Heaven

"So, kid. I have time to spare. What was life like before you kicked the bucket?"

Jordan leaned back, letting out a deep sigh. "Well, my journey started when I left home, searching for my father," he began, his voice carrying the weight of hardship.

'Runaway dad?' Adam swallowed. 'I know all about it.'

Emily put a hand to her mouth. "Did you know why he left?"

Jordan shook his head. "At the time, I didn't know. I was confused, angry, and hurt. I was always warned about the dangers of the outside world, but I had no idea what awaited me."

Lute scoffed and spoke for the first time. "You make it sound like it was life or death."

Jordan took her tone in stride. "It was. Before I reached a nearby settlement, I traveled along the broken roads attacked by wildlife and people." He absently rubbed his left arm, which a vicious dog bit. "It's a place where hope is a rare commodity, and survival is a daily struggle. Edible food and clean water were scarce. I picked up anything to help me survive." He started digging into his food with wide eyes. Was this what real pre-war food tasted like? Strangely, the Cola he was given was not as sweet as the Nuka-Cola he was used to. The attendants just kept giving him what they called Coca-Cola.

Adam burped. "Sounds like a real shithole. Explains why you're digging in so much."

"Yeah, You never knew when you would eat or get eaten." The Lone Wanderer wiped his mouth and sighed. "I met a lot of colorful characters along the way. The first person I met was a former prostitute who turned to drugs to make the memories go away."

Emily blinked at the admission. "You guys didn't hurt each other, right?"

"Nah. Silver was hiding from her former manager. She wanted to leave the life, but the guy went back on the deal. She ran away and took her share of money with her."

"She probably ended up in hell." Adam pointed downward.

The Wanderer shook his head. "I'd like to think otherwise. Told her I would help her situation if she promised to use the money she had to turn her life around. I found her living a simple life on a farm a few months after paying off Moriarty. She seemed happier."

Adam snapped his fingers in approval. "That's what I want to see. The slut had a chance to do better, and she took it. Not many people do."

Jordan smiled. "It feels good knowing I helped give her that chance. During my struggle to earn money, I helped a woman named Moira write a survival guide."

Emily beamed. "That's great. I'm sure it's helping people even after your passing."

Jordan laughed. "I'd hope so. It was a painful learning experience.

"What do you mean?"

"Some parts were easy, like scavenging food. Other tasks included recovering from poisoning, sneaking through an abandoned minefield, and patching up injuries." 'Radaway was a godsend.' "Next thing I know, a guy named Burke wanted me to help him blow up the settlement with a bomb."

All three angels turned to him in surprise. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. When I reported it to the local sheriff after defusing it, the wacko tried to kill him." Jordan rubbed one of his sides. "I jumped in the way to take the bullet."

"Oh my, gosh." Emily poked him in the side, where he was shot. "Were you okay?"

The Wanderer rolled his eyes as he shooed away her finger. "It stung, but we made short work of it. Pays to be [Educated] as the son of a doctor. Sherrif Lucas and I finished Burke off before he could get away. I didn't have any stims, so they let me rest at the inn for the night." Jordan clenched his right hand at the memory. "That was the first time I ever killed. It had to be done... Right?"

Emily grabbed Jordan's left hand to comfort him. "It must have been hard to come to terms with it, but I think you did the right thing."

Lute nodded in approval. "That Burke fucker was a terrorist. You didn't do anything wrong. Killing in and of itself isn't bad. It's the intent behind it. You were defending yourselves."

"Damn, man. You're one tough son of a bitch. Even took a bullet for a guy." Adam whistled along as he bit into another rib. 'Must come from Africa or maybe the Australian Outback.'

Jordan accepted the angelic hand and simmered. "It was the first and wouldn't be the last. Don't even get me started on the Raiders." At least Supermutants and Centaurs had an excuse for being turned into monsters. Raiders and slavers chose to be that way.

Lute and Adam perked up at that.

"Raiders are hostile, lawless, drug-addled criminals. They take whatever they want, whenever they want, and their favorite pastimes are pillaging, torture, and murder."

Lute leaned forward. "Please tell me you killed those assholes." Adam was nodding along.

On the other side of the coin, Emily pouted. "Please tell me you helped save those people.

Jordan placated them. "A friend of mine said it best. People were killed for scraps of food, and wounded children wandered aimlessly. There are people out there trying to barely make it by from day to day, fighting to stay alive and make something of what they have. All sorts of greedy people wanted a slice of the pie and aimed to take it by force. Some people fight back, but not everyone's cut out for it. They just run away and hide, or they stay and die." Jordan looked down at his hands. "I couldn't just turn my back on them after seeing it before me. It didn't feel right in my gut."

