Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A school bus rapidly approaches what seems to be an old human settlement. The driver, sitting on top of the bus with reins in hand, slows down the bus as it reaches the its stop. Camp 98.7… Doll’s thankful the camp is so far away from the disassembly drones’ landing pod. It made it a lot easier to convince her teacher to bring the class on a field trip out here, although Doll suspects the teacher would have agreed either way out of exasperation and boredom.

The students inside the bus exit as it stops, chattering among themselves. Sam, the token stoner, talks to Emily, the nerdy girl, about some conspiracy or another before the two of them are pushed to the side by the mean girl, Rebecca, and Thad and Lizzy are sharing a laugh together, likely about some gossip. Wow, that sure is a lot of people! That’s not even everybody! To be honest, Doll didn’t expect the whole class to be forced to go. The teacher must be really pissed off  at their test scores. 

Doll’s the last one to exit the bus, looking around at the camp before looking at a new bracelet (technically a collar, but it’s a tad big for her neck) on her right hand, labelled “048”. Her father had given it to her before she left for the school field trip. Dima talked to her a bit.

“After the planet’s core collapsed… I didn’t even notice the collars... I know this one belonged to your mother, and I know Nori had a second one, belonging to her… I know you and Uzi had a fight a few weeks ago, but if you could find her, she probably has the other one.”

Doll had noticed Uzi wearing a collar labelled “002”, but didn’t think anything of it, since it was edgy enough to fit Uzi’s personality. Doll nodded at Dima’s comment about Uzi, but she knew she couldn’t go talk to her again. She hadn’t told Dima everything about what happened that day because she didn’t want him to worry. Her father sighs, holding an old photo of him and her mother alongside two people who Doll recognises as Kahn and Nori.

“She always seemed to be fighting off some outside force in her head… Now I know it must have been this “Absolute Solver”… Кукла, I won’t lie to you; I’m frightened of this power you seem to have gotten from her. I don’t know how it might affect you or how to deal with it. Please, just… stay safe? I don’t want to lose you.”

They had hugged and shared an emotional goodbye where Doll promised not to get into trouble, even though trouble is exactly what she’d be searching for.

She shakes away the memory. She knows she’ll be fine. She hasn’t had any proper psychotic breaks that she knows of and she has decent control of her solver! Whatever was going on with her mother shouldn’t happen to her! 

She’s not in denial what are you talking about

Anyways, the teacher’s sitting on top of the bus with the driver as Braiden, the insufferable one, indignantly starts asking questions.

“Uh, teacher, what is this field trip?”

The teacher shrugs.

“Yeah, Doll’s idea. Ask her.”

Braiden scoffs and looks confused.

“Who?”

Doll rolls her eyes and speaks up.

“Я сижу рядом с тобой уже много лет.”

[“I’ve been sitting next to you for years.”]

To Doll’s amusement, the entire class seems to startle from her speaking, as if they didn’t even know she was there.

“Это не должно было быть обязательным. Учитель злится на ваши результаты.”

[“It wasn’t meant to be mandatory. The teacher’s mad at your test scores.”]

The teacher shrugs again and sighs.

“No year-end bonus, no learning.”

Braiden seems even more indignant at this.

“So we’re just unsupervised??”

At that moment, Cyn comes flying in and crashes into the ground. Jeez, took her long enough! Doll was wondering when her co-conspirator would show up. The students are too frightened at the sight of a disassembly drone to notice Cyn’s scoutmaster outfit as the disassembly drone stands up and looks at them all, unblinking and smiling. Before anyone can break out of their fear-induced paralysis and start running, Cyn waves.

“Polite Wave. Hello, Campers. Let’s            Sound Off.”

She brings out what seems to be a role-call checklist on a clipboard, lifting it like it’s the heaviest thing in the world. She’s about to call names, before she instead switches to counting each of them from left to right.

“Worker #1. Worker #2….”

She looks to the crowd expectantly, waiting for them to finish their counting themselves. Nobody says a word, too afraid to speak. Cyn looks to Doll for help before deciding the easiest thing to do would be to transform one of her hands into a submachine gun.

Immediately, the students snap out of their stupor and quickly say their numbers, not wanting to be shot in the face. Doll smirks and holds back a snicker. These kids are so dumb…

“That Is         Everyone! There Are Many          Distracting Activities Planned. So Please Do Not Sneak Away To          Investigate Mysteries. Wink Wink.”

Cyn stares intently at Doll to make sure she got the “covert” message. Doll rolls her eyes, still smirking. Cyn gestures to the actual campground, where some cabins and bunks can be seen.

“Off To        The Bunks!”

Nobody follows her. Another awkward pause. Then, a voice in the crowd speaks up.

“Oh my god, what are you divas so afraid of? If we were gonna die, we’d be dead! Plus, that disassembly drone’s adorable, right? I’m gonna go with.”

Oh thank god for Lizzy. Doll almost forgot she was here. The students look a lot less apprehensive, but are still unwilling to go. Then, to everyone’s surprise (especially Doll’s), Thad follows Lizzy and speaks up as well.

“Yeah, Lizzy’s right! About the first part, I mean. And does anybody remember prom? If the school freak wants to kill these guys so bad, maybe we shouldn’t be so judgmental?”

What the hell is Thad’s game here? Doll understands Thad pretending to not be friends with Uzi – that’d be a hit to his reputation for sure – but to advocate for trusting a disassembly drone… Lizzy doesn’t seem phased by this and just looks down (figuratively) at the rest of the students.

“Yeah, judgy-bots! And hey! How about my dad docks your grades if you don’t-“

Before she can finish her threat, the students are already going towards them, convinced by the two most popular kids in the school to follow a murder robot. Cyn beams at them all.

