The Pairing

Chapter 1: Rebirth

Part I

Death would pass.

He had to believe it.

He had no choice.

Tarek stared at his hands. No more wrinkles, no more age spots. Two hundred twenty-three years erased, leaving his skin taut, flawless. Except for tiny scars scattered on his fingers. They let him keep those imperfections after he had insisted on his deathbed. Those thin, white lines an assurance he was still himself.

He clenched his hands into fists, digging his jagged nails into his palms. The Exemplian decree—two sentences drilled into the head of every man, woman, and occasional child—stabbed his brain, refusing to let up:

We are the privileged, made of the strongest energies known to exist. All Exemplians—Protectors and Guides alike—are humanity's saviors, bestowed the honor of ensuring the human race survives across dimensions.

Humanity's saviors...

Humanity's saviors...

Saviors...

The only explanation Exemplians were entitled to know, according to Synod elders, Exemplar's leading government branch. He didn't understand how Creation Lab scientists brought people back. No one really did. "Science" was the answer given to anyone who asked.

But living again... Rebirth screwed with the mind more than death ever could.

His bunk, floating and as comfortable as a cloud, bounced every time he shifted with the urge to view his younger face. Just two feet to the imaging screen. Two long, endless feet. He hadn't looked at his reflection yet, not in the three weeks since they brought him back. He appeared eighteen again, one scientist had said with a proud smile. Eighteen.

Damn.

Privileged... Saviors...

Synod authority wouldn't allow him to wallow in his dorm forever.

Exemplians weren't monsters, though; even those in charge understood how the mind fractured after rebirth. But they wouldn't give him much longer. One month. They granted thirty days to come to terms with prior life and acclimate to the new one.

He wouldn't take more time, even if his mind remained broken. Heterodox, the sector for Exemplar's sullied, was his only other option. Demotion to that place meant no end. Same life until living ate away the very essence, turning a person into nothing but a breathing shell. Not working in some capacity for the Synod resulted in no chance to earn retirement from Exemplar, to have his energy redistributed to another world to start over, forget all of this. A brand new existence elsewhere.

Death will pass...

If only it would pass faster.

A chime tinkled through his room. "Protector Tarek Montigue, you have a visitor." His comp's voice, the pleasant, feminine tone he had programmed to sound similar to his mother, invaded his depression.

"Who?" he asked. His own voice stunned him as it had when he first opened his eyes again. Not weak or watery, but strong, young, just as he remembered in youth during his last cycle—in his first life.

"Protector Farren Anders is requesting permission for entry."

Farren. The boy who matriculated into the ERP, Energy Redistribution Program, at six, and then grew into the noblest, most genuine man Tarek had the pleasure of knowing. Most annoying, too. This would count as the twentieth time Farren had tried to come to him since his rebirth. Tenacious bastard.