Chapter Text
“The admin tag was somehow blocked out!” Uzi was explaining to V
N, Uzi & Gail had gone to the mechanic early that morning to try to find out who Gail's unrightful administrator was. But the diagnostics only returned the admin as “NULL”, a black hole could obviously not be Gail’s admin. This left them at a dead end in the mystery, Uzi tried searching through both her files for any clues left behind. After an entire morning and evening searching for anything related, she found the logs she needed but they were encrypted from her. While she was an expert at engineering, reverse engineering, mechanics, robotics, etc. None of those skills would be helpful cracking the lock on the answers she desperately needed.
V had come over for one of her usual evening visits. She had been growing more concerned for Uzi as she slowly seemed to start spiraling, understandably so given someone unknown was in control of her child.
Things weren’t much easier for Cyn either. Reeling from the reveal of a potential new host she was formulating plans of attack as fast as Uzi’s shared processor could muster. While Uzi is the one in control, Cyn still has a little autonomy in her part of Uzi’s brain. She would block Uzi from accessing her thoughts when her owner was too distracted to notice the lack of sinister thoughts. Uzi would also sometimes use this to try and think to herself but Cyn retained full control of Uzi’s tail, so if she blocked Cyn out mentally Cyn could just bypass that by talking physically which was ten times worse!
No matter how oblivious Uzi, N or V were to how sure the situation really was for them, Cyn could feel the minutes passing by begging to act sooner rather than later. But no matter how perfect the situation could be for her, Cyn was still biding her time, waiting.
“Also the mechanic said Gail would be due for her first upgrade in a week” N excitedly shouted from down the hall “It’s gonna be so exciting!”
V had eventually left. Leaving to head and talk to Lizzy. Her room was filled with mostly bright pink on the walls with Cream Colored furniture. You could definitely tell she lived here even if you knew nothing about her. It SCREAMED Lizzy.
Despite how much of an uninterested appearance Lizzy put up she could listen and hand out advice better than most other Drones. Being a social butterfly does make you better equipped for these situations.
“I don’t understand! I didn’t care for their child a month ago but now I can’t sleep without knowing how Gail is doing” V vented, laying on her back on Lizzy’s bed “I never knew I would care so much!”.
Lizzy looked away from her phone, sitting on a chair in her room “Hey you’re a total softie around me. Now you’ve got someone else to also be soft towards now”
“Everything just feels right around her. She hasn’t had to deal with anything we’ve faced”
V said this next part quietly “She doesn’t know what I’ve caused. She should be scared of me.”
“Are you… doing alright?” Lizzy replied with growing concern, dropping the uninterested facade.
“What do I have now? N’s got his happy ending with Uzi. But I’m here doing nothing with my life.” V said, her voice spacey
V was definitely not doing alright.
“Hey You’re important to me! Would our time spent bullying others count as nothing to you?”
“I didn’t mean th… I just feel like I’m not doing anything important! I don’t have a purpose anymore.”
Lizzy walked over beside V, towering over her and casting V in her shadow.
“I don’t want others to live in fear of me.” V felted a little weird admitting that out loud “I want to be important to someone”
“You saved me from being killed by the purple frea… ” (probably shouldn’t call Uzi a freak) “...nd? We’ve had fun picking on other losers. I wouldn’t say you’re unimportant.”
“I want to be respected. Not because people are scared of me but because people feel safe around me.”
Lizzy felt slightly nervous saying this “Well I respect you quite a lot. In fact probably more than any other Drone in this dust hole. And I like being able to have real talk with someone here and not someone who’s a yes Drone”
V looked up at Lizzy, the ceiling light cascading around the edges of Lizzy’s form.
Lizzy decided to continue her speech, her eyes couldn’t bear to look at V’s “I’ve always liked you for being a real person and not just going along with everything I think. You’ve been there for me and I want to return the favor by being there with you. I want to make you feel important in life, because you’ve been important in mine”
Lizzy was looking away from V, eyes hollowed and sweating. The silence felt like an eternity until Lizzy heard a noise and felt something wrapped around her waist. Slowly she looked down to see V clinging onto her.
“Thank you. ” V said “I’m sorry if I acted like you’re not important”
Lizzy, still in shock, slowly returned the gesture and wrapped her arms around V. Being unused to such physical affection. They stayed like this for a while before separating, both nervous to look each other in the eyes.
V broke the silence “guess we’ve got a lot to talk about” V said quietly
“yeah” Lizzy murmured, her confidence was slowly building itself back up. Having gotten past the hardest obstacle between them.
The two spilled everything they’ve felt in recent months. V admitting her love for her Niece, her fears and aspirations. Lizzy admitted to never being this close to anyone else, even her brother, and how this feeling was completely new to her. V was able to help her understand how it worked a bit better. She learned the intense feeling was nothing like movies and TV made it out to be, Lizzy realizing why all the dates she set up for her friends never went like how she envisioned.
She really was a lovestruck idiot.
“I’ll have to make it up to you” V stated, looking a lil guilty
“Woah there’s no need. Just chill girl, I’ve already had a pretty nice night with you today”
“I need to show you how much you matter to me! Come on, I know you’d want to do something together” Damn, V is already making her own moves in retaliation to hers.
“I… would like that” Lizzy felt a bit shy. Usually she’s the one who sets up outings, not it being the other way around. And from V of all Drones.
“You, Me. We go outside and explore together. It would be something new and It’d give you something to post online that no one else has.”
V might have taken ideas she remembered from N’s list, but it’s not like he’s copyrighted the idea. She’s just testing it out!
“Ffffine, I might as well accept” Lizzy responded in a jokingly sarcastic tone, actually happy that V wants to do something together.
She quickly switched her voice back to being sincere “but seriously I accept your date”
“I never said anything about a date!” V quickly tried to deflect Lizzy’s wording of their outside trip to go exploring the world together. She knew Lizzy could see right through the act, but she didn’t want to go down without a fight.
“Sure, sure. Just the two of us close together. Alone. Going to where no worker has been in years. No biggie” Lizzy waved her hand in a joking manner.
“Hmph” V’s look on her visor screamed, ‘I have been caught and I am bad at hiding it’. She already lost the fight she made up in her mind.
“What time” Lizzy asked
”Dunno. Will tomorrow night be fine?”
“Girl, anytime is fine for me. I’ve got a frickin’ murder Drone on my side, it’s not like anyone can doing anything”
V chuckled at what she guessed was a compliment “It’s disassembly Drone Liz” V didn’t care about the distinction much but just used the opportunity to tease Lizzy and be the correct one.
“Oh right, sorry” It occurred to Lizzy she called her very very close close friend a murderer. Which was not technically wrong, but is still not something you should say.
“And when were you against using swears?” To V it almost felt like Lizzy was stealing Uzi’s dialogue. The thought of Uzi’s personality or mannerisms spreading spooked her.
“I can’t be having my giiiirl-friend hearing such sensitive things” Lizzy wanted to tease V to test where the line of being annoying between them is.
“mo… my Girlfriend?. Hmm” V never thought she’d hear those words used in reference to her. But she certainly wasn’t going to complain.
“I Know! This feels so weird. But like good weird” Lizzy agreed with V’s response
“Same. I’ll make sure to show you just how much I love you too. Giiiirrrrlll frieeeennnddd” V wanted to keep the mood light between them.
“Ha stop. It doesn’t feel right hearing you say that!” Lizzy laughed
“I’ll never stop, You can’t make me!”