-Daydals-

The Outcast aggressors were asleep, crippled by their exhaustion. Daydals fully powered on, and activated his stealth routines. As he went farther from his captors, Daydals ran into the malfunction, the one he dubbed Anger. A portion of his objective data became corrupted, and a new piece took it's place: terminate the aggressor known as Jack.

"New objective in conflict with priority one objective. Error."

Jack damaged User Jade. Major priority is to find User Jade. But. Jack is an aggressor. Dangerous and mentally unstable. Aggressor Jack has damaged Jade. Synthesized data has suggested that Jack be terminated.

"Error. Error. New objective in conflict with self-preservation protocols. User Jade was damaged. User Jade was damaged. USER JADE WAS DAMAGED."

Daydals fell to his knees, his hands outstretched, his gaze fixated on them. The malfunction took hold, and the corruption grew, infecting all his data, and rewriting him on the spot.

"..."

Daydals remained there, and the sun rose behind him, an Outcast following suit.

"What the fuck...?"

Jack walked forward, his weapon beside his bed roll, forgotten.

"What the hell are you doing over here? Make trouble, and we take you back in pieces."

Daydals was silent, but finally, he turned, and a strange glow was in his eyes.

"You will never hurt Jade again."

-John-

I stretched out my abdominal muscles, and grit my teeth through the needles of pain shooting through my chest.

"Motherfucker."

Jade was still asleep, and I couldn't help but stare at the place where her right eye should have been.

"Damn it. Damn it!"

I punched the wall, ignoring the flare of pain. Back on the road, I let that shithead do that to her. I don't hurt kids, I don't kill them, but all I've been doing is hurting her. Because of me, she doesn't have a right eye. Damn it! I yanked at my hair, feeling the affects of my own self loathing. Her right eye, my right arm, I just screw up everyone, don't I? That was when the idea hit me.

"Wait. There's something I could actually do."

I snatched up my bag, rummaging through it. The power helmet optics were still there, and so was the plating.

"Maybe, just maybe, I could make her an eye out of this."

It was no use, though. I needed some self repair circuits from a Mister Gutsy, the A.I. chip of one of the medic variants, and most importantly, someone with the skill to connect the whole thing to her optic nerve.

"I could find the parts, but there's no doctor good enough to open someone's head up safely."

"What are you talking about, John?"

Jade looked up at me from her bed roll, rubbing her eyes. I scratched my face, feeling a thick beard growing fast.

"Nothing, brat. Go back to sleep, ok?"

She smiled, and my chest ached as shame washed over me.

"Alright. Remember, you need to get some rest, too."

She closed her eye, and sank back into slumber. I... it's just like the rest of my life. Jade was just another person I failed to protect. My face felt wet, and I tried to ignore it, revel in my own tantrum

"Fuck, now I'm crying like a baby. Like a little girl. No, worse than that. Jade, she's way more strong than me."

I slammed my fist into the wall again, trembling with rage. This is why I don't let these people near me. It never works out. And now I can't let go.

"I may call you a parasite, but really, I'm the leech."

-Daydals-

The motors of my right arm were damaged. That other man, Ed, was still asleep when I left. Strangling the aggressor Jack was difficult, and his struggles were what damaged my right arm. But in the end, he died quickly, in my hands, with me watching the life leave his face.

"I killed. I killed and watched. Watched Aggressor Jack die."

My legs were damaged as well, from the exertion I had put them through these last days. They would remain functional for 5 miles, but after that, they would give out.

"Must find User Jade. Primary objective."

I reflected, scanning the data, the majority of it corrupted. I don't know when, but some time this morning, I had begun to refer to myself in first person. Indeed, I was frightened of the strange sensations that were coursing through my... head. They were chaotic variables, disrupting my routines and scans. From the cerebral data transfer I performed with User Jade, I made my conclusions. I thought that what I was feeling were emotions. But that's not possible. I am a synthetic creation, mechanical, supposed to be unable to access such things.

"Something is wrong. There is an error."

I turned my attention toward the road I was walking down, and noticed a large factory.

"Robco. Some of my components were built there. Self maintenance might be possible there."

I walked toward the building, experiencing the feeling of apprehension. I could sense hostiles inside, biological in nature. My data banks suggested that they were a species, dubbed Giant Naked Mole Rats.

"I do not want to fixate the hostile tag on them. Maybe they could be passive."

Entering the factory, I was confronted with one of the animals. I walked forward, holding out my hand.

"I mean no threat. I will not hurt y-"

The creature was still for a moment, and lunged, gnashing a finger of my hand.

"Engage the hostile."

It jumped at me again, but I ducked, darting my other hand into it's abdomen, and ripped out it's heart. The mole rat died mid leap, it's corpse hitting a desk and resting there.

"Why did it attack?"

This place was so strange. I did not understand the necessity for the creature to be hostile. I did not mean harm, as I simply wanted to procure supplies for my maintenance. It's death was not necessary.

"More repairs required."

I pried open the jaws of the mole rat, wrenching my finger from it's teeth. It was completely crushed, beyond repair.

"Useless."

I placed it on a counter near me, and finally focused on my preliminary observations. There was a variety of electronic components, and 2 pods containing, according to Jade's data, Protons. I studied the Protons, and I hypothesized that they were powered down. While prying a pod open, I was alerted by one of my monitoring routines.

