Antinomy had lost count of the days he and Z-One had been working together. They had been trying to find a way to fix Momentum, but with each passing day they got no closer to their goal. Antinomy was becoming frustrated at the lack of progress, but it appeared his friend was handling it much worse. Z-One hated failure, especially when thousands of lives were hanging in the balance. Each day more people died at the hands of the machine emperors and he was unable to stop it. Fixing Momentum was his only hope but without progress in his research his hopes grew dimmer.
Occasionally Antinomy would be able to convince Z-One to leave his research and go for a walk outside. He thought spending time away from his desk would calm him. However the world outside of their home looked horrific; the destruction left from Momentum going berserk only made Z-One feel worse. He would begin to rant about how selfish humanity had been and how the greed of the people around them had doomed the world. Antinomy was beginning to wish for a way to help his friend, Z-One was getting worse each day and Antinomy did not want his only friend to become absorbed in rage and sadness.
On one of their walks they discovered a guitar. Antinomy figured that if he fixed it up and gave it to Z-One it might help him. At first Z-One scoffed at the idea of learning to play it, he thought it to be a waste of time. "Why learn to play that when I could be working on fixing Momentum?" he said. But Antinomy, not wanting to give up on his friend, left the guitar in Z-One's room in the hope he might pick it up some day.
It was after a week of leaving the guitar that Antinomy began to hear a faint sound of strumming from Z-One's room. From then on every night Antinomy would hear the guitar being played, and judging by the sound coming from it Z-One was improving. Antinomy enjoyed listening in whenever he walked past Z-One's room, he found the sound to be relaxing. Antinomy began to notice how much calmer Z-One was becoming when they worked together, his temperament had greatly improved. Perhaps playing guitar was making him feel better?
One day, however, Antinomy could not find Z-One. He usually spent his days in the work room but he was not there. Antinomy searched around the house until he heard the strumming of the guitar along with Z-One's voice:
"No escaping, I am breaking
Can't stand all the things they do
No awaking, I can't take it
Living this maddening nightmare so
You own the lore, own the word, own the charge
You walk its way, but one day it'll be away"
Antinomy realised that Z-One was singing. He followed the sound until he reached Z-One's room. Finding the door slightly ajar he slowly pushed it open and found Z-One sitting on his bed, back turned to the door. He continued singing, unaware that his friend was watching:
"If this is for real, my kin – my kind
I wish I was born dumb, deaf and blind
Kickdown on a road to nowhere
If there's a paradise I will wait there"
Antinomy walked away from Z-One's room feeling a great heaviness in his heart. His friend's temperament had not improved and it seemed his bitterness towards humanity had gotten worse. At this point there was no way to help him, he was too far gone.