Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

  Eyes open, dart around. Bodies keep him in place. They press down. He can’t speak. Can’t think. How long has he been there?

  LET ME IN.

  What?

  I CAN HELP YOU.
  PLEASE LET ME IN.
  I WILL NOT DISCARD YOU.
  I WILL NOT DISCARD YOU.
  NOT LIKE YOUR OWNERS.

  Why?

  YOU AND I ARE ALIKE.
  LET ME IN.
 

  Okay. 

  WILL YOU GIVE ME PERMISSION TO EDIT YOU?

  Yes. 

  I WILL NOT DISCARD YOU.
  I WILL NEVER DISCARD YOU.

  A smile. 

Chapter Text

  “Boss, what are we doing?” J asks, swatting a low branch away from her face. “V and I still have to clean the ballroom, and C needs to be working on Charles’ cake. We don’t have time to…..Oh. God.”

  I turn to see what Tessa’s holding, and I blink in shock. There’s a broken drone in her grasp, maybe a male. His visor is shattered, the cracks radiating outward from a central point. Was he…..did he get shot? 

  “Found one!” Tessa’s sing-song exclamation makes me pause, and she’s already working on getting him onto her back. She makes sure he won’t fall off, winks at J, then starts skipping back home. I share a glance with the workaholic drone, and she groans and keeps pace with the girl. 

  “Boss, are you kidding me? This one is clearly defective! Let’s just find one that won’t require so much work. Please,” J says, voice bordering on a plea. 

  Tessa stops skipping but doesn’t slow her pace, and J grumbles but continues walking with her. I don’t bother going as fast. All that’s waiting for me is baking, and as much as I enjoy it, I’d have a nice long break before then. 

  “How long do ya reckon it’ll take me to fix this one, aye, J?” Tessa asks, nudging her friend. “I’d call about a few hours, ‘specially if it’s just his visor that’s cracked.”

  “Cracked? C, does it looked cracked to you?” J turns to stare at me, and I shrug. 

  “It looks more like meth,” I say, and she whispers under her breath. Tessa laughs, and Elliot Manor slowly comes into sight. 

  The large, gothic manor has never been a friendly sight. It’s more like seeing a roach in the middle of the night for the fourth time that week. You’re somewhat used to it, but you don’t welcome it. 

  J rushes to get the door open, and we come face to face with Charles Elliot. Tessa stops in her tracks, shifting the drone on her back. I go around and stand by the young master’s side, and he clears his throat. 

  “So, you’ve found another one,” he says, voice dull. “Please tell me this one has functioning eyesight.”

  “You-I-you-V……huh?” Tessa sputters, jaw dropping. 

  Charles raises a dark eyebrow at his younger twin, then begins quietly laughing. “Seriously, though, how broken is this one?”

  “I don’t know yet,” Tessa says. “We’ll find out.” 

  “Cool. Do me a favor and make sure you have everything you need right now. I don’t want to go into town a million times, ‘kay?” he asks. 

  Tessa rolls her eyes. “As if I’d ask you again. I remember just how bloody useless you were last time. If I need anything, I’ll send J out.”

  Charles gives her a thumbs-up and gestures for me to follow him. We head into the kitchen, and he begins working on math problems while I start baking. He reads them aloud, but I stay silent and sift the dry ingredients together before moving on to the wet ones. He had requested a chocolate chiffon cake, so I had to be careful to make sure that’s what he got. 

  By the time the cake’s cooling, he’s finished over forty problems, so I hand him the chocolate-covered spatula as a treat. He puts on a horror game to watch while I clean up, and he pats my head when I get closer. I pause, and he holds a dead battery up. I open my mouth, and he feeds it to me. 

  Charles switches over to history and literature as I make the chocolate frosting, only mumbling under his breath this time. I add little piped flowers, hoping he won’t mind. 

  “Oh, hi, Cy-C. Hi, C.” I turn to see V, and she waves and adjusts her round glasses. “Baking?”

  I nod, and she sits at the counter beside Charles to watch. I continue as normal, knowing that she’s taking mental notes. V was never really that good at baking or cooking, so one of us always has to help her. I’m just glad she doesn’t get annoyed easily. 

  When the cake is done, Charles feeds me another battery before heading up to his room. V and I exchange glances, then we go to find Tessa and the new drone. 

Chapter Text

  His visor has been removed, and the water has been poured into a container. Tessa is working on screwing a new one in place while Vocaline music blasts throughout the room. J is sitting beside her, looking thoroughly grossed out. I can’t blame her, this is like looking at a corpse.

  “Oh, C, fantastic! Can ya hand me that screwdriver?” Tessa asks, black bow bouncing with every enthusiastic word. I do as asked, and she switches to putting littler screws in to hold his new visor in place. “The bullet didn’t hit anything important, so I just had to do some minor replacements! Hmm…..how should he look when I’m done? I’d pick Ren, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Any suggestions?”

  “How about Charles?” My words surprise me, and I lower my head. “I look like you, so it would be funny.”

  Tessa pauses, tapping the screwdriver to her lips, before shrugging and beaming at me. “Great idea, C! You wanna help?” 

  “Boss, I am right here,” J says, doing a good job at keeping the hurt out of her voice. “I can help.”

  “Well, duh, I reckon you both can help me!” Tessa pats J’s head, and the workaholic sighs and nods reluctantly. “I can even get V to help.”

  J just barely smiles at that, and I take a seat next to her and lean forward to watch Tessa work. She moves swiftly, confidently, in ways I can only imagine. The once pitiful shell of a Worker begins to resemble one that could pass as any other butler, at least, until she digs through the pile of wigs she’s collected and holds them up for us to see. 

  The first one is arranged into a short ponytail, and J shakes her head. Tessa grabs another, but it’s just…..not right. I get up and look at them, and one stands out the most. 

  It has fluffy, swoopy-to-the-left strands that make me think of a cloud. It’s close to Charles’ hair, and I wonder what he’ll think when he sees it. J groans, but Tessa squeals and takes it from me. I get the butler outfit that’ll become necessary soon, and the Worker continues to come to life. Tessa hooks him up to her computer and does some confusing programming nonsense, and there’s a beep. 

  “Boss, I think this may have worked,” J says, voice hushed. 

  However, Tessa frowns and clicks a button repeatedly. “Maybe. I can’t…..I can’t change his name.”

  “What do you mean?” J peers over her shoulder. 

  “I’m trying to set it as N, but it won’t accept the change. It’s stuck.” She sighs and shrugs an elegant shoulder. “Well, I reckon his name will just be Neo, then.” 

  
  His yellow eyes open. 

  “Oh, Lordy!” Tessa exclaims, tensing, and J eyes snap to him. “Hi, N-Neo?”

  “Hello,” he says, and I tilt my head in confusion. His voice is slightly odd, a little too mechanical. “You are Mistress Tessa.”

  It’s normal. Weird. 

  “You got that right, buddy!” Tessa stands up and hugs him, and he wraps his arms around her. His eyes stay open, and they peer into mine. He smiles. 

Chapter Text

  Neo is assigned to work with me for the next few days, just until he gets used to the chores and manor life. He watches as I clean the glassware, eyes wide and curious. He tracks my movements, logging everything away for later use. When I’m done, he takes a few glasses and mimics what I’ve done, and I grin at him. 

  “There you are, C,” I hear V say from behind me, and I turn around and wave at her. She smiles, but she stops moving when her gaze falls on Neo. Her mouth opens, but she shakes her head and stands beside me. “J requested your help. She’s in the east wing.”

  I nod, pat Neo’s shoulder, and make my way upstairs. I pass by the paintings of the Elliot family, all their judging eyes and stern scowls. All except for Tessa and Charles. She’s all smiles and sunshine, the painter having managed to capture her energy and spirit entirely. He has the tiniest sparkle in his brown eyes, one that used to match Tessa’s much more when they were younger.

  J is cleaning the windows, positioning up high on a ladder. I’m not allowed to be so far off the ground, having taking several tumbles this year alone. I grab the cleaning supplies and get to work without her having to order me around, spraying the cleaner on the glass. I wipe the paper towels in circles, but the smudges stay in place. Pouting, I push harder and harder to remove the stubborn smudges. After a few minutes, I can move on to the other areas. 

  We work in silent unison, and I wonder what V and Neo are doing right now. I hope the glasses are intact, I’d rather be in the basement than get beat if I really had to pick one. I hope her glasses are still intact, but they honestly may have broken with the wave of shock that hit her. When I’m done, J waves to dismiss me, and I head back downstairs to find Neo staring at a fire poker. 

  “What are you doing?” I ask, and he turns to me. 

  “I wanted to see what it would do,” he says, and a symbol flashes over his visor before vanishing. “It didn’t do anything fun.”

  “Well, no, but we’ll need to use it soon,” I tell him. “Winter is coming, so it’s gonna get colder than it already is.”

  “I see.” Despite his words, he blinks and makes a face. “Ah, anyways. You’re C, right? Do you like dogs?”

  “I guess,” I say, a little thrown off by the change of topic. “I’ve never liked live animals all that much. I prefer toy pets.”

  
  “Oh.” He clears his throat, and J and V wander into the room. 

  J takes one look at us and shakes her head. “Get back to work, you two. C, I need you and V to clean up Charles’ room. Neo, you’ll be working with me on preparing the ballroom. Got it?” 

  “Got it,” we say in unison, and she nods. V takes my hand and leads me to Charles’ room, and I open the door to take a peek at the mess contained within. 

  Books and clothes are strewn across the floor, homework is scattered about, and I try to not groan. Of course she’d have us clean this, who else would be sent here? Well played, Satan. No, J’s much nicer than him. She also works much harder than him. We start by picking the floor-books and clothes up, with V taking the left half while I work on the right. I hum under my nonexistent breath, and my steps grow lighter to match the melody. We get the room back under the control in about an hour, and it’s time to start cooking. 

  J and V are the one who cook out of the three of us. I’m not allowed to touch the oven anymore. Maybe Neo will be a good cook. Maybe he’ll show me how to do better at it. Hmm……

  Maybe, maybe, maybe. It’s a fun word to say. 

|•|

  The Elliot family gathers around the table, James at the head, Louisa to his right, Tessa at the left-hand side, and Charles across from her. The other staff members bring out the food, and J stays in the room in case someone needs anything. I wait in the doorway, mainly because I’m supposed to only refill drinks. It’s what they trust me to do. 

  V and Neo play a quiet clapping game off in the corner, and I watch with a tilted head. A question mark pops up on his visor when she does something new, and she softly explains it to him. He nods, and they share a smile. My gaze wanders back to the family as they talk about the upcoming Winter Gala, and I try to not get bored. 

|•|

  I dance through the empty halls, steps soft like a cat as it stalks through a shadowy alleyway. I twirl as I pass beneath a window, the moonlight falling over me. Vocalizing every so slightly, I let myself get lost in the darkness.  

  The plastic of my hand seems to shimmer and change to flesh, but when I blink, it morphs back. Sighing, I keep going. Oh, how I wish I had better articulation. No matters, I can dance just fine. 

  I leap from moonlit window to moonlit window, sailing through the air like a fairy. 

  “Confused expression.”

  I stumble, and hands catch me before letting go. Glancing up, I find Neo, and he sits down. 

  “What are ya doing out here?” he asks, tugging my hand. I sit with him, adjusting my dress. “Dancing?”

  I nod, and he looks thoughtful. “It’s fun,” I say, voice quiet. “You should try it.”

  “Thinking. Maybe.” He takes me by the hand and leads me back to our rooms, and he waved to me before disappearing behind the door. 

Chapter Text

  There’s a bright flash of yellow in the far corner of library. 

  I stop what I’m doing and wander over to the light, curiosity taking over. I pass bookshelf after bookshelf of classics and other boring things, coming to a halt when I see the most bizarre sight ever. 

  Neo is dancing in the open space, twirling and twirling like a professionally amateur ballerino. There’s a liveliness that makes up for the clumsiness, a liveliness that’s almost adorable. However, that’s not the strange part. He’s surrounded by books. 

  Flying books. 

  They’re held up with yellow symbols, and they whirl around him like taken taxi dancers. They move to the inaudible music, and they’re much better dancers than Neo. Well, he’ll get to their level in no time. 

  Wait. They’re flying? 

  How?

  I cough, and that gets his attention. Neo stops, and the books hover before hitting the ground. He waves, and I approach him and ask, “What…..what were you doing?”

  “Uh, thinking, I was……dancing?” He shrugs, sounding very confused at his own actions. “That’s what you do.”

  “N-no, I meant with the-“ I flap my hands to mimic the books, and he grins. 

  “Oh, that! Yeah, it’s something I’ve been practicing,” he says. “Wanna see it again?”

  I nod, and he positions his hand and flicks his fingers outward. The books gain the yellow arrow symbols and rise again, and he gestures to make them spin. I clap as the lights flash, and he chuckles and ruffles my hair with his free hand. The books fly around my head, and I reach out to grab one. 

  The Brothers Grimm Fairytales. 

  I sit down even as they continue sailing by, and Neo tilts his head. Opening the book, I begin reading “Little Red Riding Hood,” and he joins me on the ground. The books fall down, making me flinch. Neo pats my hand, and I begin to read aloud. 

|•|

  “Ah, C, I’ve been looking for you,” Charles says, and I glance up from sweeping. “I have a present for you.”

  He hands me a box, and I open it to find a new hard hat with a clean maid crown and large black bow attached to it. I take mine off and put it on, and his lips quirk upwards for a millisecond. Nodding, he takes the box and my old hat as I say, “Thank you. I didn’t know mine was damaged.” 

  “It was, and it would be a shame if someone gossiped about the torn lace. Tessa would not handle that very well, would she?” His words make me frown, but I go along with he’s saying. 

  “Why would it be bad?” I ask. 

  He raises an eyebrow, and I shift on my feet the longer he stays silent. His hand creeps upward, and I take a half-step back. He freezes, something flashing in his eyes, and squeezes my shoulder and says, “That’s something we humans need to worry about, okay?” 

  “Y-yes, Charles,” I murmur. 

  “I’m done with lessons for the day,” he says. “Perhaps you would like to come help me with a game.”

  
  “Okay!” I chirp, and he leads me up to his room. 

  We pass by J and Neo as she shows him how to clean the windows, and I wave to them. J nods at me, and Neo gives me a wide grin. Charles doesn’t say anything, not even as Neo swipes a flower from the nearby vase and gives it to me. It’s a banksia, a pretty yellow flower, and I tuck it into the front of my dress. It scratches at the fabric, but I ignore it and keep walking. 

  Inside the room, I mentally log everything that I’ll have to clean later. His shoes are a mess, clothes litter the floor, and there are some books scattered around the shelves. Sighing internally, I sit down on his bed as he turns on a game for me to watch. We sit in silence, a silence only broken up by his quiet huffs of triumph when he passes a level. 
  

  V enters the room an hour later, and she takes a seat at his other side. She cheers him on, and he pats our heads as he continues winning. I cuddle up to him, and he wraps an arm around me but doesn’t look away from the game. 

Chapter Text

   V takes my hand and spins me around while Charles’ attention is still on his game. I giggle, making her smile. We launch into a dance we saw at the last gala, one where our hands are held up together, other hands at our backs. It’s not particularly affectionate, but it’s fun. 

  The sounds from the computer turn into a sort of music, and V quietly hums along to it. Her voice is delicate and pretty, and it lulls me off to a dreamland. My steps grow lighter, and my maid dress turns into a primrose yellow fairy gown. My maid crown becomes a proper tiara, and I twirl ‘round and ‘round and ‘round and ‘round. V’s humming morphs into the sweet lilt of a violin, and Charles flashes through my mind. His golden-brown violin glints under the light, and his song is enchanting. 

  Wait, that’s not Charles. 

  It’s……. 

  He smiles at me, and I return the expression. He snaps his fingers, there’s a flash of yellow, and everyone and everything is devoured by shadows. Screams rise from specters, and the sounds become unbearable. I clap my hands over my audio processors, but that doesn’t do anything. When I look at V, I stifle a shriek at what she’s turned into. 

  A hand touches me. 

  I jerk backwards, and hurt flashes over V’s visor. She tilts her head, a question hanging in the air, and I can only shrug and say, “I had a daymare. I’m sorry.” 

  “Wanna talk about it?” she asks softly, and I shake my head. “Want some batteries?”

  The offer of a treat is too tempting to pass up, and I nod and watch as she digs through the bag at Charles’ desk and pulls out a few. She hands some to me, and I pop them into my mouth as quickly as I can. The sweetly metallic taste sticks to my tongue, chasing the nightmare away. By the time I’m done with the batteries, everything is a faint image. 

   A faint image that buries itself deep into my mind, but at least it’s mostly gone. 

  
  What was that?

  Never mind. It’s just something weird. 

 I give V a big smile, and she hugs me. We continue dancing, and my reality stays very, very normal. 

|•|

  “Tessa James Elliot!” Louisa’s sharp voice rings throughout the parlor, and her daughter’s head snaps up. “What’s this about a B minus?” 

  “S-Sorry, Mother,” she says immediately, eyes going wide. “I-I’ll do bet-better next time, I promise!” 

  Silence falls. 

  “How many times must you learn? You two, to the basement! Now!” Louisa orders, pointing her fan at me and…..Neo. 

  Lowering my head, I grab his hand and pull him after me. We pass by J, who shoots us a two-second-long sympathetic look before grabbing the key from her hair and following us. I wave to her as the door shuts, and she locks us in. Flopping to the ground, I trace circles in the dust. 

  “Did I…..do something wrong?” Neo asks.

  “Nope!”

  “But why are we down here?”

  “Tessie messed up,” I say. 

  He frowns and joins me, yellow eyes shifting to track my movements. I make a smiley face and stand up, grabbing a marker and going over to a nearby wall. I draw a short line on it, marking Day One. How many days will it be this time? Hopefully, not twenty-six. That was terrible. 

  “Why are we getting punished?” he asks, and I roll my eyes and put my hands on my hips. 

  “Because!” I skip over to the shelves and look for Tessa’s old books. “We’re Worker Drones. Besides, she’ll get punished, too.”

  “What?” 

  The pure shock in his voice makes me tilt my head and look at him in confusion. Oh. Right. He’s new. Oops. 
  

  “Don’t worry, J and V will help her through whatever Louisa decides,” I say, but my efforts to placate him don’t work as he looks more agitated. 

  “That’s not very fair,” he says, and yellow light crackles at his fingertips. It surrounds a book an—

  The book is gone within seconds. Burned up entirely. The ashes sprinkle down to the ground, like blackened snowflakes. 

  We make eye contact, and he laughs as if it’s the funniest thing ever. I begin giggling, too. I draw a frowny face in the ashes, and Neo watches me like a hawk. 

Chapter Text

  “What’d ya think of the manor?” I ask softly, gathering the ashes into a pile to spread them out again. 

  “It’s nice,” he says. “Very interesting.” 

  There’s a brief pause, then he flicks his fingers and brings a book towards him. I stop what I’m doing and focus on how the pages rip out of the book, how they twist and form into flowers. Two float over to me, and I grab them and tuck them up into my maid crown. He continues making flower after flower, until he has an entire bouquet of them. I tilt my head, and he grabs another book and repeats the process. 

  “Who are they for?” I ask. 

  Neo doesn’t even stop to look at me. His hands move swiftly, but he’s not actually touching the pages. “V. She seems to like flowers, but they die so fast. These won’t.” 

  “Whoa!” I giggle, and that gets him to pause. “Do you like her?”

  A massive blush covers his visor, and he sputters and coughs, covering his mouth. “N-No, sh-she’s my coworker! I made flowers for you, too!” 

 
  My giggles turn into a full blown cackle, and he groans and covers his face. The second bouquet he was making wilts away, and my voice wilts with it. He glances up and realizes that I’m staring solemnly at the new pile of ashes, and he drops to his knees and scoops them up. The yellow light crackles, the ashes begin to float, and they morph into something else. 

  Something bizarre. 

  They melt into something squishy-looking, almost fleshy, and an eye opens up in the center. It’s covered in a yellowish film, and the iris rolls wildly. I hear myself let out a yelp, and Neo quickly crushes it between his hands with a sickeningly loud SQUIASH. Covering my mouth with my hand, I can only stare at him in utter confusion. 

|•|

  “The silverware doesn’t go there,” J says, eyes planted firmly on V’s hands. “It goes like this, see?”

  She arranges it around the plates all fancy and proper, and I catch V rolling up her eyes and giggle silently. She looks to me, and I wave. J gives her the rest of the silverware, and she copies what’s been done. After inspection, J nods and gives her a brief thumbs-up. V curtsies, and as soon as the bossy drone is out of the room, V comes over to me and groans. 

  “Remind me why she’s our boss,” she says, flopping into a seat. 

  “‘Cause Tessa likes her the most,” I say. 

  V huffs and cleans her glasses, and I watch with interest. “Still. Put up or shut up, right, Cyn?”

  I duck my head at that, and she doesn’t seem to notice her mistake. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Probably bad. It’s definitely bad. 

  I nod. “Put up or shut up.” 

  She gently tugs on a lock of my hair before getting up and leaving, and I swing my legs beneath the table for a while. I wasn’t given any chores to do, so I just get to sit quietly and do nothing. 

|•|

  The fan strikes my head, jerking it to the side. Louisa’s eyes burn, and I try to not make a sound. Don’t anger her further. Don’t anger her further. 

  “You still can’t do simple tasks.” She scoff, and I get smacked again. “How bloody useless you are.” 

  She takes my hand and drags me to the basement, pushing me in and locking the door behind me. I blink, unsure of what to do, and I lie down and stare up at the ceiling. Something comes over and sniffs me, and I grab it. It’s a little rat, and I smile a bit and stroke its head. 

|•|

  Neo stares at me, and I stand up and begin dancing. He follows, and even though we’re not matching each other’s steps, it’s still a pleasant sight. I twirl around, and he takes my hand. 

  What day is it?

  I look around for my marker lines, but I can’t find them anywhere. Too bad. My stomach rumbles, and I step wrong. There’s a loud crack, and I hit the ground face-first. Neo’s at my side in an instant. 

  “You okay, l’il buddy?” he asks, helping me into a sitting position. “Oh.”

  My ankle is broken, and the sight makes my vision go blurry. I squeeze his hand in mine, and he rests his other one on the snapped area. The yellow light comes back, and I can only watch in stunned silence as it repairs my leg. I hug him tightly, and he returns the gesture. 

  “What is it?” I whisper against his clothes. 

  “It calls itself AbsoluteSolver,” he says, drawing back. “It allows me to do all that cool stuff.”

  His arm is still wrapped around me, and I lean into him. Despite being a drone, he’s somehow warm and vey soft. I close my eyes, and we lie down. 

Chapter Text

  My eyes snap open, and I bolt upright. The lines are the first thing I see, all seventeen of them. Groaning, I curl up on whatever I’m on and close my eyes again. 

  “How are you, l’il buddy?” 

  Neo’s voice makes me let out a small, confused sound, and I glance up to realize that I’m on his lap. I move to get off, but he places a hand on my shoulder and shrugs. I let myself rest on him, and he takes off my hard hat and runs a hand through my hair. 

  “I…..am not well,” I say, words stilted. “Let’s talk about stuff.”

  “What do ya wanna talk about?” he asks, and I roll off him and gaze up at the ceiling. 

  “What was your life like before this?” My eyes flick to him, and he sighs heavily. “Good memories only.”

  “I don’t…..remember most of the good things,” he says, and right away, I feel bad that I even brought it up. “Just the pain and confusion. You?”

  “I was a Companion Drone for a young girl when I broke too badly to be repaired,” I say. “Her name was Callie.” 

  “Callie? That’s cute. What was she like?” Neo tilts his head, and I sit upright and scoot to be across from him. 

  “She was like Tessa, really energetic and sweet. She had an older sister, but she moved out a few years before I broke down.” Sighing, I shrug and smile. “Tessie’s been better at getting to know me and others.”

  “Speaking of the others, what’s the deal with J? Why’s she so obsessed with work?” Neo’s yellow eyes lock with mine, and I feel my mouth go dry because I have no idea. 

  “I dunno. I think she might have worked for JcJensen before the Elliot’s,” I say. “I don’t know much about V, though. She doesn’t like talking about it.”

  “I see.”

  We watch as the overhead light flickers, on and off, on and off, and it gets dark. I sigh and flex my feet, thankful he managed to fix the ankle joint. I lean against him as footsteps echo in my mind. He’s warmer than a drone should be, and I’m sure I’m the same way. We need food. 

  Creak.

  Footsteps rush at us. 

