Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

The purple LED strips humming softly above her desk weren’t helping her patience. Uzi Doorman glared at her screen like it had personally wronged her.

“Load, dammit,” she growled, jabbing the refresh button over and over. “I’m trying here!”

A knock cut through her frustration.

“Uzi Doorman?” The door swung open, revealing her coworker. Doll lingered in the doorway, monotone as always.

“What the hell do you want, Red-Eyes?” Uzi snapped, tugging down her oversized Dead Batteries sweater, the cracked logo peeling from too many washes.

Doll didn’t flinch. She crossed her arms, accent heavy as ever.
“Я хочу, дорожный софт-солдат… Фетернал…” She rattled off something long and dramatic before adding flatly, “(I want you to go to a party with me. I’m bored as hell and wanna get drunk off my ass.)”

Uzi’s eye twitched. “A party? Dammit, I was rewatching a true crime show on DroneFlix.”

“Думаешь, мне наплевать? Не убьёт тебя, если ты хоть раз пообщаешься.”
“(You think I care? It won’t kill you to socialize once.)”

“Ugh. Bite me. Give me twenty minutes.” She slammed the door shut again. “I’ll go get ready.”

Doll nodded and trudged off to wait at the front door.

---

The minute they stepped inside the fraternity house, Uzi winced.

“Why is this party so loud?!” she yelled over the pounding EDM. “Who’s party even is this?!”

“Thissss your dude!” A familiar voice shouted behind her. “Hey, Zi!”

She turned to see Thad, hazel eyes bright, dumb smile intact — her childhood friend, somehow even taller now.

“This is your fraternity house?” she asked, unimpressed.

“Yup! Just ’cause I’m on the football team doesn’t mean I can’t have one!” he said proudly. “You havin’ fun?”

“Y-yeah, sure — the EDM’s decent — it’s just loud as hell,” Uzi groaned as another bass drop rattled her skull.

Thad’s expression flickered with concern. “You should go out back. The fountain area’s quieter.”

“Bite me. See ya, dude.” She gave him her iconic two-finger salute, snagged a red solo cup filled with some suspicious liquid, and retreated.

Out back, the muffled thump of the party faded into a faint vibration. The fountain burbled peacefully.

“This party is shit,” she muttered, taking a sip — then gagging. “Cheap-ass beer.”

She tossed the cup aside and wiped her mouth just as a voice called out.

“You okay, miss? You look kinda sick!”

A guy’s voice. Early twenties, like her. Too close.

She stiffened but didn’t turn yet.

“Miss? Are you alright?” he asked again, gentler this time.

Uzi finally pivoted — and froze.

A 6’4 guy stood there beneath the garden lights, platinum-blonde hair catching the glow, eyes a striking ivory-gold. He looked both confused and… weirdly hurt.

“Who… are you?” Uzi asked, raising a brow.

He stared at her like she’d slapped him.

“I’m Nathaniel,” he said quietly. “You… really don’t remember me, Uzi?”

How the hell did he know her name?

Chapter Text

Huh? How’d he know her name?

---

“Remember you…? Uh—” Uzi blinked at the stranger, her brows pulling together like two pissed-off storm clouds. She gave him a once-over: platinum hair, tall, annoyingly ethereal glow under the fountain lights. Great. He looked like if Jenna and a refrigerator had a baby — shiny and massive.

“I’m very surprised you don’t remember me!” he said. “I’m Nathaniel Sembly. Eighteen.”

Her mind spun through faces, voices, places, anything — but all she got was the mental equivalent of elevator music.

“…Uh, are you high or some shit?” she asked flatly. “Do you need anything? Water? A nap? Therapy?”

“NO!” Nathaniel yelped a little too fast. “I assure you I’m fine. Just… surprised. Really surprised you don’t remember me.”

Uzi stared at him like he’d confessed to being a dishwasher in his past life.
“Dude. I have no idea who you are. And if this is some trick BS? Congratulations. I’m over it. Bye.”

She turned — but didn’t get far.

“Wait—”

His fingers wrapped around her wrist. Not tight. Not aggressive. Just enough pressure to make her stop… and feel his hand tremble.

“Please,” he said softly. “Let me explain.”

