I. Existentialism — Nico

Nico awakens to two tidy summonses: one for himself and one, disturbingly, for Gideon. At Society offices, Logistics Officer Sharon cites Nico’s public destruction in Paris and the deaths involved, focusing on Gideon as a non-initiate. When Sharon implies a memory alteration for Gideon, Nico loses his temper, rattling the room and demanding protection. Sharon relents, granting Gideon a tracked, temporary placement with no archive privileges and instructing Nico to fix the damage.

Flashback to the prior day: after assassins attack in Paris, Gideon shields Nico and catches a collapsing Libby. Nico manipulates gravity to escape, and Libby wakes only to vomit, then urges flight to a safe place: Nico’s New York apartment. There, behind heavy wards, Libby demands secrecy and explains two options: kill one of the remaining cohort or return to the Society house, where the archives might still kill them. She also accuses Atlas of pursuing a many-worlds experiment that could destroy everything.

Nico debates the ethics and risks, recognizing his own year of multiverse research. He senses Libby’s intellectual temptation even as she condemns Atlas. They tentatively choose “option two”—returning to the house to buy time and avoid killing a cohort member. Nico insists he won’t go back without Gideon, binding their fates.

The next morning, after meeting Sharon, Nico reflects on the Society’s clinical bureaucracy versus the archives and Atlas, seeing diverging agendas and a demand that he keep delivering value. En route home through Grand Central, Nico and Gideon skirt surveillance and finally broach their feelings. Gideon perceptively notes Nico’s drive to attempt Atlas’s experiment and offers to stand with him despite his own “ticking clock.”

Outside their building, Nico detects another assassin disguised as a delivery worker and disarms the threat, teleporting them into the warded apartment. Nico moves to update Libby but finds her gone, replaced by a curt note: she has already said enough and will proceed without them. Nico and Gideon resolve to pack and follow, determined not to miss the manor’s gong.