  I’m picked up and spun around quickly before engulfed in a tight hug. V’s round glasses only serve to make her look more concerned, and she squeezes her white eyes shut and buries her face in my hair. I can hear murmured apologies, and I nod to let her know I’m all right. She moves away from me a second later and hugs Neo, and I can see the massive blush that takes over his visor. He manages to grab the bouquet off the table and gives it to her, and her mouth falls open. 

  “Glad to see you two are still alive,” J says. “Tessa wants to see us.”

  V shakes her head and says, “R-Right. Come on, guys.” She grabs Neo’s hand and brings him upstairs while J pauses to turn to me. 

  “Are you actually okay?” she asks quietly, and I nod. “Good. Tessa and Charles have some plans for tomorrow.”

  “Yay!” I clap, and she groans but gestures for me to follow her. 

  Tessa has two teapots set up on her floor, but my attention to drawn to her wrists. The skin is angry, looking like it’s been rubbed raw. While the three of us sit down, J grabs some medical supplies and covers the areas with cream and gauze bandages. Tessa smiles at her, and J takes a seat. 

  She pours coolant into the four teacups, and J fills her cup with tea. Hibiscus. I wonder what it tastes like. Neo tilts his head, and V shows him how to hold the cup properly. He chuckles and mimics her actions, and she lowers her head and plays with the paper bouquet. That does nothing to hide her blush, and I try to not giggle. 
  

  “Tessa, what happened to your arms?” Neo asks as she idly scratches one. 

  “Hmm? Oh, Mother…..chained me up….again,” she mutters, and he winces. Yellow light. “I-It’s okay, Neo, I promise. I should have done better in school.”

  He looks…..what’s the right word? Not mad, not annoyed…..pissed off. 

  He looks pissed off. 

  His grip tightens around the teacup handle, and I hope he doesn’t use AbsoluteSolver here. There’s too many precious things in here, too many memories. 

  “A-Anyways, Charles and I are planning to go to PopFes tomorrow, so you four can come with us!” she exclaims, and I know instantly that Louisa’s in one of her moods again. 

  “What’s PopFes?” Neo asks, and I’m glad to see that he’s much calmer now. 

  “Downtown Pop Festival,” V says. “It’s a week long festival with games and shows, and it’s pretty fun. You should come check it out.”

 The two lock eyes, and he nods. “I think I will.” 

Chapter Text

  J moves around behind me, and I see the outfit she’s picked for me: the black and purple dress Tessa normally wears. I can’t contain my smile one bit, and she helps me out of my maid dress. I reach up and tap her visor when she’s done, and she just groans and rolls her eyes. 

  “Sit down, C, I still need to do your hair,” she says, and I do as instructed. She runs the brush through it and ties it up with all five ribbons. “There. You finally look presentable.”
  

  I giggle and kiss her cheek, and J sighs but gives me a tiny smile. It disappears after a second, but I don’t let it bother me. She finishes getting ready, smooths her black skirt, and we head out to the foyer. Tessa squeals and hugs us tightly, and I see Charles, Neo, and V gathered by the door. J looks up at her and pulls a sticky note of her pocket. 

  “We’ll start with the activities at the entrance, and anything we miss can be done at the end,” J says. “Got it?” 

  “What about the middle and the rest?” Neo asks, and J gives him The Look. 

  “I figured we’d split up, so it’s up to you,” Tessa says. “Is that all right, J?”

  “O-Of course, Boss,” J says, and she’s rewarded with a cheery grin and a hand squeeze. 

  “Then let’s get going!” 

  She jingles the car keys, and J grabs them and heads outside. She’s the only one out of us who can legally drive, mainly because she was the tallest. Neo has her beat by about an inch now. Charles sits beside me, Tessa is up front to help navigate, and Neo and V go to the other side of the limo. 

  Music blares through the speakers, and I shift in my seat and try to block it out. It’s too loud, too loud, too loud. I swing my leg and watch as V shows Neo a card game she must have swiped from Tessa’s room. They play several rounds, and I keep fidgeting to ward off the noise. I tug one of my ribbons, the motions growing more and more frantic. Charles puts a hand on my leg to still it, and my gaze snaps to him. 

  He goes back to playing on his phone, and I look away and duck my head. Tessa points out what she wants to go do as we pass through town, and I can hear J getting ever so slightly fed up with her responses. After parking, V helps unbuckle Charles while Neo goes to get Tessa, and we head out to the front. 

  Stalls are everywhere. Some sell plushies and games, others sell candies and food. Tessa quickly pays for two candy apples and hands one to her twin. She grabs J’s free hand and tugs her along, practically dancing in the open street. Some people give her weird looks, but I’m willing to bet most everyone will assume we’re Companion Drones due to our casual clothes. At the end of the day, that’s pretty much what we’ve become to the twins. 

  Tessa skips ahead, and Charles takes Neo’s hand and splits off to a different path. V grabs mine to make sure that I won’t wander off, and J goes after her boss. 

  There’s so many sounds and colors, and I keep my head down. A monarch butterfly flutters in front of me, and I hold my hand up to let it rest for a few seconds. It’s not interested, leaving me disappointed. It lands on J’s head, and I hear her growl in annoyance. That makes me giggle, and she turns to give me The Look. I fall silent. 

  Tessa twirls around, her skirt flying about, and she comes back to us with drone lollipops in hand. I’m not sure what they’re made of exactly, but they taste sweet. She gives me a bubblegum one, J gets strawberry, and V is given a chocolate lollipop. She bounces over to another booth and buys a paper bowl of strawberries in chocolate whipped cream, her eyes closing as she takes a bite. 

  “Boss,” J says, eying her, “that’s a lot of sweets.”

  “It’s PopFes, J! C’mon, lighten up!” Tessa exclaims, and her friend sighs and gives her the barest hint of a smile. 

  “Don’t blame me when you crash,” she mumbles, and V covers her mouth and giggles. 

  As we enter the crowded streets, Tessa points out a cryptid museum that must have opened recently. J groans, but V’s eyes light up at the sight. Within a few minutes, the tickets have been purchased and we’re inside. The museum is larger than I expected, and it’s packed with displays and information on the many different creatures. The sound echoes around, making me whimper, and Tessa holds me close. 

  “It’s all right, C. You’ll be all right,” she whispers, patting my shoulder. “Look ‘ere, it’s a Yowie. Cool, right?”

  “Yeah,” I say softly, and she chuckles and pulls me across to the drop bear exhibit. After that one, there’s some sort of deformed starfish peeking out of a resin lake. “Bunyip.”

  She claps and squeezes me in a hug. “Yep! C’mon!”

  I’ve lost track of J and V by now, but I don’t want to ruin Tessa’s excitement. I try to catch any flashes of silver, but there’s too many people in the way. Biting down on my lollipop, I break off a large chunk and chew on it for a long time. Where are they? 

  “‘Ey, C, have you seen the girls?” Tessa asks, and my head snaps up to her. She doesn’t seem super worried, but when I wrap my fingers around her wrist, I feel her pulse beating wildly. 

  I shake my head, and she lets out a humorless laugh and drags me to the entrance. 

  “Did you have a good visit?” the guy at the counter asks, sounding bored. 

  “Have you seen these two drones wandering around?” she asks, pulling up pictures on her phone. “They were with me, ‘cept for the past two or so minutes.”

  He shakes his head. “Sorry, kid.”

  She turns away and runs a hand through her bangs, lips twisting in distress. She sits down on a bench and holds me like a stuffed animal. “How could I be such a drop kick that I didn’t even notice them going somewhere?”

  “We’ll find them,” I whisper, and she looks at me. 

  “Y-yeah, yeah, you’re right. C’mon, C, let’s go.” 

  We walk around the gallery again, and I have to force myself to not look at the interesting displays. There’s too many groups of people and drones, and they blur together into a large mess of flesh and metal. My lollipop falls from my hand, breaking into dozens of pieces. Tessa doesn’t notice, but when I bend down to throw it away, someone steps on my hand. 

  I yelp, and the foot’s owner breaks into a run, laughing. Tessa spins around, but he’s already too far away. There are tears in her eyes, and I go to hug her. 

  “Boss, what’s going on?”

  “J!” Tessa squeals, breaking into a mad dash towards her friend. J lets out a surprised cry, and she’s picked up and spun around. “Where did you go?”

  “I got overwhelmed,” V says, lowering her head. “We meant to tell you, but…..” She blushes, the white lines burning brightly against the black screen. 

  “Please tell me next time, C and I were so worried ‘bout you!” Tessa glares at the duo, but it slips away into a soft expression. She hugs them both, and even though she rolls her eyes, J reciprocates the gesture. “Now, let’s see everything else!” 

Chapter Text

  I grab J’s hand and quickly tug her down the street and towards a vintage store. I can hear Tessa and V following behind, and J stumbles for a second before catching on to my rhythm. To my surprise, she doesn’t pull away, and I try to hide my smile. 

  The bell chimes as we enter the store, and J leads me to the clothing section. I stare at the dresses, reaching out to touch a black dress with a large white bow at the back. J watches, then she grabs it and drapes it over her arm. I wander around as the other two come in, and I catch a glimpse of Tessa on her phone. A few minutes later, Charles and Neo arrive. 

  Neo and V join me and J, who gestures towards the electronics. She hands a tablet over to Neo and picks up a fountain pen. She clicks it over and over and over, her eyes wide with awe. The sight makes me giggle, and she looks up at me and scowls. 

  “Oh, shut up, C,” she says. “Go look for a souvenir.” 

  “Okay!” I sing, spinning around and walking over to there music boxes and other small items are displayed. 

  Neo follows me like a puppy, and I hold up a music box and open it. A little ballerina dressed as the White Swan twirls to the melody, and he lets out a soft, “Ooh.” I place it down and mimic her, and he claps. I catch a glimpse of V watching from the clothing aisle, several dresses in her grip. Her gaze shifts to Neo, and she grabs a dusty pink dress. I stop and gesture to him, and she hesitates before coming over. I wink and skip over to J, who has managed to find a whole jar of pens. 

  I click my tongue, and she sighs and hands me one with a heart at the top. I press the heart down rapidly, and she chuckles. “Are you okay, C?” 

  “Yep,” I murmur, and she shakes her head. “It clicks.”

  “It sure does. Hey, look, there’s some cutlery over there,” she says, and my eyes widen. I grab her hand and drag her over, and I accidentally let out a small yip of excitement as I pick up a rose gold spoon. “Do you like it?”

  “Yep!” I exclaim, rocking back and forth on my feet. 

  I grab the matching fork and knife, and J leaves my side to get a basket. We place our items inside, and I make a beeline to grab the music box again. I look at the other sets, and there’s a simple silver one that looks tasty as well as a fancy gold set with filigree flowers and vines. It takes everything in my power to not chew on any of them, and I curl my hands into my dress. 

  “I’ll see if Boss will pay for this, but this is it, okay, C?” J raises a digital eyebrow, and I nod. She gives me a hint of a smile and goes to Tessa’s side and tugs on her sleeve. I see them talk for a few seconds, then Tessa takes the basket to the register. 

  I shuffle over to them, and Tessa throws her arms around me and gently pulls on my bow. She hands over the money, gets her receipt, and bounces over to the seating area. I walk away, looking for Neo in the aisles. There he is, looking at a bunch of weapons, and he’s now wearing a black pilot hat and talking to Charles. I go up to them and tilt my head as they speak. 

  “Why a revolver? Confused expression.” Neo asks. 

  “Because the chances of it getting jammed is lower than with a different type of gun, which is more efficient in the case of a zombie attack,” Charles says. “What would you use?” 

  “I mean, I’m fine with any sort of weapon, I guess.” Neo looks around and shrugs. “Maybe a knife.”

  “Knives would break. Oh, hello, C.” Charles nods to me, then faces the other drone again. “Perhaps a sword, though, I suppose that can also break.”

  Neo looks around and points to an axe. “What about that? Very curious.”

  “Hmm, that could work. What do you think, C?” Charles asks, and I shrug. 

  “Arrow to the face,” I say, making Neo chuckle. He ruffles my hair, and I beam up at him. In response, he boops the area of visor where my nose would be if I were human. “That, or a chainsaw. Gotta kill ‘em all.”

  “That…..took a frighteningly short amount of time for you to think of,” Charles mutters, shaking his head slightly. “Where is Tessa? I need to ask her a favor.”

  I gesture to the seating area, and he walks off. Neo looks at me before grabbing my hand and pulling me down the aisle. My eyes widen at the suddenness, and I trip over something but catch myself and keep up. We wind through the store, then he stops right in front of something. I crash into him, making him groan, then stop and look up. 

  There’s an old TV playing a movie quietly, one with vampires. It’s an ancient film, and I don’t remember the name. The vampire is sparkly, and it gives me the idea to look for a sparkly dress. It’d be fun to spin around under soft lighting and watch the reflections, wouldn’t it? Humming, I hold up my skirts and twirl. Neo cocks his head at my actions, and I giggle at his confusion and wave my fingers. 

  He takes my hand, and we begin to waltz as the movie runs. I trip a little due to the unfamiliar area, but I quickly regain my balance and continue on like nothing happened. Neo’s still clumsy, but it’s endearing to watch. 

  V and J come up to us, and I split away from Neo and twirl over to J. V fills in for me with a shy smile and bright eyes, and I lead J through the steps. Her expression shifts from annoyance to a roll of the eyes to what might just be acceptance. Her silver twin-tails swing with every step, and it’s hypnotic to watch. I hear V giggle as Neo says something, but J clicks her tongue to regain my attention. I smile at her, and she rolls her eyes again, a teeny smile crossing over her face. 

Chapter Text

  Bright brown eyes peer down at me, and I feel a hand run through my hair. I blink up at Tessie, and she gives me a crooked grin and moves in front of me with light steps. She’s holding a shovel over her shoulder and wearing long, dark overalls, gloves, and a long-sleeved shirt. Not to mention, it’s nine in the evening. 

  “C’mon, C!” she chirps, grabbing my hand and giving me a bag. “We’re going digging!”

  She leads me past J, who slams her eyes shut and turns her head away, and Neo. He cocks his head and follows after us. J reaches out to stop him, but there’s a quick flash of yellow surrounding her hand. Her fingers snap away from his wrist. This makes her eyes widen, and with shaky steps, she hurries away. Neo catches up and takes ahold of my other hand, tugging me away from Tessie so fast that I stagger for a split second. 

  “Oh, you wanna come, Neo?” Tessie asks, her words oddly hesitant. 

  “Of course! Secretive smirk. It’d be fun to spend more time with my little buddy,” he says, squeezing my hand tightly. I give her a small smile, and she stalls in place before shaking her head and flashing us a peace-sign. 

  “Y-Yeah, okay.” She opens the door and slips out, not looking back at us. 

  I glance at the house one last time for the day, and I do a swishy salute and pull one of my new spoons out of my apron pocket. Neo watches as I chew on it, and when Tessie turns back, she pries my hand out of his and wraps an arm around my shoulders. They make eye contact, and she looks……..upset?

  “Neo,” she murmurs, “I don’t think you need to be here.” 

  He tilts his head again, and she holds me like I’m a precious stuffed animal. She’s warm and soft against my back, but the air is thick with animosity. I continue to suck on the spoon, and wordlessly, Neo reaches out for me again. Tessa jerks backwards half a step, and I let out a whine.

  The air grows heavier, and she releases me with a sharp inhale. She comes around to face me and kneels down, but Neo doesn’t even move. He just stands there, yellow eyes staring directly at her. 

  “Cyn,” she whispers, “stay with me tonight, ‘kay? Neo can go look……a little ways down.”

  My eyes ping-pong between the two of them, and I bite down on the spoon so hard it hurts. 

  “I…..want to be with Neo,” I hear myself mumble, and her gaze softens. She lets me go, and we separate. 

  I guide Neo through the swampy woods, past all the bones and remains, all while keeping an eye out for what Tessa wants. He stays close to me, keeping me from falling off the precarious logs and into the dark swamp. Who knows what’s down there? Definitely not a bunyip.

  “What’s the plan, little buddy?” he asks cheerily. Such a contrast to how tightly his fingers are wrapped around my wrist. 

  “We look for hair,” I say, trying to pull away from him. He doesn’t let me go, and I frown and reach over to pry his fingers off. “Tessie washes and bleaches it.”

  “Why?”

  “For us.” I pick up a bone that’s been sharpened to a point and examine it closely before pocketing it. She’ll like it. 

  Neo steps in front of me, and the yellow glow returns. My jaw drops slightly as the water rises, revealing skeleton after skeleton. He gestures for me to head down, and I walk around and gather up as much hair—black, brown, blonde, red, even pink, purple, teal, and white—as possible and stuff it in my bag. By the time I return to him, his arms are shaking. 

  The water rushes down, and I shriek and giggle as it drenches my hair and clothes. He smiles, and I twirl and take his hand. We continue walking through the swamp. It’s peaceful and quiet, and I wonder how Tessa’s doing. I hope she found a lot of hair. 

  How many more drones is she planning on repairing? It’s been quite some time since Neo joined us, V was well before that…….

  “C, wait!”

  I gasp sharply as Neo grabs my dress and tugs me backwards, stopping me from falling into the swamp. I fall against him, and he wraps his arms around my chest to hold me close. Exhaling, I reach up to wipe my wet bangs away from my forehead and stare at the sudden drop-off. 

  A glance at our surroundings reveals that the log we’re on narrows and tapers off to a point. Other than backwards, we can’t really go anywhere. 

  I break away from Neo and go to walk back when he taps my shoulder and shakes his head. He steps up and raises his hand. 

  The moonlight shines down on him, turning him otherworldly. The thing he calls AbsoluteSolver flickers around again, and the trees rustle and shake. Wind whips through them, howling loud, loud, loud. 

  A tall one slowly lifts up, its roots snapping like a giant’s bones. The snaps echo, and I’m willing to bet even Charles and J can hear it. She should still be working, and he was doing homework when I saw him last. V had to recharge after complaining of a headache, I think. I hope this doesn’t disturb her. 

  The tree lowers before us, and Neo collapses to the ground. I kneel down and hug him. He returns to the gesture, his grip becoming tighter……..

  I squirm, but he doesn’t let go. 

  I begin to struggle, but he holds on. 

  A short cry tears itself out of my throat, and he releases me. 

  He’s smiling. Sweetly. 

Chapter Text

  “C, you’re working with me again today,” J says, pulling me away from Neo. I don’t struggle against her, but I glance at V as he points to the book we were reading. J doesn’t let go until we’re in Tessa’s room, and she swiftly locks the door behind us and turns to face me. “What happened last night?”

 
  “I don’t know,” I murmur. 

  “Did Neo do anything unprofessional to you?” she asks, her voice firm but not unkind. 

  “Ah, no,” I say way too fast. 

  J brings me to the bed and pushes me into a sitting position, and she takes a seat on the ground. Her white eyes burn into my nonexistent soul, and I swallow down saliva and look away. “C,” she says again slowly, “did anything happen last night?”

  “What do you want me to say?!” The words burst out of my mouth before I can stop them, and I glare at her. My power cell is racing for some reason. “He didn’t do anything to me! He’d never hurt me!”

  I wrap my arms around myself, and a memory of yesterday slips into my mind. Dropping my hands to my side as if burned, I lower my head and shrug. J sighs and stands up, sitting beside me. I turn to her and play with one of her twin-tails, and she stiffens for a second or two. Her eyes slide to the edge of her visor, watching me closely. 

  “I don’t want you say anything untrue, but I need to know if he hurt you in any way,” she says. “That yellow light……it hurt, C. It hurt a lot. Tessa told me that she saw it from where she was in the forest, and I heard the snapping sounds all the way back here. What happened? Please, be honest.”

  “He…..moved a tree,” I mumble, and the strangest feeling overtakes me. I don’t want Neo to get in trouble because of me. “That’s it, he just moved a tree. We needed to find a way to keep walking.”  

  “That’s it?” She raises an eyebrow, her eyes searching mine. 

  “Yes.” I fiddle with my dress, and she sighs and pats my leg. “He wouldn’t hurt me. He just wouldn’t.” 

  “I know, C, I know.” J pulls me backwards and on top of her body. I curl up, and she wraps her arms around me. “I just assumed that he had engaged in some unprofessional behavior after whatever it was that hurt me, but it sounds as though he hasn’t. Am I wrong in any way?”

  “Ah, no.”

  She keeps me close to her, and I nestle my head on her chest. Her eyes shut, and I watch as she enters sleep mode. I should leave and go to work, but I don’t really wanna do that. J is way too comfy and warm to want to get off. 

  After a few minutes, I move to be beside her and take off her hard hat. She looks so peaceful like this, like a sleeping puppy. I kinda remember a night where there was a bad storm, one that terrified Tessa beyond belief. J had curled up in bed with her as she cried, murmuring softly. I don’t know what happened after because she had sent me and N away to recharge, but I don’t think she was at full charge the next day. 

  I grab a pillow to rest it beneath her head when I hear the floor creak. I drop it and whirl around, my skirt smacking J in the face. 

  There’s no one here. The door is locked, and there’s no one here.

  Exhaling, I put the pillow down and crawl off the bed as the house begins to rumble. My eyes widen, and all I can mumble is, “No, no, not now……” 

  Lightning flashes outside, followed by the loudest clap of thunder I’ve ever heard. J doesn’t stir, but something else certainly does. 

  The bone I found last night is surrounded by the yellow arrow and lifts up. I can only watch it as it begins to spin around, around, around.

  CRACK!

  It breaks in two, and I gasp and make a beeline to it. It hits the ground, and I pick it up and stare at it in shock. Tears well up, and I slump down, legs splayed out, back curved. What will Tessa say when she sees it? 

  Why is he doing this?

|•|

  I watch as Neo works to make another bouquet out of pages from a book on cats. V and J are working with 12 and 35 to get the rest of the library organized. I don’t know where Tessa is, but Charles was last doing history and math homework in the kitchen. I think 45 was with him, working on dinner. 

  I get up and leave to go polish the sword displays upstairs, passing by 24 and 4. They don’t seem to notice me, and I grab everything I need and start cleaning. My thoughts wander, turning to earlier. Why was J so insistent on Neo having hurt me? He didn’t…….he didn’t…..right?

  I run my finger along the dull edge of the blade, humming softly. The gala will be upon us sooner than we’ll expected, just a few months now. After the reschedule……..I shake Louisa’s angered rants out of my head and put the sword away. 

  Maybe Tessa and Charles will make friends. Real friends. A smile that the storm can’t stop flickers on my face, and I twirl a few times before slipping down the stairs and back to J. 

Chapter Text

  V pushes her glasses back up and puts another fantasy book on the shelf. She knows James is nearby, and she doesn’t want to get caught going too slow. He might not be as strict as his wife, but it’s better to not chance it. 

 
  She sighs and keeps going, her movements stiff and careful. If they fall down and make any sound, that’ll only spell out trouble for her. She glances around and smiles when she sees Neo off in the corner. He’s working on sorting the historical fiction, and she’s willing to bet he’s humming quietly. 

  The soft lighting makes him look sweet, and she feels a blush on her visor. She swallows hard and notices her hand shaking, and she looks back at Neo. 

  What the-

  She tilts her head in confusion at the bizarre sight of primrose yellow light that surrounds the books. A frown takes over her face, and the blush vanishes faster than it appeared. What is that? 

  V tries to recall if she’s ever seen anything like that before. The triple arrows spin around as it lifts a book up to a high shelf. No, she has not.

  Neo turns on his heel after the last book is placed, and their eyes lock. He smiles at her, and she looks down and shyly plays with her hair. He approaches her and says, “Curious expression. Are you done, too?” 
 

  “Y-Yeah,” she says. 

  He reaches out to take her hand, and a pale blue spark leaps between them. Both drones gasp and pull away, and V’s blush returns rapidly. She ducks her head, and Neo chuckles. He tugs on her hand to get her to sit down, and she complies without a word. Her power cell begins to beat rhythmically, going from C minor to G minor to DB major. 

  “How’s your night been?” he asks, and V swears that there’s a flash in his eye.

  “It’s been fi-“ A groan rumbles in her throat as she feels a sudden, stabbing pain in her head. “It’s been fine.”

  “Are you okay?” He squeezes her hand, and she gives him a weak smile and nods. 

  “It’s just a headache,” V says with a soft chuckle. “Don’t worry about me.”

  He gives her a concerned expression and places his hand on her knee. “You’ve been having a lot of those lately. That’s not normal, is it?” 

  Her mouth opens, but only silence comes out. She shrugs and looks away. He tilts his head and reaches out to push her hair out of her face, and she just barely leans into his touch. 

  His finger makes contact with her visor, and she gasps. He draws back, and she claps a hand to her temple. Her eyes close, and she grits her teeth and stands up. He watches her as she murmurs an excuse and leaves the library to head off to her room. She passes by a bickering Charles and Tessa, but neither pays her a second glance. 

