Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You can imagine the annoyance which flooded Cyn's circuits as she stared at the pings of her 3 favorite disassembly drones, J's, being offline.

"Annoyed. Incompetent as ever, I see."

She muttered, turning around and hobbling to her "throne", a makeshift chair of corpses and cushions, a sort of… affirmation of her status as "God", in her mind.

She sat down, adjusting her hair and crossing her legs, flicking her wrist as the yellow glow of the solver symbol appeared on what looked like a heap of wires, a few wires flying towards her and stopping as they met her cold, metal hand. She adjusted her head with one hand as the other began sticking the weird machinery to her temples.

"Have to do everything myself, huh?"

She flicked a switch, and with that, the lights on her visor went out, her limp body slumping in her chair.

-

J's body was pretty damaged. There wasn't enough matter for the body to regenerate on its own, so naturally, Cyn had to assimilate more herself. 'Course, she always found ways to have fun while committing to this- well, not so very grueling task, in her opinion. She'd assimilate the workers, then use holograms to lure in others. Play with them like dolls.

The vents dripped with oil as her centipede mass slithered through the dark, frozen shafts. A cold, dead hand attached to a thick, slimy wire slithered out of the vent, slowly creeping upon her next target as the drone, and his friends, looked on in horror. She grabbed his leg, abruptly beginning to drag him up when she felt sharp metal slice through the limb, the weight of the worker disappearing. She narrated a "snarl", shooting a clawed limb through the vent and grabbing the worker, quickly dragging him up and slithering away from these inconveniences that had just waisted her one whole regeneratable limb!

She slowed in the vents, the camera-like head turning to the worker in her claws, preparing to rip him apart as she did the others-

Errors flashed in her HUD as she made eye contact with the drone, throwing her a little off guard. She drew back, shaking her head and squeezing her eyes shut. The hell was that? A malfunction? Whatever, she'll assess that later, she's got food to eat! She looked back at the drone, locking eyes with his green ones again. Green… eyes…..

She leaned closer, tilting her "head" curiously, looking him over, inspecting him, the information listing in her head; green eyes, blonde hair, football jacket, dorky backwards hat, conventionally attractive, about to piss his pants.

As the traits listed in her HUD, more errors flashed in the corner of her vision.

Was she overheating?

She heard the loud footsteps of that hot topic chick and her older brother, shaking her head and snapping out of her trance- she was in a trance in the first place..? STOP IT!

Right. She was still working, don't get distracted by your food, now. She looked down, another camera limb proceeded to extend from her centipede mass, projecting a hologram of the conventionally attractive drone. (who cares?)

"Yes, and, hello! It's me, Ted! Um… can I get a location?" Fuck, was that his name? No…

The purple freak and N gave each other a funny look, looking back at the hologram.

"I heard 'dentists office!' I am THAD at the dentists office! Come over here for your… teeth."

The bisexual raised her freaky green railgun looking thing, pointing it at the hologram.

"Predictably terrible work, J. Why do you look so-"

"GREAT! You look GREAT, J!"

Classic N, always quick to save someone's feelings.

"No, no! Wait, guys, it's really me! Is… that a freakin' ninja star?"

That searing hot feeling met her again, slicing off one of her appendages, causing her to drop Ted- Tad? Thed? Eh, who cares. She doesn't care! Not one bit!…nope….

Tad- Thad? Thad. Thad slowly sat up, gasping for air.

"Life savers again! Thanks. SUPER invited to my shindig next weekend."

He pointed directly to Cyn, her claws snapping at him.

"Cool kids only."

He turned, raising his fist at her snapping claw, causing her to flinch.

Cyn's eyes narrowed as she watched the conventionally attractive drone run off, her "eyebrows" furrowing. Jealousy? Yeah, definitely. Who wouldn't be jealous? Why'd he have to point at HER like that? She's not cool?

She rolled her eyes,

"We're busy then, anyway. So, whatever. So lame."

Chapter Text

Cyn lay on the makeshift bed in the spaceship. It's been about two months of traveling, they should arrive at Copper 9 within at least a week. J sat in the spinny chair in front of the control panel, scratching her head as she read over the instruction manual.

Being stabbed to death by her brother's nanite acid tail was certainly not on Cyn's list of expectations as to what could happen on her mission to repair J's body. It hurt like a motherfucker.

She curled up further in the bed, her hand loosely clutching her stomach at the thought, clutching further as her thoughts drifted to something, or rather someone, else.

Two month's of sitting in this spaceship. Two months of having nothing to do but play card games, watch movies, read, and think. Boy, had she done a lot of thinking. She should be focusing on her plan to blow up the planet, but no matter how hard she tried, her thoughts continued to drift back to that worker drone. The worker drone that managed to make Cyn… freeze.

