Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The last thing a worker drone should be doing during the middle of the night was frantically running around outside. Everyone knew that was when the murder drones came out. Everyone would be inside long before the sun went down just for that reason, and even those outside would never be so foolish as to cause a scene.

That was not the case tonight for one Uzi Doorman.

Everyone who knew her– a very limited list of people– wouldn’t have expected this from her.

Sure, she had some unusual ideas on how to deal with the angels of death overlooking them, and sure she planned on putting those ideas into practice– there were rumors she was working on some kind of weapon to kill them.

But to run off in the night, unarmed?

That was just stupid

And Uzi would have agreed with that, if her processor had been running normally in any regard.

* * *

The snow crunched with every step she took, she could hear it clearer than usual- with her fans running slower due to the cold.

This wasn't her first time outside, nor the first in awhile, but it certainly felt different .

Her mind kept trying to wander back to the events of that day, but she was insistent

Don't think about it, don't think about it Uzi screamed at herself, knowing the struggle wouldn't last her long.

She tried to think about other things, like how easily she’d been able to get outside, the only one who would ever stop her from leaving was her father.

And that's only because of his ‘non-optional family support structure’ nonsense She thought.

She hated how much he thought of her as a thing – something to learn , so it wouldn't bother him, instead of the freaking person she was!

Her internal mantra shifted along with her thoughts, she realized just how alone she was.

Nobody cares, nobody cares, nobody cares she thought, over and over again. Her dad didn’t care, other than in the few ways he felt he had to, not even for her sake, but for her dead mom’s!

Her own father didn't care about her,

Her classmates didn’t care about her,

Her teacher clearly didn't care about her,

Nobody in that damned colony cared about her.

She had no friends– everyone thought of her as the ‘weird’ kid.

Nowhere to go, no one to go to

Her manta quickened, turning from a thought to a whisper.

“Nobody cares” she told herself, her pace quickening in the falling snow.

“Nobody cares” she told herself, not hearing the silent beat of metal wings, far, but approaching.

“Nobody cares” she told herself, spotting an abandoned building nearby.

“Nobody cares” she told herself, as she ran into the structure.

“Nobody cares” she told herself, curling into a ball in the corner, not bothering to look, or listen to anything but her own sobs.

“Nobody cares,” she told herself, as nearby, metal wings beat once more, as a figure landed, approaching the building.

* * *

Serial designation V was thought to be many things:

She was ruthless, she would kill without question, nor reason.

She was cunning, frequenting the Top Killer rank, a force to be feared.

She was uncaring, avoiding even her own squadmates.

She was sadistic, her methods would make even other disassembly drones shudder.

And she was a liar, a bad, bad one at that.

That was all V could think about as she flew through the sky, desperate to get away before the drone a few hundred feet behind her could see her real reaction.

All N had been trying to do was talk to her! And she had once again pushed him away, faked a reaction, and pretended she didn't even know him!

She had wanted so, so badly to just accept his offer of going flying, maybe talk like they used to, and have things feel like they did back then again.

No she told herself, I can't do that , you know what will happen, you know who you have to be

But it hurt , so, so much, to push him away, to ignore what happened to him, to ignore him .

But she had to–

She couldnt be the happy person from her past again.

if she had any attachment, anything she cared about.

it would hurt all that more losing it.

So, she buried herself in her ‘work’, finding it the only way to get through it, to distract herself.

But sometimes, on nights like this, it would all get to be too much.

Tears welled up in her eyes, followed by a muttering of “get it together, you idiot!”

She was almost there, almost to the one place she let herself really feel.

Her crying place.

Sure, it was just a random building in the sea of destruction, but it felt special to her. It helped her process, helped her bury it all down.

So she could be a sadistic, apathetic, monster once again.

She swooped down, landing a few dozen feet away from the structure, she was slightly surprised as she sank a few inches into the deep snow.

She was glad she got here when she did, as a blizzard was picking up.

“Guess i'll have an excuse to be away for the day” She muttered with a pained laugh, relieved at the idea of avoiding another idiotic lecture from her squad leader about ‘punctuality in her return schedule’, because of course J had noticed when V started spending her days away from the spire, in this very place instead.

That was when she heard it.

Just over the loud ambience of the blizzard, she could hear crying. 

She froze, realizing the sound was coming from her own building

“What the hell?” She mumbled with confusion. Did someone see me crying here and thought it a fine place to do the same?

As she finished that thought, the wind blew what seemed to have been a box of some sort in her direction, she instinctively yelped as she weaved around it.

The crying stopped, the drone behind it seemingly having heard her yelp, however no desperate flee followed it, leading V to conclude it couldn't be a worker.

“Must be another disassembler” V muttered to herself before continuing “I swear, if J has a secret soft side, after all she does to N” V thought. Even if she considered herself cruel to N in her ignoring, and fake apathy, it could not compare to what J did, their uptight boss simply hated N, without any sort of reason, if that would even be possible to have against the easily lovable dork.

V resumed her walking towards the structure, curiously angling herself to best view her visitor. As she got within a few meters, she caught the unmistakable eye color of this drone.

Purple.

Disassembly drones have yellow eyes.

V’s eyes widened, “Oh shiiiitt-”.

Chapter Text

Uzi snapped to attention as soon as she heard it.

She was honestly surprised she had the attention to notice it at first, considering how much she was focusing on her crying, and how loud it was, that combined with the snowstorm ambience around her.

However, surprise turned to dread as she began hearing the figure walking closer.

With every step she considered what would happen next.

Maybe it was a concerned classmate who saw her run off?

Maybe it was a WDF member, confused on why she would leave at night?

Maybe it was her dad?

She had little time to consider, however, as a few moments later, the footsteps abruptly stopped, followed by an unmistakable “shit” coming from a voice she had never heard before .

That got her attention.

She had stopped crying at this point, refusing to allow anyone to see her in such a state. She was still, however, curled up in a ball on the floor, a situation that, she realized, wouldn't look that much better to anyone.

Right as that thought crossed her mind, she shot up, and quickly turned around to see who was following her.

Probably the last thought that crossed her mind was that the drone in front of her would have been a murder drone.

Sure, it probably would have been smart to think about, considering she was alone , at night , and completely defenseless , but somehow, it hadn't even crossed her mind.

Uzi stumbled back, letting out a gasp, her eyes going wide as she considered what to do.

Her mind raced a mile a minute, cut off only by the figure approaching.

Crap, CRAP! She thought, if only I had finished my railgun before this!

She cursed herself for how slow she had been in her progress, still just simply staring as the angel of death approached her, eyes replaced with an X.

She considered everything she could– what she should have done differently, her options in this situation (nonexistent), and most of all, how much she wished it could have happened differently.

If only Uzi thought.

I just wish… I'd had someone to go to, to hear me, to understand me.

She felt silly, thinking about such a thing when literally faced down by the beasts massacring her kind.

Before Uzi could really understand what was happening, she was crying again, breaking down in tears.

Uzi blinked, her vision clouding up, but she could still see the X in the murder drone’s visor switching back to her eyes, of which a surprised and confused expression was displayed upon.

I can't even keep it together in this kind of situation Uzi thought to herself, slightly amused before she curled up on herself once more, her back to the attacker.

By the time this happened, the disassembler was already halfway into the entrance of the building, but upon Uzi’s continued meltdown, she paused.

Once again, Uzi was back to expectations, only this time, she was playing the game of expecting how she would die.

Maybe the drone would make it easy and quick.

Maybe the drone would make her slowly melt away from acid.

Maybe it would be some other, worse option she couldn't think of.

…

Nothing.

Somehow, this is even worse Uzi thought to herself. Too scared, or stubborn, or too something to turn around.

Then, like a whisper in a crowded room, a second drone crying could be heard.

Uzi almost crashed right there and then, if the thought of a murder drone following her had escaped her mind, the thought of one crying with her was downright impossible , these were heartless, destructive, killing machines !

Nonetheless, she could still make it out quietly over her own (admittedly much louder) crying.

A few seconds later she was shocked once again when she felt the drone sit down, back to her back.

The “what the fuck” that would’ve escaped Uzi in any other situation was swept away in her flood of tears.

In a moment of uncharacteristic vulnerability, a single “screw it” passed through her processor, as she leaned back against the drone, letting any tears she pitifully tried to hold back rush through.

* * *

V hadn't known what to do.

In any other situation she would have just killed the worker and been done with it.

But not here.

Not here, in her sanctuary, where she could let that ruse, that act, that lie that she put up go.

And so she did as she normally did here, and cried.

She could almost hear J scolding her in her head “V, what in the company are you doing? They are the enemy! This is more unprofessional than a rushed presentation at an executive meeting!”

But in that moment, she didn't care.

Admittedly– it felt good being vulnerable with someone else for once , even if that someone would have just been another corpse in any other situation.

But sitting there, crying with this stranger, back to back, in some strange form of solidarity?

It felt right .

That wouldn't stop the continuous thoughts of what are you doing? , Stop that and kill her!  And other forms of confusion with herself.

But for once, she supposed, she could just let herself be .

* * *

Uzi wasn't sure how long it was until they both calmed down, and finished crying. 

Her internal clock said around 20 minutes, but to her, it felt like hours longer.

But eventually  she shed her final tear, followed by her newfound…friend? An awkward silence hung over them for a time, broken only when Uzi built up her courage to speak.

“W-why?” was all she could stutter out, turning around to face the other drone in the process.

The disassembler followed suit, turning around as to where they were both facing each other. “Why what?” she shakily said, in a shockingly weak tone to Uzi’s surprise.

Uzi took a moment to really see the drone in front of her. She was clearly a disassembly drone, with the tail, head lights, and signature colors. However, she also wore a jacket, and had silver hair, along with the peg-legs that some thought were based on gender, but that was, admittedly, hard to claim with such little evidence.

“Why…” Uzi started, “why anything? ” she blurted out, waving her arms in expression as her volume raised.

The yellow-eyed drone staring her down, blinking in confusion “It's… complicated” she finally admitted.

Uzi stared at her in disbelief, before looking to the side, realizing she most likely would have given a similar answer in that situation. “Well…” she started “what’s your… name?” she asked, internally cringing.

“My name? ” the drone said with a laugh, before thinking for a moment. “V” she finally answered.

Uzi couldn't help but scoff “V?” she asked, “what kind of name is that?” 

As she thought about it, she couldn't help but remember the time that Thad, not wanting anyone to know that he had told his name to such a weirdo, had told her to call him T. No, no more crying Uzi told herself, determined to actually hold a conversation with this… much larger than her drone. She had never realized quite how much larger disassembly drones were compared to workers, as few pictures were even taken of them, and few of those ever made it back to her colony.

V sighed at Uzi’s comment. “We’re all just given letters, I just have to do with what I was given” she offered. “What's your name, then, if you’re going to be so judgy about it?” She said, her tone changing to one just a smidge less friendly.

Uzi sighed, looking down at the ground in front of her. “Uzi” she said meekly.

V’s eyes widened, before she put her arm forward, her hand folding into it. Within a second or two, it was replaced by a gun. Uzi gasped as the transformation happened, but quickly rolled her eyes. She could see where this was going.

“Like the gun?” V said, smirking, holding such in front of her, intentionally not aimed at Uzi.

Uzi glared at the gun– no, the uzi at the end of V’s arm, before mocking laughter, giving a “like I haven't heard that one.”

V frowned, seeming disappointed that Uzi seemed unamused, as she swapped back to her normal hand. Why would she care? Was the thought to cross Uzi’s mind, before a much more pressing one would

Uzi frowned for a second, before her eyes hollowed. “Wait, are you going to… like… kill me now?” she said nervously, trying to sound annoyed.

V stared at Uzi, seemingly contemplating, as if this was a difficult question to answer.

“I-” she began, then after a long pause, continued, “No, I'm not.”

Uzi started, slightly dumbfounded at this, considering asking for the reasoning, before deciding not to push her luck. “Cool,” was all she could whisper out”

* * *

V smirked as the worker– Uzi tried to seem calm in her response. Truth be told, V wasn't exactly confident that she meant what she said either– why wouldn't she kill this worker? What separates her from the countless others?

I guess V thought to herself I guess I can't really hurt someone after that . She couldn't willingly cry back-to-back with someone, just to turn around and kill them, especially in the place where she could drop the sadistic monster facade. That brought her back to thinking about the crying session the two of them had just had. Why was this drone crying in the first place? V wondered to herself, before deciding to ask. 

“Hey uh–Uzi?” V asked, a twinkle of curiosity forming “why were you crying?” V tilted her head, looking at the worker questioningly.

Uzi was clearly not expecting, nor ready for such a question, as the instant V finished talking, she let out an “uh-”, her mouth still hanging open, as if she had more to say, but didnt know exactly what. V smirked at that expression, finding it fairly amusing. “You can't just ask that!” Uzi finally said.

V raised an eyebrow in response. “Why?” 

“Be-because…” Uzi stuttered, failing to give any real answer, then sighed “I can't believe you are the first person I'm talking to about this” she said, leaning her head back with a laugh.

V blinked again, looking at the worker as she turned to face V once again.

“Fine, but you aren't allowed to laugh.” Uzi said, in a serious tone V hadn't heard her use up to that point.

“Fine, fine” was all V had to say in response, as though this wasn't the smallest promise she could offer to the worker, in her opinion.

“I-” Uzi started, before making a gesture with her hands as if to tell herself to focus.

“I guess… I'm just… weird… and alone” Uzi squeaked out, grasping her legs and avoiding eye contact at all costs.

