"The Collapse was more than twenty years ago - I really don't remember much of anything."

Gwen had, for whatever reason, tucked her Psi away into her back and brought this Will Caster, whoever he was, home with her without uttering a word about it to Bryce Waters at the end of the day. Home alone because her father was spending a long day at work as usual, she found herself engaging in a conversation with Will. A conversation with a machine. It seemed absurd and unheard of, and yet… she was doing it.

As many who grew up incredibly overprotected would attest, Gwen had spent most of her youth as a very lonely child - Bryce Waters was one of the few of whom her father wasn't wary, and as such, she was hardly well-attached to anyone else who didn't pass her father's screening first. Even now, when she had passed twenty years of age, it was difficult for her to even think of leaving the nest. Her mother had died years ago, and ever since then, and she couldn't bear the thought of her father being alone.

This new friend, even if she was unsure of whether or not he was even real, was a welcome escape. But he had so many questions - about the Great Collapse, about the Gatekeepers. And for once, Gwen felt really knowledgeable about something, like she was truly contributing. Not that she didn't consider her work important - it was important in the same way that the work of every ant in a colony or every bee in a hive was important. But no girl ever dreamed of being just another ant in a colony. When she answered Will Caster's questions, it was as if she was the sole source of information, as if she actually possessed worthwhile answers that he couldn't seek out from anyone else.

"You are part of the rebuilding efforts?" Will asked.

"I'm… trying to be, anyway," Gwen replied."My father doesn't want me all that involved in things. He says I'm too young to really know where my boundaries are, and that not knowing your boundaries is the most dangerous thing." There was a small amount of derision in her voice, but recited the reasoning smoothly enough, having heard it countless times. "That's why he makes sure I stay in the Biological Studies Division. He thinks I don't know what they call the BSD at headquarters - the Big Stinking Deal," she added with a roll of her eyes.

"Their ridicule is misplaced," Will said. "The biological sciences are no small undertaking. All life - all human life - comes down to biology."

"All I get to do is catalog bugs and flowers," she corrected before she paused - she felt the impulse to say something, and weighed the harm in it. There surely could be none, she convinced herself. She was talking to a machine, after all. "I just don't feel like I'm doing anything for anyone," she admitted aloud for the first time, other than the times she vented her frustrations to Bryce.

"Gwen?" - She flinched when there was an unexpected knock on her door - she looked at the time and realized she had been answering Will's questions for at least two hours now, and that her father must have arrived home without her realizing it. "Gwenny, are you talking to someone in there?"

"On the phone, dad," she answered calmly as he peeked in the door, just as she was able to flip the Psi closed and indeed, pretend to be on the phone. Agent - Chairman Buchanan looked inside and smiled at his daughter. "I lost one of my data cards today, I was just calling to ask Bryce if I left it at their house."

"Don't worry, honey, it happens all the time," he chuckled, shaking his head dismissively. "They have tons of them. They cost pennies - tell Bryce I said hello. He hasn't been over for dinner in a while."

"Yes, daddy."

Gwen smiled as her father looked at her with extreme fondness one more time before nodding and exiting, closing the door behind him. She listened as his footsteps walked away down the hallway of their two story home - a house that was honestly way too large for just the two of them - before she opened the Psi and was again met with the face of Will Caster.

"That was your father, Donald Buchanan," he said - a statement, not a question. Gwen nodded in response, and, as though confirmation of this fact were enough, he continued with their previous conversation. "Tell me more about the Gatekeepers."

"They - I mean, we…" Gwen began. It was strange for her to think of herself as part of the Gatekeepers, when she was only barely even on the outskirts of the organization, but she was, indeed, still a part of it, even if only in name. "We make sure that the things that went wrong before the Great Collapse don't happen again - the corrupted, unreliable files, the security failures. We make sure the material accessible to public is safe. Non-inflammatory," she recited, but her expression fell visibly as she provided this explanation.

"You appear displeased," Will stated. "You… are not happy with what you are doing."