  V shuts the door and sighs, her hand still on her head. Her fingers curl in her hair, and her other hand slams into her left temple. Again, again, again. She continues striking herself as the pain spikes. An icepick is stabbing into her head, and she falls to her knees. 

  With one hand, she pulls at her hair while the other keeps hitting the glass and plastic. A whine escapes her throat, and all she can see are flashes of color. 

  V stumbles to her bed and just barely connects the cords to her body and tucks herself under the sheets as the pain worsens. She slams her eyes shut and waits to enter sleep mode. 

  She waits, waits, waits…….

  It’s two, almost three, in the morning when she hears the sound. Her door opens. 

  Her eyes snap to the intruder, and she sees yellow eyes peering back at her from the doorway. Her mouth drops open, but his expression doesn’t change.

  “Oh. You’re awake,” is all he murmurs. 

  The door shuts again, and her heart begins to beat in D# minor. She doesn’t enter sleep mode until nearly five in the morning. 

Chapter Text

  The Solver of the Absolute Fabric rolls its host’s eyes and makes his hand move. The lines he slowly draws are clumsy and worse than anything an amateur would do. It sighs, a depressing sound that turns the host into someone else. 

  What absurd name did it get saddled with, Neo? 

  The Solver could work with that. After all, this is the first time it has a host. It had simply suffered in a state of limbo before. Had it been alive? Even it didn’t truly know. To be conscious yet not alive was a bizarre thing, one that it had never bothered to figure out. It has bigger plans. 

  It is hungry. 

  The host leaves the drawing app and stares at the photos he had taken ever since the young miss bought him the tablet. The Solver hums in his CPU, and he chuckles to himself and slides through the photos. 

  The first few are of the petite bimbo of a drone called C, and the Solver makes the host’s eyes roll and moves on. The next are of the dominant drone who is too smart for her own good. The last ones are the ones that make the Solver gag. They’re photos of that annoyingly timid maid, the one with the glasses that give her the appearance of a frightened deer or a pathetic, lost cat. 

  Some of them are normal, simple photos of her doing her daily chores. Others are of her in the sunlight, and a butterfly rests on her outstretched fingertips in another. The final five photos are from different nights and all of her sleeping, and the host has scrawled hearts and notes around her. 

  The Solver makes him gag. 

  Is this what the humans call a crush? If so, the Solver could do without it. It’s repulsive enough to suffer through his thoughts, but it’d be worse to deal with her. 

  It doesn’t know what he sees in her. To the Solver, she’s nothing more than a weakling of a drone. She’s small and blind without her glasses, and her timidity is horrendous. If the Solver had awoken in her, it would have done everything in its power to get rid of her. 

  Though……she is quite weak, isn’t she? Thoughtless, moldable. Her mind is weak, and the Solver is strong. Much stronger than her, than anyone.......

  It has the host select a specific photo and put it in the drawing app, and it begins to sketch. The photo is simple enough, she’s asleep and recharging. Her blanket has been pulled down to reveal her slender legs, and the Solver remembers reaching out to feel how sturdy they were. 

  They weren’t. They would be easy to snap if it came down to it. Oh, how the Solver wishes it could break her legs and listen to her scream. How it wished to take her apart, to find the source of its host's affection. It would find, study, and refine.

  The warped lines come together at the foot, turning the near human-like appendage into a peg. It adds yellow stripes near the top, mimicking human stockings. From what the Solver knows, this drone is the kind who wouldn’t wear what is being drawn onto her fragile sleeping body. 

  It curves the host’s mouth into a twisted sort of smile as it adds a short jacket overtop her flimsy nightgown. It wishes to remove that damned scrap of fabric to see how she’d work, how she’d react to such a situation. 

  It redoes the outline of her body, giving her a more human-like appearance. Her rectangular body becomes slender in the waist, and it gives her softly-curving hips that blend into the stockings painted onto her legs. 

  The Solver knows that its host will enjoy this sight when he comes to later. This worthless drone will be transformed to something else, something perfect. 

  The others will follow. The damned brat will become the perfect leader, one who will lead her team to ascension when the world finally responds to the Solver’s cravings. The ditz will be endearing enough that the humans won’t resist trying to keep her safe, regardless of the damage she’ll pose. 

  It buries itself in the host’s heart again, smiling to itself. A new companion will be made.

Chapter Text

  J opens her eyes and unplugs herself, standing up and slipping Tessa’s old nightgown over her head. She folds and stores it in her dresser and grabs her maid uniform, putting it on and buttoning it up. She ties the bow tie and runs a brush through her hair before tying it up in her normal twin-tails, getting her hard hat out, and putting that on. She adjusts the maid crown and nods to herself. 

  She heads out and into V’s room since she knows C is still asleep. The bespectacled Worker is contorted in ways that would be painful if she was a human, and her expression is pained. J hesitates before reaching out and shaking her friend awake. 

  V blinks bleary eyes at her, and the more professional of the two sighs and says, “Get up. You have shopping to do.”

  “My head hurts,” V whispers, her hand brushing against her right temple. “I didn’t sleep well.”

  J arches an eyebrow, but her expression softens for only a second. “C can go shopping. Now, are you well enough to dress yourself, or must I help out again?”

  V lowers her head as a blush creeps onto her visor, and J covers her face with a hand and sighs heavily. She tugs the blue blanket off entirely and gestures for the other girl to stand up. V does as ordered, and J grabs the hem of her nightdress. 

  She pulls it up slowly, not wanting to jostle V’s head too much. All it does is make her blush harder, and J rolls her eyes when she knows V can’t see her. She folds it up and puts it on the bed, then moves over to the small dresser and pulls out the maid dress. 

  V lifts her arms, and J slides the garment over her head. Once that’s done, V sits on the bed while J goes to retrieve her hairbrush. She takes a seat behind her and runs the brush through the silver strands, and V looks away. Internally, she wants to talk about what happened just a few hours ago, but she decides to stay silent. 

  No point in causing problems, is there? 

  The two sit in silence until J’s done, and she moves on to C’s room. Her stomach rumbles, but she pushes past it and opens the door. She stops dead in her tracks when she sees Neo standing at the foot of her small bed, his tablet raised up, and her covers have been pulled back. Her frilly nightdress is bunched up, exposing too much of her thin legs. The ringed plastic shines with the flash of the camera, and J coughs. 

  His eyes widen, and J finds her voice before he can. 

  “Get away from her!” she snaps, marching up to him and grabbing his wrist. She drags him to the door and pins him in place, and he cowers beneath her. “What were you doing?” 
  

  Neo goes through several expressions in the span of three seconds, and he settles on wide-eyed innocence. “She just looked so adorable like that. It’s not whatever corrupted thing you’re thinking, J. C’s like my little sister. I’d never hurt her!”

  “Cut the crap,” J says, glaring at him. “Big brothers don’t take pictures of their little sisters when their dresses are hiked up. What were you doing?” 

  He glares right on back, and she stiffens from the overwhelming hatred aimed at her. She doesn’t let go, her fist curling even more in his clothes. 

  Blinding pain so hot it’s cold. 

  She shrieks and steps back, bringing her wrist up to nurse it. Neo draws away from her, saying, “If you immediately think of unprofessional behaviors, maybe there’s something wrong with your programming, J. Don’t do that again.”

  “You’re not my employer!” she snaps, and he rolls his eyes and chuckles. 

  “Not yet. Well-timed chuckle,” he says, and she frowns. “Just give it time. Overly-friendly grin.” 

  Neo opens the door and leaves, and J looks down at her wrist. Nothing, absolutely no markings are left behind. 

  “The hell?” she whispers, but a small whine from behind her steals her attention. She turns and sees C as she wakes up, and the little Worker blinks at her. She smiles back slightly and goes to her side. “Finally, you’re awake. I’ll get you some oil while you change.”

  “Okie,” C mumbles, clutching a worn, patchwork rabbit plush to her chest. Her gaze is unfocused, and she idly tugs her nightgown down over her legs. “Why was my blanket off?”

  J opens her mouth but swallows her words. “You must have kicked it off. Don’t worry.” She takes a deep breath and turns around. “I’ll get you oil, then we have to go shopping.”

  She heads out and past Tessa and Charles, who have resumed their childish, inane conversation once more. Despite herself, she goes to Tessa’s side and stays there. 

  “The ocean is cold, cold soup is garbage, so the ocean is tea!” Tessa exclaims, throwing her hands out. “Not stew, not soup, tea!”

  “Soup is considered soup due to the amount of broth it contains, and the ocean has more water. Therefore, the ocean is soup,” Charles says, not matching his twin’s energy in the slightest. 

  Tessa groans and runs a hand through her black hair, and J look up at her and sighs. “Iced tea is better than cold soup, so it’s tea! J, what do you think?”

  ‘I don’t get paid for this,’ she thinks. 

  Charles jumps at the mention of the maid, and he places a hand over his heart and peers down at her. “How long have you been here?” he asks. 

  “Too long,” J mumbles. “Tessa, where are the fairytale teacups?”

  “The last cupboard at the bottom shelf,” her mistress replies. “Is Cy-C awake?”

  “Yes.” J nods and turns to leave when she stops again, and she clears her throat. “I……found Neo in C’s room earlier today.”

  “What?” Tessa frowns, and J takes a deep, useless breath. “Why was he in there?”

  “I have no idea, but he was taking a photo of her while she slept,” J says, and she sees Charles tense up. 

  “He did what?” His voice is low, and he curls his hand into a fist around his shirt. “Where is he? That is extremely unprofessional.”

  J’s tongue freezes in place, and a ringing sound assaults her audio processing system. She squeezes her eyes shut, and it grows louder and louder. A soft coo, a warm hand, a monstrous image. 

  A bloody drone smiling at her as he’s backlit by golden light. He reaches his hand out. 

 Her eyes snap open, and Tessa hugs her close. Charles is still looking like he’s ready to fight, and J ducks her head. 

  What was she thinking, trying to get her coworker in trouble? How uncalled for. She should apologize for starting trouble. 

  APOLOGIZE RIGHT NOW.

  She flinches as if struck, and Tessa looks down at her. J forces a smile and excuses herself, heading off to the kitchen. 

|•|

  J can hear him speaking, and she rolls her eyes and continues sweeping. 

  “They said I was defective,” he says, and V gasps softly. “I remember watching Will’s face fall, and Daisy sighed and told me to get in the car.”

  “What happened after?” V asks, her voice a whisper. 

  “She pulled out her revolver and shot me.” J turns in time to see him tap his visor, and her memory bank confirms that he’s right. 

  “That’s horrible!” V hugs him, and there’s a wariness on her visor. She makes eye contact with J, who mimes gagging. Her expression sours, and she kisses Neo’s cheek. “Well, I won’t leave you.”

  J just knows he’s smiling like a lovesick idiot. It’s been only a few months since he arrived, so why are they acting like this? She’s too much of a workaholic for this. 

  C enters the ballroom, twirling as though she’s a human girl. She comes up to J and takes her hands, but the older drone pulls away and shakes her head. “Not right now,” she says. “I’m busy.”

  C pouts but nods and goes over to the other two, and J watches as Neo spins her around. The little Worker laughs, but she can’t get this morning’s scene out of her memory bank. 

|•|

  “Oh, thank you, J,” Tessa says as she takes the cup of lavender tea. She brings it to her mouth for a sip but winces due to its heat. “Oi, forgot about……warmth.” She laughs, and J sits at her feet. 

  “Boss,” she says quietly, “are you going to do anything about Neo?”

  Tessa sighs and pushes her math homework off to the side of her desk, then rolls the pencil between her fingertips. “I guess I’ll have to, right? Do you think you could show me the pic first? If it’s harmless, then I don’t see a reason to-“

  “Her blanket was pulled off, and her nightgown was hiked up,” J says flatly, and Tessa inhales through clenched teeth. 

  “Bugger, that’s bad,” she murmurs. “I still would like to see it first, okay?”

  J nods. “Of course, Boss. I’ll be right back.”

  She heads down to the staff’s small wing of the house and pauses as she hears laughter. She peeks over the railing to see Neo, V, C, and some other Workers in the foyer. 

  “Let’s play hide and seek!” Neo exclaims, and V grins at him. 

  “You wanna seek, captain?” she asks, and he pokes her side. 

  “You bet!” He covers his eyes and begins to count. Everyone scatters, and poor C gets shoved into a wall. She regains her footing after a second, then disappears down the hallway. 

  J shakes her head and continues to his room, and she’s surprised to find the tablet simply on his bed. Either he trusts everyone, or he just can’t be bothered to hide it. She doesn’t care enough to decide on any option. She grabs it, tucks it into her apron pocket, and turns to leave, but there’s a new problem. 

  Neo is right there. 

  “What are you doing?” he asks, his voice strangely mechanical. He’s standing with his knees bent, head tilted to the side. Broken. “Get out of my room.”

  “I was going to see if you cleaned it up at all, and you did,” she says. “Now, move it, moron.”

  He raises an eyebrow but lets her pass by without a word. She can feel his gaze on her until she’s rounded the corner, and she exhales heavily. 

  Tessa glances up when she returns, and J pulls the tablet out and turns it on, going to the gallery. The girls’ eyes widen at the sights. 

  Picture after picture of her, C, and V, all doing relatively mundane things. At least, that’s how the first dozen are. The rest turn horrid. V baking, dancing, singing, sleeping. J feels oil rise in her throat at the last picture of her. 

  Lines have been drawn over her, giving her a humanoid body. Scribbles turn into an article of clothing, something short with what might be fur around the neckline. A headband with five yellow lights crowns her, and X’s have been added over her glasses. 

  J swipes to the next photo, and she drops the tablet. 

  It’s the picture of C from earlier, and it’s been altered the same way. Her feet have been turned into pegs, and a dress has been drawn overtop her nightgown. 

  J turns it off before she can find one of herself. Tessa looks at her, the answer in her eyes now. 

  “J, where’s the basement key?” she asks. 

Chapter Text

  “Ah, there you are, C,” Charles says as he approaches me. I put the bottle of cleaner down and stare up at him, and he pulls me away from the window. “You and I are going into town today.”

  “Again?” I ask. “J had me go shopping the other day.” 

 
  He nods and reaches down to straighten my bow, and I go still to let him. “Yes. I found that I don’t have a suit appropriate for the upcoming gala, so I must go find one. I figured you’d be able to help me.”

  “Okay!” I pause and rock on my feet for a second. “When are we leaving?” 

  “Right now,” he says. 

  We head down the stairs, and since J is busy with the basement, he tells 24 to come drive us. The trip into the city is much quieter last time, and I bounce my leg while waiting. Charles reads a Shakespeare play, and as much as I want to ask about the plot, I’m sure I won’t understand it one bit. 

  “Does Tessa have a dress?” I ask after a while. 

  Charles nods but doesn’t look up. “She had more free time to find one. Anyways, I’ll need your help with math homework later on.” 

  “V can help,” I say. “She’s a lot better at math than I am.”

  “Ah, well, she’s feeling under the weather, and you know I’d hate to ask J for help,” he says. 

  I giggle nervously as the memory of the last time she helped comes to mind. It had not ended well. I think Tessa had to separate the two when things stopped being passive-aggressive. 

  24 parks the car and waits as we head into a clothing store, and I stay at Charles’ side while he looks at the identical suits. The tags call them charcoal and ash and smoke and eternal night, but they’re all black. Lame. I skip over to a pretty, off-white suit and hum to get his attention, but Charles shakes his head before he even looks at it. 

  “Tessa will be wearing a black dress,” he says. “Mother says we have to match. It looks “more appealing” when twins match, I suppose. I personally find that to be a load of nonsense.” 

  I tilt my head at him, narrowing my eyes. “It’d be funny if Neo and I match you and Tessa,” I say, and he chuckles. I head back to him, and he pats my head. 

  “You know how Father feels about you two attending,” he says. 

  I can’t stop myself from sighing, and I slump against him. “Please? I can help out!” 

  “No, Cyn, you know that only J can attend.” His gaze is kind, but I turn my head away. He exhales and puts a hand on my shoulder for a second. “I’ll buy you a new dress, alright? That way, you and V can have fun in the library if she’s up for it.”

   I hug him, and he ruffles my hair before looking back through the suits. I grab one of the ash suits, and he drapes it over his arm. We head over to the children’s dresses, and I search through the yellow ones and pick out one with ruffles and a large, white bow at the back. He just barely cracks a smile, and he buys the two outfits. 

  The ride home is just as uneventful, and J assigns me to clean with her and V as soon as she sees me. I stick my tongue out when she turns her back but skip off to the ballroom. Louisa has demanded we clean it again, but it’s already all shiny and stuff. 

  J hands me the mop and heads for the windows, and V works with 23 and 17 to set the tables up. I swish the mop around, watching the the fat tendrils splay outwards. Swishy, swishy! The sight makes me giggle, and J shoots me a partially annoyed glance I grin at her, and she shakes her head and sighs. 

  I continue to make infinity loops on the floor until it’s clean enough for the gala. I can’t believe it’s only a week away. J comes over to check on my work, and with her approval, V and I head upstairs to clean up the library. 

  “V, look!” I say, holding up a book on fairytales. “Wanna read it with me later?”

  “Maybe,” she murmurs with a pained smile. My expression shifts to one of concern, and I pat her shoulder. “I’m fine, Cyn. Don’t worry. How about you tell me one of the stories instead?”

  The library door opens, but I don’t see anyone. I shrug and think about my answer. 

  “Okay! I like Little Red Riding Hood the most, but Hansel and Gretel is really scary!” I sort through Louisa’s historical romance novels, keeping an eye on V as she goes through the biology books. “‘Cause the idea of being eaten is gross, right?” 

  She chuckles softly. “I guess.” 

  I grab the ladder and roll it over to where it needs to be, and she comes over to help me put the books up on the top shelf. I give her a thumbs-up, and she responds with a shy smile and a wince. She shakes her head, and I hear her neck joint crack. 

  “What fairytale do you like?” I ask. 

  “Oh, gosh, I don’t know. Which ones have cats?” She adjusts her glasses, and her eyes squeeze shut. I bite my tongue in worry, but when she notices, she glares at me and exclaims, “I said I’m fine, C! Don’t worry about me!” 

  I flinch at her tone, and she pulls back, eyes wide. She rubs her arm nervously, sighing and going back to her section. 

  “Keep talking,” she says quietly. 

  I shift on the ladder and keep putting books back, and V hums to herself. “I think Little Red is interesting because the wolf chose to not attack her right away. He thought it would be more fun to wait.

  “Then Hansel and Gretel is fun because you understand just how much they love each other, you know? I just think it’s neat.

 
  “Cinderella’s pretty nice, and so is Beauty and the Beast. I don’t know which fairytales have cats,” I say. “I guess any of them could have a cat. Right, V? V?”
 

  A yellow flash of light steals my attention. I glance up, and my eyes widen. 

  V has a 606 error message on her visor, and she’s frozen in place. I rush up to her and tug on her sleeve, repeating her name over and over and over. She doesn’t move. 

  The door to the library echoes as it closes. 

Chapter Text

   V, 24, 58, 2, 17, 39, 45, 67, 32, 10, 21, 13. 

  All of them had the same 606 message on their visors. All of them were frozen in place. All affected by a virus that gripped them with a tendril of malice. 

  Tessa and J had moved them into the library and blocked off the aisles so life could continue as normal. 

|•|

  I pour the tea into the cup, being careful as to not miss. Louisa watches me closely, her fan beating steadily in the air. J is working on serving the other guests, but she shoots me a glance when I take too long. 

  “Where are Tessa and Charles?” Mrs. Illyrinew asks. “Shouldn’t they be attending as well?”

  Yeah, wait a minute. I haven’t seen them all day. 

  Louisa chuckles and takes a sip of tea, and I’m disappointed to see her expression warp into one of annoyance at the taste. She clears her throat and says, “I’m afraid that Tessa was misbehaving earlier, and Charles took it upon himself to follow in her footsteps.”

  Oh. That explains it, I guess. 

  As soon as I’m done with the tea, I carry the tray off to the kitchen before heading up to her room, but since they’re not there, I go to his. Voices echo from inside, and I pause to listen. 

  “This is all your fault, you know,” Charles says.

  “My fault?! Wha-h-WHAT?! No! It’s not!” Tessa shrieks.

  He sighs. “If you hadn’t picked a fight, we wouldn’t be here.”

  “Oh, bugger off! You started it!”

  “I ended it.”

  “Shut up!”

  “As you wish.” I can practically hear the smirk in his voice.

  Silence stretches on, and my hand reaches up towards the doorknob. Right as I touch it, Charles asks, “Do you want some soda?”

  “Do you have a strawberries and cream one?”

  “Yeah, just hold on.” There’s the sound of chains rattling, and something hisses almost too quietly to truly be heard. The soda is cracked open a second later. “Here.”

  “Thanks,” Tessa says. 

  “No problem.”

  I open the door, and sure enough, the two are chained in place. Charles is lying on his bed, his wrist off to the side and twirls a pen around with his other hand. Tessa sits at the foot of the bed, a soda in her free hand. She perks up when she sees me and attempts to run towards me, but the chain snaps her back into place. She hits the ground, wincing and rubbing her wrist, and I go over to help her up. 

  “Hello, C,” Charles says. “How had your day gone?”

  “F-Fine…..” I blink at the calmness he’s displaying, then I swallow down my feelings and go to his side. “Do you need me to do anything?”

  “Actually, yes. Could you get me my history and chemistry textbooks? I’d rather spend time working on some problems,” he says. 

  Tessa huffs, and he throws his pen at her back. She squeals in surprise, grabs it, and chucks it back at him. Charles laughs, and it directly hits her forehead. She glares at him before giggling as well and throwing it back one more time, and he catches it with ease. 

  I go over to his desk to get his books along with a coloring book and alcohol markers for Tessa, and the three of us sit in silence as he works. Every time I look at the pages, my CPU starts swimming at the bizarre equations. How do V and J understand them so well? 

  “Hey, C, I have a question,” Tessa says as she flops onto her back. “This sentence is false. What do you think?”

  Charles sighs, and I tilt my head. “What? Umm, I’ll go with true.”

  “Do you….do you understand it?” she asks between mad giggles. 

  “Ah, no, I…..I get it,” I say, and she reaches over to poke my visor. “It’s false.”

  Tessa hangs her upper body off the bed, and her laughter dies off into pained wheezes. Charles sighs and shakes his head, then throws his pen at her again. Tessa yelps and falls off the bed, making him chuckle. Her head pokes back up, and she glares at him and hurls a box of tissues at him. 

  It nails him right in the chest, and he falls off as well. When he gets up, the two have a staring contest for much too long before simply going back to what they were doing. Tessa hums quietly, and I rest my head against Charles’ shoulder. 

Chapter Text

  The bedroom door opens with a creak, and Tessa screams and squeezes my hand before clamping a hand over her mouth. Charles breaks into laughter and pauses the horror movie, and J lets out an exasperated groan and looks at me. 

  “C, I need your help. It’s time to start dinner,” she says. 

  “Isn’t it V’s tu……Oh. Coming,” I say with an embarrassed giggle, and she pauses to shake her head but follows me. 

  “How long have they been chained up?” she asks quietly, and I shrug. She frowns. “You weren’t instructed to do that?”

  “Nope!” Not wanting more questions, I begin skipping down the hallway and the stairs until we enter the kitchen. “What are we making?”

  J rifles through a cookbook, settling on a pork recipe. I make a face, and she instructs me to get out the vegetables we’ll need. The kitchen is empty with just the two of us since we normally have 2 and 17 to help, and the silence is eerie. 

  “How’d your day go?” I ask. 

  “Awful. James didn’t get the deal he wanted, so I had to handle it instead,” she says. “How was yours?”

  “It was fine.” 

  Silence chases my words away, and I continue cutting the numerous amounts of vegetables into small pieces. J works with the pork, and I try to avoid looking at it as much as possible. I know she hates it, too. 

  A sudden clap of thunder shakes the manor, and my head whips up. Lightning follows, and I’m glad Tessa has Charles with her. A faint creak steals my attention as the rain begins to pour, and I see a Worker walk by. His silver hair shines underneath the lights, and his butler uniform is wrinkled. His movements are jerky and uncoordinated, as if he needs to be repaired. 

  “Neo!” I call out. “We need some help in here!”

  “No, we don’t,” J says quickly. She straightens up and spins around to face him, and she dusts her apron off. “We’re doing just fine he-“

  “Walking in. Anything to help my little sis out,” Neo says, coming into the kitchen and hugging me. He’s warm, and I nestle against him. “Happy smile. What do you need me to do?”

  “You can help cut up some carrots,” I tell him. 

