“…Magnum.”

  “Magnum.”

  “Magnum, wake up!”

  “Ah, Lotus, why wake me up by shaking me like that?”

  “Come to the kitchen.”

  “Just another 15 minutes.” I covered myself under the blankets.

  “It's almost one in the afternoon.”

  “Okay, I'll get up.”

  Standing up (almost falling asleep on the floor during the process), I stumbled all the way to the kitchen, collapsing onto the table.

  "Magnum," Lotus called to me, "something happened. You…"

  "Yes," I interrupted, "Kassidy is still imprisoned; I admit Tsundora scares me."

  "No, that's not it." She put the coffee cup in the sink. "I know you're not a morning person, but you never sleep until after noon, even when you get home late."

  I remained silent; there was nothing to argue about.

  "I can see the dark circles under your eyes, and I also found more holes in the clothes you left on the chair." She crossed her arms. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

  “...Look, I was already getting desperate while I was on my way to HQ, then that damn Kobalt came along and got in my way when I was already in front of the gate. Obviously, I was pissed; I had to rescue that idiot Leona, but he wasn't going to let me pass without a fight.” I ate a cookie.

  “We fought for a while until I don't know what happened, but I started hearing a distorted version of my own voice, and then my vision turned red and more spikes erupted; even from my fingers. Obviously, Kobalt, valuing his life, ran away, and I quickly calmed down before I could kill someone, although I was still angry (I was just holding back). But I had fallen to my knees, overcome by a wave of exhaustion. That's why I couldn't help Leona until you hired Kobalt. Thanks, by the way.”

  "You're welcome." Lotus gave a slight smile, but her face hardened immediately afterward. "And as for that, I can't really explain what it is. It's been a while, I won't remember the more technical aspects about the Cogs (nor do I want to)."

  “But you managed to run a diagnosis as if it were routine after one of my arguments with Kassidy. What's stopping you now?”

  "The thing is, Hideaki was a prototype; Machina may have changed a lot of things in the Cogs' morphology since then. Not to mention that you can't afford to rest when you have a target on your head. I would have to analyze a different system, and by the time that I get results, Tsundora will already be knocking on the door."

  I went to get something else to eat from the cupboard:

  “Look, I have not just one, but two things that want me dead.”

  "What did you say?" She adjusted her glasses.

  "You know when I was chasing after Hideaki? We ended up going to Facility Omega, but we didn't go very far down. When Kassidy knocked him out, Hideaki reported to me that he had intercepted a Cog that said something about registering me as a top priority."

  Lotus stared at me, paralyzed.

  "That's right, Machina is dedicating an entire project to destroying me." I gave a tired laugh. "Oh, history just repeats itself! First they made Hideaki to kill the beasts, then they made Divine to correct the mistakes in Hideaki's creation, and now they're creating something to kill me because I've become more powerful than they expected!" My head fell onto the table as I broke down in tears. "Why?! Is it so hard to understand that I don't mean harm?!" I slammed my hand on the table. "It's Kassidy, it's Tsundora, it's Machina. Even the least guilty have attacked me; Hideaki, Kobalt, Earth-Eater…"

  Then it continued, me soaking the tablecloth as Lotus processed everything I said.

  …Until someone knocked on the door.

  "Come in, Tsundora! Kill me!" I yelled.

  The door opened.

  "What's going on here?" Divine's voice came from the entrance.

  “Don't look at me!”

  "Magnum?" They addressed Lotus.

  “I-I…” She fell silent again.

  "Okay, I'll wait for you to calm down." They leaned against the door.

  A few minutes later, I finally managed to calm down enough to be able to speak coherently.

  "Divine, what are you doing here?" They were wearing different clothes than the last time I saw them; now wearing a gothic dress.

  “Strange things happened yesterday; I now share residence, I managed to register two more core signatures, and I detected a wave of energy at night. I never leave the den, but there were too many events for me not to check out; at least I now have someone to take care of the garden in my absence.”

  "So I'm not the only one wanting to know what that was. Not even Lotus knows what it was. Hideaki is effectively dead," Divine seemed slightly offended when I said this, "there's no way that could have been his doing."