V was not expecting this kind of answer, should she have guessed, she would have assumed that someone Uzi cared about had been killed or something, hearing an admission of loneliness was in no way what she expected.

“Don't you have a… colony or something?” V said curiously, with a hint of confusion. “Surely there are other workers you live with?”

“I guess” Uzi said, her head turning sheepishly to the side. “Doesn't mean any of them… care , in any way.”

“Oh…” Was all V could offer as reassurance.

A moment of silence followed, broken only when Uzi decided that her turn to share was up.

“Okay, now you have to go,” Uzi said, pointing to V. “It's only fair.”

V sighed, having not considered the very real possibility that she’d have to share now.

“Alright,” she said. “What do you do when…” she paused for a moment, deciding on her words “when someone cares , but… you can’t ?”

“What do you mean?” Uzi said, tilting her head.

“Like, when someone cares about you, and you want so , so badly to care about them too, to give them the kindness and friendship they deserve, but you just know that you can't ?”

Uzi blinked, visor showing a confused expression, before she responded “I don't think I have much experience with that” Uzi started, “my problems seem to be… pretty opposite to that.” 

V blinked, taking a moment to realize what Uzi meant by this, before letting out a similar small scoff. 

“I guess that's one way of thinking about it,” V said, in a manner that surprised herself as oddly collected.

As much as V would never admit it, she felt… lighter? It felt good, opening up to someone about all this, even if what she had said only really brushed the surface of everything, it still felt as though the weight in her chest was slightly lessened.

V couldn't help but smile, an action that was mimicked by her new …companion? friend? Whatever she was.

“What now?” Uzi said, slightly shaking the moment awake.

V sighed, looking around, she hadn't even realized that the sun had come up at that point, the blizzard having died down slightly, but still ravaging the desolate planet.

“Well, I'm stuck here, and have nothing else to do,” V offered.

Uzi smirked, an action V took as accepting her offer to keep talking.

And talk was what they did.

They talked about their struggles.

They talked about their feelings.

They talked about… really anything , anything they’d been so desperate to be able to share, now finally let go.

Until finally, a few hours later, they fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Uzi awoke with a start, her breathing heavy. Her systems began warming up, and as they did a painful and jolting thought pushed itself through her

Are you kidding me? Uzi asked herself as her optics came online. I really dreamt about venting my problems to a mu- Uzi cut herself off, eyes finally noticing the large yellow, black, and white figure leaning against her .

“oH” was all that Uzi could think, the thought lightly escaping as a word.

As the previous day made itself back to her, hey optics widened with surprise. that all really happened? She questioned to herself meekly, a hint of both disbelief and excitement squealing in her mind.

The next thing that she processed was how she was currently serving as a pillow for the larger drone, something that she would have never been caught dead doing.

Uzi considered moving, waking V up, and making some snarky comment about how the big bad murder drone was actually cuddly. She almost did but… she looked… peaceful . Uzi couldn’t bring herself to disturb her, and then subject her to ridicule the way… she’d been… ridiculed.

Pushing that whole emotional mess aside, Uzi centered her mind around the fact that she was just going to have to live like this for the next who knows how many hours.

well great, guess i'm stuck here Uzi told herself, sighing as she came to the decision.

Uzi did her best to get comfortable, and listened as the roaring wind hushed her back asleep.

* * *

V awoke with a start, Her systems quickly came online, as she processed everything going on. Being built for combat, it took her only a few seconds before she had come online.

She glanced around the area, a recognizable one for her, what was not recognizable, however, was the (admittedly quite cozy) fully awake drone she was laying on.

V shot up, turning around to quickly face the other drone, only to remember what had happened. 

“Uh, hi?” the drone, Uzi she remembered, offered.

V stared at her, bewildered both at her, and at herself .

“I-uh” V stammered out, unsure of what to say.

Silence rose between the two of them, V didn't know exactly what to say, but standing around saying nothing didn’t feel quite right either. To her luck, Uzi spoke first.

“So, uh, that really happened, huh?” the worker said, standing up.

The silence continued, with V only offering a small affirmative noise.

“Thank you” Uzi rushed out, breaking the silence once again.

V was taken aback, a little confused.

“For… what?” she asked, attempting to be snarky, but not quite managing it.

“For… listening” Uzi stammered, clearly nervous and embarrassed at the situation.

“It's just so weird, how you of all people were the first one to really listen to me, when you’re a freaking murder drone!” Uzi continued, yell-admitting.

V didn't know what to say, she just laughed. At who exactly she didn't know. Uzi for how utterly dorky she was being. At herself,or being vulnerable for the first time in a long time, and with a worker no less! And at the quite ridiculous situation they were in at this point.

V just decided to bury it all until later, and focus on the now-pacing drone in front of her. Tuning back into the situation, she could hear Uzi in the middle of a self-deprecating, trauma-exposing rant about how she totally didn't have to do that, and how she didn't mean to make her problems somebody else’s business, her words getting more mean to herself as she went on. Uzi was clearly spiraling, and V decided it was time to break it.

“I'm just, you probably think… I shouldn't have… I'm sorry for burdening,” was the last thing Uzi managed to say before V put a stop to that bullshit. She knew the tone the lonely worker had been talking in a little too well.

“Stop, for a moment!” V yelled over her, “Dont… no, don't try that crap!” she continued.

“I chose to listen, and share myself, and if I didn't want to do that, I’d have nobody but myself to blame.” V argued, stepping closer to Uzi as she spoke, she couldn’t tell you where this newfound confidence came from. 

“So… please… don't act like you ” V started, poking Uzi in the visor gently, “ forced me to listen to you!”

“If I'm honest, I'm glad that we could share that” V exclaimed, not thinking about exactly what she was sharing, the words just spilling out of her.

“And If I’m honest” V said, taking a menacing step towards Uzi, a look of importance and seriousness in her eyes, “I’d like it if it happened again! ”

Uzi’s eyes widened, and she took a step back, taking a moment to pause. “ What? ” she gasped out “you’d… what? ”

V began pacing around the room herself, angrily spilling her deepest thoughts out. 

“You heard me!” she spat, “I cry here all the time , and it's great , it helps me process, but if there is anything I’ve learned from this experience, today.” V yelled, her voice ringing throughout the building and undoubtedly the surrounding area. She walked up to Uzi and poked her once again, this time a little rougher as if to get her point across.

“It's that it’s so much better, when I do it, with YOU! ” V yelled, taking dramatic pauses to better emphasize her words. She glared at Uzi as if upset that the small drone dared to think and say such things about herself.

V finally backed away, sitting down in a corner adjacent to the one Uzi was in. She let out a sigh, and finally began processing her own words, and especially the tone she’d said them in.

“Sorry, I, uh, didn't mean to… yell” she mumbled in stark contrast to her tone only moments ago.

* * *

Uzi was in a state of shock. She stumbled, her legs threatening to give out from under her as she repeated V’s words in her head, over and over again as if to assure herself that that was , in fact, what the yellow-eyed drone had just said.

she wants to meet here… to do this again? Uzi couldn't help but think, over and over again. Before long, she gave into herself, and sat down, turning into her corner, away from her company across the room.

Uzi debated on what to do next, she could share how she felt, she could try to put up some kind of cool-sarcastic act, she could just leave , robo-god knows she should be back by now. As tempting as any of those were, her empathy wouldn’t let her be anything but understanding.

“When?” Uzi asked, in a tone strangely more forward than normal.

V looked up from the floor, and made eye contact with Uzi, the little drone’s core beat faster as she expectantly awaited the dissasembler’s response.

“I’ll come any night,” V said, a look of sincerity and seriousness in her eyes.

“O-ok,” Uzi stuttered, nodding her head, “I can do that.”

V’s eyes widened, and a smile spread across her face, “cool,” she said with her own nod in response.

Uzi’s core beat faster as she made eye contact with V, the silver-haired drone having a serious, but gentle look on her face. Uzi couldn’t stop it as a smile made itself known, the drone across from her giving one in return. 

Uzi couldn’t tell you how long they sat there, smiling at each other, though her systems estimated 20 minutes. The peaceful moment was abruptly cut to a halt as V seemingly remembered something, shooting up from her spot, and yelling to herself “oh hell no, J’s gonna murder me!”

Uzi reached a hand out desperately as she watched her only friend leave, a twinge of sadness in her abandonment-issues-having core.

As if somehow knowing this, V abruptly turned around, retracting her wings for a second to give a final remark. “I, uh, guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” V offered, a sheepish shrug on her face.

Uzi gave a nod, forcing herself to look approving of this, despite her uncomfortable feeling towards V leaving.

V grinned once again, and took to the sky, her angelic form leaving Uzi staring in awe.

After a few moments, Uzi stood up herself, sighing, in all honesty missing V’s company, and her warmth.

Uzi looked around, collecting herself, before making her way back towards the bunker.

Chapter Text

Uzi didn’t know how to feel.

It had been mere hours since she’d made the trek back to the bunker, the walk hadn’t been long, but the cold, combined with everything she was thinking and feeling certainly didn’t make it short . When she’d finally arrived at the door, the WDF drones “stationed” at it let her back in with surprise– as if they’d thought she would have died when they’d let her out, and wouldn’t have cared in the slightest.

She quickly found herself falling back into old habits, ignoring everyone and everything as she marched through the colony’s winding, desolate halls. The night made it all the easier– less people, and less questions .

Uzi finally reached her destination– her home.

It had never really felt like home to her, the concept being something long lost, though in some way, it managed to feel less like it this time around.

She let out a sigh as she searched around in her pockets, finally pulling out her keycard, and with a swish and a click , she was in. While it had been her residence, safety, and the only place she could call home for so long, It certainly didn't play the part well. The lonely hallways, the empty rooms, the dusty picture frames, it made it all so depressing , like a sad memory of what once was.

Her dad was surely asleep– as the rest of the colony was. She’d been gone practically an entire day , and yet, it seemed, nobody cared in the slightest. 

…

Uzi paused for a moment.

Thoughts like that were nothing new, but right now it felt… strange .

It felt… manageable, or small, when normally it would feel stressful, and huge .

It was weird… it was as though it didn’t have the power of her it had before…

Before V .

She shook her head, snapping back to reality as she walked down the short halls as she made her way to the only refuge in this excuse of a home, in the entire colony– her room.

The purple lights served as a comfortable sight as her door opened, quickly closing with a click behind her.

All of her instincts told her that she was supposed to be tired– she almost always was when she arrived back here, after school, or after shutting herself off from everything else, being too exhausted in every way to deal with anything. It felt like every day had been a bad day, and it always ended with her coming back here,  and crashing on her own bed until sleep would serve its relief.

But right now?

She didn’t feel tired at all .

It was a strange feeling, but it was present all the same– she felt… fine … good actually.

She wasn’t even physically tired, she actually felt the most well-rested she had in what seemed like forever .

But at the same time, the idea of sleep sounded… nice? It was a weird, but incredibly welcome feeling, the positives of both, with none of the downsides.

The purple-haired drone smiled to herself, sitting down on her bed. She stared off into space towards the ceiling, the various drawings and scribbles staring back at her. 

For the first time in a long time, she could be content with herself, and with her thoughts. 

For the first time in a long time, she let herself truly relax .

She couldn’t know what the next day had in store, but she felt as though she’d earned a moment to just be .

* * *

Uzi’s peaceful rest was ripped away suddenly as her blaring alarm loudly informed her that it was now 7 AM.

The worker stood up and stretched, most mornings she wouldn’t have even thought about getting out of bed until at least 7:30, but like the night prior, she felt strangely enough, incredibly well rested.

Within a quarter-hour, she left her room, stepping into the empty house. Or, at least once-empty, the sound of another door opening cluing her into the fact that she was very much so, not alone .

Across the living room she now found herself in, she could make out someone she really didn’t want to have to talk to right now– her dad.

Khan walked out into the living room, not even noticing her presence for a moment, a moment that would not last. His eyes landed on her as he blinked, as if double-checking that she were real. Having confirmed she was, he glanced away in shame, looking back a moment later.

“Uzi! I-” Khan stuttered, reaching out a hand as if trying reassure her of something, as if she was a kid who’d heard something they didn’t like, instead of a person who he’d been fine with dying .

Uzi narrowed her eyes at him, reminding herself of everything that had happened during the last few days, everything that he’d done.

“Save it, dad, not like you would have actually cared if I did die out there,” she seethed, “Did you even notice I was gone?”

Khan took a step back, frowning, “Listen, you may be upset, but that's no way to-” Uzi cut him off before he could finish. “ That’s what you care about, really? And not that I almost freaking died? ”

Uzi scoffed as her father failed to respond. She turned around, giving one last glare, grabbed her bag, and stomped out the front door. She could still hear him trying to get in the last word– probably some kind of idiotic excuse or something , but at this point, she didn’t care what he had to say.

This was one thing he’d done that he couldn’t get to just go away with some reassuring words.

Uzi fought back tears as she marched down the halls, both desperate to get away, and dreading her destination.

The hallways around her were a lot busier than they had been the night prior. Drones were going every which way– to jobs, to school, to anywhere. She carefully weaved between them, trying her best to avoid people as much as possible.

After a series of turns she’d memorized like the back of her hand, she finally found herself at her destination– the school.

School had always been… difficult for Uzi, not the subjects or the learning, she was annoyingly good at that stuff to the point that it made the classes practically pointless .

No, what was challenging for her had always been the people .

