The remaining department heads had decided that the institute still had more to gain in the coming decade or two by placating Johnson rather then executing him. So he had awoken after a few days in the medical bay. While he could have healed naturally, that may have taken a couple of weeks if not a month due to the extent of torn and frayed muscles, dislocated bones, loose skin and other various issues. With the institutes advanced body sculpting techniques and non pre war medicine he was only a little sore but otherwise back to his relative normal body. It was also a good chance to add a bio monitor with an explosive charge into Johnson without his knowing in case another such issue reared its ugly head in the future.
After making an inquiry a debriefing report was given to Johnson to review what had occurred during his recovery. His fluffies had been returned to Sanctuary hills and his robots had mostly finished with the general cleanup of the explosions but the reconstruction of his physical teleporter if he was so interested and certainly his main power generator and the structural damage to his secure collectible’s storage would require his personal attention. The institute had repaired his power armor for free and had secured the artifact in a lead lined containment box to prevent its siren call from tempting anyone else from wearing it.
Bio sciences had reviewed Director fluffy interested in its recent evolution since it was not developed to function without you. The Id had returned to its original body, substantially weakened after its psychic ejection from your own mind. The ego doll had developed into its own entity as if it had broken free of fully body paralysis and a burgeoning super ego had also manifested itself. It was uncertain if this unit could be possessed again using the lounger hardware without significant risk or intricate work and negotiations with the components of the personality. Even with significant wipes it was only 40% likely to reformat this synth properly and more likely to cause significant disconnects between the mind and body affectionately coined as ‘derped’.
After a short meeting with the council Johnson had proposed that the institute would either need to close synth retention, or he would need to step down from his director roll and take an equal position to the other council members as the head of synth retention to avoid conflict with the department from here on out. With a 2-1 vote it was decided that Johnson would become the new head of synth retention and so PAM would serve as the tie breaker in case of a 2/2 split from here on out.
Johnson had a new clarity of mind now and felt he had gained what he had needed from his time playing pretend with the fluffies and so decided to no longer be selfish. The fluffies desered both a father and a human. However, due to his full time responsibilities and the conflict of interests of a Synth being the head of synth retention Johnson had commissioned a synth of himself to be made to serve as a full time stand in for himself in Sanctuary hills. It would be sent back with Director fluffy and everything should work itself out in time in terms of general hierarchy and bonds. Meanwhile you could review the footage from both Director and Johnson like your own form of Truman show if you ever felt homesick. Johnson enjoyed reviewing his own personal happy ever after in the form of this Fluffy community.
In the following decade Johnson managed to expand the Commonwealth reclamation project across the East coast of the continental united states and Canada by broadcasting to several 4th generation synth replicas to serve as his generals at different fronts where he needed to lend a personal touch to things. Just because he only intended to live one life, did not mean he intended to risk it unnecessarily through war. The battles themselves did not usually take too long but rebuilding the united states was what took time even with the futuristic marvels of the institute.
The institute began its long march/drive west reclaiming the old world as it built a new world from the ashes with its mechanized divisions both vehicular and robotic with plentiful labor both robotic and waste lander alike.
Having reverse engineered and giving their own human spin on the Zetan flying saucers the institute was able to deploy teleportation relays or synth assets deep behind the borders of various powers while their air and ground forces continued west like a curtain. Occasionally, they found some groups they could work with that had already formed general power blocks throughout the waste. Less helpful power blocks, and sometimes even the helpful ones were often infiltrated in advance via flying saucer teleportation abductions and deployment of synth replacements of various key officials and leadership.
Johnson was in his late 50’s by the time the institute had finished incorporating and rebuilding the territory of the NCR, Mexico and Canada. The various AI personalities that ran Mexico threatened a potential nuclear issue for a time but were subdued thanks to the institutes saucer technology allowing them to hunt down the physical hardware without risking nuclear retaliation over an extended war. By the time Johnson had reached 60 most of the infrastructure and living standards of the rest of the recently conquered territory should be on par with the east coast and central united states standards and the United Institute Commonwealth. With the danger from the Zetans confirmed and the continental production capacity and general security in place, the saucers began to scout the remainder of earth with the hopes of redeveloping the rest of the stagnating planet in the hopes of withstanding a seemingly technologically superior species.
Johnson would serve out the remainder of his natural life as the conscience of the institute attempting to raise a successor that would also serve such a function and refuse the MIT project themselves. Occasionally broadcasting into younger synths to solve diplomatic or military field operations as needed. Fluffies had become a staple of the new continental US thanks to the institute and were even being tested in Europe with relative success and while popular in Asian, African and south american countries, it was more in a culinary sense. Hopefully it would be in a more conventional sense after taming the wasteland and reintroducing more staple livestock.
By the time Johnson was 80 the world was relatively restored thanks to reverse engineering and mass GECK deployment. The artifact was transferred over to Zetan Mothership in Earths custody where it was integrated into the shielding systems allowing earth to repel another exploratory fleet of three motherships along with an ass ton of Synth piloted Fighter and bomber craft.
Johnson was slowing down now as he continued to refuse to transfer his consciousness into a fourth-generation synth via the MIT project. Passing the torch to his successor Johnson retired to sanctuary hills and became good friends with your stand in and their wife. As one of his last requests, Johnson did not come alone though and nearly doubled Sanctuary hills standing fluffy population by bringing in fluffy copies of the various series iterations that were kept in storage by bio sciences in case there were issues introduced and the synths needed to reset to a previous point in their evolutionary line. They were allowed to operate these puppet fluffies and gave them a chance to actually live their lives rather then simply sit dormant in the institute tanks until tapped for processing power by PAM. Omega was your favorite and you kept them as your house fluffy.
Johnson was occasionally consulted for various projects or issues via pipboy or terminals as an excuse to chat and catch up, but the institute mostly left him to enjoy his retirement out of respect. All while incorporating a brain engram compilation from the various impressions you had left from piloting dozens of fourth generation generals, into a Holographic virtual intelligence assistant immortalizing you in a way.
It had been years since you stopped regularly reading or watching the Fluffy community and decades since you’d actively been an active participant. All the fluffies Johnson knew were long gone but he could tell immediately who some were descendants of or had taken inspiration from in their personalities in the current Era of the current fluffy community. The past iterations you took care of, had reintroduced quite a few quirks into the Fluffy community that had moved past such concepts for most parts and therefor some were neither respected or liked for these reasons. One particularly onery Stallion even called you a ‘New-fag’, the nerve. Thankfully you had Omega with you to wield a sorry stick where necessary since delivering it personally would cause your arthritis to flare up.
You could only hope your efforts and message would go the distance to a better future from the one he had foreseen in Omegas visions.