Something in his voice forced her to pause — not fear, not interest, but a weird, buzzing tension crawling up her spine. She clicked her tongue, snatching her hand back.

“Fine. But not here. My ears are dying.”

She walked off, and he followed like a quiet shadow. Annoying. Tall. Shadow.

Her stupid dwarf legs worked double-time trying to keep pace.

---

They crossed the quad, the party fading behind them until only the echo of the bass remained. The cool night air worked better than caffeine, sharpening the world around her.

Uzi dropped onto a bench near the dorms with an irritated sigh. Nathan hovered like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to sit.

“What?” she snapped.

He flinched and sat.

“So,” she said, arms crossing, “explain. How the hell do you know my name?”

Nathaniel hesitated, eyes darting away before landing on her again.
“Well… like I said earlier, you were in an accident.”

“…Huh?” Uzi blinked at him, slow and dangerous. “What does that even mean? Did we date? Did you stalk me? Were we in a cult? Did you harvest my organs? Spit it out, you damn chuckle-fuck.”

He made a wounded noise. “No! God—no. It’s just—complicated.”

“Then uncomplicate it.”

He ran a hand down his face, exhaling like he’d aged ten years.
“Uzi… before the accident, we worked together.”

“We worked together?” she echoed. “Where? Hot Topic? A morgue? The mafia?”

He didn’t smile.

That made her stomach drop.

“I’m serious,” she said sharply. “Tell me.”

“I… can’t just tell you,” he murmured. “I have to show you.”

He reached into his jacket. Her muscles tensed, instinct prepping for fight mode — but he pulled out something metallic, not a weapon.

A badge.

Thick. Heavy. Official-looking. And definitely not frat-boy property.

He placed it in her hands carefully, like it might break her skin.

COMMANDING OFFICER
THE RESISTANCE

Her breath caught.

“You were one of us,” Nathan said, voice low, steady now. “One of the best.”

Uzi stared at the badge. It shimmered under the lamplight, the engraved emblem sharp and unmistakable. The weight of it was wrong — too familiar, too natural in her palm.

Her fingers twitched.

Her heart thudded.

Her brain whispered: You’ve held this before.

But she shoved that thought away.

“This is bullshit,” she said hoarsely.

“No,” Nathan whispered. “It’s the truth.”

“I’m a sophomore communications major.”

“You were a commanding officer.”

“I have a part-time job filing paperwork for a dentist.”

“You used to lead missions.”

“I hate running.”

“You saved my life.”

That made her freeze.

Cold, suffocating silence wrapped around them.

Nathan watched her, breathing uneven, hands fidgeting like he didn’t know what to do with them.

“Uzi,” he said, voice cracking, “you were my partner. Not romantically — tactically. You were brilliant. You were fearless. And then—”

“And then I what?” she snapped.

“You died.”
A pause.
“At least… we thought you did.”

The world tilted.

She didn’t breathe.

Nathan swallowed hard, eyes glimmering with something raw.

“I never stopped looking for you,” he said quietly. “And when I saw you tonight… alive… acting like none of it ever happened…”

His voice broke.

“…I didn’t know how to handle it.”

Uzi stared at him, heart racing, badge heavy in her hand.

Her voice trembled barely enough to notice.

“…What happened to me?”

Nathan’s expression darkened, something cold and haunted flickering in his gold eyes.

“That,” he said, “is the one thing I can’t say out loud.”

He leaned in just slightly — enough to make the air between them feel too tight.

“But I can show you.”

Chapter Text

The corridor groaned again, metal warping under the strain of the collapsing deck above them. Dust rained down in shimmering sheets, catching the flicker of red emergency lights. The whole bunker felt like it was exhaling its last breath.

Uzi stumbled forward, her boots scraping across the grated floor. “The servers should be behind that door,” she muttered, clutching her tablet to her chest like a lifeline. “If this place doesn’t crush us first.”

“Oh— ha— I mean, statistically, it probably won’t!” N chimed in, voice cracking an octave higher than usual. He tried to smile but ended up looking like someone taped a grin onto sheer terror. There goes that damn maturity he had before coming in here “Well. Maybe. Probably! Uh… fifty-fifty? Half-full kind of moment!”

