Methos and Kronos were hoping for some new information when their brothers returned, but it was obvious right away from the looks on Silas and Caspian's faces that they had hit a particularly large wall in their search.

"Well?" Methos asked, worried he already knew the answer.

"The police in Seacouver seem to consider themselves a very tightly knit bunch," Caspian answered as he took off his coat, "Amongst each other they yap like a bunch of mosquitoes, but to outsiders…" he shook his head, "Not a word. If we didn't have any cases that would pertain to their jurisdiction, they didn't have any information to volunteer."

"Did you get anything out of the girl?" Silas asked.

"Oh plenty," Kronos dryly answered, "But the only answer we could get as to where this place is, her response was it's over the water, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Over the water?" Caspian repeated, and he laughed, "That's a new one on me, like what, like a bridge is over the water? Or what, up on a cliff overlooking the ocean?"

"We don't know, she passed out before we could get anymore out of her," Methos explained, "I…" it was then that he noticed she was gone.

Kronos also saw what his brother saw, or rather what he didn't see, and he shook his head, "As much as she had to drink, she shouldn't have been able to move."

"Here we go again," Caspian rolled his eyes.

"We'll check upstairs first," Kronos said as he and Methos took to the stairs.

"You know, Kronos," Methos said as they headed up to the second floor, "I was thinking earlier…"

"Congratulations," Kronos dryly remarked.

They reached the top of the stairs and immediately looked for a sign that any of the rooms on that floor were currently occupied; they noticed Methos' door was left slightly ajar and they felt the weak quickening. They pushed the door open and turned on the lights and were mildly surprised by what they saw; everything had been thrown around the room: clothes, books, trinkets, his Walkman and several tapes, a couple of dozen sharp tipped darts that had been pulled out of the board on the wall, and all over his bed were a dozen or so empty candy bar wrappers that had been shredded open.

"You know," Methos said to his brother, "This is starting to remind me of that gremlin movie we saw a few years ago."

"Now she's just screwing with us," Kronos responded.

"Right, but where is she?"

Kronos threw the door shut and saw she wasn't behind it, then they went over to the closet and checked it, but she wasn't there either; they pried open his large trunk by the bed and saw it had been ransacked also, but there wasn't any body in it either, and then they checked under the bed and were surprised to find she was there, curled up with a blanket draped over her body and she appeared to be asleep.

"What were you saying earlier?" he asked Methos.

"I've been trying to figure out what she was doing upstairs that first night, moving everything around and putting it back," Methos said, "I think I've got it. You remember earlier when she was recounting the people she killed?"

"And quite fondly," Kronos answered.

"Some of them were rather…ingenious," Methos settled on the word, "A bit creative, not your everyday run-of-the-mill homicides."

"So what?" Kronos asked.

"We haven't had much of an advantage over her from the start," Methos said, "This is our territory but she knew every inch of it before we ever found out about her. I think she moved everything out and put it back again so she would know every single detail, where everything is, what she could use on one of us if she had to…I was remembering something about this morning, when Caspian was in my room, she came in and hit him once, and I thought she was sleepwalking…she wasn't, she was just acting, but even with her eyes closed she knew where to go to pick up that paperweight off my dresser and bash Caspian's head in again…she's got it all figured out, where everything is, what she can use as a weapon…she's a lot smarter than we gave her credit for."

"If she was so smart, she wouldn't have been caught in the first place," Kronos reminded him.

"Maybe, but you have to admit she's been giving us one hell of a time since we caught her," Methos remarked, "Not at all what you'd expect from someone in her position."

"No," Kronos agreed, "Everyone else would've been dead by now."

"And I'm sure in a while she's going to wish she was too," Methos said as he pulled Fagan out from under the bed, "In the meantime I suggest we get her into the bathroom now and avoid the rush."

That night Methos lay in bed half going in and out of sleep as he tried to stay awake and read; trying to enjoy the silence for once and not having to worry that something worse was looming in the atmosphere. Over in Caspian's room however, he was planning a homicide as he'd found all of his things searched through and scattered around the room, looking like a tornado had blown through it. Of his own accord, it never bothered him, but when somebody else came in and screwed everything up, that was too much.

