I get woken up by a familiar voice and hands gently shaking me. "(Y/N)...? (Y/nnn)?" Danse calls quietly but loud enough for it to wake me, I turn over to face him and open my eyes as best I can. "Mmmm?" I groan, "You're going to have to get use to waking up early knight, you slept in and Maxson wants to speak with us." I blink at him a few times and groan again as I lift myself up and step off the bed.
"Thank you for coming to see me so early but there is a very important matter to discuss. As I'm sure you both know the institute is a major threat and in order to exterminate them we need to know where it is and how to get there. There is a rouge scientist named-" "Virgil..." I interrupt quietly, Elder Maxson stares at me "How do you know of him knight?" He asks sternly, clearly annoyed that I interrupted him. "I've also been looking for the institute, I've heard of Virgil before and was meaning to go looking... he's in the Glowing sea." Maxson nods and Danse looks worried, "I want you both today to go looking for him and you will find him. Start looking for the Crater of the where the bomb fell. You're dismissed, Ad victorium soldiers." We salute back and head up to our power armor.
"All fixed knight, should latch right on. I suggest you both also take some rad-away, just in case." Proctor Ingram says, I nod and smile "I have plenty alredy." "Great, so pack up and head out then." I quickly run up to my bed and get the rad-away out of my bag, I shoot back down and store it away. "Lets go." I smile at Danse as I flip my helmet and put it on, he smirks and rolls his eyes, doing the same.
"How much lonnggeeerrrr?" I complain, we've been going for ages! "A very long time, this isn't going to be a quick trip at all. Just be patient." I sigh and nod, then... I realize we're kinda close to my old shack. "Hey Danse, could we stop by my house? We could break there." I smile but I known he can't see it, "Sure, lead the way."
After only a few minutes I find my house and am relieved to see it's still in one peice. I exit my power armor and Danse does the same. "You lived here?" He asks, looking around "Yeah, it's not much but I'm pretty proud of it." I smile and he smiles back, "You should be proud, it's amazing." We go and sit on the porch. "Sanctuary hills is about a 3-4 hour hike that way, I lived there before the war." I say, pointing. "Why did you move then? Wouldn't you want to stay?" I look dowm slightly and shake my head too many painful memories for me to handle. It's been ages since I've seen everyone there." "Who's everyone?" Danse moves a little closer again, "I saved a few people from some raiders in Concord the day I got out of the vault, they took... well sanctuary in sanctuary." I giggle a little and smile, Danse does too "Good one. You know... you really are a wonderful person (Y/n) everything you do impresses me and it takes a lot to impress me as much as you do." He puts his elbow on him leg and places his cheek in his palm, looking at me. "I can say the same about you." I smirk and do the same thing he is, we both smile at eachother and laugh a bit. "How about some water? I left some here." Danse nods and I get up, "I can get them." He gets up as well, I push his head down gently and smile "stay." I go into the house and look where I keep my cold water, purified of course. "Here you go, nice and chilled." I smile and hand a bottle to him, sitting back down next to him. "Thank you. So what is all that for?" Danse asks, pointing to all my training equipment. "I use those to get better at my close range combat if I need it, you've seen me in action with that though." "You got that good just by using these?" I nod and drink some water.
We finish our water and decide to head out again. We get into our suits and follow the trail back to our original path.
"So (Y/n)... I know this is a weird but personal question but... do you still love Nate? Now I know it sounds weird but I'm just generally curious since.. well you know." Danse says, sounding a little nervous "Of course I do, just... it's hard since he isn't with me anymore." I say simply, not really wanting to show much emotion, don't wanna cry. "Okay... well that's understandable." He says awkwardly, we keep walking in silence.
After a bit of fighting with creatures and raiders my guider counter starts to tick. "We're close!" I say, I can't help but feel excited for some reason. "Why are you happy? This place is crawling with danger." I look at him and poke him "I love me some danger." I skip ahead and Danse sighs, shaking his head "of course you do."
Finally we have a clue on where to find Virgil, about time. It's been almost all day. "This is ridiculous, surely he would have been here!" Danse says angrily, "Hey chill, he's close now. We'll get there." I say in a reassuring voice, he sighs and taps my back a few times.
"Wait..." I say, holding my arm out infront of Danse. I point in the distance and he gasps quietly "Deathclaw..." I think for a moment and get an idea. "Here's the plan, we split up, go on one side each. We have to be far enough away though that it can't get to any of us very quickly, plus with it being shot at from both sides we'll confuse it." I say in a hushed tone, Danse nods. "Ad victorium." I say, Danse says it back and we split off, making sure it doesn't see or hear us in the process. I make it to my spot and so does Danse. We nod at eachother and start shooting at it, I looks at both of us and moves around confused, it screams and tries to move out the way. I go rapid fire on it, shooting it with everything I have. But... click... "Shit!!" out of ammo... I look for another weapon but the Deathclaw has noticed I'm out and is already sprinting towards me. "(Y/N)!!!" Danse screams, already running after the creature. I look up and realize how close it is, I stumble back and try to get away but it slashes it's claws right through my power armor. I fall limp and look up at it, I see Danse grab it's neck and throw it to the ground, shooting it so much all of it just explodes. I can see a crimson liquid leaking out of my armor and I gasp a little. Danse quickly picks me up and runs towards the cave screaming something... I fall into darkness.
