Just so everyone knows, my last story was not meant to be my last for Fallout. I felt like writing a tragedy and that was the result.

Bit shorter than I would have liked, but the idea came up while I was writing another Fallout story and I needed to get it out of my head.

Enjoy.

Piper had never admitted it to anyone, save Nathaniel, that she was scared of the Institute just like everyone else. For all her bluster and bravado, deep down she was terrified that one day they would come. But it wasn't herself that Piper worried about, she was afraid they would take her sister like they took so many others.

When Nathaniel discovered it was the Institute that took his boy, Piper's reasons for being beside him changed. Here was a man who's only surviving family had been taken by the boogeyman of the Commonwealth. It was a taste of what Piper would be like should her sister be taken. But she was nowhere near as capable as the former vault dweller. If Nat was kidnapped, there was little Piper would be able to do.

As much as Piper wanted to be there with her sister in Diamond City, the girl would never be safe until the Institute was gone. Granted this was before she fell for Nathaniel, but that was irrelevant.

It didn't matter where Nathaniel was going to go, what he was going to do. Piper had seen some of what the man would do to be reunited with his son, and she knew right then and there if there was a person on this earth that could defeat the Commonwealth's boogeyman, this one was it. If Piper could help him somehow along the way she was all too happy to do so.

Even when it meant searching the Glowing Sea for a rogue ex-Institute scientist, going two-on-one with an Institute courser, Piper stood at Nathaniel's side through it all. Although she was scared out of her mind on this journey with Nathaniel, her fear for her sister's future was greater.

It helped significantly that Piper felt safe when with Nathaniel. If the man called you friend or loved one, there wasn't a force on this earth that would be able to overcome him while he protected you, shielding you with his own body if he had to.

Piper had an inkling of that after a short time with Nathaniel, but it wasn't until they were partway into the Glowing Sea did she truly understand.

The pair had gone over all sorts of ideas before settling on two suits of power armor. They were not fancy by anyone's standards, but were intact and in decent condition. More than enough to get them in and out of the Glowing Sea alive, and hopefully without mutation.

While Nathaniel had some experience with power armor, Piper didn't. Simple as they were to use, she had difficulty moving properly with the enormous bulk. Nathaniel made it look way too easy. It would have been better to give Piper a little more time to get accustomed to its use, but she had said they didn't have time for that. They needed to find Virgil before the Institute did.

Even with all the mutated monstrosities that roamed the Glowing Sea, the one particular one that you needed to watch for was the deathclaws. Radscorpions and the others were no issue, deathclaws were fast, durable, and deadly. For this precise reason, Nathaniel had brought a rocket launcher just in case.

The weapon turned out to be useless.

It was Piper's fault, she knew that instantly. A half a second distraction was enough for that deathclaw to jump from above and land directly on top of her. Her helmeted head was slammed into the rock beneath her. Thanks to her helmet, she was only knocked into a daze as opposed to having her head splattered over the ancient stone.

The smartest thing to do right then would have been for Nathaniel to blast the creature with the rocket launcher right?

Nathaniel apparently hadn't thought so.

Under normal circumstances, the armor would have shielded Piper from the close proximity the missile. But not this time, the HUD in Piper's helmet was already flashing red to show the parts that were damaged. That was before the deathclaw landed its first claw swipe, the second did even more damage.

There was no telling how hard Piper would be hit if Nathaniel used the rocket launcher. But she knew that the missile was incoming regardless, so she braced herself for the blast.

Only it never came.

Instead of the sound of a missile being fired, Piper heard a loud crash that sounded a lot like something heavy being slammed into something also heavy. The sound was accompanied with the feeling of the deathclaw being knocked off her back.

Sitting up just enough to be able to see what was happening, Piper got the shock of her life. Nathaniel had taken a running sprint and rammed his armored shoulder into the beast, slamming its body into a nearby boulder. The deathclaw tried to swing a clawed hand at the man, but Nathaniel grabbed it by the wrist and stopped it cold. The same thing happened when the creature tried to do it again with its other arm. With both its arms held in a vice grip, Nathaniel landed a brutal headbutt directly to its fanged maw.

Even long after that day ended, Piper couldn't get the scene out of her mind. A deathclaw, one of the most feared things in not only the Commonwealth, but in all the known world. And what does Nathaniel do when face to face with one about to kill Piper? Literally beat it to death using powered armored fists.

Nobody else would have fought to protect Piper from such a beast. Were she with someone else, the deathclaw would have cracked her armor open like a tin can and devoured her alive. Her companion would have fled while she died a horrible death.

But not Nathaniel.

Piper at first thought the man was just crazy, or he had a death wish. But then she realized this was the same man journeying into the Glowing Sea with the tiniest sliver of hope of finding his son. There had never been any guarantee Virgil was alive, or would help even if he was. Everything Nathaniel did to find his son was all done with the smallest spark of hope barely burning. But this was his boy he was searching for, the only family he had left. Nothing short of another nuclear bomb, the same kind that created the Glowing Sea, was going to stop him. Even then Piper wondered if he would shrug that off too.

Going fist on claw with a deathclaw wasn't an act of insanity, or a desire to die. It was Nathaniel's natural protective instincts kicking in, with all its terrifying fury.

Only later did Piper truly see the significance of that moment. Sure she had noticed Nathaniel physically before. Most of the women who weren't blind had to have by then. But watching Nathaniel fight a deathclaw with pretty much his bare hands just to protect her, that was the moment she first felt that warm surge of emotion from her heart known as love.

Now here they stood, on the roof of the Mass Fusion building. Their raid on the Institute a complete success, their allies standing behind them waiting for the oncoming light show. There was only one thing left to do now.

The detonator for the fusion pulse charge lay before them, the big red button just begging to be pressed. Just the slightest bit of pressure and boom. The Institute would be gone forever, the boogeyman finally slain. The Commonwealth freed from its greatest fear.

Nathaniel's hand hovered over the button but he was hesitating. Piper couldn't figure out why. But then Nathaniel reached over and took her hand, placing it atop his own on the detonator.

"Ready?" Nathaniel flashed her a small grin.

Nathaniel was the only one she had ever confessed to just how scared she really was of the Institute. It was just like him let her be the one to destroy her own personal demon once and for all.

Piper was just about to push when she looked down at their joined hands. The golden rings gleaming in the sunlight. It was oddly fitting, the Institute had signed its own death warrant when it murdered Nathaniel's wife and kidnapped Shaun.

Even though Nora had to die for Piper to have Nathaniel, Piper couldn't help but feel sorry for what happened to her. Killed in cold blood just because she wouldn't let them take her baby. Piper liked to think a small part of the other woman was here. Through the ring she once wore, Nora could have a little bit of vengeance against her killers.

"Born ready." Piper returned the smile.

Piper was the one who supplied the pressure, but it was her and Nathaniel together who pressed the button. There was only a slight delay before the ruins of the C.I.T. went up in a fiery explosion. Even from this distance, Piper could the concussive force with a wave of heat crash into them. The whole while, her hand never left Nathaniel's.

As they watched the dust begin to settle, Piper had only one thought.

Best present ever.

I don't know if you can outmuscle a deathclaw with a suit of power armor, but I'm going to say yeah sure for the sake of this story. Let me know how I did.