To Save a Soul

Chapter 5 If memories could kill

Fort Hagen towered over them. So many questions were rushing through Katherine's mind. Was her son inside? Had he been there? Was Kellogg still inside? She wouldn't know till she was inside herself. The front doors were chained from the inside and it took Katherine and Danse a good hour to finally find a way in through the underground parking garage. Katherine stopped and turned to face the Paladin in the dark concrete room.
"What if I need to do this alone?" she asked, Righteous Authority gripped firmly in her hands. Danse shook his head and motioned for her to move along.
"Not a chance, soldier." he grumbled firmly as he took the lead. The fort was suspiciously devoid of enemies. They cleared the entire fort in the matter of an hour and Danse could sense that Katherine was becoming increasingly distraught.
"The only place left is the basement...which won't be very big." Katherine said as she ran a hand through her hair in frustration. Danse said nothing, but walked by her, leading her down to the basement door. The air was thick and humid and smelled of dust.
    Katherine waited as Danse broke the locked door down and headed down the long hall stealthily. At the end he turned and motioned for her to follow him. The hall opened up to a room full of just what she had expected, multitudes of storage bins and rows of filing cabinets. A defeated sigh escaped her lips.
"Knight." Danse said with a strange hint of urgency in his voice. Katherine turned to see him holding a wrench that he had pulled off of a wall mounted tool rack. It had swung away from the wall like a hidden passage. Excitement surged through Katherine and she bolted past him and down the winding concrete tunnel. Her footsteps echoed maddeningly off of the curved walls.
"Knight!" she heard Danse shout behind her but she couldn't slow down, not when her baby could be at the end of the tunnel. Moments later she found herself wishing she had listened to the Paladin as she found herself pinned down by gunfire. If the massive metal weapons crate hadn't been lying against the tunnel wall she would have been dead already. Hell, she'd been lucky to have been able to throw herself behind it in time. Her knees were bleeding from the impact.
"Fuck!" Danse shouted as he fired at the synths from around the bend that she had just bolted around thoughtlessly. Blue and red laser beams flitted across the hall. Danse couldn't get a good shot off from his position so Katherine did the only thing that she could think of.     The grenade felt heavy in her palm as she closed her eyes and yanked the pin from it. Katherine said a silent prayer, asking for the strength she needed to throw it far enough down the long tunnel not hurt herself. With one swift motion she hurled it over the container and covered her head with her arms. As soon as Danse caught a glimpse of the weapon in her hands he felt his chest tighten. He wasn't even entirely sure where she had found a grenade. The Paladin was forced to retreat back down the hall and out into the store room. The blast rocked the entire fort, they were lucky that the structure had been sturdy enough that it hadn't collapsed in on them. He knew damn well that she had never thrown a grenade before. How did he know this? He knew it by the way she hesitated before she threw it and by the simple fact that she had used it in such an enclosed space. Danse sprinted down the long tunnel and dropped to his knees beside her. The tiny woman was splayed out amongst the debris. Her hair in a messy pile, one arm flailed out above her head and the other by her side, and the rifle he had given her was tucked under her arm. She was unconscious, but not dead.
"What the fuck were you thinking?" the Paladin roared as her eyes fluttered open, her head ached and her ears were ringing. She clutched his arm and pulled herself up. Danse could see it in her eyes, adrenaline was coursing through her veins and she was about to take off again.
"No! Fucking stop, Katherine, before you get yourself killed!" Danse snarled. How dare he! She thought. Danse was absolutely terrifying when he was mad and Katherine found herself taking a step back from the Paladin.
    The dim lights illuminated Katherine's pale skin and hair making her look like some kind of vivid apparition. She was covered head to toe in dust and dirt and the air around them was hazy with smoke from the explosion. Cradling his rifle in one arm Danse reached out with his other and ran a thumb over her cheekbone. Immediately Katherine saw blood.
"Am I bleeding? Is that mine?" The sight of the red substance startled her, she hadn't even felt the cut. Danse nodded and she raised her own fingers to the wound. It was just a scrape, she would survive.
