As Maximus and Thaddeus forged a bond, Maximus felt at ease enough to reveal his true identity. However, Thaddeus, unable to keep Maximus's secret, extracted the power core from his armor, trapping him and departing with the head and CX404, leaving Maximus behind.
After some time, Lucy intervened and freed Maximus, who then introduced himself as Titus. The pair agreed to collaborate in retrieving the missing head. As they tracked Thaddeus, they stumbled upon the ruins of Shady Sands, the once-prosperous capital of the New California Republic, founded in the wake of the Great War, and Maximus's former hometown.
During a fierce firefight with two marauding Fiends, Maximus sustained injuries, prompting the pair to search for medical supplies in an abandoned hospital. Unknowingly, they fell into a trap and accidentally stumbled into Vault 4.
Meanwhile, back in Vault 33, Betty Johnson, a former overseer of the vault, emerged victorious in the election to succeed Hank as the new overseer. Johnson then proposed to the remaining residents of Vault 33 a plan to repopulate Vault 32. Norm was stunned to discover that the carnage he had witnessed in Vault 32 had already been cleaned up.
