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The school bell rang for the first time in weeks. Ever since the whole M incident, the entire section where the school was, was put under maintenance, being the biggest and longest construction project since Doors 2 and 3. Surprisingly it didn't take that long to repair, the building was up and running in a short time of weeks. The roof in the sports hall however still needed hefty amounts of work, still being unstable since Khan blew it off, in fact, the pile of rubble hadn't been touched since N pulled out both Khan and M's bodies. Needless to say, there were waves of disappointment from kids, teens and young adults now that they had to go back to school. Thad however, was glad to finally go back.
3 knocks came from Door 1, the drone on watch opened it up slightly and met eyes with V. "Oh, hey V. What.. What are you doing?"
"Its my murderous angels first day of school today! As well as J's girl."
He looked through the small creek, 5 tiny drones stood outside beside V, the smallest holding onto V's hand. They were undeniably cute. "Alright.. Just don't kill anyone... Alright?"
V nodded, all three doors gaped open. She took the kids with her and began her route to the school. She had a crystal clear memory of its location, lucky that she did otherwise she would most certainly get lost in this labyrinth that Khan and his team built. Although N, V and J were technically chill with the Worker Drones now, M's recent attack ruined a lot of reputation that they had. Many Worker Drones still distrusted Disassembly Drones greatly, luckily she didn't have to worry about any verbal abuse, because who would? She is V. A balls to the wall psycho bitch queen of all rings of hell. Dawn kept latched onto her mothers hand, she was terrified as she had little interactions with anyone other than her siblings, on top of that, she was definitely the smallest and shyest of the 5.
In time, they finally reached the school, V looked at the building then back towards her kids. They looked incredibly shy and nervous. "OK my babies... Have a good first day! I've already informed the teacher that you are to eat your packed lunches away from everyone because its literally Worker Drone corpses, do not use your weapons and WATCH YOUR TAILS! I don't want a call from the teacher telling me that my kids have just murdered someone else's kid.. I've already dealt with enough of that on my end!"
"What..?" Luger asked.
"Don't worry my sweet lil Luger! Mommy knows you are the most ruthless and tough killing machine made." V teased, tugging on his cheek "But unfortunately around Workers you have to be careful. Goodbye! Love you all! J will be collecting you all!"
The 5 entered the school building, V waving them goodbye. They got a lot of eyes looking at them as they strolled through the school, most of the older kids were terrified of them, the younger kids who hadn't been taught history just saw them as different. They were the only ones that had yellow eyes. They walked past several of the lockers until they reached the primary school area, at the back of the building. It was brightly lit up with vibrant and pastel colors, kid made decorations were pinned all over the walls and ceiling, the smaller kids were running around the hallways, rolling around on the carpets and playing with their free time they had before lessons start. Their class was R-2, the classroom name was 'Helium'. Inside the class, Drones from age 4-5 sat on the carpet, waiting patiently for their lessons of the day to start. Luger, Beretta, Amber, Dawn and Jayla sat down and waited for the lesson to start.
Meanwhile, back in the secondary area;
Everyone stared her down, shaming her with silence as she quietly walked towards her locker. Branded as a traitor, Lizzy was publicly humiliated, how the tables had turned on her. Although she was prepared for the worst, the sight of her locker broke her. Where her locker used to have a big heart, one side half pink and the other half red with the words 'Lizzy & Doll Best Friends Forever', Doll had rubbed out the red half of the heart and also rubbed her name from the locker. She had lost the her best friend and yet nobody felt sorry for her. All she could do was cry to herself, no shoulder to lean on, no friend to tell her it will be OK, no father to give her a hug, even her own mother hated her. After getting everything she needed for the day, she shamefully walked to her class, she was not welcomed by the usual friendly waves, callouts of her name or the smiling and exited face of Doll. Instead, people just snarled at her. Doll looked ashamed that she was ever friends with her. She nervously sat down in her chair, folding her arms on her now graffitied desk and quietly sobbing. The lesson began.
Several minutes in, the classroom door opened up, everyone's attention was drawn to who was being brought in on a wheelchair. Thad pushed Uzi towards her old desk, positioning her in front and tucking her in, he grabbed the chair for himself and sat beside her, nobody spoke and the teacher continued to teach. It was interesting to see Uzi's behavior, she was like a completely different person now, for once she was quiet, sitting still and not causing a racket. As much as it would be wrong to say he liked it, it was a somewhat relief to be able to teach effectively with her in his classroom. Half way into math's, a chair scraped along the floor as Lizzy untucked herself, removing herself from the lesson with eyes full of guilt. There was no pause in the learning, he continued to teach even without Lizzy.
Back in the primary area;
"A-B-C-D-E-F-G" The teacher said aloud, pointing at the seven letters on the visualizer.
The kids attempted to say the words aloud. Luger, Beretta, Amber and Jayla sat bored, not quite understanding what they were suppose to be doing. They had been sat on the carpet for what felt like hours learning each individual letter of the alphabet. Luger and Beretta were super bored, Amber and Jayla quietly chatted to each other. Dawn on the other hand was fascinated with simple letters, although she herself could barely speak, she tried. "Very good class! Lets move on to the next seven letters! H-I-J-K-L-M-N"
When the teacher finished, Dawn immediately stood up after hearing 'N'. "Dada?!" She said aloud, her eyes filled with excitement.