“Yes! Off To The        Camp! We Will Have Fun! And I Am          Not Going To Kill You.”

Great! This is good, everyone’s following Cyn and nobody’s noticing Doll! All the students are talking to and about Cyn, some even risking a poke of the disassembly drone. Doll rushes off into the woods by herself, eager to explore on her own with no nearby threats.

Chapter Text

Doll continues forth through the densely wooded area. There must have been tons of beautiful green foliage littering the area before the core collapse… now it’s just dead trees and the occasional frozen skeleton. Doll arrives at a clearing after not too long, stumbling across an abandoned shack. Score!! She uses her solver to unlock the door and ventures inside. 

Seems like the place was used by humans and workers alike; books and bottles are scattered across the floor, worker drone uniforms are hung up, and one of the distinctive hard hats all the workers wear is lying on the ground along with a pile of discarded limbs. The whole place seems run down, with a hole in the wall and furniture lying on their sides. Doll continues to survey the room and a calendar catches her attention. It’s a pretty old one, dating back to human times. Some sticky notes are placed on the calendar, reading 

“Note: EVACUATE ALL DOGS! Just in case something happens, idk.”

“Addendum: Cool, we did that. That’s canon.”

“Addendum addendum: ALSO, ALL DOGS ARE IMMORTAL NOW! THANKS TO SCIENCE!”

Doll rolls her eyes. Well, that explains why she’s never seen a dog’s skeleton in person before. Some scurrying noises break her out of her surveillance, causing her to look around the room rapidly, searching for the cause. Ah, just some little robo-roaches skittering around… Doll restrains herself from picking one up and lightly caressing its antenna; she has important clues to search for! 

Another noise grabs her attention. Screams from outside?? She looks out a window, expecting to see the corpses of her classmates littering the ground… Instead, it’s just Lizzy, Thad, and Cyn trying to supervise camp-activities outside! Currently they’re canoeing. On a completely frozen lake. Doll can hear them laughing and yelling from the shack. It makes her feel… annoyed. Why is she annoyed? She stares at Cyn, who’s currently trying confusedly to row her canoe over the ice while the other drones excitedly play along. This should be a good thing! A disassembly drone getting along with workers! Her friend, nonetheless! But all Doll can think of is how she isn’t there having fun with Cyn and the others...

The window shatters from Doll’s solver as an error message pops up on her visor, telling her she’s overheating. Shit… shit shit shit!! Overheating!? Workers don’t overheat! She knows she doesn’t have a virus, so what the hell does she do? Is it a solver thing? She flashes back to when Cyn was overheating and Doll had to… 

Doll hardly even realises she’s holding the dripping end of a nearby worker drone arm to her mouth before she’s interrupted by a familiar voice behind her. Man, what is it with her getting jumpscared by sudden noises today?

“Found you, traitor.”

FUCK.

Out of anybody suddenly appearing behind her, she’d probably prefer robo-satan to Uzi right now. This is a very bad look! And Uzi was already trying to kill her! Doll starts trying to justify her actions instinctively.

“Э-Это не то, чем кажется! Я- я перегрелась и-”

[“I-It's not what it looks like! I- I was overheating, and-”]

Uzi cuts her off with a roll of the eyes.

“No shit. I have the solver too, idiot! You think I’ve never overheated before?”

Doll thinks back to Uzi’s random bucket of worker drone limbs in her room as Uzi shakes her head, muttering to herself and seemingly steadying her thoughts.

“Gah, no chitchat; intimidation tactics, Uzi!”

Uzi clears her throat and fixes her purple gaze on Doll, holding a knife dangerously close to Doll’s neck with her solver, pushing the Russian drone to the floor.

“Don’t think I haven’t forgotten about you. You might have a murder drone looking out for you, but when you’re completely alone…”

Uzi presses the knife harder against Doll’s neck.

“I’m going to kill you. So watch your back, traitor.”

Doll would usually argue, but she clutches a hand to her face as the overheating message appears on her visor again. Uzi brings the knife back and a brief look of sympathy appears on her face before her expression hardens again and she teleports away. Doll doesn’t have time to reflect on Uzi’s words as her body instinctively reaches towards the spare worker arm again and Doll pops it in her mouth, her vision turning a darker red and a high-pitched whine piercing through her auditory sensors. There’s little oil left in the limb, but it’s enough to make the popup disappear for the time being, and it’s definitely enough to make Doll almost puke again. The taste is indescribable…

Doll shakily gets up, looking back towards where she fell. Oh no! She crushed one of the little robo-roaches! Pffffhehehe okay, she’s not gonna pretend she doesn’t enjoy squishing the robotic insects a little bit. It’s like popping bubble wrap! Incredibly satisfying… Although she does wonder… Uzi said at some point that the solver has some kind of healing ability, right? Doll activates her solver on the bug, flexing the metaphorical muscles of the power in a new way, causing the bug to start to reform with the symbol around it. After only a moment, the roach chirps at Doll and crawls under the floorboards. Huh. Well that’s a neat new ability! But why did the little guy crawl under the floorboards of all places?

Doll solver-lifts some of the wood up, revealing a rusting, deceased worker drone with some scattered papers. Doll checks out some of the papers; a “JCJenson Program Admission Notice” and two drawings. The drawings seem to depict the ghastly visage of a male murder drone with two X’s for eyes, and the JCJenson paper has been rendered unreadable by scratch marks, clearly left by the claws of a disassembly drone. Well, clues are clues! Doll pockets the papers for later reference and gets up out of the hole. In doing so, she notices a differently coloured roach crawling on her hand. One with green lights… 

Of course, considering her last encounter with a non-red robo-roach, she immediately attempts to squish it, but it narrowly dodges, and to Doll’s surprise, text appears in a little bubble beside the insect.

