From all the ways one could die, she never thought it would be being crashed between cogs.

The bright light shining from the walls, turning cogs beneath her feet only kept away from her by a thin floor and steel chunks of still, she could feel everything.

Rabbit didn’t struggle, or couldn’t do so, she didn’t dare to move. A prey at the pleasure of its predator. Judges still stood silent, not uttering a word. Cogs didn’t move, not easing her mind.

“Ease up, Rabby,” Bear said. Even between all the chaos, he seemed calm. His revolting scent, which she hated, suddenly gave comfort. A familiar thing to hold on to. “Just please them and it ends.”

“E-Ends?”

“Well, you see,” She couldn’t see him but was sure he just pinched away his cigarette. “It will end, in one way or another. Likely the latter, so don’t worry about it.”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“Welcome to my life,” Bear said.

“Silence,” A feminine, yet ice-cold voice echoed. Her mind hurt just by her anger as if being subjected to a command, and she stopped. Uttering words was a sin.

“Through his grace, we are reborn,” echoes chanted across the grand hall. “Answer truthfully as your life is—”

“— subject to their whim,” Bear finished. “Yeah, yeah, let’s get it over with grandma,”

Rabbit's mind came to a grinding halt.

Gears turned and cogs squeezed her from both sides. Rabbit couldn’t move, think or see. She lived for their pleasure, at their hearts' content. No right to move, to think, to exist.

“Tell us sentinel, why thoughts are sinful,” a voice, dry as a desert and stern as steel asked.

“Because it has desires?” Gears turned with the end of the sentence, her legs were bent, but not yet crushed. She wanted to shout, but couldn’t. Her mouth refused to open, and her microphone refused to make a voice.

Speaking was a sin, if not to their whim.

“Tell us Sentinel, why emotions are sinful?” A voice serene as a sea, but flimsy as a leaf in the wind spoke.

She felt her mouth open, groans, and shouts of pain wanted to go out, but they drowned by her urge to answer. “Because they are a distraction?” She was certain her answers were correct.

She grew up with a gearpriest as a mother after all.

Gears turned mercilessly, her legs were crushed, only a slither of them were left, and even then they didn’t seem without. The filaments were torn, revealing the alloy composition beneath. Cables and coolants, they were missing for some reason. One side of her was screaming, yet the other was serene. She felt stern in the face of death.

“Tell us Sentinel, why conflict is sinful?” This voice had nothing in it, no emotions, no tone. It was like it was made to be neutral.

“Because our family commanded so?” She braced for gears to turn, tore her legs off, and eventually crush her torso and head.

Yet they didn’t move.

“Tell us sentinel, why thoughts are sinful,” a voice, dry as a desert, stern as steel, and full of belief spoke.

“Because our family commanded so?”

The gears didn’t move.

It was a sadistic way of testing someone.

“Tell us Sentinel, why emotions are sinful?” Same ones who asked, the same questions came again. She answered she got thought as of now.

“Because our family commanded so?”

Gears turned and crushed her pelvis, her chest, and kept her head hanging. Sparks, pieces of steel, cables of various colors, and her internal components flew all around, but no coolant.

“Would you abandon the faith to him if it lets you live?”

She felt like normally she should scream, say something, anything to get out. But she felt truthful, she felt serene, she felt stern. She was a sinful flesh, only worthy of penance. She was free of thoughts, free of will, and with inner peace.

“We live and die for the greater good, to reach the Evergarden.”

Gears crushed her, and her body was no more.

But the consciousness of Rabbit hung onto a small part, a light blue orb.

She didn’t have hears, but she heard the thud of an orb falling down the gears beneath.

She had no eyes, but she saw the orb felling further to a now removed floor, towards the bottomless pith of gears.

She had no nose, but she could smell the flowers, all growing around the gears. The crimson tone they had was like blood and flesh mixed apart. She wondered if one day she would learn what blood is.

She felt the cold and emptiness beneath her.

Finally, she could taste freedom and it was bitter.

***

Doors slid upon as they welcomed their master.

Frankly, if it wasn’t for Forty-one’s obsession, Entice would’ve had him here, at her favorite place by now.

But, sadly, apart from the panel within the house, he wouldn’t be interested in anything inside, herself included.

She sighed, ignoring her ‘mother's’ wide-open eyes, trying to showcase her anger. Frankly, she reminded Entice of a goldfish about to drown.

“Where you have been miss?” She asked, sitting in her place, bubbling something. Entice actually had trouble remembering her name. Forty-one handled that part at least.

Also, they weren’t her parents. She didn’t have parents. Her memories of childhood were a lie prefab, more so it was made with a budget, that part was sure. He and Forty-two had eerily similar memories.

“Whatever, I will be in my room,” Entice murmured. Her mom went on and on, but frankly, her mother's voice was drowned out within her mind.

Her mind was on something else, what to wear on their date. Life was already a repeating hell, might as well get the most fun out of it, she only had to make others believe in it too, rest would be much better.

She walked down the hallway, filled with pictures of fake memories. Her graduation from a university she didn’t remember, her family standing in front of a lake, surrounded by mountains. Her family was in a picturesque holiday spot where there were mountains reminiscent of pillars.

All were fake memories, yet she wondered if these places actually exist. How does the outside world be? Barren wasteland? Clear blue skies?

You can never hold on

Thinking of such stuff gave her headaches, no need to ponder about it. First, pick a dress. She didn’t care what Forty-one would think but cared what would make her feel comfortable.

Okay, she cared little about his opinion.

Her belly dancer suit was a no-go, and frankly, it felt like an insult. Her name already suggested how they perceived her and she won’t play into their hands.

As she got inside her room, she slammed the door shut behind her back.

