Chapter Text
Darkness. Silence. Then—light.
Tessa's optics flickered on. The world came into focus—metallic walls, dim lighting, a stale mechanical scent. Cold metal pressed against her back. She sat up, her joints whirring softly. A faint blue glow reflected off the walls, and for a second, she thought the room was malfunctioning.
Then she realized—it was her.
She stared at her own reflection in a broken metal panel. Neon blue eyes. The glow pulsed faintly, mirrored in the small status lights on her chest and body. That wasn't normal.
Her mind scrambled for answers. Who am I? Where am I?
A name surfaced. Tessa.
That was all. No memories, no sense of why she was here. Just… Tessa.
She looked down at her sleek metal hands. This wasn't right. Her body—**a worker drone's body—**felt natural, yet… wrong. Like she was wearing something that didn't fit.
She pushed herself up, unsteady but functional. The room around her was a wreck—damaged crates, scattered tools, and a partially collapsed ceiling. A storage area? A crash site?
A distant mechanical hum cut through the silence. Something big—a facility? A settlement?
Answers.
Taking a deep breath—or whatever the robotic equivalent was—Tessa steeled herself and moved toward the noise.
---
The Colony Bunker – A New Home?
The entrance to the underground bunker loomed ahead, half-buried in ice and metal debris. The walls were reinforced, scarred from past attacks.
Tessa hesitated at the door's edge. It felt… familiar.
She stepped inside. The space beyond was dim, filled with drones moving about on catwalks, fixing pipes, or gathering supplies. The air buzzed with chatter and machinery.
A few drones paused and stared at her.
"Uh… is she supposed to be glowing?" one muttered.
"Probably a factory error," another shrugged.
Tessa ignored them. She had bigger problems.
And then—she saw them.
A short worker drone in a tattered hoodie stood arguing with a taller, jittery drone.
"I'm just saying," Uzi grumbled, "if we reinforced the bunker doors with actual weapons, maybe we wouldn't have to cower like sitting ducks every time the murder drones show up."
The taller drone—Khan—looked horrified. "Uzi! No! We do not provoke the flying chainsaws! I will not let my daughter—" He paused, spotting Tessa. His visor widened in alarm.
"Who the—what—why are her eyes glowing!?"
Uzi turned. Her posture stiffened, then relaxed. Instead of fear, her expression shifted to mild curiosity.
"…Tessa?"
Tessa blinked. "Uh. Yeah?"
"Where the hell have you been?" Uzi stomped forward, arms crossed. "You went missing for, like, days. Dad thought you got eaten or something."
Khan nodded furiously. "I did! I had a whole eulogy prepared!"
Tessa hesitated. She had been here before?
Uzi gave her a once-over. "Why do you look like you got rebooted?"
"…I don't know," Tessa admitted. "I just… woke up outside the bunker. I don't remember much."
Uzi frowned, but then a grin crept onto her face. "Well, at least you're back. The colony's only competent medic is home!"
Tessa tilted her head. "Medic?"
Uzi sighed. "Oh boy. You really did forget everything."
---
Tessa the Medic (And the Scary Big Sister)
Over the next few days, Tessa readjusted to life in the bunker.
She was, apparently, Uzi's older sister—adopted by Nori and Khan sometime before Nori's disappearance. The drones trusted her, especially for her medical skills.
Turns out, she was damn good at fixing drones. Even with no memory, her hands moved on instinct, repairing circuits, realigning joints, and threatening patients who refused to take care of themselves.
"You lost half your arm because you were welding without safety measures," she scolded a drone, her neon blue eyes narrowing. "Do that again, and I'll personally dismantle you so you can't make dumb decisions anymore."
The injured drone yelped and nodded furiously.
Uzi snickered behind her. "Man, you are terrifying. No wonder everyone listens to you."
Tessa sighed, crossing her arms. "You're not exactly great at self-preservation either."
Uzi grinned. "And you're my badass big sister, so it evens out."
Tessa smirked but said nothing. Despite the strangeness of it all, being here felt right.
---
A Past She Can't Remember
Still, something felt wrong.
Late at night, Tessa sat alone, staring at her reflection in a polished metal panel.
Her neon blue eyes cast an eerie glow. No other worker drones had this.
Why was she different?
Flashes of something familiar flickered in her mind—a different place, different drones.
A voice.
A name.
J.
Tessa clutched her head. Why did that name feel important?
Before she could think further, a voice cut through the air.
"You heard the rumors, right?"
Two worker drones passed by, whispering.
"They say someone went outside again."
"What? Are they crazy?"
"No, get this—one of the murder drones hesitated. Like it recognized something."
Tessa's circuits buzzed.
She didn't know why, but she had the feeling her past was about to catch up to her