There had been a time, a long, long time ago, when it hadn’t been as bad. Sure, she’d always obsessed over things to probably an unusual degree, and sure she’d always been made fun of for that.

But recently it had been much, much worse.

The worst part was, was that there was no person to point at for the problem, because it wasn’t any one person. 

It was everyone.

If it was just that one kid liked to bully her, that would be manageable.

But when everyone is that kid, and nobody gives a damn to help her at all ?

That isn't exactly something one little purple drone can deal with on her own.

It was… horrible, really, because there was nobody for her to blame.

Nobody… except herself.

And that was what she did for a while, she figured that it was her fault, that she was doing something wrong, and she tried to find it, and do it right .

It never worked.

It was all so confusing, she didn’t know what to do, or how to do it, but still felt punished by those around her for doing it wrong , as if everyone else had been given the set of rules for this game they were all playing, except she never got a copy, forced to find her way in the dark.

She just didn't get it, what made her always the target? Why was she always left out?

That all changed when she met V.

It was baffling to her how much that was true, how much bigger of an impact the silver-haired drone had on her than probably either of them realized.

It had been so long since Uzi had known what it felt like for someone to just… be kind to her, to just be… there for her.

With V it never felt like she was lost– confused and afraid. It instead felt… comfortable , like she could just enjoy the presence of another. 

To Uzi, V felt warm, and just… nice .

And despite returning back to her same old routine, she couldn’t get that feeling of warmth out of her mind.

She couldn’t lie– she was very excited to see V again tonight, the thought of which kept nagging at her, and made going about business as usual that much harder .

 Her mind just kept wandering back to V, the events of that day, and the prospect of it happening all over again.

The goofy smile that had (unbeknownst to her) found itself on her face, and her train of thought were both reset to zero as a loud bell rang out, signifying that class would begin within five minutes.

Uzi sighed, however inevitable the start of class was, it was awful all the same. 

Keeping her thoughts of V at the back of her mind, she began the walk into her classroom.

As soon as Uzi took in the scene she found herself in, she realized that while she’d changed dramatically in the last few days, it was still much the same. The same students as always were chatting, gossiping, or in a selective few cases, actually doing anything remotely school-related.

Her teacher’s expression widened with surprise as he saw her– it was brief, but even that was very uncharacteristic for the drone she’d only ever display annoyance or apathy. If she had to guess, it was probably due to word about her leaving spreading around. When a drone leaves the colony like she did, they almost never make it back.

She made her way to her seat, boredly sitting down, and waiting for class to start. Her circle of thoughts revolving around V returned, what had happened yesterday had really touched her in a way she couldn’t figure out. It was something about how cozy it’d felt, or how jointly vulnerable they’d been together, or V beautiful silver hair matching her optics perfectl-. Uzi cut off her own thoughts, though regardless, couldn't help but grin again. She’d started to notice that happening more– as she thought more about what had happened, and especially about V in particular, she would start feeling… happy? warm? content?, whatever it was, she wasn’t exactly sure.

That was how the remainder of Uzi’s day went, as her classes started and ended, the purple drone spent it all thinking and daydreaming about V, waiting with excitement for the night to come.

Chapter Text

The cold winds bore no effect on V as she flew in the sky. Her dives, spins, and glides were all performed masterfully through the air with one sole intent– to avoid her irritable boss’s bad attitude.

J had never been quite this bad before. Her corpo-attitude had always been around, even back… then. But something about their mission here– and even more so the last few weeks– had made her especially bad. Anything that could even possibly be considered a mistake, code violation, or anything that J herself just simply didn’t like would likely lead to some sort of yelling, lecturing, or whatever form of punishment their squad leader devised.

Whatever it would be this time, V didn’t want to find out. She could only hope that if she got back to the spire quick enough, J wouldn’t notice her absence the night prior. Who am I kidding? V thought to herself– if her squad leader was anything, it was observant, maybe even a little too much so.

Still, hope was all she could have as she dove into the snow in front of the spire’s entrance, a wave of it kicking up satisfyingly.

Her wings retracted as she snuck her way into the large structure– the years of work it took to construct the spire were anything but worth it , but the impact was certainly clear.

V snuck as quietly as she could, doing her best to avoid stepping on anything metallic. Any help she could give herself in not alerting her boss to her absence the night before was worth it. Step by step, she made her way to the structure near the center of the spire– the landing pod. It wasn’t a place they would stay at a lot , but it served as a place for her to go . 

Her hope began to rise as she stood not a hundred feet from the structure, though it would not last long– the wingbeats from behind her shredding it like paper.

She sighed and closed her eyes, awaiting whatever it was J had to say to her.

…

Though it would never come, she was instead greeted by the cheerful call of the spire’s other resident– N.

“Hi, V!” he cheered, clapping his hands as he landed beside her, “You’re back! Where were you la-”

His words were cut off as V’s hand prevented him from speaking, a series of shushes coming with it.

“Does J know I was gone?” V seethed, if N had blown her clover–

“What do you mean… I thought she was with you?” the taller disassembler blinked at her with confusion.

That was certainly not what V was expecting to hear, J was nothing if not punctual, she was missing??

“Wh– what do you mean, N? She’s not here?” V demanded, pointing her tail threateningly at the other drone. 

“She left last night, and I haven’t seen her since!” he confessed, throwing his hands up in surrender. He paused for a second, processing something for a moment before realization spread across his face, “Wait, me name remember you?” He suddenly connected, though his words came out very garbled.

V let out a loud groan, lowering her tail and turning away. “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” she sighed, rolling her eyes, “What, are we supposed to… look for her or something?”

“Who?” N asked, presumably having forgotten what their conversation was actually about .

“J, idiot,” V scoffed, trying her best to maintain her cruel demeanor. Something about it… just… wasn’t working, recently it’d been feeling… harder than usual, though she knew that this was who she had to be– for both of their sakes.

Their eyes met for a moment, his completely unhurt, despite anything. A memory pushed itself into the front of her consciousness– pushing through the many walls she’d put up to prevent just that.

The walls of the Elliot manor were calm, the house, along with its human occupants had long fallen into slumber. The only activity was that of its silent servants– worker drones of various roles wandered the corridors, tending to their every imperfection. Among these drones was V, a shy maid at the manor. She was spending this night tidying the bookshelves in the library– a job she quite preferred to the more active alternatives. The library had almost never served a purpose– only existing as a display of wealth or prestige. V didn’t mind, it just made her job all that easier, and minimized the chance of discardment. That night in particular was special, probably not so to any other drone in the manor, but special to her– she wasn’t working alone.

Her job had never required more than one drone, it probably didn’t even require one, and for a long while she’d grown accustomed to the solitude.

But that night was different– N had managed to get a break.

Drones at the manor didn’t tend to ever get breaks– apart from absolute necessities. The humans who built them must have figured that they were just labor, why would leisure be necessary?

Such were the benefits of working for Lady Tessa, she supposed.

However it happened, N had gotten the night off, though he didn’t spend the free time resting, or enjoying it however he would have liked.

He spent it helping her.

She’d tried to refuse, asked him to do anything else with the time, but he hadn’t relented.

He didn’t want to rest until she could too.

They’d only been friends for a few weeks at that point, he’d just barely met her, but it didn’t matter to him.

For months after that they’d been inseparable, best friends, he’d help her, and she’d do her best to help him back.

That was… until she’d gotten infected, unable to move, a prisoner in her frozen body.

Trapped in the library as everything else moved on around her.

Everything else, except… him.

He’d still spent every possible moment by her side, reading to her, keeping her from being alone.

But it didn’t matter, she hadn’t gotten better, turned into a monster beyond her nightmares by some kind of [access blocked, please contact an administrator to resolve this issue.]

And now she couldn’t even look him in the eyes as she was lost in remembrance of all that joy, all their shared experiences.

Just to brush it off, becoming the monster to hurt him once again.

V brought herself back to focus. Letting herself remember, if even for just a moment felt like release, but the tears in her eyes spoke for themselves.

She suddenly realized that while internally she’d been lost in a world of her past, externally she’d been staring into N’s eyes, tears falling down her visor for far longer than she likely realized.

“V… are you?” her squadmate tried to ask, though was interrupted by the wings releasing in front of him.

V couldn’t meet his eyes, refused to let him see her face welling up with silent tears, she turned, and trotted back to the entrance to the spire, unwilling to see N’s somber expression.

“I’m… gonna go hunting.” she choked out, maintaining her composure as best she could.

From behind her, she could hear her old friend try to say something, fighting to continue the conversation perhaps, but just gave a disappointed sigh.

“Alright… be… safe,” he offered.

V did not respond, she just leapt into the air silently, and flew away.

…

Only to be pleasantly greeted by her wings retracting on their own, leaving her to fall face first into the snow.

Something such as this would normally have her coldly laughing at herself about how pathetic it was, but right now she hadn’t the will nor the energy to do so.

A warning blared on her visor, alerting her to the cause of her sudden grounding: [Warning: Oil levels low! Minimal consumption mode engaged. Flight and mobility may have reduced function at this time!]

Great! She thought to herself with annoyance and sarcasm, couldn’t have told me any sooner, maybe?

Her scoff was drowned out by the much louder, and approaching voice of a drone rushing over to her side. She turned to face the perpetrator, revealing them to be N.

“V! Are you alright? What happened??” he asked, much more worried than she thought he should be– more worried than herself for that matter.

“I’m fine , just… tired… and low on oil,” V muttered, her voice growing quieter as she finished her sentence. She didn’t quite want to admit that her oil levels were low– they never were, and considering how long of a hunt she claimed to have gone on, it could very easily draw suspicion from the cheerful disassembler.

“Oh! I’ll go grab something from the reserves!” N offered cheerfully, turning to trot back to the landing pod, his fellow disassembler standing up behind him.

“I can walk just fine!” V muttered, despite the difficulty she found in doing just that. She was, at that moment, admittedly very grateful that N was the way he was – eager to offer her help, and vaguely unaware and unquestioning of both her absence, and circumstance.

The drone in question either ignored, or was too distracted to hear her comment. He simply grabbed some various drone parts from their stash, and returned to her side, offering them eagerly.

She snatched an arm from him, and began ravenously devouring it, crushing it to squeeze every last drop of the delicious black substance. Somehow in everything that had happened, she hadn’t even noticed her own hunger– which probably explained how it had gotten so bad. 

It wasn’t until about twenty minutes later that she finally felt satiated– a consequence of not eating for two whole days .

Having returned to complete functionality, she stretched her wings out, narrowly avoiding N. Her fellow disassembler hadn’t seemed to know what to do during the time, and seemed to have found himself just… standing around.

“Well, I'm going to get some rest, do… whatever I guess,” V said, launching herself into the air, still inside the spire. The feeling of being able to stretch her wings once more served as a slight comfort to her.

The silver-haired disassembler had lied a lot in the last few days, but this was one truth she could share– she really was tired. Running on more oil meant that she would be forced to use more battery. As a result, she found herself much more tired than she would be otherwise.

She didn’t hear N’s reply as her tail coiled around a familiar pipe, letting her dangle in the air as she was used to, her wings curling around herself in a cocoon.

She let out a sigh, and closed her eyes, hoping the sleep would claim her soon enough.

But for some reason, something about it… just didn’t feel right . Sure, it was what she had been used to for the last who-knows-how-long , but it still felt wrong .

Her mind kept trailing back to the last time she’d slept.

It had been entirely an accident to cuddle up to the purple-haired worker while asleep, but it had certainly been a comfortable accident.

Now, with the chance to be all alone, it was really setting in.

Not only did V enjoy their time together.

She missed her.

Chapter Text

“Uzi! Time for bed!” Khan, the said drone’s dad, called from the kitchen. It was a daily routine for her neglective father to call the same thing to her every day at the exact time– just as it was routine for the purple-haired worker to completely ignore him.

That said, tonight would prove to be a very notable exception. For once in her life, Uzi was ready, and going to go to bed at a reasonable hour. A notable difference from her usual staying-up-late-working-on-whatever-project. All she was doing was treating his words with as much respect as they deserved, as far as she was concerned.

But as Uzi stood up from her chair, walking over to her bed, for once in her life, she was actually listening to her father.

Or at least, that would be a reasonable assumption .

Her reasons for going to bed early were far from innocent. Tonight, she would be sneaking out.

It wasn’t something anyone really ever… did. With the murder drones outside, nobody was stupid enough to sneak out of the bunker. Leaving was stupid, especially at night, even more so to not let anyone know you’re leaving.

Yet that was exactly what she planned to do.

Uzi was far from stupid– she knew the dangers the murder drones posed very well, yet was probably one of the only workers drones alive to be able to brush that aside.

She wouldn’t be going out there to be their food, she was going out there to be one’s friend .

That was the only thought Uzi let cross her mind as she snuggled further into her mattress, waiting for the inevitable rest awaiting her.

* * *

While the colony slept, its empty halls, rooms, and ambience dormant, waiting for the coming day as the night pressed on.

Except for a very few drones tasked with ‘night watch’ on the doors, or the restless few trying to find their nightly peace, everyone was asleep.

Save for one Uzi Doorman.

An internal alarm blared inside her head, inaudible to anyone else. Perfectly on schedule.

She quietly slipped out of bed, taking a moment to fully wake up, and moved her attention to the vent above her.

It was a weakness she’d discovered long ago: the extensive ventilation system spanning the entire colony. It even connected all the way to the outside, though as far as she had explored, the vent leading outside was always covered in snow. That would be a straightforward explanation for why the very things the bunker protected them from hadn’t used it to easily get in.

