Val would have loved nothing more than to just go back to her apartment and crash, but it wasn’t meant to be. She received a follow-up message from Mae instructing her to stay at one of the medical centers in the city overnight. The stated reasoning was to monitor her core, but Val understood the subtext: they couldn’t afford her running off with Rez and trying to dodge the Council’s ultimatum.

She didn’t spend much of the night sleeping anyway. She spent the rest of the afternoon with Fynn, who had happily accepted a position in the Guardian Guild and would be paired up with a Daemon codenamed Mera. She and Fynn had met up with his mother Jenma for dinner in the Guardian mess hall, finding a secluded table for them to discuss her dilemma. In the end, they empathized with her but didn’t offer any new advice. Both were worried about her if she chose to join the Defects, but understood her drive.

Mae had offered to speak with her but Val felt like she already knew the woman’s opinion pretty well from the afternoon meeting. She originally hadn’t wanted to take Celedon’s offer up either, but as usual when it came to the obnoxious Scout, she didn’t have much of a choice.

She found herself laying on the open roof of the medical center staring up at the evening sky when she noticed Celedon leaping up over the edge of the building. Or rather, Rez pointed it out to her. It had been less than a day, but already she was feeling accustomed to the Daemon’s presence in her mind. A small paranoid voice in her brain wondered if part of the neural rewiring made her more trusting of Daemons in general, but it felt oddly comforting to have Rez always watching out for her.

“I didn’t expect you to track me down. Is it your shift to make sure I don’t bolt?” said Val nonchalantly without looking over at Celedon. He braced himself against the low wall and gazed up with her before responding. Directly overhead, the sky had already faded from blue into black, but the horizon was still a dull red from where the sun had dipped below the neighboring mountains.

“I guess I’ll take some pride in the fact that you could only spot me coming when you became a User.” Val snorted but otherwise didn’t respond. After a few more moments of silence, he continued, “No, I’m not here to babysit. Just wanted to check in.”

“Yea, well I guess it’s appreciated. Still haven’t decided what I’m going to do.” Val clicked her tongue in frustration and sat up. She pushed herself back up against the wall ten feet to the right of Celedon. She saw him nod out of the corner of her eye.

“Take your time with this one. This might be the single most important decision of your life,” he said seriously.

“Can I ask you something?” Val turned her head towards him to better gauge his reactions.

He shrugged. “Fire away. That’s why I came, after all.”

“Why are you so invested in this? I mean, I get that you’ve been training Fynn and I over the past year, but you have an entire Guild to run. It seems a little out of proportion to dump so much time and effort over the fate of a single Defect.”

With Rez’s help, Val caught a slight wince at her question. He glanced at her and sighed, seeming to deflate a little bit. He crossed his arms and stared back up at the sky. The silence seemed to stretch on, and Val started to think he wasn’t going to answer when he spoke up.

“I know I do a terrible job showing it, but I do really care about you and Fynn. And all the other trainees I oversee. You all are the future of the Guilds, and it’s my job to make sure you have long, productive careers.”

He paused to collect his thoughts. “As a Scout, you see some real monsters out there.” He gestured out into the forest surrounding Peakpoint. “Maybe that’s why I’m so tough on all of you. It’s annoying when I trip you going down the stairs into the arena. It’s deadly when that happens to you out there. No second chances.”

Val leaned her head back against the wall, looking out past the ruined edge of the city. She’d gone out on small expeditions into the wilderness, but it had already been relatively safe – in regions already cleared by Scouts, and never out of contact with the city. It scared her, knowing how much was out there that could kill her in a moment. And yet… spending her entire life trapped in this small pocket of reclaimed buildings and letting others fight on the front line didn’t seem right to her.

Celedon’s chuckle brought her back to the present. She frowned, looking at him suspiciously. “What are you laughing about now?”

He shook his head, a small smile on his lips now. “Nothing. Just… the expression you had on your face now. I can already tell you’ve made up your mind.” His smile fell suddenly, and Val shivered as a serious expression came over him. There was a gravitas in his demeanor that demanded respect from her, a hardness that he had honed over the years after surviving against the horrors of the wild.

“I admire that drive, I really do. It’s why I voted for you to have the choice. But be warned – everything you have experienced so far will have been a cakewalk compared to your new life tomorrow if you go through with this. We’ve decided on your Daemon partner. The potential you two have together is worth the risk but…” His gaze softened. “Be smart and be safe, Val. Irregulars often go on missions outside the city, so we’ll keep working together. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If I can give it to you, I will. Gaia knows you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

Without waiting for her response, he tipped backwards over the wall, quickly plummeting several floors. Val scrambled to her feet and looked over the edge but he was already gone. Clearly, he could be even stealthier than when he approached.

Sighing, she went to lay down in the center of the roof again. She found herself believing Celedon had been sincere, and it was nice to know he cared enough to check in on her. I’ve already made my decision, huh? Deep down, she knew he was right.

That didn’t stop her from spending all night staring up at the stars and second-guessing herself.

Val was still on the roof, this time watching the sun rise, when Mae came up the stairs.

“We’re ready for you in 3B.”

Val nodded. Celedon had been right after all. The bastard. The thought didn’t have quite as much bite as it would have even twenty-four hours before, though. Turning on her heel, she followed Mae down.

She had a moment of deja vu walking into a medical room with the same monitoring station and chair as the previous day’s assessment. The only difference was that Mae had replaced Kira as she went over the equipment again with a practiced hand. Steeling herself, Val sat down in the chair.

Mae finished her precheck quickly before pulling up a metal stool and taking a seat by Val’s arm. “So Celedon told me you talked last night.” Val nodded. “And that we had selected a Daemon partner for you.” Val nodded again.

