Sunset stood in the middle of the Citadel's Great Hall, her chin raised and her hands clasped firmly behind her back as she stared down the assembled leaders of the Brotherhood of Steel. Rainbow Dash was standing next to her, providing both moral support and, worryingly, one of her only real allies in the room. Elder Lyons, Scribe Rothchild and Star Paladin Cross rounded out the rest of the people Sunset felt she could trust; four people in a group of twenty.

"Is this how we're treating our allies now?" Elder Lyons growled. "Dragging them before a tribunal after they help save all of our lives?"

Paladin Bergen, a gaunt man with brutally short black hair and an apparently permanent sneer, snorted and shook his head. "They may have attempted to help us, but the way they went about it, not to mention the decision made by Miss Shimmer and yourself in the immediate aftermath of the Enclave's assault, Elder, must be called into question."

"I don't see that the Elder has to answer to any of us," Cross put in.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure he does when his decisions risk the survival of the whole Brotherhood," Paladin Stark countered.

Elder Lyons threw him a glare. "Every decision I make I make for the good of the Brotherhood," he growled.

"That may be so, but the Rainbooms are not so concerned with Brotherhood matters, are they?" Bergen said darkly.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" Rainbow shot.

Bergen gave her a piercing look. "Don't pretend that you and your friends have any real interest in helping the Brotherhood of Steel; all you girls want is to use us to find yourselves a way home, then you'll abandon us and the rest of the wasteland to our fate."

Sunset scowled at him. He wasn't wrong about her planning to get the hell away from the wasteland as soon as physically possible and never look back, but he was greatly misreading her if he thought she didn't give a damn about the people who lived here. "That's funny, because the last I checked we've done a whole bunch of stuff to help the Brotherhood."

"Oh really?" Bergen replied doubtfully. "Perhaps you could regale us with some of these exploits?"

Scribe Rothchild snorted. "Bringing us accurate intelligence about the Enclave and their dealings, assisting us in acquiring the equipment necessary for Project Purity to function, helping to discover the source of the Super Mutant infestation in the Capital Wasteland, improving Liberty Prime's programming, do I really need to continue? Or would you prefer an itemized list?"

Several of the people present murmured in surprise, looking at Rainbow and Sunset as if they saw them in a new light. "I never knew about all that," one of the Scribes muttered a little too loudly.

Elder Lyons smiled grimly. "Of course you didn't, we don't hide what they do, but we don't exactly shout about it, either. Would you rather I gather everyone and give an official announcement every time the Rainbooms do something nice for us?"

"You don't need to announce their input this time," Bergen cut in. "I doubt there's many people who haven't noticed the gaping hole they left in our defences now that the gate is destroyed."

"We've already offered to help with repairs," Sunset told him.

Bergen slapped a hand on the tabletop. "And what do we do until the repairs are finished, hm? What happens if the Enclave launches another attack while we're vulnerable?"

"The Enclave won't attack the Citadel again," Cross said confidently.

"How can you be so sure?" Paladin Stark asked.

Cross smiled grimly. "Our defence turrets were strong enough to destroy or drive off their Vertibirds. The only reason we had any difficulty at all fending off their attack was because of Horrigan, and we have already proven that even he is not unbeatable."

"That brings me to my main point." Bergen glared at Sunset. "Why did you suggest calling off Liberty Prime and allowing the Enclave to recover what was left of Horrigan?" He turned to snarl at the Elder. "And why the hell did you authorize it?!"

"Watch your tone!" Cross snapped.

Elder Lyons held up a hand. "It's alright, this must be addressed." He clasped his hands on the table and looked around at the others. "The reason I allowed the Enclave to reclaim Horrigan was because Sunset suggested to me, and I agreed, that the Exodus team, the Enclave faction that houses Horrigan, would not have ordered this attack." Lyons coughed and cleared his throat. "It is likely that the primary leaders of the Enclave ordered the assault without the Exodus team's knowledge. Allowing the Exodus team to recover Horrigan is, shall we say, an act of faith."

Most of the people present stared at the Elder in blank shock. Bergen rubbed at his temples in frustration. "An act of faith. Are you fucking insane?!"

"That's enough, Bergen!" Elder Lyons snapped. "The Exodus team is not hostile to us, and may in future prove to be valuable allies. I won't throw that away just yet."

Paladin Stark raised an eyebrow. "Allies in the Enclave? It's an entertaining fantasy, but how can we be sure that they aren't just playing us for fools?"