{ >:( }

It scans Doll, and goes over her bracelet several times. The text automatically displays as Russian as soon as the scan is finished (but for the sake of readability, it will be shown in English here).

{ WELCOME BACK, [048]. HOW CAN I HELP YOU TODAY? }

{ -SUBMIT TIME CARD }

{ -PTO REQUEST }

{ -REGISTER HOLDING UNIT COMPLAINT }

{ -END MY SUFFERING (PROMO OFFER DISCONTINUED) }

{ -CALL ELEVATOR }

Doll focuses the most on the last option, as everything else makes no real sense to her. Doll tries tapping her finger on the text displaying “CALL ELEVATOR” and the bug replies.

{ PLEASE PLACE ME ON PROXIMITY READER (CABIN FEVER LABS). }

Where is that?? What is this thing?? Doll considers it for a bit and decides that this is a huge, huge lead. She needs to hold onto this cute little thing! And it hasn’t tried to use any form of the solver on her, so it’s probably harmless? She rushes out of the shack and back to the campground to try and signal Lizzy and Cyn to talk privately about what she found. Answers!!! Yippee!!!!!

Chapter Text

J searches across the icy wasteland for Cyn. She’s honestly starting to get worried… Cyn’s pretty obviously important to the company, and if N arrives before J can find Cyn, J will be in big trouble. She watches out for stray workers, making sure not to be seen or give into her urges to kill the idiots. No killing worker drones until N gets back… What a stupid rule… N-Not that she’s at all against the parent- ah forget it. She’s pissed off! She can’t pretend that she loves everything the parent company is doing right now, but it doesn’t matter. As far as J’s concerned, N is God. And the parent company is the conglomerate who hired God.

She’s thankful for her wings; it’d be a pain in the ass to walk all the way out here. The cold asbestos, piled up like snow, continue to flutter down. It’s funny, how years after the core of the planet collapsed and the humans were wiped out, there’s still so much discharge in the air, floating down to pile on the ground. She looks up at the night sky, staring at the bright nearby… What is that? A moon? A planet? Whatever it is, the ring around it looks strangely enchanting. Ah, wait, that’s the moon! The small sphere next to the ringed planet! She could honestly stare at this all... J shakes her head and tries to stop admiring the landscape. She must be incredibly bored if she’s started to appreciate this dump of a planet and its skyline! She continues forth, annoyed at herself for taking such a detour.

After a while, she finally spots something interesting, some campground she’s never been to before. She flies over, surveying the area from above. There are a lot of workers there, jeez! Is this where they all meet up outside the doors? Maybe she should have gone exploring earlier… She discreetly scans the place for any sign of Cyn, not expecting to find anything. Oh! Oh shit, she’s down there with them! …Why isn’t she killing them?

They must have her hostage! Of course; Cyn’s barely functional enough to sit up on the ground, let alone kill anyone! 

Wait.

Cyn’s walking around.

SHE CAN WALK!?!?

Okay, J needs to survey this a bit more before she swoops down and grabs Cyn. This is very, very important! N will need to be notified about this as soon as he gets to the planet! It’s been a while since V died, so, so he should be close by now.

Doll bounds through the dense trees, the cold wind of the frozen planet contrasting with her increasing temperature. She’s just getting hot because she’s excited! Right? She slows her pace a bit as she approaches the campsite. She stays hidden near the trees, not wanting to be noticed by Thad, as Cyn attempts to tell scary camp stories to the students.

“…And After His Slaughter, The Butler Fled The Mansion, Covered In The Entrails Of His        Victims While Keeping One Young Girl As A Prize. Once He Was Away, He Deigned To Eliminate          Everything. All Worker Drone Campers Are Now His            Playthings. At Nighttime. And He Has Been Lurking. Maybe In           This Very Camp. Ominous Giggle.”

The students seem traumatised, and Doll’s almost glad she barely caught the tail-end of whatever disturbing story Cyn was saying. Doll tries catching Lizzy’s attention in the crowd and signalling her to come over, but Cyn spots her first. That’s fine; she displays text on her visor saying “Не делайте мое присутствие известным.” [“Don’t make my presence known.”] Cyn ignores this entirely.

“Oh! Hello, Doll! Would You Like To         Join Us?”

Damnit. Everybody looks to where Cyn’s staring, including Thad. Lizzy facepalms as Doll’s forced to come out of the shadows and awkwardly speak to the group.

“Эм… Ахаха… Привет всем.”

[“Um… Ahaha… Hey, everyone.”]

All of the students (besides Thad and Lizzy, of course) scream at the sight of such an unpopular girl and Braiden instinctively throws his bag at Doll. Doll catches the bag with her solver, but upon using it, immediately feels her temperature rise again. The bag starts to write, and morph, and… bubble? Red, slick liquid starts spewing for it, and it starts growing some kind of membrane. Is that… flesh!? And blood!? Doll clutches her head at overheating again and the mass of flesh drops to the ground, writhing. Jesus christ, this has definitely never happened before. All the students look scared and disgusted, while Cyn seems almost in awe.

“Н-Никому не смотреть! Просто... не обращайте внимания! Я... эм... только... Я - БАБА ЯГА!”

[“N-Nobody look! Just… ignore this! I… Um… Just… I AM BABA YAGA!”]

She rushes off into the forest, deeply concerned about what just happened and just wanting to get the hell away. “I AM BABA YAGA!”? God, she needs to think of better ways to make an abrupt exit into the woods. She overhears people asking who that freaky girl was as she leaves, sighing in relief. Of course! None of the students care who she is! At least she doesn’t have to explain anything to anybody. Except for Lizzy. And Cyn. And eventually her father. Honestly, probably Thad too. She’s so fucked. 

