"That's impossible," Howard says bluntly, but it's clear he's operating on emotion here. He'd spent more time with Gene than anyone (well, not anymore) and he knew just what that boy was capable of. He'd seen the hurting child, true...but he'd also seen the cruel, calculating mastermind, the ruthless would-be ruler in pursuit of the Makluan rings. He'd had to focus on that part of him, he'd had to quash any sympathy he might have had for the lost and broken child, just his son's age; bright and talented, but a twisted mirror of Tony, all that potential used for scheming and evil.

"He didn't seem interested in changing at all. Not as long as I knew him, not in all the time I spent as his prisoner."