"Because they're led by this world's versions of me and Twilight," Sunset replied.

As the room digested that little revelation, Rainbow patted Flashburn and said grimly, "Besides, I'm going to be paying them a visit to see what the hell is going on. If they've betrayed us, I'll kill them all myself."

---

Pinkie currently found herself in the rather unusual position of being the most calm, collected and, frankly, the sanest person in the room. She was standing in a store room just off the infirmary with Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Twilight. They would have been in the infirmary itself, but so many Knights had been wounded in the battle that there simply wasn't enough space to house mental traumas as well as physical ones.

Applejack was sitting on an upturned bucket with her head in her hands, trying to relax after her ordeal at Horrigan's hands. Rarity was rubbing Applejack's back and whispering encouragement in her ear, all the while visibly restraining herself from vilifying the Brotherhood medics for something that she knew was beyond their control.

Twilight was slumped in her wheelchair, mumbling to herself and alternating between childish giggling and despondent sobbing; utterly dosed out of her mind on whatever painkillers the medics had been able to spare. Twilight wasn't even supposed to have been involved in the fight, but she had spotted Horrigan through a fresh hole in the wall and used her magic to assist the others against him. Now she was paying the price for it in pain.

That just left Fluttershy.

Pinkie winced as she looked over at Fluttershy, curled up in a ball in the corner and trying to take deep breaths through a clean hand towel. The sounds and smells of battle had awakened her FEV-induced bloodlust, and it was about all she could do not to vamp out and end up going on another rampage. Not that the Brotherhood knew about that; their tolerance of Fluttershy's mutation was stretched enough already.

"How are you feeling?" Pinkie asked tentatively.

Fluttershy shook her head slowly. "Better, to an extent, but I still feel…" She pinched the bridge of her nose and mumbled through the towel. "At least this is helping to mask the smell of blood."

Pinkie blinked in surprise. "You can still smell blood even from here?"

"Yeah." Fluttershy coughed and hissed angrily. "I… I'd take some blood if I could, but the medics will need it all for the wounded."

"How many are there?" Pinkie glanced around to see Applejack looking up at her with bloodshot eyes. "How many people were hurt?"

"You don't have to worry about that," Rarity said softly.

"Thirty dead, four in critical condition and seventeen injured," Twilight replied, as if she was reading off an inventory, earning a scorching glare from Rarity.

"There would have been a lot more if we hadn't stepped in," Pinkie said earnestly.

Fluttershy nodded. "We… we did good."

Rarity gave the young nurse an uneasy look. "Perhaps, but I think we can do better by finding a way to help you. Isn't there anything we can do to make things a little easier?"

"Um, not really. Don't worry I'll be…" Fluttershy frowned as a thought occurred to her.

"Anything that stops you from going bitey helps us as well, so just spill it, Flutterbat," Pinkie said firmly.

"F-Flutterbat?!" Fluttershy looked at her in blank shock, but Pinkie stared her down until she finally relented. "Well, um, there is something that might help, but we'd have to travel across the wasteland for it, and I know we can't spare anyone from here to do that."

Pinkie cocked her head to the side. "Why don't me and you go together, then? Just the two of us."

Fluttershy just blinked dumbly, as if the thought had never occurred to her. "Um, are you sure?

"Not a chance, it's way too dangerous," Applejack cut in.

"Well we have to do something!" Pinkie retorted.

Rarity glanced uneasily at each of them in turn, then groaned and rubbed her forehead. "I imagine I'm going to regret this, but I'll go with them and make sure they don't get into any trouble. What exactly was it you wanted to do?"

Fluttershy dropped the towel and bit her lip nervously. "Um, I want to speak to the Family."

---

Squire Peters looked around the entrance to the Citadel in amazement. She had been given the task of helping the more experienced Knights assess the damage and see what repairs were needed, but things were worse than expected.

The gate was the most obvious issue. For a start, it had a massive dent in it. A team of power-armored Knights were already struggling to straighten it out, but even if they succeeded, the whole entranceway had been ripped away by whatever had smashed the gate off. They weren't getting that thing back in place anytime soon.

Peters found herself hoping that what the Knights were saying wasn't true; that all of this damage had been caused by a single punch from Applejack. She had been way too rude to the Rainbooms to be comfortable with that bullshit.

"How the hell are they so powerful?" Peters looked around as Squire Maxson stepped up alongside her. "I know all of this magic can do some pretty freaky stuff, but those Rainbooms are on a whole other level."

Peters nodded. "Yeah, no shit." She glanced back at the mangled gate, then shivered and turned away.

