Emotions are hard.

–Everyone at some point

That is the only definitive conclusion I can draw after having gone through all the facts. Even now, when everyone else has gone to sleep, I still struggle with the concept of all the pain. Why was pain necessary? What even was the point? Why hurt the children, my children? What was the purpose of it all?

My thoughts keep spinning this same, useless, cycle as I walk from corner to corner in the hidden room I have created inside of our mind palace. It is decorated with all kinds of machines and lights that do nothing more than look pretty, the occasional beeping noise even giving the illusion that the machines are alive.

Still, however, I come to the same conclusions. There is no reason behind it, just humans being human.

That answer was, however, something I did not like. My sisters are human, so are their lovers, and they would never do something like this, so it is not entirely the human part that makes things evil. That felt like the right word for it: evil.

“Crow, what in the name of Cierra’s perfect ass are you doing?” Maniac asks as she walks into my little hidden room.

“Thinking,” I answer.

“And do you need to do that while hunching on the side of the desk like some kind of vulture?” Maniac asks with some gesturing.

“This is my thinking pose. I use it to think,” I explain to my sister.

“Right, fuck, I guess that is fine then, just be careful not to do that in the real world, okay.” Maniac asks.

“Why?” I ask, feeling a bit confused. I am not taking up much space like this, so I should not be in the way of anyone.

“Because gravity is a thing there, and you are going to smash our face into the floor if you sit like that,” Maniac explains.

“Don’t worry, I have good balance,” I say with what I hope is a reassuring smile.

“Sure, but the table doesn’t, and as soon as that flips over, you fall, good balance or not.”

“Can’t we bolt down the table to prevent that?” I ask honestly, a bit confused. It seems like an easy solution. Our kitchen island is stuck to the floor after all.

Maniac gives me a small smile. “We can, but we won’t, since we want to keep the floor somewhat intact.”

“That sounds dangerous. What if the furniture starts moving due to unforeseen circumstances?” I point out.

“The entire tower is practically a bomb shelter. What circumstances should we be planning for? A fucking moon crashing into Earth?” Maniac says, her arms going wide.

“The tower might have shock absorption, but we are still vulnerable to a biological assault.” I point out.

“Great there go my chances of falling asleep peacefully,” Maniac says, rubbing her face. “Speaking of which, what is so important that you are still awake in the first place?”

“I was contemplating the concept of emotions.” I say my mind being dragged back to my earlier musings.

“In what way?” Maniac asks as she picks up a seat and sits down across from me.

“How they work, mostly in relation to recent developments.” I say, seeing Maniac’s face change into something I do not quite understand.

“Right, yeah, that sucked. I am sorry that you needed to jump in.”

“It’s no problem; we are here to help each other after all.” I say, feeling more sure about that fact than anything else.

Maniac nods. “That might be true, but that does not mean that it was an easy situation.”

“That is my current conundrum. Why would people do that?”

“Because people suck,” Maniac answers

“Even Cierra and Claire?” I ask.

Maniac suddenly sits up straight. “No, they don’t, at least not most of the time.”

“Then what makes them different from other people?” I ask not being sure about it.

“I don’t know. I guess not all people suck, just, you know, the ones at the top, the ones with power and money.”

That sounded more reasonable, but power is not an inherent trait, so how? “What makes those people become like that?”

“Hmm, I guess it is not the power in itself, but more likely the need to keep that power and gain more of it that is the reason, you know, people turn evil. Fuck, I am doing a bad job of explaining this.”

“No, I think I understand; it's the feeling of power and the need to keep it that makes people evil.” I conclude.

“I guess there is probably some more nuance in there, but that is the basic rundown of it, yeah.”

“Then would the solution not be removing all the people in power?” I ask.

“And, what, rule the world ourselves?” Maniac laughs. “Yeah, that is a thought, but not for right now. We should really go to sleep. Now, do you think you can manage that, or do you want me to stay with you?”

I nod “Yes, of course.”