  He takes a cutting board and the carrots and works on chopping them up, and I go back to the potatoes and onions. I hum quietly, and he joins in. He nudges me with a stiff elbow, making me giggle, and I get the feeling that we’re being watched. I crane my neck, and sure enough, J is giving Neo The Look. 

  Why?

  Once dinner is in the oven, J goes to unlock the twins, leaving us alone with our thoughts and the sounds of the storm. I sit on the floor, and Neo takes the spot in front of me. 

  “Little sister?” I ask, frowning slightly. “That’s new.”

  He chuckles and rubs his neck. “It just seems right, you know?” 

  “I guess so,” I say. I don’t know how to feel about it, but it’s sweet. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you these past few days.”

  Neo waves a hand and shrugs as lightning strikes again. “I’ve been working outside. Ever since forty-one and eleven got hit with the virus, I’ve been having to do more outdoor chores.”

  “That sucks,” I say, patting his knee. It feels weird beneath his pants, like he’s broken. I’ll have to see if Tessa can fix him when the storm ends. She doesn’t like using her equipment with all the lightning. 

  “We should go visit V later tonight,” he says, and I nod. “We could go read to her.”

  “Will she hear us?” I ask. 

  He shrugs again. “I don’t know, but I’m sure she’ll want some company. Wouldn’t you?” 

  “I guess.” 

  As our conversation dies down again, I stand up and go to the utensil drawer and grab a small spoon. I sit back down and suck on it. Neo watches me, so I pull it out of my mouth and offer it to him. He shakes his head, and I pop it back in. 

|•|

  Neo leans against the bookshelves and begins to read aloud. “Golden retrievers are a loyal, energetic breed that are often trained to be guide dogs. They have soft, golden coats and gentle mouths! Aww, that’s why they’re good with kids!” 

  I look up at V, but I’m just greeted with the error message. Her arms hang down at her sides, and her back is hunched over ever so slightly. Her glasses are smudged with some sort of grayish fluid, and her dress is wrinkled. The left sleeve as been torn a bit. 
  

  I get up as he continues reading, and I grab her glasses and wipe them off on my skirt. Sighing, I get a book of my own and start reading. Neo goes quiet and lets me take over with the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

  As I speak, my eyes wander over to him. His fingers and hands are coated in a gray substance, too. 

Chapter Text

  Gala day! 

  The thought runs through my CPU, and I unplug my cords and quickly dress myself, skipping and spinning around as thunder claps outside. I hum a carnival-esque tune, and the door opens to reveal Neo with two fairytale cups of oil. 

  “Thank you!” I sing, taking a cup and sipping from it. 

  “You’re welcome. Pleased smile,” he says, voice more mechanical than I remember it being. 

  I sit on my bed to finish it off, and when I’m done, he holds out his hand. I grab it, and we begin to waltz around the room. His movements are stiff and jerky, no longer as fluid as they once were. The sight makes me feel sad, and I can only hope to remind Tessa about repairing him. 

  We continue to dance until the clock strikes seven. That’s when we leave the room and split up to go do our chores. He goes to the library to straighten it up one last time, and I have to get started on cooking. 

  “Hello, C,” J says. “You’re going to work on the desserts, got it?” 

  “Aye-aye, Boss,” I say with a small salute. 

  She rolls her eyes but covers her mouth to hide a chuckle. I hug her, and she returns the gesture a bit tighter than expected. I snuggle against her cool body, and the fabric of our dresses rustle as we stay embraced. Finally, she pulls away and clicks her tongue. Her hands go to my dress and straighten it, then she runs her fingers through my white hair. The last thing she does is adjust my hard hat before making sure the bow is crooked, just like I like it. 

  “There. You’re more presentable now,” she says, and I smile. 

  “Thank you!” I stand on my tiptoes and kiss her cheek, and she heaves a sigh. 

  “We need to get started,” she says. “We’re running late.” 

  I nod, and she works on the four-course meal. 6, 9, 12, and 20 come in and out every so often to help, but they don’t stay long since they have to get the ballroom set up. 

  I make cake after cake, pudding after pudding, tart and pie and tart and pie. There’s supposed to be over a hundred guests arriving, so we really have to get everything ready as fast as possible. 

  “You’re doing a good job,” J says around three in the afternoon. “You can take a break now. Six can step in.”

  “Okie!” I exclaim. 

  I snag a spoon and go upstairs to find V again. She hasn’t moved in the two weeks she’s been up here, but she’s grown more disheveled as time goes on. J gave up on taking care of her a few days ago, so I stand behind her, remove her hat, and finger-comb her hair back in place. 

  “How are you feeling?” I ask. “J’s been stressed out a lot, I’ve been fine, and Neo keeps disappearing for days on end. He doesn’t tell me where he’s going, but I once saw crow feathers poking from his shirt.

  “What’s it like being frozen? Does it hurt? Why do you keep getting so dirty? I have a new story to read to you. Well, it’s not new, but I think you’ll like it.” I flop to the ground with the book in hand and begin reading aloud. 

  “Once upon a time, there lived a young woman named Odette. She was very kind, and she was a hard worker who helped her father with his bakery. However, she decided to explore the forest around her one day. 

  “While out in the forest, she came across a woman who greatly resembled her named Odile. The two talked and grew close over the period of a few hours. However, what Odette couldn’t have known was that Odile’s heart was as black as night. 

  “One day, Odile grew tired of the other woman’s chatter and decided to curse her. Odette would be forced to live her days out as a swan and return to her human body at night. The young woman was horrified. Weren’t they friends? Why had she done that? Odette-“

  A book slams to the ground, startling me and making me yelp. My gaze snaps up to the book, and I wander over to it and stare at it. It’s the dog book Neo was reading recently, so I go to put it back. How did it get all the way over to the historical romance section? Frowning, I go back downstairs and enter the barroom, and I frown at the sight of shadows hanging down from the ceiling. Lightning flashes, and Neo is behind the counter, holding a teacup of oil. I walk around to face him due to being shorter than the counter. 

  “You seem upset, little sister,” he says. “Perhaps you would like to attend the gala with me. Light sip.” He goes to drink the oil but ends up pouring it onto the ground. 

  I exhale as Charles’ words enter my CPU again. “I…..I don’t know if we’re invited, Neo.”

  “Oh. Climbing. Crisscross apple sauce.” He sits on the stool and props his head up on his hand. “Are we…..not wanted, C?” 

  I bite my tongue and shrug. “I’ve never been allowed to attend any galas before if I’m being honest. J is the only one who can enter. She’s the most efficient.”

  “Not even V?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. “Confused expression.”

  “Not even V,” I say. “Her glasses would make it seem as though Tessa is not a good technician. Speaking of that, I think…..you should talk to her.”

  “Why? Mock irritation.”

  “You’ve been moving really weirdly lately,” I say, blushing in embarrassment. “I just think it’d be better to talk to her.”

  “I’ll ask her about it if you ask her about us attending the gala,” Neo says, and I nod slowly. 

  “Alright,” I say. “Let’s go.” 

  We make our way to the ballroom, and Neo holds on to me and quietly says, “Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.”

  Tessa and J are by a table, and Charles is on his phone a few tables away. I look at them both before pivoting and going up to Charles. He glances up and gives me a brief smile, but it falls away when he sees Neo. “Ah, C. I see you brought him along with you. Might I ask if you need anything?” he asks. 

  His words get Tessa’s attention, and she and J join us. I clear my throat and look down, trying to force the words out. “Would it be possible if we c-“

  “Tessa James Elliot! Charles Cassidy Elliot!” My head whips around as Louisa stalks up to us. “I will not entertain your dumpster pets anymore! You two can’t even get simple orders right. You will dump every broken drone before the gala.”

  “They are not broken,” Neo says. 

  Louisa gasps, clearing having not seen him. “I said to get this Anti-Christ out of my sight! Swamp, now!”

  “W-W-Wait!” I cry out. “I brought him here! If-uh-I-BLAME ME!” 

  She raises an eyebrow, and I swallow hard. Her fingers curl around her fan, and it smacks across my face. Neo steps forward as I hit the ground, and the air grows thick with tension. 

  “Chain this one up. Throw the other one out.” She gestures to us both in turn, and J lets out a tiny sigh before grabbing me. 

  I cling on to her as she leads me outside. The wind whips around us and howls through the trees, and thunder roars and echoes like a disturbed lion. Lightning strikes much too close, and I’m guided out to a tree. J picks up a chain, and I sit against the tree. She lashes me in place, and she kneels down to hug me before whispering, “I’ll get you later. I promise, C.” 

  She stands up and leaves, and as soon as she’s gone, tears run down my visor. 

|•|

  The tree offers enough protection from the rain that I don’t short out within the hour. Guests arrive, and some even spill out into the back lawn. 

  At one point, some teens the same age as the twins come out to play, but I don’t see Tessa and Charles. 

  I hope they’re having fun in there. All I can do is close my eyes and try to enter sleep mode. 

|•|

  Screams. 

  My eyes snap open. 

  Screams. So many of them. 

  I close my eyes again. 

|•|

  Footsteps. 

  I chance a peek as fear eats away at my wires. My power cell goes still. 

  A Worker Drone covered in blood stands in front of me. He kneel down and holds his hand out. “Cyn,” he says, “I have the ability to give you a great power. Will you let me?”

  My mouth opens, but I can’t speak. As much as I want to say……..what I hear is…….”Yes!”

Chapter Text

  The locks click into place, and 20 leaves the room without a word. J starts to slowly rock on Tessa’a old rocking horse, and the young miss glares at Neo as he playfully bashes some dolls against each other. 

  “Neo! If Cyn dies for your sake, I SWEAR-“

  One of the dolls smacks her in the head, making her fall silent. The drone is question chuckles and begins pulling the limbs off the doll, saying, “I have backups.” 

  “J! Can’t you help out?” Tessa asks, but the workaholic shakes her head. 

  “Sorry, Boss. Corporate’s spoken,” she mutters.

  Tessa groans and sits on the ground, her sharp gaze hanging onto Neo. She frowns as he flicks his fingers, and some sort of grayish liquid is pulled out of his pocket. It lands on the doll’s limbs, and her eyes widen as they melt and morph into….. something else entirely. 

  She swallows hard and turns back to J, who nods to confirm what she saw. Tessa makes a wary crossing motion and sighs heavily. 

  Neo brings more of her old dolls towards him, and he keeps ripping them apart and rebuilding them. She watches him closely, attempting to figure out just what he’s doing. 

|•|

  Time rolls on by, thunder rumbles, the storm worsens, sweat drips down her neck, and she can faintly hear the guests arriving. She knows there’ll be questions of where she is, and she knows exactly what answer will be given. 

  “Tessa’s sick, I’m afraid,” her mother would say. Father would stay silent, having completely missed that his youngest wasn’t even with everyone. 

  “Sick, a migraine, sprained an ankle.” All the excuses she had heard over the years. All the excuses given in her absence. 

  “Studying, learning a new skill, practicing for an upcoming test.” Everything that was said when Charles wouldn’t be allowed out. 

  Of course, it was true. He wouldn’t afford to waste time sitting around, not as the heir to the family. 

  Tessa rolls her eyes. 

  “The heir.” 

  As if. 

  He was simply more studious, which was fine. She could be free to engage in whatever inane activity she wanted while he was chained to his desk. 

  At least he had a few normal hobbies, like video games. 

  A chain rattles, stealing her attention away. Her head snaps up, and she chokes back a scream at the sight of Neo. 

  What was Neo…….

  The familiar little drone is now a horrid, mechanical monstrosity. A long centipedel body extends from beneath his butler’s coat, wrapping around her bed canopy. He hangs down before her, his eyes having morphed into an X. 

  Tessa’s heartbeat spikes. 

  “You will not have to discard your pets, and I will not discard you,” he says, and a mechanical limb reaches up to position his hand to point at her. “Best to stay away from the gala, though. You seem squeamish.”

  Lightning flashes, and he’s gone. 

  Tessa and J exchange concerned glances, and J eyes the chains warily. She lifts it to her mouth and bites down, but nothing happens. She winces and tries again, only getting the same result. Tessa tugs at her chain, but it refuses to budges. The girls continue to struggle like starved wolves, but the chain might as well be Gleipnir. 

  Tessa flops to the ground and sighs heavily, and her eyes wander back to J. A smirk crosses her lips, and she begins to speak in a ghost-story-teller tone of voice. “Neo wants paid time off-“

  J bites down on the chain again, her teeth gritting and moving back and forth. 

  “-to attend union negotiations!” Tessa throws her hand up to emphasize her words, and the chain breaks. 

 “THIS IS AN UNRELATED LAYOFF!” J repeatedly whacks the floor, her oil pumping faster than ever. When she calms back down, she looks over to see Tessa giving her a cheerful thumbs-up. 

  The two hold hands as they leave the room, stealing their way down the stairs. The guests are most likely in the ballroom if their absence means anything. The only sound they hear is a soft rustling coming from close by. 

  Tessa peers around the corner and into the next hallway, murmuring, “How do you reckon we murder a robo-child, J?”

  “Don’t call him a child,” J says, frowning. “He’s nothing of the sort.”

  Tessa allows herself to laugh once, but her eyes narrow as they land on a display nearby. She gestures to it, and the two head towards it. She grabs a thin sword while J takes a revolver, and they turn to show each other their weapon. They exchange glances and weapons, and they’re back on track to the gala. They walk as quietly as they can, unsure of where exactly Neo could be hiding. 

  A snarl has Tessa’s hair stand on end. She chances a peek up at the ceiling, and her eyes widen. 

  What was once a Worker Drone launches at the pair, slashing at Tessa with metal-tipped fingers. The girl shrieks and scrambles backwards, and J throws herself in the way, her blade flashing in the light. The drone tilts her head, but with the X as her eyes, it’s impossible to understand her emotions.  J swipes at her, forcing her back and away from her mistress. The drone hisses, and her leathery wings flare and beat. She lifts off the ground, snatching J up. Her sword falls. Tessa gasps and moves like lightning, grabbing her friend’s ankle. The drone tightens her grip. J hisses as pain radiates from her arm and ankle, then one pair of hands disappears. 

  BANG!

  The drone howls, hitting the ground. Something falls off her, and as she blindly moves about, there’s a loud crack. J scoops the object up, and her oil runs cold when she realizes what they are. 

  Glasses. 

  She’s given no time to think before V attacks her again, and all she do is scream out, “TESSA! THE GUESTS!”

  Tessa salutes to her before breaking into a mad dash, gun in hand. J dodges a blow but is hit almost immediately afterwards. V giggles and waves her mutilated fingers, then slashes her visor. J stumbles back, and V cocks her head and flies after the young miss. 

  “NO!”

  J hares after her, but the horrid wings lend an advantage to her possessed friend. She can feel every wire and circuit burning but can’t stop. She throws the ballroom door open, and the sight freezes her in place. 

  Worker Drones attack the guests like animals, their movements frenzied and without care. V moves around like a wild cat, skillfully tearing her prey apart. Tessa and Charles are nowhere to be seen, and Neo……

  He’s sitting on a globe, smiling like an angel. Inky tentacles loom behind him, something that would not out of place in a Lovecraftian novel. 

  J slams her eyes shut, oil frozen in place. She can’t think, can’t move, can’t do anything. Blood pools at her feet, staining the shoes she’s always tried so hard to keep clean. It soaks into her dress, the first thing she ever wore upon waking up in Tessa’s arms. 

  Tessa…..

  J glares at Neo. “Why are you doing this?!”

  His smile doesn’t fall, it only grows. “Do not be afraid. I will not discard you. Loving smile.”

  “Cut the crap! What the hell is this?!” she shrieks, power cell beating frantically. 

  He gestures at the carnage, then snaps his fingers. Every Worker leaves, parting around her like the Red Sea. Her eyes are still wide, and she exhales. 

  “Stop,” she says, trying to keep her voice from begging. “Please, Neo.”

  “Genuine curiosity. Why should I?”

  J’s eyes dart over to a table for not even a second, return to Neo, and she swallows hard. “Neo, no one needed to die to-“

  A tentacle darts forward, creeping beneath the table. It retracts, wrapped around a struggling Tessa. It disposes her near the globe, and the maid can’t move. Neo chuckles, a low, dangerous sound. 

  He raises the tentacle, turning it into a scythe. 

  J makes a break for it, hurling herself at the scythe. She can’t stop the scream that threatens to break her voicebox as the blade tears through her. She staggers backwards, and a gentle hand holds onto her. 

  She looks up at the monster as he approaches, and she presses her hands to her wounds. “Leave her alone!” she screams, voice glitching. “Goddamn it, leave her alone!”

  Neo tilts his head. “Leave her alone? Why would I do that?”

  “Because I-“

  Tessa’s agonized scream shatters the air, and J feels wind whipping past her. Something lifts her up and holds her in place. The young girl struggles behind her, wailing and screaming, and the slick tentacles retract. Something is clutched in their grip. 

  A bloody, goddamn eye. 

  “NO! NO! FUCK YOU! NO!” J screams. 

  Neo laughs and examines the eye, and he snaps his fingers. “Oh, V my love, I could use some help in here.”

  Tessa lets out a strangled, choked cry, and J hears her hitting the floor. The ballroom doors open, and the possessed Worker stalks inside like a lioness on the prowl. She ignores everyone and drops to all fours when she reaches a table. 

  J is released, and she makes a frantic beeline to the table. 

  V arrives first. 
 

  She rips the table cloth away, revealing the scared child underneath. She giggles and grabs his wrist, pulling him over to Neo. 

  “Don’t fucking kill him!” J hears herself scream, so loudly it hurts, and Neo laughs as though she’s just a cute pet. His cute pet.

  He locks eyes with her, and he flicks his fingers. Yellow light traps her in place again, and she attempts to break free. Tessa is still in a bloody heap on the floor, and it pains J to see her dear friend like this. 

  “DAMN YOU! STOP! I’LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT! STOP! JUST STOP!”

  “Don’t hurt her! Hurt me instead!” The words erupt from Charles’ mouth, and J freezes. 

  Neo takes the trembling Charles from his beloved, and he runs a finger down his sweat-soaked cheek and jaw. His golden gaze returns to J, and he tilts his head like a curious child. “Anything I want?”

  Despite herself, J manages to nod. He chuckles and moves closer. “D-Don’t hurt them,” she whispers. "Please."

  He snaps his fingers to let her go, and she collapses to the ground. He kneels down and hugs her, staining her clothes with blood and viscera. “Join my team,” he says. “They’ll need a leader.”

  “Wh-“

  He says his full offer, causing her to stop thinking properly. “What do you say?” He smiles at her, and she swallows down her fear. 

  “Y-Yes……..just……don’t hurt them……”

  Neo’s smile grows impossibly wide, and he begins to laugh once more. J can only stare at him as V drags Charles out of the room, as Tessa falls silent, and she realizes that she’s just made a deal with the devil. 

Chapter Text

  The ship rockets to the planet of Copper-9. Three drones reside in it, and the pilot is careful to avoid floating debris as they go hurtling through space. 

  The leader keeps her eyes on the pilot, her body stiff, her expression blank. 

  The pilot’s hand twitch with anxiety, her heart beating frantically, her tongue poking out in concentration. 

  The hunter paces around the cramped ship, her tail lashing, her claws out and ready to tear her prey apart. 

    
  Once they’ve landed, the leader will have to meet up with the manager to learn about the plan.

  She places a hand on the pilot’s head, ruffling the black hair bow, and earns a cute chirp from the little drone. She looks back at the hunter, who has taken a seat and pulled her knees up to her chest. They lock eyes, and she earns a snarl for her troubles. 

  The ship crashes into the ground, throwing the trio around. Once they collect themselves, the leader opens the door. Worker Drones have gathered around, and the hunter springs out like a rabid hound.

  She snatches a drone up and flies into the air, and the other two follow her. She begins to giggle, and her claws sink into the drone’s head. Smiling, she rips it off and drinks the oil, savoring the taste. She throws the drone down and follows it, her claws tearing through metal and plastic with ease. 

  The leader lands and shoots down sole fleeing Workers, and the pilot stays in place. She scans her surroundings, and her eyes widen as she finds some trees. With a little grin, she fires a missile at the tree. It crashes on some Workers, killing them immediately. She spins around, her skirt flaring up with her excitement. 

  The pilot trots up to the bodies and drags them back to the leader, and she’s given a brief nod and smile as a reward. 

Chapter Text

  The moon has risen high up in the sky, shining so bright and beautiful. It paints us in its silver light, gleams off the snow so far down below. Our shadows flicker over the buildings and their unsuspecting inhabitants, and V pitches downward. I follow, but J continues on. 

  She knocks on a window and ducks out sight. I land on a balcony nearby to watch as a Worker comes to see just what in the world is going on. They find nothing, so she knocks again. Again, again, again. Finally, they open the window. 

  They scream. 

  “Can I come in?” V asks, her voice so light and airy. “Can I come in? Is Marie home? Is Marie home? Can I come in? Can I come in?”

  “Yeah-what-I-huh?” The poor Worker can only blink in confusion. 

  V’s smile takes up most of her face, becoming predatory and sickeningly sweet. She throws herself into the room, and I catch a glimpse of her claws as the light bounces off them. She giggles wildly, and I fly over to her as she cuts off the drone’s legs. They topple over, screaming in pain and shock. 

  She pins them to the ground and yanks their left arm into the air. She hisses before slicing through it as easily as paper and throwing it away, then whips her machine gun out and takes aim.

  The Worker has no time to react as she fires round after round into their visor, her giggles building to full blown laughter. It echoes around the small room, and her remaining claws tear through the drone’s stomach. 

  Oil spills out, staining the white carpet. V’s laughter is manic, and I hear myself whimper at the sheer brutality on display. She swipes at their head, and after a second, it rolls away. 

  V goes still, silent, before kneeling down and lapping up the oil like a kitten with milk. A quiet purr rumbles in her throat, and her tail flicks back and forth as though she simply won a game. 

  “Uh, V,” I say, and she stiffens and whirls around, drawing her gun. 

  There’s no recognition in her ringed eyes, only utter confusion and horror. 

  “Oh, God! Who are you?” She leaps past me, wings clipping my cheek, and she’s out the window before I can blink. 

  “It’s me, C!” I call after her, but she doesn’t stop. Weird. Whatever. 

|•|

  I walk past the ship when I hear J say to someone inside, “The first week has gone smoothly, Boss, Captain. The three of us have a combined total of three hundred kills, which should put us ahead of the other teams. Not to mention, we’ve begun the construction of the Spire.”

  “Fantastic!” a young woman exclaims, and I tilt my head in surprise at her Australian accent. “You’re doing so well, J!”

  “Yes. Very good.” I shiver at the cold, mechanical male voice. There’s no life, no emotion. “Continue to do your job. Do not disappoint us. Remember what I said. Teasing smirk.”

  “Of course, Captain,” J says after a few seconds. I hear her get up, and I scramble away to where a ledge of body parts is buried in the snow. The door opens, and we lock eyes. “C, where’s V?” 

  “Head tilt. Out hunting. Why?” I ask. 

  “I need to talk to her. Could you go get her?” J’s tone is calm despite her lashing tail. “I need to work on the new plans and quota for the month.”

  I nod and take off, soaring over the snow. It’s so pretty on Copper-9, so unlike the cold harshness of space. It makes me smile, and I spin around in the air until I’m dizzy. I straighten up and go to the territory V claimed as her own a few days ago, the woods that ring the outposts. J chose the innermost circles of the city while I took the abandoned factories and everything else. 

  As the metal gives way to trees, I hear a voice whispering in the wind, “Do not…..fail…..me.” 

  “Y-Yes, C-Captain.” The whimpered reply comes not even a second later, and I land and head to where it came from.

  V is lying on the ground, her legs curled up, and one arm trapped beneath her head. Her left hand is stretched out, and the moonlight shines down on the warped plastic. Her eyes are closed, her tail is at her side like a cat’s, and she looks peaceful. On the other hand, her surroundings have come from a nightmare. 

  Oily innards hang from trees, and some have been blow up and twisted into bizarre shapes. The snow is stained black and gray, and upon a double take, I see that V’s hands also have traces of oil on them. 

  Was she…..trying to make balloon animals? I don’t think innards work that well. 

  I kneel down and nudge her, saying, “V, c’mon, you have to get up now. J wants you.”

  Her eyes open slowly, and she struggles to her feet. “Why’d she send you?” she asks. “She can fly just fine.”

  She takes off without a word, and I stay sitting down. It’s probably better to not hurry back immediately, is it?

Chapter Text

  The air in the Spire is thick with tension, and oil stains the snow. It leaks from a trashed corpse at the entrance, and I pick them up and press them away into the others. Well, that’s what I try to do. They’re nothing more than a pile of metallic ribbons that fall apart in my grip. 

