With a crack of displaced air, Harry reappeared high above the ruins of Boston.
Below him floated the pride of the Brotherhood of Steel—the mighty Prydwen.
Searchlights cut through the night.
Vertibirds circled like metal vultures.
To the Brotherhood, it was a symbol of order in chaos.
To Harry?
It was a test.
He didn't fall.
He hovered.
Magic radiated from him in invisible waves, bending the wind around his armor. His indestructible suit adjusted automatically, runes glowing brighter as it calculated ballistic trajectories and energy output from every turret mounted on the airship.
"Unknown airborne target!" a Knight shouted over comms.
"Not using jet propulsion!"
Turrets opened fire.
Minigun rounds tore through the air.
Missiles streaked upward.
Harry raised one hand.
"Protego Maxima."
A shimmering barrier erupted around him. Every bullet flattened against it. Every missile detonated harmlessly in midair, explosions rippling like fireworks against an invisible dome.
He moved forward through the storm.
Unstoppable.
Inside the command deck, Elder Maxson watched through reinforced glass.
"Scan that armor!" he ordered.
The scribes panicked.
"It's not registering as power armor, Elder! No fusion core signature! Energy output is off the charts—radiation levels zero!"
Zero.
In the wasteland, zero radiation was impossible.
Unless something greater than technology was at work.
Harry landed on the outer hull of the Prydwen with a thunderous clang that echoed through the airship's frame.
Steel buckled beneath his boots.
Knights surrounded him instantly.
"Stand down!" Maxson commanded as he stepped forward, cape snapping in the wind.
"You possess advanced technology beyond Brotherhood classification," Maxson said coldly. "That technology belongs to humanity's future."
Harry tilted his helmet slightly.
"This isn't technology."
He lifted his wand.
The clouds above twisted violently.
Lightning struck the airship's side—not damaging it, but illuminating the sky in blinding white light.
Gasps spread among the soldiers.
"I was fighting dark wizards," Harry continued calmly, "while your world still believed in fairy tales."
He stepped forward.
Maxson held his ground.
"You expect us to believe you're some kind of—what—wizard?"
Harry lowered his helmet visor.
Green eyes burned through the slit.
"Yes."
A Knight panicked and fired.
The laser beam struck Harry's chest.
It vanished.
Not absorbed.
Not reflected.
Gone.
Harry didn't retaliate.
Instead, he tapped his Pip-Point.
Every terminal aboard the Prydwen flickered.
Every lock disengaged.
Every encrypted file unlocked.
ACCESS: COMPLETE
Vault codes. Brotherhood supply routes. Hidden bunkers. Satellite uplinks.
All now his.
Maxson's eyes widened.
"What are you?"
Harry answered quietly:
"The last thing the old world forgot."
He raised his wand toward the sky.
Above them, the radiation clouds parted unnaturally. For the first time in centuries, clear stars shone over the Commonwealth.
Every soldier aboard the Prydwen felt it.
Hope.
Power.
Fear.
Harry turned back to Maxson.
"I will not destroy you. But from this moment forward, the Brotherhood answers to me."
Silence filled the deck.
Maxson stared at him, measuring strength against inevitability.
Finally, slowly—
The Elder lowered his weapon.
Far below, in hidden laboratories, the The Institute detected an anomaly rewriting their encrypted networks.
In distant bunkers, remnants of the Enclave activated contingency protocols.
Across the wasteland, something had shifted.
Steel had bowed.
And the wizard had claimed the sky.