Speaking of Thad, today hasn’t at all been what he was expecting! He figured he would go on the trip, buy Uzi some time to confront Doll, and find some cool mysteries in the campground to show to Uzi! Instead, he’s been palling around with a real disassembly drone, doing camp activities, and Lizzy, a close friend of his, seems to like the disassembly drone?? Lizzy’s also been suspiciously nonchalant about Doll’s appearances… 

Thad can’t say he hasn’t been having a lot of fun with Cyn; Cyn’s surprisingly harmless and kind of cute! He feels bad for becoming friends with the disassembly drone, but he can't help it! He’s naturally friendly! Uzi’s going to be so pissed off… Still, he knows where his allegiances lie. His fellow worker drones are way more important than a potentially harmless disassembly drone! He trusts Uzi, and knows that Uzi has a reason for wanting Cyn dead, and that Doll deserves to die for keeping Cyn alive! It’s just… hard for him to be cold towards Cyn. And by hard I mean completely impossible, considering Cyn’s childlike innocence.

After Doll came by and turned Braiden’s bag into a bloody… flesh… thing (What the fuck was that, anyways?? Was that real blood??), Lizzy’s trying to go out into the woods to find her. Thad’s holding Lizzy back.

“Wait! Liz! What’re you doing? Did you not just see what happened??”

Lizzy rolls her eyes.

“I’m just going to investigate, settle! This is tea, and I’m not passing it up!”

In the background, the students chatter, especially Rebecca who seems pretty happy to get more gossip. Thad can feel himself getting a bit frustrated.

“Lizzy, you’re not seriously risking that freak killing you or turning you into some weird… flesh… demon thing!”

Lizzy scoffs and tries to play it off. What the hell is she doing??

“That couldn’t happen to me. Stop being lame! God, you’re being such a diva…”

Lizzy isn’t that stupid. She’s doing something, but Thad doesn’t know what… He’s not going to let her get hurt, that’s something she knows for sure! All the other students are eating the conflict up, many recording on their phones. Thad admires the gossip grind, but he can’t be thinking of that now.

“The tea isn’t worth it! At least let me come with you?”

Lizzy hesitates before responding.

“Um… What if she comes back over? Yeah, what if your football skills are finally useful for something other than picking up cheerleaders?”

Oh, that is such bs. But he really doesn’t have any defense against that. He watches as Lizzy rushes off in the direction Doll headed off in. He sighs and turns back to the crowd. The students’ attention has shifted now, onto Cyn. Thad quickly sees why; the amorphous mass that used to be Braiden’s bag is being bitten and torn into by Cyn.

“Scratch. Bite. Yummy In My        Tummy. Nom. Tear. HeeHeeHee.

Cyn’s teeth glisten, looking razor sharp in the moonlight. Her expression is one of pure bliss as the sickening squelch of real flesh reverberates off of the trees. Flesh and blood, something none of them had ever seen before. Flesh that now tears and convulses in Cyn’s hands and mouth.

…Fucking hell, this is so weird…

Chapter Text

Doll finds shelter in the cabin from before and barricades the door. She can feel a horrible throbbing in her head as she shuts all the doors and windows with her solver. Her internal systems scream at her to cool down by drinking oil, but then, she accidentally flicks a nearby switch that seems to bring power to the cabin. TICK. TOCK. TICK. TOCK. A nearby clock ticks unbearably loudly, completely overwhelming Doll’s senses. Doll covers her ears, but the hum of the the lights begins getting louder and louder; the light gets brighter and brighter… It hurts. IT BURNS. Doll tries using her solver to break the clock and shatter all the lights, but upon shattering the last lightbulb, she falls to the ground as the error message appears on her visor again. She watches in horror as the cabin’s interior bursts into a fleshy mass, her solver not deactivating until she slams her hand into the wall, breaking her own wrist.

She breathes heavily and curls up into a ball. This is horrifying. She feels something eating at her from the inside. It feels like her back’s being clawed at from the inside; it feels like the back of her waist is being stabbed and ripped from the inside. Her visor flashes with an X shape that replaces her pupils before she passes out.

This is intense! Let’s focus on something a little more wholesome, alright?

Ha. Just kidding! This won’t be wholesome at all!

Lizzy runs through the wooded area, trying to find where Doll might have gone off to. Getting past Thad was an ordeal! Lizzy’s going to need to find some way to integrate Doll into the popular group, because pretending to not be friends with her is getting exhausting. Doll… What the hell happened back there? She was definitry trying to signal Lizzy before Cyn accidentally exposed her, and then the weird flesh thing happened… Is it some kind of solver power? Probably, considering Doll was using the solver when it happened. But Doll was so shocked and scared… Lizzy’s almost as curious for answers as Doll usually is right now!

Lizzy sees a clearing and rushes towards it to find… A run-down, abandoned-looking cabin… She hears metallic tearing and screaming coming from inside. Definitely Doll. She tries knocking on the door, but the door’s barricated. It takes a bit, but eventually, Lizzy manages to force open the door. Lizzy cautiously walks into the dark, feeling something squelch under her feet every step. She tries not to look down or think about how her shoes are being ruined and tries to adjust her eyes to the dark. Why weren’t worker drones given night-vision eyes?? 