Another tremor shook the corridor. Pipes burst above them with a hiss, steam engulfing the air.

“N!” Uzi snapped. “You’re NOT helping.”

“Right— right, shutting up!” He held his hands up, then immediately tripped over a loose cable and almost face-planted. “I am SO calm right now.”

They reached the blast door. Uzi swiped her tablet across the cracked access panel, sparks flaring.

Inside the dark room, the hum of machinery vibrated through the floor— the last heartbeat of a dying facility.

Uzi stepped in first.

And froze.

A pale blue hologram flickered to life in the center of the space. A woman— older than Uzi had ever imagined— stood with both hands gripping a metal railing, knuckles white, expression drenched in quiet, exhausted desperation. Her hair was tied back messily. Her clothes looked worn. Familiar.

Painfully, nauseatingly familiar.

N hovered beside Uzi. “Uh… Uzi? Why does she look—”

“Like me,” Uzi whispered.

The hologram turned, as if hearing her. Her voice crackled through the speakers, distorted but unmistakable.

“If you’re seeing this… the virus has already reached stage four.”

N’s wings twitched anxiously. “O-oh. That sounds… bad. Like, really really oh-no-everything’s-exploding bad.”

Uzi didn’t answer. Her fingers were cold.

The hologram continued. “We were wrong to trust the Council. Project LUCID wasn’t a cure— it was containment. We were the test subjects. We always were.”

The room felt too small. Too sharp. Too loud.

The hologram breathed in, shoulders trembling.

“My name is Uziel Kallien. Age thirty-one.”

Uzi’s heart stopped.

Thirty-one.

Not seventeen. Not even close.

Her knees buckled before she caught herself against a console. “That’s impossible. That’s— I’m not—”

N blinked rapidly. “Uh— okay— plot twist! Surprise! Maybe we’re in a dream? Or a paralysis hallucination? Or maybe the hologram glitched? Glitches happen all the time! I glitch! You glitch! Ha ha— haha— oh my processor—”

The hologram’s voice cut through his rambling.

“And if N is with you… he deserves to know the truth too. Not just the bits in the report."

N’s metal feet scraped across the floor as he backed up, wings tense. “M-me? What truth? No! That sounds like a ‘sit down and reevaluate everything’ truth and I do NOT do well with those—”

The hologram softened. “Nathaniel. You’re the same age I am. We were partners in the resistance long before the memory wipe protocols.”

N’s jaw dropped.

“I’m— what? No! I’m— I’m twenty-something! Ish! Maybe? I—I don’t— I think—”

His voice broke completely.

“I don’t want to be thirty-one!”

Another alarm wailed overhead, shrill and dissonant. The lights flickered violently.

The hologram glitch-looped for a moment— the woman gripping the railing again and again, each flicker laced with the haunted tension of someone who had already lived through hell.

“Find the antidote,” she said. “Don’t trust anyone above ground. Especially the government. They’ll do anything to contain this. Even if it means sacrificing the last of us.”

The hologram dissolved with a final pop of static.

Silence.

Uzi stared at the empty air where her older self had stood. Her throat closed.

“That’s me,” she whispered. “That’s going to be me. That— that means— all of this— I’m— I’m not a kid. I’m—”

N gently touched her shoulder. His hand trembled.

“H-hey… you’re still you,” he said, voice uneven but hopeful in that classic N way. “Whether you’re seventeen or thirty-one or a time-looped memory-wiped resistance commander with trauma— you’re still Uzi. You’re still… you.”

She turned to him, eyes burning.

“N… what if she’s right? What if they’re coming for us next?”

He swallowed hard.

“Well… then we outrun them,” he said, attempting a confident smile that wobbled immediately. “Or outsmart them. Or— or scream really loud and run in zigzags! That works sometimes!”

She almost laughed. Almost.

But instead, she let herself lean forward just slightly— not enough to be vulnerable, but enough to steady her shaking breath.

“Let’s get the servers copied,” she said. “Then we run.”

N nodded quickly. “Running! Yes! My specialty. I am SO good at panicking while moving.”

Outside, the bunker groaned again, the world collapsing inch by inch.

Inside, everything Uzi thought she knew about herself shattered.

And the resistance began with the truth.