With three other brothers sleeping on the same floor, Caspian paid no attention to the quickening he felt or the strength of it, or lack thereof, until he heard a familiar voice from the doorway saying, "Find what you're looking for, princess?"

Turning around slowly, he glared at Fagan who stood in the doorway with her arms folded to her chest and her weight pressed against the frame like she was waiting on something.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Oh nothing," she answered as she stepped in and saw his sword and his jacket lying on the bed, and trying not to draw much attention to herself, carefully inched along towards the bed, "I just thought I'd come and see how you were doing in finding out what's missing."

Caspian laughed humorlessly and replied, "The joke's on you, I know nothing's missing."

He turned to see her and that was when he saw her reaching for his sword, he got up and charged at her but she dropped on the bed, throwing her weight on his sword, and in that same instant he heard a small explosion and he felt his flesh being ripped open through his chest and out his back, and he could smell the age old odor of gunpowder, but it still didn't quite register in his head that he'd been shot with his own service revolver, the only thing he hadn't thought to check and make sure it wasn't missing.

Methos heard the gunfire in his room and he closed his book and said begrudgingly, "Not again," as he swung his feet around and got up and headed for the door.

Caspian was on the floor looking up at the smoking end of his own gun and saw that Fagan had concealed it in the split second she flopped on his bed by grabbing his jacket to cover it. Now she tossed the jacket aside and the gun was in plain view and her finger was about to pull the trigger again.

"Now get up," she told him, in a voice they hadn't heard from her yet, whereas previously she sounded loud and obnoxious, this time her voice was deathly serious.

Caspian slowly got to his feet and then, moving quicker than she could see, ambushed her and knocked the gun out of her hand and hit her in the side of the head and knocked her down, forcing her onto her knees. Now she appeared to have sense enough to be scared; her body was starting to shake and she tried to raise her arms over her head but they trembled the entire time. She kept her head down and otherwise didn't move as Caspian stood by her and seemed to be entertaining the notion of shooting her in the head and saving them any further trouble. However, before he could pull the trigger, Fagan swung her head back and knocked it against his stomach, and with enough force that she knocked him down beside her. Instead of grabbing for the gun, Fagan grabbed the short blade from his belt and rammed it into his stomach like she was gutting a fish.

Then she saw Methos standing at the door and as he moved to stop her, she moved also, moving quickly and staying low to the ground she charged him and also drove the blade into his gut and brought him down with only half of a scream getting out of his throat. She ran past him and out into the hall, still with the knife in hand; and when she heard somebody coming after her, she jumped over the banister and made a rough landing on her feet at the foot of the stairs and resumed running. She cut across the dining room but didn't get any further because in the dark she hadn't been able to see where she was going and she ran face first into the wall and bashed up her knee.

The lights came up and she turned around and saw Methos, Kronos and Caspian closing in on her, and she futilely backed away along the wall, putting herself in a literal corner. Methos told her to put the knife down, but he had to repeat it a few times before she finally made some gesture of acknowledging the words. She finally nodded her head and said, "Alright", but she didn't put the knife down; she threw it across the room and did it with so much force that the blade punctured through the back of Kronos' hand and buried itself in his flesh. Kronos let out a yell that was more from the initial shock than from the actual pain and pulled it out.

Seeing she was now unarmed, Methos went over to her and looked ready to strangle her and he demanded to know what the hell she was doing.

"It seems obvious to me what it is," Kronos told his brother as he got the tip of the knife out of his hand, "It's all one long psychotic game to her." He looked at the hole in his hand that was quickly healing, then looked over to the girl and dryly commented, "You're good."

"I'm the best," she responded smugly, "But at what, I don't know."

"Get her out of here," Kronos told Methos.

Methos nodded in agreement; it was late and they were all tired and in no mood for anymore of her shenanigans. Methos grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back out to the hall and they started up the stairs, Fagan trailing as far behind Methos as she could under the circumstances. Once they reached the second floor, she broke away from his grip and when he turned around, he felt something sharp poking at his stomach. Slowly moving to look down, he saw she had another blade on him, and this one wasn't a simple knife; it was about seven inches long and the handle was five inches, and the blade had a slight curve and was very narrow towards the point, but the base of it was about three inches across. Methos knew a knife of that sort was not very easy to obtain in these parts and there was only one likely place she could've gotten it from.

