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Melissa squirms against the tight metal restraints, utterly terrified. She has been strapped to a table in what looks horribly like a workshop. The mission went wrong, badly wrong, and she was tased over and over before being tossed into a van. Her muscles are sore, and she is on the verge of total panic. “Let me go!”
“I know you’ve been living with the rebels for a while, but I can’t believe you’ve forgotten how it behave so quickly.” That voice pierces right into Melissa’s heart, dropping it to the ground.
“Savannah?” She wishes that she didn’t sound so scared. The rebels taught her how to fight again, how to be strong again. But hearing that voice, and being strapped down again… she can feel her strength draining away. She can feel cold metal replacing the little flame that the rebels stoked.
“The very same.” Savannah marches closer and studies her. Melissa shudders. “The engineers said that your parts had been upgraded.” Savannah touches the metal half of her face, and she yanks her head away. Or at least tries to, but there is a strap over her neck to stop her. That’s new, and makes her stomach churn.
She isn’t surprised by the sting of pain that she receives, but it still hurts. “You’ve been spending too much time around those rebels.” Brick, now, as cold and uncaring as his partner. This can’t be happening again. She can’t be back here again, she can’t be. Not after everything. Things can’t just go back to the way they were.
“They’re gonna come for me.” Melissa’s voice shakes as she says it, but she manages to say it. Manages to glare. The rebels… her friends, they care about her. They do. So they’ll come, and she believes in them.
“That’s the plan.”
Melissa blinks. She really doesn’t like the sound of that. “What? What do you mean?”
“Cyborgs don’t speak out of turn.” She winces at the reminder. She shuts her mouth and just prays that her friends come soon.
But what if there is a trap set for them? What if they get hurt?
With no preamble, no explanation or small talk, the mechanics start doing something to her. She winces as they lean over, taking apart the metal side of her face while she can only sit helplessly. They never put her to sleep while they do it, she is always forced to watch. And no, it doesn’t hurt, but she still hates it.
Her heart pounds, not loud enough to drown out the sounds of metal hitting metal. And the machinery. And the beeping. She hates this. She hates being treated like nothing but a machine, that can be experimented on and taken apart and put back together and not even told what they are doing.
Milo and the rebels would never do that. Phineas and Ferb are always so kind when they need to do something to her robotic parts. They always tell her what they are doing. Even ask for her permission.
She needs to hold onto the idea that her friends will come for her. The only other option is falling into despair.
“We need to put it under now, ma’am.” One of the mechanics says.
“Thank you.” Savannah picks up a needle. Melissa tries to move away, but she never had a chance. Everything goes blurry, then dark.
———
Melissa wakes up, still restrained to that table. The workshop is cold, and her head feels like someone is sitting on it, or squeezing it. Not sore, not exactly, but definitely uncomfortable.
But her eye is working like normal, and nothing seems to be different. So she chalks the procedure up to a reinstallation of the surveillance that Phineas and Ferb removed.
She lies there for a while, cold and bored but mostly frightened. When she hears the door open, she winces. But then she hears a voice. “Melissa!”
“Milo!” Her voice breaks when she replies to him, so relieved. He runs over and immediately starts undoing the restraints.
“Are you ok?” Milo looks her up and down. But not in the cold, searching way Savannah did- someone examining their possession for defects. In a worried way, a friend looking for injuries. A friend who cares.
“I’m fine. But the tracker-“
“On it.” Milo looks, and finds it in the same place as before, installed in her arm. He unscrews the panel and takes it out, crushing it underneath his shoe as he helps her up. He also gives her back her weapon arm and helps her screw it on. “We’d better go, Isabella’s distraction won’t work forever.”
“What’s her distraction?” Melissa asks. Her legs shake, but she runs with Milo, who is holding her hand lightly.
“Well, she and the Firestorm girls are-“ Milo is cut off by an explosion that rocks the building and sends them both sprawling into the wall. Melissa hits it roughly, knocking a screw out of her arm. “Oh no, sorry Melissa!”
“Was that Murphy’s Law, or an explosion?” She snarks. Snarks weakly, but she still does it. Of course the distraction involves explosions.
“Both.” Milo offers her his hand. Another screw pops out as she takes it. She doesn’t care.
They escape, narrowly. But somehow far too easily. Melissa isn’t sure how to feel. “Milo, they said that they were planning on you coming for me. This feels like a trap.”
“If it’s a trap, we’ll deal with that. What were we going to do, not come for you?” Milo points out. The van skids around the corner. Melissa wonders who is driving, and if they are legally able to drive.
