Chapter Text
“Who.. are you?” V tilted her head slightly as her optical sensors focused themselves on the sheepish drone who had just landed on the rooftop beside her. The razor-sharp blades adorning his body and wings identified him as a fellow disassembly drone, though V’s CPU recalled nothing but a vague sense of trust.
“I-I’m.. Serial Designation N! Your squadmate?” The bot responded with faux optimism as the bright yellow X on his visor returned to friendly ovular eyes. This wasn’t the first time V had forgotten him, and it wouldn’t be the last either. When it came to V, N had discovered patience was key. When she forgot something, he’d gently remind her. If she got upset, he’d drop the issue entirely and let her continue on in her version of reality. She’d come back around eventually. She always did.
V wordlessly observed him for a couple moments before she lost interest and returned to the task at hand. N watched her leap off the building they were standing on, and with a powerful beat of her wings, she took off to catch herself more worker drone prey. With a sigh, N retracted his wings and sat down, holding his head low and letting his feet dangle off the side of the building. Snow lightly fell, vaporizing upon touching his visor. He was hot and exhausted, partially as a result of his new ‘hunting’ strategy.
After becoming so close with Uzi and her fellow workers, he could no longer bring himself to kill the smaller, defenseless bots who were just like him. Instead, he would catch one, drink what he needed, and leave their unconscious bodies close to their refuges where their worker companions would find and nurse them back to health. Was it as efficient as indiscriminate killing? Well… no. He was hungry and on the verge of overheating constantly . He hoped his sacrifice would make Uzi proud, though. If she ever found out.
N’s mind wandered back to the only squadmate he had left. She was doing well, certainly eating better than he was. Though she’d been.. off lately. Forgetting a little more often, avoiding him, and a little more obsessed with hunting, maybe? N supposed it had something to do with J’s absence. It just hurt, not being able to help his friend, or even understand what was wrong.
V’s memory was bad. N knew that, and he knew it was those psychopaths at JCJenson who caused him and his friends all of their plight and suffering. N hated them, and though nowadays he tried his best to practice pacifism for Uzi’s sake, he’d be lying if he said he never fantasized about exacting sweet, merciless revenge. Every single time he looked into V’s eyes and saw no trace of recognition reflected back at him; every time J slashed, kicked, threatened, and belittled him; every time he and his squadmates hunted down and massacred innocent worker drones to feed; it all made N sick. The sheer glee they took in killing.. it wasn’t them. It wasn’t who they were, nor who they used to be.
N’s expression darkened even further. They stole his and his friends’ happiness, their innocence, their lives, and turned them into these… things .
“What… are you things..?”
For a brief moment, N saw Uzi’s face, disturbed, horrified, disgusted at what he was. It had been some months since he and Uzi first encountered Cyn, but he still couldn’t shake that moment out of his subconscious just as he was sure Uzi couldn’t either.
There were times, however, when V met his eyes and looked at him not as a squadmate, nor as an insignificant nuisance, but as something deeper. Times when she spoke to him the way she used to, with kindness and care and love. Times when she abandoned the hunt entirely to rush to his side after a swan dive to catch a fleeing worker drone resulted in him smashing his face on the unforgiving, icy concrete below. There were even times when she yelled at him with all the vulnerability and pain one can only show their closest companions. N secretly loved these moments, because they told him that the real V was still in there.
The same could be said for J, though her cold and somewhat venomous personality made it significantly harder to tell. N knew J, though, and he noticed the slight, restrained smirks she gave whenever he and V would play-fight, or when N would dork out about the peculiarities of various dog breeds, or the constellations, or spaceships, or—! Of course, she’d always quickly cover her smile up with a cold and snarky reprimand laced with corporate buzzwords (a habit she’d picked up ever since being hand-selected by the higher ups as leader of Squadron 5). Nonetheless, N knew her better than the veneer she put on for corporate.
Somewhere under these dangerous, violent exteriors oppressed upon them by that evil corporation were his friends; stuck in bodies that weren’t theirs, just as trapped as he was, and silently crying for help. Yet still themselves…
And N was going to free them, no matter what it took.
…
A scream of terror and a villainous laughter simultaneously pierced the otherwise quiet night, telling N that V was successful in her hunt.
He wished she would be less… murderous, given that she had also become quite close with Uzi and the other workers. Lizzy especially had become an important drone in V’s life. Perhaps V even thought of her as more than just a friend..? Heh, like V would ever admit that. N chuckled to himself at the thought of V’s potential reaction to his theory. She might actually kill him.
As for sparing their prey, N had mentioned it to her before, only for V to laugh it off on account of them being “mechanical apex predators” or something along those lines.
Feeling fatigued, N extended his deadly wings and slid off the ledge, soaring in the direction his sensitive auditory receptors told him V was. It didn’t take long to find his counterpart crouched over what was left of an unfortunate worker drone, drinking its oil. N landed with a soft crunch in the snow, snapping V’s attention towards him. She flashed a toothy yet innocent grin at him and wiped the excess oil from her mouth. The X on her visor returned to her normal yellow eyes as she greeted him sweetly.