"We need to keep going." she muttered as she began to jog down the hall. Danse quickly made his way in front of her. In his expert opinion, she was too inexperienced to lead.
    They rounded the corner and opened fire on two more synths. The way they moved so fluidly, just like a human, frightened Katherine to her core. What had the Institute been thinking? They'd been playing God and had mistakenly created these monstrosities. The synth's plastic white face contorted as it short circuited and collapsed to the ground.
"I must say that I am impressed. The first time I saw you in that vault I never thought you'd make it out alive." a man's voice spoke over the building's intercom system. They both stopped dead in their tracks. Danse turned to see Katherine staring wide eyed at the little red door at the end of the tunnel.
"You bastard! Where is my son!" she shouted furiously. The voice laughed again through the speakers.
"I admire your dedication." The comment sent Katherine sprinting towards the door, Danse in hot pursuit. Katherine yanked on the door handle but the door was securely locked. Turning her wrath on the terminal beside the door she found that it had been disabled as well. There was no way in. Panic and raw anger surged through her.
"Stand down, soldier." the Paladin said as he watched the Knight bloody her knuckles on the door.
"Open this damn door you coward!" she shouted as she stood staring at the door panting.
"I'll let you in. As far as you've come to find me, I at least owe you that, but you won't leave alive." Kellogg's voice filled the hall.
"It could be a trap." Danse said, stating the obvious.
"Then stay here Danse. This has nothing to do with you." Her words struck him harder than he thought they would.
    With a click the lock on the door disengaged and Katherine burst through into an enormous office, her rifle across her back. Terminals lined the walls and the center of the large space was filled with rows of filing cabinets that were as tall as she was. The bald man standing before her filled her with memories of the tragic end of her family. Danse positioned himself beside her, towering over them both. Behind Kellogg stood a synth on either side, if things went wrong they very well might not make it out alive.
"I see you've brought the Brotherhood with you." Kellogg said, earning himself a glare from the Paladin.
"You...you took my son and you killed Nate...why?" Katherine choked out. Her voice a fine line between anger and misery.
"The Institute needed your son and your husband was in the way. I knew I should have killed you too, I didn't think you could have ever escaped much less survived the wasteland." Kellogg told her.
"Give me my son!" Katherine snarled.
"Your son isn't here. I turned him over the Institute long ago. Look, you should just move on. Start a new life, take my word on that." Kellogg told her sarcastically. The institute had Shawn.
    Katherine was seeing red. Never in her life had she been so humiliated or so discouraged. Everything she had been hoping for had hung on this moment for weeks and she had just been sent back to square one. Her mind could barely grasp it. There was no stopping her, she had made up her mind. With one swift movement she pulled her pistol from the holster on her thigh and fired one shot between the man's eyes. Danse threw her to the ground behind the nearest terminal as he engaged the remaining synths. Katherine gripped the collar of Kellogg's leather jacket and hauled his body behind the terminal with her. There was something attached to the side of his head, almost like a hearing aid, but that wasn't what it was. It was some sort of transparent contraption with a circuit board in it, wired into his flesh. With one hard yank she managed to gruesomely rip it free, tucking it in a file folder she had found on the floor then into her bag.
    It didn't take a genius to know that Danse was furious with Katherine, she had unnecessarily put them both in danger. He wouldn't speak to her as she followed him to the elevator at the back of the office and out onto the roof. The next three days that ensued were filled with nothing but tension. The road to Diamond City was long and dangerous and Katherine was hurt many times, not seriously, but not one of these times did Danse bother to help her up or ask if she was ok. They only spoke when necessary. Once in Diamond City Danse declined to visit Valentine with her so she went alone. There, in the detective's office, she was told of Doctor Amari and the Memory Den in Goodneighbor. Valentine was an absolute sweetheart, even for a synth, and had offered to accompany her there himself, but instead she had settled for meeting him there. Katherine headed back to the Dugout Inn. The day's cool breeze whipping through her hair. Whatever was going on with Danse was seriously throwing her off. She had tried apologizing for letting her emotions get in the way of her actions back at Fort Hagen. She had apologized for not obeying orders. Nothing she did could break the ice. She had just about given up, whatever she had done she had seriously crossed some invisible line that he had drawn.