When Uzi had first discovered it, she’d tried to tell her dad. She thought that perhaps he would listen to her, seal it off, and praise his daughter for helping fix the issue.

She was instead met by cold laughter, and told to stop prying in the vents.

The purple-eyed drone sighed as she pushed the memory aside, climbing into the vent. Now was not the time for reminiscing.

The various tunnels of steel were dusty, though were practical– their surprising size would probably let any drone fit inside comfortably. Whether they were there for some kind of innocent maintenance, or to massacre the colony.

In her case, it wasn’t exactly either.

She crawled carefully through the vents, her route wasn’t one she knew particularly well , but she had been sure to memorize it the night prior.

She deemed her efforts fruitful as the exit to the colony came into view.

Taking a deep breath to prepare herself, she pushed aside the snow covering the vent… and promptly fell out of it, tumbling down a small wall of snow coating the outside of the bunker.

The small worker landed face first on the ground, taking a moment to voice her displeasure to the world with a groan, before standing up with renewed determination.

She briefly checked on her heavy pocket, keeping sure that its contents were secure before she began her walk towards the place that had dominated so much of her waking thought ever since she left.

It was finally time to go there again.

* * *

Through the skies above the abandoned city, a disassembly drone flew. Her purpose was beyond what was typical of the angels of death, however. She was currently more focused on adjusting her scarf than the scrambling workers below, attempting to flee as if that would save them should she have chosen to attack.

V flew through the air, the wind rushing past her as she made her way along the path she knew all too well. 

She’d chosen to wear a scarf she opted to sport on occasion. It was a vibrant red, and despite whatever other reason she could make up as a reason to wear it, it was simply cozy.

She sailed down, the howling winds paying her no mind as she lowered her elevation. Her destination would be in sight soon.

Her optics brightened, with a smile making itself known as the structure came into view. While to anyone else it appeared indifferent to the cold, dead world around it, to her it was beyond special.

A flash of purple light picked up by her optics was all she needed to decide on how to make her entrance.

Shooting down like a bullet, she hit the snow roughly. A yellow X was all her visor showed as she turned up to face her visitor.

“V?” A voice asked from the storm of white the disassembler had kicked up in her landing.

V savored the quick moment of staring into Uzi’s optics hollowed-out in fear, before the thought of genuinely upsetting the worker was enough to get her to drop the act.

“Yep!” V chirped, switching her posture and attitude completely, appearing much less murdery, and much more friendly. She giggled softly as she approached the still-cautious drone, who after a brief, confused moment, smiled into a much more comfortable and relaxed expression.

“Who else?” the yellow-eyed drone asked smugly. She knew exactly what Uzi had meant by asking– the idea of any other of her kind showing up here was an understandable fear.

“You… know what I mean” the worker correctly assumed, rolling her eyes.

Uzi’s sarcastic act was cut short as she was pulled into a hug. She let out a confused, but barely audible noise as she was scooped up into an embrace. The perpetrator of the hug– V– lifted up the smaller drone, letting her dangle in the hug for a few, short moments, before setting her back down. She met Uzi’s eyes with a smile, a smile which quickly fell apart as she couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the bewildered expression across the worker’s face.

Uzi pouted, turning away from V as an embarrassed blush spread across her face as the other, silver-haired drone fought to calm down.

“Sorry, sorry, you just looked like… you’ve never been hugged before,” V joked, shrugging as she shot a smug, but amused grin at the purple gremlin-drone.

The gremlin-drone in question looked to the side, her expression growing somber as to indicate that V’s joke had been much more accurate than she thought.

“I-I have ,” Uzi stuttered, “It’s just… been a very… long time.” Her voice gradually getting softer as her sentence ended.

V blinked, she hadn’t expected to be right about that, but with everything she knew about Uzi, it… made sense. In all the purple drone had told her about her life, it certainly didn’t sound like she had anyone who would be there to hug her. 

Uzi looked up as V leaned on her shoulder, a grin on the disassembler's face. 

“Well, guess it’s my job to fix that, then,” the taller drone announced, wrapping Uzi in an embrace once again. The little drone gave an instinctive small note of protest, but quickly gave into the comfortable warmth of the hug.

V felt her core beating quicken in pace, the shared moment between them no doubt responsible. Ever since that first night after they’d met, she’d more and more been feeling a certain way she couldn’t explain. It was confusing, feeling like she was missing something she’d been fine without for so long. But here, having her newfound companion in her embrace again just felt so… cozy, and right.

Eventually, after enough time passed, Uzi spoke up.

“Hey, uh, do hugs normally last this long?” she asked, genuinely unsure of the answer.

“Oh, uh, no, sorry,” V said sheepishly, ending the embrace. She apparently hadn’t been quite aware of the passage of time as she lost herself in thought and warmth.

“Oh, alright,” Uzi responded with confusion, “should we… like… go in there?”

V followed the worker’s glance to the structure not fifty yards away, their intended meeting place. 

“Oh, yeah, sure!” the disassembler giggled, planting a first step into the snow.

She gestured back to Uzi as to tell her to follow along, but caught the small drone staring at her with a smile. V reciprocated the smile, though with some idea that she missed something.

Uzi shook her hand, keeping her smile as she jogged up to follow along.

They walked together, side by side in silence, the quiet sounds around them serving as the only noise. As they entered the structure, Uzi would finally speak up.

“Does this place… have a name?” she asked curiously.

“Uh, you mean this?” V asked, gesturing around herself, to the building, “No, why?”

The worker shrugged, “Just curious.”

V could tell that there was more to the question than curiosity, but Uzi would get an answer to her question before it could even be asked.

“Could we… name it?”

The disassembler blinked with confusion, but had no objections to the idea. In all honesty, it would make it easier than calling it “that place”.

“Uh, sure, I guess. Do you have any ideas?” V responded. The silver-haired drone sat down, facing her purple-haired friend.

Uzi paused for a moment, she seemed… embarrassed? V couldn’t exactly tell.

Her suspicion seemed to be at least somewhat true as Uzi spoke.

“I do have one idea, but… it might be bad,” she stumbled over her words nervously.

V gave a reassuring smile, and a head nod in response, ushering her to go on.

“I was thinking… maybe… ‘the crying tree?’” the worker suggested, in a tone befitting someone far from self-confident.

V hummed in thought for a moment, pondering the idea. It reminded her of a poem she had once read… a long time ago, in what felt like a previous life. That said, it felt like… it fit.

“I like it,” the disassembler smiled with an approving nod.

Uzi sighed with… relief? As if merely sharing an idea with her new friend was scary.

Poor thing was the thought that crossed V’s mind as they sat down together, and began what would spiral into an hours-long conversation.

* * *

Uzi was beaming as she walked towards the bunker.

Truth be told, everything that night had gone perfectly!

They’d hugged, they’d talked, she got to share the name she thought of.

It had all gone just as she’d hoped.

As the pair was splitting apart, heading their separate ways, Uzi had also been able to present her surprise: a gift.

The day prior it had occurred to her that communication might become a difficulty, and for just that reason, Uzi gave her a phone.

It was nothing special, just an old phone her dad had given her, unaware that she’d built her own years prior.

It was the way that V’s face had lit up when she’d presented it to her that made it special to Uzi. 

On the topic of her favorite disassembler, and her newfound phone, Uzi felt her own phone vibrate in her pocket, no doubt a message from V.

Checking it confirmed this, but what she was not prepared for was V’s awful spelling. The murder drone may be deadly, precise, and perfect in almost every regard, but that apparently did not extend to typing.

Uzi let herself snicker as she approached the bunker door, her eyes scanning for the vent via which she exited.

She would have only a few seconds to search for the grate hiding amongst the snow, as the large door opening would cut her off.

Her artificial blood went cold as she heard a familiar voice speak.

“And where have you been?” Khan asked.

Chapter Text

For any drone on Copper-9, it would truly be a sight to behold.

A disassembly drone, one responsible for the death of thousands .

Flying through the air, giggling cheerfully.

V couldn’t figure out exactly why she was so happy, but she wasn’t complaining by any means!

The silver-haired drone had just sent her first message to Uzi, using the phone her friend she had so enthusiastically given to her. It had been quite… adorable to watch her try to hide her excitement, masking it, along with her embarrassment.

Recently, she’d been feeling increasingly… odd in regard to Uzi. Their bond had developed much quicker than V would have thought, but neither seemed to really mind that. V couldn’t help but enjoy the gremlin-drones company, in some ways like N in the past, and in some ways more . Maybe in another world, they would have met under different circumstances, and could’ve had a more… normal friendship. In any case, the disassembler was happy to have her in her life, the feeling of warmth in her chest spoke for itself as her thoughts centered more and more on the worker.

The way felt around Uzi… the way she let herself be .

It…

It reminds me of myself at the manor V realized suddenly, the thought distracting her enough to lose her balance, almost plummeting out the sky as a consequence.

Managing to recover, she glided down, landing on a nearby building. She sat down on the rough concrete, and lifted her hands to look at them. Her thoughts ran a mile a minute as if broke through a dream into lucidity for a shocking second.

What am I doing? The disassembler asked herself, squinting in stress.

Why…. why am I letting myself be like this again? V winced.

Why am I growing attached again? What if I lose it all over again? The questions kept coming, doubts and worries piling up as they spun around and around, coming to no conclusion.

V sat down, hugging her legs to her chest as she gazed at the view below, tears threatening the corners of her optics.

But… she thought back at herself, this has been by far the happiest I've been in a long, long time, hasn’t it?

Is it worth the risk?

* * *

“I’ll ask it again, where were you? ” Khan repeated, his voice more frustrated than the first time he’d asked.

Uzi didn’t know how to respond, instead just making a confused “uhhh” sound as she blinked in shock. She had no idea what to do in this situation, the idea of even getting caught leaving hadn’t even crossed her mind, a testament to how single-track her thoughts had been the day prior. Maybe she could try to apologize? Maybe try playing dumb?

Shaking her head, and snapping herself out of shock, any planning she could have done to try to approach the situation level-headedly was thrown out, drowning beneath the tide of one, overwhelming emotion: anger.

“Oh, just with the only person who actually cares about me,” she spat. The true polarity between V’s kindness, and whatever he was doing made itself cleared every time she saw her silver-haired friend.

Khan’s eyes widened, and it occurred to Uzi that this may not be the right time or place to have this conversation, not that she wanted to have it at all .

“W-what do you mean? Who would you be meeting out there??” her father laughed nervously, trying to avoid the other part of what his daughter had said.

Normally, Uzi would have picked up on his avoidance, and pushed him further on the point: that might have let her dance around actually telling him about V. As it was now, however, she did not have the cool to direct the conversation away from the inevitable reveal that she was on track to make.

“Like you care” she snarled, “forget it, let's just go inside.” Her words fell on deaf ears.

As avoidant as her father was, he could still be annoyingly stubborn, at all the wrong times. Right now was becoming an excellent example.

“Not happening, I need to know why you were leaving,” he insisted. He actually really did not need to know why she was leaving, the more pressing issue was that they were both stood out in the snowy open, with the door wide open , but apparently interrogating her was more important than the safety of the entire colony.

Uzi groaned, she really did not want to tell her dad about V, but maybe if she told some… rough truths, he’d accept it.

“Fine. I was… seeing a friend,” she reiterated from her statement earlier, “who… doesn’t live in the bunker.”

She gestured to the bunker in question as she finished her statement, crossing her arms and turning away from him.

Her father raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “And why were you meeting them at night?? ” he asked, bewildered.

“I-” Uzi had no response. This was a question she had not been prepared for. What could she say? What reason would she have for meeting someone at night other than the truth?

Her thoughts were not given enough time to come to an answer, with both the fact that she was running on suboptimal recharge, and that there was no lie that could dig her out of this hole she’d dug herself into. She didn’t know what to say, something the other drone unfortunately took notice of.

“Uzi,” Khan warned, if she had to guess, the correct answer to this problem had come into his head, and he didn’t like it .

“You… no…” his eyes hollowed, he took a step back, stress lines beginning to form on his optics. Uzi nodded sheepishly, confirming what was undoubtedly his worst case scenario. He’d have figured it out eventually, she reasoned, and speeding up the process only meant she’d get out of the frigid weather a little sooner.

“Your ‘friend’ is a murder drone? ” he shouted, anger replacing his disbelief.

“So what?” Uzi shouted back, “At least she cares about me! Like you, or anyone else in the bunker could say the same!”

Khan took a step back, a somber expression on his face as he retreated, step by step, until he was once again within the confines of the bunker, Uzi still a feet paces away from the opened door.

“Finally, I need to get to be-” the purple drone was cut off by her father taking out his remote– the one that controlled the doors, and with a faint click , the door closed partway.  There was a slight gap between the upper and lower sections of the door, not enough to get through, but allowing the two drones to still face eye-to-eye. One adorned an expression of shock and confusion, the other of stress and decision.

“D-dad?” Uzi pleaded in shock, she really didn’t like where this was going.

“What are you doing, open the door!” she continued, eyes hollowing further as he turned away. She ran as fast as her legs could take her, reaching her arm out towards the only parent she could remember.

She heard the shutting sound before she had a chance to move her hand away.

The door slammed closed around her arm, making a horrible, jarring metallic sound as it crushed her hand, and most of her forearm.

Uzi screamed .

Whether it was because of the pain, her anger, or some sort of mourning, she didn’t know. There was only one thought on her mind, repeated over and over again.