The other scars of the battle weren't any prettier. As Peters and Maxson walked around the outskirts of the Citadel, they couldn't help but cringe at the extent of the damage. Craters, smouldering debris and scorch marks marred the ground, and there were tiny scattered streaks of glass formed from dust caught in the heat and pressure of the nuclear blasts. On top of that, the area was irradiated enough that everyone who ventured outside had been given a dose of Rad-X to keep them from getting ill just from preparing the cleanup operation.

"Liberty Prime really is amazing," Maxson said proudly. He was looking around at the carnage as if it were the mark of some heroic victory, not the results of a deathmatch between two monstrous demigods of destruction.

"I'm more worried about what Prime was facing," Peters said flatly. "Anything that can take that much of a beating and keep swinging is something I don't wanna meet."

Maxson snorted. "That thing is dead, it didn't even stand a chance against Liberty Prime. Nothing does."

"If you say so," Peters replied quietly. She had a sneaking suspicion that there were more creatures out there that were just as capable of taking on a giant robot, but she held her tongue. Maxson was still a kid, he didn't deserve to have the shit kicked out of him by reality just yet.

As they were inspecting the area, the two Squires spotted Fawkes helping to clear away some of the debris, protected from the radiation by his mutation. Maxson grimaced as he saw him. "I can't believe we're getting help from that."

Peters shrugged. "He freaked me out a bit too, at first, but he's decent." Truth be told, Peters was glad to have Fawkes on her side. Any strong body that was willing to help her rather than sticking something in her or ripping something off her was a valuable ally in her books; she wasn't about to be picky about what they looked like.

Maxson, apparently, had other ideas. "It's disgusting. We ought to have put him down on sight, just like the rest of his kind."

"Huh?" Peters stared at Maxson in surprise. "What's wrong with Fawkes?"

"He's an abomination," Maxson spat. "Those monsters don't deserve to exist."

Peters raised an eyebrow. "What gives you the right to decide that?" She asked coldly.

Maxson scowled at her. "We're Squires and trueborn humans, and if that isn't enough for you, I'm the descendant of the legendary Roger Maxson, the founder of the Brotherhood of Steel."

"So you've got the right because you were shat out of the right pussy?" Peters shot, prompting a shocked look from Maxson. "News flash, you little shit, most of the people in the wasteland aren't as lucky as you. You can bet your ass that Fawkes didn't choose to end up like that. The only difference between you, me, and him is pure luck."

"I would never let myself become a monster like that," Maxson hissed.

"You might not have a choice." Peters crossed her arms and looked around at the devastation. "I didn't, back when I became a raider."

"What?!" Maxson gave her a shocked look. "You were a raider?!"

Peters just shrugged again. "My parents died and they were the only ones who would take me in. If I had any other option I would have taken it; life with them was shit. Every time some asshole decided they wanted a piece of me, I had to figure out whether it was safer to fight them off or just open my legs and let them get it over with. Sometimes I picked wrong." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "The only reason I'm here now is because the Rainbooms found me and patched me up after things got seriously fucked, then they sent me to Three Dog, then he put in a good word for me with the Brotherhood. I got lucky, same as every other fucker in here."

Without another word, Peters turned and walked back to the entrance, leaving Maxson to his thoughts.

---

Becky hurried through the corridors of Project Exodus, her thoughts racing. An aide had found her a few minutes ago and told her that Horrigan was back, but that something had gone very, very wrong.

As she turned a corner to one of the decontamination rooms, Becky spotted Andrew standing outside there, staring at the door. "Andrew? What's happened? What's going on?"

Andrew looked around, and Becky stopped in her tracks at the expression of cold fury on his face. "We've been betrayed."

Becky's eyes widened. "Wha- betrayed?! By who? What ha-"

The sound of the door opening cut her off mid-sentence. One of the technicians stepped out and held the door open for them. "Okay, we've managed to decontaminate him and he's in the cargo inspection room now. It doesn't look good."

Andrew nodded and swept through without a word. Becky spared a moment to thank the technician before following the Lieutenant Colonel, a hundred different horrible scenarios running through her head. The two rushed through a series of observation rooms until they arrived at the cargo inspection room. Tara and Sienna were already there, both wearing simple grey uniforms instead of their usual lab coats, but the space was dominated by Horrigan's body.

Horrigan was sprawled face up on a huge flatbed cargo cart, with a tangle of wires and cables connecting him to a set of portable terminals. His armor was a mess; much of the paint had been burned away, it was covered in dents and scratches, and there were small patches where the metal was oddly dimpled from exposure to extreme heat.