Then again, they did just steal- no, rescue- a cyborg from the corporation that controls everything, so driving licenses are probably the least of their worries.
“I think that they can watch through my eye again.” Melissa tells Milo, nervous but knowing that he needs that information.
“That’s ok, we’ll park directly inside so they won’t see the building, and then Phineas and Ferb can check you over.” Milo is as calm and reassuring as ever. She droops onto his shoulder and allows herself to relax. She was so scared. But she is sure that it will be ok now.
They head back into the base and Melissa sits down in the workshop. The workshop at V-Tech was a source of fear, but she has come to see this one as safe. The table never has restraints on it. She is always asked for her opinion, always treated gently and carefully and like a person. She supposes that she sees this one like a doctor’s surgery now. A place that can be uncomfortable, but where she will never be hurt.
Milo sits with her as they wait for the others. He talks to her, comforts her, and she relaxes more and more. It was awful, going back to being treated like that. Her wounds have reopened. But she was rescued. She knew that they would come.
The pressure on her head gets harder and harder. She rubs it, screwing her face up. Milo looks concerned. “Melissa, are you alright? You know that you don’t need to hide injuries from us.” Has she regressed because they took her, because of how they treated her? His stomach boils. She was doing so well, and then they took her again.
Melissa shakes her head. “Maybe they messed with the wiring or-“ She stops. Practically freezes.
“Melissa?” Milo really is concerned now. It reminds him of the way she acted before, the way that she still sometimes regresses to. Stiff and robotic and seemingly emotionless.
He notices that her human eye looks dull and glassy mere seconds before she fires her weapon at him.
Instinctively he dodges, so it hits the wall instead. He stares at her. “Melissa?! Melissa, it’s me!”
She doesn’t say anything. She just advances, aiming again. He jumps out of the way, horror thudding through him. What did they do to her?! Are they hurting her, or threatening her… no, she would look scared then. She doesn’t look scared, she doesn’t look like she is feeling much of anything at all.
So are they controlling her?
He doesn’t have time to think more about that before she is on him again. His mind races as he dodges shot after shot, as the furniture explodes and holes are blasted in the walls. He needs to save Melissa. And to do that he needs to stop her from killing him.
His hand travels to the cattleprod at his waist. But he can’t. Melissa’s ‘handlers’ tasered her as punishment, hurt her over and over in that horrible way. She even admitted that his cattle prod scared her because it was similar. He won’t do that to her. Even if she isn’t in control. Even if she is being forced to hurt him.
“Melissa, it’s ok. You’re ok.” He tries to reassure her, even though he has no idea if she can hear him or not. “I’ll sort this out, just give me in minute.”
He takes a ball from his backpack and throws it at her. She dodges, but it hits the wall and rebounds back into her weapon. She doesn’t even react, just running at him. She knocks him over and holds him down.
He tries to squirm away, but her metal limbs are strong. “Hey, come on Melissa. I know that you’re in there. I know that you can fight this.”
Her eye still looks dull. She looks exactly like the robot Verliezer claimed that she is.
Grunting, Milo rolls out from under her and dodges away. She follows, but stays away and reaches into his backpack for his rope. And then, apologising the whole time, he throws himself at her to knock her into the table. And then he ties her down, still apologising.
She struggles, but not in a frightened or panicked way. She still seems so cold, so robotic. So unlike Melissa, who is warm and funny and fierce. His heart aches.
He removes the weapon arm, just in case. And then he waits, sitting close to her. He hopes that if she can see, if she can hear, she is comforted by his presence.
When Phineas, Ferb, Candace and Zack arrive, they find Melissa tied to the table in the middle of the now partially destroyed workshop, struggling silently. And Milo sitting next to her, unusually worried. “I think they’re controlling her, can you fix it?” He asks as soon as he sees the youngest two.
Phineas and Ferb immediately rush over to look. “Probably, give us a few minutes.” Phineas says. Milo still stays as close as he can, and holds Melissa’s metal hand. She doesn’t like being worked on, it’s uncomfortable for her. He will do anything that he can to help her.
Zack and Candace stand either side of him. He can feel the tension in the air, a silent fear, as they wait. As metal tools touch metal, as Phineas and Ferb try to undo the damage that was done.
“I really don’t like that guy.” Milo murmurs to Zack and Candace. Verliezer did this. After everything that he did to Melissa before, he just couldn’t leave her alone.