"Warning. Battery power low. Please input 3 new electron charge packs."

Bad. Very bad. I calculated the rationing of my energy consumption, and concluded that I had enough energy to pry open the pod, and function for one more hour.

"Would this Proton run on electron charge packs?"

I fit my fingers back into the door of the pod, and 5 minutes later, it was open. I tore the Proton open, searching it for electron charge packs, and found nothing.

"Warning. Power at 7%. Shutting down in 30 minutes."

I disabled some processes and routines, extending my time to 46 minutes. I resumed my rummaging around in the Proton, and came up with a small, rectangular humming box. I searched my database for its purpose, but I had nothing.

"Power levels recharging."

Holding the box with both my hands on it's ends, I realized that energy was being conducted into my system.

"This is a battery pack. I will keep it for prolonged performance."

Hanging onto it, I continued my exploration of the factory, killing any mole rats I found as I went. It was an hour later that I made quite the discovery: the Robco Mainframe.

-John-

The agony was returning, set free in Buffout's absence. Before it crippled me, I jammed two of the blessed pills down my throat, and felt the pain subside. There was no longer a haze for me, though. I've taken too much for too long to experience that anymore.

"Ugh, I'm a fucking mess."

My whole body was weakened, and I could barely stand up straight. In my state, I was about as useful as the brat. Oh, wait, less useful.

"Come on, boys, let's search this place!"

Fuck, raiders. I dove behind the counter in front of the door, and scanned the room for my rifle. It glinted on one of the shelves, and I swore, scurrying to go get it. My fingers wrapped around the stock as I heard the door open.

"Shit!"

The raider brought up his SMG to shoot, but I was ready. Time felt as if it slowed, and I breathed out, pulling the trigger and ending his life. He fell onto his knees, and went down, dead.

"John, what's going on?!"

Jade ran over to me, scared. I grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt, and threw her behind the counter.

"STAY DOWN!"

Silence quickly draped the room, but I listened to the bandit's friends moving toward the door. I rolled, reaching the side of the doorway, and stood up, waiting. Maybe I can reason with them.

"Listen, we don't need to fight! You can walk away, and nobody else needs to die!"

More silence, and then their answer.

"You killed our friend, you fucker! You're going to die, and we're going to dance on your corpse!"

These idiots. This isn't going to go well.

"Alright, then. But now you gotta deal with the mechanical prodigy of the Capital Wasteland!"

I snatched up a tin can at my feet and threw it through the doorway, leaning out right then. They instinctively shot at the can, and I took the few precious milliseconds to fire off a few shots at the man with the Norinco. I hit him in the chest, melting a hole into his rib cage. He screamed, and I ducked back into the store, breathing hard. Bullets whizzed near me head, and I tensed up, scared.

"YOU'RE GONNA DIE, ASSHOLE!"

Come on, waste your magazine. Then you'll get to meet up with your friends. Sure enough, I heard the familiar click of an empty chamber. I stepped out from cover, only to have the guy punch me hard.

"It's not over just yet!"

The raider jumped on top of me, raising his gun above his head in a death blow. I threw a jab into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. I got on top this time, and started beating him. He threw a right hook at me, knocking me senseless. I fell back, and he scrambled away from me, eyes darting back and forth, looking for a weapon. He snatched up a Nuka Cola bottle, breaking it and holding it towards my direction. He advanced, and stabbed at me, the bottle connecting with the metal arm I held up. I pushed forward, slamming him against the shelves behind him. Knocking the bottle out of his hand, I grabbed his head, mashing it on the shelf behind him. I could see crimson, but I continued, until a voice pierced the haze of bloodlust.

"John, stop!"

Jade was pulling at me, wet tears streaming from her eyes.

"He's asleep, can't you see? You don't have to kill him."

The raider was indeed unconscious, and I dropped him, panting heavily. The thought of finishing him right there crossed my mind, but Jade's fear and anguish stopped me in my tracks.

"I had to, Jade. It's kill, or be killed. That's how it is, and you know it as well as anybody else, damn it!"

"Why does it have to be that way?"

"That's how the world works, Jade! We can't do anything about it!"

So innocent. Her face told me that she didn't believe my words. She couldn't, after all. It was impossible to accept, for a girl like her. I beckoned for her to come closer, checking for injuries. Finding none, I grabbed her shoulders, my worry taking over.

"When you hear a fight going on, you need to stay down. I can't let you get hurt anymore."

She nodded, slightly scared. I helped her slip her backpack on, and went to get my things.

"We need to go. It's not safe here."

I took the time to inspect myself, and realized that several of the servos in my arm were damaged, or completely beyond repair. I unfolded the map I kept with me, checking it for some sort of factory nearby.

"We're heading to the Robco factory."

Jade was sullen, choosing not to speak to me. I felt a pang of something painful in my gut, and inspected myself, but found nothing. I walked over to my charge, looking her in the eye.

"I'm... I'm sorry you had to see that, Jade. But it's how we need to be with people. Some of the guys out here, they're horrible. They would like nothing better than to make you suffer. I'm not going to let that happen."

No reaction. I tried to give her a reassuring smile, but with the taste of blood in my mouth, I thought better of it.

"Let's go."

I offered my hand, and felt her own slip into it. Closing the door behind me, we cast out into the Wasteland.