"It's not that I'm not happy," she reneged quickly. "It's just… Mr. Waters talks to me all the time about what things were like before. He always talks about how there was a time that information was supposed to be free for everyone, that there was a free exchange with this limitless potential."

"And did Mr. Waters tell you why this time ended?"

"Because people thought it was dangerous, that it scared people to believe that machines could do something that people couldn't, that access to all of that was more than anyone should be able to have," Gwen recited, but it was evident in her voice that she didn't mean any of these things. "But - it doesn't make sense, does it? Aren't the Gatekeepers doing the same thing, but just… keeping all of it for themselves?"

"There is… an inherent contradiction in the trajectory of events since the Collapse as you have told them to me, yes."

"So it isn't just me, then," Gwen huffed, laying back against her headboard and sighing, shaking her head. However, as strongly as she felt that something was missing, that she was contributing to an effort she wasn't sure that she agreed with, she hated when her thoughts drifted in this direction. Her father believed so strongly that what they were doing was right - and what they were doing had put a roof over her head and food on their table for her entire life. What place did she have questioning it?

And yet, the idea always returned - if the stories about the Great Collapse were true, if free, boundless technology and information were too powerful to be wielded in its entirety, then why were they working so hard to rebuild it?

"It's late," Gwen said in a quiet but abrupt voice. "I need to work tomorrow…"

She glanced at the screen and for a moment, wondered if she should expect a reaction from Will, but none came. "Good night, Will," she said impulsively.

"Good night, Gwen."

The next morning, Gwen didn't immediately reboot the Psi - she had overslept a little and had barely rolled out of bed when her alarm went off. She was standing in front of her vanity mirror and brushing her hair, attempting to style it a little differently than usual on impulse, when she heard a voice outside her window in the street. She moved over and saw that Bryce had already pulled up - they almost always carpooled together, and he was always impeccably on time.

"You're gonna be late - we're gonna be late!" he called out jokingly once she peered out the window, and she laughed, rolling her eyes slightly.

"Five minutes!" she called out. "I promise!"

Her five minutes, as it turned out, was more like fifteen, and Gwen rushed downstairs, kissed her father goodbye as he sat reading the paper - he never came in early in the morning. Finally making it out to the car, she hopped into the passenger seat and fastened her seatbelt. Bryce glanced at her hair, curled back and pinned away from her face delicately, and he realized she had also put on lipstick - he rolled his eyes.

"Are you serious? You don't need to do all this just to be pretty," he laughed, garnering a raise of Gwen's eyebrow for the fact that it sounded dangerously like a compliment. "We're going to be written up for your new little hairdo."

"We're just inputting data today," Gwen answered dismissively. "It's not like we're missing anything exciting."

And she was, for the most part, correct. It was a tedious day at the beginning, as they took the data cards on which they had catalogued their specimens and placed them into the lab computers for uploading - though one data card in particular from Gwen's set remained very intentionally placed into the port of her Psi, which was resting in her bag. The day consisted mostly of checking for duplicate entries, ascribing them the proper nomenclature, and numbering them appropriately to be approved for upload. After half a day of this, however, a man in a very expensive-looking suit and a paisley tie with a bald head and a reddish face appeared at Gwen's desk, smiling at her expectantly.

"Good afternoon, Director Hadley," she said, standing and reaching her hand to shake his. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing at all," he said with a jovial smile. Hadley was the director of their division, and rarely ventured down into the main offices, preferring to remain in the cushy downstairs offices where the higher ups were located. "Your entries for today just came through and I noticed you were able to discern a few very interesting hybrids. It takes a good eye."

"Well, thank you, sir."

"You've made a habit of doing excellent work, Miss Buchanan," Hadley said. "Do you have a moment to walk with me?"

"Of course, sir," she nodded politely, coming around her desk and following him out to the foyer, a glass-walled veranda that overlooked an indoor garden. He walked with her to the staff elevator and pulled his keycard from a chain in his pocket, scanning it on a sensor before pressing the button for the third sub-basement - the restricted zone. As they entered, they passed another man who had to be only a few years older than Gwen whom she had met only at company functions.

