Harmony and Dancer present Mickey the Carver with a dangerous commission: transform Darrow into a convincing Gold. Mickey dismisses the idea as impossible and ridicules Darrow, listing hard barriers—DNA checks, cerebral datachips tied to caste, subdermal skull markings, synapse linkage, molecular bonding, tracking, oversight, and the psychological toll. He argues that even a perfect body cannot create a Gold’s mind.

When Mickey recognizes Darrow from the viral whipping, he accuses Dancer of crafting a messiah. Dancer confirms the audacious plan: Darrow will enter the Institute, rise to the Peerless Scarred, and ultimately command power for the Cause—not as a lesser Bronze or idle Pixie, but as a true apex Gold.

Mickey calls them mad, warning that Golds are monsters forged by the Conquering and that the Institute is a brutal culling ground where Darrow will die. In response, Darrow silently takes Mickey’s complex cube and, drawing on helldiver precision and the dexterity honed by dance, rapidly solves successive configurations, even as the device reconfigures into a circle with new puzzles.

The demonstration unsettles Mickey, shifting his certainty from “impossible” to awed disbelief. Harmony frames Darrow’s skill as evolution. With his skepticism shaken, Mickey allows the conversation to move to price, signaling a reluctant willingness to attempt the transformation.