"Oh my god," Becky whispered.

Tara looked around as she realized that the two were there. "Hey, sorry it took so long to let you in, he was covered in a lot of radioactive debris."

"What the hell happened to him?!" Becky asked. "Andrew said we were betrayed, but how? And by who?"

Andrew crossed his arms, his expression turning darker by the second. "Acheson. He faked a secret order from me to make Horrigan join a strike team he had put together. They tried to assault the Citadel."

"What?!" Becky ran her eye over Horrigan's damaged armor again. "So all of this must have been done by Liberty Prime, or do you think it was the Rainbooms?"

"The Rainbooms may have had a hand in the fight, but the reports indicate Liberty Prime did most of it," Andrew replied.

Becky glanced sidelong at him. "What reports? How do you know about all of this anyway?"

Andrew's jaw tightened. "The surviving Vertibird fled here after the assault failed. The pilots told me everything. Apparently, the plan was for Horrigan to hold the Citadel's exterior while the Vertibirds contacted us for reinforcements to clear out and secure the interior. Major Owen, Acheson's lackey, was planning on using it as a way to scatter the Brotherhood of Steel and discredit me in one fell swoop."

"How would taking the Citadel discredit you?" Sienna asked.

"I've been arguing against using Horrigan to attack the Citadel or Liberty Prime," Andrew replied tightly. "If their plan had worked, they would have proved that I was wrong."

"Instead they ended up proving you right," Becky finished. She stepped up alongside Horrigan and laid a hand on his breastplate. There was a fist-sized dent just over his heart, making her wonder if Applejack had gotten involved in the fight. If so, Becky hoped she wasn't hurt. "Is Horrigan… dead?"

Tara shook her head. "That's the scary part. According to the logs of his life support systems he's some nasty bruising, and a cracked rib under that dent by your hand, but aside from that he's perfectly fine."

"Really?" Becky gestured vaguely at Horrigan's prone form. "Then why's he like this?"

"The chip I put in his brain shut down his armor's systems and slowed his life signs to negligible levels," Tara replied. "Some sort of self-preservation protocol, one I did not program into him, I promise you."

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Okay, that is kinda scary. This bastard is even tougher than I thought."

"I really don't think that this is the scary part," Sienna put in. In response to everyone's querulous looks, she rolled her eyes and said, "What I find scary is the fact that, as far as the Brotherhood of Steel and the Rainbooms know, we just sent Horrigan to attack them with a strike force. How long until they retaliate?"

Becky's blood ran cold. "Surely they must know that we wouldn't do that.?"

"I don't know," Andrew replied. "They left Horrigan's body for us to pick up, but we don't know if that was deliberate or if they were more interested in shoring up their defences and bracing for another assault than taking him in."

Becky shivered and leaned against Horrigan. Liberty Prime would be a problem, but at least it wouldn't be able to harm the facility below ground. The Rainbooms, on the other hand, were a different matter. The large hole in the roof had finally been sealed, but the elevator shafts would pose no obstacle to Rainbow Dash, and if she chose to strike first and ask questions later, then the Exodus team would be facing a slaughter.

Repressing another shiver, Becky looked up at Tara. "Can we wake Horrigan up?"

"Sure." Tara typed in a command on one of the terminals. A few seconds later Horrigan's joints glowed with a soft green light again, but the big guy himself didn't move.

Sienna gently tapped his helmet. "Horrigan? It's Sienna, can you hear me?"

Silence reigned for several long moments, until finally he answered quietly, "Yeah."

Becky let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding. "Shit, you had me worried there for a minute. How are you feeling?"

"Not good," Horrigan replied flatly.

"I'm not surprised, you just picked a fight with a walking superweapon," Sienna huffed.

Andrew stepped up to Horrigan's head and looked down at him. "Sorry to pester you when you've just woken up, soldier, but I need to know who gave you the order to assault the Citadel."

Horrigan slowly turned his head to look up at the Lieutenant Colonel. "A Major. I don't know his name. You didn't give secret orders, did you?" Andrew shook his head. "I didn't think so."

"If you didn't think so, then why the hell did you follow them?" Becky asked incredulously.

Horrigan gave a half-hearted shrug. "We're at war with the Brotherhood, so I figured I'd go with it. Taking the Citadel seemed like a good idea, and if the orders were really fake then I could squash the traitor afterwards."