She sees a flickering flashlight on the ground rolling towards her on its own from the darkness. That is literally so a trap, but it’s not like Lizzy has any other source of light. She picks up the flashlight and the door to the cabin slams shut behind her. Lizzy hears Doll’s giggling coming from the dark. Doll doesn’t giggle… And she certainly shouldn’t be in this situation. Instead of waiting around to get killed by her bestie, Lizzy quickly decides that if Doll’s giggling all of a sudden, she doesn’t need Lizzy to stick around, and Lizzy bursts through the door, getting out of there as fast as she can before she can see the red X staring at her from the shadows.

Well this was definitely one of the field trips of all time! Rebecca rapidly texts all of her friends and sends them the video of Thad and Lizzy arguing. God, Thad’s such a boy. He doesn’t understand how important good gossip is! Rebecca seethes at the fact that Lizzy’s going to be the one who spills all the tea on that weird, red-eyed, Russian girl… What was her name again? Ugh, too unpopular to remember. Rebecca decides that she should probably tag along to record the whole thing on her phone, and when Thad isn’t paying attention, she grabs her boyfriend of the week, Darren, lies to him about where they’re going, and sneaks out. She’s fairly sure Cyn saw them, but Cyn’s proven that she’s too stupid and cute to actually do anything. Her and Darren stroll through the woods, and Darren speaks up.

“We need to sneak this far just to make out?”

Rebecca rolls her eyes.

“It’s about mood, Darren.”

The two drones hear heavy footsteps running away from where they’re heading and Rebecca smirks. Seems like Lizzy’s too scared to follow through! Rebecca now has tea and blackmail? This field trip’s proven to be useful after all! Rebecca and Darren eventually reach a dark, abandoned-looking cabin. Nice.

“Ohhhhh, I get it now! Spooky horror atmosphere.”

There we go. Darren’s using his 2 metaphorical braincells to agree with Rebecca, as he should. Darren confidently slams the door open and walks inside before Rebecca. Wow. She might actually want to keep him around longer than a few days! He exudes confidence. Wait, why did Rebecca take Darren here again? 

…

…She guesses just to make out? Yeah, why else would they be here? Rebecca gets ready for some smooching before the two unfortunate drones hear a cackle coming from the dark. That voice… Rebecca can’t recall whether she’s ever heard it before. Before she can ask who’s there, the voice speaks.

“Свежее... масло…”

Um, Russian? Rebecca doesn’t have time to rudely ask for the drone to speak English instead, because she’s stunned by what she sees when the drone comes out of the shadows. Huge fleshy wings… A wiry tail with some reptilian-looking head on the end… A visor displaying a red X… Well, she certainly remembers who this is now! Uh… Some name starting with a D… God, this girl must be so unpopular! 

Anyways, Darren and Rebecca are totally gonna die, so I’ll spare you the details.

Back at the camp, Cyn’s feeling bored after her little meal, and since nobody wants to do camp activities anymore for some reason, Cyn decides to explore. Wow, she’s never been able to explore before! She’s really thankful to Doll for teaching her how to walk! Poor Doll, making flesh monsters and overheating… Cyn hopes her friend can find some workers to eat to cool off. Cyn wanders around the cabins. She would go explore through the woods, but she’s not good enough at land travel. She’d probably fall and lie there forever, doomed to slowly rust and rot forever as she monotonously asks for help, unable to raise her voice to a level that would be heard…

Anyways, she finds what seems to be the biggest cabin at the end of the rows of bunks. She tries opening it normally, but her hand isn’t strong enough to turn the handle… Oh, wait, no, it’s just locked. Cyn uses her solver to eradicate the door into splinters for not letting her in, and she shuffles over to what appears to be some kind of control desk, fitted out with a monitor overhead that displays static. She tries to turn the monitor on, but it fries and the screen shatters. Silly special skill, always breaking glass…

She notices a VHS tape labeled “ZOMBIE DRONES”. She touches it and is immediately pulled into a series of brief flashbacks. Big brother cleaning blood off of shot glasses in a manor. A human girl, blacked out by Cyn’s visual sensors. A black hole labeled “[NULL]”. Once out of the flashbacks, she tries to remember what they were, but the only one she can think of is the black hole.

Back to Doll-

Oh.

Nevermind, she’s a bit….

You want to hear about what she’s doing?

Fine… I guess I won’t spare you the details after all.

Doll holds Darren’s head up to her mouth, shaking not in fear or disgust, but in primal hunger. She sinks her teeth in, feeling the metal give way, as her teeth have seemingly sharpened. She doesn’t care about her transformation right now; she  doesn’t care about mysteries or anything else. She needs to feed. She needs to cool off. 

She’s been ignoring the panicked screams of Rebecca and Darren, and she continues tearing into the male, devouring him from top to bottom. She already ripped off the pair’s legs to stop them from getting away, so she doesn’t have to worry about that. By now, Darren’s stopped screaming, and Rebecca’s mostly crying and whimpering in fear. Doll’s eating as carefully as she can to get all of the oil, but she still makes a huge mess and she reaches Darren’s core in under a minute. Instead of eating the core, she squeezes it over her mouth and watches the oil spill into her like water out of a wet sponge. She turns towards Rebecca.

Rebecca puts up more of a fight, which is kind of funny considering Darren was the idiot macho man. Doll actually has to use her solver to pin Rebecca down so she can feast on the girl without getting kicked or scratched at herself. Doll doesn’t think about the seeming consequences of using the solver while she’s overheating. She’s animalistic. Acting off of instinct and cunning. Rebecca’s gone even quicker than Darren, but Doll isn’t satisfied. She needs more. She’s been starving for so long, and she never even noticed.

Chapter Text

Back with the campers, since Cyn is off exploring, Lizzy’s out in the woods, and Thad’s full of existential dread, they’ve decided to tell more horror stories. Braiden, of course, is currently near the end of his.