He’d left her to die.

He hadn’t even said a word to her as he did.

She felt her other hand pounding on the metallic structure, trying to rip her arm out the snare at the same time; shouts and tears coming along with it. At this point, she hardly felt in control, as if sheer instinct and emotion was all that was piloting her. She finally managed to separate herself from the door, her arm, however, would not come with. A bloody scene was what she left with, wires protruding as oil spilled everywhere .

The black liquid stained the white, powdery snow as she bled from the remnants of her arm.

He’d abandoned her.

The realization hit her as sudden as the door’s closure.

She didn’t have anything anymore, no life to lead. 

No place to call home.

No family.

No arm . 

She didn’t know what to do.

She didn’t have anyone .

Except…

Uzi fixed her posture, standing up, and brushing the tears off the corners of her visor as best she could. The little drone took a deep breath.

Using her remaining arm, she took her phone out of her pocket.

There was still one last person she could turn to.

* * *

Serial Designation V was many things, most of which were awful .

But… she was going to try to be better.

Truth be told, it was releasing how she’d been able to act– dropping the mask she’d tried to sew on.

A mask she was about ready to throw away for good.

But… there was still one scar, one victim, one loose end to tie up.

N.

She owed him… well, a lot actually, an apology and explanation would be just the start.

But she was ready to try .

It had taken… a lot to convince herself, going back and forth between how… how she’d felt when she’d first lost him, and how she might feel that all over again.

It hurt just to think about the feeling of losing everything she’d ever known.

But there was also something new, a light at the end of the tunnel waiting for her:

Uzi.

With the worker, she’d reminded herself how it felt to be… so many things.

To be vulnerable, secure, and for lack of a better word, happy .

It didn’t come without drawbacks, of course, caring meant she had something to lose. The very idea of losing the only one she’d let herself care about in oh so long was horrible .

But it was time to move on from her grief, and let herself be happy again, even if she knew the pain she was risking,

it was worth it.

And it all started with one, long overdue apology.

A smile brought itself to V’s face as she took off, flying through the sky once again. The moon was at its peak, providing the most light the night would see until its end. Her thoughts were spinning around in circles, though not in anything of substance. It was like she was thinking everything and nothing at the same time.

The spire was hard to miss in the apocalyptic skyline of the long-dead city, sticking out especially well when compared to the blanket of white the planet was covered in. As she approached closer and closer, her nerves would begin to challenge her excitement. Still, she pushed through, determined to finally do what she should have long ago. 

The disassembler beat her wings once more with resurged confidence, approaching closer and closer to the spire by the second. 

Her heart almost stopped when she heard it. 

Underneath the violent air rushing past her, she felt a soft, repetitive pattern of vibrations.

Her phone.

Is Uzi… trying to call me?

Putting her quest briefly on pause, she slowed down, and took out the small device carefully, being sure not to drop it.

Pressing the “accept” button, she slowly held it up to her ear to hear. A small, weak, unmistakable voice spoke to her from the other end.

“Hey V…”

Chapter Text

Pick up, please, pick up! Uzi begged with her phone as it buzzed rhythmically, reminding her it was doing its best.

C’mon! the bleeding drone begged. She could feel her automatic shiver programs begin in an attempt to warm her internal mechanics.

The effort would help, but was dwarfed by the overwhelming force of the snowstorm. Worker drones might have been designed to withstand extreme temperatures to some extent, but doing so while low on oil, and parts of your internal wiring exposed to the frigid cold?

It didn’t make survival a likely prospect.

Pure, unfiltered relief flooded through Uzi as the phone’s vibrating suddenly halted, a bustling ambience of wind replacing it from the other line– V had picked up.

Thank robo-GOD

Taking  a quick breath as she built up the confidence necessary, Uzi brought herself to speak.

“Hi V…” she forced out nervously, her shivering doing her no favors. A combined effort from the emotions of the night and her current condition rendered her voice uncooperative, the sound it managed to produce was far from as clear and confident as she would have wished.

“Uzi?” V’s saving grave of a voice came from the other line, slightly muffled by the loud winds behind her. Even with just a single word, Uzi could feel her nerves relaxing, the cloud of fear being blown away by the fan of comfort.

“I, uh, alright. So I…” Uzi took a deep breath, and pushed herself to continue. “I basically got… banished. From the colony. Also I-”

The drone on the other line loudly growled, cutting off the last crucial detail of her sentence. “Those bastards did what? Are you okay?”

Uzi let out a cold sigh, if V was already worried, she was surely in for one hell of a treat.

“ Yeaaaah , no. I kinda… need help? I… lost an arm? There was an accident and I…” Uzi snivelled out, fighting off a sob. “I just really need your help.”

…

The line was silent for a few, short, tense moments. The howling gusts bellowing around her served as the only sound her awaiting ears would recieve.

“I’m on my way,” V stated, popping the growing tension Uzi could feel in her core. The seriousness in her voice was enough to send a chill up Uzi’s spine, but with the message it carried, it provided nothing but comfort and a feeling of pure relief– the second time she’d felt such tonight.

“C-cool,” Uzi smiled. As traumatizing as the circumstances were, she couldn’t help but feel a sliver of happiness at the fact that she’d get to see her quickly-becoming-favorite person again tonight.

“Oh, I’m near the… bunker,” she added, brushing aside the flurry of emotion that demoting her home of so many years to a mere landmark brought. “Can you… get here?”

A sigh came from the other end, followed by its owner’s voice. “I don't know where it is, how close is it to the spot?”

“It's not that far, I can try to get as close as I can?”

“Alright, I’ll search around there, just try to stay in the open, it’ll be easier to find you that way.”

Uzi gave a small noise of affirmation, though it was quite possible that V hadn’t even heard it– the sound of the disassembler launching herself through the air loud enough to block it out.

The next few minutes passed in fragile silence, filled only by the roaring of the wind and flap of V’s wings. Uzi could feel the cold truly taking its toll on her internal hardware, each step feeling weaker and weaker– like at any moment she might take her last. A trail of black spots painted the snow behind her, serving as a map of the path she’d travelled as she grew closer and closer to refuge.

Uzi listened as the drone on the other line glided to a halt, her wings still flapping in a gentle hover, and began calling her name loudly every few seconds– V was nearby, and searching for her.

A short while later, as she was within half of a mile of the building– the area around her finally becoming recognizable– the call on her phone abruptly ended with a beep , the noise it produced suddenly ceasing. Before she could try and investigate the cause, a large object flying through the wind crashed into her in a violent, but controlled manner.

Her instincts screamed at her that it must have been some sort of debris caught in the wind, but would be proven wrong as she felt a warmth radiating from it, accompanying the quiet whines as the object– no, the drone lightly sniffled into her shoulder, wrapping itself around her in a hug.

“Are you okay? Let me see your arm,” V whispered gently as she held Uzi in a tight embrace. Releasing her momentarily yielded her a good look at the damage, the disassembler returned to holding her, now tighter with worry. Oil spilled from the wound, staining V’s jacket, but from her expression Uzi could tell that was the least of her worries.

“V?” Uzi whispered, unable to force her voice to give anything louder. 

The small worker hugged her captor back, though using the sounds of worry emanating from the silver-haired drone, it dawned on her that what she really needed at that moment was reassurement of her well-being. “Hey, hey! I’m fine, I’m tough!” She tried, her voice betraying the effort.

V did not seem convinced, giving the purple drone a protective nuzzle before releasing her slightly, yielding Uzi a slight bit more breathing room.

The pair shared a somber meeting of their optics– violet matched to yellow, and Uzi, for the first time since being abandoned, smiled. In spite of it all, she felt… happy, in some way.

V smiled back, and Uzi could feel some of the immense worry the drone held cease. The disassembler turned her focus from the violet optics of the drone below her, to said drone’s arm– or the lack thereof.

V unwrapped herself from Uzi, helping the worker stand up, then moved to inspect the injury. With an affirmative nod, V moved closer to Uzi’s bleeding shoulder, opened her mouth and…

“What the hell??” Uzi recoiled back, lightly pushing away with her single arm. “Did you lick it ?” she demanded, a look of annoyance and confusion plastered across her face.

“Give it a moment,” V non-answered, seemingly waiting for something.

“Why in the wo-” Uzi trailed off as she saw where her arm once was, in some sort of witchcraft, beginning to repair itself. She stared in disbelief as only a few short moments later, a brand-new, fully-functioning arm lay before her.

She glanced back and forth between her new limb, and a very smug V in front of her. The yellow-eyed drone didn’t give any reply to Uzi’s words of confusion, just smiling smugly, and embracing the worker in a hug once again.

Uzi chose not to question it– more disassembly drone nonsense, she supposed. She let out a tired, but content sigh, and leaned– now with both arms– into the embrace.

It was a few minutes later when either of them spoke again, V muttering words under her breath. “Well, where do we go now?”

“What?”

“Y’know,” V replied, waving her hand in a circle for emphasis. “Bunkers off the table, so where do we go?”

Taking a moment to ponder the thought, Uzi realized that the disassembler was– as she had been for the last hour– right. She didn’t have a home anymore, where was she going to go?

The thought and its soon-to-be counterparts hit her like a brick.

“Wha– what am I going to do?” Uzi asked the world, burying her head into the closest thing she could find– V’s chest. The worker gave a small, light sob as the larger drone ran her fingers through her purple locks comfortingly. A thousand unanswered questions circled in Uzi’s mind, all felt urgent and pressing, though one prevailed above all: Will she leave me too?

V flinched lightly at the unexpected contact, though quickly embraced it, comforting the crying drone as best she could. “Hey! Hey, what’s wrong?”

Uzi felt herself tremble, pushing herself to answer. “Are you… gonna leave me too?”

As soon as the purple-haired drone got the words out, she burst into tears once again, her legs giving into the emotional weight, leaving her to fall on top of the drone beside her.

“I-I… what?” V was left stunned for a moment, though making sure to still comfort the drone in her arms as best she could. Her brief pause left Uzi to spiral further, her abandonment issues were on full blast at this point, not that she would have expected anything else, given the circumstance.

The pause in conversation only lasted another moment before V put it out of its suffering.

“I meant it when I said ‘ we .’” she stated, lifting Uzi’s chin to meet the purple drone’s eyes. The words briefly cut Uzi out of her spiraling, though she could not work up a response before V continued.

“I’m not leaving you alone, you… really helped me in ways that I can’t begin to thank you for. I know that you were… alone, and thrown out of the bunker, but y’know what?” Uzi blinked, losing herself in the fiery eyes of the drone around her at this point. “They can bite me .”

Uzi couldn’t help but laugh as her line came out of V’s mouth. She laughed in amusement, in joy, and in loss– all of the emotions melding together into something… lighter than before.

“R-really?” she squeaked, her eyes bright with admiration.

“Really.”

That promise alone would’ve brought Uzi to tears all on their own– the fact that this drone was here, really here , promising to stick by her side despite it all?

It was surreal.

The pair shared a hug tighter and warmer than any she’d ever had before– not that there was a whole lot of competition for the title.

They stayed in that position– wrapped around each other in silent joy and mourning– for a good fifteen minutes. Somehow, even with the blizzard around them, Uzi didn’t feel cold in the slightest, the cozy warmth from the drone around her providing plenty of heat. She would have stayed there forever if she had her way, though it seemed the world was determined to not let that happen.

“Well, where should we go?” V asked, putting extra emphasis on the we . Uzi lifted herself out of the embrace, their quiet moment together well and truly over.

“Hmmmm,” Uzi pondered, her emotional soft self transforming back into her usual self. “What are the options?”

“Well, I guess we could go back to the bunker,” V teased, “They couldn’t exactly stop us!”

“I’m not too sure, I… don’t know if they’d want us there, or if I want us there.”

“Alright, fair enough. We could… go to the spire?”

Uzi took a moment to go through the scenario in her head– it was… somewhere , she supposed, and from what she’d heard about it’s only other current occupant, N, there was a… chance that she wouldn’t be attacked, especially if he and V talked or something, but it still felt too… unpredictable– that wasn’t even to mention the possibility of the other squadmate, J being back– it felt too risky.

“I… don’t know,” Uzi admitted, to V’s unpredicted agreement.

“Yeah, not exactly safe ,” she concluded. “Well, I guess that just leaves… the Crying Tree?”

“I… guess? It’s not much of a base ,” Uzi thought aloud, the gears in her head turning, trying to come to the best decision. To her luck, or misfortune, the decision would be rendered out of her control as a blaring, loud alarm overwhelmed her thought process, a large alert popping up on her visor to accompany it. She nearly fell over from recoil, the only thing stopping such was the supportive hand V quickly lent.

“What's wrong?” V’s rushed, concerned voice pounced from her side. 

“I, uh, apparently lost a little too much oil,” Uzi gave a dramatic, annoyed sigh. “Something about a ‘system shutdown’ or something, didn’t bother to read it.”

“Do you mean like fall asleep system shutdown? Or die system shutdown?” V asked with a panicked laugh.

“Asleep. Until I get more oil, at least.”

Uzi could see V visibly relax a bit, though the disassembler was clearly still on edge. her mouth opened, words clearly being said, but… Uzi couldn’t hear them.

The world had gone silent.

The edges of her vision were feeling… buzzy, and darkening– that was not a good sign. Her eyes hollowed out, and she managed to meet V’s optics one last time before the world went dark.

* * *

N wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to do.

His squad leader, J, had been missing for a few days at this point, and as hard as he had looked for her, he hadn’t found a trace. 