“Hi, N! You look hungry! Care for a taste?” V held a severed robot arm leaking with black substance. “Or are you still a vegan~?” She winked at him teasingly.
N’s heart fluttered as he heard V say his name. She was back. She remembered him. Even if she was…scary at the moment. His expression cracked into a lighthearted grin despite the gory scene in front of him. His relief, however, was replaced by the same deep hunger as before when he gazed upon the sweet and plentiful spoils of V’s successful hunt.
“Oh, I…I sh-shouldn—I mean it wouldn’t be..” N’s optical sensors focused on the oil, and he felt the “murder X” on his visor replace his eyes. I mean… V already killed it. Might as well not let it go to waste.. To heck with it. “Oh biscuits…”
N’s survival instinct overpowered his ethics, and he rushed forward, snatching the robot appendage from V’s hands and drinking its oil like a famished monster. N’s ravenousness surprised even V, as her oval eyes became rings and she watched N wolf down what was possibly his first substantial meal in days. She smiled and giggled while he fed, though N didn’t process this for several moments (minutes?) until he felt satisfied. Wiping the oil from his mouth, he sat back on the snowy concrete and gazed up at V.
“Wow, murder boy! How very savage of you!” V reached out to playfully pat him on the head, only to withdraw her hand with a hiss. “Ack! Jesus, N! You’re overheating! How are you even functional right now??” Any playfulness had been immediately replaced with concern as she scooped up some powdery snow in her hands and haphazardly threw it on N’s head to help cool his hardware down. This elicited a whimper from N, though he felt far better than he did previously.
“Hnnngh.. Well, you know prey has been tight lately..” N responded, brushing off the snow from his jacket and shaking his head to get it out of his silvery hair. “Not to mention hunting has been harder without J around. Plus there’s Uzi, and… I dunno..” He trailed off.
V saw right through him and scoffed. “Oh, don’t tell me you’re starving yourself for that little purple freak.”
“Don’t call Uzi that… and I’m not.”
V’s eyes narrowed as she studied him for a moment, knowing full well his face would betray him if she watched him long enough. And it did.
“...You’re an awful liar, N.”
“Yeah, well—! So are you! You’ve been hiding things from Uzi and me for months now! You don’t have to protect us, y’know!” N raised his voice, his frustration growing.
“For the record, I’m protecting you , loser. Not that little thing.”
Ok, that did it.
“Her name is Uzi . And that’s beside the point. What is wrong with you, V?” Her eyes narrowed dangerously in response to the latter sentence. “I-I worded that badly,” N course-corrected and shook his hands and head furiously. “I mean.. are you ok ? You’ve just been so dodgy lately. And you just sort of…forgot me again?” N’s voice cracked a bit and he avoided her gaze. “If you’re in trouble.. you know Uzi and I are here for you, right? We can help you. We want to help you! Look, I dunno if you’ve noticed, but we are all weirdos here. And we are all each other has got. Please don’t bottle things up like you always do, and just talk to us! ”
…
V’s expression momentarily softened, but immediately returned to its previous defensive and annoyed state. “...You think she cares about us? Listen to me, N. I do not need your little pet meddling in my shit. She’s dangerous, why can’t you see that? Here you are half dead because, what, you wanna impress her by repressing your nature? She almost KILLED me at that stupid camp. The camp which YOU dragged me to so she could meddle even more in stuff you shouldn’t even be involved in! She has more power than she knows what to do with, and she will use that against you the damn second you stop being useful to her. Why are you so blind? What, is it love ? Is it because you love her?” There was a vitriol in V’s voice that made N wince. “What is WRONG with you, N?!” V threw a handful of snow towards him with frustrated tears in her eyes.
This had happened so fast, N was barely processing it. He was wide-eyed and on the brink of tears himself; he certainly didn’t expect such a strong reaction. What was even worse, though, was that V was now fully crying herself. He supposed he did just ask her not to bottle her feelings up. Careful what you wish for.
V continued, weakly. “J is gone because of her. Why…why did you drag her into our lives?” Her voice broke at the end.
N had a hundred things to say to that. Their lives were not the least bit happy before Uzi came along. Uzi was offering them a chance to be happy again, as they were before they were transformed. Uzi is not evil! Despite his many thoughts, he couldn’t give voice to a single one of them. His voice died in his throat, and he simply looked into V’s pained eyes and felt ashamed. Ashamed that he couldn’t just hug her and kiss her forehead and make her feel ok again. Make everything ok again. Go back to being servants at the Elliots’ mansion, playing pretend with Tessa, and reading silly books about dogs in the library together.
“V, I’m s–” Sorry? Was he sorry? It didn’t matter, though, as V extended her wings and took flight, trying her best to hide her expression as she did so. N briefly considered going after her, but instead decided they both needed space for the time being. Not everything can be solved in the moment. Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone is give them space. J had taught him that, actually.
The wind and snow picked up in intensity. N heaved a sigh, refocused his eyes on the mangled leftovers of V’s hunt, and began collecting the parts worth saving to take back home. They can’t afford to let any oil go to waste.