hero, the Beautiful Stranger, here to save the Capital Wasteland, without urging people to be inspired by you. That's what a hero really is, the inspiration to be better." He paused and looked into her eyes, his face softening. "Does the hero really need to die in this scenario? What does Vincent think about that?"

"I haven't told him." Three Dog raised an eyebrow at that and Patience looked away. She didn't know if Sweet-Sara ever became self-conscious and she felt certain Soldier-Sara didn't. She only now realised that she, Patience, did. "It isn't really a choice."

"There's always a choice." He frowned again. "Choice is the only true freedom anyone really has."

"Not me." She lifted up the arm with the Pip-Boy and tried to open a gap between the device and her skin, showing the tubes and wires. "I'm a weapon. Created to be a soldier. This thing? I don't know if it's a bomb, some kind of healing thing, or what. I was aimed and fired towards this confrontation. War never changes, only the methods."

"You could walk away. That's a choice." One look into his eyes and she knew he didn't have a shred of belief that she would do that. She shook her head. "No. I didn't think so. It's not in your nature. I'll do it. If you make me a promise? Promise me you'll try, at the very least try, not to die?"

"If trying will help, I'll try." She stood up and placed her hand on Three Dog's shoulder. He crossed his hand over, patting hers. He didn't smile, though.

"Patience?" Vincent barged through the door, looking sheepish. He made a lazy salute to Three Dog. "We're going to have to make a quick exit."

Patience squeezed Three Dog's shoulder then, reluctant, slipped her hand from under his, moving toward the door and Vincent. She didn't look back. She didn't want to see any sadness in Three Dog's eyes. She didn't want to say goodbye and mean it. Leaving it this way might give the DJ hope that she would return, even if that hope was empty.

"What's the situation?" She grabbed Vincent's arm and pulled him along the corridor, checking each doorway as they moved. Vincent had a new, bulging backpack.

"The situation is that I've borrowed a shit-ton of stuff and the Quartermaster is just about to go back to the armoury after her break." They passed a couple of Knights who gave them both sidelong glances. As they left earshot, Vincent continued. "When she notices stuff missing, and she will, she's going to go ape-shit, at which point everyone in this place is going to be after our heads. So, I, kind of, set a distraction."

"A distraction?" Patience didn't like the sound of this. It was not going to help her plans. She checked her faithful Chinese rifle and her sidearm as they moved through the building, descending the stairs to the first floor and the exit to the city.

"A bomb? Well, not a bomb, really. More like a big noise and a lot of smoke." Since the showdown between them, the subsequent missile attack and coming to their agreement, Vincent had started showing his emotional side. He cringed, apologetic. "If I've set it right, it'll seem like an accident, but it'll get us out of here with minimal ..."

As they reached the entrance area of the GNR building, a loud thud occurred several doors away, shaking dust from the walls, and was soon followed by a billowing cloud careening down the corridor towards them and then expanding out to fill the entrance area with thick, roiling smoke.

Brotherhood troops began to run this way and that, picking up weapons and running towards the origin of the explosion. Some running up the stairs, others taking positions facing the doors. As the smoke thickened even more, Patience and Vincent took advantage of the chaos, waiting for the right moment to slip outside.

This was it. They were on their way. First to pick up the power armour for Vincent, then on to find her friends. Live or die, this was the time. This was the moment she'd been running towards ever since Valrie had dragged her out of the sun, saving her life. This was the time to be the hero in her own story and the villain in the story for the Super Mutants and their 'King'.