Light drizzle fell over the Adams Air Force Base; a fitting backdrop for the subdued scene on the ground.

Hours had passed since the battle ended. Most of the fires had either burnt themselves out or been extinguished, leaving only a few thin plumes of smoke rising into the air.

The defeat of Acheson, Daybreaker, and the prevention of the orbital strike had ended most of the hostilities. Most of Acheson's surviving supporters, bereft of leadership and surrounded on all sides, had quickly capitulated. Those few fools who tried to continue the fight were systematically hunted down and destroyed by Liberty Prime, Horrigan, and the Exodus troops.

With the fighting over, all that remained was to rest, create a tally of the dead, and start picking up the pieces. Under most circumstances, it probably would have been a tense affair, given the violent history between the Enclave and the Brotherhood of Steel and the tenuous nature of their new alliance, but most of the soldiers were past the point of caring.

Daybreaker's rampage, though brief, had inflicted terrible losses on both the Brotherhood and the Exodus forces. That, coupled with the knowledge that Acheson had been intending to blow them all away with one final strike, had left most of the fighters simply glad to be alive. The troops generally kept to their own faction. Whenever the two sides did interact, people were more interested in taking care of the wounded and grieving over lost loved ones than dredging up old hatreds.

Sunset wondered how long this fragile calm could last. She, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were sitting on mismatched chairs in one of the untouched hangars, trying to eat what they could force down while they waited for news on Pinkie. The party addict had been rushed into surgery by Exodus medics as soon as they had heard what had happened, and the girls hadn't heard a word since.

Rainbow had gone to wait for her with instructions to bring news as soon as she heard anything.

Fluttershy had turned up an hour or so later. The holes and bloodstains on her uniform around her abdomen and lower back prompted a great deal of concern from the others, but Fluttershy brushed it off, insisting that she was fine and that she didn't want to talk about it. She had simply grabbed some food from the makeshift grills the Brotherhood had set up and sat down in the ring with the other Rainbooms.

"Where are Adam and Fawkes?" Applejack asked.

"Adam is giving a report to Lieutenant Colonel Strong and Sentinel Lyons," Fluttershy replied. "Fawkes is helping to move the bodies of the dead now that the medics have checked him over."

"Medics? Was he hurt?" Rarity asked quickly.

Fluttershy cocked her head noncommittally. "He has a few bruised ribs and a pretty nasty cut across his back, but apart from that he's okay."

As Rarity sighed with relief, Sunset idly wondered if they had glossed over the mention of Fawkes helping to shift corpses because they didn't want to think about it, or if they had just become that jaded. A second later, Sunset realized that she herself was apparently jaded enough that she was more concerned about the others’ lack of reaction than her own. The wasteland had changed her in ways that she wasn't ever going to be proud of.

Fluttershy glanced over at Sunset as a thought occurred to her. "Speaking of reports, have you given yours to Sentinel Lyons?"

"Yeah, she came and found me earlier," Sunset replied. "I was hoping that one of the Paladins could do it for me, but since I'm the highest ranked member of the Order of the Staff, I had to do it myself."

"If you didn't like that, then you're gonna hate what else Lyons wants you to do." The girls looked around as Rainbow walked in and dropped into a chair next to them. Adam slouched in a second later, wearing his tattered jumpsuit and leather jacket. He kissed Fluttershy's head and sat in the chair next to her.

"Okay, good news first, Pinkie's going to be fine." Rainbow grinned as the others sagged with relief. "She had some internal bleeding, but thankfully it wasn't anywhere near as bad as what happened to this idiot." She ruffled Sunset's hair, earning a scowl. "The docs have fixed her up, and they say she should come around from the anaesthetic in a few hours."

Sunset tried to flatten her hair back down, then grimaced as she saw the ash and muck that came away from it. "That's the good news, so what's the bad news?"

Rainbow smirked. "It's not bad news for us, just you. Elder Lyons is coming here tomorrow to sign the peace treaty with the Enclave, and he wants the heads of each Brotherhood branch there with him to negotiate. You're head of the Order of the Staff, so that means you have to be there, too."

"Awww, nuts," Sunset muttered.