  “So the wave originated from you?”

  “Yeah, I was already stressed out going to help an ally, and then some shithead got in the way. That's when I ended up having a fit of rage and turned into a freak.”

  “You don't need to tell me anymore, I already know what happened; Cogexistence."

  I tilted my head, confused.

  “You've experienced this before, when Hideaki, our brother, took over your body; he imposed his core onto yours. I'd love to stay here, but I don't want to be seen out on the streets.”

  "Don't you dare associate us with that maniac!" I growled. "And I don't have time to travel all the way to your cabin. Sorry."

  "It's good to see you know how to set your boundaries." They replied, nonchalantly.

  "Divine," Lotus called, "don't you know of another quiet place here in the Central District?"

  They had a slight apprehension:

  “…It does, but I don't know if you two will like it; especially you, Lotus. Facility Mu; my deplorable birthplace.

  Lotus remained silent.

  "Fine," I shrugged, "what's another visit to a facility? The last time I reported something I found at one of them to Lotus, she addressed the subject like a surgeon… until she broke down, but that's beside the point.”

  I turned to Lotus:

  “Are you coming?”

  After a moment of thought, she replied, somberly:

  “Yes, although I don't want to. It has become obvious that there is no way to achieve peace without facing the problem head on.”

  “Okay then. You can go ahead, Divine.”

  "Don't take this the wrong way, but are you really going out like that?" They pointed at me; I hadn't changed out of my pajamas yet.

  “Oh, crap. I'm going to my room, I'll be right back.”

  So, after rummaging through my closet (which must be getting emptier and emptier with all those holes from my spikes), I decided to try on a cold shoulder hoodie and pants. A haircut would do me well, but I don't have time right now.

  “Now that's better.” I went back to the room. “Let's go.”

  Leaving home, we took an unexpected direction; to the right, towards the industrial area.

  I usually start on the left or straight ahead, the Brigade is in a more spread-out area to the left, with the Order being about a kilometer away from it.

  The front of the building faces the center, where the shops are located (which, to me, only means Steel's bar) and the now ruined stadium.

  The last few times I'd gone to the right were to break into the other three facilities and catch the train to the plains.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  In retrospect, I'm surprised someone hasn't already launched an invasion of the industrial area; most of Machina's facilities are in that region, except for headquarters. I've seen people theorizing that it's some building downtown, but those people were usually high. Anyway, Tsundora is still busy with my head, the Order won't do anything about it anytime soon.

  Looking more closely (especially since Divine isn't in a hurry), it's almost depressing here; several immense factories, some in better condition than others, all painted in some variation of gray, blending into the cloudy sky mixed with pollutants — I'll never complain about the city center again.

  While I was daydreaming, I bumped into Divine when they stopped.

  "We're here." They stepped back slightly after looking around for a second. "It's more ruined than I remember leaving it. Do I see smoke over there?"

  “I didn't hear that wrong, did I?” My heart stopped. “Is someone here? But I don't feel any tingling!”

  “Someone was. The flame is recent, but I don't see anyone either.”

  "Don't tell me the Order has started using firearms," Lotus said, worried.

  “I was literally there yesterday and didn't see a single gun, it can't be.”

  “Come on,” Divine continued, “one way or another we’ll be safer inside than we are out in the open.” They said as they dragged us inside.

  Entering Mu, it was already more advanced than Lambda and Theta, but still nowhere close to Omega. Mu had several monitors on the walls, serving as journal entries, monitoring panels, access keys—or at least that was the case before the incident here, as most had a cut running from end to end, and the same applied to the doors, rendering the access keys useless.

  "I didn't want any of this to be further known." Divine said grimly. "I ask that you prepare yourselves. What comes next will not be pleasant."

  And as we passed through the gate frame, what we saw was truly gut-wrenching—crackling fire, corpses reduced to ashes, melted plastic. Lotus had to hold back from vomiting, and Divine seemed very disturbed.

