(Note : This does not involve the Broken Steel ending whatsoever.)

Charon stared at the glass as he saw the kid slump down. The room was silent. He didn't see the kid rise back up again. He waited and waited. Nothing.

Suddenly Charon heard a beep beside him. The woman pulled a little device out of her pocket. "He did it. Project Purity is complete," she said. Charon had never bothered to remember her name. He looked back up at the glass. Well, he guessed the kid was dead. So now what, was he free from his contract? Nobody had bought him. He supposed he was free. He continued to stare at the glass. Brave as hell kid. No more than seventeen, went around shooting raiders, fighting Feral Ghouls, saving towns. The kid was bound to end up with a painful death sometime. Charon watched for a few more seconds, wondering if he'd get up as a ghoul, like Charon. He waited. No. That much radiation, head on, nothing to even press back a little bit of it, it wouldn't just turn anybody into a ghoul. What, did he mourn the kid? Was that what the hell he was feeling? Why? The kid was just another master, he'd bought Charon, the two had some adventures, but it wasn't like he'd done Charon any amazing favors. Heck, he'd almost got Charon killed dozens of times. The brat had it coming to him, running out from his little vault and trying to be some big hero. Guessed he was a big hero, though.

Now what was there to do? Find some place to settle down? Maybe that Tenpenny Tower. Hmmph, he remembered how the kid had handled that situation. First he lets the ghouls in, then he says the leader is crazy and he kills him. The leader was crazy though, killed all those smoothskins. Not crazy, just more like a dictator. Bunch of soft ghouls there, wimps. Charon could rule that place. So Charon had something to do. What'd they do about the kid? Probably give him some great big burial with soldiers and flowers and crap. Bunch of gushy crap. Something told him that wasn't the kid's style. Or maybe it was the kid's style. He'd gone out looking to be a hero, the kid'd get a hero's burial.

Charon stared at the glass for a few more seconds, then started moving up the stairs to the room.

"What're you doing?" the girl asked.

Charon pulled out his combat rifle and smashed through the glass door, then the next. Whole air in the place was green. And there was the kid, sprawled across the floor. Charon grabbed his arm and dragged him out of there. He pulled him up and swung him over on his shoulder. Kid weighed a helluva lot.

"What the hell are you doing?!" the woman yelled.

"Get outta my way," Charon growled at her. He walked straight past her, kicked open the door, and walked out of the place. Ugh, skin was falling off the kid as he walked. Charon walked past the memorial and to the edge of the water and dumped the kid on the ground.

Screw it if the kid didn't want this kind of burial, he was getting it. Kid fixed the water, he should be part of it.

Charon kicked the kid into the water and watched him float away. The kid was tough. Hadn't gotten killed by any raiders or Enclave or anything, kid wasn't gonna get carted away by any military assholes. He fixed the water, he was gonna use it.