"Dawn, please sit down for me darling." The teacher responded. "Your dad isn't here."
"But.. You said dada name.."
"Its a letter darling.. Now please, sit back down OK?"
She quietly sat back down, tucking her head into her knees and welling up. She felt a sudden hug around her, it was her older brother Luger. "Ssshh..." He whispered into her ear. "Dad will come back eventually... He just needs time to himself for a bit." He added on.
Ever since the wedding, N has isolated himself from everyone, nobody even knew where he was. All anyone knew was that he was going for a 'therapy journey' or whatever he called it, he left without telling V or Uzi, only leaving a poorly drawn note for anyone. He was guilt stricken, he felt responsible for Khans death even though he wasn't. He felt responsible for all the deaths M caused during his wedding, for not killing him when he first came. But most importantly, he believed he was solely responsible for the death of Uzi's unborn child. He wouldn't speak for the entire couple days after the wedding. He didn't sleep nor eat. Dawn missed N, she missed him a lot. She just wanted her dad back. It had been 8 days without him. Somehow, she just knew that N would come back, one way or another.
The lesson continued as per normal, until they reached the letter Z, when running through the whole alphabet again with the kids, the teacher got to the letter N and quiet sobbing broke out. She immediately darted her eyes to Dawn, she was weeping with her 3 siblings around her to comfort her. All she could hear from Dawn was the quiet chanting of the word 'Dada' over and over. She halted the lesson and put on a video about the ABC's and quietly walked over to Dawn, taking her by the hand and leading her outside the classroom. Outside, the teacher knelt down to her level and spoke softly to the crying girl. "Dawn... Do you want me to call mom to take you home?"
She sniffed. "No... I want dada..."
The teacher frowned, she wasn't entirely sure what to do. "Why don't we go back into the class? We'll stop learning about the ABC's and we will do some basic numeracy."
She led Dawn back into the class and switched off the video, she pulled up a PowerPoint on basic math's, the numbers 1 to 10 popped up on the board and she began to teach in the usual fashion.
Later on in the afternoon, the bell rang for lunch. The Worker Drones lined up for lunch and were escorted to the lunch hall. Luger, Beretta, Amber and Jayla stayed behind because of what they had for lunch. However, Dawn forgot what V said and joined the que to the Lunch hall. Nobody noticed. She sat on a table surrounded by Worker Drones, everyone looked at her. She was very different to what they were used too. It was overwhelming for the little Disassembly Drone, so many questions asked and too many people looking, she eventually decided to ignore it and open up her lunch paper bag, she pulled out an entire severed Worker Drone arm and lifted it to her mouth. The lunch room went silent as the sound of Dawn grinding metal with her teeth echoed through the halls, splatters of oil trickled all over her and the table, enjoying her meal. She also pulled out a length of wires and sucked them up like spaghetti, again grinding the copper from inside with her back teeth. What was left was a small bottle filled with oil, she gulped it down in front of Worker Drones, the teachers were terrified, one even ran out screaming. Back in the classroom, Luger and Beretta had finished and were chasing each other around whilst Amber and Jayla slowly ate and enjoyed their food, that was when Jayla noticed that Dawn wasn't actually here. "Um.. Miss Teacher?"
"Its Rose, but yes Jayla?"
"Where is Dawn?"
Rose looked around the classroom, Jayla was right, Dawn was missing. "Oh... No..."
Back in the secondary area;
As the students sat down in the cafeteria, socializing with one another, Uzi was brought up to the table that Thad usually sat at, all his friends. Two vacant seats remained at the table, a seat next to Doll and a seat next to Thad. Uzi was pulled up beside Thad, replacing the chair with her wheelchair, still remaining silent. Doll was surprisingly cheerful for not having her (now ex) best friend sat by her side. The group chatted together whilst Uzi kept to herself, staring down at a picture. The last picture she took with her dad, quite a recent one. It was taken shortly after they 'killed' M the first time once she finally accepted him back into her life. Thad took notice and hung his arm around her shoulder, Uzi leaned onto him, clenching the photograph and squinting her eyes as tears visualized on the screen, as well as stream from her visor. This was enough to bring down the mood, everyone quietened down on the table, it even got Thad frowning. She patted her stomach, still broken on her loss.
"Will Uzi be OK?" A female from the group asked.
"I.. I hope..." Thad replied, beginning to get more and more worried.
It was worrying that Uzi had stayed silent for over 3 weeks, not even talking to Thad or wanting to do much. She just sat in silence in her wheelchair and in the medical wing for the first week and the next week in her home with Thad. Still, they interacted with each other, made love a couple times, but it felt strange that Uzi still didn't speak. Granted she did make some forms of communication, such as a thumbs up or nodding her head, but no verbal communication came from her output. All of a sudden, the school intercom screeched on and the Principle began to speak. "Can I have Thad to the Principles office please! That is Thad to the Principles office please!"
