"Is this honestly supposed to lead anywhere?"

"I'm onto something, I just don't know what to do with it," Gwen said, waving her hand to try and get Will away as she held an agarose plate up to the light to try and get a better look. She was beginning to look incredibly ragged, working days at Lorna's store and spending most of every night working on her experiments. The dark circles around her eyes heralded her lack of sleep, and the way the clothes that once fit her well now hung slightly off of her figure spoke in volumes about how little she had been eating. Will was admittedly concerned for her health - the last thing he needed was for her to collapse from exhaustion in their predicament - but could do nothing to deter her.

Mr. Waters had left her with some outdated equipment - electrophoresis equipment that had long been replaced. The equipment was used for for testing genetic material, and for days, she had been running tests on multiple plates, taking Polaroid pictures every day. She was relentless, and strangely, no matter how tired she clearly was, somehow enthralled and enraptured by what she was doing. "Look," she said, pointing at the plates laid out in front of her. "There are two separate sets of results from one swab."

"And?"

"This is yesterday's sample," she said, pulling one of the pictures off of the wall with a date scribbled at the bottom. "And… the day before. This strain is becoming more and more dominant. That one is -"

"My DNA," Will said, crossing his arms in realization, his forehead wrinkling. "And the other one belongs to Milford Duggan."

"Exactly," Gwen nodded stepping back from the plates and running her hand through the disheveled hair. "I've been running the numbers since we started and if the transition is mathematical, the nanoparticles should take over and those cells should be all yours in about five days."

Will exhaled sharply, reaching up to cover his mouth, shaking his head in disbelief. In five days, the body would be completely his. He would be truly back, without any remnant of Milford Duggan. In practice, of course, it would make little difference - but the mere idea that in five days, the transformation would be complete, that he would have been completely resurrected and essentially de-aged evoked a feeling reminiscent of what he had felt as a computer - the feeling of power and control. "Gwen… you're brilliant."

"Well," she laughed, shaking her head slightly and rolling her eyes. "If I was brilliant, we wouldn't still be in this mess."

A silence settled over the pair. In truth, they were both equally and not exclusively responsible for this, but there was no sense in looking backward on any of it. There could only be progress. There could only be answers.

Max Waters found that now, when he knew that every day his son was going to work alone and not with Gwen, he worried for him more. He had spent his life since he became friends with Gwen simply following her, and while Max wanted very much to believe in his son, he also knew that Bryce was not well-versed in acting on his own volition.

It was mid-day when he decided he should drop by the Headquarters, to at least see how his son was holding up. Bryce had been very distracted since the day he had gone to look for Gwen - he had never admitted to doing so, but Max knew his son at least that well. Max pulled a sweater over his shoulders and had just pulled open the door to leave when he was met with a familiar face on his front porch, framed with blonde hair that was now spattered with greys.

"Hello, Max."

"Bree."

The blonde-haired woman swept in the door past Max and pushed the door shut herself before raising her eyebrows almost defiantly and asking, "How is my son?"

"The first time you've asked about him in twenty years, I hope you're not expecting a detailed response." Max stepped away from the door, though he had half the mind to order her out the door immediately. Bree glanced around the home - Max's home - at the photos and mementos from his life with their son, and for a moment, she seemed visibly unsettled. His eyes narrowed slightly. "You left our son in my care, you said you weren't fit to be a mother to him. What are you doing here?"

Bree's eyebrows rose, feigning surprise at the reaction. It had indeed been years since she had made contact with Max Waters, it came as no shock that he had not bothered to familiarize their son with who his mother was. Unable to sustain the expression, she chuckled gently and shook her head. "Just concern is all. He's very close to that missing girl they've been talking about. Gwen, isn't it?"

"You know her name." Max's eyes narrowed protectively, and his shoulders hunched in a stance that looked almost like he was prepared to fight her. "You stay away from both of them. They're young, they have lives ahead of them -"

"And I can help them both, Max - I know you can help me find her."

"Perhaps I could, but I won't."

"Why?"

"Because RIFT is full of warmongerers!" he said vehemently, throwing his arms wide as though his anger was physically bursting from his chest. "You take good people and you destroy them, Bree. And I won't give you the opportunity to destroy my son or the woman he loves."

"I know you're bitter. And you're self-righteous," Bree retorted, rounding on Max and crossing her arms. She approached him until they were standing toe to toe, and allowed a smirk to cross her face - aged, but still very much the same. "But you know better than anyone else that once we've found our mark, you can't stop us."

The pair seemed to stand at an impasse, one so sardonic and the other so enraged that it was nigh imperceptible that for a short time, they had once been lovers. Bree continued to smirk snidely, daring Max to act on the anger she saw in him - but he did not. He did not have the chance, as the sound of the door opening signaled a new arrival in the room. Max's face showed a flicker of something - of fear - when he realized that Bryce was arriving at home early. His jaw clenched as Bree immediately wheeled around, and her eyes widened slightly at the sight of the young man.

She could teach Max a lesson, right here and now. She could tell Bryce everything - and indeed, that had been Bree's intention, if she came across him here. But, finally seeing him face to face, she was struck but a sudden feeling of guilt, of inadequacy. Uncertain of exactly why, she simply knew that if Bryce was meant to find out the truth, it would not be like this. She cleared her throat and turned back at Max, returning the smirk to her face.

"This was lovely, we really must do it again sometime," she said coolly. "Chat soon."