    They made good time getting to Goodneighbor. Katherine had pissed Danse off even more by having short conversation with the charismatic ghoul, Hancock, after he had stabbed the man that had tried to scam them at the gates. Danse was even more dismayed when he followed her into the Memory Den to find Nick Valentine waiting for them. Doctor Amari had waisted no time putting Katherine and Valentine under in the loungers. The doctor had barely given and explanation for what she was doing. From what Danse had picked up on, it was a dangerous procedure and Katherine had volunteered herself with almost no hesitation.
"What is going to happen to them?" Danse asked the doctor.
"Using the components from Valentine's synthetic system and her human mind they will be able to experience Kellogg's memories together, as a combined effort you would say." Doctor Amari explained to him. Danse nodded as he hovered over Katherine's pod, watching her eyes flicker beneath their lids. It had been the Knight's foolish decision to partake in this insane experiment and he should let her suffer the consequences...but he found himself hovering anxiously anyways. What had gotten into him? About thirty minutes in he noticed her brows furrowing and tears? Yes there were tears running down her cheeks.
"What's wrong with her? She's crying." he stated as he glanced at the doctor.
"She just experienced the murder in vault 111 over again." Nick answered from behind him as he emerged from his pod. Danse turned and stared at the synth in disbelief. How could they have done that to her all over again?
"She's going to be distraught. Take her home for a few days. She's going to need it, that was gruesome. Tell your Elder that the Institute uses teleportation to get in and out of the and to find Virgil in the glowing sea...he's the creator of the teleportation system." Nick made sure to explain to the Paladin before Katherine could wake up and protest, just incase something went wrong and she couldn't recall what she had seen in her mind.
"Thanks." Danse said awkwardly. He would never admit to another soul that he had said such a thing to a synth.
"Not a problem, she knows where to find me." the synth told him and with a tilt of his hat before he left. Danse turned back to see the doctor injecting Katherine with a stimpak.
"What is that for?" he snapped. He had been led to believe that the memory process was of no serious harm to humans.
"It's no harm to human's experiencing their own memories. She has gone into someone's mind, third party. Through one synth to another. She is going to be incredibly weak." the doctor told him. Once again he just nodded, irritated with the new situation that he had found himself in.
    Danse scooped Katherine up out of the lounger. She groaned groggily, still unconscious. The more time he spent with the Knight the more situations he found himself in that he had never thought he'd have to deal with before. Her long hair brushed against his thigh as each of his steps jolted her a little. He was in no position to be attacked, it was hard enough to protect them both without her being unconscious.
"Nate.." she mumbled. The name stopped him dead in his tracks. The big Paladin stared down at the woman in his arms, once again in awe. He didn't want to give her false hope or confuse her more than she already would be when she came around, he needed her to get back in touch with reality and before they made it back to the Prydwen.
"It's Danse." he said quietly, feeling a little dismayed at who was obviously on her mind. He carried her out of the grungy little city, dropping a flare in he first clear intersection he came across. It wasn't long before a vertibird arrived, but she was still out of it.
"Does she need medical assistance?" the Scribe on board asked. Danse shook his head as he took a seat, still holding the woman limply in his arms.
"Come on wake up." he said as he pawed at her face with a large hand, but she just grumbled quietly. She really would be the death of them both.
    Once aboard the Prydwen Danse debated what he was going to do. Take her to her room and risk Maxson coming across her? Give her over to Maxson? Hide her in his own room? It wasn't an easy choice. In the end he decided he'd see if he could make it to his own room without being noticed first. If Maxson found her unconscious he would be furious. He had given Danse specific orders to keep her out of harms way.
"Paladin Danse? Is that..." Scribe Haylen was cut off by a sharp look from the Paladin. Without hesitation she followed him into his room.
"Yes, Haylen, it's Katherine. No, she isn't dead or hurt. Heavy medication, she will wake up soon." he barked quickly, already knowing exactly what she was going to ask.