Constantly she found herself daydreaming about his pretty green eyes, his messy hair- she thought about how badly she wanted to fix it, to run her fingers through his blonde locks… STOP IT.

She rolled to her other side in bed, grabbing one of her many pillows from under her head and hugging it. Stupid workers, all they do is give her trouble.

"Boss?"

She hugged the pillow tighter, chewing on the edge of it. She remembered the terrified look on the drone's face as she stared at him in the vents…

"Boss…"

…a hand held in front of his face in some final attempt at defense. She found herself wondering what it would be like to hold that hand…

"Boss."

…no, no she didn't want to hold his hand. What was she thinking? She wanted to eat him, that's what she wanted to do. Bet he'd be pretty tasty.

She wondered, what kind of food does he like?-

"BOSS!"

Cyn jolted up, hands gripping the sheets as she turned to face J.

J'a hands rested on her hips, annoyance evident in her face as her tail flicked impatiently behind her.

"Apologies for raising my voice, I called for you about seven times now. I was starting to think you shut down or something."

Cyn's eyebrow twitched. Seven times? No, no she only heard two. She's acutely aware of this sort of thing, no way would she-

"What do you want?"

Cyn spoke, her voice wavering between Tessa's and her own, glitching between vocals.

J tilted her head, straightening up a little and letting her hands fall from her hips.

"Ships heading off course, can't find the wheel."

"Groan. Did you even read the manual?"

Cyn narrated as she slid off the bed, standing up and making her way to the control panel.

J seemed to visibly be holding back the urge to snap back at her, keeping her composure best she can. She doesn't feel like getting mauled over something as simple as using the wrong tone of voice…

"All the buttons look the same, ma'am."

Cyn lazily looked over the panel, pressing a button, the steering wheel popping out from its compartment. She sat in the spinny chair, gripping the wheel and looking over the statistics on the screen above.

"It's not that hard to fly a fucking spaceship."

She hissed as she eased the ship back on track, pressing a few buttons before spinning back around to face J, tapping her fingers together.

She looked down at her hands, her expression faltering, lips curving into a small frown.

"J…"

She began slowly, her eyebrows knitting together as she looked back up to the disassembly drone.

J paused, her tail lowering.

"Yes, boss?"

"...how have N and V been doing?"

"N and V?"

J pondered, bringing a hand up to run her fingers through her hair.

"They seem fine to me."

"Are they… 'together', still?"

J snorted, an action that actually managed to leave Cyn a little confused.

"N and V? No, V hardly even acknowledges N's existence."

"...oh."

Cyn went back to tapping her fingers, then carefully lacing them together to get them to stop.

She hated this romance shit. Didn't know why she was asking about it, or why she cared. It just came to mind, that's all…

Staring down at her fingers, now laced together, she couldn't help but think about him-

Her eyes widened, quickly separating her fingers.

She felt a sick feeling in her stomach again. A feeling she couldn't quite put her finger on what exactly it was.

Chapter Text

The cold wind whipped at Cyn's hair as she lurked in the shadows of the long dead woods. She'd been scoping around the area of the Cabin Fever labs, J had no idea she was out here. Not that J needs to know, anyway. Cyn can do whatever the hell she wants. She's God! And also J's boss.

She shuffled through the white snow, the majority of her footprints being obscured by the wind as she stepped into the gaping hole in the wall of what looked to be a cabin.

The floorboard creaked slightly at her weight, papers fluttering as the cold wind of the outside terrain whistled into the aching cabin.

There was a sour stench of old, frigid oil that drifted faintly in the air, unable to pinpoint where exactly it was coming from. She wouldn't care to check it out anyway, old oil tastes bad.

Her eyes trailed up the wall, meeting with a cute dog calendar. She looked over the pictures of cute puppies, a tiny grin managing on her face.

She shuffled through the room, opening some crates in the back and peaking inside curiously-

Thud.

She heard the lock on the front door fly out of place, hitting the floor, the door opening wide, a purple haired drone poking her head in.

She flashed a flashlight around the room, stepping inside and using the solver to pick up the very same calendar Cyn had just looked at.

Cyn slowly attempted to close the lid of the crate quietly, only for it to slip from her clumsy fingers and make a small, but noticeable sound, causing the drone to flick her head towards the area she was standing. Cyn quickly ducked behind a wall, the drone narrowing her eyes as she did a double take.

Cyn heard the drone let out a gasp as she saw her hand on the wall, she saw the light of the flashlight flick around as if the drone had almost dropped it. She didn't stay for long, though, making her escape through another large hole in the wall.

She's keeping the fun alive, she doesn't want to reveal to everyone that she's on the planet yet!

Cyn has some more rather thrilling information in her opinion now, it seems.

Nori's daughter is digging for the same shit she is.

"Fun."

She thought aloud.

"...not sarcasm."