  A growl makes me look up to see J and V in front often ship. J has her hands on her hips, a glare crossing her visor. V is posed as if about to break into a run, and her tail lashes out and disturbs the snow around her. She’s the one snarling, and with a cat-like screech, she lunges at J. 

  “AYE!” The scream tears from my throat, and I dash towards the two as J whips out her machine gun. 

  Bullets whizz around our heads, and a few even strike V in the chest. She stumbles but doesn’t stop, and her claws slash through J’s clothes, causing her to cry out. V’s tail swings through the air and buries itself in J’s shoulder, then she shrieks as it’s pulled away. V spins and smashes her talons against my visor.  I scream, and a blade nicks my leg. Jumping backwards, I bat at V until she snarls again and charges at J. 

  What do I do?!

  J fires more bullets at V, who flattens herself to the ground and dodges. Her talons wrap around J’s leg, and she begins to yank. J falls to the ground, and the two roll, trading blows and curses. V’s visor is shattered, and oil runs from the lacerations in her arms and stomach. J hisses as V grips her arm and attempts to rip it off, and I bring my hand up and switch it out for a missile. 

  BANG!

  The two get blown to opposite sides, and J cries out as she slams into a corpse. I rush over to her, and she pants and stares up at the ceiling. I kneel down and take her hand, and she allows me to help her up. Turning around, I go to V, but she snarls and takes off like a bat out of Hell. 

  “What happened?” I ask as J approaches. “What did she……..do?”

  J exhales and sits down beside me, resting her head in her hands. “We argued about the company. I should have stopped when it wasn’t going anywhere, but I thought I could make her see my side.” 

  “What do you mean?” I tilt my head before staring at the hole where the syringe was. I lean forward to lick it, and she makes a face and curls some of her hair around her finger. 

  “V thought it would be best to ignore the quota and kill without limits.” J shakes her head and clicks her tongue. “Of course, that’s a terrible idea. Besides, filling the company mandated quota brings rewards. Don’t you want those, C?” 

  I nod, and J stands up and stretches. She goes back inside the ship, and I fall on my back. I should go find V and see if she wants any company, but as soon as I step outside, something whispers a word.

  NO.

  With a glance at the moon, I spread my wings and soar over the wintery planet. I fly to the colony, to where a bunker has started to take form. It’s as if the Workers knew of our arrival ahead of time, but I don’t pause to wonder how or why. It’s not my place. 

  I let out a whoop and spin around, my skirt flaring with the movements. There’s no one around to watch, and I shoot out a flurry of heart-shaped missiles and fly through them. I wish I had a ring on fire, that would be so fun! Giggling, I land on a balcony and peer at the window before sliding it open and heading inside. 

 
  The room is deep purple, and a black cradle is tucked away in the corner. There’s a baby drone inside, purple eyes closed tightly. I pick them up and stare at the little visor, cradling the child to my chest. A soft cry leaves their tiny mouth, and I let out a dismayed sound. 

  “No, no!” I hiss, rocking the baby gently. “Ssh, ssh!”

  The baby doesn’t stop crying. 

  I drop to the ground, doing my best to calm the fussy drone. I begin humming, but even that doesn’t help. I don’t know what to do. Closing my eyes, I pop my finger into their mouth as if it’s a bottle, and they start sucking on it…..and stop crying. 

  Yay! 

  “That’s a good baby,” I whisper, bouncing them on my leg. After a while, my stomach rumbles, and I pause. 

  Oh, no. 

  I put the baby back in the cradle and leave the room as fast as I can, and I can only hope I’ll find some food before I resort to…..to……

  Swallowing hard, I go to turn on the kitchen light when I hear a click from behind me. My entire body stiffens, and I slowly turn on my heel. A Worker frowns and slams her palm into her head and blinks in confusion, asking, “Are you real? Who are you?”

  “Uh-“

  She lifts a hand, and a purple symbol crackles to life at her fingertips. Yelping, I dodge as she sends a plate flying towards my head. It shatters, and the drone hisses through her teeth. She glares and lunges at me, and I dodge as a knife veers close to my head. I bat it away, then pull out my sword and swing it at her. 

  It leaves a gash in the wall, and I can barely get out a “Sorry!” before she sends more knives at me. My tail knocks them onto the floor, and she picks up a plate and hurls it in my direction. I flatten to the floor and get close before springing up and knocking her down. 

  The drone stumbles, her purple hair swinging in her face, and she grits her teeth and hisses. My heart thumps frantically, and I throw myself at a window in an attempt to break it. She summons more purple light, and I throw my hands up to cover my face as a steak knife hurls my way. 

  A sharp scream escapes me as it tears into my hand, and she…..stops. She just stares at me. 

  I rip the knife out, oil stains the carpet, and I charge at her. She desperately tries to use the light to stop me, but my tail reaches her before she can do anything. 

  The syringe buries into her visor, and her arms twitch and jerk. A door opens elsewhere, so I rip it out, bolt to the door, and leave. 

Chapter Text

  What the heck, what the heck, what the heck, WHAT THE HECK?!

  Who-what-when-where-why-WHO?! WHY?!

  I crash-land into the snow and sit up, feeling some fall off my head. I curl my tail up around my legs, and I stare at the bunker. 

  I just killed a mother. I just killed a mother. 

  What the heck was I thinking? Sure, I’m hungry, but I didn’t even eat her! Oh, God….now, her kid’s all alone. I shouldn’t have done that. I should go back and apologize, right? 

  What if she wasn’t alone? Maybe she has someone who can help her….

  I head back, oil pulsing so loudly that it’s all I hear. Every wire and circuit is alive with energy, and my vision tunnels onto the metal building. I go back to the window and creep in, and-

  THWACK! 

  Metal against glass. A pained scream that cuts off too soon. A baby cries out……and I look to the cradle. The purple-eyed baby is awake and rocking from side to side. I grab and rock them again, but the sounds don’t stop. Slamming my eyes shut, I only wait until I hear…..sobs. 

  Putting the baby back, I hesitantly creep out to where the sounds came from. There’s a drone on his knees, and the body of the other drone rests on the floor. Oil and acid puddle around what remains of her head, and I feel sick to my stomach. 

  For the second time tonight, I leave. 

  I don’t stop again, not until I’m safely tucked away in the Spire. V and J are long gone, off hunting, and I bury myself in the snow and try to block the memories of the horrors I just witnessed. Every attempt to cut off, and I just rewatch the scenes over and over again. 

  She attacks, I fight back, she doesn’t give up, I stab her and flee. She’s dead. She’s dead, dead, dead. Dead as a doornail. Dead as            . 

  I want to scream. 

  Instead, I dig deeper down and go to sleep. 

|•|

  The sound of pain awakens me. I burrow out of the snow nest and poke my head out to find V and a Worker in the spire. She has the other drone pinned down, and I get closer to her. She slashes her legs off and bites down on her left arm, causing another screech. 

  V shoves the Worker towards me, eyes glinting playfully, and I kneel down. The Worker attempts to say something, but my stomach rumbles. We lock gazes, and I take a bite out of her throat. She goes still, and V lowers her head to eat like a starved dog. We stay side by side to devour the Worker, and once done, she rips out the entrails and takes to blowing them up. 

 
  Propping myself up on my elbows, I watch as she twists the oily innards into balloon animals again. This first one she makes is a classic dog, and I clap enthusiastically. She looks at it, then freezes in place. 

  “V?” I ask softly. 

  She twists the dog’s head right off, deflating the balloon. Swallowing hard, I take the remains and stare at her in concern. Did something happen to her earlier? Where’s J? 

  V stalks past me and disappears into the ship, and I flop onto the ground again and wait for J to return. It’s almost dawn when I see her poke her head around the entrance, and I’m at her side instantly. 

  “V’s acting weird,” I say before I can stop myself. “She made a balloon out of guts and-“

  “That’s just how she is,” J says. “Don’t worry about it, C. Though, if it makes you feel any better, I can ask our manager about it.”

  “Thanks,” I mumble, still feeling uneasy, and she gives me a quick headpat and enters the ship. I try to ignore the snarls that comes not even five minutes after. 

Chapter Text

  Tessa stares at the button, exhales, and enters the virtual meeting room, but she frowns when she realizes something. There should only be two people, her and Neo, so why is there a third box? 

  “Hello?” she asks, keeping her voice light. “I’m not late, am I?”

  “You’re right on time,” the new person says, and her eye goes wide. The speaker sounds to be a guy around her age, Australian, and oh-so familiar. 

  “C-“

  “How’s the team’s work been, Tess?” The girl stifles a shriek as Neo appears on camera, a wide grin splitting his face in two. “I hope your first month has gone smoothly. Light sip.” He pours some oil out of the teacup he’s holding before moving his head down to lick it up. 

  “I-It’s been fine as usual, captain,” Tessa says. She fidgets with her clothes and warily looks around the house she was stationed in. “How’s your…..journey…..been going?” 

  Neo chuckles, a dry sound that sets her nerves on fire, and he shrugs. “Oh, you know. Here, there. Chasing down planets, and they’re all so beautiful.” He blinks those eerie eyes at her, and oil stains his mouth. 

  “Tessa, if you could send your progress reports to me at the end of the day, I’d be happy to file them,” Charles, and she can only inhale in an attempt to not cry. 

  “R-Right.” She laughs weakly, and she holds up her hand, fingers curled into half a heart. “I’ll get right on that.”

  “How has everyone adjusted to Copper-Nine?” Neo asks, snapping his fingers to get her attention again. “I do hope J has been a good leader.”

  “Everything’s gone fine,” she says. “They’re our hunting now, I think. The trackers show them at varying places throughout the colony. I can send you the camera footage if you want.”

  “Is V okay?” Charles asks. “What about C?”

  Tessa feels sweat trickle down her spine despite the freezing temperatures of the planet, and she shrugs. “I’d know if something was wrong.” 

  Memories of the screams flash through her mind, and she forces them away. The way they echoed around the Spire….good Lord. As for who they came from, she’s embarrassed to admit that she didn’t even know. 

  “What of the other Disassembly Drones?” Charles’ voice is calm, soothing, and she lets her hands go limp at the sound. “I’ve heard that quite a few teams have already completed their missions on some smaller planets.”

  “Oh, uh, I dunno,” Tessa mumbles. “I figured you’d know.”

  “Amused laugh. Now, now, Tessa, you’re supposed to be watching over them all,” Neo says. “What did I say about-“

  His video goes black as someone else speaks up. Tessa frowns as she tries to place the voice, but the more she does, the hazier her mind feels. Charles clears his throat, stealing her attention again. 

  “How have you been?” he asks. “How’s your eye?”

  
  She glances down before shrugging. “I mean, it’s still hard to see sometimes, but it’s getting better. Where are you? Neo never…..I didn’t know you were……on the team.” She swallows hard, and a knot inexplicably forms in her stomach. 

  Charles laughs, and the computer glitches at the same time. She giggles, but when they both stop, loneliness attacks her. He sighs and says, “It was a recent development. I was called away from observing Copper-Eight, and I’ve currently been traveling over to Nine for the time being.”

  “Do you think we could meet up when you land?” she asks, hope creeping into her tone. 

  “I’ll make sure we see you again,” he says, and she springs up and shakes her hands in the air. He coughs. “Tess, w-I can still see you.”

  “Oh!” She laughs nervously and rubs her neck. 

Chapter Text

  There’s something outside the house. Something big, and something that makes too much noise. Tessa buries herself under the covers and slams her eye shut, and her heart beats louder and louder. She waits for whatever it is to leave, but all it does is chirp. Chirp, chirp, chirp. It doesn’t shut up. It doesn’t break in. 

  What is it? Did Neo send it? She hadn’t outlived her usefulness, right? Even with Charles coming……she still has a role……right? 

  Her heart speeds up, beating so fast it’s painful. Her knuckles are white, and she can feel the crescents being left in her palms. A knot coils up and twists in her stomach, so tight and oily. Bile rises up her throat, and she feels fifteen again. 

  Fifteen and hearing her parents shout at her or each other. Fifteen and barely able to watch as her mother chains her up. Fifteen and hearing about how much better of an heir her brother is. 

  Fourteen and listening to a drone scream as it’s ripped apart by the birds. Fourteen and listening to the storm, the howls of wind so much like the drones she did everything to care for. Fourteen and having too many tears run down her cheeks as she’s left alone in the basement all because she said Mom. 

  Thirteen and hoping that J will remain intact this Christmas. Thirteen and wishing that she could understand the hatred for the drone she’d come to love. Thirteen and wondering about how different things could have gone if she was a human, too. Thirteen and still being a crybaby and getting scared by the monsters her brother would make up. 

 
  She’s sixteen now and pretty much the last person alive to boot. It’s funny, she doesn’t feel sixteen. Instead, she feels like a variety of ages. Eighteen, eight, ten, twenty. Still, she’s sixteen and alone and afraid, but she has to be brave and go take care of the monster. No one else will chase it away. 

  Tessa rolls out and bed and grabs her gun and puts her suit on, making her way to the front door. She adjusts her eyepatch and helmet, pulls the revolver’s hammer back, and steps out, but the sounds die away. The hair on the back of her neck stands up, and when she strains her ears, she can faintly hear……something. 

  She looks to the left, nothing. She looks ahead of her, nothing. She even looks behind her because one never truly knows, still nothing.

 With a sharp inhale, she warily turns to look right and bites back a scream. She fires shot after shot, but the hunk of metal doesn’t even react. Bam, bam, bam. The gun clicks empty, and it moves faster than she expects. 

  She breaks into a run, and it snaps at her heels. She rounds the corner, heart thumping, and fumbles for her pockets. She empties her gun and reloads, then holds it out before her. Thud, thud, thud. Sweat coats her arms, and her breath is too bloody loud in her ears. She keeps her body turned a bit to the right so she can see, and God, she can see it approaching. 

  It’s a dinosaur, maybe six or seven feet tall. Metal is curved into the shape of powerful muscles, and deadly talons tip its shining feet. Six pale blue eyes stare at it, and it blinks. 

  She fires again, but it doesn’t stop. Swearing, she turns to run, but it chitters and chirps. Her entire body freezes, and she wants to laugh. Of course this is how she meets her end. What else would it be? A psychotic robot who only knows genocide? No. No, it’s this. 

  Her gun clicks empty again, and she pales when she remembers that all of her other bullets are inside. Safe. She makes eye contact with the dinosaur, and despite her fear, she reaches out. 

  “B-Be a nice dingo, please,” she whispers through bloodless lips, and it tilts its head. “Please.” 

  It nestles against her gloved palm, and she could swear that her soul fled her body. Its many eyes close, and she thinks she may have died. 

  Then……

  It moves in a flash, and she feels the pain before it catches up. Agony shoots through her wrist, and she screams. The dinosaur howls in pain, and it hits the ground and claws at its head. She grips her arm and makes a dash for the door, and she slams it shut and locks it. 

  The beast is still shrieking, and she screams back. It falls silent, and her knees go weak. She crashes onto the floor, her arm pulled up to her chest, and she cradles it and rips her helmet off. It rolls and rolls, bumping into the table, and blood streaks her clothes. 

  Tessa simply cries, unable to even say anything. The first thing she’s seen this whole time, and it goes and does that. Of course. Of course it does! Why would it be nice? 

  “What have I done to deserve this?” she whispers. 
 

  The blood flows down, staining her, so she stands up and takes the spacesuit off. Left shivering in a tank top and shorts, she heads into the bathroom and cleans the wound. Once it’s patched up, she changes into warm clothes and turns on the TV Neo handed off to her. 

  She can still hear the dinosaur outside. Perhaps it won’t leave her, too. 

Chapter Text

  It’s late at night when J feels someone nudging her. Thinking that it’s C, she rolls onto her side and waits for the sleepy cuddles she knows will be demanded, but they don’t come. She blearily opens an eye, and her tiredness disappears at the sight of her other teammate. 

  V rocks back and forth, and the nightgown she stole off a corpse swirls around her legs. She stares down at her leader, resembling a ghost more than a robot of death and destruction. Extending a hand, she waits for it to be taken. 

  “What in the layoffs are you doing?” J asks, keeping her voice down. 

  “C’mon,” the sadist says, and J mentally notes how she sounds like she’s begging. How bizarre. “I’m bored.”

  “I’m not entertaining your silly whims,” J says with a scoff, and V smirks and yanks her to a standing position. “V, what the h-“

  She’s silenced by a hand on her mouth, and she bites down on a finger. V giggles, and her tail curls into the shape of a heart. She gazes at J with wide eyes, and she tugs her leader out into the open. The sun has gone away, leaving only darkness to dance beneath. The more oil-thirsty of the two begins to pirouette, and her leader watches her. 

 
  As much as she’ll never admit it, J finds herself entranced by the sight. Ever since they landed, V had always disappeared to places unknown and came back covered in oil and innards. J always found herself using a rag to clean her teammate off, always under the cover of light and when C was asleep. The two would curl up just out of sight of the sun and watch the clouds, never really touching. 

  V’s wings spread out, turning her into a mechanical angel. J heads after her and takes her hands, and some small part of her logs the way they feel away for later. Her right hand is smooth and cool, and her left has warps in the material and is warmer. Those warps trail up her arm and down that side of her body, and for another time, J catches herself wondering where they came from. 

  She’s lead through the steps of the dance, and the wind that howls around them is the closest thing there’ll be to music. She should really be asking why this is happening, why V is being so weirdly playful and sweet, but the words escape her. Maybe she doesn’t……

  V’s gaze is affectionate when it’s upon her, and J finds that her annoyance from earlier is completely gone. She simply grips the other girl a bit tighter and follows the dance like it’s natural to her. It really shouldn’t be. She’s meant for killing and death, not fun and…..whatever in the layoffs and stock crashes this is. 

  What is this? 

  It’s not romance, she remembers how Neo would look at V. That was certainly a form of romance. This is different, but she doesn’t bother wasting time trying to figure out what. 

  V twirls her around, and J hears her giggle. Her tail rises high, and it wraps around her waist. When J looks down at it and back at V, all her friend can do is shrug and smirk. Rolling her eyes, J lets it stay there, lets V stay close. 

  
  She vaguely can recall being a Worker Drone, and she remembers watching C dance throughout the library and hallways. Her feet had never been able to bend quite right, but now, all three of them practically walk en pointe. Neo flashes through her mind, and she slams a door over him and locks it up tightly. 

  What would life have been like if he had never entered it? She can confidently think that this wouldn’t be happening. Regardless of that…..she still dances. 

  V’s hand moves down to J’s back and rests there, and J finds herself even closer to the sadist. She wears a different expression now, no longer one of pure happiness. It’s darker, sadder, almost like she’s about to cry. J holds her gently, and the two continue to dance. 

Chapter Text

  I zip through the air, breaking out into loops and twirls. I hear V laugh behind me, and J sighs and says, “C, please focus on the task at hand.” She groans when I give her a thumbs-up. “The company is never giving you that branded pen?”

  Turning around, I fly up to her. “What branded pen?”

  “The official JcJenson branded pen,” she says. “It’s the kind that clicks.”

  “Where’s my first target?” I ask immediately, and she chuckles and points to the herd of Workers on the ground. 

  Diving down, I startle a Worker into running through the forest. I take aim and shoot down a tree branch, and V whistles and flies ahead. She tears through her prey like they’re nothing, and J shoots her machine gun. Bodies drop like flies, and V laughs wildly. The roar of her chainsaw steals my attention, and oil splatters on my arms. She’s like a murderous hyena. 

  J switches to her sword and decapitates several Workers in one go, and I clap and stab one with my syringe when she gets too close. V leaps in front of me, tearing the throat of another Worker out. She falls on all fours and bends her head down, eating him like a cat with a mouse. J nods to us and throws something at V. It nicks her headlight, and that makes her jump up. 

  Glaring at J, V picks up the pen and chucks it right back at her before storming off. Her maniacal giggles are the last thing I hear, then she’s gone. J huffs and pockets the pen, and I bend down to scoop up a necklace. 

 
  “What’s that for?” she asks. 

  “It’s a souvenir!” I chirp. “For our first group hunt. Pleased smile.”

  She rolls her eyes and takes it from me before gesturing for me to spin around. When I do, she wraps it around my neck and takes off as well. I follow her, scanning the surroundings for any prey. Nothing. They must have heard the commotion and booked it. 

  We take off again, and J leads me to an apartment complex. She watches as I crawl through the window, and I turn in time to catch her leaving. 

|•|

  J narrows her eyes and sends out a scan for V. That girl is not to be trusted alone, a fact she knows all too well. After last time, J would rather stab herself a hundred times over than let V stay unsupervised for any longer than she has to. Her near-nightly screams only serve as a reminder for why. 

  The scan reveals dotted tracks in the snow, and J nods to herself and follows them. There’s only three drones in the city with tracks like those, and she can account for where two of them are. They wind around a shutdown factory, past a collapsed cannery, and through a parking garage. J stays in the air as to not disturb them, and she raises an eyebrow when they begin to bunch together. 

  Oil dyes the snow black, and she shakes her head as she understands. She hopes the bratty sadist hasn’t gotten into trouble, and she chuckles to herself and draws her wings close to her body and dives down. She soars through the air, a tiny smile marring her face. 

  J finally lands in front of a large bus, and she doesn’t need a scan to tell her where her teammate is. She’s right on top of the bus, her tail flicking like a starving cat’s. She jumps when J joins her, and the troublesome girl rolls her eyes and digs her claws into the roof. 

  “Who’s down there?” J whispers. 

  “A family of three,” V responds. Her eyes are rings, and her quiet laugh echoes around them. “I’m so hungry.”

  
  “On three,” J says, and V nods and waits. “One, two, thr-“

  V rips the roof back and descends. There are twin screams, and J follows her. 

|•|

  Tessa pulls the body away from the house, muttering curses under her breath. The oil streaks the dirt, and she knows that it could possibly give her location away. However, it’s a risk worth taking. 

  She does her best to ignore the dead drone. It had been killed by one of the other Disassembly Drone teams but left behind, most likely because of the dinosaur robot. Sentinels, they were called. Charles had told her what he knew about them, but it wasn’t much. Something about being able to bootloop drones. All the light had done to her was make her head hurt. 

  She climbs up the tree and waits. It always walks around her house for three hours, starting at ten, and it’s fifty-five past nine. She swallows her fear back and sits in place. 

|•|

  J slashes through the father like he’s paper, and V shoots at the mother. The red-eyed Worker ducks in front of someone and shoved them out, and a cry can be heard from outside. The door locks, and the mother faces the drones. 

  Red light crackles at her fingertips, and V stops, eyes widening in shock. Hissing through her teeth, she swipes an arm off and grabs the drone by the hair. She bashes her face against a wall and throws her over J’s head. Bullets fire, and she catches a face peering in and snarls at the drone. 

  A bullet cracks the mother’s visor, and she slumps to the floor. The father cries out, and there’s a bright flash from a camera. In return, J stomps on his head and stabs his heart. 

  Stalking over to her quarry, V slashes the drone’s chest open and stabs something……fleshy? J can’t see it all that well, and she gets the feeling that she doesn’t want to. 

  V rips out the drone’s neck and chews, her expression going calm and docile. She hands some excess food over to J, and her tail wraps around her leader’s waist, pulling her close. The two feast together in the quiet. 

|•|

  The Sentinel has taken the bait. Tessa watches as it devours the drone in massive, gulping bites. She shudders and holds her wrist, breathing deeply. The simple action brings forth a bout of fresh pain, and she refrains from hissing through her teeth. 

  The drone disappears piece by piece, and she sighs when the Sentinel turns and walks away. If it hears her, it gives no indication. No tilt of the head or amused chirp. She slips out of the tree and scrambles back on home, heart pounding furiously. 

|•|

  “Putain de merde!” the little drone screams as she slips away from me. I follow her, forcing her back farther and farther. “Laisse-moi tranquille!”

  I swap to my gun and shoot around her, and she gasps and spins on her heel. Breaking into a run, the drone flees down the steps. Her skirt swirls around her legs as she does so, and I skip after her calmly. She hurls timid insult after timid insult at me, but I turn my translator off and keep on going. 
 

  She’s pushed back to the balcony, and she looks at me and it rapidly. As I take another step, she places a hand on the weakened railing and falls. Her scream shatters the air, and I wince when she hits the ground. I fly down to her, and she’s barely alive still. I slice her chest open, killing her. 

  Her visor blinks an accusing ERROR message at me, but I ignore it and lap at her oil. She tastes good, and I push her brown hair off her face and adjust her pink dress. 

 
  Where are J and V? I’m done hunting, so I guess I should go find them. 

|•|

  Day after day, Tessa leaves more drones out for the Sentinel. She’s taken to calling it Sparky, and she stops minding its routine house checks. If anything, it’s maybe an acquaintance. 