"Miss Buchanan, I believe you're acquainted with Milford Duggan," Director Hadley said, briefly gesturing for the man to stop and talk a while. He gave Gwen a toothy grin as he obliged. "Mr. Duggan is one of our associate scientists in our… special projects," he nodded.

"Lovely to see you again, Gwen," Duggan continued to smile - he had one of those smiles, Gwen thought, that was disconcerting because you couldn't tell what was going on behind the eyes. However, she smiled back and reached out to shake his hand, and he squeezed hers for about a second too long. "I hope to work with you soon."

Director Hadley, however, seemed unperturbed by the exchange and continued bringing her deeper into the heart of the facility. Gwen glanced around in slight awe and hardly noticed that Director Hadley had stopped in front of a brushed glass door with a sign in block letters.

"Project… Generativity?" Gwen read, her forehead wrinkling slightly. Director Hadley smiled and chuckled slightly at her confusion. "Sir, I don't -"

"The Generativity Project is the crowning glory of the Biological Sciences Division - it's mostly an effort towards reforestation, endangered species repopulation, the like," he nodded, using his key card to open the door again. "We're exploring how to translate the data on catalogued species into real, biological matter. I'd like you to work with us."

Hadley had slipped in the last statement so casually that Gwen had almost missed it. When she finally processed it after a few seconds of silence, still walking behind Hadley as he showed her the short hallway lined with locked doors, she blinked and cleared her throat.

"I don't know how my father would feel about that," she explained honestly. "He doesn't think I'm - mature enough to be so involved."

"Chairman Buchanan is our most respected executive," Hadley said with a nod, "But he doesn't have absolute veto power over who is hired and who isn't, especially not in our special projects. We can't allow our reverence for the old allow us to lose the opportunity to acquire new talent."

He looked back over his shoulder at Gwen and raised his eyebrows, to which she responded by averting her gaze briefly. He nodded and reached out, clapping a hand onto her shoulder. "Think on it, and give me an answer over lunch tomorrow."

Gwen felt particularly conflicted over this offer that she found it to be all she could talk about on the drive home with Bryce - and while he was the best friend she could ask for without a doubt, he was certainly no help. Do what makes you happy, he said as he dropped her off at home.

Even worse, Gwen came home to an empty house as her father was still attending to work at the Gatekeepers Headquarters - there was no one else to talk to about this decision, unless…

Gwen reached into her bag and pulled out the Psi, running upstairs to her room and shutting the door behind her as she booted it up again. "Will?" she asked hesitantly as the screen flickered to life. As expected, Will Caster's face appeared, but instead of a greeting, he spoke with a very blunt statement.

"It would be in your best interest to accept this offer."

Gwen blinked, and she was fairly certain her mouth had hung open for a few seconds before she was able to respond. "How did you -"

"The microphone apparatus on this device is fully functioning."

"It was turned off."

To this, Will did not respond, and a flash of apprehension appeared on Gwen's face before fading away. She repeated the statement, but again, he gave no comment - no acknowledgment that he had heard it at all. Instead, he made another statement which caught her off guard yet again. "Bryce Waters possesses romantic intentions towards you."

"That's crazy."

"An analysis of his speech and behavior patterns suggests that it is not," Will replied simply. "Tell me more about him."

"Well," Gwen hesitated, wondering how best to describe her best friend."He came to live with his father when he was about four years old - his mother died. A girl that his father saw for a while when they met at a conference. His father is Max Waters, he's a scientist too."

"Is he a Gatekeeper?"

"No," Gwen answered. "He does his own research. Independently, from home."

"It's good to hear that," Will said, and Gwen realized that now, the face on the screen actually nodded. And - did he smile? She simply mirrored the expression, nodding as well.

Meanwhile, at the Waters household, Bryce had spent the better part of half an hour explaining to his father how the day had gone - how Gwen had gone to extra trouble to get ready in the morning, and how she had asked him what he thought of the promotion offer she had received from Director Hadley.