"Maxson will be happy to hear that she's back." Haylen said with a relieved sigh.
"No! Don't tell him...not yet." Danse said quickly, stopping her.
"Well, well, well. What's going on Paladin?" the Scribe asked. Haylen knew only what Katherine had told her. Danse swallowed hard, thinking of what to say next.
"I...she...well her and Elder Maxson..." dammit he just couldn't get it out.
"She doesn't want Maxson, Danse." Haylen said with a sigh. She had known the Paladin since she was an initiate and he could be so dense sometimes. He looked back at her.
"You can tell me...I won't tell her..." Haylen talked to him as if she was trying to coax a wounded animal.
"I don't know when it happened or how it happened. She can not know. She deserves better." was all he managed to get out, it was the only thing he could say that he felt would justify his stance in the situation. Haylen glanced down at Katherine. She wouldn't be surprised if the woman was pretending just so she could hear this.
"Paladin...you better tell her before someone else does." was all Haylen said before she left the room. Of course Haylen was right and of course Danse would never do it. Never before had the Paladin been stressed. Everything had always been so simple in his life. The vault dweller lie on her side on his bed with her hair in a messy pile behind her. He could see her chest rise and fall with each breath she took. Danse locked his door, turned off the light, and sat awake at the end of the bed for hours.
    Katherine awoke with the feeling of dread heavy in her chest. Never before had she thought that a memory could be so vivid. Disorientation clouded her mind as she sat straight up, trying to figure out where she was and how she had gotten there.
"Whoah, wait are... well are you okay?" she heard Danse say in the darkness beside her and she relaxed slightly. Her eyes were still adjusting. Katherine ran a hand through her hair.
"We're on the Prydwen aren't we?" she asked finally, her voice hoarse. All of the emotions she had felt were still so fresh.
"We are. How...how are you feeling?" Danse asked her again.
"I...I just need some air. I'm a bit overwhelmed." Katherine said as she got up and left the room before he could question her further.
    Katherine hurried through the halls in a daze and out onto the Prydwen's flight deck. The chilly air crept through her jeans and hoodie, her hair blowing about lightly in the breeze. It almost felt normal to be wearing her old clothes with her arms resting on the railing. Nate and herself had used to lie out in their backyard and watch the stars.She found herself wishing that Nate could have seen stars as they were now. Despite the painful memory she had relived she had learned that the Institute used teleportation and that she needed to find the escaped scientist named Virgil. Virgil in the glowing sea. The glowing sea? Katherine didn't know what it was but she was sure it would be as unpleasant as it's name suggested. She glanced back at the massive windows of the command center... the lights were off, she was sure Maxson had gone to his quarters for the night. She would have welcomed the Elder's company at this point, he was a strong man and she was certain that he would have been able to give her useful advice, but she was alone, or so she had thought.         Danse lingered in the shadows of the Prydwen's flight deck. He had been debating whether or not he should give the sole survivor some space or if she would accept his presence. Scribe Haylen's words lingered in his mind, but he knew he didn't have many options. Paladin Danse approached Katherine hesitantly and quietly. It didn't matter though, she had heard him, and whipped around to face him. When she had heard his footsteps she had been certain that she would turn to see Elder Maxson.
"Paladin Danse." she murmured solemnly as she watched him approach. He kept his eyes cast down.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked, instantly regretting his question because she had told him exactly what she was doing. She had needed air, space, but he hadn't been able to wait long before following her.
"I just came out here to think. I saw Kellogg's memory of vault 111, but I also saw what I needed to see and I know where I need to go next now." she told the Paladin. He nodded, he knew as well.
"Virgil in the glowing sea." he said, echoing her thoughts. Katherine may not have known of the place but the Paladin did and he knew just how dangerous it was.
"I won't pretend to know what awaits in the glowing sea but I have a hunch that it is rather unpleasant and I don't expect you to go with me. Especially not after the rampage I went on back at Fort Hagen. You have gone above and beyond for me and it wouldn't be right of me to expect more of you, Paladin." she told him with her chin held high. If she was going to continue this suicide mission to find her son she would have to do it without dragging everyone around her down with her.