"Yeah, it sucks to be you, and speaking of things that suck…" Rainbow glared at Fluttershy. "What the hell is this I hear about you getting shot?"

The other girls all whipped their heads to her in shock. "You got shot?!" Sunset cried incredulously.

Fluttershy sighed and glared sidelong at Adam. "Why did you tell her?"

"He didn't, Fawkes did," Rainbow countered.

"And don't go blamin' Fawkes for it either, sugarcube,'' Applejack growled. "Why the heck didn't you tell us that you got shot?"

"I'm fine, it isn't a big deal," Fluttershy replied airily.

"Bullsh-, ahem, I mean… pardon me, darling, but having been shot myself, I have to disagree with you there," Rarity retorted.

Fluttershy sighed heavily. "It turns out that I can heal some surprisingly serious injuries as long as I consume enough blood afterwards. I'm just lucky that the bullets didn't hit my spine."

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "Bullets. As in plural?"

"You do see the holes and bloodstains all over her uniform, don't you?" Applejack said flatly. She frowned as something suddenly percolated through her skull. "Hold on, there's holes and blood on your back, too. Did the bullets go right throu-"

"Enough," Sunset cut in firmly. "Fluttershy, you don't have to talk about it right now, but I expect to hear the full story at some point, okay?" She waited for Flutters to nod before continuing, "Good. Now, can we please swap to a less mind-blowing topic while I'm trying to eat? What's Liberty Prime up to?"

Adam glanced back out of the door, as if he could see him. "Sentinel Lyons has him helping clear away the wreckage from the fight, but I figure she's doing that as much to impress the Exodus team as she is to fix things up."

"Probably," Sunset agreed.

"Oh, while I remember, the Lieutenant Colonel suggested that Elder Lyons should bring Twilight with him tomorrow," Adam added. "He's offering to fix her up and get her back on her feet."

The girls all cheered at that. "Alright, we're finally going to have the whole band back together!" Rainbow exclaimed gleefully.

Right in time for me to find out what the hell she did to Liberty Prime, Sunset thought.

Rarity smiled softly. "It's nice to know that this dreadful war will finally be over and done with for good by the end of tomorrow. I suppose that just leaves us with the question of what to do next?"

"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Rarity arched an eyebrow. "What are us girls going to do once the treaty has been signed?"

Every eye in the group immediately turned to Sunset. She sighed and put her empty plate down. "First things first, we'll take some time to rest and recuperate. I'm going to give the Exodus team all of our research on magic tomorrow, so they can hopefully get started on building a portal for us. While they're doing that, when we feel up to it, I guess we'll have to start searching the wasteland for anything that might help us find a way home."

---

"That's right. Yeah. You're sure? Damn it. Okay, make sure the rest of the level is secure, then start taking inventory of everything in the workshop. I don't want any more nasty surprises from whatever else that lunatic was working on." Becky put the phone down and sighed heavily, slumping in her chair.

"I hope you aren't about to tell us that Acheson is actually still alive?" Devall said testily.

"No, that asshole is definitely dead. Stabbed right through the heart," Becky replied. "Unfortunately, the magic rig he was wearing has disappeared, and so has his assistant, Doctor Holt."

Senator Prince arched a perfectly maintained eyebrow. "Weren't the Vault boy and the Super Mutant in the room with them? Surely they should have noticed something?"

"Apparently, they were both stuck in armor and debris respectively, and trying to get themselves loose. They didn't notice Holt until she was gone." Becky sighed again and let her head drop to the table. "The cleanup crew are going to let security know. We'll find her."

"And hopefully put a bullet between her eyes when we do," Senator Lily said flatly. "In the meantime, have the remains of FH-2 been transported to my laboratory yet?"

Devall rolled his eyes. "They're on their way even as we speak. Don't worry, you can pick over its corpse to your heart's content soon enough. Just be sure to pass on everything that you learn to the rest of us," he added sharply.

"But of course. I wouldn't dream of keeping my new allies out of the loop," Lily replied with a disturbingly innocent smile.

Becky scowled at her. The four of them were sitting in one of the Air Force Base's conference rooms, going over reports and deciding how the Enclave should move forward now that the battle was over. Tara was there, too, her nose buried in a binder full of magical research that had been found in the Base Crawler, while Agent Drops was standing behind Becky watching the proceedings like a hawk, as if she expected an attack at any second. Becky wished she would pick someone else's shoulder to lurk over.

