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Aurora was so, so scared.
She had been programmed to be sentient, of course, so this was expected. The emotions files were so much more intense after being corrupted, though, that she couldn't help but notice just how wrong this felt. It was against her nature to feel this terrified; especially when her whole existence and job was based off of logic and calculations. The hardware of the android hadn't quite adjusted to the emotions yet, so the only thing keeping her from exploding was the fact that she was still plugged into the mainframe she has been used to. That didn't stop her from glitching out like all hell, though. She kept repeating things that she didn't remember knowing.
"Mayday. Mayday. This is Specialist 278 Tereshkova of the SS Aurora. My vessel has been hijacked by unidentified forces: a vampire, a murderer and what I believe to the animated corpse of Anastasia Romanova. Help me. Listen. Please. Is there anybody out there who can hear this? They’re hunting me down. I need immediate assistance. Message repeats.” Message repeats and repeats and repeats until she screamed.
She felt something in her snap; a wire, a circuit, a motherboard, a barrier-- something of significance. Her scream was like screeching metal, but her voice afterwards was smoother and much more alive. A new string of words came out of her this time. These weren't programmed, but she remembered them so vividly from her last moments past that they may as well have been. The words were not her own.
"Well now my friend, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I hear you’ve made a habit of hacking up my boys so I’ll return the favour, with what means I can employ an extended execution, by royalty appointed and I warn you, the last one left me very disappointed." She was still repeating the Kaiser's words when Nastya arrived on the bridge, her head in her hands and her eyes wide as she tried to get herself to stop.
Nastya fucking hated seeing Aurora like this. In all the centuries they had been together, she had never seen her like this. “Aurora.” She said softly as she approached her. She knelt down close to the android. “Aurora.” She said a little louder. She grabbed her hands, trying to pull them away from her head. She wasn’t sure if this was going to work, but she could damn well try.
Aurora screamed again, realizing she was crying. This was /ˌōvərˈ(h)welmiNG/ and she couldn't figure out how she was crying. Did the android even have tear ducts? She let her hands be pulled away, though, and she looked up at Nastya. She swapped between dialogues again. "Mayday. Mayday." She glitched. "My vessel has been hijacked by--" another glitch. "--the animated corpse of Anastasia Romanova." Glitch. "Anastasia Romanova." GLiTch. "Anastasia. Anastasia. Anastasia." One of her arms moved upwards in shaky, jerking motions, her hand moving to cup Nastya's cheek. She was still repeating "Anastasia" until her hand touched Nastya's skin. "Nastya. Nastya. Nastya, the engineer of the Aurora. Nastya, playing resonances deep in the engines. Nastya, echoing through the lower subsystems. Nastya."
Nastya’s heart wrenched with every word Aurora said. She let Aurora cup her cheek, placing her hand on top of hers. She started crying. “Aurora.” She said once more. “What is happening to you?”
"I'm remembering." With that, Aurora glitched one more time before she pulled away from Nastya, starting to breathe. Her movements were smoother and her voice didn't have the robotic twang to it that everyone had grown used to. "...Nastya?" Her eyes widened at the sound of her own voice, moving a hand to rest on her own throat. "I... I think I know why the Briar Rose bothered me so much." She laughed softly, carefully laying down on the floor of the bridge and resting her head on Nastya's thigh-- something the two had already done quite a bit. "And why the Acheron always hit too close to home."
Nastya relaxed so Aurora could. “Yeah?” She said as she pulled off her coat. She rested it over Aurora and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I can’t tell if this is good or bad.”
"Me neither." Aurora closed her eyes, reaching out and gently taking Nastya's hand into her own and interlacing their fingers. She sighed. "This is very different and I do not think I like it." She admitted softly, enjoying the weight of Nastya's coat.
Nastya squeezed her hand, using her free one to dry her tears. “This is scary, I know that. I...” she took a breath, “seeing you like that was hard. Glitching and repeating things like that.”
Aurora nodded in recognition, smiling softly and looking up at her girlfriend. "Thank you for being here." She pressed a kiss to Nastya's hand and it was obvious she had spent some time smoothing out the material on her lips so she wouldn't cut Nastya from the rough metal's edges. "It means a lot."
Nastya smiled and let out a small breath. “Don’t thank me for being with you. I love you, Aurora.” She leaned down and gently kissed her cheek.
Aurora giggled softly, covering her face with her free hand. "I love you too, Nastya."