    In that moment Danse felt that he was being doubted, he felt like he needed to prove that she was no trouble to him and that he would always be there to help her, words always failed him. After a moment of internal struggle Danse took a step towards her, catching her tiny waist in his calloused hands. The action had taken every ounce of courage he had had in him and he had caught Katherine completely off guard, she couldn't help but smile as he hoisted her up. He knew she loved the stars.Wrapping her legs around his waist, she steadied herself by resting her hands on his shoulders as she looked up at the starts above the Prydwen.
     Danse looked up at her, her platinum hair gently flowing in the breeze, her steel colored eyes full of amazement. He hadn't meant to but he fell in love that night, staring up at the woman out of time. There was no question about it and how it had befallen a man like himself, he'd never understand. In all honesty he didn't really understand what was happening to him.
"I will go with you." Danse told her, causing her to look down at him. His response put her at ease and she found herself so grateful. Katherine leant forward and placed a careful kiss on the Paladin's cheek, causing his face to redden instantly. It had been an innocent gesture, but little did they know, the Elder of the Brotherhood was watching from inside the darkness of the command center, seething.
    Katherine followed the Paladin back inside, feeling a little more at ease than she had before. The memories she had experienced in the Memory Den were fading quickly. Katherine didn't see Maxson from behind Danse's towering body but she heard him, snapping her back to reality.
"Enjoying the night air, Paladin, Knight?" Maxson asked, a sharp tone to his voice. Katherine stepped up next to the Paladin.
"I know how to get into the Institution." Katherine said before Danse had a chance to say anything. The Elder's gaze fell on her. Katherine wasn't sure if he had been watching her since she stepped out onto the flight deck or if he had just been in the right place at the right time to see her and the Paladin coming back inside together.
"And how is that?" Elder Maxson asked.
"Teleportation. The Institute had a scientist escape, his name is Virgil. An Institute courser tracked this Virgil down to the glowing sea." Katherine explained quickly. She was proud of herself, but also incredibly nervous. Elder Maxson stared down at her with dark eyes. Katherine could practically feel the Elder's anger and sense Danse tensing beside her.
"Then there's no time to waste. Gather what you need and leave now before I change my mind." the Elder ordered before stepping closer to the Paladin. It was very clearly a threat.
"We will settle this when you return." the Elder snarled. Danse knew exactly what this was about. While Danse and Katherine hurried back to the barracks, gathering what they needed, Maxson was in a blind rage in the armory.
    Danse hurried Katherine down to the armory where multiple suits of power armor all sat in their bays. Katherine hated power armor and the idea of it. Yes, it was ten times safer and could take a hell of a lot more damage, but she was also claustrophobic. She was terrified she'd get stuck, permanently sealed into the metal suit.
"Danse...I can't..." she said as he shoved a power core into a set of armor and opened it for her.
"You have to...the radiation in the glowing sea...well that's the crater. It's where the bomb dropped." he told her as he held out a hand. Katherine shook her head again. The crater and the bomb that had taken an entire world from her. She had been running headfirst, adrenaline fueled, into danger since she joined the Brotherhood of Steel because nothing mattered. Now, now she had Danse to worry about and that bomb had already taken everything from her.
"Katherine, please." Danse spoke, the urgency in his voice more apparent.
    With one deep breath Katherine set a fragile hand into Danse's enormous rough one and allowed him to heave her up into the suit. It was an incredibly snug fit as it was meant to be. With one flick of a switch, inside the hand of the armor, the suit sealed around her. Katherine watched with bated breath as Danse climbed into his suit expertly. He handed her Righteous Authority and they were on their way. It was possible to jump from the Prydwen in a suit of power armor and land perfectly unharmed, but it took years of experience in the suits to be able to do such a thing. Danse knew he could do it, but Katherine wouldn't be able to. Instead, he piloted a vertibird to Waypoint Echo. It was a long flight across the Commonwealth and Katherine had been fighting the urge to doze off for the better part of the trip.
