Dolores Abernathy/The Stray

==== "The Stray" ====
Dolores is offline in the room in the Escalante Remote Diagnostic Facility where Arnold has previously met with her.  He brings her a gift: a copy of Alice in Wonderland.  She reads a passage from it, which Arnold asks her opinion about. She notes that change is a common theme in the books she has read with him. She asks about Bernard's son, and he quickly puts her in Analysis mode to discover why she asked that.  She volunteers that the personal question that was an "ingratiating scheme".
In Dolores' bedroom she is surprised to find the gun she dug up wrapped in a cloth in her chest of drawers. She unwraps it and looks at it, but then quickly returns it to the drawer. As she looks in the mirror, she remembers the Man in Black pulling her into the barn. He pulls out a large knife, and smiles, his eyes almost hidden by the shadow of the brim of his hat. He says, "Let's reacquaint ourselves, Dolores. Let's start at the beginning." Her memory ends, and she looks in the dresser drawer again.  The gun and cloth are not there anymore. She looks confused for a moment, but then gets on with her day.
She meets with Teddy, who has returned from escorting a guest named Marti on a bounty hunt. They ride off into the countryside, and Dolores asks where he's been. She asks a new question, "What if I don't want to stay here?" and talks about feeling called to the rest of the world. Teddy avoids the subject of leaving with her, because his work isn't finished.  Their story line takes them back to the ranch at night, and once again they hear gunshots.  The scene cuts to black, with a woman's scream, implying their story continued to its previous end.
On another day in Sweetwater, Dolores is harassed by Rebus and a new Walter. They have a first-time guest with them who wants "something easy". Teddy shows up and intimidates the guest, causing the group to move on.  Out in the countryside, Teddy tries to teach Dolores to shoot a gun.  She finds herself unable to pull the trigger, and Teddy figures its for the best.  They are interrupted by the Sheriff and Marti, with word of a new bounty on a man named Wyatt, a character in Teddy's new backstory, and Teddy goes off with them.
Bernard/Arnold meets with Dolores again. He asks Dolores for help, and calls his discussions with her a mistake.  He says he think he should "restore [her] to the way [she was] before."  He changes her responses from scripted to improvisation, and tries to explain by saying to imagine are two versions of her: One who asks questions and is curious, and one who is safe, and asks which she'd rather be.  She says she doesn't understand, and says there's only one version of herself.  Once she discovers who that is, she'll be free, she says.  In Analysis Mode, Bernard asks her what prompted that response, and she says she doesn't know.  Bernard tells the story of his son learning to swim, and how he was just as afraid of letting go as his son was.  Dolores asks if he still wants to change her, and he says no, they'll see where this path leads. He says she should be getting back, and he opens the door for her. Unlike past conversations, she gets up and leaves.
At night in town, Dolores looks disturbed and contemplating.  She meets the Sheriff's deputy coming back from the bounty hunt with Teddy, and tells her they were left up in the hills.  Dolores returns home at night, and says "Father wouldn't let them roam this close..." before trailing off, as if realizing that she was alone rather than saying the line she usually said to Teddy.  
She hears a gunshot at the house, and rides towards it.  She finds her father, the new host, dead on the ground.  Without Teddy around to kill the villains, Rebus grabs her.  As she looks down at her father's body, she sees the face of the original host Peter Abernathy laying there. A guest doesn't want to have anything to do with her because she seems "crazy", so he offers her to Rebus. Rebus enthusiastically drags her to the barn.  As she's thrown on the hay, she realizes that she has a gun in her hand.  
She points it at him, and as Rebus glowers at her, she has visions of the Man in Black in the same spot from her memories.  A man's voice says, "Kill him", and she shoots Rebus.  She runs back to the farm house, and sees her mother lying dead inside the house. A man sees her, and says, "Hey, get back here!" He then shoots her in the belly. After she looks down at her bloodied dress, time seems to reverse and she hears the man again say, "Hey, get back here!" Dolores looks down where she had previously been shot and finds nothing there.  She quickly gets on a horse and rides off.
She comes across William and Logan at a campfire (they are on a bounty hunt).  Dolores, exhausted, gets off her horse and struggles into camp, collapsing into William's arms as Logan watches.
Category:Tabview Character Plot