Virgil let them stay the night in his cave and even let Briar Rose sleep in his bed. Come morning, she and Nick headed back out into the Glowing Sea; Virgil gave them advice for a somewhat safer way to get out. They followed his directions northeast and found themselves back in the clear Commonwealth in less than a half day's walk. On their trek back to Diamond City, they stopped at settlements for food and to stay for the night.

When they got back after their three-day journey, they went to Valentine Detective Agency to get ready for their next hurdle. A fully healed Dogmeat was beside himself at seeing Briar Rose come through the door; he tackled her to lick her face. Ellie was relieved to see them again, but hesitant to let all three of them leave.

Nick led the way to the C.I.T. ruins, on the northern side of Boston and near the Charles River. The building was massive; the building itself was still accessible through doors that weren't boarded up, but it was a ruin: parts of the outer walls had collapsed, leaving enormous holes exposing furniture, desks, and hallways. They saw the hulking outline of a Super Mutant walking past a knocked-out window, so they crept to the back of the ruins to what would've been the courtyard.

Standing on top of the brown grass, Briar Rose could only stare at the ground under her feet, knowing the Institute waited below. Shaun was down there, waiting for her to come get him. He was so close, and yet still out of reach.

"I'm coming, honey," she whispered. "I'm almost there."

She fiddled with her Pip-Boy until she found the radio and turned the knob to the lower end of the band. It took a while before she heard a faint beep. Virgil had said the signal would lead them, so Briar Rose began taking a few steps; when the beep grew even more strained, she changed direction until it grew stronger. It became the steadiest when she headed toward the east, so she, Nick, and Dogmeat took off in that direction.

They followed the beeping—steadily growing more rapid—along the river. A Mirelurk or two and some Raiders got in the way, but after eliminating them, they were back on the trail. When the beeping began to die, Briar Rose walked around until the beeping grew stronger. An extremely tall and green building began to loom over them, and the signal led them straight to it. The beeping became a single buzz when they stepped up to the doors.

"Greenetech Genetics; wonder what drew it here," Nick mused.

Briar Rose turned off the radio and pulled out her gun. "Doesn't matter; it walked into its grave."

They went into Greenetech Genetics to be met with a dead Gunner slumped over the receptionist's desk. Nick went first to check out the lobby, then waved that it was clear. The lobby was in a mess like every other building, but there weren't any more bodies. The stairwell to the opening above them was broken, so they found a door leading up to another walkway—on it laid another dead Gunner with his leg missing.

All of a sudden, an explosion rocked the floor and gunfire erupted; it came out of the opening they headed to.

"The Courser's on the second floor. Kill on sight. Send reinforcements to the Lobby in case there are more," a male voice said over an intercom.

She, Nick, and Dogmeat cautiously advanced to the second floor opening. It used to be a nice courtyard where employees could seek a break sitting under the trees growing below them—the walkway they were on wrapped around the open floor. Now, scorch marks blackened the walls and the walkway from grenades, bullet holes riddled the walls and bark of the trees, and bodies hung over the railings.

They began their trek across to the next opening when they heard the warning beep of a machine gun turret locking onto a target. Briar Rose, Nick, and Dogmeat sprinted across as the machine opened fire.

"We have more than one! Tell the others!" someone shouted.

Forms appeared at the end of the hallway; she and Nick killed the Gunners and destroyed the machine gun turret before moving on. As they headed up a stairwell, gunfire sounded above them along with some dying cries and the flooring shook again—this time, it sounded like a missile launcher.

"The Courser is now on the third floor," the intercom said. "Reports of the second intruder in the east wing of the courtyard. Barricade stairwells and hallways if you haven't already."

"There goes our element of surprise," Nick grumbled.

The third floor was in as bad of shape as the second; the Courser waged war against these Gunners and they couldn't handle it—just one against all of them. As they followed in its wake of destruction, they had to kill the reinforcements running in to help or destroy machine gun turrets somehow left unharmed. The man on the intercom grew more panicked.

"We've lost contact with sectors two and four. Fall back to original positions; the Courser's nearing the elevator."

They steadily went up; Briar Rose hoped they were getting close to the elevator too—the endless stairs were about to kill her.

"The Courser's after the girl. Anyone alive needs to get to the top floor immediately. That's an order!"

So that was why the Courser came here. They came to a shut door with a terminal; muttering about it being a trap, Nick hacked the computer and shut down the turrets waiting behind the door. As soon as the door opened, Briar Rose threw in a grenade; after the explosion and people yelling in pain, Dogmeat charged into the smoke. There weren't many Gunners in the room and without the aid of the machine gun turrets, they quickly fell. They had been guarding the elevator.

It took some time for the elevator to take them up to the top floor. Once the doors opened, all three of them advanced onwards in a crouch, positive the Courser was somewhere ahead and probably had killed all Gunners up here since no noise greeted them. They went into a room with a wrap-around balcony above them.

"I don't know the password; I'm telling the truth," someone said.

"I don't believe you are," another voice replied, bored and emotionless.

The voices echoed down to them from above; they hurried to sneak around out of sight under the balcony. On their silent trek, Briar Rose saw three men kneeling at the edge of the balcony. It looked like they were lined up for a firing line—the executioner remained out of sight.

"No, please, you don't have to do this!"

A gunshot popped and blood and pieces of flesh rained down near them—they remained clean since they crept under the balcony.

"All he had to do was tell me the password. Now, are you going to cooperate?" the monotonous voice asked—that had to be the Courser.

"Just don't shoot! Let me think..." a new voice spoke.

"I'm going to get in there; it's only a matter of time. Just tell me the password."

