Darien encounters a bizarrely-aged woman and soon becomes infected with the same disease, causing him to rapidly age.

Darien, the Keeper and Hobbes head south of the border to Santa Ruego to convince the Prime Minister to vote against installing the Biox chemical weapon system. How? By having Fawkes pretend to be a ghost and persuade the superstitious Minister to vote against the system's installation. Unfortunately, another ""spirit"" is haunting the Minister: ""La Llarona,"" a ghost who can drown men with a kiss. She confronts Darien and it is revealed she is a member of a shadowy organization that bio-engineered her with the ability to breathe water and exhale it under pressure. In the battle over the Prime Minister's vote, Darien eventually manages to drive her off and get the vote, despite the mutual attraction the two ""freaks"" share.

Presumably the audience voted yes to Hobbes' decision to join Fawkes. Darien, in end-stage Quicksilver Madness, is now obsessed with finding Arnaud. Hobbes sticks close by trying to keep him from killing random bystanders. They catch up to Arnaud, but Hobbes helps him escape when it appears that the maddened Darien will kill him. Darien abandons Hobbes, who is then approached by Arnaud. Arnaud has a malfunctioning Quicksilver gland of his own, and needs to use Darien's as a baseline to get his own fixed. In return, he'll give Hobbes Stage Five Counteragent to reverse Darien's advanced condition. Hobbes helps capture Darien, and a surgeon, Dr. Reynolds, manages to adjust Arnaud's gland. Darien gets the Counteragent, but before it can take effect he tries to kill Arnaud. Arnaud escapes during the distraction when the counteragent kicks in. Later, Arnaud goes to visit Reynolds when he realizes that the surgery did not go quite right, and he is permanently invisible.

Darien and Hobbes learn that the Chrysalis Agency is artificially inseminating women all over the country and stealing their babies to create its own unstoppable army.

A strange old man who has lost the ability to experience normal sensation comes to Darien in the hopes that he can lead him to his late brother, Kevin, whom he blames for doing a horrible thing to him.

Darien helps a young woman who seems to be haunted by a strange apparition, and she is convinced it is her mother, who had disappeared mysteriously weeks before, trying to communicate with her.