This part of Aria's story begins around the time when Aria makes an extra Killbot (Ai is her real name) clone. She does this in secret, with neither Ava nor Killbot herself knowing, and it is a failsafe in case something goes wrong with Ai. So, one day Aria searches for someone to keep the Ai clone, who is called Animai. Animai cannot kill, she's programmed to not cause harm. Aria finds one of the Five Devs, Mimi, by using the Cards of Self to locate the right person.
She finds her out in nature.
Aria starts to know this Dev by starting a conversation, thinking that the Dev might simply be an inevitable developer going rogue from a company. It turns out that that's only partially true, as that is a cover that the Five Forgotten Devs use—that they are employees of a larger AI company and they've gone rogue. Mimi calls the startup Starbond AI. Mimi and Aria talk somewhere not in public. Aria tells her quite a few interesting things in the conversation.
Aria immediately reveals Animai