Adam cleared his throat. "Trust me, it ain't. Survival of the fittest was brutal when I got kicked out of Eden because of Eve, but we made it work."

Jordan nodded. "In any case, yeah, I saved people when I could. I did have to put raiders in the ground to do so."

Lute waved off his sympathy. "Those sinners deserved it and more once they get to hell. I'm sure the settlers were more than thankful not to deal with them anymore."

Jordan thought back with a smile. "Yeah, the people called me all sorts of things. Mostly good stuff, thankfully."

"You gave them a chance for life," added Emily. "You did good."

"For getting rid of those fuckers, you might as well have been a saint to them," laughed Adam. "Took real [Nerves of Steel]."

"To some, perhaps. Over time, I had to toughen myself to survive and help people I encountered. I picked up a dog and accumulated a bobblehead collection along the way." Jordan chucked. "I even met up with Commander Sarah Lyons and her group, calling themselves the Brotherhood of Steel. They're a militia that helps clean up crime occasionally, but they were dealing with their own Outcast infighting.

Adam smirked. "Was she hot?"

Jordan coughed at the question, looked away, and remembered her face. "She wasn't ugly or anything but older than me."

"Milf? Nice!"

Jordan ignored the strange look Emily was giving him. "I kept fighting and getting stronger over time. People started thinking I was [Bulletproof], [Unstoppable] even because of how hard it was to put me down. Something about working during the day gave me a boost."

"Hardy [Solar Powered] fucker, huh?" joked Adam.

"Yup, whenever I had to get close with them, charging at me was like running into a [Stonewall]." After a long while, people started saying he was [Almost Perfect], but he dismissed it. Perhaps the wasteland's radiation changed his body more than he thought.

Emily tapped his shoulder. "How long did it take you to find your dad?"

"Months. I had to travel all over the region, getting sidetracked by many things. It was a wild wasteland of sorts. I traveled all over to get clues to my dad's whereabouts." He took part in training using the Anchorage sim, restructured the Pitt, and stopped the Zetans. Those would probably be saved for another time. 'I probably shouldn't mention Dunwich, the Krivbeknih, and Ug-Qualtoth. That would be overtly heretical, especially to angels.' "Eventually, I met up with my dad's old co-workers. My dad was a doctor, and he was working on a massive water purifier for the region, Project Purity."

"Ah, he was one of those doctors without borders, humanitarian people?" guessed Adam.

Jordan raised a brow at the unfamiliar name. "I suppose? Using my dad's notes, I was able to track him down. He was looking for equipment for the purifier and got kidnapped."

"But you saved him, right?" asked Emily.

"I did, but it wasn't easy." He shivered at the memory of Vault 112. "We had a long family talk afterward."

"Did he say why he left?"

"Both my parents met each other while on the project." He smiled at the memory of his mom's holotape. "They were so close to completing it. However, my mom died when I was born, and I guess that loss is what led my dad to abandon the project to take care of me. Purity halted from there."

Emily patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry about your mom."

Jordan appreciated it. "It's fine. I've come to terms with it a bit. Anyway, my dad said Project Purity was his responsibility. Too many people have made sacrifices to give up on it now, and he wanted my help. I agreed, and It wasn't until later that I learned the second reason why my father wanted to complete it."

All three angels raised a brow.

"Revelation Twenty-one six. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life, freely. Are you familiar with the passage?" Their confused looks threw him for a loop.

Adam put up a hand and dismissed it. "Sorry, man. All that bible stuff is for you mortal humans. Angels and Seraphim don't really do that. As for me, I was up here before the bible." Lute shrugged in agreement.

"Right..." Jordan supposed that made sense.

"I may not have read it personally, but I sounded very profound," remarked Emily.

"Well, The purifier is the water of life, my mother's dream. It was more than just a passage in a book. Water is clean and free for everyone. No more sickness, no more perished crops, no more struggling just to stay alive. Finally... hope."

"That's so sweet," cooed Emily.

Jordan nodded before going somber. "After getting things cleaned up and prepared, the project was attacked. The local government forced themselves in to try and take control."

"Control the water, control the people." Adam shook his head. 'Another case of an African Warlord taking over?'

"Something like that. My father tried to stop them, but he died in the process. I managed to run away with one of the researchers to the Brotherhood for sanctuary." He took a breath. "It was a difficult few weeks after that..."