It was just so unlike J to go missing , she was squad leader for a reason– always diligent, calculated, and on top of everything. Her random absence was too out-of-character for him to not fear the worst.

Speaking of out-of-character, there was his other squad mate– V. She was never super… open with him, per say, but he still felt like he had a general idea of what she was like– and therefore how weird her recent behavior was.

His thoughts of worry wouldn’t shake as he flew through the spire entrance, perching on an arm of the wrecked landing pod. 

V really had been acting strangely, hadn’t she? Just earlier that night, when they’d left the spire to do their ‘jobs,’ his squad mate had been so much more… excited than normal? It wasn’t unusual for V to leave quickly , but she usually stopped to at least scoff at his attempt at conversation.

She had also been less… mean, for lack of a better word. Lately, she’d been less likely to snap at him when he asked one question too many, forget his name (she’d actually remembered it every single time in the last few days!) or… ignore him.

You’re probably just reading too far into things, a logical part of his mind told him. Wishful thinking getting in the way.

I could always just ask her about it? He thought back at himself, though his attention would quickly be turned elsewhere as a commotion near the entrance to the spire caught his eye.

He flew up to, and peaked around the top of the landing pod, trying to get a view of what was going on, though unintentionally keeping his presence a secret in the process.

The sight before him was exactly what he would have expected to see: V arriving back at the spire, with what had to be a dead worker in her hands. He watched his squadmate glide over to their oil stash, likely to add another corpse to the piles.

N thought nothing of it, turning back around, and facing the roof of the spire, losing himself in thought once again. 

It was only several minutes later that he realized something was amiss. V had been at their stash far longer than would be necessary to just drop off another worker. What was she doing?

Seeing no reason not to, and considering this an ample opportunity to ask her about her recent strange behavior, he flew down to the area of the spire, strolling around a corner as he opened his mouth to speak.

“Hey V! I was just wonde-”

His words fell silent as he stared in disbelief at the scene before him. He could feel his artificial heart pounding beneath his chest as the air around him felt colder.

There, before him, was V, standing over the laid-down body of a worker.

But she wasn’t adding it to their stashes.

It wasn’t even dead .

She was… feeding it?

“N?”

Chapter Text

True desperation was something that V hadn’t felt in a long time.

That core-pounding, primal fear of worry– it wasn’t something she was accustomed to, nor particularly enjoyed, though fate held little regard for such. As she stood there, limb in hand, dripping the oil it contained into an unconscious drone’s open mouth, eye to eye with another of her kind– another she’d hurt, and who very well might take this as some sort of betrayal.

True desperation was exactly what she felt.

“N?” She called, both in confusion, and in a plea to her long-forgotten best friend to give her a chance to explain herself.

“V? Wh-what? What are you doing? Why?” N clumsily fell over his own words.

“N? I– this is a lot to explain, and there's so much I need to talk to you about, and I don't–” A whirlwind of worst-case scenarios flew through her mind, what if N attacked Uzi? What if he thought she was a traitor? What would she do? Would she have to attack one friend to defend another?

She found herself rushing towards her squadmate, falling onto him in a hug. The feeling of embrace from the other drone was one she hadn’t felt in an eternity– it was hard to say when it last happened, but it might have even been back at the manor . Should she have had a second to appreciate the moment, it could have felt special or symbolic, but she had no time nor mental capacity for such.

“Please, let me explain, this– don't–”

N looked at her, shock and confusion splashed across his expression. There had to have been a million questions swarming through his mind, but he seemingly managed to push them aside to comfort his long lost best friend. 

“Hey, take your time, I’m happy to listen,” he stressed with a gentle, reassuring smile.

For the spiral of fear that she had found her mind in, she had seemingly forgotten who this was– he was N , of course he’d be nothing but understanding and patient.

Tears threatened her eyes, but she tried her best to maintain control, taking a deep breath, and composing herself as best she could.

“I'm sorry. I’m so so sorry, I should have been honest, I shouldn’t have-” N cut her off before she could descend into sobbing-rambling. She really couldn’t seem to get more than a few words out before she collapsed into disarray.

“You're… sorry?” he echoed in disbelief– well-founded disbelief at that. The version of herself he’d seen had been heartless; the crying mess in front of him was in contrast probably irrecognizable.

V nodded frantically. It took all her will to stay put-together in any sense. She felt like a wave; rapidly approaching a shore, desperate to collapse into the sand. The mere act of being able to once again say sorry to this drone who more than deserved it brought some sense of release, some sense of renewal, but was only a fraction of the repairing left to be done.

Her tearful gaze drifted from N’s yellow optics to Uzi, the unconscious drone still laid down on the snow, her form locked in a paralyzed distress.

“Oh crap, Uzi !” she blurted out, rushing over to slump beside the purple-haired non-corpse below her. She frantically returned to what she had been doing the moment prior, transfering the oil from a decapitated drone head into Uzi’s opened mouth.

“What’s, uh, that?” N’s voice called from behind her, threatening to split her attention in half.

“It's… a lot to explain, and I promise I will! Just know that she’s… a friend.” It didn’t feel like the explanation he was owed, but she just had to tell herself that she’d make up for it later. There was too much to worry about; too much on the line right now, but the cosmos themselves couldn’t stop her from making sure she kept her promise to him. She just needed time .

They sat in tense silence for the following few minutes as V finished pouring the contents of the drone part. She didn’t know exactly how much oil Uzi needed; or if this way of giving it to her even worked . Really, it was a long shot, to assume workers could intake oil this way, but it was the best guess she had. She kept with it, taking another limb– an arm– and starting the process all over again.

About halfway through the drainage of the arm, Uzi finally stirred, her internal fans audibly started up, whirring to life. V felt her nerves vanish almost instantaneously; Uzi was alive .

It took only a moment before her violet optics fluttered on, and only a moment later, the smaller drone bolted up, her eyes wandering wildly as she panted harshly in distress, not helped as she took in the scene around her. Admittedly, it was likely the least comforting environment for a worker drone to wake up in– surrounded by the corpses of others of her own kind, two of the beasts responsible for such carnage surrounding her. All that in mind, Uzi’s flinching and fearful expression were fairly brave reactions, and even those faded away as her eyes landed on V; her purple-haired friend lighting up as she  recognized the disassembler’s presence. It was like she was transformed instantaneously; any sense of worry or confusion immediately converting into pure excitement and joy.

V was quick to reciprocate such at the other’s presence, picking Uzi up, and wrapping her in a tight embrace. The feel of the simple presence of the other was an antidote to her stress, as the still-waking drone’s giggling was music to her ears. V joined in on the laughter, spinning Uzi around until they both calmed down from the sheer comfort of just being… okay .

As V looked down into her arms, at the drone they surrounded, she found the sight of Uzi looking up at her with wonder. The small drone smiled up at her in bright admiration. V felt herself sigh with relief, a breath she felt as though she’d held for hours finally releasing. She pulled Uzi closer into her arms, resting her chin into the worker’s vibrant purple hair contentedly.

For a few, blissful moments, all felt perfect; the distinct scent of the drone in her arms, the lonely sounds of mechanical breathing and wind, though it would be momentarily halted as the thrill of Uzi awakening was put on hold at the presence of another drone.

“Do you, uh, need a minute?” N called from his spot a few feet away. V turned around, dragging Uzi along with her to catch the sight of N shrugging, and gesturing to the landing pod, his offer still hanging in the air.

“Oh, no, uh, here,” V sat down, setting Uzi in her lap as she patted the snow in front of her to signal N to sit down. It was finally time for her favorite people to meet.

Uzi, who had practically been a cuddle-ragdoll for the last several minutes, flinched back towards the source of such affection as N sat down. She clearly wasn’t used to his presence– with him being a part of the team responsible for the genocide of her people, V could hardly blame her. Even if the same could be said for herself, new people were probably especially scary for the lonely girl. Given the experiences she’d shared through their conversations, clearly not without good reason.

V ran her fingers through Uzi’s hair in a comforting rhythm, stirred on by the thought of the girl’s loneliness; a concept she was determined to undermine. There was something about how Uzi reacted to various kinds of affection– be it hugging or whatnot– that V couldn’t help but notice. It really all seemed new to her, and as hard as she might try to not show it, V could tell she quite enjoyed such attention; the girl was absolutely touch-starved .

“Hi! I’m N! It’s nice to meet you!” her squadmate broke the silence ongoing around the pair as he chirped out a greeting, extending his hand to offer a handshake to Uzi.

“Uzi,” she responded in kind, accepting the handshake.

“How did you and V meet?” N asked casually, likely trying to start some kind of conversation. While characteristic of the cheerful and friendly drone, Uzi wasn’t quite up for it, shuffling slightly closer into V’s arms. 

“We met one night when I was out hunting.” V half-answered for Uzi; the purple drone shooting her a small smile.

N either picked up on the worker’s shyness, or was just eager to continue the conversation as he launched into asking V the no doubt endless supply of questions he had stored.

The next few hours felt like a cozy blur of conversation, Uzi even eventually growing comfortable enough to join the conversation at some moments, though never leaving V’s lap– something V herself had no issue with. She would go in and out of just existing amongst them, and cutting in with random questions.

“Does oil have… flavors?” Uzi asked at one point, completely out of the blue, breaking a period of silence.

“What?” N and V both asked simultaneously.

“Like would one drone’s oil taste different from another?”

The pair of disassemblers shared a look– this wasn’t something V had particularly considered … but it was a fair question.

“Sorta?” N answered first. 

“I guess?” V nodded, pondering the idea. “You guys don't really… get new oil, at least usually, so it kinda does become distinct. The longer the drone is around, the more… them the oil becomes, so the more unique the taste.”

That seems to be enough of an answer to quench the purple-haired girl’s strange curiosity, letting her settle back into the background comfortably.

The group continued their talks of anything and everything, until eventually the first glimmers of soft sunlight began peaking through the entrance of the spire; signaling the impending morning, at which point they began to settle down for rest. Uzi had already fallen asleep about an hour prior, still unmoving from her spot in V’s lap, effectively trapping the disassembler in a hug. Whilst she would normally sleep suspended in the air, dangling from her tail, V didn’t want to, nor did she have the will to wake the drone in her lap– the presence of which brought her warm comfort. N bid her good night, and set himself up, gently swaying from the ceiling above them.

V smiled as she watched him, snuggling closer to Uzi as she laid down, and let herself begin to drift off to sleep.

…

…

CRASH!

V shot awake, opening her eyes to the sight of N yelling as he fell from the roof, limbs flailing around boisterously. The spire rocked slightly as vibrations caused by whatever had happened shook the structure.

“WAAAHAHA!” N cried as he hit the ground, slamming into the snow a mere few feet away. Should he have been anyone else, she may have been concerned, but given the fact that their entire squad had suffered much worse, and the extensive healing abilities they possessed, such injuries were minor at worst.

Uzi stirred slightly in V's arms. If the loud noise didn’t awaken her, the yell, and corresponding un-graceful landing certainly did.

“Bwhats going on?” Uzi murmured, too sleepily to construct her words properly.

V held a finger up to her lips, signaling to both her and N to stay quiet. Uzi jumped to attention as she took in the emerged seriousness in V's demeanor. The disassembler's eyes locked themselves towards the entrance of the spire, ready to detect any movement. She could feel the instinct to hunt merging with the instinct to protect , agreeing on little but the need to be stealthy and cautious. Bringing herself to her feet as quietly as possible, she began softly stepping towards the spire entrance, gesturing to N to follow in kind. 

As her squadmate followed her lead, Uzi moved to do so as well. V stopped, shaking her head at the worker, pointing to tell her to stay back. She would not let Uzi get hurt again, however much the dejected expression on the purple drone’s face pained her.

V did not continue until Uzi had found a spot to hide, which, gruesomely enough, ended up being amongst the corpses of her own kind. However traumatizing that might be was something they could work out later; Uzi's safety was far more important in her eyes.

With their friend as safe as the situation would allow, the squadmates made their way to the arch-shaped ingress, keeping just outside of the line of sight should someone have been looking in. V counted down from three with her fingers, and in perfect, practiced coordination, her and N leapt out of hiding, aiming their now-transformed gun-hands towards the direction of the noise, scanning for any kind of danger.

What she found laying there filled her with overwhelming, conflicting relief and dread. There in front of her, in a shallow ditch of snow, was an incredibly damaged disassembler.

Her breathing quickened as she took in the image– pigtails, peglegs, and adorning a nasty scowl as she lifted herself up to glare at them, there was no denying who this was.

J.

“What are you idiots staring at?” J growled weakly, trembling as she struggled to stand up.

“J?” N rushed to her side, with much more concern than she deserved. “What happened?”

J snarled as he approached, though accepted his hand to stand up. “None of your concern.”

The duo watched their squad leader limp right past them– however hurt, still trying to put on the facade of strength. As she disappeared into the blackened walls, V turned to face N, meeting his worried eyes.

It hadn’t occurred to her that N would be worried about their squad leader. After all that had happened, and how J would undoubtedly react should she learn a fraction of what V had been up to during the last few days. Had she been too quick to assume? Would J understand ? It really was too great a risk, with all that was at stake, and J’s track record for any kind of infraction, much less treason . Better to keep her purple-haired secret in her hiding spot until they could slip away safely. She would never have to know; they could just disappear.

That was when she realized.

J needed oil– her level of damage said that much.

Uzi was hiding in their oil stockpile.

Oh, shiiiiittt–

V shot into the spire desperately, wings extending to give herself a boost.