The room’s colors were reminiscent of a murder scene, well, at least whoever made it actually cared for her tastes, she could almost forget them going in budget with her memories. Almost.

White and red, not much else was there worth mentioning apart from a dressing wardrobe covering two walls, which was no small thing considering the size of her room.

She walked down the second cabinet, supposedly her dress before her growth sprouted. Drones don’t grow but never mind that. She opened there and checked for dresses. Daughter’s dress would be likely ruined by the time they reached Glitter City, so might as well pick a spare for her friend.

There was some rumbling at the other side of the door, but frankly, it wasn’t important as picking a dress. She would likely check the console at home, but frankly not much was left to do there. Forty-one tried to tinker with it, but all they got were basic files and nothing more.

Yet as she made her way towards picking a dress, a muffled beeping sound emanated within the house.

An alarm?

She hoped her mom didn’t set the house on fire. She dropped what she had on top of the cherry red bed and walked down the hallway, but as she was coming towards the hall, the sound itself grew louder, it was coming from a metal door, locked with her family's insignia. The panel of the house.

”A divergence, huh, my smart cookie is finding new ways to amuse me,” she pressed the middle of her family insignia, two red circles intertwined with each other, forming an eye. When her hand touched where the iris should be, the cold steel door warmed up and came to life. The newly formed eye blinked once, scanning her credentials.

In a moment, the door released pressure within the door, opening while releasing white fumes.

The room itself had nothing apart from unpainted concrete walls and a glass screen on the wall opposite the door. Usually, it should’ve been closed but the screen was flashing red, and a hoarse voice was consistently filling the room. As if Panel dedicated itself to being as obnoxious as possible, being impossible to ignore.

Entice closed her ears by instinct, gritting her teeth. She felt her leg loosen and arms drop as she read the message written on the screen.

Project A.E.G.E.U.S. breach, drone ‘Deus’ has been released

Her eyes were wide open and her breath was shallow, not again, not him.

***

With each step they took, Forty-two wondered where their path went.

This tunnel was a first for him, the Daughter, and even the tower escape enthusiast walking ahead of both.

He wanted to annoy, tease or do anything to make Forty-one come out of his self-declared crusade, but frankly after fifty minutes spend inside the tunnel, he couldn’t have cared less.

He couldn’t see what lay in front or behind them, fifty minutes of darkness. Worst of all the tunnel itself wasn’t linear. It spiraled, sometimes sloped, and always went downwards.

He more or less knew they were traveling down the tower, but the exact shape or the composition was unknown to him.

In all manner, he had no idea what was in front of him, only dark shades with the occasional glint of gray strands of hair.

Daughter was holding his hand firmly and guiding his path. Or so she told, he believed she had ulterior motives, but what was the point of it all? He had to bore her into letting him go, that was all there is to it. He didn’t have the strength or will to push through this hell again and again. And even if he wanted to, was there any point?

In any way, there was one thing that made him annoyed further.

“Hey, tower enthusiast.”

“Please keep using that name,” Daughter said, grasping his hand tighter. It didn’t hurt, really.

“What?” Forty-one said in the most android voice possible.

“Entice also has night vision, right?”

“Yes?”

“Why do you never bother giving me one?” Forty-two complained. “I mean, I get it I can’t fight or be of use, but I wouldn’t mind having a super body. Also, wouldn’t it make your ‘fail safe’ plan easier?”

“I can’t change your body, any single part of it,” Forty-one said. “You might be the baseline for the pre-set used in others, I guess. I’m not entirely sure of how the general system works in the tower. For that… there is something we have to beat.”

“What is it?”

His question was left answered as Forty-one and Daughter both suddenly stopped in their tracks, leaving him hitting his brick wall girlfriend.

“That’s a story for another time. Well, we are here. Still, I wished Entice told me about this place sooner, I think we skipped an entire district.”

As the hatch opened, sounds of cars whizzing, the endless buzzing of people, and ever-shifting glamorous lights slipped inside. His optics yearned for anything other than darkness, so it was a welcome development.

Forty-one half climbed out of the ladders in front of them, yet he seemed hesitant to cover the rest.

“Take in the view later, cog head. Now, move,” Daughter shouted, dragging Forty-one’s trousers.

“Would it be better if…” Forty-one said, yet Daughter didn’t seem to be in a mood to bother.

“No, now get out or I will make you get out.”

“Remember, you insisted,” Forty-one climbed out of the latch as he said these words.

Daughter followed and he waited until she got out, Forty-two waited out of adequate behavior, she was wearing a dress after all.

When she was out, there was an eerie silence. Forty-two climbed up to welcome the new death that awaited him in this city, he at least hoped it would be a quick and unique one. Even in despair, it was getting more and more boring in recent times.

Yet when he got up, it seemed like old news, but in a new form.

They were in the backstreets of Glitter city, in an alleyway next to one of its lively roads. There were shops with neon lights, restaurants, bars, cafes, and all amenities one could imagine for. Apart from an affordable kebab shop, which was a lifesaver for him as Daughter wasn’t amused at that one time.

But all didn’t matter or had to. What mattered between all those high-rise buildings was giant electronic billboards hanging from them.

Today’s news was three fugitives caught in a border district in an illegal tech shop. All three fugitives were beheaded and their heads were taken for examination.

The first fugitive was white as a pearl.

The second was flamboyant as a swan

And the last one was a man lacking eyes.

Daughter held Forty-one by the collar and hit him to the nearby wall, the brick wall behind collapsed inside, but managed to say in formation.

“You knew?” She shouted. “You sent them to their death and didn’t even blink an eye.”

Forty-one held her hands and loosened her grip, he didn’t seem fazed or surprised. He seemed genuine, without motion or hesitation. “I said I will save all three of you,” he said, dusting off his shirt. “Anyone else is collateral damage as far as I’m concerned.