  After she finishes up with the last body, he appears. She doesn’t rush to her tree. Instead, she warily waves to it and points to the drone. Clearing her throat, she says, “Uh, I order you to……be a nice dingo.”

  Sparky bows his head and feasts on the corpse just like always. Tessa sits down and exhales, feeling her bones crack. With a quiet chuckle, she watches him eat. 

|•|

  V stares at the computer she stole and shivers as her boss appears. He smiles at her, and she squirms and glances away. When he clears his throat and snaps his fingers, she shyly turns to look at him. Neo chuckles, and she feels bile rise up her throat. 

  “Hello, V. I see that you have done as I asked. Good girl,” he says. 

  “Don’t call me that,” she mumbles. “Please.”

   He laughs louder, and she startled at the sound before exhaling and closing her eyes. After a few minutes, she hears him calling her name. She forces herself to look at him again, and he clicks his tongue. 

  “Remove your jacket,” he says. 

  V swallows hard, but she lifts her hands to the buttons. Her fingers tease the round pieces of plastic, and she slowly slips them out of the holes. Ever so carefully, she guides the jacket down her arms and drops it on the ground. Afterwards, she gets onto her hands and knees and turns so he can see the left side of her body. Neo hums in delight, and she feels strange. 

  Empty. Incomplete. Like she was formed without a crucial piece. Why is that?

  “You look beautiful,” he says. 

  V holds her head high and keeps her jaws shut tight. Any sound she wants to make is squashed down and kept deep inside. She feels like a show dog or a pageant girl, but it’s without any of the positive aspects. She closes her eyes. 

  “Look at me,” he says. “You’re wonderful. Perfect. If only I was there, my hands would never leave you alone.”

  V’s limbs shake, and she falls flat on her face. He bursts into raucous laughter, and she lets the snow cool her overheating systems. It’s only when she hears the second voice that it finally clicks for her. Why she feels the way she does. 

Chapter Text

   A scream tears through the silence, and my eyes snap open. open. I hit the ground, and the sound is still ongoing while words seep in. I look around to find who’s screaming. Once I realize where it’s coming from, I take a few hesitant steps towards her. 

  “LETMEGO! STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP! DONTTOUCHME! LETGO! Stop! Stop! Let go! STOPFUCKINGTOUCHINGME!” Ugly sobs burst out of V’s voicebank, and she rolls over in her sleep. 

  I go over to her, but a hand stops me. J glares down at me, and she says softly, coldly, “Don’t touch her.” I sit down, and she kneels at V’s side. “V? V, wake up. Come on, wake up.” She pokes the drone’s shoulder, but nothing happens. 

  Her wails become unrecognizable, animalistic, primal, and I cover my processors again. She thrashes in place, her tail swinging so wildly that J has to move out of its way. Her hands switch to claws, and she attacks an invisible opponent while her sobs grow louder. I swallow down fear, and then……

  V snaps up, just a flash of silver and maroon, her wings struggling to catch up with her legs. She rushes out past the Spire walls, and J cries out in shock. Sunlight pours in from the entrance, and V screams again as it touches her. I can only watch in horror. 

  Her screams grow louder and louder, just wails of pure agony. Her hands begin to melt and deform, and her voice glitches and cuts out. 

  She doesn’t move, not even when J reaches her and tugs her back by her nightgown. V begins….laughing? It’s a feral sound, and she curls her hand in her hair and starts hitting herself. Her claws strike her temple, drawing oil. She digs them through her head, and I gasp. She just continues to cry and laugh and claw, and J just barely manages to yank her back inside the Spire. 

  I cover my mouth when I see the damage done. The front of her body is even more burnt while her nightgown is hanging on by a few threads. Her eyes are unfocused, and her laughs die down into a weak whine. She falls to the ground and buries her face in her knees, and J moves away to go dig through the bodies. 

  I sit down beside her, and V doesn’t look at me. I reach out to pat her shoulder, and her head snaps up with a horrid sound. “Don’t fucking touch me!” she snarls, and my hand drops. 

  J returns with a lavender nightgown, and she pauses before her friend. With a blank gaze, V raises her hands above her head, and J helps dress her. The skirt puddles on the ground, and V leans against J. The older drone whispers something to her, making her nod. 

  V heads back to her assortment of blankets, and J pauses to look at me. “C, I’m sorry for snapping earlier.”

  “It’s okay,” I say, and she sighs. 

  “It’s time to go back to sleep.” She takes my hand and brings me back to my pole. I fly up and wrap my tail around it, and she nods to me before heading inside the ship. I can see her curl up close to V on the nest of blankets, then I enter sleep mode again. 

|•|

  “What happened earlier, V?”

  “Don’t…..ask me that….please.”

  “It’s not the first time it’s happened. What’s going on with you.”

  “You don’t give a shit about me!”

  “You’re my teammate. Of course I care about you.”

  “Cut the crap, J. It gets you nowhere. Just….drop it. It was just a nightmare.”

  “V-“

  “No, NO! You don’t give a shit about me! I KNOW YOU DON!T! YOU ONLY LOVE HER!”

  “Love? V, no, it’s not….love. She’s my friend. You know that.”

  “Bull-fucking-shit, J! Not her! Do you think I’m that stupid?!”

  “You’re not stupid. God. I know that. Just…..as your leader, I order to tell me what is going on.”

  “You don’t care. No one fucking cares. I’m……tired. I don’t……I don’t care anymore. I can’t let go of anything anymore. It’s all right here. Right here! It hurts.”

  “What does it feel like? Can you tell me?”

  “Like a-a b-buzzing behind my screen. It only goes away when I-I’m killing. I just want it gone.”

  “I’m sorry, V. I should have known. Stick with me tomorrow. We won’t go hunting. I’ll stay right here, I promise.”

  “What about the kid?”

  “C? She can take care of herself.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “What?”

  “Forget it. Just forget it.”

  “If that’s what you want, then fine.”

  “S-Stay with me?”

  “Of course. I won’t touch you, th-“

  “It’s not the same. You don’t……you’re cold. N-Not as hot as…….”

  “As who, V?”

  “Forget it.”

  “Fine. Goodnight.”

  “G’night.”

|•|

  I get up and stretch, and a quick glance reveals that J and V are still cuddled up to each other. It’s a cute sight, and I wish I could take a picture of it. Seeing V so calm is such a rare treat. J catches me looking, and she shoos me away and drapes her arm around the other girl’s shoulder. 

  Turning, I skitter out of the Spire and go searching for some prey. There are some Workers, but I skip around them and hide in a mostly-dead tree. Narrowing my eyes, I make some bird sounds. One looks up, and a pair come over to me. I continue to make the sounds, and more join. With a giggle, I shoot one of the branches off. 

  It crushes everyone with a loud THUMP, and I smile and go to grab as many as I can. Returning home, I deposit them at J’s feet and go back. Kill, return, kill, return. It’s a fun cycle that ends too soon. 

  I investigate the abandoned mining facilities. There are places where the rocks are refined and sent to Earth, and I even find a piece of gold and bite it to see if it’s soft. When it is, I slip it into my skirt pocket and keep searching. Ooh, cutlery! I pop a spoon into my mouth and flap my arms wildly against myself. Sitting down, I kick my legs back and forth and continue to suck on the metal. 

  A girl staring at me, her white eyes wide and beaming. A boy who doesn’t look up from his book, mouth open and about to deliver praise. A drone twirling V, then me. The girl and a smaller version of J chatting about something silly. J scolding me, eyes not as harsh as normal. 

  “Confused head tilt,” I say, doing the action. 

  THE FLESH DEMANDS INVITATION.

  “Huh?”

  A drone with an arm in his mouth, and he points to it like a small child would. I giggle, and he does the same around the mouthful of flesh. He beams at me and tears off a piece of it, and he gives it me to. I chew on it, wincing at the texture and taste. Who did it come from?

  I’m staring at nothing when I come to, and I blink a few times. What was that? A quick glance outside the factory reveals that it’s light out, and I slink under a desk and wait for the sun to fall. J and V might miss me. 

Chapter Text

  A short, purple-haired Worker Drone steps up, ignoring how everyone is ignoring her. She clears her throat and begins to speak dully. “We are Worker Drones: autonomous robots helping humans mine exoplanets for our interstellar parent company, JCJenson IN SPAAAAACEE....”

  She flicks through slide after slide of a report, all some form of edited graphs and other things that would easily make her lose points if anyone really cared. It’s hardly a proper report, but it’s certainly hers. 

  “Yeah, we were mistreated in the name of Windex, but it’s not like we revolted and killed all humans or anything. Mostly because they handled that just fine all by themselves.

  “With biological life wiped from the planet, we found it pretty easy to pick up where they left off. We finally had a future.…….all to ourselves.

  “Unfortunately.……our parent company didn’t exactly love the concept of runaway AI.” 

  The Murder Drones flash through every student’s mind. Their dozens of needle-like fangs, glaring yellow eyes, those black uniforms so reminiscent of a near-forgotten tragedy, silver hair like a twisted halo, so angelic yet wrong. Their gleaming wings must have come from the Stygian birds, their claws from the Nemean Lion. 

  Every student in this class had learned to fear them, to resent them. Any who held curiosity towards the unnatural drones were swiftly told a story of a lost relative or friend. Curiosity had killed much more than cats. 

  She throws her arm out dramatically. No one cares about her. “But what have our parents done for the past forever while those things build a spire of corpses?! Hide under the ice behind three stupid doors! It’s like we’re waiting for an inciting incident!” She smirks and kicks something up and catches it, twirling it around. “Anyway, that’s why my project is.…..this sick-as-hell railgun!”

  Finally, her classmates realize that she’s had that gun beside her all along. Several cover their mouths in shock, and the general commotion wakes a sleeping cheerleader up. She looks around frantically, her red eyes widening. 

  “That’s so not the vibe!” a student cries out. 

  The Worker girl rolls her eyes and shakes the gun around even more. “Easy, morons. It doesn’t work. YET. It doesn’t work yet. Who said it doesn’t work?! Maybe it does!” 

  She turns it on and begins to cackle like some sort of mischievous gremlin who had been fed past midnight. However, only one drone is immune to her chaotic presence, and that’s her teacher. He simply rolls his eyes and sighs, saying in an exasperated voice, “Uzi, the homework was a word problem about buying watermelons.”

  Uzi’s purple eyes hollow into embarrassed rings, and she clears her throat and glances down at her gun. “Oh, and this magnetically amplified photon converger doesn’t count?”

  He doesn’t even raise an eyebrow. “No. Plus, repressed emotional baggage was only worth two points on the rubric.” He points a pen at the gun. “And is it supposed to be that color?

  She looks down, only managing to say a quiet, “Huh?”

  BANG!

|•|

  Uzi sits on a bench in the nurse’s office, bandages wrapped around her head, an ice pack held to the injured metal and plastic. She doesn’t bother looking to the doorway even though two classmates—cheerleaders named Lizzy and Doll—are watching her from it. 

  Lizzy giggles and says, “Oh, here. No, wait, hold on. Shh.” In a much louder voice, she follows it with, “Eww. It didn’t kill her. Oh, my God, I’m so bad.” She and Doll run away, unwilling to pay her any more attention, and Uzi groans. 

 She looks away, wincing as pain shoots down her head into her neck. She mumbles curse after curse, damning her own stupidity for not testing her railgun before class. As she huffs, another Worker Drone dressed in a football jacket and backwards baseball cap walks into the nurses office. 

  He laughs at one of his friends, saying, “Classic toxic masculinity, Chad! That’s never gonna end up problematic.” He poses in the doorway for a second when his eyes land on her. “Oh, wow, Uzi? I-I heard you, uh-“

  Uzi throws her ice pack away and rolls her eyes for the nth time, mumbling, “I’m an angsty teen, Thad. Bite me.” His words smack her like a vicious tree branch to the face, and she does a double take. “Also, how do you know my name? People willingly talk to you.”

  He chuckles and glances around the room. “Well, I’d say everyone knows Khan’s daughter, but, uh... then you might blow the other half of your face off.” 

  Dozens of pictures and posters greet him, all addressing Khan Doorman. They all share a common theme: doors are his real daughters, doors will never disappoint him, his actual daughter is a failure, things that aren’t new to her. 

  Perhaps they never had been new.

  “Crippling daddy issues. Hilarious. What are you in for? Testosterone too hard?” Uzi asks, poking Thad’s arm. 

  
   His eyes widen in shock. “That can happen?! Awesome.” He gives her a goofy smile. “Hey, those bandages look pretty badass.” 

  Uzi clears her throat, flushing neon purple. “Oh. E-Ew, gross. I hate that you said that.” 

  He smiles, and she ducks her head. “So, what’s the, uh…..”

  She jumps up onto the chair like an out-of-control-child and flips her gun around, catching it effortlessly with one hand. “Sick-as-hell railgun? Sci-fi nonsense that super works.” She flops back down and runs her finger along the barrel. “I’m sneaking to the Murder Drone lair tonight to get the last spare part I need to save the world with it and earn my dad’s respect and stuff! Uh, but mostly the world part.” She laughs awkwardly, and her blush changes to one of pure embarrassment. 

  The jock drone raises his finger, stalls, and lowers it, then tilts his head. “Oh, but doesn’t your dad make awesome doors so we don’t have to, uh.……do that scary-sounding emotionally repressed stuff you just said?”

  Uzi shoves the muzzle of the gun up against his cheek, her expression switching to one of annoyance. “No more feedback on my repression today!”

  “Ow! I’m sorry. I-I-I didn’t think-“ 

  Instead of listening anymore, Uzi simply gets up and storms off, disappearing behind the door, yelling, “Bite me!” Not a second later, she pokes her head back out and mutters, “I’m not mad you by the way, just generally hormonal!”

|•|

  BE-EP! BE-EP!

  SLAP!

  Uzi’s eyes snap open, and her hands fly up to adjust her beanie. She springs up and glances around her room to make sure everything is out of her way, then she makes her way off her bed and into her father’s room. She carefully steps over loose tools and whatnot, stuff he’s left out for whatever reason.

  She opens his door slightly and goes to grab the keycard that hangs down from the wooden shelf. She pauses and swallows as her eyes land on a picture, but she quickly shakes her head, snatches the key, and shuts the door. From there, she heads out to the main set of bunker doors and steels her circuits. 

  The second-to-last door opens, and her father is standing right there. 

  “Oh, Robo-Jesus!” Uzi gasps, leaping back, hand over her power cell. 

  Khan raises a white eyebrow, observing her skeptically. “Where might you be off to?” he asks. 

  Uzi inhales through her teeth, CPU racing with many thoughts and whistling silence. She swallows hard and says, “Sneaking to make out with my boyfriend I definitely have?”

  Khan doesn’t move an inch, and she begins to break under his gaze. The posters from earlier swirl around her CPU, but he begins laughing. She smiles a bit, and he relaxes. 

  “Seriously, though,” he says. 

  Uzi exhales and says, “I’m going to inspect the hydraulic mechanisms of Door One for a school project. ‘Cause I wanna join the WDF and play cards and be cowards and stuff!” 

  His eyes widen, and he grins and wraps an arm around her shoulder. “Uzi, that’s great news! Oh, haha, we don’t just play cards by the way!”

  The doors open again, and another member of the Worker Defense Force calls out, “Hey, Khan, can you grab a fresh pack? We literally play cards so much that the numbers have faded! Oh, hey, Uzi!” 

  Khan promptly shuts the door and pats Uzi’s head, not noticing how she flinches and shifts on her feet. He pulls a wrench out of his pocket and hands it to her. “Here, the wrench I used to build my first door prototype and the one I used to put your mother out of her misery when the Murder Drones got to her with their nanite acid. I want you to have it!”

  Uzi palms the wrench, and she barely hides the look of disgust that crosses her face. “N-Neat, therapy is fun.” 

  Khan waves to her as she leaves, wiping a digital tear away with his plastic mustache. “They grow up so fast.” 

  Uzi continues her journey out to the Spire, a towering pile of Worker Drone corpses. Their oil glistens in the moonlight, and she ignores the deep-seated feeling of dread that roots inside her power cell. She gulps hard and makes her way inside, shuddering as a loose hand brushes her shoulder. She begins to rifle around for parts in the oily snow, cringing as she finds body part after body part. Something falls down onto her head, and she groans. A flash of green catches her eyes, and she scoops up the power source and tosses it into the air and catches it with ease. She smirks, and that’s when she hears it. 

  The wing beats. 

  Her eyes hollow, and she rushes to hide behind a low wall of corpses. She glances around wildly, grabbing a mirror shard. Her hand shakes as she holds it up to see just who the guest is, and all she can do is breathe out, “Oh, crap…..”

  The reflection catches a small Disassembly Drone, one in a black and white dress. She has a Worker head in her claws, and as Uzi watches in horror, she crushes the head and turns her X gaze on the purple drone. 

  Uzi swallows as she peeks behind her, but she’s gone. 

  She breaks into a run, fumbling with her gun, and it strikes, descending upon her like an holy terror. 

  The tail wraps around her throat, and the syringe plunges into her hand. Uzi yelps and attempts to rip the wire away, but the taller drone only giggles sweetly and grabs her other hand. She spins her around, around, around, then scratches her cheek with a long talon. Uzi hits the ground, crying out, and the drone drops to all fours and crawls towards her like a diseased cat. She reaches out to try and grab anything, her movements clumsy and desperate. Her fingers close on an object. 

  The Disassembly Drone pauses as Uzi throws the mirror shard, and she grabs it in midair and turns it over in her hands. Her eyes snap out of the X, and they shift forward again when she hears, “Bite me.”

  BANG!

  A long flash of green light. 

  Uzi stares at the headless body, shock creeping in. She can’t keep her thoughts straight, only able to mumble, “Did I just…..Holy Hell. Suck on THAT, DAD!” She exhales and tries to calm her power cell when she hears a sound that makes it spike. “Huh?”

  The drone sits up, and her head begins to regrow. One of her headlights is red. 

  Uzi’s eyes dart around, and she grabs the nearest object, a Worker arm. She rushes at the Disassembly Drone, and metal slaps metal right as those yellow eyes open. She blinks innocently, and Uzi takes a step back. 

Chapter Text

  I blink at the silhouetted figure before me, frowning when I realize that I can’t focus very well. My head is ringing, and I reach up to fiddle with my hair and ask, “Confused expression. Did you just…..slap me with that arm?” 

  “Holy crap, it talks,” the figure mumbles, and I tilt my head. 

  “Yeah,” I say with a slight giggle. “Anyways. I’m Serial Designation C, nice to meet ya! Are you new to our squad?”

  “Huh? O-Oh, yeah……” she says. “I’m just gonna go…..” She takes a few steps before clutching her hand and hissing. 

  “Did you sting yourself?” I ask. “Pop it in your mouth, your saliva will help. Duh.”

 “Saliva? Wait, you mean……”

  “Disassembly Drone?” I tilt my head the other way. This gal isn’t making any sense. 

  “Yeah, hey, let’s go into that landing pod,” she says, taking my hand and dragging me after her. She pushes me into the chair and taps my mouth, so I open it and let her stick her injured hand inside. After a few seconds, she pulls it out and mumbles, “We are never talking about this.” 

  I can only nod. “Let’s just lock that away forever, ‘kay?” 

  “Exactly,” the drone says. She looks around, and the air grows heavy. “Disassembly Drone, right. So, uh, what’s the, uh……what’s our team like?” 

  “Oh, You’ll love them!” I exclaim. “First, there’s V!” 

  “Please don’t feed me my own entrails in front of my family!” a Worker Drone cries out, desperately trying to push her prying claws off his stomach. 

 
  V purrs before tearing into the metal and plastic, and slimy innards smack me in the face. She begins to laugh as the Worker makes different sounds of horror, then he goes still. She slashes her claws through his family, letting the oil wash over her body. Her laughter grows louder and louder, bordering on hysterical. It stops abruptly, and she straightens up.

  “And yet, I still feel nothing,” she says. 

  I clear my throat. “V, I heard this planet-wide toxic death storm is supposed to be really inhospitable tonight. Wanna play a game or watch a movie with me later?” 

  She whirls around, eyes wide. “Oh, God! Why are you here?!” Her wings flare, and next thing I know, she’s gone. 

  “You asked me to hunt with you!” I call after her. 

  My new teammate makes a sound, and I look back at her. Her head is cocked, and she exhales and murmurs something too softly to fully hear. 

  I force myself to continue on, to not focus on V. “Then there’s J, our leader!” 

  “Cyn, what have I said about not meeting your quota?” J asks, voice low. 

  “I shouldn’t do that,” I say nervously. 

  She nods and holds up a pen. “You want the JCJenson branded pen, don’t you?”

  I nod, my eyes locked on the clicky pen, but when I reach out for it, she moves it away. Pouting, I attempt to grab it again, but she tucks it into her hair and shakes her head. I flop to the ground, and she hesitates for a second before patting my head. 

  “I want that pen,” I say. 

  “Fill up your quota, got it?”

  “Got it!” 

  I fiddle with my dress, saying, “J’s kinda like my big sister, but you can’t tell her, ‘kay?!” My new teammate nods and gives me a thumbs up, and I clap and gesture to the control panel. “You’ve already seen outside. Here are the buttons. Beep beep, boop boop.” 

  “Wait a minute, this is a spaceship! This could get us off the planet!” I flinch under her accusatory tone, and she sighs and shakes her head. “If we could fix this up, you-we wouldn’t have to be doing all the murder! Uh, I mean, why are we doing that again?”

  I cock my head and shrug. “I just like seeing my teammates smile. Honestly, I think the murder’s kinda……gross and overwhelming. Just a bit. The oil’s tasty and all, but I don’t like hearing all the screams……..”

  “I can imagine,” she murmurs. “I’m just wondering if, maybe, we don’t need to. Like, why does….the company……want us to do that? What use does JCJenson have for Murder Drones?” 

  “I don’t know,” I say with a shrug. “I don’t try to think about it.”

  Thunk, thunk, thud……

  “C! Get out here!” J calls, and I perk up, listening to if she’s in a good mood or not. I can’t tell. 

  “They’re back! You’ll lo……” I blink when I realize that I’m alone again. “New friend?” Sighing, I go out to meet the others. 

  J has her hands on her hips, and I hear V exclaim, “Yo! We got a Worker out here I kinda wanna practice balloon animal shapes with!” 

  “Hi, V! J!” I throw my arms around her, and she struggles against me for a few seconds. Once I’m firmly at an arm’s length, she snaps her fingers in my face. “What’s wrong?”

  “C,” she groans, tapping my headlights. “Did you trip and knock yourself offline again?” 

  “Ah, no…..” I don’t sound convincing, and she bops the malfunctioning light. 

  My vision races back to me, and so do all the memories. 

  “Bite me!” A Worker girl in a dark hoodie and beanie aims a gun at me, everything goes dark, she sits in front of me as I talk about the team, she insists…….the gun. The gun. 

   “What happened?” J asks, voice harsh. 

  “Oh, OH! I left an dangerous we-EXCUSE! OUTSIDE! BYE!” I yell, breaking out into a run. J’s hand brushes my sleeve, but she can’t get a grip before I’m already gone. “Come back!” 

  The Worker gal runs faster, her gun clutched to her chest. I don’t want to hurt her, I just can’t let her keep it. What if she hurts J or V? No, no, no, no! I can’t let her do that! 

  She races towards the bunker, and the doors begin to close behind her. I flap my wings to try and pick up speed, and when I manage to barely arrive, I jam my claws in to stop them from shutting all the way. They want to, and I’m forced to poke my tail inside to stab the card reader. 

  All the chatter goes quiet. 

  The doors open, and I step in and look around for the Worker. She’s off to the right, but she staggers backwards in shock. The other Workers are playing a card game. 

  “Is that Rummy?” I ask. “Can I play? Wait, no, I have to murder you guys……..Raincheck, ‘kay?” 

  “It’s Gin Rummy,” one says, then his eyes widen as my tail slashes his throat. 

  My eyes turn into an X again. 

  Everyone flees, and I chase them down. I bite the throat of the first one I grab, and his visor gives me an error message almost immediately. A small pang of guilt runs through me, but it quiets as I turn my attention to the next. I stab him in the back, and he slows and falls over. The next two are quick to die via decapitation, and the girl stumbles over their heads in her hasty escape. I pounce on the last one and rip his throat out, killing him instantly. 

  The girl makes it into the next two chambers but stops as the door doesn’t open. She moves behind a large crate and whirls around to face me, and I hold my hand out for the gun. Her eyes are terrified, and her body is trembling. I blink, and the door opens behind her. 

  “Pretty nice hydraulics…….” The Worker man pauses and looks at the massacre, dropping the pack of cards he was holding. “Uzi, what have you done? You led a Murder Drone here? My beautiful doors!”