“V?” a seething voice called with mock-curiosity, holding something in her tail. 

“What is this? ”

There J stood, in the one place V needed her to avoid, arms across her body in irritation.

And one terrified Uzi snared in her tail.

Chapter Text

She hadn’t even had a moment to react. 

One second Uzi was crouched down, covered as best she could be by the corpses of her fellow drones, trying to keep her breath as quiet as possible to avoid the attention of her hunter.

It was a constant struggle against the urge to scream and flee desperately from the hostile disassembler a mere few feet away, tentatively sifting through the piles of dead one by one. Hopefully she would find what she needed before approaching Uzi’s pile.

The only sound she managed to get out was a muffled yelp as, in a flash of yellow light, she was snatched out of her hiding spot, turned around, and held face to face with the drone she’d had the displeasure of knowing as J.

Words refused her as her captor growled with frustration, all adding to the pounding in her chest.

Is this how it happens? After everything?

Her eyes locked onto a drone who it seemed had just joined the spectacle.

V.

“V, what is this?” J’s snarky voice called, her gaze turned to the other disassembler. Uzi met V’s eyes, terror meeting terror as she took in her friend’s shaking frame. V’s gaze upon her was hollow, with what must have been a thousand words and feelings rushing through her eyes. Exactly which, Uzi couldn’t know.

Before anyone could respond, retort, or commit to whatever they wanted to say, Uzi felt a spontaneous surge of energy flow through her– some sort of artificial adrenaline, perhaps.

Whatever the cause, she felt herself surge up, and in a swift motion, bite the tail-cord trapping her clean off, oil spilling across Uzi’s upper half in the process.

“OW! You little-” 

Before J had a chance to grab her back, V crashed into her, in a blaze of yellow, silver, and blades. Uzi felt her mind take the backseat as the will of survival took full control. Untangling herself, and in only a matter of seconds, she dashed away from the struggling pair behind her. She ran without looking back until she managed to find some sort of shield from the chaos— a conveniently-placed N for her to hide behind. He stood silently, gazing unflinchingly at the unfolding drama from behind her.

The two fighting drones lunged at each other, in a flurry of blades, claws, and guns. Quickly though, it was revealed just how damaged J was. and how much stronger V is! Uzi added pridefully,  That’s my murder drone!

She waved off her own overly-possessive, and cringe-worthy comment, and watched still as the skirmish came to an end. The dust settled, and a triumphant V was stood before them, a blade threateningly to J’s neck, and her tail pointed at her visor. She stood with the purpose (and appearance, Uzi’s couldn’t help adding internally) of an angel of justice, promising her opponent swift judgement should she dare to try anything. They both loudly panted, though underneath the heavy sound of exhaustion, threatening growling also sounded across the blackened walls.

Tension was a mild way of describing the feeling in the air.

“Well?” J snarled, glaring up at the drone she likely considered her inferior.

“Well?” V repeated back.

J scoffed, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

 “I leave for less than a week and you both fall apart. I at least expected better from y-“

Uzi winced at the sound of metal scraping against metal coming from what she could only guess was V’s blades pushing down harder onto J’s neck. The intensified presence on her neck must have been enough to shut her up, as the squad leader flinched in pain, and shut her trap.

“We’re going to leave.” V stated, her gaze and blade position making her serious intent clear. “If you wanna play your whole ‘professional’ game, take this as me quitting.”

J hacked a weak, scoffing laugh, though was quickly degraded into hoarse coughing– whatever happened to her clearly did a number on her.

“And go where ?” She snarked.

“Doesn’t matter. Not here.”

“Oh please! You’ll both fall apart without me. Where in executive's name would you even get your oil if you’re on some high and mighty ‘innocence’ shtick?”

“Wai-wai-wai-wai-wait, c’mon guys, we shouldn’t fight! We’re famil-” N’s meager attempt to get between the two was so-rudely interrupted as J maneuvered out of V’s pin, pushing him out of the way as she lunged towards V once again. The fighting commencing once more was enough to get N to lay off his attempt, the boy stepping back beside Uzi.

The following clamor was an even weaker attempt by J to overpower her co-worker, with the squad leader pinned to the ground again a mere minute later. The two hissed at each other like feral cats for a long moment, before J was thrown into a nearby wall, V turning to Uzi and N.

“We’re leaving,” she asserted. As she walked across the spire, V turned back to J, and promptly spat on the spire ground, shooting last glare at her ex-boss, and turning back to leave.

Uzi was quick to follow behind her, eager to stay close to her promise of safety, and the only person truly trusted here. 

Only in nightmares would she hopefully ever be alone in this cursed place.

She met J’s gaze one last time as the former squad leader watched the three of them walk away. Her eyes flickered between glaring at the fiery V, and sheepish-looking N.

“Don't you guys burn in sunlight?” Uzi whispered to V as they approached the poisonous light.

“It's early, we should be able to get at least a bit away; and it doesn’t matter, we can’t stay here. I can handle a little discomfort”

Uzi paused, considering V’s statement. As much as she disliked her friend suffering, the point she made still stood—they couldn't stay.

“N?” V called back, turning back to face him. He was perched a few feet behind them, visibly swaying side-to-side, seeming unsure and conflicted.

“I… want to say goodbye…” his voice trailed off, getting softer and softer as he shrank in on himself.

V furled her brow.

“You can stay here tonight, then. We have to go.” she remarked, turning her back to him, and facing the blinding day.

“Wait-” N was cut off as V took Uzi’s hand, and launched away, kicking up a poof of snow behind her as the two soared up into the burning light.

Uzi felt a twinge of guilt, looking back to see N’s dejected expression shrink away as he turned back inside.

Tomorrow, she told herself, we’ll deal with it… tomorrow. 

The self-reassurement did little, though at least it was some sort of excuse.

Uzi could feel V’s plating growing warmer and warmer, to blazingly hot to the touch as they flew through the awakening morning. She really wasn’t buying the ‘a little discomfort’ statement from before. Just being held by V was starting to feel painful. 

Before long, V must have spotted an area deemed suitable (which had to be just about anywhere with shelter at this point), and she adjusted her direction, silently aiming towards whatever area she found–Uzi didn’t care to observe.

The purple worker was, in all honesty, exhausted . She hadn’t been able to get any sort of meaningful, uninterrupted rest in what felt like an eternity–the stress of the recent days didn’t help either.

She yawned, her body being reminded of its exhaustion.

Around her, V swept through a broken window, landing carefully in a small room. Tiredly blinking as she was set down, Uzi took in what must have once been some kind of apartment; not that it mattered, anywhere safe and free of sunlight would serve fine for them. Relief coursed through her as the metallic arms holding her cooled down immediately in the shade.

Her yawn would prove to have been contagious as V would give one of her own, letting Uzi out of her grasp, and rubbing her eyes.

“Thank you. For saving me. Again.” Uzi got out piece-by-piece, rubbing her neck sheepishly. 

“ That feels familiar,” V mused teasingly. 

“Bagh! Stop saving me!” Uzi yelled, more playfully than with any real annoyance or spite.

“ You need to stop getting into danger.” V retorted, booping her on the nose.

Uzi grumbled, being unable to come up with a comeback, she instead chose to sit down, and make her displeasure at the truth to V’s words known in a series of frustrated grunts.

“Awww, c’mere,” V teased, sitting down beside her, nudging closer.

“Pfft,” Uzi laughed, moving closer, “do you get worse every time I get hurt?”

“I feel like you almost dying warrants a bit of clinginess,” 

Uzi gave an annoyed, agreeing grumble in retort. “Alrighhht, I’ll be more careful or something.”

V chuckled, the pleasant sound being the last from the pair for a few seconds. Uzi found herself lost in delirious thought, once again , she had a lot to think about.

“Do you actually have an idea of where we’re going to go?” Uzi wondered aloud. Whereas mere hours ago, there would have at least been some clear answer to the question–the spire–, with J’s return, it was up in the air once again. “Just ‘cause, you kinda sounded like you did?”

“That bunker place,” V answered tiredly, moving to snuggle herself beside Uzi, head on her shoulder as she closed her eyes.

“Uhm what?” Uzi asked in astonishment, allowing the disassembler to move closer. “I feel like they made it pretty clear that they don’t want me , not to mention you??? ”

“Mmmmm,” V mock-considered, “too bad.”

“I- ughh , we’ll figure it out tomorrow.”

V murmured in agreement, wrapping her tail around Uzi, and pulling the little drone closer into embrace. It was as if Uzi’s tiredness had taken the form of a drone to lull her into rest, and it was working. Without worry or danger, falling asleep in the arms of her first, best, and practically only friend felt amazing.

So much about V, and being with her felt oddly right ; among other feelings like warm, cozy, special, and comforting. Being with her was transforming, like a cleansing shower of all hurt, loneliness, and sorrow. There were times where Uzi could have believed that V was sent by whatever deity just for her. Her perfect friend.

If it were up to her, they’d never be apart.

Do I… love her?

The thought shot into her mind like a meteor, causing destruction and chaos in its wake. With all the change and disorder meeting V had brought (not her fault, and Uzi would accept the consequences a thousand times over if that's what it took to have V in her life), she hadn’t stopped to consider the idea.

With her tired, delirious mind, wrapped in utmost comfort, she decided to give it the thought it deserved.

V had been her first friend, and she was just incredible. Incomparably kinder to her than anyone she’d ever met; including her own family . attentive, funny, loyal–there were all kinds of brilliant words Uzi could use to describe her.

But there was more to it than kindness– N was nice too, and she’d enjoyed meeting him, but there was just something so much different about V. She felt closer; like she really understood . It all felt more important, and she would never admit how much of her mind the disassembler took up.

When she flew and fought, dancing with wings and blades, she was jaw-droppingly graceful; truly like the angels she resembled. 

She loved being around V.

She loved talking to V.

She loved it when V held her.

She loved it when V snuggled with her.

She loved…

Oh.

Oh no.

Chapter Text

The clouds parted before V as she soared past them, the blue sky and bright sun shining down upon her. Her wings beat against the wind, twisting and turning to catch the breeze. In her arms below her, holding onto her tight, she held a cargo most precious–Uzi.

Looking down at her, the light highlighted her perfectly. She couldn’t help but stare in awe at this wondrous drone she had with her. The smile she got back was the most sacred gift she could even be given; healing her exhausted muscles, and soothing her troubled mind. 

The forests of green distantly below suddenly flowered a million vibrant petals, the wind sweeping them up through the air. The pair suddenly found themselves in the eye of a storm of pink; beauty and grace of a million vibrant colors swirling around them. It was the perfect moment, the flowers nearly managing to be as beautiful as the drone she shared the moment with.

“It’s beautiful,” V whispered in awe.

“Yes it is,” Uzi said back, though her eyes were not on the flowers, but on V. She caught her amber eyes as they overwhelmed each other, the connection and experience, all of it, wonderful.

“V…” Uzi sighed in amazement.

“V,” she said again, louder, and less gently.

“V!” She yelled, breaking the veil and…

V jumped awake, taking a defensive stance as she glanced around frantically.

What was- her thoughts were interrupted as Uzi, the real Uzi spoke up.

“ Finally , I’ve been trying to get you awake for ever ! N’s here, it’s time to go. Also, can you explain again this whole ‘going-to-the-bunker’ business because-”

The words faded into the background as V tried to process what in the world she had just dreamt.

Her ‘thinking’ must have spaced her out pretty hard, not helped by how quickly and recently she awoke, as she found herself spacing out, losing touch of reality in favor of her thoughts. She would only be grounded once more as Uzi tapped on her visor.

“V? Do you, uh, need a minute?”

“Yeah, here, you go ahead, I'll catch up in… a moment.” 

“Alright,” Uzi said, squinting suspiciously. “Well, me and N’ll be outside.”

V nodded as the purple-haired drone walked away, flexing her joints in a wind stretch, and yawning tiredly as she did, the plan for the day slowly coming back to her.

They were going to get into that bunker. Sneak in? Break in? She didn’t know, but it seemed simple enough. They couldn’t stay out here all vulnerable—J had proven that much the day prior, and whilst restraining her while she was damaged had been a fairly minute task back then, once their former squad leader recovered her strength, it would become anything but easy.

And V didn’t want to take that chance.

So the bunker it was. It wasn’t quite like the worker colony could exactly resist their relocation—Uzi had told her much of the so-called ‘Worker Defence Force’’s incompetence—and if they tried to resist Uzi’s re-entrance into the colony, well.

V would just have to have some ‘polite words’ with them.

With her plan properly reaffirmed, she flew through the window, down to where the other two were waiting.

* * *

V stared down at the area below them, scanning for any signs of life or structure. Flying just behind her was N, doing the same. As had become custom for all of their traveling, Uzi was in her arms, clinging on tightly as they flew through the howling wind.

The drone she held had told them this was the area, though it looked entirely inconspicuous from above. Either Uzi was wrong, or the bunker was better hidden from the air than she’d thought. Pushing aside her thoughts, V brought herself to words.

”Let’s check from the ground,” she yelled over the roaring wind to her former squadmate, though uncertain of how well N could have heard her. 

V unwrapped one of her arms from Uzi, who promptly held on tighter whilst V used her now free hand to signal to N to go downwards, which unlike her words, seemed to get the message across.

Soaring down, her thoughts drifted to how she’d been in a similar situation a few hours prior, though significantly, it was now more than a dream. The replay of her dream went through her head, the beauty, the moment, Uz–V cut her thoughts off abruptly, her visor brightening in a blush.

