Doors has Lily upload a virus designed by Augur into the Taelon headquarters in Washington, D.C. The goal is to test the vulnerability of the Taelon technology. However, the virus quickly grows out of control and spreads to all Taelon headquarters across the globe. Boone and Sandoval are trapped in the locked-down American headquarters and try to find a way to isolate and eliminate the virus, while dodging the building's security systems. The virus starts spreading into human systems. While transporting Da'an, Lily's shuttle crashes in the Appalachian wilderness. Lily is seriously hurt and tells Da'an to get away from the shuttle before its reactor blows. Instead, he helps her get free and shields her from the explosion. He then makes a fire and cooks food for Lily. Doors sends people to recover Lily, tracking her locator beacon. Not wanting Da'an to be captured, Lili leaves her beacon behind, but they still end up caught. While one of them treats Lili's injuries, another questions Da'an. Meanwhile, Sandoval and Boone barely manage to reach the building's central processor, although Sandoval hits his head and is knocked out. They try to follow Augur's plan to purse the system of the virus. Then the Taelon mothership appears over D.C. and does it for them. Lili and Da'an are rescued and share their emotions.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When one of Doors's soldiers questions Da'an on the true purpose of the Taelons on Earth, Da'an tells him it's not in anyone's best interest for him to reveal this. The soldier tells him they will never accept that, and neither will the rest of the world. Da'an counters with, "The rest of the world is not asking the question." The soldier doesn't know what to say to that.
- Don't Create a Martyr: The Resistance soldiers tell Da'an that they have no intention of turning him into a martyr after cornering him and Lily, lowering their guns.
- Mental Fusion: In a way. After their shared ordeal, Da'an shares his emotions with Lili by touching his palm to hers.
- The Mothership: The Taelon mothership makes it appearance to save the world from the virus before leaving, leaving the world even more in awe of the Taelons than before.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Lili wants Da'an to return to civilization. He points out that she will die from internal injuries if he does and asks if she would leave him if their positions were reversed. Being a marine, she says that no soldier would leave anyone behind. Da'an replies that the same is true for any Taelon.
- Ominous Floating Spaceship: The Taelon mothership slowly flies over Washington and purges the headquarters' systems from the virus, before returning to the far side of the Moon using its ID drive.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Augur's virus was only supposed to play havoc with the systems of the Taelons' Washington headquarters. He never anticipated it spreading to all Taelon systems worldwide and even to cross over into human systems, resulting in blackouts.