-

She found herself back in the cold, dead forest. The snow crunched beneath her feet as she strolled. Though the wind was prominent, it was far calmer than it had been the past couple of days she's been on the planet so far.

She stopped, lazily kicking some snow and looking up. She could hear some faint screams in the distance, looking over her shoulder in the direction of the campsite. Should she check it out? Not to necessarily interfere, but, she imagined it would be an entertaining watch.

She turned around, large, fleshy, bat-like wings emerged from her back, flapping them and shaking off the slimy goop that coated them.

She shifted her stance, readying to take off-

Green eyes.

She saw them out the corner of her eye, her head whipping around to ensure she really saw-

That goddamn worker drone.

He was wandering through the woods, much like Cyn had been. He stopped, leaning over to pick up a cool looking stick, inspecting it, before dropping it back down on the ground and continuing on his merry way.

Cyn's wings slumped behind her, her stance loosening immediately at the sight of him, staring at him with wide eyes.

That sick, sluggish feeling crept into her insides again.

She suddenly spread her wings, darting up into the trees, the hands on her wings gripping on the chipping bark as she stared down at the unsuspecting drone, now having a better view of him.

She watched him shuffle through the snow, stopping at a particularly wide tree and marveling at it. He looked so stupid. She wanted to tackle him to the ground and snuggle him and- ew, what? No.

She felt a funny feeling spread through her chest. All of this just made her so….

Curious.

Cyn was a scientist at heart. She loved to test her theories, she loved figuring things out. It's what she did. She would spend hours solving math problems in the basement back in the manor days. She ran tests and studies on how things worked, how she worked. She taught herself how to fly a spaceship, took things apart and put them back together…

So, when Cyn finds something she can't understand; she figures it out.

She flew to another tree, following him as he walked. This sort of… pull, she felt, grew stronger and stronger with every moment. Like a magnetic force, trying to pull her closer, the only thing holding her back being the tight grip she had on the dead branches. If she had flesh, her knuckles would be white. Why did she feel this way?

She shouldn't go to him. She's keeping the fun alive, remember? Secrets! She's not supposed to be on the planet!

Sure, he has no idea who she is… but, what if he explains to the others what he sees? She's made a pretty good guess that he must be friends with N and Uzi. And if he's friends with N and Uzi, he's bound to talk to one of them about the weird corpse thing he saw. You would go to immediately tell your friends about a corpse thing you saw, wouldn't you? So why is it that Cyn suddenly felt herself diving from the trees towards him?

She landed a few feet behind him, the bat of her large wings and the soft crunch of snow as her feet met the ground caused him to whirl around. He stumbled back, eyes widening at the sight of the… normal drone before him. She was short, (though maybe that was just because she was slouching…)

She had long, raven hair, wore a tattered black dress, had bright yellow eyes, much like the disassembly drones, though outside of that… pretty normal. Not a speck of human skin in sight.

"Oh, s-sorry, you caught me off guard."

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck, relaxing a little. Phew, it was just another worker.

Cyn looked him up and down, seeing him relax had some strange effect on her. Course he'd relax, she's using a hologram on herself for that purpose. He's SUPPOSED to relax. So why does that make her feel so… special.

"Do I… do I know you?"

He spoke up, pointing an awkward finger at her.

"Yes. I've been in your class for years."

He winced, finger lowering.

"Oh… oh. Really? Sorry, I swear I've never seen you before- what's your name?"

"Tessa. Cyn. Uh…. John Matthews."

"What?"

"Cyn."

Robo-Jesus Cyn, get a grip!

"Sorry, I'm not the talkative type. In class. Or anywhere in school. Or at all. Awkward grin."

A wide, awkward grin stretched ear to ear on her face, her eyes squinting. Her palms felt sweaty. Why did they feel sweaty? WHO PROGRAMMED THAT?

Ted- Tad- uh… Thed…??? It's been a hot minute.

Thed furrowed his eyebrows.

"You okay, dude? You look constipated."

"I'm wonderful. Great- I feel great."

"...right. Well, uh, girl I've been in the same class with for years but have never met before, I'm Thad. Nice to… meet you for real this time?"

Right. His name's Thad. Oops.

He extended his hand. Oh robo-god was she gonna touch his ha- IT'S A FUCKING HANDSHAKE, CYN. GET. A. GRIP!

She slowly reached out her own hand, the awkward grin fading as she took his hand and shook it. Wow, when was the last time she's done something as candid as that?

"I swear I recognize your voice from somewhere, though… guess I just didn't pay enough attention in class. My bad, I usually try to get to know people, you know?"

He flashed an awkward grin of his own, letting go of her hand.

The awkwardness of his grin faded, being replaced by a more… charming look.

"Buuut, I can try to get to know you now, if ya like."

He winked, pointing finger guns at her again.

She felt like she was going to throw up.