At that moment, she wished nothing more than to be able to yell at her mind to shut up, but all she could do was avert her gaze from the Uzi in her arms who she very much did not want seeing her visor at that moment. 

As they approached closer and closer to the ground, flying a mere few feet above it, she finally spotted the large bunker door out of the corner of her eye, concealed mostly by the white, powdery snow. She glanced behind her to see N following close behind, and nodded to him to land.

“Right, so how do we get in?” asked V as she landed herself and Uzi, her visor properly calmed down at that point.

“Uhhh, so you don't have a plan for that part?” her companion replied.

“My plan was to ask you.”

“Then why did you–nevermind.” Uzi cut herself off, rolling her eyes. “We should just be able to get in through the vent.”

“The what,” V and a just-landed N said in unison.

“Yeah there’s a vent just right there,” Uzi pointed out a still-open vent duct near the top-left corner of the door.

V burst out laughing.

“So this entire time , you have these doors to keep us out, but have a wide-open vent??? ” She choked out. “Idiots…”

“Hey! I literally told them about it, and they didn’t do anything!”

“Oh that's even funnier .”

“Hey, uh, guys? Can we laugh about how silly this all is later , when we’re preferably inside ?” N called from behind them.

“Oh, yeah, sure.” V replied, looking back to the vent. She turned and met Uzi’s eyes.

“Ready?” She asked.

“Ready,” Uzi replied with a smile.

* * *

It felt so nostalgic, crawling through these vents again. Like everything had just been some sort of dream–an idea she was quite opposed to. To have her new friends, her savings, meeting V, all reduced to nothing but a memory.

…

That was more of a nightmare.

Uzi led the three of them through the catacombs of steel, becoming the de-facto guide both due to her being the only one familiar with the path, and out of her fear of accidentally being stabbed by a nanite acid tail. To say that the large drones behind her were a bit flail-y as they clamored through the undersized tunnels was a bit of an understatement. The constant clanging as they hit various parts of their frames on all sorts of metallic parts in the system was a hamper to their stealth, but it would have to do.

Shimmy-by-shimmy, they moved towards what she knew was the largest room this close to the doors. It was a sort of main area, filled with storage and pathways to other parts of the colony. It was also a room they would need to cross by walking, as it divided the vent system they were currently passing through from the vents leading to the residential area.

The inevitable confrontation was weighing on her; they couldn’t just sneak around forever, as much awkwardness as it would avoid. A very annoying conversation had to be had. She could only imagine the look on her dad’s face when he would see not only his presumably-dead daughter back in the colony, but multiple murder drones accompanying her.

The thought brought a laugh to the back of her throat, but she didn’t let it out.

However angry his reaction, V was right–he couldn’t exactly do anything. In terms of the colony, her new friends made her basically invincible . Any kind of banishment, punishment, or bullying was an impossible feat with her murderous bodyguards around, unless someone wanted to lose a limb or two. 

…

It was pretty awesome to have some freaky-strong robo-vampire muscle behind her.

…

And friends.

She finally arrived at the end of the small metal tunnel, getting to the vent grate quite a ways ahead of her worse-in-tight-spaces company. Before her lay the room they would need to get across without cover. 

With only a little jostling, she managed to pull the cover free, and promptly threw it to the ground below, the clanking sound it made from colliding with the floor echoing throughout the area. Uzi lept down the roughly 4-foot drop, and landed beside the discarded cover.

Just as she was about to turn back up, and face where her friends would appear, a dreaded voice assaulted her ears, making known the presence of the last person she wanted to see.

“Uzi?” Khan sat bewildered behind her, positioned perfectly wrongly, between her, and where she wanted to go.

So much for stealth.

Gathered around him was a group of various drones from around the colony–probably participants in one of the ‘door tours’ of his, either willingly or unwillingly. She immediately recognized a few faces, those of her old classmates, though most faded into the background.

“You’re… back?” He continued, disbelief and bewilderment emanating from his tone.

“I’m back,” she snarled. If he thought she had come for any sort of forgiveness, or to give any out, he would be surely mistaken. The familiar mood in the air felt tense as the father and daughter engaged in a staring competition, one daring the other to blink, and the other seeming unable to.

“Ughh, why is that loser back?” An annoying, sarcastic voice laughed from the crowd, which parted to reveal the source: Lizzy. The students of the crowd joined the popular girl in mocking laughter, the target, as always, her.

Every noise instantly felt like it grew louder and more piercing, like a claw to her mind. Not again… her mind taunted her, why did we come here? Why did I think it would be any different?

Her tired eyes met her dad’s. His expression was serious and made up, identical to how he looked when…

when he banished her.

Is he just going to try to do it all over again?

Is that how this goes? The same thing all over again?

A thousand, overwhelming thoughts overtook her mind all at once, too much, it was too much, all alone, the outcast again.

Until her angel swept down.

Landing in front of her, wings wide in their glittering beauty, the light casted her shadow down onto Uzi, resulting in an image she could only describe as majestic .

Her savior.

The entire room went silent in a frozen moment, Uzi too dazzled by the sight before her, and the group of bunker-dwellers too terrified from coming face-to-face with one of the creatures they had spent their lives hiding from.

N silently landed behind her, her father shot her a look of betrayal, but all of it was tuned out as her gaze ceased to falter from its state of pure admiration.

V would be the one to break the silence, as no one else in the room dared, hissing as she retracted her claws back into hands, and took a step backward, offering a hand to help the startled Uzi stand up. Every worker other than herself flinched back at the dissasembler’s movement, finally breaking their fast of words with a few shrieks, and a few thumps of people falling over, passed out.

“You led a murder drone here? ” Khan finally whispered, though his voice turned into a shriek towards the end. In his tone were the sounds of disbelief, anger, and guilt, all wrapped together in a messy package.

“Don’t be dramatic, Khan ,” V answered for Uzi, with warranted sly snarkiness. “I’m not here to kill anyone, unfortunately .” 

Khan appeared to just about choke on his own tongue as she said his name aloud, prompting V to continue.

“We are just here to seek refuge.”

Uzi’s (former) father tried his best to collect himself, taking a step forward as he responded.

“R-refuge?”

”From their former boss,” Uzi added, finally inserting herself back into the conversation.

”Huh,” Khan grunted suspiciously, putting on a mask of some kind of invisible confidence. “Well I don’t think-“

”I don't think what you think matters, old man .” V cut him off as with terrifying speed, she closed the distance from Uzi’s side, to right in front of him, holding a claw a terrifying few inches away from his visor. Every ounce of confidence or bravery that he claimed or appeared to have melted away in a nanosecond as it fell beneath the glare of V’s blade.

”I think we will be staying here, and you will be keeping your face. Sound good?”

He only nodded weakly, slowly backing up in defeat and terror.

“Wonderful,” she finally released, backing up, having seemed to savor every second of the man’s terror and desperation. Not to say that Uzi herself didn’t enjoy her pathetic excuse of a father being turned into a shaking mess.

With opposition to their presence thoroughly taken care of, they could officially ‘move in’, which for the present day, meant going to Uzi’s room. A better, more permanent solution could be figured out later, but preferably with less witnesses, and in less stressful and chaotic circumstances.

V gestured back for her and N to follow, the disassembler leading the way past the still-watching crowd towards the main hallway. While the vents were more discrete, secrecy of their presence was a lost cause, and a less-than-graceful experience earlier had taught her well enough that they weren’t exactly designed with disassembly drones crawling through them in mind.

From her side, V bumped her shoulder with her own, giving a smile as they walked. Uzi reciprocated the smile, and went to try to offer a fist bump.

Though as she reached her hand out, V caught it a little too quickly, and out of misunderstanding, or her own volition, they were now holding hands, in blatant, anxious view of every person in the room.

Faintly, from the now-loudly conversing crowd, Uzi could hear Lizzy’s annoyingly recognizable voice gasp, and in a true victory for the underdog, muttered “of course the weirdo freak gets the hot vampire girlfriend!”

Uzi held onto V’s hand tighter.

Chapter Text

The walk back would prove to be anticlimactic, if the colony could have even tried any kind of attack against them, they must have chosen not to. Aside from the occasional scream, question, or fainting, it could have been confused with a casual stroll. By the time they arrived, Uzi couldn’t help but feel incredible . Not only did her dad get shown up in the best way possible, but now most of the colony knew that she had the murder drones on her side!

“This is the place,” she said, opening the door, the grey mechanism sliding out of the way, serving as the only difference from the rest.

“Ehhhh,” V winced as she peered inside. “Looks sad.”

“Ye-p,” 

“It just has some… history!” N offered more optimistically, 

“Whatever, just follow me.”

The air around them immediately felt more claustrophobic as they stepped inside, it would seem that of the things that would never change, her father’s housekeeping skills were among them. She didn’t know if he’d ever tried to make an effort to take up the slack after the duty became… vacant , but the dusty and cluttered surfaces spoke for themselves.

Uzi approached her door, clicking in the access code before it swung open, revealing the safehaven of purple and black she called a room.

“Why am I not surprised,” V’s voice called teasingly as she entered the room.

Uzi let out a breath of relief as she plopped herself down on her bed. Her nerves and stress gradually melted away, giving rise to unfiltered joy.

“I can’t believe all that just happened, that was amazing!”

V chuckled as she sat down beside her. “Could’ve been better.”

“I mean the look on his face when you threatened him!”

“Oh, yep, that part was pretty great.”

“And then your entrance! I just-”

“What, when your hot vampire girlfriend swept in to rescue you?”

Just as Uzi opened her mouth to speak, she instantly shut it as V’s words hit her.

“What?”

V looked at her with a confused expression. “Is that not what… you meant?”

“When did I mean what?” Uzi’s confusion grew by the second.

“When the one person said that, and then you squeezed my hand and I thought…” V’s expression fell as she turned away. “Nevermind.”

Uzi’s mind was racing faster than she knew it could. That hadn’t been what it meant… or at least, what she was trying to mean, though… it wasn’t exactly incorrect .”

“No I-” Uzi reached back towards the turned-away V. “I… didn’t not mean that?”

V turned back to her, looking at her with an amused smile, “You lost me.”

“I just…” she tried to find her words, though deciding upon what to say proved to be a task too daunting for one emotionally-confused emo girl. “Ughhh, I dunno!”

“Here, I'll make this easy,” V quipped, though without her usual confident flare. “Do you love me?”

“How is that supposed to be easier!” Uzi demanded before quietly whispering a faint, “yes.”

“Well there you have it,” V said smugly, looking proud of herself. “I love you too.”

Uzi blinked, for a moment believing that her audio processors were lying to her. “What?”

V unhelpfully shrugged, fidgeting her hands in a manner that seemed anxious.

Uzi looked away, her core thumping hard, a blush overtook her face as she finally concluded that she had indeed heard it right. V had said she… loved her?

“Does… what does that mean?” Uzi asked nervously, still not able to meet V’s eyes.

There was an excruciating few seconds of silence before V finally responded. “What… do you want it to mean?”

Turning back to V, she found the disassembler having a seemingly similarly difficult time maintaining eye contact. “I- maybe we could be girlfriends?” Uzi offered. V’s eyes finally snapped to meet hers. “Only if you want to though,” she added quickly, still scared of rejection.

“Yeah, I want to. I’d love to be girlfriends,” V reassured, a smile on her face.

Uzi didn’t know how to respond, this was all so new . It wasn’t like she’d exactly dated anyone before, not even almost . All that came out in the end was a quiet, happy “yay.”

V scooted a little closer to Uzi, putting her hand on the worker drone’s. Uzi watched V’s eyes, nervous but not scared. They were soft, but in a different way than she’d seen before. They weren’t soft with sadness, with pain finally released, or with relief that Uzi was okay. It was a softness of security. Like V finally felt safe after so long. Her eyes kept flickering down to Uzi’s lips and back up to her eyes.

Before she knew what she was doing, Uzi was leaning in, placing her hand on V’s thigh. Their lips met and Uzi closed her eyes. She got briefly worried that V maybe didn’t want to kiss her, but then she felt the disassembly put her hand on the back of Uzi’s neck and kiss her back.

Her lips tasted like oil, a dangerous taste; one that signalled her girlfriend’s (oh robo-god, they were girlfriends ) predatory nature. Maybe it should have scared her, but she also tasted like belonging, someone who would finally care about her. The kiss was only brief, Uzi pulling away after only a few seconds, but it felt special.

A small smile was on V’s face, and it almost made Uzi happier than the kiss itself. Lizzy had called V hot, and while that was an apt descriptor, Uzi had a better one. Beautiful. V was beautiful . Her very own angel of death. One that would be with her even if no one else was.

The two were suddenly ripped out of the moment by the sound of N clapping. Crap I forgot he was here Uzi thought as she turned to face him. He had the most just purely happy smile on his face.

“Yay! Congrats! I knew you guys could do it!” He congratulated, stepping forward and wrapping the two in a big hug.

Uzi froze, caught completely off guard. V seemed similarly surprised, but then she chuckled slightly and returned the hug, wrapping one arm around N and the other around Uzi. Rolling her eyes, the purple drone also hugged them back, leaning a bit more towards V but wrapping her arms around the both of them.

It felt strange to be in a group hug. Strange, but nice. This felt like the beginning of a whole new life. One better than she’d ever deemed possible. She could be free, happy, loved . She had somewhere she belonged, they all did. 

No longer burdened by solitude, no longer with the will to forget, she finally had a life to look forward to.