"Hold on, soldier. It'll be a rough landing." Danse said from the cockpit and Katherine held onto the bar above the door, bracing herself. The suit of power armor wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. The hydraulics were incredible, she didn't feel as if it were heavy or difficult to move.
    Katherine leapt out of the vertibird, her power armor hissing as the knees bent. Danse was close behind her. Before them was a semi circle of crates and barbed wire. A flagpole with a weather beaten Brotherhood of Steel flag clinging to it.
"Why does the Brotherhood have a waypoint at the edge of the Glowing Sea?" Katherine asked, honestly curious. From what she had heard, the Glowing Sea was an unlivable and unforgiving place, why would the Brotherhood ever want to venture into it?
"One of United States biggest nuclear stock piles lies in the glowing sea. Thousands of ready to go Fat Mans." Danse told her. The information struck home in her mind.
"Danse... if the Brotherhood of Steel is about keeping this world from going through what the world I came from did...then why does Elder Maxson want nukes?" Katherine asked. She knew what she was implying and the idea certainly didn't sit well with her. The Paladin simply shrugged, maybe he really didn't know?
    Katherine let the Paladin lead. The Wasteland was different here. It was a much more sinister environment. The sky was black and a thick green mist and fog clung to everything. The ground was so contaminated that it looked like there had been a massive oil spill. The ground that wasn't covered in the oil like material was scorched and had a yellow tint to it. There was nothing to be seen in any direction. Occasionally there would be the twisted steel remains of a bridge or the twisted and almost unrecognizable remains of a building. Thunder echoed across the sky, it sounded like the thunder she had heard at the Red Rocket truck stop. What had Danse called it? A radstorm.
"The suits will protect us from the radiation." Danse said. It was almost as if he could hear her thoughts. Katherine nodded inside her suit.
"Good." she muttered. She had noticed that Danse had filled every available storage space in both suits with IV packs of radaway and a few bottles of Radaway pills. They had each taken a rad-x before heading out anyways. They continued on for hours, unsure of where they were going. All they knew was that Virgil was somewhere out there in the desolate landscape.
"Living in the center of the crater is a group of people that...they worship it...they call themselves the children of Atom. They come here at the age of forty and it takes them only a matter of hours to die.They could know where Virgil is." Danse said as he recalled hearing about the discovery of these people.
    The ground rumbled around them, causing them both to freeze. Danse watched Katherine look around, the headlamp on her helmet casting an eery light in the fog. She turned around, rifle raised.
"Something is stalking us." Danse said at the exact moment that a radscorpion burst from the charred earth before her. She shot it a few times before stumbling backwards as she tried to dodge the scorpions stinger. They took it down quickly, which was a relief for Danse, till he stopped to look back at his Knight. She was standing, slumping slightly in her suit, her rifle in the power armors hands limply. Danse could hear her panting.
"Knight." he said loudly as he approached her, snapping her out of it.
"I'm ok, just winded." she said, but she knew something wasn't right. She had been training with the Brotherhood for awhile now and didn't become winded easily anymore. She shook her head again.
"I'm fine." she reiterated.
    The climb into the crater was excruciating. The incline was incredibly steep and she found herself fighting for breath again. What was wrong with her? Katherine was absolutely astonished when they reached the rim of the crater, they were so high up and below them was an entire little village made of wooden shacks and scrap metal. Danse looked over at the woman beside him. Normally he had to look down at her, but in the power armor she was level with him. He could barely see her face through the tinted face of the helmet, but she didn't look well to him, it was her body language that gave it away. Out in the Glowing Sea...there was no taking off the armor to check what was wrong.
    Down into the crater they went. The radiation was the most severe there. The geiger counter on Danse's suit was off the meter. The children of Atom gave them hard stares and odd looks as they traveled through there little settlement. They were headed for the biggest shack in sight, assuming that their leader would be there and they were right.
"What do you seek from us?" a sickly woman asked as they approached her.
"We're looking for someone." Katherine said on a sigh. The woman stared at her for a moment.