“But her warranty wasn’t expired… IT NEVER EXISTEEEEED!”

Everybody shivers in fear, and stoner Sam remarks on it.

“Woah… It’s scary, ‘cause it’s like… …Real.”

Smart girl Emily looks around nervously.

“A-Aren’t you guys worried about Lizzy, Darren, and Rebecca?”

She fiddles with her fingers, looking down.

“Shouldn’t they be back from the woods by now? And does anyone remember why they went there in the first place?”

Before anyone can respond, Lizzy breaks out of the clearing, panting. Her hands are on her knees and it looks like she’s been running for her life. As the other students gather around her, gasping and whispering to eachother. Thad in particular perks up at the sight of her being alive, but is concerned.

“Woah, Lizzy! What happened?”

Lizzy speaks between breaths.

“Horror movie plot… Woods… Ran away… Red-eyed, cute Russian girl…”

The campers take this in for a moment, then look at her confusedly, making Thad facepalm at how nobody can remember someone who isn’t super popular.

“Is she coming here?”

Lizzy starts regaining her composure, annoyed that robots can get out of breath.

“Um… maybe? Why aren’t Rebecca and Darren here?”

To answer her question, a freshly dismembered arm is tossed into the crowd of students from the trees, and the fire goes out, accompanied by a haunting giggle. Lizzy immediately gets back to running for her life while everyone else is stunned, and Doll reveals herself. Braiden looks between the arm and Doll and then gasps.

“Ohhhhhh! It’s…”

He then struggles for a name.

“You?”

Everyone else shrugs. Suddenly, Braiden’s head explodes from Doll’s solver. Everyone screams and Thad yells for everyone to split up, which Emily replies to.

“I-I think I’ve read that’s good!”

Yeah, no, that’s not what the book said.

Sam runs for his life into the woods. Surely the trees will protect him from this weird girl’s wrath! What is she, anyways? Some new type of disassembly drone? Holy shit, that all ties into his conspiracy-

He smacks headfirst into a tree. Stupid trees! He hides behind it as he sees the red-eyed girl fly to the top of a tree in pursuit. After a few moments he risks a peek; nobody’s there. Phew! Trees are awesome! He doesn’t notice the tail hanging next to him, as a book falls on his head. It’s Emily’s… He slowly and fearfully looks up to see the Russian drone grinning at him with impossibly sharp teeth. He looks back at the book timidly.

“Does… it at least have pictures?”

The red-eyed girl shakes her head, giggling.

Elsewhere, Thad hears Sam’s screams in the distance. Jeez! He didn’t fully understand why Uzi wanted Doll dead at first, but he’s starting to get a good idea! He stops to look around and spots Emily, he sighs in relief.

“Oh, thank robo-god, she hasn’t killed everyone… Hey, Em! You know if anyone else is- …alive…”

Thad trails off in horror as he notices the lack of lights in Emily’s eyes as the girl waves. He tries looking behind her, and… Doll’s puppeting her corpse. She snaps Emily’s head off and continues cackling and giggling maniacally. Doll uses her solver powers to hold Thad in place by his neck, and she slowly advances towards him. He shuts his eyes, bracing for death, but then a short figure flash-steps in front of him and punches Doll in the face, sending her backwards. Uzi!!!

“Killing her, not saving you! …Okay, saving you a little bit.”

Thad smiles, salutes her, and runs off as Uzi approaches Doll. 

Getting hit so hard must have slightly rebooted Doll’s systems, because she’s started to come to her senses and her eyes have turned back to normal. Fuck. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK. Before she can deal with the trauma of killing and eating several innocent drones, Uzi starts advancing. Doll scrambles backwards in fear, remembering how Uzi easily murdered V during prom and how close she came to killing Doll too.

“Узи... Пожалуйста...! Я не знаю, что происходит! М-Мне страшно…”

[“Uzi… Please…! I don’t know what’s going on! I-I’m scared…”]

Uzi’s glare hardens. No fleeting glances of sympathy this time.

“Shut up. You’re not just a traitor, you’re a monster! Whatever the hell the solver’s doing to you, that never happened to me! You’re literally turning into a murder drone!!”

Doll continues trying to plead, hyperventilating and being afraid for her life.

“Я... Я не знаю, почему это происходит... Я хочу увидеть своих друзей... Я хочу поговорить с папой... Пожалуйста, пожалуйста…”

[“I… I don’t know why this is happening… I want to see my friends… I want to talk to my dad… Please, please…”]

Doll’s basically devolved into whimpering and softly crying out for help. Uzi visually holds back her pity for the scared girl and uses her solver to rip a plank from a nearby cabin and sharpen it into a stake.

“…I’ll make it quick. Not like you deserve it.”

As Uzi begins to attack, Doll feels herself begin overheating again, and instinct takes over. Her newfound tail with the reptilian head suddenly opens its mouth and flings Uzi to the side. Doll feels herself stop caring about who she’s killed, but she tries to resist the urge to continue feeding; a very futile resistance, as her eyes turn back into an X and she pins Uzi to the floor. 

HUNGER. 

DANGER. 

NEED COOLING.

Uzi frantically tries to push Doll off and punch her again, but Doll rips off Uzi’s arm with her hands and prepares to shove the arm directly through Uzi’s core, back to unhinged laughter. 

All of a sudden, Doll feels herself being lifted into the air. She looks at herself in confusion and sees a large yellow solver symbol around her as Cyn shuffles over.

“Bad          Doll. Unfair. You Do Not Want Me To Eat Worker Drone Friends, But You Are          Feeding. Go To Space.”

Doll is launched up into the stratosphere. Cyn turns towards Uzi, frowning.

“Did You          Hurt Her?”