Andrew sighed and shook his head. "Well, you'll get your chance to do just that soon enough, but for now I want you to get some rest."

"No, I can still fight." Horrigan shifted his weight and tried to pick himself up. "There's a traitor that needs seeing to."

Sienna planted her hands on her hips and glared down at him. "That can wait, now stop struggling and lay your ass back down on that cart. Now." Horrigan looked up at her, then, to the amazement of the others, sighed and did as he was told. "Good. You're going to stay put until I say you can stand up, and when I say you can stand up, you are going to march down to your room, we're going to hook you up to your repair station, and you are going to stay there until I say otherwise. Is that clear?"

"Yes, doc," Horrigan replied quietly.

Sienna nodded and stroked his helmet gently. "Don't worry. The moment we've fixed you up you can get back on your feet and get back to work, okay?" She said softly.

Becky stared at Sienna with a mix of awe and fear, wondering how the hell the snarky doctor had managed to cow Horrigan of all people. Shaking her head, she turned her attention to more important matters. "Right, now that that's sorted, I think we've got a message to send as soon as possible. Where's ED-E?"

---

Technicians, administrators, and power-armored soldiers alike hurried to get out of Senator Lily's way as she stormed towards Acheson's workshop. There were few people in the Enclave who were willing to draw her attention when she was annoyed, and right now she was downright seething.

Spotting her destination ahead, Lily picked up the pace and slammed the door open without knocking. Acheson and his new assistant, some wasteland scientist called Anna, looked over in surprise. Acheson was wearing some sort of bizarre electrical contraption, while Anna was apparently taking notes.

Acheson huffed when he saw who had so rudely entered his domain. "Senator. Would you kindly try not to make so much noise when you walk through my door?"

Lily stalked over to him. "What the fuck did you think you were doing?!"

"You're going to have to be a little more specific if you want a proper answer," Acheson replied calmly.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about!" Lily hissed. "Why the hell did you send Horrigan to the Citadel? Under false pretences, no less! I thought we had an agreement; leave Project Exodus alone!"

Acheson smirked at her. "I did leave Project Exodus alone. I simply made proper use of an asset that they had."

"On a gambit that failed!" Lily snapped. "Damn it, you old coot, now Project Exodus is defenceless!"

"You're just as old as I am, even if you don't look it, so don't try and throw that at me," Acheson grumbled. "As for my gambit, it actually worked perfectly." He chuckled softly. "Well, there wasn't any likely outcome where it could fail, really."

Lily's brow knotted as she put together what he was saying. "I want an explanation. Right now."

Acheson rolled his eyes. "Oh, very well. It's quite simple. If Horrigan successfully secured the Citadel, which, I might remind you, was once a government building and therefore ours by right, then finishing off the Brotherhood would be a trifling matter." He rolled his shoulders to settle his equipment more comfortably. "Destroying Liberty Prime would have been an added bonus."

"We already have a plan for destroying Liberty Prime," Lily cut in.

"Yes, but the satellite won't be prepared for a few days, yet," Acheson replied. "Besides, Horrigan's downfall is no great loss. If, or rather, when the Brotherhood of Steel retaliates against Project Exodus, they'll do everything in their power to avoid damaging any of the facility's infrastructure After all, the Rainbooms and the Brotherhood want that research as much as we do. Once we've dealt with Liberty Prime, retaking Project Exodus will be simple enough, and that way we'll have dealt with both the Brotherhood of Steel and those elements of the Enclave that won't fall in line."

"The ones that won't follow you, you mean," Lily shot.

Acheson shrugged. "Call it what you want, but when the dust settles I'll finally be the one in charge."

Lily snarled at him. "Do you really think I'm just going to let you get away with going behind my back on this?"

"You will if you want to see another day," Acheson growled.

Anna backed away as the two of them glared at each other, both of them practically daring the other to make the first move. Acheson was bigger and more muscular, not to mention whatever benefit the equipment he was wearing gave him, but he didn't know about the dark necklace that Lily was currently wearing beneath her uniform.

Eventually, just as Acheson's lip was beginning to curl, Lily scowled and turned away. "Project Exodus will not fall to the Brotherhood of Steel. I'll see to that personally."

Acheson snorted. "Feel free. The less fools there are around here to get under my feet the better."

Lily ignored the jab and strode out of the workshop. If she wanted to keep Project Exodus on track, and by extension her own plans, then she had a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in.

Next Chapter: Chapter 83 - Road Trip Estimated time remaining: 27 Hours, 4 Minutes