"Leo hyung?" N hid behind a giant rock outside as he heard Hyuk ask Leo, "Do you hate me?" They were both alone with the stars shining in the midnight black sky with the full moon glowing upon them, making them look more otherworldly.

"Hyuk..." Leo trailed off before he said, "I know everything, about why you think I hate you, which I don't."

"Oh hyung...I'm sorry-"

"Hyuk, it was a dream. You can stop feeling bad about yourself. Deep inside, I know you never really want to abandon those you care about, and I wish I had the same level of emotion you possess. I'm the most...robotic if you will."

"Leo hyung," Hyuk said, "I never heard you speak about your thoughts before aloud. You're coming along."

"Well," Leo paused then said, "It happened when our creator died with his girlfriend 100 years ago. I felt lost, I felt like my life had no such purpose anymore, I felt abandoned like a child loses its mother. However, after I had seen with my very two mechanical eyes the miracle of reincarnation, I realized that wishes can come true."

"But we live forever, hyung. We can make anything possible."

"True, but there are some things that humans can do that us cyborgs can't."

"What's that, hyung?"

"Humans were born with emotions and opinions, but cyborgs? Most of them are taken advantage of, used as tools for someone else's greed, and thrown away at the end. Our master never made us complete back then, but at least he didn't throw us away."

"Think...again...cyborg..."

"Who said that!?" Hyuk turned around frantically, highly alerted by the raspy voice that sounded like grinding metal.

"What is now yours once belonged to us..."

"And what's that?" Leo challeneged and barely flinched. He sounded unamused.

"You have had a bite of what human life tastes like, right? You live on, changing the world, and you have developed emotions almost like complete humans..."

"How long have you been listening to our conversation?"

"Oh, long enought all right...We now want what rightly belongs to us! You'll be nothing but scraps of metal like how we were tossed out here!"

"Show yourselves then!" Leo shouted.

From behind a pile of waste emerged two cyborgs. Both of their lower bodies were metal while their upper body looked human. Their faces were marked with black ink and their eyes flickered blue on and off, brown and blue, their faces blank with no emotion. Then, their eyes glowed blood red and their mouths opened to show sharp metal that replaced their teeth. Both lunged at Leo, who swung with just one arm, and the two enemy cyborgs flew across the field as they hit the ground with crushing force. Hyuk's body shook as N sensed an overload of fear through his systems.

"We...shall...LIVE!" the tallest cyborgs shouted, "You...will...pay...for...this..."

Just as the cybogrs were about to attack again, their bodies exploded, and metal pieces flew everywhere but none hit Leo or Hyuk. From the lab stood Hongbin, who looked taller and more mature.

"Hongbin hyung?" Hyuk whimpered. 

"Come inside," Hongbin said as he walked back inside, "There's something I need to tell you about those two cyborgs there."

_____

"Those two cyborgs were the first humans I ever used for my experiements: Codes Zero. Before I built my own robots from metal scratch, but I wanted something more than robot, but nothing more than human either. The humans I used for those experiments were alive, not dead, and I messed up..."

"Messed up?" Leo asked. "How?"

"While trying to manipulate their minds, my machines couldn't handle the emotions my prototypes gave off, so I had to reset the machines while their brains were still hooked up. Not only did the machines reset, but their minds became blank as well."

"Isn't that what you wanted though?" Hyuk asked, his voice a husky whisper.

"It seemed as if my goals were complete," Hongbin admitted, "but then my prototypes started to get overpossessive of me to the point where they tried to kidnap me in my own lab. So I had to disconnect them forever and start anew."

"Where was Youngji in all this?" N asked, the thought suddenly crossed his mind.

"This was all before I met her," Hongbin said. "When I did, I gave up building robots and cyborgs, because all I ever needed was a girl like her. Then...she passed away and I built guardian cyborgs that would protect her when I remade her cyborg body. However, we both died before the rest of you were complete."

"Then, after 100 years, we're all reunited together again," N said, a smile creeping up his lips. "Even though we almost lost each other in our battle for survival, we're safe for now, as one big happy family."

"Yes," Leo, Hyuk and Hongbin murmured at the same time.

"What those cyborgs said though..." Hyuk trailed off.

"What did they say?" Hongbin asked.

"They said things about wanting their master back and wanting to live again. They seemed jealous of us."

"It's my fault..." Hongbin's tone became sad and light.

"Creator?" N addressed Hongbin.

"Those cyborgs only wanted my attention like they were supposed to be made, and I threw them aside, thinking they were imperfect. They wanted to be my friends yet I destroyed them in minutes. I'm such a horrible creator...I even forgot about the prototypes completely and never turned back. In the end, those cyborgs, those prototypes, they resembled my failures and my weaknesses as a person. They wanted to be human like I was when I made them, but I denied them that fantasy, thinking that cyborgs weren't supposed to have any trace of humanity left in them whatsoever."

"Then why don't you rebuild them, Creator?" N suggested, and everybody in the lab turned their heads towards him with wide eyes and opened mouths.

"They exploded...remember?" Hyuk whispered.

"Not completely," Leo said, "When I walked back outside to check the damage, their human parts were still intact, and their brains were somehow still healthy."

"Should I still do it though? Those prototypes...bring back memories I don't want to remember."

"Pain is a natural part of life; everybody feels it. However, everybody deals with pain in a different way, and everybody reacts differently. Without pain, we're lifeless; without purpose. Nobody wants to feel pain, and nobody should, but that's the cycle of life. If you can't feel true pain, you can't feel true happiness," N explained.

"A life...without pain," Hongbin muttered, his eyes fixed on the shiny floor of the lab. "I lived that life before as a cyborg, before I was reborn, and it was beautiful. A life with friends, even if they were cyborgs, made me happy. I wonder, is pain necessary? Can we be truly happy without it? Or would we be lifeless beings like N said?"

"There's no right answer," N answered. "Most people don't want pain; they want it to be gone. Some people however live for pain, they crave it, or taste it. The answer is up to you. Do you want to rebuild your prototype cyborgs or leave them be? It's your decision, Creator."

Hongbin looked up and said, "Maybe...Maybe I-"