Thad looked at his friends and back to Uzi, then to Doll. "Hey Doll.. Can you like... Take her to class when Lunch is over?"
"Sure. Just don't be long, K Thad?"
He nodded his head and left the table, leaving the cafeteria and strolling towards the Principles office, inside he walked past the Administration Lady who let him in. His eyes caught the Principles, but he was disappointed at who else was in. "Oh god dammit you guys! On your FIRST day?!"
Both Amber and Jayla sat in the principles office, a kid and his mother sat in the corner, shaking with terror at the sight of the Disassembly Drone and the half-bred. "Thad... Your daughter and her friend have been... Causing havoc..." He pointed towards the kids bitten arm, a chunk was completely missing.
Thad looked at Jayla with an angry expression over his face. He looked at Amber and immediately saw a small trickle of oil down the side of her mouth. "Amber..."
She darted her tongue out and licked away the small oil blotch, showing an innocent smile afterwards as if nothing happened. "What actually happened?"
Minutes Earlier;
In a big hall, which was effectively the playground for the primary children. Jayla and Amber were chasing each other around, Year R, 1, 2, 3 all share the same time for lunch and play, the hall was extremely busy and only 4 teachers stood on watch. Luger and Beretta were playing with Dawn, with Luger being the protective older brother and Beretta being the playful older sister. During Jayla's pursuit chase of Amber, she bumped into a year 3 kid. He was much taller and quite intimidating with his 3 friends. "What the hell are you?" He asked.
"I'm Jayla. My dad is a Wor-"
"Shut up you halfie" he pushed Jayla to the ground.
Amber wondered why Jayla was no longer running after her, that is when she saw the 4 Worker Drone kids messing with her best friend. She charged in and confronted the bullies. "Hay! You leave my friend alone!"
The 4 boys laughed, they were yet to be taught History and lacked knowledge of what a Disassembly Drone could really do. "Out of the way you yellow eyed freak, our business is with the halfie behind you."
"Call her halfie ONE MORE TIME! I dare you..."
"Halfie." He teased, but he made a fatal mistake.
Back in the office;
"You.. BIT HIM?!"
"Well.. Maybe? But she insulted Jayla! She called her a halfie! How else could I have done it?"
"Well!? I don't know!? Don't bite people to solve problems like that?? Get a teacher??"
"Look.. Thad... We'll let this off as a warning for yours and V's daughters because it is their first day and they are... Yet to understand what is right or wrong apparently. But regardless of how people look, you should not bully or pick on them." He looked at the bully.
"Wait... You're Thad right?" The mother pointed out, recognizing the boy.
"Yeaah..? What about it?"
"Oh good! I'm sure you know my disappointment of a daughter, Lizzy? Give this note to her when you next see her." She handed a small note to Thad, he was mildly concerned. "S..Sure..."
The rest of the day progressed as normal, Thad and Uzi sat in class, listening to the teachers lectures, he did hand the note to Lizzy, it only brought a sigh from her. Looks like she would be staying overnight at the school from now on. Towards the final minutes of the day, Thad was walking back from the toilet to his class when he heard sobbing from the cleaning cupboard. He creaked it open slightly and saw Lizzy holding a knife, about to slit her own wrists. In a moment of panic, he ran at Lizzy and slapped the knife from her hand, she had already made a cut through her wrists and she was now leaking. "Oh god! Oh god oh god oh god! Um.. Um... Aha!"
Thad ripped a part of her sleeve off and tied it around the wound. Lizzy was confused. "Why.. Why are you saving me... I ruined everything for you..."
He hesitated for a moment, he himself didn't know why he paused. "Ugh.. Its.. Its complicated Liz... I can never forgive you... But nobody deserves to go out this way... Suicide is just not the answer... I couldn't just let... I couldn't... UGH! I COULDN'T LET ANOTHER FRIEND DIE OK!!" He finally snapped.
"F..Frie...Friend..?" She shaking replied.
"Liz.. We were friends for years.. Our parents were real close... We... We even dated when we were young for two years... We have so much history together. I don't... I still dislike you for what you did. But I guess my niceness got the better of me... Next time I wont be there to save you, so make this opportunity last Liz." His tone all of a sudden went from soft to angry, quickly realizing that he really hated her now, but one part of his metal heart will always hold onto a small glitter of friendship.
He left the room without speaking another word.
Later that night;
The artificial moonlight for the corridors began to glow, Thad picked Uzi up from her wheelchair and placed her in bed, quickly climbing into bed himself afterwards. Just as he was about to turn the bedside lamp off, he saw Uzi holding something. "What's that Uzi?"
Uzi showed Thad a pregnancy test. "Oh.. You still have that? Look.. I know you are still... Broken from our loss, but we need to move on..." He gave her a kiss before turning the bedside lamp off, pulling the duvet over himself and Uzi. Uzi kept her eyes on the test, gazing at the two pink lines. A smile wiped across her face, knowing very well that this was a new test from this morning.