"So that's why you tore Caspian's room apart earlier today," he said.

"No, no," she shook her head, "I already knew where it was…I just trashed the place to screw with his head…as much crap is in there, a person would have to wonder if something wasn't missing, and he thought he had the answer that nothing was taken because that would be the even bigger head-screw, well he was wrong."

"And why this?" Methos asked.

"Well you see," Fagan said as she took a step back from him but still held the knife on him; the way she seemed to struggle with holding herself together Methos almost thought she was still drunk. But she remained coherent and convincing as she explained, "I don't know that I can trust you yet…I've told you just about everything there is about my life, but I still don't know that I trust you. I want to make sure."

"Make sure how?" Methos asked her.

"I have my ways," she replied, and nudged at him to continue towards his room.

"You don't believe in listening to reason, do you?" Methos asked her as he walked into his room.

"What would I know about reasoning?" she asked him as she closed the door behind her.

"Good point."

"I'm still not convinced of what your intentions are, or why you want so much to find out where it is I came from."

Methos started to explain but she hit him and told him to shut up.

"I don't buy that you or any of those things you call brothers have any altruistic intentions in getting to the bottom of this…oh no," she shook her head slightly, "I think you've got something else in mind…either to take me back there and lock me back up, or maybe to find a few more like me and bring them here to experiment on as well."

Methos had to give her credit, she could use her imagination wisely.

"You're smart," he told her, "But you're wrong."

"Am I?" she asked, "I know your brothers are cops, but I also know that they don't seem like they need a lot of attention drawn to them. If they were really as obsessed about cracking the conspiracy of Grayson, they'd have to realize that would mean just that, a lot of unwanted attention, bad publicity for them…they strike me as the types who prefer to stay back in the shadows."

Methos resisted the urge to laugh, she had no idea.

"You think you have all the answers," Methos told her, "Think you know us all so well."

"I've had plenty of time to watch and wait and find out just what kind of people you are," Fagan reminded him.

"Right, so you know if we wanted you dead, you'd be dead by now," Methos said.

She sneered at him and slowly shook her head, "You underestimate me…you forget I let you four monkeys think you were pulling all the strings here for a week…seeing what you wanted to see, someone who couldn't fight you, couldn't possibly hope to defeat you…but it wasn't real, this is real, I am real here and now…you never had one clue as to what I was or what I was capable of."

Yes indeed, Methos thought back to his previous statement, if ever they'd needed an apprentice in the current day and age, she would've been it.

"Why don't you put the knife down?" he suggested.

The look on her face in response to his question was a familiar one; not on her, but he had seen it on Kronos' face plenty of times. It wasn't one easily readable, not a smile, certainly not, despite the mouth being turned up; no, this look was a mix of self amusement and cynicism.

"Come now, Methos," she said, "You should know me better than that…if you want it, you're going to have to take it, and you don't really want to bring the others charging in here for another wild goose chase, do you?"

"My brothers were right, it is just all a game to you, isn't it?" Methos asked.

"I may be psychotic," she said, nodding her head, "But I'm not crazy."

Story of all their lives.

Methos never remembered falling asleep but he woke up in his bed and realized it was morning; he also realized that there was another Immortal in the room with him, and that there was someone else in his bed. Getting his eyes open the first thing he saw was Kronos standing over him with a big smirk on his face. "My compliments, Brother," he said.

Methos wanted to ask what the hell Kronos was talking about, but he wasn't awake enough to form any words yet; he turned on his side and saw Fagan laying beside him asleep, her body tangled in the sheets and her clothes apparently somewhere else. The sight was enough that Methos about jumped out of the bed.

"What the hell?" he finally managed to get out. He backed away from her and about fell off the bed, the sheets pulled back and he was relieved to see that he was still dressed.

"It would seem," Kronos told him, "That I knew what I was doing when I had you take her away last night."

Methos' mind was reeling, he wanted to tell Kronos that it wasn't anything like that, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what had happened last night.

"What did happen last night?" he asked.

"Well I wasn't here last night, Methos," Kronos told him, "You were."