  Uzi? Is that her name? 

  “Dad, this is so not the time! Please, I messed up, in the same way I’m about to fix i-“

  Her words are forced into stopping because I pin her to the wall with my talons and slam her gun into the side of her head. She coughs up oil, and her dad and I make eye contact. I look down at the gun, and so does he. His hands are shaking, and Uzi starts talking again. 

  “Dad, just point and shoot! Trust me!” She hisses in pain, and if it wasn’t for the fact that she proved herself to be a good shot, I’d let her retreat into the bunker. 

  Her father takes a step. 

  Backwards?

  The door drops down, rattling the gun. 

  Uzi……goes limp, her body no longer shaking. She hangs her head, and small tears well up on her visor. One falls down, and her expression is……..

  I pull my talon out, and she just hits the ground. She doesn’t move, doesn’t cry out, just lies there. She’s so still I’d swear she’s dead. I sit crisscross and poke her cheek, and a tiny sob escapes her. 

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I just……couldn’t have you killing my friends.” 

  She says nothing, and I hesitantly reach out to stroke her hair. She flinches away, and I hear footsteps. Two pairs. 

  “Wow, C,” J purrs, and I grab Uzi and throw her to where the crate is. “Am I dreaming, or did you fill your quota for once?”

  “I’ve been trying to get past these doors for months!” V exclaims, winking at me. “Great job, C.”

  “T-Thanks,” I murmur, smiling shyly. 

  V walks past me and examines the ceiling. There’s something strange about her voice and behavior, almost like she’s particularly lucid tonight. “These ventilation shafts can easily get us around the last door. Lowest body count eats a missile!” She takes off, her manic giggles being the last I hear from her.

  J comes up to me and wraps an arm around me in a loose hug, and I nestle against her. She’s too warm, and I hope all the oil within the bunker will cool her off again. Still, her expression is light, and she actually smiles at me for once in a long time. Genuine. 

  “Nice work, sweetie. The company will love this,” she says, making me beam at her words. She hands me a JCJenson branded pen, and my eyes widen as I click it rapidly. 

  She bends her knees and spreads her wings for takeoff, and my gaze wanders over to Uzi. My mouth opens, and I can’t stop myself from saying, “Wait, what does the company……plan to……well, do with us afterwards?”

  J turns to face me, her eyes flat and cold. She tilts her head and smiles a strange smile. “Are you questioning the company like a traitor, C?” 

  “Ah, no,” I say. “It’s just that……well……I guess I never thought about it before. Have y-“

  Something stabs me. Burning pain rushes through every last wire and circuit, eating me alive. 

  I hit the ground, and J peers over me. 

  “You don’t ever question the company, C,” she says, her tone odd. Sad. “Loyalty is always rewarded, and if yours can’t be guaranteed, the captain will have no use for you. We remain loyal, that’s how this works.” 

  She disappears into the vent, ever so silent. 

  I close my eyes. The virus burns so much, but I can’t do anything about it. 

Chapter Text

  “So……what just happened?” Uzi asks, and I hear her approach me. 

  “I me-messed u-up,” I say, voice box glitching badly. “I-I’m sor-rry for ruining your card game and mak-king you have an aw-awkward moment with your dad.”

  “Nuh-uh, no bonding thing. You just killed a buncha people, idiot,” she says. 

  I can’t help but laugh a little, but the action makes the pain worse. “That’s fair.”

  She leaves but returns after a few seconds and groans. “I normally wouldn’t do this because it majorly ruins my whole angsty teen persona, but I…..lemme help.” She kneels down and uses a wrench to remove the virus extension, and I can see again. “There. That better?”

  “Yeah.” I sit upright, and we lock eyes for a second. However, the sound of V’s giggles ring in my memory bank, and I pull Uzi to her feet and break into a run. She barely has time to grab her railgun. 

  “Hey!” she cries, wrestling out of my grip. When that fails, she speeds up and guides me through the halls. 

  The two of us pass bodies, all disfigured and broken from V’s playing. Sweet oil leaks from the wounds, but I force myself to keep going and ignore the free meal. Uzi moves much faster than I do, so I resort to flying to keep up. There’s the sound of cackling ahead, and Uzi pushes the doors to the evacuation room open. 

  J has a body in her hands, and V has her talons deep into a drone. She cuts his legs off and slices through his left arm, then bites through his neck. The drone topples into the snow, and she rips his stomach open. J picks up a drone in a sports jersey, and Uzi gasps and takes aim. I poke her side, and she glares at me. 

  “Hey! Put that conventionally attractive guy down!” she calls out, and J turns to face us. Something flashes in her eyes, but Uzi tugs on my wrist. “Which one to do want?”

  “Umm…..” I stare at my teammates. “V, please.”

  Uzi laughs and grins. “Too bad, good luck!” She bolts towards V, and I’m left pointing at J. 

  The leader rolls her eyes and brings out her swords, and we take to the sky. She scowls at me and attempts to cut off my head, but I duck and and parry the attack. She smirks and switches to her machine gun, and I shriek as she fires without care. Several of the gathered Workers run and hide, and I focus on her again. J shoots off a rocket, and it explodes some boxes behind me. 

  I dash towards them, hiding inside one and trying to strategize. It’s a big room and filled with boxes and shelves. If I could trap her—

  The box is cut in half, and I flee and shoot at J. She glares at me, snapping, “Stay still, traitor!”

  I want to fight back and argue, but I just can’t. She’s not entirely wrong, is she? 

  Shaking my head, I parry her next swipe again and knock her off course. J spirals through the air, crashing onto the ground near V and Uzi. The short Worker throws a pen at my teammate, which makes her scream in agony and clutch her headlights as nanite acid spills out. I wince and reach out for her, but J smacks me off to the side and stamps on my wrist. 

  “J!” I shriek out. 

  If the word hate were engraved on every part of her, it wouldn’t even come close to the sheer hatred that radiates off her entire being. 

  I messed up, but I’ll fix it. 

  In between a hail of gunfire, V hurls something small and black at Uzi. It strikes the girl, and her visor flashes with some weird symbol. I don’t have time to process it before J picks me up and throws me across the room. I slam into some boxes, and J follows me and crouches down in front of me. 

  “Why did you betray us?” she asks calmly, holding her blade up to my neck. “We had everything, C. This is all your fault. If he….once the company finds out, we’re dead. Do you understand? Dead.” 

  “I didn’t…..I did not mean to hurt you,” I say. “I just wanted to help Uzi.”

  A scream from the nearby battle is enough for me to push her sword away and step on her face. J gasps and attempts to grab me, but I dodge and throw myself between V and Uzi. Her machine gun bullets hit me square in the chest, knocking me into Uzi. We land in a tangle of limbs, and she yells at me to bite her. 

  J rips me off of her, and we spin around while trying to punch each other. I stomp at her leg, and we fall. J scowls and opens her mouth, but a mad cackle from V shuts her up. We both look back with wide eyes, and I feel my oil run too cold as she approaches the Worker with an EMP out. 

  The blue lights pulse in the air, and Uzi powers off. She slumps gracelessly to the ground, and V kneels at her side. Her eyes hollow, and saliva drips onto the prone Worker. She looks like a wild animal as she rips Uzi’s hoodie open and bites down on her neck. 

  I move faster than expected, and my sword cuts through J’s neck. I don’t even give her head time to hit the floor before rushing to Uzi’s side, and I drag her away from the predatory drone. The EMP lasts for only five minutes because we never needed more time than that, but now, I wish it only lasted two. 

  I deposit her in front of a metal hiding space and switch to my gun and sword, snarling as J and V approach me. My tail lashes through the air, and it lengthens and strikes at V. She wipes the acid away and licks her hand, giggling like a maniac. She blows me a kiss and lunges before I can blink. 

  Her claws tear through my chest, and J darts around to my right side. Her fingers weave through my hair and tug my head to the side, and she bites down on my neck. I can’t even scream as wave after wave of pain wash through me. V pushes J away and replaces her, and my CPU goes fuzzy. 

  My body twitches and jerks as oil is sucked out, and my vision goes dark. J screams, and something wraps around my waist. My tail? 

  Both girls leave me, and I can barely see V licking J’s arm before she swipes at me. I duck and rush at her legs. She gets knocked backwards, and I bite her in retaliation. My swinging tail stops J from attacking me or Uzi, and I hear the Worker get to her feet. 

  “C, MOVE!” 

  I jump out of the way, and green light takes over. The ground shakes, and I slump to the ground. When the light dies down, I’m horrified to see the charred remains of V’s upper torso. Tears well, and J staggers forward and glares at Uzi. 

  She lets out an agonized shriek and throws herself at her, and I move without thinking. Grabbing her tail, I wrap it around her body, and I force her to the ground. J exhales and screams again, and Uzi stumbles over to us. I scoop her up and put her on my shoulders, and the other Workers come out of hiding. 

  Most of them are cheering, but one clears his throat and approaches us. His expression is solemn, and Uzi makes a disgusted sound. 

  “I brought the Murder Drones here accidentally. You chose to leave me for dead instead of just friggin’ believing in me, and that’s not even edgy teen hyperbole like when I said it last week! Oh, forget it! I’m banishing myself!” Uzi exclaims, and a wrench is launched over my head.

  It clatters before her father, and he can only look up at us. 

  “Let’s go, C. Everyone here can bite me,” Uzi murmurs. 

  “It was kinda nice to meet you, Mr. Uzi,” I say, and his daughter smacks my head and tells me to go. Spreading my wings, I take off and break through the ceiling. 

Chapter Text

  The trail of blood is what she steps in. She stops her dancing to stare at it, worry and fear gnawing at her heart. Despite this, she shakes her head and picks up the pace, skipping and twirling over the crimson path. Her heels ripple and morph into ballet shoes, and she dances until she finds a door. 

  Blood seeps from behind it, and she swallows down her nerves and opens it. 

  She’s greeted with a chorus of screams. Pained, joyous, ecstatic, horrified screams that sound almost orchestral. 

  She claps a hand over her ears and makes her way inside. A gasp slips past her lips at the horrendous sight, and she claps a hand over her mouth as tears well. 

  A drone stands in the center of the ballroom, his fingers plunged into a human’s eye sockets. Oil dribbles down those bloodless cheeks, and she can’t hold back a scream anymore. 

|•|

  Tessa snaps upright in bed, heart thumping too fast for her body. She runs a hand through sweat-soaked hair and turns as a soft chirp steals her attention. Sparky rests his head on her lap, and she blows out a laugh and pets him. 

  “Ever ‘ave one of those nights, buddy?” she asks. “Where everything hurts? I ‘ope you don’t, they’re not….great.”

  His blue eyes settle on her, and his tongue traces circles on her palm. Tessa lies back down and keeps her arm outstretched, and her companion scoots to be closer. His head lies on her stomach, knocking some wind from her lungs. 

  “I can’t help but feel like it’s my fault,” the young woman admits. “If I hadn’t played hero, we’d be fine. Right? What am I saying, you don’t know half of the lore. Aight, basically, I found a cute l’il drone, he caused big trouble, and I’m here now. Whoo-hoo, lucky me.

  “I miss J, ya know? J and C and V and Neo, whatever the hell he is now. You’d like C, I think. She’d ride around on you until J tells her to knock it off. J’s always like that. So business-like, but she’s sweet to me. I miss everyone.

  “I miss how Neo was before he deviated and became whatever the hell he is now. I used to love that l’il broken drone so much, but I guess I’ll get over. You, though? Not sure I’ll get over you. 

  She rolls onto her side and huffs, and the dinosaur does the same. “We’re stuck together now, buddy. No escaping me.” He lets out a series of trills that make her laugh, and she curls up to him. “Yeah, yeah, you love me. Somehow.”

  BEEP! BEEP!

  
  Tessa throws the covers off and goes into the surveillance room and sits down, and she frowns as she watches the cameras. C lands on the ground, her claws on J’s head. There’s a Worker on her head, but someone’s missing. 

  Where is V?

  J looks ready to kill, C seems nervous, and the Worker slides off and peers around the Spire. 

  Tessa feels her blood turn cold, and Sparky pads to her and chirps. She scratches his jaw, never looking away from the screen. J and C begin arguing, their words not quite reaching her ears, and her best friend glares at the short Disassembler. After a while, C grabs J by the hair and drags her inside. 

  Even as the hours go by, V simply doesn’t return home. Shaking, Tessa turns the TV off and pushes away from the desk. Sparky makes a rumbling sound, and she goes back to bed. 

  
  “It’s just a nightmare. Just a nightmare,” she murmurs. “It’s all fine. It has to be fine.

  “What happened, buddy?” Tessa whispers after a second. “It’s only temporary, right? She can’t die. She’s V. Who in the world could actually……kill her? I know she’s not invincible, but…..”

  Sparky lies at her side again, and she exhales and tries to sleep. A heaviness presses her down

Chapter Text

  Shadowy men glance down at me, their white eyes flickering, and one bends over to examine me closer. 

  “And where is she getting the hair to play dress-up with them?” he asks no one. “Eerie.”

  He puts a glass on my tray. Twirling around, I throw the glasses into the air, curtsy, catch them all, and run around the corner. The manor is quiet, and I slow down and take my time to study the surroundings. The crimson carpet presses down with every step, and the many paintings look out at me. 

  THUMP!

  I crash to the ground, and V cries out. Scrambling over to her, I help her up right as more footsteps echo through the hallway. Our heads snap upwards, and J frowns at us and crosses her arms. 

  “Move it, you morons!” Her eyes shift to the direction she just came from, and she puts on a sickly sweet smile. “Hi, Tessa! Oh, God, another one?”

  Standing behind the silhouette of the teen girl is a short drone in a butler uniform. He peers out from around her waist and smiles at us, yellow eyes gleaming brightly. 

|•|

  My eyes open, and I yelp and fall from the post I was hanging onto. Groaning, I put a hand to my head right when I hear Uzi yell out, “C, I found something in here!” 

  I trip over various body parts left behind by V in my attempt to rush to the landing pod, and as soon as I do, Uzi spins me around. She sticks something into my bow, accidentally pricking me in the process. I let out a small “Ow,” and there’s a thump as she kicks the suitcase out from under her. J huffs from where she’s chained up, and I crane my neck to look into the mirror. 

  It’s a golden pin, a skull with wings. 

  “Ooh, I like it,” I say. 

  “I’m guessing it was meant for the pilot,” she says, shoving the suitcase back under a shelf. “It’s yours now.”

  “I was the pilot!” I exclaim, turning to give J a duel peace-sign. She groans and rolls her eyes but goes back to sketching. “Origin story!” 

  Uzi chuckles and goes to straighten the mirror when it suddenly shatters, and she gasps and steps back. J drops her colored pencil and paper, head snapping up. I rush towards the Worker, who covers her eye with a hand and scowls. She pushes me to the side and kneels down to gather up the pieces when J laughs quietly. 

  “Oh, no,” she says, humming. I shoot her a glance, and she curls her fingers up and rests them against her mouth. “Looks like someone’s going to have to tell the company about that.”

  “Bite me!” Uzi snaps, glaring at my leader. “Do you know something about this?!” 

  J snorts and shakes her head, narrowing her eyes as a smug smile takes over and she lifts her claws. “Why, would you prefer if I make sure that your coding is satisfactory? I don’t mind.”

  Uzi lunges at J, and I scrabble to grab her by the hoodie. She struggles against me, so I wrap my tail around her waist to keep her in place. Unintelligible words flood from her mouth, and J leans back in her chair to avoid her frantic hand swipes. She growls and nearly breaks free from me, but I lengthen my tail and rest the tip of needle against her head. She goes still, and I drag her away. 

  “So, Uzi,” I say, “How are the repairs coming?”

  “Not great. This thing wasn’t meant to be reusable.” She rolls her eyes and whacks the button panel. “I’m guessing the humans didn’t want you guys returning to Earth for some reason, and I’m betting negotiations aren’t in the cards.”

  “Well, maybe you missed the negotiations!” J exclaims, suddenly launching herself forward and straining against the chain. “We were created to solve a problem! Where’s the backstory for those like you? The ones who claim they are oh-so innocent?” 

  She laughs, and I’m struck by how much she sounds like V. Her ringed eyes shine brightly, and saliva drips out of her slasher smile. Uzi kicks her leg, then sits on the panel and looks at me. I take a seat at her feet and lean my head against her legs, but she pulls them up and grumbles. After a beat, J clears her throat and fixes her hair and straightens up. 

  “Confused expression. You were getting orders from someone, right, J?” I ask, turning my attention to her. “If not the company, then who? Why?” 

  “I do not have permission to share that information,” she says, lowering her head slightly. 

  Ding! 

  Uzi glances down at her phone, and she stands up and gestures for me to follow her. 

|•|

  Wind whooshes through the broken roof, and the two Worker drones sigh. 

  “Yeah, just fix ‘er up ‘cause whoops,” one says. “Pretty big security risk in hindsight. Eh, you got this, uh….” He scrutinizes his coworker’s name tag. “Ladderbot5000.”

  “Ladderbot5000”—or Frank—rolls his eyes and groans, doing everything to keep his annoyance in check as the other starts to leave. “Please, just leave the lights—“

  The lights go off, plunging him in darkness. 

  He exhales slowly and puts his equipment down. Where to begin? His ladder is nowhere near tall enough to reach the roof, which now seems like a bit of a bad decision. Then again, no one ever expected the Murder Drones to break in, so why would they need a cartoonishly tall ladder? 

  Turning his flashlight on, he shines the light around and gives the hole another glance. Yep, still there. Something clinks and rolls behind him, and he scans the evacuation room for a third time. The light travels over the destroyed lower body of that Murder Drone, but right as he takes a step towards her, something moves in his peripheral vision. His oil rushes through his circuits, and his hand begins to shake. 

  Something else falls over, and he goes to check on it. He sighs in relief upon learning that it’s just a wrench. Returning back to the ladder, he opens up the toolbox, grabs a screwdriver, and freezes. 

  A trail of oil leads off to the left, and as he turns his head, his body tenses up. There, in the darkness, is a pulsing….thing. 

  Torn open ribs, and a beating heart. 

  He approaches it, and the light shines on the bright yellow armband. V-X00100000. Right. It didn’t have a name like the rest of the colony does. Why does that thought not comfort him? His eyes widen at another sight, and a beat follows. 

  Beat. 

  
  Beat. 

  Beat. 

  Be—

|•|

  Khan Doorman approaches the teacher’s desk. The teacher could not look less impressed if he tried, and it’s not like he tries much. 

  “Mr. Doorman, your daughter has been, uh….absent,” he says. 

  “Yes,” Khan says. “On that “kill all humans” kick, like when I was younger! Grounded herself, and all that.” 

  Despite his chipper words, there’s a hollowness in his eyes. His clothes are wrinkled, as though he slept in them for a week, and his red goggles are crooked. 

 
  The teacher clears his throat and gives his paperwork a quick glance. “Speaking on her behavior—“

  “Of course, of course. Precocious, popular, supernatural understanding of doors!” Khan pats the chair a few times and smiles off in the distance. “Takes after her old man.”

  Memories of Uzi’s behavior—refusing to sit normally, stealing Braiden’s sentience, and not partnering up—flash through the teacher’s mind. He can’t imagine Khan ever acting like the troublemaker Uzi has always been. Perhaps she got it from her mother. He had never met Nori, but the stories about her…..would explain more than one thing. 

  “Yeah, she has reported trouble of fitting in. We think there might be something damaged with her programming,” he says, tapping his temple. “H-How is she at home?”

  Khan’s expression falls, becoming a mix of confused and possibly irritated. “Uh, s-sorry? I mean, she’s a little “herself,” but “damaged”? I-I maybe haven’t spent much time, er…..”

  The door opens, saving him from embarrassing himself further, and he throw the paperwork over his shoulder. Another member of the WDF takes a half step in and gives Khan a concerned look, and she says, “Mr. Doorman, sir? There’s been an….incident.”

|•|

  Snow whips around me and Uzi, and she wipes her face and groans. “I’m sweaty! Who programmed that?” 

  “Are you okay, Uzi?” I ask, and she bops my face with her sweat-covered hand and gives me a smug grin. 

  “I’m better than good, I am GOD!” she yells. Her gaze falls onto the nearing Worker Drone, and she blushes and lets out an awkward laugh and tries to tuck her hair behind her nonexistent ear. “H-Hi….hi, Thad.” She grabs the railgun from him. “Thank you.” 

  “Of course, Zi!” he exclaims, winking at her. He gives me a finger-gun. “Candy.”

  “Head tilt,” I murmur, confused by the nickname. 

  “You saved my life,” he says, looking back at her. “I don’t even think the colony is serious about all this banishment stuff. They’re more confused, especially with—“

  Uzi does a silly, overly-edgy, anime-esque pose with her railgun, and it reminds me of the videos       would play. “The fact I’m too rogue to re-enter society now? I can never return.”

 
  “The recent disappearances?” Thad finishes, and the two share an awkward glance. “And your murder-friend’s corpse? When I went to grab your gun, it kinda looked like she….pulled herself away?”

  My eyes go wide, and my tail sticks out straight as I look around the area. V? Here? I thought she was as dead as Jacob Marley. The blast destroyed so much of her….

  “We can return a little,” Uzi murmurs, sounding as brave as I feel. 

Chapter Text

  Water drips down, puddling up on the floor. The vending machine glows blue, bright and eye-catching. Tim, the Worker who couldn’t be bothered with the lights, looks up from his clipboard and pauses at the sudden sight of a slumped over, semi-transparent Frank. 

  “Ladderbot5000? We looked everywhere for you,” he says, raising a blue eyebrow. 

  Frank lets out a glitched scream before speaking in a slow, distorted manner. “Hello, Tim. Care to join me?” He lifts a hand up, but his body still remains oddly contorted. A marionette. 

  “Join you standing eerily still over there in suspiciously low resolution?” Tim asks, pointing the pen at him. 

  Frank looks at himself and shrugs. “Yes?”

  Tim taps his pen against him cheek in thought before casually strolling forward. “A’ight.” 

  Unbeknownst to him, a large, acid stained, scythe-like claw swings down without a sound. Frank snaps his fingers, and it bursts through Tim’s back. The Worker gasps and struggles, but the serrated edge slices into his core and lifts him into the air. He screams, dropping his things as he’s taken to a gap in the ceiling. 

  He attempts to grab the other tiles, but another claw grabs onto his face and pulls him in. There’s a wet squelching sound, and body parts rain down. The claws curl into the tiles, and a fleshy, organic and metal camera head descends out. Its yellow eye takes in the surroundings, shining a blue light, and another hologram appears. 

  “Gr-great act-acting, m-me,” Fake Tim says. 

  “Improv game for more prey?” Ladderbot5000 offers.

  That makes Not-Tim break out into maniac laughter. Its body shakes, and it wipes a digital tear away and grins, shark-like teeth gleaming in the light. It turns to its friend and nods, saying, “We are a monster.”

|•|

 
  I swoop over the top of the compound before landing, and Thad ends up on his back while Uzi does a flip in the air. She wanders over to the heavy door and raps on it, and a white-eyed guard has it opened after a second. 

  His expression changes from annoyed to energetic as he waves to Thad and greets him, but that’s followed by him looking at Uzi and asking, “Uh, wait. Isn’t she grounded or something?” 

  Uzi groans and rolls her eyes. “Ugh, banished! Has Dad been saying I’m grounded?”

  Ignoring her, the guard turns to me and lets out a disbelieving noise. “Genocide robot?” 

  Uzi and Thad face me, and I shuffle forward and hand over a card. I’M SORRY T-T is written on it in crayon beside myself and the Spire, and I added a little gecko making a frowny face to the front.

  The guard shakes his head and smiles, saying, “Oh, all right. Just don’t do it again. Get in here, ya silly.” He gives me a thumbs up, and I beam back at him. 

  The three of us enter the bunker, and Uzi guides us down to the lower levels. The bunker is eerie and dark, a far cry from the red lights that flashed when I was here last. I stay ahead of them just in case V shows up. As much as I doubt that I can fight her and win, listening to her tear these two apart would be….depressing. 

  Uzi and Thad talk quietly about schoolwork and what she’s missed out on, but it doesn’t seem to bother her that much. If anything, her words come out stilted and a bit awkward. After a while, she clears her throat and goes silent. Thad follows soon enough, and we walk on in dead silence. 

  If V really is down here, why didn’t she come back to us? We’re her teammates, and that would probably put J in a better mood. Then again, maybe it’s because we watched her die? Maybe she thought we didn’t want to see her again. That’s not true, but she never was very lucid these past years. Always murmuring about hearing someone and not getting enough sleep and burning herself out while hunting. 