Everyone looked over in surprise as Tara sighed and threw the binder on the table with a disgusted huff. "Unbelievable. I knew that Acheson liked to play fast and loose with safety protocols, but from some of the tests he performed here it's a wonder the base is still standing. We should get our tech representatives up here and go through some basic safety procedures immediately."

Lily chuckled softly. "That would be a very good idea, if we actually had any tech representatives left."

Becky perked up at that, staring at the Senator in surprise. "What do you mean? What happened to all of them?"

Devall sighed and started counting them off on his fingers. "Our Vault-Tec representative, Doctor Turner, mutated and is locked up beneath Project Exodus. Our RobCo representative was killed in the destruction of Raven Rock. The Dunwich Corporation rep went loopy and is stuck in the psych unit, and the General Atomics rep…" He cleared his throat. "There's no polite way to say it. She had an accident while engaged in, er, auto-erotic asphyxiation."

"She choked while she stroked," Lily said with a giggle, earning reproachful glares from the others.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't her brother a representative as well?" Prince asked.

Devall winced. "He was, but… well, he was the one who found her dead, then maintenance tech found him…" Devall shuddered. "Suffice to say, the brother has been arrested, and the maintenance tech is in the psych unit."

"Talking about Doctor Shult and her brother?" Andrew asked as he walked into the room. He grimaced at the nods from around the table and dropped into the nearest chair. "Man, that was a mess. Speaking of messes, I'm worried about Horrigan."

"What's wrong with Horrigan?" Tara asked anxiously.

"He's been acting weird," Andrew replied. "He hasn't said a word since the battle ended, and he just walks away when anyone tries to speak to him or gives him an order. I've sent Sienna to try and find out what's wrong. She seems to be the only person who can get through to him."

Justifiably concerned about Horrigan's sudden odd behaviour, but eager to put off dealing with it for as long as possible, Becky decided to change the subject. "What about the Brotherhood of Steel? Has everything been arranged for the treaty?"

Andrew nodded. "Their Elder will be coming here tomorrow to sign the treaty. He's bringing a Squire and the heads of each branch of the Brotherhood with him for the signing, so there'll be five people in total."

"Are we taking the same number?" Becky asked.

"We are indeed," Devall replied. "However, given the current lack of authority figures in the Enclave, the Senate, that is, the three of us and Lieutenant Colonel Strong-" he nodded to Andrew, "-have agreed to some emergency appointments. First, Doctor Strong has joined the Senate in Acheson's place as our science advisor."

Becky grinned at her. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Tara replied, though she didn't look particularly enthused. "To be fair, the only reason I accepted is because no-one else is willing to step up at such a critical juncture, especially given that the science advisor is being placed in charge of all magical research for the Enclave."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Devall said with a small smile. "Doctor Strong shall be joining myself and her brother at the meeting with the Brotherhood's leadership. Also present will be Agent Drops, who will be escorting the Enclave's new President."

"Wait, President?!" Becky exclaimed. "When did that happen?!"

Devall chuckled in a way that wasn't particularly reassuring. "We've been laying the groundwork for some time now. Ever since the fall of Raven Rock, actually. Naturally, the inauguration ceremony is going to have to wait until after the signing of the treaty, but the Senate has voted unanimously to grant our chosen candidate full Presidential authority from, well, this very moment."

"Of course, the candidate will also bear the full responsibility for their actions as President from this moment forth," Prince added. "The Senate realizes that this is an incredibly difficult situation to deal with right off the bat, but we trust that you will find the right way forward."

"Hang on, what do you-" An electric jolt ran down Becky's spine as she realized what they were saying, followed by an awful crushing sensation as she realized the scope of the task ahead of her. The constant presence of Agent Drops at her shoulder recently suddenly made a lot more sense.

Lily grinned evilly, leaning back in her chair and flicking a hair out of her face. "Congratulations, Madame President."

Next Chapter: Chapter 102 - Peace Treaty Estimated time remaining: 21 Hours, 49 Minutes