Methos backed away from the girl and about fell out of the bed entirely except that Kronos grabbed him and pushed him back towards her. It was then that Methos remembered something and he started tearing the bed sheets apart, pulling them completely off, looking for the knife she'd held on him the night before. He had no doubt that Caspian would be looking for it and he seriously doubted his brother came in during the night and recollected it.

"Now what're you doing?" Kronos asked him.

Methos had ripped off all the covers and the knife wasn't anywhere to be found. Realizing how he looked to his brother, he stopped and replied, "I have no idea."

The rain had finally come to an end and the sun had come out instead; after a week of clouds and storms, it was a shock that for Methos took time to adapt to. He managed to avoid stepping into the mud puddles and headed around to the backyard where he found Kronos.

"I had another idea earlier," he said, "About the asylum."

"What now?" Kronos asked.

"We can't find out where the place is, and nobody who knows is saying anything either, what does that tell you?" Methos asked.

Kronos looked back at him and replied, "Oh trust me, you don't want to know what I think of it. Although, the only thing that would make sense would be if the place was under a different name, either originally, or now, but that doesn't make sense either because the newspaper specifically said Grayson."

"That's right," Methos said, "But nobody will tell us where it is, what if there's a reason for that?"

"Like what?" Kronos wanted to know.

Methos hated to admit it but this was the part that had him stumped as well. "It's like everybody involved has been given direct orders."

"Gee, that sounds familiar," Kronos commented, and when he saw the murderous glare in Methos' eyes he added, "Sorry."

"Alright, I have an idea," Methos said, "What's a place where the public wouldn't know about its location, and authority figures like our local branch of the police are given the same condescending 'I know nothing, I hear nothing, I see nothing' treatment as regular citizens?"

It took Kronos a minute to come to the answer, but Methos beat him to it when he answered, "A government area."

Kronos almost laughed. He'd heard plenty from his brother on this particular subject before, he remembered in the heyday of Area 51 all the ridiculous theories Methos had spouted about that.

"You can't be serious," he said.

"Oh come on, Kronos," Methos told him, "It makes sense…if this asylum is in the middle of an area that's cordoned off by the government, it explains perfectly why everybody's keeping their mouths shut."

"Right, except why then would they put an advertisement in the newspaper announcing her escape?" Kronos asked.

"Did you read the entire article?" Methos asked, "It doesn't say if she's found to contact the local police, it has a number that runs directly to Grayson but no address, and no mention of where it's located. If they'd start sending their men out, people might start to notice and they'd start asking questions, and it could be they can't afford to have that happen. Now, I don't like sounding conceited," he smirked, "But it seems the government's specialty is not in bringing people back alive, and it would seem they need her kept alive and brought back for a reason."

"But that leaves the question of just how did she escape?" Kronos asked, "You know how they are, if they want somebody dead, they will be, or if they want them to just come up missing, they'll never be found. So how did she get here?"

"I don't know," Methos said, "It's only an idea, and until she tells us anything more we won't be any closer to finding out than we are now; though it does kind of make sense, if she gets out, she might start talking, and somebody might believe her. They can't have that, so they need her back, but for some reason I get the feeling she's more valuable to whoever's in charge alive than dead. Maybe it has something to do with the experiments performed on her."

"Like what?" Kronos asked.

"That autopsy attempt maybe," Methos said, "It doesn't seem that that's a norm for the patients in Grayson." He didn't seem to believe it himself anymore, "I don't know...I'll admit the whole thing sounds idiotic, but unfortunately as we well know, stranger things have happened."

"No question about that," Kronos agreed.

"But Kronos, you realize what it means if I'm right about this, don't you?" Methos asked.

Kronos just nodded. He didn't dare say anything lest he set his brother off like a bomb again. Fortunately, he didn't have to say what he was thinking, because Methos did it for him.

"If the government's involved in this, then that means they know about Immortals, and we'll be going into another Holocaust."

"There's always the chance that you're wrong," Kronos reminded him.

"I hope I am, but with this in mind, it's more crucial now than ever that we find out where this place is," Methos said, "There has to be some way to find out, and there has to be a way to get that girl to tell us, and we have to find out what it is, and fast. We could be sitting on a real time bomb here and there's no telling when it'll go off"