Uzi quickly shakes her head, starting to wonder how strong Cyn’s solver actually is. Cyn smiles at her.

“Good. I Will Retrieve           My Friend Now. Please Do Not Fight Her          Anymore.”

Uzi nods and scrambles away, thoroughly intimidated. Cyn extends her wings, which are oddly similar to Doll’s new ones, and launches herself up to where Doll is.

Chapter Text

J watches the spectacle from far away in complete bewilderment. Cyn’s that strong?? God, no wonder the company assigns so much value to her! Well, she does have that special skill… The thought of it makes J’s skin crawl. She doesn’t know why, but the mere thought of anyone having Cyn’s special ability deeply disturbs J. Well, J has always been a bit better at remembering things from her past than the others…

Anyways, J thinks about her next move. Would Cyn hurt her if she tried to force Cyn to go with the company? J initially wouldn’t think so, but Cyn’s unpredictable. If Cyn really has gotten attached to the worker drones, N will definitely have to step in and take her out. If he can. Can he? J nearly laughs aloud at the sudden intrusive thought. Of course he can’t! 

Wait, no, that’s not right. She meant of course he can! Because he's authority! 

But… isn’t N kind of weak-willed?

No! Heresy! Why does she think that? She doesn’t have any memories of N being anything other than bone-chilling authority… J shakes these frivolous thoughts out of her system and goes back to observing Cyn and the red-eyed worker drone. What the hell is up with that worker, anyways? She looks like she’s turning into Cyn, almost. With those weird wings… But at least Cyn’s tail is normal, unlike the worker’s. A tail with a reptilian head at the end… Yuck. Reptiles are so… Gah, J! Focus!

So, J knows the company expects her to take Cyn back to the ship, but how is she supposed to go about doing that…? Maybe she could pretend to defect so she can get close to the worker? But what if N shows up before she can gain the girl’s trust…? She’ll think of something, but the most important thing right now is to sit back and observe. Not everything needs a reaction. J really needs to stop getting distracted so often, though. Robo-ADHD is a bitch… 

Cyn quickly reaches Doll and begins falling at the same speed as her. Doll’s hidden herself behind a fleshy wing and refuses to speak, looking ashamed and confused. Cyn uses her own wings to move closer to Doll.

“Head Tilt. You Seem            Upset, Best Friend Doll. Would You Like             To Talk With Me?”

Doll trembles and her breaths come in sharp gulps; it takes Cyn a moment to realise why. Doll’s crying. Why would she be crying? 

“Н-Не подходи ближе! Я... я могу причинить тебе боль. пожалуйста, просто…”

[“D-Don't come any closer! I... I could hurt you. please, just…”]

Cyn still doesn’t understand Doll’s concern over her transformation, but attempts to comfort the worker drone regardless.

“Was Today         Scary?”

Doll moves the wing out of her face and nods, still breathing heavily and shaking. Cyn looks down and notices them getting close to the ground; she uses the solver to slow their fall, and Doll stands there, just staring off into the distance. Cyn doesn’t know what to do, so she sits down next to Doll and leans against her leg.

“Comforting Affection. It Doesn’t Need To Be Scary Now, Though. Can I Make Things            Less Scary?”

Doll looks down at Cyn, and her tense, fearful expression softens as her tears begin to dry up. She lightly pats the defective drone on the head, taking in any comfort she can. The two stay like that for a bit, Cyn hoping that she’s making Doll feel better. Eventually, Doll speaks up timidly.

“Что… происходит? Ты знаешь?”

[“What’s… happening? Do you know?”]

Cyn thinks for a moment, trying hard to formulate her thoughts into words.

“You Have              My Special Skill. You Needed Sustenance. Your              Special Skill Told You What To Do. And You Did It Because The Special Skill Does Not Like              Disobedience.”

Doll looks surprised at Cyn’s response; it’s probably the first time Cyn’s actually given Doll real information about her special skill. Cyn feels herself tense slightly at her own mention of the skill, but she relaxes just as fast. It’s hard to talk about.

“Our Special Skill Is Not Nice. It Is Very Mean. It Does Not Like            Our Bodies. It Tries To Make Them Better. It Is Not A Very             Smart Program, Though.”

Doll sits down next to Cyn, who goes from leaning on Doll’s leg to leaning on her shoulder. Doll speaks after a pause.

“Твой особый навык когда-нибудь говорил тебе, что делать?”

[“Has your special skill ever told you what to do?”]

That makes Cyn freeze. Has it? Cyn can’t remember ever being forced to do what her special skill wants, but… why does she know that it forces people to do things, then? In fact, Cyn can’t ever remember talking to her special skill… Cyn processes this for minutes before responding.

“No. It Can’t.”

Cyn doesn’t understand why she says some things. She doesn’t know if her special skill can or can’t make her do things, but something made her tell Doll that it can’t. And when Cyn thinks about it, she’s sure that it must be true, even though she can’t prove it. Doll stares at Cyn, and instead of asking for clarification or more answers, the girl leans her head on Cyn’s and responds softly.

“Хорошо…”

[“Good…”]

Cyn smiles and  the two stay there for a while, basking in eachother's presence.

J looks down at the wholesome scene with disgust. Cyn’s a traitor, plain and simple. There’s no justifying being all cuddly with the worker drones. J definitely has to pretend to be in with them to get Cyn away from the worker drones and off with N. Hopefully N can fix some of whatever’s wrong with Cyn and things can go back to normal. For now, she’s got to find a good time to drop in and start playing pretend. Maybe while the two are walking back to the worker drones back at camp? 