  “…What?” They gasped. “I… I don’t remember causing all this. Yes, I decapitated the employees here and cut computers in half… but this? What’s the point? They were all dead already, the most they’d find is some well-hidden rat.”

  "Rat…" I started to think. "I might be mistaken, but they're seen as pests, just like we are by organizations like the Order and Machina… I'll think about it later.” I went ahead. "Let's just go somewhere less… fiery."

  Moving on to the next room, it was in better condition; whoever attacked must have given up early. Now there were loose heads, stains of blood, empty containment tubes, and shredded papers.

  "Aetherius," Lotus called to him uncertainly, "you don't plan on doing something like this again, do you? Especially considering that I…"

  “Don't worry, it was the only time I've done something on that scale. And people like you and the bartender are safe; they had the common sense to realize what they were doing and quit their jobs.”

  “But we… we contributed to all of this… he helped with the upkeep of the animals and I… I led the first humanoid!”

  "But do you still pursue this career?" Divine looked at Lotus. "Do I still massacre entire teams? No. The past exists and cannot be changed, that's a fact. But it alone shouldn't define us; it should serve as an example. And besides, it's already clear that you regret it. You can rest easy, I won't hurt you."

  So then what am I doing wrong? One of them orchestrated my nightmare, and the other has already murdered an entire team of people, yet they still manage to find peace afterward. All I did was fail to prevent someone's death! What's wrong with me? Why can't I let this go?!

  "Is everything alright there, Magnum?" Lotus asked me. "You seem a little disconcerted."

  “Yes, yes. Uhh… Divine, weren't you going to say something about this ‘Cogexistence’ thing?”

  "Ah, yes, pardon me." They bowed apologetically. "I got a little distracted by the destruction and your sister's question."

  Divine cleared their throat:

  “Well, from the very beginning, all Cogs have possessed something called a ‘core,’ a component that holds the essence of a Cog. We all have one; even mass-produced ones like you and Kobalt.”

  They approached a diagram of a dragonfly's body:

  “What is not immediately clear, however, is that each one harbors a secret. We are all capable of transforming ourselves when affected by specific emotions or desires, which vary between individuals, leading to cogexistence. I, for example, change when something prevents me from obtaining peace or compromises the future. All our cores are based on some kind of arthropod, just as animals were.”

  "Strange," I kicked a pebble, "Every time I saw Hideaki, he had spider legs, as if he was always transformed."

  "Ah," Lotus exclaimed, "that was due to a jailbreak in his programming, allowing him to access Cogexistence with less intense emotions."

  "He was consumed by hatred at the end of his life too, Lotus," I added.

  “Wait! Magnum, I think I know what you absorbed from Hideaki; his jailbreak!”

  “That could very well be it,” Divine continued, “but the way she put it, she still had to experience intense emotions to transform. I suppose they increased the safeguards on the mass-produced units, and Hideaki’s jailbreak acts as a kind of ‘key.’”

  “But Divine, at no point did I see Hideaki become exhausted, while I had entered a state of Cogexistence for a few seconds and was overcome by emptiness upon returning to normal. Something's wrong here.”

  “Did anything besides additional spikes sprout from your body?”

  “No.”

  “So what you accessed was a sample. It was imperfect; raw, uncontrolled, and exhausting. True Cogexistence has a purpose; the imperfect transformation was the result of an excess of raw emotion. That is the potential I mentioned earlier in my den.”

  “Can you give me an example of that?”

  “Well, we have Hideaki; he was not only consumed by hatred, but he was also channeling it with the purpose of annihilating everything in his path. In a vacuum, his power was immense, but compared to us at our peak, Hideaki is a bit weaker, being the first draft.”

  "I think I understand," I yawned, bored, "is there anything else you'd like to tell us?" Knowing what we're capable of is good, but there comes a point when it starts to get boring, just like Lotus’ books.

  "Well, if we go down a little further, there's a place I really wanted you to see, Cacto." Divine walked to the next door, stopping to look at Lotus. "Magnum, I know that you don't feel comfortable here, what's beyond this gate, although not bloody, is not beautiful at all. You can leave if you so desire."