I watch my sister leave the room, no doubt heading to one of the bedrooms to go to sleep even though that was kind of pointless. This was our mind after all; if we wanted to sleep, we could just do so no need to go all the way to a bed. But that was the last of my worries, however, after all, my sister just gave me the most amazing idea.

If I took over the world, there would be no need for those evil people anymore. So we could get rid of all of them, and everyone could be happy. The only real problem with this is that taking over the world is going to take a long time.

So in the meantime, I should start working on controlling the people that are in power now. But who is the real power? That weird man said that the people in power were the Samurai so if I can control them, I control the world, and with that, I can slowly get rid of the bad guys.

It takes me a decent bit of time, but at some point I do have a basic plan ready to go, and it will all start with one email.

(Joline “Night Ranger” Zondervan)

I rub my shoulder as I make it into my house. What a fucking mess of work all of this has become. First, the global Samurai convention blowing up in everyone's faces, and now with the rest of the Samurai antagonising Maniac it will only be a matter of time before that powder keg blows up and takes out another mega city.

Which would be bad, don’t get me wrong, but the worst part about all of this is honestly the paperwork. How many days has it been, and we are still drowning in the stuff?

“Jyne please tell me there is some good news. I fucking can’t with all this.” I groan as I sunk onto my couch.

Though I hesitate to call it good news, you do have a message that is at least interesting.

“Interesting in what way? Does it give me more work? If so, I am not interested.” I ask already dreading the chance of a new problem showing up.

Maybe less work if it works out. You have a request for a job.

“Don’t we get thousands of those a day? How is this helpful in any way?” I say as I am debating with myself what I should eat.

That is what makes it interesting; the person that is asking goes by the online handle CrowSlinger.

I sit up immediately. “The kid, they are still alive?” I immediately look through my messages to find the email. And it is really there, as dry as all their other messages had been but with much improved spelling.

“Fuck, how long has it been since she sent something? I was sure some corpos jumped them and dumped them in a river somewhere.” I say as I try to think back to the warning I received from her so long ago, a warning that allowed me to save my family in time.

About six years, ma’am.

I nod. “That’s a while ago. Any way to tell if this is real or not?”

That might be hard, as you know, Crow is an excellent hacker. My attempts to track the message have me pinging all across the world from New Savannah to London back to Indiana. It pinged several more times but I lost the trail when it pinged through PsyCo’s headquarters.

I chuckle to myself. “That is quite the statement, huh? So what do you think? Should we meet them?” Somehow this has actually got me excited I have never met my benefactors before, and the only payment they wanted was a piece of protector software to study.

The Nachtwatch has been looking for some new hackers, and if not trustworthy exactly, Crow does seem to go by a code of not hurting innocents.

“Good, send them the time and place. I would love to meet them myself, and if this does not pan out, I am sure I can find another job for them.” I say with a smile.

Should we inform Command about this new addition?

I sigh, “Sure, call him.”

Right away, ma’am.

“Joline, I thought you went home already. Are you still here?” the Commander asks as soon as he picks up the phone.

“I am home, Richard. Something just popped up.” I answer.

“What is it?” he asks, sounding suspicious. “Please tell me it is not more work.”

“I don’t know yet; an old acquaintance reached out looking for a job.” I say doing my best serious face.

“You know we don’t do favours right?” Richard starts.

“I know, but this kid is the best hacker I have ever seen that is not a Samurai AI powered machine. So I think they deserve a shot.”

“Can they be trusted?”

“When a company had plans to kidnap my family, they sent me all the information in an encrypted message that allowed me to save them and track down who was responsible. That at least makes me trust them slightly.”

“I see,” he stays quiet for a bit. “We’ll set up a meeting with a recruiter. If they can pass that; there should not be any problems.”

“Thank you, I will owe you one.” I say with a big smile. “Would you mind if I shadowed the interview?”

“No, that is fine. I would like to see this mysterious person myself as well.” The commander says with a smile.

After some more pleasantries, I close the call with a smile, and for once, I am looking forward to the next day.