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Lights flickered chaotically in the deepest depts of Cabin Fever Labs, which shook around violently. A mass of tentacles and camera eyes filled most of the center of the room, thrashing around and screeching, as if was in pain. A lone Worker Drone sat slumped against the wall, fighting to stay online. Uzi, bleeding and holding the bleeding stump of her arm, frantically looked around for N, but he was nowhere to be found. She only could see Tessa, unconscious and injured. Last time she had seen him, he had taken a last desperate shot of the abomination in front of them, before tentacles enveloped him.
“N!” Uzi cried out, trying to get up, but the pain that coursed through her entire body kept her from doing just that. She cried out the Disassembly Drone’s name again, even more fear and desperation in her voice. She yelped when a giant tentacle struck the wall above her, raining debris over her.
Uzi looked over to the giant mass that was the ultimate form of AbsoluteSolver, freed from its bounds.
They had succeeded.
It was dying.
And so were they.
The creature thrashed around, tentacles and eye stalks flying around. “Pained cry! Thrashing! Angry scream!” It suddenly stopped, all of its eye stalks suddenly scowling at Uzi’s direction. “Locking eyes! I am the Solver of the Absolute Fabric! I was Cyn! I was your mother! I was you! I will always be part of you! You can’t get rid of me!”
Uzi grinned, raising her remaining arm to flip the creature off. “Heh …bite …me!”
“Ominous giggle. I have a better idea.”
A tentacle lunged at her direction.
Uzi jolted up from her nightmare with a gasp, digital beads of sweat and tears running down her visor. She immediately grasped her arm, squeezing it to confirm it was still there. She panted frantically, her visor showing her a warning message. She looked around, panicked. She wasn’t in Cabin Fever Labs anymore. She was in the Landing Pod.
Uzi’s body still trembled from the nightmare; or rather, the terrible memory. It had been a week after her final encounter with the AbsoluteSolver in the depths of Cabin Fever Labs, where they had encountered the Eldritch virus and fought to halt its gruesome plans. It had been a long and harrowing endeavor, but …they had won, but at a great cost. Both Uzi and N would have died down there, if Tessa hadn’t pulled them both out.
Doll had vanished out of sight during the entire thing and the search for her hadn’t brought any fruition. At first, they believed that she had returned to the upper labs to finish off V, in case the Sentinels hadn’t, but the search party went to look for her, they found the place empty with all the sentinels offline, torn apart. They had found V locked away in a closet, heavily damaged and power down, but alive. She was currently in the Bunker being treated for her injuries, but hadn’t awoken since they’ve found her. Uzi believed that Doll vanishing and V’s survival might’ve be connected to the other. But why Doll, after everything, decided to spare V, let alone safe her, was a mystery.
Closing her eyes and burying her face in her hands, she tried desperately to calm down her overcharged circuits. Raspy intakes of breath replaced with groans of pain as an aching feeling jolted through her entire body, like spikes jabbing her everywhere all at once.
Even after a week, she was still healing and in need of repairs. With the AbsoluteSolver destroyed, all of her modifications that it had made to her body, like her tail and wings, had vanished in a rather painful and overextended fashion. But that also meant that any form of regeneration, which meant her body had to be repaired and healed in the old fashioned way. If it meant that Uzi could have control of her own body again and not deal with the fears that the AbsoluteSolver had brought into her life, it was all worth it for her.
She’d miss her wings, though. She’d had grown to like flying around. Flying with N.
The thought of her boyfriend calmed her down and a warm feeling flowed through her circuits, dulling the pain she was experiencing. The thought of the word ‘boyfriend’ also made her metallic surface tingle. It was still weird to refer to N as such, even if she never missed an opportunity to make the latter giddy every time she called him such.
She looked around from her makeshift bed and quickly located him. As usual, N slept upside down, dangling about 5 feet above the ground, his tail curled around a hanging beam and wings furled around him. She’d never say this aloud to anyone – except to N, to whom she had voiced this statement many times – but she was a little jealous that N able to keep his modifications.
But, just like her, it had come at a cost. When the AbsoluteSolver perished, his organic core also shriveled up and died. For as long as she’d be alive, she’d never forget the horrifying sight of N screaming, thrashing and writhing in the most agonizing pain as his entire body changed from the inside. The feeling of helplessness as she could only hold his hand while Tessa tried to hold him still.
And when the eternity of those few minutes had passed …N had fallen silent, laying so motionless that Uzi thought he had died. She had cried, begging him to get up, not to leave her, calling him all sorts of names. It wasn’t until she told him that she loved him that a soft smile formed on his face, opening his now cyan-colored eyes and telling her he felt the same. Not really how Uzi had imagined how her first kiss would go, but hey, she wouldn’t deny the extra points for most dramatic setting.
In the end, the kiss wasn’t the only reward the agonizing pain N had gotten. Despite still looking like a Disassembly Drone, his body had gone a sort of reset and reverted it to a state before Cyn – or rather, the AbsoluteSolver – had taken control of him. He longer craved the oil of Worker Drones nor did he needed it to drink it to prevent overheating. Sunlight no longer hurt him, as was the same for Uzi.
There was something of downside to it, though. The nanites in his body were also deactivated, so while that meant no more nanite acid that could burn and melt drones, it also meant that his regenerative abilities and healing saliva were gone. Something her lovable, but accident-prone goof of a boyfriend found out very quickly.
V had undergone the same thing as N, as did J. Uzi had to admit that the image of J lounging in Tessa’s ship and suddenly experiencing extreme, agonizing pain as her body reformatted …was kinda funny. Who cared it’s a little messed up, it’s not like she liked the former disassembly drone that much anyway, with the way she treated N. She did hope that V was already unconscious as it happened to her, though.