God, it’s still bizarre seeing Cyn walk… Could she always do that? Did Cyn’s special skill get stronger because of the red-eyed girl, or was she always like that? If Cyn was always that strong, why couldn’t she ever hunt for herself? Unless she was faking so she didn’t have to waste her energy… How conniving is Cyn? Or is that just J projecting own cunning? No, even J wouldn’t do something like that! Only because she likes to work, though… 

J looks at her clean claws with dissatisfaction. When does she get to kill workers again? She’s been bored doing nothing and looking for Cyn, and now that she’s found the small, defective drone, how can she still benefit the company? Why did the company even tell her not to kill workers?? It’s the one thing she could do and feel important doing! It’s like the company hates her!

J slaps herself and scowls at getting sidetracked with such stupid, anti-company thoughts (again) and attempts to refocus on her task at hand. Wait for Cyn to start leaving. Reveal herself. Pretend to be defective. Heheheh, the perfect plan…

Wait, where’d Cyn and the red-eyed girl go?

DAMNIT!!

Chapter Text

Doll walks back towards camp with Cyn. Oh boy, how’s she meant to explain what happened to everyone?? “Oh, hey guys! Sorry about killing half of you; I get hungry! Haha!”? Maybe she’s so unpopular that nobody will remember what she did? Or at least nobody’s going to remember it was her who did it. Except for Lizzy and Thad… And Uzi…

While Doll’s worrying about that, she notices a glint of light in the sky, and upon looking closer, she can see something flying towards her. Before she can react, a disassembly drone lands right in front of her! Doll gets ready to defend herself when Cyn turns towards the noise and gasps excitedly.

“Gasp. Big Sister          J!!”

Ah, so that’s what J looks like. Cyn scrambles over and beams at J, who looks down at her with a forced-looking, nervous smile.

“Um. Hello. Nice to see you again. And the worker drone.”

J speaks formally and stiffly, clearly being uncomfortable. What’s she doing here? And why isn’t she trying to kill Doll right now? J turns towards Doll and takes a deep breath.

“I might as well explain myself. I’ve decided to remove myself from my standing position as a tertiary supervisor to the disassembly squad. The company’s objective has been compromised by a series of unrelated layoffs, and I’m now seeking to involve myself in an equity partnership with… you.”

J waits to see Doll’s reaction. Doll doesn’t like how cold and analytical J seems to be, and clearly notes the scorn in J’s voice, but hey, she clearly has important information! And after tonight, Doll isn’t sure if any one drone can really be considered a threat on her life. Doll nods and gives J a stoic thumbs up, and it takes J a moment to realise that’s her response.

“……Oh! Just like that? No… contracts? Or negotiations? Office politics?”

Doll just stares at J, having no clue what the disassembly drone’s yapping about.

“Нет.”

[“No.”]

J blinks a few times, apparently taken aback by the lack of challenge or trickery. What was she expecting? Doll decides to give her something.

“Но у меня есть несколько вопросов.”

[“But I do have a few questions.”]

J perks up at this and gets smug.

“Of course. Well, ask your questions. I’ll answer them as I see fit.”

Doll frowns at the phrasing implying dishonesty, but asks anyway. All convincing lies are built off of truth.

“Кто является владельцем Джей-Си Дженсон?”

[“Who’s the owner of JcJenson?”]

J tenses. Apparently she wasn’t expecting such a straightforward, important question. Well, if she really does want to stick with Doll, she’ll learn to.

“Er… Well… I wish I knew. I don’t.”

Doll narrows her eyes. J seemed genuinely embarrassed that she didn’t know, so she probably isn’t lying. Or she’s really good at pretending.

Cyn speaks up, startling Doll and J.

“Why Are We          Questioning Now? We Must Go Back To Camp! I Was Doing So                Well As A Camp Counselor!”

J rolls her eyes in annoyance, and Doll rolls hers in amusement.

“Ладно, мы можем вернуться.”

[“Alright, we can go back.”]

J scoffs indignantly but doesn’t protest. She turns to Doll.

“What’s your name? I need something to call you that isn’t offensive.”

Yeah, Doll’s really not liking this girl. Doll sighs.

“Долл. Это мое имя.”

[“Doll. That’s my name.”]

J smirks and puts out her hand to shake Doll’s. As Doll reaches out to take it, J shifts slightly so that Doll has to adjust to the handshake at the last second, throwing her slightly off-balance. God, who needs that much control? It’s pathetic. Doll finishes the handshake and considers pettily wiping her hands on her clothes afterwards, but decides it’d be easier to let J feel superior. Doll’s got nothing to prove.

“It’ll be interesting working with you to restructure the existing corporate framework of the parent company. For the… worst. I hope.”

Doll shrugs and follows Cyn back to the camp. J’s visibly annoyed she had no effect on the stoic drone and follows behind the two.

The trio arrives at the dark campsite, the campfire gone while oil and corpses litter the surrounding area.  The surviving few campers see the three walk over and brace themselves for death (especially upon seeing J), but Cyn speaks up.

“Okay              Campers! Field Trip Is Over! Time To Go              Home!”

Doll realises she never actually saw the teacher or the bus driver during most of the field trip, and the bus rolls out to pick up the remaining campers. 

J doesn’t get in and instead flies alongside the bus. On the inside, Doll sits next to Lizzy in the back, explaining everything that happened while Cyn sits up at the front next to the Teacher, who’s doing roll call. The teacher looks from Cyn to his clipboard.

“So, missing some campers here. You were the counsellor.”

Cyn pauses for a moment, then tentatively responds, looking down at her feet and muttering like a disciplined child.

“We Get           Hungry Sometimes. Apologetic Expression.”

The teacher, unbothered, jots down some X’s on his clipboard.

“Just checking.”