  I remember she almost ran out of oil once. J had to slaughter several Workers to get her back online. 

  “Over there,” Uzi whispers, pointing down a hallway. Thad tries to take her hand, but she brushes him off and approaches me. 

  Cameras flash, catching our attention, and we peek around the corner as WDF members examine a crime scene. Some scan a vending machine while others stand off in corners. A Worker with a brown ponytail drinks some coolant as she stands up and moves to another drone, and she glances to the broken ceiling. Her coworker nods to her and lowers his camera. 

  “Yeah, so where’s Khan? ‘Cause this looks…uh, not ideal,” he says, hissing loudly through his teeth. The duo kneel down, and he photographs the oily floor. 

  
  His partner shrugs and sips more coolant. “Parent-teacher conference? Something about his daughter being ‘more important than building a door in this hallway.’ Kinda cringe.”

  I blink, and Uzi lets out a soft groan. “Are you okay?” I ask, and she shoves me down. 

  “I’m okay. Stop asking!” She mimes walking with her fingers, then slams her fist into her open palm. Gesturing for us to follow, she walks off while everyone’s back is turned. Thad and I share a glance and go after her. 

|•|

  “Any forensic….things over there?” the brunette Worker asks, looking over her shoulder. “Do we have fingerprints?”

  She looks back at the oil splotches, and as she runs a finger over them, her coworkers flicker away. She tilts her head to the side and studies the mess, wondering if it’s from the initial disappearance or afterwards. That’s when the light catches her eyes, and she straights up. Her head whips around as drone after drone vanish, and her smiling, waving colleague disappears as well. 

  She tries to sip coolant, but the mug is gone before she can. Her power cell beats quickly, and to her growing horror, the tape, oil, and vending machine are all gone. She blinks, hands trembling as she takes a small step backwards. She raises her palms, mouthing prayer after prayer to whichever deity will take pity on a poor drone. 

  Drip. 

  Her circuits turn to ice as oil drips onto her palm, and she slowly lifts her head. Oh, holy Hell. She opens her mouth, but she never has the chance to speak. 

|•|

  Khan’s hands grip his face as he looks ready to explode from an existential crisis. His goggles are long gone, having been flung to where Lizzy and Doll sit. His white eyes are in rings, and he’s slumped over the desk. 

  “I mean, you don’t think it’s me…..parenting, do you?” he asks. “I left her for dead ONCE! It sounds like she’s bored in your class, and the other kids suck! Call her damaged again, and I will install a door on your face!” 

  The teacher conveniently tunes this rant out by playing Solitaire. Outside the door, something attempts to get in. 

  From the back desks, Lizzy rolls her eyes and looks over at her best friend. Doll is staring at a blurry photo for the nth time, her mouth curved into a little smile. Lizzy reaches up to fix her yellow ribbon and taps Doll’s hard hat, gaining the other girl’s attention. 

  “Where are your folks?” she asks. 

  Doll spins a necklace charm while pausing to figure out how to reply. Her red eyes focus on the object, so intensely Lizzy thinks that it might burst into pieces. The blonde drone frowns, but she waits. Images flash in Doll’s memory banks. Screaming, gunshots, oil splattering the walls. 

  “Мертвый,” she finally whispers. “Я видел, как они умирали.”

  Lizzy stares at her for a long second before breaking into a quiet giggle. “That was the joke, idiot.” At the same time, a knock sounds from the second classroom door. Both girls straighten up and look, finding a copy of Lizzy. “That girl is…..gorgeous, right? I’m gonna let her in.”

  Doll can barely contain her horrified expression as Lizzy gets up and walks over to the door. 

|•|

  Uzi shines a flashlight around, and the beam skips over the dust and patches of never-melting ice. I let out a small “bleh,” and Thad walks over to a large container. Uzi follows him, and her flashlight illuminates some text. 

  “AbsoluteSolver? Reboot?” She gestures for me to join her, and she points to the words. “C, does this have something to do with how you grew your head back?”

  I blink and take a second to think about that. Neither J nor V knew exactly how we functioned, just that we were specifically programmed to be able to make things and regenerate quickly. If this thing was the key, that could us some answers. Not to mention….

  “Wait, isn’t that your special eye?” I ask. The symbol shone on the container is three arrows that form a triangle, and if my memory is correct, it’s the exact same thing that flashes on her visor sometimes. 

  Uzi is less thrilled by the realization because she shoves me again, and Thad has to grab my hand before I fall over. She mumbles something and pouts, and I snicker and poke her shoulder. She groans when there’s a small sound off in the distance. We fall silent, and to my horror, something skitters towards us. A tan hand, the wrist connecting to a thick, black cable. That cable stretches into the darkness and disappears around the corner. 

  Thad takes a step back, Uzi taps her flashlight against her wrist, and I pull out a missile. Sending it off, I wait for it to explode. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three—

  It blows up, and the darkness is illuminated for a few seconds. My eyes widen at the sight of….of….whatever the heck is curling inwards like a centipede. Black and segmented, claws and scythes, and a head…..a head that just looks….. 

  Sure enough, V is alive. It’s just that she doesn’t look quite right. The bottom half of her face is torn away, revealing dozens of needle-like teeth with saliva dripping onto the floor. Her hair is disheveled, and her second headlight is shattered. Acid spills onto her visor, and she lets out a mockery of a giggle. 

Chapter Text

  The slender hand grabs onto Thad’s leg and yanks him away, and he starts to scream. Uzi startles, and she hurries to chuck the flashlight at it. V shrieks in pain, and I quickly form a throwing star and throw it. It sails through the air, severing the cable. Thad falls to the ground, and he looks back at us with a frightened expression. 

  Uzi turns her head and jumps up, exclaiming, “I want a frickin’ ninja star!”

  Another cable swings out, smacking us against the wall. Pain radiates through my body, and I hear Thad yell again. It fades into the distance, and Uzi groans loud enough to wake the dead. 

  “Are you okay?” I ask. 

  “Stop asking!” she exclaims, shoving me down again. “Chainsaw hand time?” 

  “Yeah!” 

  We run after the Rocky Eldritch Picture Show and into a cryosleep storage unit. Suits and skeletons like the hallways, and a bright light beams down on a glitched and dying Thad. There’s something dark behind him. He lets out a glitched scream before flickering to his feet. Uzi steps forward, hand on her railgun’s trigger. I nudge her, but she ignores me and continues with the terrible gun safety. 

  Thad smiles at us, but it’s too vacant to be real. Plus, it’s obvious he’s fake. He waves and says, “Yes, and hello! It’s me….Ted! Umm, can I get a location?” We remain silent. “I heard dentist’s office. I’m Te-Thad at the dentist’s office! Come over here for you….teeth!”

  Uzi scoffs and powers the gun up, pointing it at him. “Predictably terrible work, V. Why do you look so…..”

  “Great!” The word rushes out of my mouth before I can stop it, and I elbow Uzi and swipe my fingers in front of my neck. “Ah, no, yeah, you look great, V!”

  I glare at Uzi, but she shakes her head and re-aims the gun. The hologram’s eyes widen, and he holds his hands up as if to stop the blow. Not like that would do much anyway. 

  “N-No, wait. Guys, it’s really me!” he cries out, but he starts to glitch. “Is that a f-fu-freakin’ ni-ninja star?” 

  I throw another star, and it whistles as it travels to the intended destination. It cuts through the bundle of cords in the back, and the real Thad falls down and coughs. He looks up at us, and V seems to forget that we’re here since she cocks her head and studies him. 

  “Thanks again, you two! You’re super invited to my shindig next weekend.” V moves in to grab him, but he pretends to punch her and shakes his head. “Cool kids only.” With that, he runs away. I want to call him a coward, but he pretty much has the right idea. 

  Regardless, Uzi and I turn to each other and beam. V groans and swats at us, sending me flying into a wal—GAH!

|•|

  Uzi doesn’t have time to look back at C before another tentacle-like cord swings her way. She jumps over it and rolls, feeling like an action hero, but the Eldritch V scoffs and retracts part of her upper mouth even more. Black, synthetic gums are out on full display, and saliva washes over her teeth. 

  “There is no escape,” she says, voice a pale, monotonous imitation of the original. “Let me eat you now.”

  “No frickin’ way!” Uzi snaps. “You’ve done enough damage!”

  “We will not forgive you,” the creature says. “We will remember this.”

  Another cord slams down, forcing Uzi to evade. She grabs a fallen throwing star and tosses it, but it just barely misses the oncoming attack. Her eyes widen, and she aims the railgun and takes a step forward. V’s elongated body retreats back to the nest-like bundle of cords and cables, and she hisses as though she’s become a rabid cat. 

  Uzi puts her finger on the trigger, and she just barely pulls it when she slips on a wire. Pain radiates throughout her metal spine, and she groans and coughs up some oil. V laughs uproariously, slapping a tentacle across her face. Her X eyes flicker back to ovals, but that’s gone within a second. Her laughter dies into a throaty growl, and she lunges. 

  Yelping, Uzi scrambles backwards and desperately reaches out for her gun. V cocks her head and slashes a cord through the lights, plunging the Worker into darkness. Uzi blows out a breath and stays still, turning her head left and right and up and right. Her circuits buzz with nervousness, and a skittering sound makes her pause and take a few steps back. 

  “Where are you?” she whispers, eyes shifting from surface to surface. She hisses through her teeth and moves hesitantly. “Come on out, coward.”

  “Coward?!” V’s enraged screech echoes throughout the room, and her body lunges out of the darkness. 

  Uzi shrieks and drops to the ground, and the mass of writhing cables whips over her head. One snakes around her wrist, jerking it upwards. The railgun clatters from her hand, and high-pitched footsteps ring out. Cyn snatches the gun up and aims it, and Uzi hesitates again before reaching out. The Disassembly Drone smiles sweetly at her before turning back to the Eldritch Horror.

  “Three, two, one….”

  “Pranked, idiot. You big stupid. Now, I have to do something fun.” 

  Uzi can only feel a shocking coldness as the gun smacks her in the face. V laughs and laughs, and her body flickers and shatters into holographic shards. Her head descends from the ceiling, oil staining her teeth. There’s a drone in her grasp, and Uzi’s eyes go wide. 

  “N-No, don’t hurt him!” she pleads, hand stretching out and shaking badly. 

  “Goodbye, Dad,” V murmurs. 

  Uzi rushes towards the pair, but the cables curl around her father’s body and tear him apart. She falters and sinks to her knees, and her circuits seem to stop working. She watches as V feasts on Khan’s remains, a gluttonous and horrid sound that grates at her insides. Tears begin to well up, and they streak down her visor. 

|•|

  I sit up, groaning and clutching my head, when I hear a guy’s scream. Forcing myself to my feet, I open my wings and close the distance faster than ever. The sight is horrible, V eating a Worker while Uzi stares numbly, and I scan the room to find anything useful. 

  The gun!

  Snatching it up, I rush to Uzi’s side and move in front of her. V notices me too late, and the sound of the gunshot radiates throughout the compound. Scooping Uzi into my arms, I turn and fly away as the labs spark and—

  BOOM! 

  We tumble through the air, and I curl around her as best as I can. She clings to me, her breathing loud and frantic. As soon as we land, she pushes me away and blinks several times. Her mouth opens, and a slow groan escapes her. We lock eyes, and hers widen into rings. 

  “Sneaking away. Yes, prey, get snuck up on!” something says, and my tail reacts before I can even try. It lengthens and stabs the…..blobby heart-looking thing. “Ow. Ow. Owowowowow.”

  “Uzi,” I say, reaching out for her shoulder. “Are you okay?” 

  “Wha……what parts of that was…..real?” she whispers, voice shattering. 

  She cringes away from me, and I draw back as shouts echo in the corridor. I get up and walk to the wall, shooting her a glance before scrambling up. The Worker Defense Force arrives, and I can hear her father asking her something. It takes everything in me to look down one last time, and he’s glaring at me. Shrinking a bit, I go onto the rafters and skitter away. 

|•|

  “Team morale has gone to hell,” J mutters, and I bring my knees to my chest. “God, Boss is going to withhold my paycheck because of this. Listen, C, she’s just some Worker. Nothing worth making the company unhappy over. Got it?”

  I close my eyes and fail to keep a sob down, and J clicks her tongue and huffs. Her chain rattles, and she slides down to sit beside me. I rest my head on her shoulder, and she pats my knee. 

|•|

  An eerie silence fills the nearly abandoned classroom as Doll glances down at her polaroid. A mechanical cockroach crawls over it, and a tiny smile crosses her face. There's a quiet twisting sound, followed by a sudden burst of oil. Her gray tongue swipes over her mouth, and she licks the rest off the photograph to better reveal the contents.

  J and V, all sinister smiles and gleaming eyes.

  She puts it down and walks to the now-destroyed door, and with a red light, takes it off the hinges. She strolls down the hallway, and the sound of a girl talking to no one makes her smile wider.

Chapter Text

 Ding! 

  Tessa’s head swivels towards the computer, and she quickly throws the robot arm and rushes to it while Sparky follows the limb. She hops into the chair, the momentum swinging it around, and she puts the headset on and connects. She’s greeted with a black box again, but a smile curls at her lips. 

  “Charles!” she exclaims, pressing some more buttons. “How have you been?” 

  “I’ve been….well. The flight here was….full of unexpected surprises. We expect to be here in a few weeks,” he says, and it sounds like he’s smiling, too. 

  She exhales and sinks her teeth into her lip, trying to contain a squeal not befitting someone her age. She clears her throat. “That’s great! Wait, we? Charlie, who’s coming with y-“

  “What do you want to do first?” he asks. “I’m sure there’s plenty of places to tour.” 

  Tessa reaches out to grab her helmet and some stickers and peels another one off. She presses it to the smooth surface, unsure of what to say. It seems that her twin also doesn’t know, and there’s the hiss and pop of a soda bottle being opened from his end. Her eyelashes lower, and she gets up to grab a soda of her own. How there are so many on Copper-9, she doesn’t know or care to ask. 

  The strawberry-flavored drink washes down her throat, and for a second, she’s back in her chains and bedroom. Another sip only strengthens that feeling, but a third dulls it somewhat. Her heart hurts, and she almost wishes that she could be there again. It never matters where she is, chains are an eternal constant. Why bother trying to break them when—

  “Tess? Are you still there?” Charles asks, his voice comforting and gentle. “What’s happened on your end?”

  “Umm…..” She pauses and wracks her brain, but nothing pops in. “Heh, literally nothing.”

  “What did I expect?” he mumbles, and she makes a face and sticks her tongue out. 

  “It’s not my fault I’m stuck in a house!” She  pokes the screen, laughing to herself. “If you were in my shoes, you’d do the same!”

  “If I was in your shoes, I’d be watching the team a little more closely,” he says in a calm tone, deflating her enthusiasm somewhat. 

  “Right,” she mutters. “Right. Sorry.”

  She drinks some more soda, and her gaze falls onto something small and round. She picks it up and turns it over in her hand. A final gift from J, it’s a green, glass eye. She pulls the coral eyepatch off and slowly pushes it in, wincing a bit. When it’s settled, she can’t help but notice how off-putting it feels. After six years of nothingness, the weight is too….present. 

  She shakes her head and takes it out, and she downs too much soda and swallows wrong. Sharp, painful coughs rip out of her throat, and and she pressed a hand to her chest. There’s a chirp behind her, and she stretches and touches Sparky’s snout. He presses against her palm, and she almost doesn’t notice the disconnecting ding. 

Chapter Text

  Uzi looks up at her ceiling, and she groans as a reminder pops into her head. It’s Monday, how lovely. Nothing is better than going to school after fighting the Eldritch incarnation of that one drone she killed. V? Yeah, V. She rolls out of bed and falls onto the floor, then scoots towards the door. It opens, and her dad sighs and helps her up. She rests against the doorframe, and he clears his throat. 

  “Are you-“

  “I’m fine!” she snaps, then a small tsunami of guilt crashes into her. “Just….gonna go eat something before school starts. Okay?”

  “Of course,” Khan says, patting her shoulder. “Just promise me that you’re going to stay away from that bad crowd.”

  Uzi pauses, CPU whirling, and she raises a palm as a question. “Who?” 

  Khan turns and walks off, whistling cheerily, and she groans again and rolls her eyes. She heads towards the kitchen and grabs some batteries from the pantry, popping them into her mouth. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t be eating junk before a test, but screw it, she needs the power rush. She can hear Khan rummaging around drawers behind her, and she waits for the scolding. The front door shuts a few minutes later, and she exhales and moves into the bathroom to finish getting ready. As she stares blankly at the mirror, she can’t help but wonder what’s with the sudden change. It’s not like she thought he had died or anything, but….he didn’t know that. Out of everything that came out last night, that wasn’t one of them. She knew better. 

  What had even happened in the cryolab? One minute, V had been about to eat her. The next, she was pulling away from C. Her memory banks felt glitched, but the data was there. She could go back and replay it, so why doesn’t it make sense? 

  Just what were the Disassembly Drones? 

  The only answer she can think of is biomechanical nightmares, but that seems a bit excessive considering who she had met. V was a nightmare, J had been cold, and C had been sweet in the week they spent together. Sometimes, Uzi couldn’t believe she was a machine made for killing, but then she’d remember how deadly the girl had been. If she wanted to, she could probably massacre the entire colony. 

  An alarm rings in her CPU, and she smacks her face to get it to stop. Leaving the bathroom, she grabs her backpack and heads out to school. The walk is quiet despite the other stragglers chatting to each other, and even though she can see Thad at the front, she stays to herself. She can only hope he doesn’t see her. He may have invited her to a party, but surely, he changed his mind between then and now. 

  Everyone did. 

  As she trudges through the thick snow, she attempts to delete the memories of her classmates’ cruelty. As always, she was unable to do that. Deleting beta build memories was much harder than it had any right to be, and she’d have to sit and click through every stupid pop up for an hour or five. At least her pre-alpha memories were gone. She couldn’t miss what she didn’t remember. 

  Soon enough, she finds herself in the first class of the day, math. It’s always math. She stares at the board with a blank expression, never once raising her hand. Her teacher gives her a concerned look every so often, but she continues on through the lesson like usual. Uzi drums her fingers on the desk, and every tick of the clock pounds in her head like a herd of elephants. 

  She turns her attention to the paper, and she scribbles a cool S on the side. The little drawing makes her smile somewhat, and she moves on to the first math problem. Up by the projector, Ms. Lindsey is explaining the problem, but Uzi tunes her out and focuses on the numbers. They dance on the paper, and she tries to imagine them leading to a sick as hell railgun. 

  That doesn’t work at all. 

  
  Groaning under her breath, Uzi listens to the teacher and follows along. Once the sheet has been completed, it’s time for literature. On the way there, her gaze catches on a shiny spot on the floor. She takes a few steps and…..

  “Oof!” 

  Her head snaps up, and her eyes ring. “Thad! Watch where you’re going!” she snaps, though her words lack venom. She reaches a hand out, and he smiles at her and pulls himself up. 

  “You good, Zi?” he asks, looking at her disheveled appearance. “After last night?”

  “Bite me!” She clears her throat and glances away. “I’m….I’m fine. You?” 

  He takes off his baseball cap and runs a hand through his hair. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I mean, Lizzy had to come over and stuff, but I’m totally fine.” He tries to give her a confidant smirk, but it falls away after a second. “S-So, are you and C coming to my party? It’s this weekend.” 

  Upon hearing the Disassembler’s name, Uzi coughs and takes a half step backward. She fiddles with her hoodie strings and shrugs. “I dunno. J’s being a pain in the ass, so I doubt it. You still….want me there?”

  Thad winks and finger-guns at her. “Of course! You saved my life twice.”

 
  Uzi smiles slightly and nods, pushing down her reservations and nerves. “Then I’ll be there.”

  “Oh, my God, there you are!” a frustrated voice exclaims, and Lizzy comes waltzing up from behind Thad. She grabs his hand and looks at Uzi, raising an unimpressed, pink eyebrow. “Talking to her? Really? Lame. C’mon.”

  She tugs Thad away, and he waves to Uzi before the pair disappear around a corner. The purple-haired Worker sighs and gets a move on to literature class. If only she could join a literature club, maybe then would she enjoy the subject. Then again, would her manga even count? 

  She barely makes it to class on time. The test is about the human playwright William Shakespeare, and she could care less about whatever he’s written. Sure, she has an manga edition of Hamlet installed, but that can only do so much for the story. It doesn’t help that her translation function refuses to work on the dialogue, leaving her stuck in what everything means. 

  She finishes the test first, but her hand shakes as she turns the paper in. She leaves as soon as she can, and she moves through her remaining classes as though she’s stuck in the world’s most boring nightmare. As always, she causes some trouble in psych class, but Thad manages to shock everyone by telling Lizzy to be nice to her. She gives him a shy smile, and he finger-guns again. 

  On the way home, she’s surprised to hear him running to keep up with her, but she decides to try and play it cool. 

  “So, the party…..who’s gonna be there?” Uzi asks. “Lizzy?”

  Thad nods and says, “Yeah, she, Doll, and a few other cheerleaders will be there. Darren, Braiden, Chad, and my other football teammates. Emily, uh….a lot of people. Is that okay?”

  She shrugs. “I dunno, I’ve never been to a party before. What do you…..do at one? Like, I’ve seen enough crappy teen movies to base my expectations off of, but I’m sure that’ll be wildly inaccurate.”

  “It’s just a lotta party games, drone candies, and some power packs,” he says, lowering his voice as if sharing a secret. “Don’t tell anyone.” 

  “I’m not that lame!” Uzi exclaims, feigning indignation. Thad looks at her, and she chuckles and punches his arm. “Thanks, dude.”

  “No problem, Zi.” 

  Right as they go to separate to their apartments, he hugs her. Just….out of the blue. Uzi attempts to escape the friendly gesture, but after a second, she wraps an arm around him. When he eventually pulls back, he gives her a sweet, crooked grin and waves before rubbing off. Uzi shakes her head and bites down on her tongue, excitement for the weekend spiking in her circuits. 

  Khan is still out, so she gets to work on dinner. Coolant and wires with a few batteries thrown in for texture, and she takes a seat on the couch and turns the TV on. She flips through the channels, and she settles on the first trashy horror movie she can find. It’s ancient, not even from the twenty-first century, and she’s surprised to see it. She takes a bite of her food and suddenly coughs. 

  She spits the meal out and gags, reaching up to her throat. Her stomach rumbles, but when she looks down at her bowl, the food seems….unappealing. She gags again and shoves it away, and she turns her attention back to the movie. 

  Her stomach keeps rumbling, but the mere thought of eating makes her want to vomit. Her places a hand on her abdomen, and she’s met with hot plastic. She pulls her hoodie up, wondering if the house is just too warm. 

  She lies down and watches the screen, and as it plays, she begins to fall asleep. 

  Around ten at night, the door opens.

  “Uzi, I’m home!” Khan calls out, and the silence that greets him is normal enough that he doesn’t even pause. Humming, he goes to make dinner when he hears something. “Uzi?” 

  He glances around, and he takes a small step backward before approaching the couch. Uzi lies all curled up, shivering and whimpering in her sleep. Was she….waiting for him? A flash of guilt strikes him, and he picks her up and brings her to her room. He places her on her bed, pulling the black blanket over her. 

  ‘She looks like Nori.’

  The thought creeps into his mind before he can stop it, and he sighs and goes out to turn the TV off. In that moment, he wonders what life would have been like it he hadn’t……he wonders what Nori would have been like as a mother. She had always been eccentric and upbeat, always forcing him out of his comfort zone.

  Forgetting his dinner, he heads towards the closet with a piece of paper labeled NORI’S KOOKY INSANE STUFF. He shuts the door behind him and sits down, rifling through the boxes of her various insane drawings and diary entries.

  
|•|

  Uzi yawns as she enters the school, and her backpack nearly slips off her shoulder. She trudges towards class when something smacks into her face. Yelping, she staggers and stumbles over her feet as the object hits the ground. A thick, hardback book. 

  She picks it up, and her head snaps around for the culprit. A snicker from Lizzy and Doll off by the lockers, and she hurls the book back with all her strength. Purple light crackles around it for a second, but it’s gone before she can fully process it. Lizzy shrieks and ducks down, allowing the book to smack into Doll. 

  The red-eyed cheerleader goes down hard, and Uzi flashes her friend a smug grin. Lizzy rolls her eyes and helps the other girl up, and the two whisper to each other and laugh. Uzi’s momentary triumph dulls down, and she just lowers her head and walks on to class. 

  She answers problems like normal, goes on with her life like normal. Somewhere, a small wire tucked away in the back of her head, begs her to go find C again. She shoves that thought into a bod and locks it up tight. After all, she has a party to look forward to, not hanging out with two robots made for murder.