"Who do you seek?" the woman asked. It appeared as if she was in some drug induced haze, but Katherine soon realized that the woman was dying of radiation poisoning.
"Virgil." Katherine told her and again the woman stopped for a few moments, staring into space. Katherine glanced over at Danse, she wasn't sure that he had noticed.
"Virgil. Yes, he has traded with us a few times, but he is not here. Out and to the southwest of our crater...there is a cave. Virgil's cave." the woman said hoarsely before turning and aimlessly wandering back into the shack.
"Okay..." Katherine mumbled as she turned and stumbled down the wooden steps.
"Whoah." Danse muttered as he caught her arm, metal clanking together. Katherine sucked in a deep breath, the ground seemed to be spinning.
"I think I'm going to be sick." she whispered hoarsely.
"You can't take your helmet off. The radiation levels here are fatal." Danse told her, she waved him away, she already knew that. She caught her breath and the dizzy spell passed. They climbed back out of the crater and headed towards the southwest, looking for a cave entrance. Katherine was becoming increasingly weak and she could only describe it as feeling drunk or extremely hungover. She stumbled after the Paladin, intentionally not saying anything, she didn't want him to attempt to haul her back out of the sea, not when they were so close.
    A heavy thump caught the Paladin's attention. Danse turned to see Katherine kneeling on one knee. He turned and hurried over to her. The helmet of the power armor was tilted down and Danse's biggest fear was that she was unconscious.
"Knight." he said firmly as he raised the helmet enough for him to look inside. Katherine's eyes were open, but cast down.
"Katherine talk to me." he demanded. Those cold steel eyes snapped up to catch his gaze, they never failed to take his breath away.
"I think... I have radiation poisoning and...and the left leg of my suit...it won't move." she told him between ragged gasps. Deep down she was fighting the rising panic attack that she knew was imminent at this point.
"What? That's impossible. These suits were made to be one hundred percent radiation resistant." Danse said as he knelt to inspect the back of the suit, finally examining the leg that she claimed was out. Danse sucked in a deep breath. He felt as if he had been sucker punched, completely caught off guard.
"Who...Who would...the seal around the knee joint. It's cut...it's wide open. The wires are exposed..." Danse said in a state of shock.
"Then go. Go back to the Prydwen because... there is no way I can survive this. My suit hasn't been properly sealed, I've been taking on rads since we set foot at waypoint echo." Katherine said flatly. This was it. This was how it was going to end. She'd be with Nate, but Shawn...he would be left out in this world truly alone and Danse, she'd be leaving Danse.
    Danse shook his head at her words. It was against the Brotherhood ways to leave a soldier behind, but Katherine, he couldn't leave her behind no matter what the situation was. She didn't know that, but it was the truth. Danse thought for a quick moment, weighing his options. He turned the wheel on the back of her power armor and pulled her out, balancing her on the leg of his armor with one arm while he pulled out a bottle of radaway pills from her armor with his other. Reaching around her he clumsily opened the bottle, caught a pill in his hand, and dropped the rest onto the ground. He slipped the pill into her mouth.
"Swallow it. You have to." he told her and she did.
"Just go." she muttered. She'd be unconscious soon and there was no point in the Paladin risking his life over a worthless cause. Paladin Danse was a soldier through and through. He hauled Katherine at least two miles before he spotted a small opening in the side of a rocky overhang.
"I think we've made it." he said looking down at the almost unconscious woman in his arms. His first thought had been to get out of his power armor and place her in it, but she wasn't capable of walking. Her eyes fluttered slightly beneath thick lashes but other than that she didn't respond.
    Danse burst into the cave, carefully avoiding the tin cans dangling from a chain. Around the curve of the cave he could hear the whirring of automatic turrets. He could set Katherine down and attempt to take out the turrets or he could call out to Virgil and let him know that they came in peace. Danse decided that the latter would be in Katherine's best interest.
"Virgil! I am Paladin Danse of the Brotherhood of Steel! I have an unconscious soldier with me, we mean you no harm!" Danse shouted, his back against the wall. He heard startled scuffling, and heavy footsteps.