  "I'll stay here in the room, Aetherius." She sat down on a stool. "Thank you."

  "Take care." They smiled slightly before turning to me. "Come, sister."

  Passing through what was once a door, we descended another corridor. It went deeper and deeper, as if we were entering buried memories. And the comparison made sense once we entered the next room; it was a huge containment chamber, where only the Divine could be contained. There were still some toys scattered on the floor, now faded and dusty.

  “Memories of better, more peaceful times,” Divine began, “when I hadn’t been affected by trauma. Free, joyful, innocent.” They turned to me. “Familiar, is it not? Do you know how old I was when I became this?”

  “…No.” I replied hesitantly.

  “Thirteen years. It took me a few more months to get used to this new body. And that's with my enhanced intellect; I've seen others take up to a year to comprehend, if they even lived that long. And you transformed last week, didn't you?”

  “Yep.”

  “Cacto, I imagine you've also lost several things since Cogfication. Or even before that, since you had lived more of your previous life up to that point. Pleasures, free time, tranquility, or even…”

  “People.” I interrupted them, falling to my knees. "My boyfriend, Thomas. He was the best person I've ever had the pleasure of knowing." I began to tremble, my hands on the floor. “But he was ripped from me. And I couldn't do any-thing.”

  I then crashed to the ground and began to cry:

  “Obviously, not wanting this to happen again, I decided to turn into a damn Cog!” I slammed my fist, yelling. “And now? Half the world wants me dead! Because of the screw-ups of an idiot who came way before me! Because they can't understand what we want!”

  Divine remained quiet while I soaked the floor, until they said:

  “Look, I know this probably isn't very comforting right now, but I wanted you to think about this with me: if Thomas saw you now, what do you think he would think of you?”

  “Someone who threw their life away for a lost cause!” I yelled.

  “What if he felt pride? Proud of how much you dedicated and risked yourself for his memory?”

  “That's a lie! Even if he never lied before. But…” I sobbed, “…I just know it would be a lie! It can't be true!"

  “Is there anyone else that matters to you?”

  “Lotus doesn't need me. And Kassidy… Kassidy… he's far beyond my reach. There's nothing I can do about it. And what would I do? What's stopping him from slashing me again?”

  After some time, crying in the silence of the room, I began to think about my journey, from the beginning:

  As I was heading for the elevator at the tournament finals, I caught a glimpse of Lotus drowning in tears, overcome with fear of what would happen to me, knowing firsthand what the Cogs are capable of, watching me after she had done everything to steer me away from this path.

  Kassidy, even though he was convinced until then, managed to put that aside to rescue me at Facility Omega against Hideaki. He finally allowed that tough-guy facade of his to crack near me. He recognized when I had nothing I could do and didn't blame me for it.

  Kenji, Saul, Leona, Divine, and Steel—they all accept me as I am.

  "Have you even tried to challenge the barrier between you and Kassidy?" Divine brought me back to reality.

  “N… No. Have you seen how she fights? How she stares? She managed to disarm Kassidy in a matter of seconds!”

  "You've fought threats of this caliber before; Kassidy, Hideaki, Kobalt, and now Tsundora. All your opponents were on your level; this case is no different. Believe me, if any of them were up against me, they'd already be dead."

  "That's kind of strange coming from you (I can't picture them hurting even a fly), but okay." I stood up, turning to look at Divine confidently. “I'm capable. I can do it! And if I don't succeed the first time, I'll try again! I'll keep going until I become someone who deserves to be admired! I may not be perfect, but I can do it!"

  Divine smiled:

  “You're a joy to watch! I love your passion. If you have even more conviction about it, you'll go very, very far!”

  “Now I'm motivated! Let's get out of here!”

  So we went out the door, calling Lotus, who seemed to have noticed the relief on my face.

  However, as I walked up the corridors, the back of my neck tingled, intensifying with each step I took. But I don't care about who it may be; Tsundora, Kobalt, Machina’s project, whoever it is, they won’t stand a chance against me—

  …

  Kassidy?