They made it around the column in the middle of the room and found another doorway with stairs ascending and turning to reach the floor above.

"Look, I already told you: I don't have it. I'll help you find a way in, but listen, we took the girl fair and square. All we want is a little compensation in return."

Silence. "You are in no position to negotiate." Another gunshot sounded out, followed by a thud of a falling body.

As they neared the top of the stairs, they cautiously ascended, guns before them and ready to fire.

"You. Come here."

Briar Rose froze at the Courser's demand—also wondering how he knew she was there—but did as he said, walking upright through the doorway. One man still kneeled at the balcony's edge—his two comrades lay dead and bleeding out of the hole in their heads beside him; he watched their entrance curiously.

A dark-headed man, dressed just like X6-88 in an all-black coat and pants, stood a ways behind the kneeling Gunner and facing them. He wore no expression on his face; no curiosity or surprise at seeing her.

"You've been following me. Are you here for the synth?" he asked.

She glanced at the remaining Gunner; other than him, she couldn't see anyone else. "What synth?"

"If you're not here for the synth, then you're here for me. What do you want?"

"We're here for that chip in your head," Nick answered.

"That... you cannot have."

His arm moved remarkably fast as he reached for something; before Briar Rose or Nick could fire, the Courser disappeared. Like with Kellogg, she fired at the blur as she hurried to take cover behind a metal crate. She poked around it to return fire when the bullets stopped ricocheting off it, but every time she leaned against it, it shifted since the crate sat on wheels. Briar Rose shoved it toward the blur as she ran to another shelter.

The routine continued with her firing at every sight discrepancy and running to a new cover. Dogmeat fortunately stayed out of the fire fight, not able to locate the invisible Courser.

Nick suddenly jolted. "Flower, he's—"

In the blink of an eye, the Courser reappeared but behind Nick and doing something at the back of his head. She turned to fire at him when Nick just collapsed, like his body shut down.

"Nick!" she screamed.

With him now visible, Dogmeat shot out of the cover of the doorway and bit into the Courser's arm. He tried to knock him off to free his gun hand, but Briar Rose released the three rounds left in her clip into his head. His face was practically gone when he fell back, dead.

She dropped down by an immobile Nick—his eyes were still open but they didn't blink, didn't reflect life like they used to. She repeatedly called his name as she tried to shake him awake; he didn't stir.

Briar Rose began to panic—she couldn't lose him too after losing Nate and Shaun. Maybe she could tinker with the wires at the base of his skull like the Courser did, but she didn't have any experience with Institute technology; what if she did something wrong and changed his personality? What if she damaged him? What if she killed him instead? She heard something open behind her, like shutters.

"Hey!" Briar Rose whipped around to see a woman with neck-length brown hair behind a window in a room she hadn't noticed before. "I'm a synth, so I know how to help him, but I can't get out. The guard put the password in a toolbox over there under the stairs. Use it to gain access to the terminal and open the door."

She ran over to where the synth looked, past the third Gunner who had been killed by a stray bullet, and searched for a toolbox; she found the red box hidden under some debris. She dug through it to find the password to the room's terminal. Briar Rose hurried over to unlock the door and free the synth. The door opened, and they hurried to Nick's side; Dogmeat kept nudging Nick's lifeless arm.

"What did the Courser do to him?" Briar Rose asked as the synth began working at Nick's neck.

"He rewired his corporal functions to where the hard drive in his head registers an infringement and shuts down for safety protocol." Because of Briar Rose's stunned silence at not understanding the technical terminology, she explained simpler. "The Courser just paralyzed him."

To prove her right, life suddenly came back to Nick: he blinked, his jaw shifted, and his arms moved as he pushed himself up. As soon as he rose to his knees, Briar Rose attacked him for a hug. He hugged her back and his chest rumbled as he chuckled when Dogmeat licked his face.

"Are you okay?" Briar Rose asked. "You're not hurt?"

"I'm fine, Flower."

She leaned back to look at him. "Are you sure?"

Nick smiled. "Yes; don't worry about me."

"I'll always worry about you."

Dogmeat kept licking his face. "Alright, Dogmeat, alright." Nick pushed back the dog, and he sat on his haunches, clearly happy. "I worried you too, pooch?"

Dogmeat barked.

Briar Rose turned to the synth watching their exchange with a smile pulling at her lips. "Thank you for your help."

"I know you weren't here for me, but you helped me; the least I could do was to return the favor." She looked over at the dead Courser. "He... He deserved to die. I knew they'd send a Courser; I just didn't think he'd find me so fast."

"Who are you?"

The synth turned back. "My Institute designation is K1-98, but I prefer Jenny."

"Why did the Gunners have you?" Nick asked.

Jenny shrugged. "I'm not sure. I escaped from the Institute to be caught by them. Maybe they thought they could sell me or something."

"Do you think you'll be alright now?" Briar Rose asked.

She nodded. "I think so. I'm going to look for supplies before heading out. The Commonwealth is unforgiving. I need to make it on my own or I'm dead. Maybe we'll meet again, under better circumstances. I... hope we do. Thanks again for your help." Jenny got up and jogged out the way they had come up.

After making sure Nick could stand, Briar Rose went over to the Courser's body. She didn't have to search much to find the Courser chip attached to his brain. She slipped the bloody thing into a pocket; Nick found an elevator that would take them down to the first floor. When they piled in and the doors shut, Briar Rose looped an arm through Nick's and laid her head against him. He seemed surprised at first but didn't object, accepting her closeness. Even Dogmeat leaned against his leg.

They had almost lost their synth.