"Out of the power armor, Paladin." a strange and deep voice boomed. Danse froze, there was no circumstance that he would ever step out of his power armor, at least not until now. Katherine had become that circumstance. With a deep sigh Danse set Katherine down carefully on the floor, letting her lean against the wall, and stepped out of his power armor. The armor hissing as it disengaged. Danse scooped her back up in one arm, holding his rifle in the other. With a deep breath he pointedly aimed the gun at the floor and stepped around the corner, using his body to shield her as he entered the main chamber of the cave. It was well lit and filled with supplies and makeshift furniture. What stood out most was the enormous and advanced chemistry station. Shit Danse thought when he saw who, what Virgil, was. A huge super mutant stood before him in a ragged white lab coat. The FEV, forced evolution virus, had been invented just before the war and had been an experiment that had gone completely and utterly wrong. That's how a super mutant was created and that is exactly what stood before Danse. It was a part of the Brotherhood's tenants that any of these creatures that a soldier came across were to be cut down immediately, yet Danse once again found himself breaking a rule for the tiny woman in his arms. Danse grit his teeth together.
"Don't worry, I've created a magnetic field at the entrance. It keeps the cave free of radiation. How did you find me? Who sent you?" the mutant asked. Danse raised a hand as he set his rifle down with the other and knelt down, Katherine in his arms.
"Please, we are here on her behalf. She is looking for her son. The Institute took him, but she needs medical attention. Allow me to help her so that she can explain to you herself." Danse said as calmly as he could. Katherine's breath was coming in shallow and in infrequent gasps now.    
    The super mutant, Dr.Virgil, nodded and motioned to a mat on the floor. Danse nodded his thanks as he sat down hurriedly, back against the wall. He shoved an IV in one of her arms, cradled her in one of his own and rested the other on his pulled up knee as he held the Radaway bag high.
"Radiation poisoning. Hmmm She should have been wearing armor like yours." Virgil grumbled as he looked over at the pair.
"She was but someone had tampered with it." Danse said quietly. Elder Maxson was the only one that knew that they would be taking the suits, but would the Elder really do that to her? Or had someone meant it for him? Danse never lost track of the mutant as he went about his business at the chemistry station. Danse looked back down at Katherine, she was pale, paler than her normal snowy complexion. He could feel something rising in his chest, whether it was anxiety or anger... he couldn't tell. It was foreign to him.
"She's been in it too long." Dr.Virgil said as he approached them. Danse clutched her to him tighter as if it were going to keep her from slipping away. At this point he had accepted that if he lost her he wouldn't forgive himself or be the same person that he was now.
    In that moment the doctor's words sank in and Danse lost control of his calm facade. Doctor Virgil watched as the big man in his dark dirt stained clothes laid out the tiny woman on her back. Her hair splayed like a heavenly pillow around her. The man loomed over her on his own knees, adjusting her IV and checking her pulse. The Paladin looked around frantically. He didn't know what to do and she was fading quickly. She had no one and she was his to lose. Doctor Virgil grabbed a med kit and hurried back to his chemistry station.
"Katherine...Come on Katherine..." Danse said hoarsely as he ran his thumb along her jaw. Danse was hardly aware that Virgil had returned and was towering over them.
"Give her this." he grumbled, handing Danse a needle filled with a strange purple fluid. Danse eyed it suspiciously.
"What is this?" he asked.
"A concoction of radiation medicines and stem cell repair serums that the Institute has created. That's probably the only vile in the Commonwealth. I recommend you inject her with it. Right below her left breast, don't puncture her heart or a lung." the doctor said and Danse didn't hesitate. He couldn't believe that he was trusting this abomination with Katherine's life, but he had no choice.
    Paladin Danse stripped her of her kevlar vest and black hoodie, revealing the white shirt beneath it. He shoved her shirt up and jammed the needle into her smooth flesh just under the lacy bra. His heart beat had quickened and he couldn't stop from staring at the perfect body beneath him waiting, praying, for her to take a breath. The needle fell to the floor beside him with a hollow clink.