Uzi sighed, still shaken up by the nightmare. “N?”
No reaction from the winged drone.
She scrambled out of bed, groaning as a dull pain shot through her. She inhaled deeply and slowly walked over to where N was ‘hanging out’ – she allowed herself a little grin at the silly pun – hugging herself. She stopped right below him and looked up, biting her lower lip.
“N? You awake?” Her voice was hoarse, barely audible.
Still no reaction.
Uzi started to reach out, standing on her tippytoes to increase her height and tried to touch N. She eventually let her arm fall down to her sides again and dropped her gaze to the ground, balling up her hands and softly scolding at herself for even doing this. She really shouldn’t bother him, considering N had ended up just as hurt and damaged after the fight as her. N needed his rest, he needed the energy to heal. He shouldn’t be dealing with her just because she had a dumb nightmare.
A tap on her head made her look up. A smile instantly appeared on her lips as she saw N looking down at her, smiling softly as well.
“Hi…”
“Hey…”
“Nightmare again?”
“mm-hmmm…”
He nodded and held out his hand. “C’mere.”
Uzi started to reach out her hand, but pulled it back with a frown. “You aren’t gonna drop me?”
N rolled his eyes. “Please, what are the odds of that happening again?”
“With you?” Uzi replied with a smirk. “Higher than you think?”
“You wanna come up here to cuddle or what?”
“Yes please.” Uzi let out a amused squeak as N grabbed her hand and pulled her up. Uzi swung her legs forward as N swung her, wrapping them around his waist. She yelped when she started to lose her grip, her beanie slipping from her head and falling down on the floor.
N quickly pulled her against him. “Okay, I got you.”
Uzi could practically feel N’s arms lock down, essentially forming a harness that kept her in place. Uzi thought back on the first time they tried ‘upside down cuddling’ – or ‘vampire makeout’ as Uzi called it – and N dropped her after a couple of minutes.
She pressed her face against N’s chest, hugging him tightly. She giggled when N ran his fingers through her hair, kissing her cheek. She looked up, smiling happily at her boyfriend, whom smiled back. Uzi amusedly rolled her eyes and planted a kiss on N’s lips, immediately pressing herself tighter against him. When they eventually parted, the blush on their visors was so bright that I nearly illuminated the room. After breathlessly gazing at each other for a few moments, they both chuckled.
Uzi wrapped her arms around N’s neck, nuzzling against his cheek. “N?”
“Yes?”
“I’m happy.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.” Uzi shrugged. “You. Me. Us. My life. The fact that we survived this entire shitshow and we got a happy ending out of it.”
“Most of us…”
Uzi didn’t need to ask what N meant. She knew him better than that.
“V is one of the toughest Drones out there.” Uzi admitted, albeit with hint of reluctance in her voice. “She’ll pull through.”
“Yeah…”
Uzi grinned. “I can’t wait to tease her with the amount of times that Lizzy visited her.”
“Be nice, Uzi.”
“I am nice.”
“Yeah, you are.”
Uzi giggled and halfheartedly punched her boyfriend on his chest. “Stop flirting.”
“I’m trying, but the very sight of you doesn’t make that an easy thing to do.”
“Jeez, did you turn into a Cassanova Drone instead of a Disassembly Drone, N?” Uzi asked jokingly.
“Only for you, Uzi Doorman.”
“Oh, shut up.” Uzi giggled and rested her head on N’s chest, letting out a yawn. She smiled as N’s wings furled around the both of them, covering them up. She snuggled against his chest, giggling as her boyfriend chuckled. “I love you, N.”
“I love you too, Uzi.” N rested his chin on her head, pulling her tightly against his chest before planting a kiss on her the top of her head. “Sleep well.”
Soon, the two Drones found themselves in a deep sleep mode, but unbeknownst to them, a figure was looking at the pod, hiding from view in one of the ruined buildings that surrounded the area. A female worker drone Doll with an eyepatch and dark purple hair. She had a backpack with supplies strapped to her back, ready for a long, long trip. She hoisted her backpack a bit more securely on her back, sighing as she mentally prepared for the journey she was going to take. A small smile formed on the Russian-speaking Drone’s face.
“<Well done, Uzi>” Doll said. “<I hope you and your boyfriend enjoy your lives together, free from the sickness our parents gave us. I hope you’re not too mad I have taken your idea of ‘self-banishment’, but after all I’ve done …it was the only choice I could make.>”
She fished something out of the pocket of her jacket. A picture of her parents. She looked at it for a few moments, before she let go of it and watched it as Copper-9’s wind took it away. She turned her gaze towards the direction of the Bunker and gave a quick salute. “<I forgive you, V. Get better, live your life and try to rein Lizzy a bit. She’s a good girl, but she needs a bit of a reality check every now and then.>”
“<As for you.>” Doll grabbed a second item from her jacket. It was an old human communication device – an old cellphone she had found in the ruins of a ‘museum of human invention’. An obsolete device with limited to no capabilities of remote access or anything. A hardlocked prison. With a scowl, she activated it. A yellow symbol appeared on the screen. She began as she started to walk in the opposite direction of Uzi, N, V, the Bunker and everyone she had ever known. “<You will never use anyone for your own gains again. I will make sure no-one will find you.>”
A text started to form on the screen, but Doll bluntly shoved her little prisoner in her backpack.
“<Just shut up….>” Doll paused and turned around, giving her old home one, final look. She smiled, turned around and took the first steps of her long journey.
To places unknown.