It had turned out, Will had been correct about at least one thing - Bryce Waters had long harbored feelings for his best friend, and after today he felt reasonably convinced that it was time to at least consider making a move.

Max Waters chuckled and shook his head at his son's nervous energy - the way he paced and wrung his hands when he talked about Gwen. He clucked his tongue and wagged his index finger in his son's direction. "I always had a feeling you'd end up together," he said knowingly. "She's smart, she's kind… she reminds me a great deal of an old friend of mine. Her name was Evelyn."

"Gwen's… perfect," Bryce shrugged, sinking into an armchair next to the sofa, where his father was sitting and reading. Max laughed again and shook his head.

"Nobody's perfect," he said. "Everyone has their weaknesses, but with the right person, the weaknesses just make you love them a little more."

"If she takes this job in Project Generativity - I'm worried she'll meet someone else," Max admitted, scratching the back of his neck. "That's the big leagues. If I don't act now -"

"So you think she's going to accept?" Max interrupted. Bryce looked at his father and saw that his expression had suddenly changed to one of extreme interest - not in him, but genuinely in what he had to say about Gwen.

"She says she's not sure - there's an aptitude test," he shrugged. "She says she'd never pass."

"She'd pass with flying colors," Max replied with a resolute nod. He stood up and moved in front of his son, kneeling so that he was looking him directly in the face. "If you really care about her, you'll encourage her. It'll be good for her."

Bryce wanted to ask why his father cared so much about whether or not her ended up with Gwen, when he took such an interest in the girl, but before he could even pluck up the determination to ask, he heard the phone ring. He scurried over and picked it up - Max immediately knew who it was on the other line when he saw the grin spread across his son's face.

"Hey, Gwen - dinner? Sure!" he said. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be by in an hour."

Max Waters clucked his tongue and looked at his son with a knowing expression when he hung up the phone and began practically buzzing around the room. He had always had a feeling his son would fall for Gwen Buchanan - the two had been inseparable since they were children, because Gwen drew others to her like moths to a flame, and her ambition, her dreams had rubbed off on Bryce. She gave Bryce direction, ambition of his own. Max Waters could only hope that Gwen would be good for him - and that she'd fall for him too.

"Will," Gwen said, coming back into her room after changing into her pajamas - her Psi was still running and sitting on her bedside table. Bryce had just left a short while ago after having had dinner with her - she hated eating dinner alone, and on the nights that her father failed to come home in time, she called him to keep her company. Today, their dinner conversation had been particularly interesting, since earlier in the day Bryce had been so noncommittal about the offer to join Project Generativity, and now all of a sudden, he was adamant that she should take the opportunity. He'd even gotten her immediately on the phone with Director Hadley, who had the tendency to spend late nights in the office, and had acted as her cheering section, her moral support when she let him know that she was interested after all.

Now that he had departed to go home, the house was yet again empty, she realized that she had done all this without consulting her father. If she didn't distract herself somehow, she would have time to feel guilty. Will Caster was the only such distraction to be found. She sat down on her bed and looked at the screen with her hands clasped in her lap. "Are you - were you ever a person?" she asked, looking intently at his face.

"I was."

"What happened?"

"I do not recall."

The answer was less than what she had expected, but she didn't feel compelled to reject it. If Will Caster was only a machine, then he lacked the mind and motivation to lie; he truly could not recall. If he was human, then he was lying to cover up something he did not want to talk about. Either way, it was an answer she could accept. "I'm taking the aptitude exam in the morning," she said suddenly, though she wasn't sure why she felt compelled to change the subject. "For Project Generativity."

"Then you must be asleep within the hour for optimum performance," WIll answered simply. For some reason, this brought a smile to Gwen's face - it sounded almost like concern, even if she wasn't entirely sure that he would be capable of expressing such a thing, if he was capable of feeling it at all.

"You're right," she nodded, swinging her legs up onto her bed and pulling the covers up over herself. She reached over to shut down her Psi, but first added, "Good night, Will."

"Good night, Gwen."