“Well, everything about this is irregular, so I guess you shouldn’t be surprised that this is too. Usually, the User gets a choice in their Daemon partner. However, in this case, we had a specific request from the Daemon collective, passed on by Gaia directly.”

Val blinked at that. No one really understood how the Daemons organized themselves, but everyone agreed that Gaia stood alone at the pinnacle of digital sentience. It was Gaia that convinced the current Daemons to collaborate with humanity, but nowadays, contact from the elusive Daemon was infrequent.

“Rez has volunteered to explain the request on behalf of the collective.”

First, let me thank you for allowing me to share your mind this past day, young Valriya. Despite the hardships you will face, I remain optimistic in your promise as a powerful User.

Wow, Rez, you sure know how to flatter a girl. I’ve enjoyed having you around, but please, I’ve had enough serious conversations to last a year. Tell it to me straight.

As you wish. The Daemon we want to pair you up with is… dangerous. For you and for others. They go by Noir, and they are an expert in neural link and core manipulation. Val perked up at that. Yes, we thought that might catch your attention, but first we must discuss Noir’s situation.

Most Daemons that end up pairing with Users have some affinity and skill set that allow them to excel in combat. In particular, Users need to be able to face dangerous beasts many times stronger and faster than humans. Noir can certainly help you do that. Unfortunately, Noir is also extremely well-suited for hunting another kind of prey: other Users.

Val’s jaw dropped. I’ve never heard of any Daemons like that. Why would they even be part of the collective? That seems counterproductive to human survival.

Users are orders of magnitude stronger than regular humans. User Selection overall does an excellent job of weeding out individuals who wish others harm, but what happens when one slips through the cracks? Who better to take down a rogue User than someone who is a User themselves?

Val’s brow furrowed as she closed her mouth. She could admit there was a certain morbid logic there, but she had never considered it. It had always seemed to her that humanity had enough problems already. But then again, I guess we wouldn’t even be holed up in little cities fighting for our survival if it weren’t for the Great Singularity Wars – a prime example of humans trying to kill each other. She sighed heavily.

Alright, so you want me to pair up with an assassin Daemon. Anything else?

Yes. Due to dealing with several rogue User incidents, Noir has become slightly jaded at the prospect of pairing with a new User. Our hope is that your unique circumstance provides a more wholesome outlet for Noir’s skills than “assassination”, as you put it.

Alright, so you want me to pair up with a sulking assassin Daemon, who might use their powers for good by fixing my core instead of having to deal with shitty humans?

… Yes.

Val smirked at Rez’s apparent exasperation. Well, if there’s hope for my core, I guess that’s a risk worth taking. Turning to Mae, she said aloud, “Alright, Rez has explained the situation to me. I still want to go ahead with this.”

Mae nodded, standing up. “We figured you would agree. You should know that in the event that Noir’s unique skills are needed, those sorts of missions are typically undisclosed to the general public. Both to avoid inciting panic and for your own safety.”

Val raised an eyebrow. “I thought the point was that Noir would focus on my core instead of those sorts of things?”

“Well, I would personally love to see Noir focus on the healing aspects of their skills. But you are the one who called yourself an indispensable tool for the Council to use.” Mae shot her a glare and Val winced. “So I think you should hope for the best, but be prepared for when you are inevitably called on.”

Val sighed again. It seemed like that was all she did these days. “Alright, let’s get this transfer done.”

The transfer ended up being fairly anticlimactic. The needles and power had surged into the chair, stabilizing the connection between Val and Rez’s original server. Rez transferred their processes to the mainframe, but stayed connected to help facilitate Noir’s upload, which went just as smoothly.

The power transfer caused Val some significant discomfort, but nothing like the first time. Apparently Rez had been right: the spike in power during the first transfer was due to some of her nanosystems adjusting to service the neural link. This time, that infrastructure was already there, so it did not push her to the limit.

Unfortunately, it had been immediately apparent how disinterested Noir was in interacting with her. They had notified Val that the transfer was successful, and then that they were going to be running a full diagnostic of her nanosystems and to not bother them. She hadn’t heard a peep out of the Daemon since.

Just slightly jaded? Shaking her head, she stopped walking in front of an abandoned building. Mae had sent her coordinates to meet up with the other Defects, which had led her here to the edge of town. This area was technically part of Peakpoint, but no regular citizens lived this far out. The empty shells of buildings were more likely to be used by Guardians and Scouts as small outposts or supply stations. Which is probably exactly what this is.

Despite her best efforts, Val couldn’t find any indicators of a Guardian or Scout safe house nearby. After walking around for another ten minutes, Val threw up her hands in defeat. Noir, I know you’re busy buddy, but a little help here?

It was taking her some time to recalibrate from Rez’s signals to Noir’s, but she was pretty sure she sensed exasperation from the Daemon. A moment later, a cleverly disguised hatch hidden under a pile of rubble was highlighted in her vision.

Thanks! Channeling her inner Fynn, she even flashed a pair of thumbs up in real life. She got a wave of dismissive emotion from Noir before their awareness retreated further into her mind.

She let her hands drop as she wandered over to the pile of rubble. She was surprised to find that the access light on the hatch reacted to her contact, flashing green before a pneumatic hiss released the bolts holding the hatch locked. The door swung upwards on well-greased hinges, just clearing the chunks of clearly well-placed stone.

Inside, Val saw a short ladder into what seemed like the basement of this derelict warehouse. The hatch fell shut above her as she climbed down the ladder. Dim lights flickered on as she reached the bottom, revealing a small staging area and another door. Opening the door, more light flooded into the room and she could suddenly hear the sound of people talking, as well as a few grunts and padded impacts of sparring.

Well, time to meet the new team. Summoning her confidence, Val strode into the room.