And with one final, discreet glance at Bryce, she swept out the door, leaving Max in a state of utmost surprise that for once, Bree had not been completely ruthless. Bryce, however, stared after the woman who left their home for a few moments before turning back to his father with a stony look of resolution in his eyes.

"I'm… going fishing," he said, raising his eyebrows - and Max immediately knew what his son meant. He opened his mouth to speak, but Bryce immediately raised a hand to silence him. "You can't stop me, Dad. I'm going."

"Are you serious? You invited him up here for a date -"

"What?"

Gwen hurried to the window just as Will was walking away from it, and from their perch atop the dry hill, she could see the Waters' old pickup puttering up the unpaved rural road. She retreated from the window and ran a hand over her hair in exasperation.

"I told him not to come back here," she insisted, shaking her head fervently. "I told him that it's too risky -"

"Well, apparently, your little friend has a bit of an issue with listening," Will interrupted, his voice cool as he crossed his arms over himself in sharp contrast to the visible look of panic of Gwen's face.

"I'll - I'll go down to town before he can get here, I'll distract him -"

"No, you won't," Will said, holding up his hand to halt her train of thought. "If you don't let him in here, he's going to get suspicious, and he's going to snoop. We're going to hide all the lab equipment, and I'm going to stay in the garden shed out back until you convince him that you're fine and you don't need him here."

Gwen flinched slightly but agreed, and in a rush, they began shoving the equipment Max had provided for them into crates, pushing them into the small bedroom off to the side of the cabin and filling the small room until there was barely room to walk inside. Gwen shut the door as Will retreated out the back to the garden as planned, just in time for a knock on the door. Gwen took a deep breath and smoothed out her sleeves, wiping her hair and a small amount of sweat from her forehead as she opened the door.

Bryce's presence, she didn't even bother denying, was not entirely unwelcome to her - he was her best friend. He made her forget what was happening - and for a short time of sitting on the couch and talking, even if she told more lies than truth, gave her the feeling that somehow things still stood a chance of returning to normal.

"But really," Bryce asked after a good hour of talking. He suddenly reached out and clasped his hands over Gwen's, and she felt strangely warm and unsettled. "Are you okay here?"

"What choice do I have?" she laughed weakly after a moment's pause. "It's - it's tiring. It's lonely," she shrugged honestly. "But a part of me likes being away from everything. The quiet," she admitted. "Out here, I'm not the Chairman's daughter. I don't have people constantly staring at me and expecting things from me. Being disappointed -"

"I've never been disappointed in you…"

Bryce's voice trailed off, and his face reddened slightly as he realized that he'd just said what he did aloud. Gwen's face turned to one of surprise, but rather than jolting away, she found that she reflexively gripped his hands a little tighter. Realizing this with a small smile, Bryce seemed to be suddenly made daring, and Gwen noticed his face slowly drawing closer to hers. After a millisecond of consideration, she decided that she wasn't going to stop him. Both of their eyes fluttered shut in anticipation for the imminent kiss when suddenly, there was the sound of a crash outside in the garden. Gwen immediately jumped away, and she gasped when, upon looking out the window, the shed's door was now thrown open, swinging on its hinges with the small glass pane shattered on the ground next to it. She leapt to her feet and hurried towards the back door with Bryce only a few steps behind, but immediately upon stepping outside, she found herself yanked by her hair and thrown against the wall.

After a moment of shock, she realized that her hair was entwined around the fist of Christie Duggan, and that Will was lying unconscious on the ground next to them with a wound on his head. Bryce stood in the doorway and held up his hands, shock registering on his face as well - he first noticed Christie, then Will.

Gwen hadn't been alone all this time. She'd been here with him.

"I found you," Christie chuckled darkly, leaning her face close to Gwen's. "I followed your little boyfriend right to you - but who is this?" she asked, prodding at Will's form on the ground with her foot. A short glance around revealed that Christie's other hand was clenched around a gun. Gwen's shoulders shook fearfully, but she found at least a small amount of relief when she noticed that Will was still breathing. Seeing Gwen's attention wandering, Christie gave her hair another sharp tug, which elicited a shrill yelp from the younger woman. "Both of you come with me, and no one else needs to get hurt," she said, gesturing between Bryce and Gwen with the barrel of the gun.

Gwen glanced over at Bryce, but he refused to meet her gaze - he had led Christie here. But… Gwen had lied to him. His mind could almost be seen racing behind his eyes, leaving only Gwen to make the decision for them both.

"We'll go…"

When Will finally opened his eyes, he felt like his head was about to explode - but, upon reaching up and touching it, it was no longer actively bleeding, rather nastily swollen and coagulated. Assured that he was alive, he immediately realized that it was quiet. The woman had come for Gwen, and had clearly found her target. Blinking back the overpowering ache in his head, he got to his feet and hurried into town, bursting into Lorna's store just as she seemed to be closing up for the day.

"Will, your head -"

"No - no, I need a car," he said. "That old beater behind the shop, do you have the keys?"

"Will, that's a nasty cut you have -"

"Lorna, someone's got Gwen and I don't have much time," he said, raising his voice at the older woman, who immediately froze. She reached into the drawer next to the register and pulled out an old set of keys, sliding them across the counter to Will, who immediately picked them up.

"Take it," she said quickly, her brow furrowing in concern. "You get that girl out of there safe."