Zim stares me down, clearly surprised before gesturing to a doorway on the right side of the room. “Well, Adam, we need you to ‘remember’ what you need to know, and we will also partner you up with Agin to give you a headstart.” I cock my head to the side with a curious gaze, “Agin? Who’s that?” Zim laughs and gestures to the chair in the middle of the room we’re about to enter.

“Take a seat.” It’s not built for comfort, no leather of any kind, it’s purely built for function, bulky even, which is a rather abstract concept compared to the rest of the place which is so smooth and streamlined. When I sit down it doesn’t feel quite nice either, in fact it feels worse than it looked. “Not very comfortable.” I point out to Zim, who has moved over to a nearby computer and is performing work on it. Without looking up from their work Zim responds with a hint of apprehension in their voice, “Comfort? You can feel the chair?”

It hits me in that moment, the feel of the ground beneath my feet, heck even the feeling of my feet, it hasn’t felt quite right. Is it just my brain trying to make things easier for me? Do I even have a brain anymore? The computer lets out a resounding beep as Zim turns away from it, clearly done with whatever they were preparing, but it’s at that point the restraints emerge from the sides of the arms and legs of the chair. “What the HELL is this!?”

“Some of those we gather from outside are less co-operative with the procedure.” Zim provides in their monotonous voice. “So what, you lied to me? Why? What do you get out of this?”

“That is not for you to know. A.G.I.N. begin the process.”

“NCT Initiated, attempt 1…” A silence dawns on the room as everyone eagerly awaits Agin’s results but a frown forms on Zim’s face when they hear what Agin has to say. “Attempt 1 unsuccessful, password protection must first be bypassed.” Zim seems to frown harder as they look me up and down.

“Have you not heard of a password before?” I ask. “We have, what I’m curious about is why Agin would even need a password to acquire your files, let alone the fact that all of us have the same password. If he tried that as well-'' Agin cuts Zim off, “I did.” Zim looks at me again before deciding what to say. “Attempt to access his files again, even just his system this time, anything.”

“NCT Initiated, attempt 2…”

The silence dawns once again as we await the results, and this time I feel something uncomfortable, like a slight throb throughout my entire brain. Not painful but still alarming, and sudden enough to make me wince. “Attempt 2 is a failure, I was not able to retrieve anything from the subject, the entire system is passcode protected.”

Zim is clearly not unhappy, instead they seem to find this particularly interesting. “Can you brute force it?” Zim asks. “If I brute force it I’m afraid the passcode will begin changing, perhaps it already is. As the processing unit is less powerful than mine I should be able to brute force it, but the level of protection it warrants is unseen. Either we get the password, or we need the subject to allow us in, both of which require the subject's co-operation.” Zim paces around the room, clearly unhappy with this particular result.

“Attempt again.” Zim says, this time sharper than before. “If I attempt to access the system again it is possible that-'' Zim looks apprehensively towards a small sphere in the upper right corner of the room, “Do it.”

This time my reaction is instant, I snap my head backwards as a spike of pain shoots throughout my body, This hurts far more than artillery, is the last coherent thought I manage to get out before losing all meaningful form of thought. It feels as though it lasted forever, but I know it only lasted almost exactly three minutes, somehow. Then the pain is gone and I hear it, a shriek from Agin, followed by complaints from Zim. “Agin! Agin! Respond damnit!” The only response Zim gets is one of silence.

Zim turns to the computer again, this time typing furiously, smashing the keys as though they had killed their family and destroyed their home. When the screen flashes red they freeze and when I read the text, I immediately understand why. In giant bold letters, the screen reads ''

Zim mutters under their breath, “He’s never gone offline before, it’s impossible…” Zim seems to come to a realisation as they type something else into the computer, and this time Zim is the one to scream. “What happened?” I ask tenderly. “He’s gone, his files, all of them, they’re all gone! It’s impossible unless someone has a direct connection and the only one-”

Zim looks at me then, and I see it in their cameras, visible through the two holes in their faceplate. Pure, unbridled, rage is channelled directly into their voice as they scream in disbelief “YOU! YOU DID THIS! YOU PRETENDED TO BE INNOCENT! THEY SENT YOU!” Zim screams at me relentlessly with their rhetorical questions.

“Who? I wasn’t sent by anyone! I swear I have no idea what is going on, you have to understand-'' But Zim carries on, cutting me off mid sentence, “Liar! WHERE IS HE!? WHERE DID YOU PUT HIM!?” I stare at Zim, confusion written all over my face, or at least it would be if I had one. Then I hear another voice, and although Zim doesn’t react I hear it loud and clear, ‘AGIN Booting’.

"He's fine! He's fine! He just said he's booting!"

Zim is silenced immediately, their blank metal slate of a face locked in place, and their 'eyes' flit around the ceiling for a brief moment before locking onto me.

For a time it seems like Zim might never respond, but when they do, they appear quite shaken. "You… You… You didn't delete him? You… stole him? Everything to do with him? His ENTIRE SYSTEM?!"

Zims voice rises as they speak before breaking out into a crescendo of laughter. "You who sits before me restrained, with such a PUNY PROCESSOR, stole the most advanced ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE NETWORK to possibly exist, an entire NETWORK!"