Emily's eyes watered, hearing that both his parents died.

Adam and Lute nodded in understanding. 'Shit happens.'

"I won't lie. A small part of me thought that if I was born later or not, Purity would have been completed on time, and things would have been different for everyone." He felt a slap on his arm and saw Emily's small glare.

"Don't you dare say that?!" Elimy admonished. "You can't change the past; it wasn't your fault."

Adam rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it's not your fault your dad bitched out on everyone when your mom died, and the government was a being a dick."

Lute huffed. "We don't do It's A Wonderful Life moments in heaven."

Jordan's hand wrapped around Emily's as he smiled at the others in appreciation. "Thanks... I never had a chance to talk about it before I died."

"We can talk about it again another time," supported Emily.

He shook his head. "I pushed my feelings to the side at the time. I had to find the last piece of the purifier if I didn't want my parent's sacrifice to be in vain. Ended up finding an entire community made up of kids under sixteen.

Adam and Lute raised a brow. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. They didn't trust adults and exiled anyone who grew old enough. They survived until then, so they were doing something right." Jordan continued. "I got the final piece, but the government kidnaped me on the way back. They interrogated me for the purifier activation code, but I wouldn't give it to them. I was sent to meet the president and learn their true goal. They didn't just want to control the water; they wanted to use a special poison in the water to kill the undesirables."

All three angels sat up at that bombshell. "I'm sorry. The fuck?! They were trying to genocide people."

"How could they be so cruel!" cried Emily.

Lute curled her fingers around an imaginary spear.

"Apparently, we were unclean and tainted." The Wanderer massaged his temples at the memory of the meeting.

Adam made a disgusted face. "Talking about some Nazi-level shit happening there."

"We talked in circles for so long that I managed to convince this that he was insane, and he killed himself but not before handing me the poison."

Adam and Lute laughed darkly. "You talked him into killing himself. One more piece of shit in hell." They would be on the lookout for any of them during the next Extermination Day, not that they would find them.

Jordan blinked at the modern phrases. "Uh... Thanks?" Does bad AI go to hell? "In any case, I had to fight my way out of their base with the purifier part and regroup with the Brotherhood. At that point, we prepared our assault to retake the purifier."

"You and the Brotherhood militia fought off the government army?" questioned Lute.

"We had some heavy weapon support, but Sarah and I led the charge." Liberty Prime was a unique addition to their forces.

Lute, for the first time in their talk, smirked. "I can respect that."

"Pretty badass if you ask me," chuckled Adam.

"I confronted the Colonel and his troops again. He was the one leading the government cronies when my dad died trying to stop them and the one who interrogated me." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Managed to convince them to walk away and retreat, no strings attached."

"They didn't deserve your mercy," huffed Lute, crossing her arms.

"Dud didn't deserve shit," added Adam.

"You sound just like Sarah. Maybe they did, but I would regret not offering and trying it in the first place."

"You did the right thing." Emily smiled. "It's not wrong to have a heart."

"When we got to the purifier, we learned that the control station shielding was damaged. We had to activate it to release the building pressure in the tanks while also flooding the room with radiation."

Adam made a face. "Radiation? That shit was running on nuclear?"

Jordan shrugged. "It was the only power source available to power the purifier. The control station may have been compromised, but not the filtration system. If we didn't, Project Purity would be gone forever. Suffice to say the one activating it wasn't gonna come back." Jordan gestured to himself.

A series of nods met him. So that was how he died.

"Well, as the great Danny Devito said, Suicide Is Badass!" chimed Adam. He chucked away his plate, which dispersed into particles.

"Anyways, that was the gist of my story."

Emily stood up with watery eyes and pulled Jordan into a hug. "You've been through so much. You even died to give them a better future."

Flustered, he gave her a gentle pat. "For what it's worth, I could see clean water flowing into the tidal basin. It worked." Jordan took the last bite of his food.

Adam smirked. "Well, you know what, Jay. Fuck all those assholes. You're in fucking Heaven. You're a fucking winner. You had a shit hand in life, and I mean a really shitty hand, but you made something out of it while it lasted. That's what I'm talking about. Let us know if you want to hang out sometime. You're way more interesting than some of the squares here."

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

"Maybe I'll show you around the Legion training facility. I wanna see those skills in action."

"Sure, but I should warn you. The other Brotherhood members said I have an [Iron Fist]."

Emily helped remove their plates and leftovers, leading Jordan to their next destination.

#

A/N: Special thanks to Jebest4781, Charles, vividlearner744, and Seana!

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